Final tribute from a loyal reader
Another driveway shooting, this time in Orange County
Please consider supporting The Front Page with a paid subscription: HERE
The loss is fresh for Lori Mershon and I know something about that these days.
Her words arrived with four photos of her brother on April 27 and I didn't see them until this weekend.
She said her brother, Tom Olsen, was a fan. The photos show him holding my book The Last American Editor in front of various landmarks in South Dakota. When the book came out in 2021, I asked readers to take a selfie with the book in one of their favorite places.
Tom did it one better, he took the book on vacation along with Lori.
"Tom and I made numerous trips out to the Dakotas and on one of our trips Tom took your book along," Lori wrote in that message on April 27. "I am not sure he ever sent the photo to you but he did say he wanted to. Tom passed away on 4/15 and I just wanted you to know that this was one of the coolest things he did."
That gets your attention when it comes from someone you never met.
I wrote Lori I'd like to talk to her.
We connected Tuesday morning and the stories about Tom, his life, their trips came from her in an outpouring of sheer joy.
"People filled his life with purpose," Lori tried to explain. "He was a great son, great brother, great father. He was fully dedicated to enhancing the lives of the people he loved."
With Lori holding the camera, the photos show Tom holding my book at the Badlands Overlook, then at Painted Canyon in the Teddy Roosevelt National Park and another in front of a deep, rocky canyon with no fence.
But more on that later.
Lori explained their mother was from South Dakota and Tom, the oldest of six, would take his mom home once a year.
"It's a sentimental journey for us," Lori said.
Their mother died in 2017, but the trips continued with Lori, the second oldest, filling the seat next to Tom.
Lori described her brother has mischievous, a practical joker who could be terribly annoying behind the camera.
"At his service, people from every generation showed up with memorable stories of him," Lori said, but only she was ambition enough to go on the road with him.
"Every minute was so meaningful to him," Lori explained. "That was the fun part of taking your book all the way out there. He was laughing at his own personality. He really enjoyed your book, the hometown stories. It was so much fun. He planned these photo sequences. `Now, I'm going to stand over there.' It was such a fun thing to do."
Lori said he planned to give me the photos at one of my events when he got back.
That's when Lori paused and got to the heart of Tom's message.
"We never know the impact we have on the things that we do and the joy we can bring to others," Lori told me. "That was Tom taking it to the next level. What you did and the stories you told made a difference. And Tom wanted you to know that."
Now, there were tears in my eyes.
"I was looking at my pictures," Lori continued. "I knew he wanted you to know that. He appreciated what you did and bonded with that. I think you two were kindred spirits."
It was the ultimate compliment and as the stories continued to flow, it was clear her brother was a special man.
Lori said you learn a lot about a person during a 25-hour road trip like the ones they experienced.
There was a photo in front of a giant pheasant, getting the last hotel room during a dog show with the hotel jammed with canines in cages, blowing the engine on his 1960s Corvette and being stranded in Redfield, South Dakota and one memorable windy helicopter ride.
Lori said Tom had an annoying habit of perching precariously on the edge of a canyon for the best possible photo. He had no fear of heights.
"Every picture I have of him is in front of a sign that said "unstable ground," Lori remembered. "He wasn't reckless, no I retract that. I remember finally saying to him, `Can you just tell me how I am going to get your body when you fall in there?' I think I made my point. I think from that point on he was a little more careful."
When the engine blew on the Corvette, Lori and Tom found themselves so far in the middle of nowhere that Triple-A told them they wouldn't help them.
"We're on the side of the road and it isn't even a town," Lori said. "So I'm sitting there and I notice sunlight shining through the stop sign. They were bullet holes. That told you something about where we were."
Shortly after sundown, headlights finally showed on the road. Tom told the man they needed a mechanic. The man said he was a John Deere tractor mechanic and lived across the street.
The car could not be repaired and woman at the shop offereed to lend them her truck to renta a car at Aberdeen Airport 100 miles away.
Stories, so many stories.
The two made the six-mile hike to the top of the Crazy Horse sculpture not far from Mount Rushmore twice. On the way down on one particularly blustery day, Tom saw a sign for helicopter ride. Lori refused, saying it was too windy. But the pilot needed two passengers.
"So I'm staring into the face of the best brother in the whole world and I know I have no choice," Lori said.
She said the ride was "magnificent."
Tom's passing, while perhaps peaceful, was sudden and shocking for his family.
"Tommy will be remembered for his dedication to his family, the joy he brought to the lives of those around him, and his passion for baseball and hockey, especially rooting for his two favorite teams, the Yankees and the Rangers," the obituary said.
"I say this with all the love to my brother, because of being the victim of the constant photographs and the practical jokes and his total lack of fear, this is not an experience many people got to have," Lori said.
After pausing, she said, "But I got to have it."
Not a bad legacy.
Not a bad reminder of what is important.
Laurie has some of Tom's ashes and she plans on hiking up Crazy Horse one more time in September.
"It's a sacred journey because of the lineage and a very interesting place to be," Lori said. "The lifestyle, the open spaces, the people who live on the land and with the land."
She's not sure if anyone will join her, yet.
She's wrong.
Tom will be right there with her, probably always.
Not again
It was just two years ago that 20-year-old Kaylin Gillis of Schuylerville was shot to death inside a friend's car while looking for a party in rural Washington County. Kevin Monahan, fired two shots from a 20-gauge shotgun, into the car Gillis was riding after the car drove up his driveway. He was later found guilty of second degree murder.
It happened again this past Friday near Middletown in Orange County.
The Times Union reported a 24-year-old lost DoorDash driver from West Africa knocked on the door of John Reilly III. Police say Reilly allegedly told the driver to get off his property, then fired three shots from a .45 caliber handgun into the car, hitting the driver in the back.
On Saturday, police arrested Reilly, the town's highway superintendent and a federally licensed firearms dealer, and charged him with first-degree assault, criminal possession of a weapon and criminal possession of a firearm. They are all all felonies.
Pataki on solar
Former Gov. George Pataki is weighing in on whether there should be solar panels on protected Adirondack farmlands.
Check out his guest essay in The Adirondack Explorer.
Civics lesson
After seeing President Trump shockingly admit he didn't know if he should follow the Constitution's clearly defined instructions regarding "due process" - after all he took an oath where he said he would - there should have been calls from every citizen in the country for Trump to resign.
Obviously, that didn't happen.
Brian Stelter, who writes a media column for CNN, called for a civics lesson by the media to educate the public with "Constitution 101" reporting.
"Do viewers know? Yes, many do, but many other American news consumers could use a refresher course about the co-equal branches of government," Stelter wrote. "Right now, newsrooms need to do a better job of incorporating Constitution 101 into their reporting."
Stelter believes the news media needs to explain repeatedly the differences between democracy and autocracy and why the Founding Fathers set up a system of checks and balances.
It is clear most people don't understand the dangers Trump presents and how unprecedented his actions have been in the first 100 days.
This is not politics, this is our system of government that provides freedom and rights to us all. And that is under attack.
Fluoride editorial
The New Orleans Times Picayune was reading my mind.
After writing about the state Legislature's bill to ban fluoride in drinking water, it wrote an editorial Tuesday morning condemning the legislation.
It wrote in part:
The Louisiana Department of Health is already backing away from a once-successful regime of childhood vaccinations. These two bills would continue that deleterious trend against sound medicine.
The undeniable fact is that fluoride helps prevent tooth decay. In the 80 years since widespread fluoridation of drinking water began, dental health has risen precipitously, and places with fluoridated water consistently boast considerably better oral health.
Nobody here is just saying trust the experts. Instead, the imperative is to trust the actual empirical data. There is no good evidence that fluoride at the low levels added to drinking water poses any threat.
Sadly, not as many people read or believe The Times-Picayune as once did.
Ken Tingley spent more than four decades working in small community newspapers in upstate New York. Since retirement in 2020 he has written three books and is currently adapting his second book "The Last American Newspaper" into a play. He currently lives in Queensbury, N.Y.
Although I disagreed plenty with Pataki, on this I agree. He expanded our State's Park while in office and I was very pleased with the preservation of lands even when others argued it cost too much. We see executive orders and legislation coming from the trump administration that will certainly harm The Adirondacks. Let's just pass on the solar farm and give the remaining wildlife a break.
What a beautiful tribute for a life well lived!