FEURA BUSH – Ronald W. Frantz, 71, passed away on Sunday January 24, 2021. He was born on June 30, 1949 to the late Harold and Amelia Frantz. Ron graduated from SUNY New Paltz. Ron taught Social Studies/ History for many years at Greenville High School. While there, he also coached baseball and held a leadership role in the Greenville Faculty Association. Ron also worked at New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) as a Legislative Representative for several years. After retirement, Ron enjoyed spending part of his year in Tucson, Arizona, and made many new friends there. He loved to travel and visited all 50 states, as well as over 40 different countries. If you asked him, he would tell you in detail about his time in each one!
I am deeply saddened to hear of passing of Mr. Frantz. He made history and social studies fascinating -- bringing it back home to our own lives. He also helped us understand the importance of state and local government. Thanks to the many lessons I learned in his class, I decided to study Political Science in college, and made my career doing communications for the state legislature and coordinating political campaigns. Mr. Frantz will be missed by generations of Greenville Central graduates.
It’s true that no two people are alike, at a superficial level, that is. Our stories and experiences will always be unique. However, what firmly connects us is that we carry the same collection of core fears. These seven fears lie at the root of our pain stories and are essentially false beliefs—or illusions—about ourselves, others, and the world:
Fear of unpredictability: “If I get more information then I will be safe.” Fear of rejection: “If others accept me then I will belong.” Fear of being unworthy: “If I prove myself to others, I am enough.” Fear of being insignificant: “If others can see and hear me then I exist.” Fear of failure: “If I follow the right path and avoid mistakes then I am better.” Fear of trusting others: “If I control others then I will survive.” Fear of being incapable: “If I have more resources then I will succeed.”
While there are Negative Nancy’s everywhere, on so many levels I thought 2020 was one of the best years of my life. 😀
While COVID closed some doors, it opened many others – remote work was a lot of fun especially in the summer months. While interest rates have been in the shitter, the markets were outstanding at least on paper. My work while busy throughout the year, also was varied and quite interesting. I learned a lot of new skills, especially at using Microsoft Excel and Census Bureau stasticals data and did some quality work. And while I messed up some things, I also learned how to be better and more effective leader, and more thoughtful to boot. I taught myself new mapping and data management skills, and are so fascinated by what I discovered with 3D Mapping and georeferencing data..
I didn’t really have a choice to live through or not when it came to 2020. Kind of like that congested area, you have to get through it to get out to countryside. But I think I am heck of a lot better off and my future much brighter thanks to the many changes and lessons learned during the year that came and went much too quickly. I look forward to all the adventures that are coming in the second year of decade, both good and bad.
It’s hard to imagine that it was 20 years ago this autumn that I finished up my Eagle Project and all the required merit badges. Time sure goes by quickly.
I was involved with scouts from the era of Cub Scouts through Boy Scouts, I got my Arrow of Light badge as a Cub Scout, Eagle Scout badge and even did the ordeal to get my Order of the Arrow. I served as Assistant Scoutmaster for a while and a Merit Badge counselor for five different merit badges.
So I had quite a bit of experience with Boy Scouts.
I often think of Boy Scouts of teaching me more what not to do in the woods then what to do. There was many weekends days of hauling heavy aluminum pots in the woods and boiling pasta over smokey fires we dug out of the snow bank. Those constantly finckey propane lanterns and stoves, the charred bread and cakes we made in the reflector ovens.
When I started camping on my own, I went with all liquid fuel stoves, electric lights from the inverter on my truck rather than use a camp lantern. I camped under a truck cap, it was years before I bought a tent. Bungee cords rather than tyranny of tying ropes. Even the meals were different than camping in Scouts – much more fresh foods from the cooler. I never stayed in state campgrounds. Maybe it was my rebellious twenties more than anything else.
I probably can’t think of the skills and values that I learned in scouts but there was many, and when my rebellious twenties faded into my 30s, I started to tie more taught line hitches and ultimately bought more propane applications and started cooking more in the camp oven, which is a variation on the reflector oven. I even tent camped from time to time.
Scouts taught me to value the woods, to pick a good campsite, pack appropriately and lightly when backpacking and day hiking. To find firewood and build a fire in the most adverse conditions. To not fear the wilderness but be prepared for adverse conditions. To navigate the woods and not become more than temporarily disoriented. To respect but enjoy the wilderness.
uilding up a Roth nest egg can pay off in spades for retirees. Money in a Roth IRA grows tax-free, and the account doesn’t have required minimum distributions—so you withdraw the money only when you need it. Withdrawals are also tax-free, so they don’t trigger other consequences. Roth withdrawals don’t count in the calculations for taxing Social Security benefits or determining Medicare premium surcharges, for instance. Roths “give retirees a lot of flexibility,” says Gil Charney, director of the Tax Institute at H&R Block, “and some control over their tax liability.”
But there isn’t just one route to getting money into a Roth. You can take a variety of paths to reach tax-free nirvana—some more well-known than others. We’ll provide you the map, so you can choose which routes might best serve your situation.
People are living longer now on average -- not because medicine is doing all that much to prolong people at advanced age -- but because so many fewer children die from preventable diseases. If you die at age 5, you have a zero percent chance of making it to age 50.
And always, remember if you have made it 35 years old, you are much more likely to live to 50 years old, then if you currently are 18 years old. Time is a self-reinforcing, trends in motion tend to remain the same. Math and statistics is weird like that.
One of the great things about the Coronavirus PAUSE is it gives us all a chance to play with our hair styles without awkward changes being that apparent outside of zoom. I’m impressed how much side burns have grown in!