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Tom's Take
Tom Putnam is a retired pediatric surgeon who lives with his wife, Barbara, in Rockland. He serves on a variety of nonprofit boards, as well as municipal committees, and is a communicant of St. Peter's Episcopal Church.
Additional Column Posts (1 - 20 of 30) Next Page
The world is in need of religion
By Tom Putnam - Sep 19Religions today, at their basics, teach how to live together in harmony: Love thy neighbor as thyself. If the human race lived by those commandment...
Most people are great, one on one
By Tom Putnam - Jan 23When one travels, people met are pretty nice. This is especially true when there is no mutual threat in the encounter. My wife and I have had ...
Your health care and responsibilities
By Tom Putnam - Nov 19In the 1930s, physicians were useful for diagnosing illnesses, hand holding, consoling, and occasionally for some form of active disease treatment....
Who, what, why is God?
By Tom Putnam - Oct 29Sit outside on a lovely summer evening and watch the sky as the sun begins to set and wonderful colors fill your field of vision. Why does that ...
Someone has to raise the children
By Tom Putnam - Oct 09Our children, like the young of all species, have to be taught how to behave, to distinguish between what is safe or harmful, and right and wrong; ...
The media mosque madness
By Tom Putnam - Sep 11For the past several weeks, when you turned on the television you would hear about the Mosque at Ground Zero controversy in New York City. For ...
Smart, but oh so young
By Tom Putnam - Aug 18Shirley Sherrod is just the latest administrative gaff. It brings back to mind Hillary Clinton's prophetic 2008 presidential campaign question: ...
Time to pull out
By Tom Putnam - Jul 15Our confrontation with Afghanistan has gone on way too long. We struck them militarily in 2001 because they harbored Al Qaeda, who engineered ...
The human animal, an amazing creation
By Tom Putnam - Jun 16Our world today is filled by a media obsessed with gossip and scandal. Western democracies do not seem able to convey the benefits of that form of ...
Fannie and Ginnie Mae and Freddie Mac
By Tom Putnam - May 26The "housing bubble/crisis" was created by humans, used by humans, and brought down by guess who? Who is actually responsible for this current ...
People get what they want, don't they?
By Thomas Putnam - Mar 24Personal achievement is almost always equated with one’s education. Look at yourself and answer the question, how did education affect your life? ...
The U.S. deficit: time to reduce spending
By Tom Putnam - Dec 27Like it or not, the United States’ deficit is projected to grow to $14 trillion by 2015. This would have been very difficult to achieve if China ...
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Afghanistan schools for girls?
By Tom Putnam - Nov 11Are schools more effective in reconciling a nation than invading armed forces? Would the Taliban tolerate the education of women? Is the Taliban ...
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Need new energy sources
By Tom Putnam - Oct 11The United States is in a conundrum. Our economy is in the doldrums, and the cacophony surrounding our midterm elections is a reflection of this ...
Youthful behavior
By Tom Putnam - Sep 17From the vantage point of growing up in the 1930s and 1940s, I have a perfect right to critique those in their teens and 20s today, correct? Well, ...
Smart, but oh so young
By Tom Putnam - Sep 02Shirley Sherrod is just the latest administrative gaff. It brings back to mind Hillary Clinton's prophetic 2008 presidential campaign question: ...
Evolution of health care in the United States
By Tom Putnam - Jul 21I remember meeting a physician when I was in pre-med at the University of Cincinnati in the 1950s. He asked what I intended to do with my life. ...
Central Asia: the world's tinderbox
By Tom Putnam - Jul 07The West has been involved in the Middle East and Central Asia for many decades. A principle reason is the huge oil reserves that exist in that ...
Gushing oil in the gulf
By Tom Putnam - Jun 09In case you haven't become aware of this by now, Tom's Take articles are about ego: human ego, human behavior. Read on. A terrible environmental ...
Part II
Tom's Take for Tykes: Red Pepper and the Fish Hawk
By Tom Putnam - May 19This is the second of a two-part story about one warm morning in Maine, checking traps, and ospreys. The first half of the story appeared in the ...
