The James Logan Courier

McClatchy-Tribune News Service (MCT)

The following editorial appeared in the Orlando Sentinel on Friday, March 2:

Congress is under new leadership, but its spending priorities are still out of whack.

With President Bush seeking an additional $100 billion for Iraq, the Democrats now in charge want to pile on $10 billion for unrelated programs and projects. Meanwhile, space-program supporters on Capitol Hill are struggling to make up a $545 million cut in NASA's budget — a cut that could widen the four-year gap between the retirement of the space shuttle and launch of its successor, Orion.

Sir Samuel Ferguson (March 10, 1810 – August 9, 1886) was an Irish poet, barrister, antiquarian, artist and public servant. Perhaps the most important Ulster-Scot poet of the 19th century, because of his interest in Irish mythology and early Irish history he can be seen as a forerunner of William Butler Yeats and the other poets of the Celtic Twilight.

Early life
Ferguson was born at 23 High Street, Belfast into a family that had moved to Ulster from Scotland during the 17th century. His father was a spendthrift and his mother was a noted conversationalist and lover of literature who read the works of Shakespeare, Walter Scott, Keats, Shelley and other English authors to her six children.

Read Ferguson's poem, The Fair Hills of Ireland, one of three available free from poetry-archive.com.