Nancy Kennedy

1 week ago | chronicleonline.com | Nancy Kennedy

Last week (as I write this), the local high schools had their graduations. In reading the excerpts from some of the students’ speeches, this year’s crop seemed different from years past. Less bravado and “our class will conquer the world because we’re awesome” sentiments, also less carefree. In one local student’s speech, he said, “We are living in a time that’s complicated, chaotic and occasionally held together with duct tape and YouTube university. But that’s also what makes this moment powerful.

1 week ago | chronicleonline.com | Nancy Kennedy

Last week the pastor’s sermon was on grief, and this week’s it’s on the topic of pain and suffering. Because isn’t that true of the human condition? Grief, pain and suffering happen to all of us. Currently, it’s tornado season in the Midwest. Soon it will be hurricane season here in the South. In the winter our northern neighbors go through bomb cyclones/blizzards – seasons of devastation. In 2011, a 9.0 earthquake followed by a massive tsunami hit Japan, killing nearly 20,000 people.

1 week ago | chronicleonline.com | Nancy Kennedy

Recently, the American Legion Post 155 in Crystal River hosted a gathering of local organizations and agencies that are concerned about homeless veterans. The mission: To find ways to close ranks and work together and not be lone rangers duplicating services, with the common goal of helping to get veterans out of the woods and into stable housing. “The words ‘veteran’ and ‘homeless’ should never be in the same sentence,” said James Swanson, Ret.

1 week ago | chronicleonline.com | Nancy Kennedy

As young people growing up in Ukraine, Oleg and Yuliia (“Julia”) Karakash knew about America. “If you hear the word ‘democracy,’ you will think about America,” Oleg said. “If you hear about rules or laws that are working, you will think about America. If you are refugee and you have a hope to move — America. “America for us … it's like a lighthouse. I mean, it is where the law is working.

1 week ago | chronicleonline.com | Nancy Kennedy

Kaitlyn Smith has a message and a mission: “Be the voice. Do the work. Clean the world.”The Crystal River High School junior in the Honors Biomedical Science Program is an impassioned voice for protecting the environment — the waters, the land and the animals and creatures that share the planet with people. She’s willing to do the work, spreading her message about the dangerous effects of pollution, inviting others to join her cause, getting down and dirty picking up trash wherever she sees it.