I am going to express several amazingly large numbers in terms of how many millions they represent. I believe most of us can relate to the concept of millions, millionaires, etc. But we have a very hard time relating to a billion (it’s 1,000 million) and we are essentially unable to conceptualize what a trillion means (it’s 1,000,000 million). So, let’s make millions our benchmark.As I write this column, Apple Computer is selling for about $629 per share. It is now the most valuable publicly held company in the world — not just now — ever. Its market capitalization, the value of all its shares times $629, is approximately $587 billion ($587,000 million). ExxonMobil, the second highest valued entity, is at $404 billion. What’s perhaps more amazing about Apple is that, at their last reporting date in December 2011, they had a hoard of cash and investments of over $97.5 billion. Try that on for size. That’s $97,500 million of liquid assets. These giant figures set a context for even more amazingly large numbers.The US of A’s spending (there’s no budget because the Senate has not passed one in more than 1,000 days) per annum is north of $3 trillion ($3,000,000 million. Not a misprint!). But our taxes and other sources of revenue are over $1 trillion short and have been for each of the last three years. We’ve added more than $5 trillion to our primary debt since the start of 2009, to a level of about $16 trillion, and are projecting, at current levels of spending, to keep piling new debt up at a rate of a trillion or so per year for the foreseeable future. One trillion is 10 times in one year what it took the world’s most valuable company 35 years to accumulate. Sixteen trillion is 164 times the size of Apple’s cash hoard. And that is just the primary debt.In addition to our primary debt, we have north of $50 trillion (50,000,000 million. Yes that’s right – 50,000,000 million) of unfunded liabilities for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. And still counting. That’s 512 times the size of Apple’s cash pile. We have piled up the largest debt pile in the history of the world without including the unfunded entitlement liabilities. Including the entitlement liabilities, our debts are totally mind boggling. Nearly $70 trillion. No company, no government, no entity on earth has that kind of money. About the only thing that is keeping our economy from going from weak growth into a huge tailspin is that the U.S. dollar is still the reserve currency for many cross-border transactions.u u uThese debt numbers are not politically motivated, not Democratic, not Republican, not Independent. They just are facts. We can keep refinancing the primary debt as long as someone is willing to keep lending to us. Keep in mind, however, that if interest rates were to climb, the cost of servicing the debt would climb by about $160 billion ($160,000 million) per year for each 1 percent rise in rates. Predictably, at some level of debt, the market will conclude that the United States has such a high debt relative to its overall economic output that no more lending will be forthcoming.And yet, incredibly, the current administration proposed a budget that dealt with none of these fundamental budget-busting overspending issues. That budget was voted down unanimously in the U.S. House of Representatives, 417 to 0. For the first time in several years a budget was proffered that contains a bi-partisan plan, for Medicare reform, which was coauthored by Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan (R) and Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden (D), which does begin to tackle the difficult issues which are baked into the debt and entitlement numbers I’ve discussed above. That budget passed in the House of Representatives, but will not be brought to the floor of the Senate for a vote by Senate leader Harry Reid (D) of Nevada.I have read several critiques of the Ryan/Wyden Medicare plan, including a scathing critique from President Obama, that claimed it would send Medicare into a death spiral, reduce college aid, chop funds to autistic kids, etc. And I thought: That’s impossible. Medicare’s already in a financial death spiral. We are overspending on so many fronts. It’s not true that cutting spending will cause all these horrific results. What is certain is that it is a numerical lock that by not becoming more efficient in how we help the poor, the sick, the elderly, the college students, our kids, that we foreordain suffering on all these groups. We need to makes substantive changes to pull back from that otherwise numerically predetermined fate.In Hemingway’s “The Sun Also Rises”, someone asks Mike Campbell (played in the movie adaptation by Errol Flynn, for you old movie buffs): “How did you go bankrupt?” Comes his reply: “Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.” The United States is in the gradual stage of going bankrupt. Check out Greece for the sudden stage. It is not too late to pull back. But our amazingly large debt numbers (nearly $70 trillion or $70 million million or $70,000,000,000,000) cannot be ignored. We need to ask candidates of both parties in the 2012 election where they stand on our numerically certain debt crisis. Are they part of the ongoing problem or active participants in the solution?Richard Shanley, CPA, is a retired audit partner of the accounting firm of Deloitte & Touche. He lives in Salisbury.
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One systemic consequence of slavery is the loss and obscuring of the histories of those who were enslaved. Records were often not kept about where Africans had been stolen from or who they were related to. Families were torn apart, leaving nothing but the faintest traces of the past. The delineation point, where genealogists can no longer trace histories back, is refered to this as the “document wall.”
Today, 250 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence and more than 160 years since the Emancipation Proclamation, there is a growing effort to restore some of the history stripped from enslaved people and their descendants. Among the leaders of these efforts is Mills, president of the Alex Breanne Corporation, a nonprofit organization that works to identify previously anonymous Black Americans from history and connect them with their living relatives.
The work began with Mills’ sister, who started digging into their family’s past in the 1990’s and introduced him to this emerging world of genealogy. Through that process, the Mills family discovered their great-great-grandfather, Ned Mills, who had been enslaved in Texas. His last name came from his final enslaver and remains the family surname. Through their research, they found that the document wall directly affected their ancestor, who learned of his liberation on June 19, 1865, now commemorated as Juneteenth.
“For the first time,” Mills writes on his website, “American slavery wasn’t something that had happened to anonymous people in a history book. It had happened to my family.”
The discovery gave Mills a familial pride he had been missing for years. That pride fueled his desire to help others find their own history. In 2023, Mills received his certificate in genealogical research from Boston University. He has used his expertise to help descendants of enslaved people uncover histories they never dreamed of learning.
To do this, he uses a process called “reverse genealogy,” identifying a person from the past and working forward to discover their descendants. Along the way, Mills has found some remarkable people who fought for freedom on American soil, some of whom were never freed.
Pay Bill for Robin Starr’s service in the Continental Army.Courtesy the Alex Breanne Corporation
At the Cornwall Historical Society event, Mills will present the stories of four Connecticut families: Job Lathrop of Norwich, the son of Pirmus Armes, about whom Mills has published a book; Prince Mortimer of Middletown, also the subject of a book by Mills;, the three sons of London Wallace of Simsbury; and Robert “Robin” Starr of Danbury, who later lived in Cornwall and Sharon.
A few years ago, Cornwall Consolidated School social studies teacher Will Vincent reached out to Mills for research guidance on a local history project his students were undertaking. Together, they learned about Naomi Freeman of Cornwall. After purchasing an acre of land on Great Hollow Road in 1828, Naomi Freeman became the first Black female landowner in Cornwall.
The students petitioned the town to rename a road after the historic Cornwall resident In April 2025, Great Hollow Road was officially renamed Naomi Freeman Historic Road. U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes joined Mills and the Cornwall Consildated School students for a presentation of their research.
Since then, Mills has guided the students in their quest to learn more about Starr’s story. Starr was a Revolutionary War soldier who joined the Continental Army to earn enough money to buy his own freedom, receiving the Badge of Merit in the process. The stories of his descendents’ services are equally worthy of their own books.
In recognition of Mills and the students’ work, First Selectman Gordon Ridgway proclaimed Feb. 8 as Robin Starr Day.
Preregistration is required for the event at the Cornwall Historical Society. To learn more about Mills’ work, visit
alexbreanne.org.
John Mills speaking at Quinnipiac University.Courtesy the Alex Breanne Corporation
Stephanie Saetta runs Charlie Chicken Bones, a sanctuary in Salisbury.
Dogs have been at the center of Saetta’s life since childhood. She remembers going to the library to research different breeds and trying to convince her parents the family needed a dog. She had her heart set on an Irish Wolfhound, but she was more than happy when her mom brought home a West Highland terrier.
After college, she adopted Charlie as a puppy from a rescue on Long Island. He was a hound-shepherd-Rottweiler mix who suffered from intense seizures. Some veterinarians recommended euthanasia, but Saetta wasn’t ready to give up on him.
When Charlie would have an episode, she would sit with him, nose to nose, talking him through it. She learned to look for the moment he began to come around — when he could smell her again and his tail started to wag.
“You only get one or two of these soul connection dogs, so I do this in his honor,” Saetta said. “I like to think that all the dogs that come through are going to have that person that they connect with just the same.”
Through a network of women working to rescue animals in Texas, she learned about the desperate situations facing many dogs.
With limited space, some public pounds euthanize even healthy animals to make room. Limited access to veterinary care leaves sick dogs or unvaccinated puppies especially vulnerable.
Saetta saw that reality firsthand with a puppy named Gus, a Labrador mix she fostered who has since been adopted. Gus and his sisters had been dumped beside a road, where they were living under an abandoned car. People would leave food for them, but no one would take them to the pound.
“Even the people who rescue animals down there were like, ‘sadly, the best place for them to be is on the side of the road,’” she said. “That’s safer. Someone might actually help them that way.”
Saetta knows that there are far more dogs than any one person can save, but she also knows that helping one dog means one fewer on the street.
Stephanie Saetta,with her rescue dog George and Blue (left), a shepherd mix awaiting his forever home.Madi Long
Charlie Chicken Bone Sanctuary operates entirely through foster homes, a model that Saetta believes is best for the dogs and the humans hoping to adopt them.
Rather than moving directly from a difficult environment into a permanent home, the dogs have a chance to settle into a quieter setting. They can learn what it’s like to live with a family, sleep somewhere comfortable and receive affection without fighting for attention. Fostering also allows the rescue to really get to know each dog.
“As fosters, we’re honest,” said Saetta. We’ll tell you everything that’s been bad, everything that’s been good. What their temperament is and how they’ve responded to all the things they’ve experienced.”
A successful adoption is not just about finding a dog a home; it’s about finding the right home where the dog and family can thrive together.
Saetta is looking for more people willing to open their homes to foster dogs. She understands that the thought of growing attached and eventually saying goodbye can feel daunting. But she sees that goodbye a little differently.
Fostering means being part of a dog’s journey, even if only for a short time. It gives dogs a safe place to rest, the chance to trust again and the love they have gone without for much of their lives. And when the time comes for them to leave, it is not really a loss. It is the reward of knowing they are moving on to a forever home.
Blue, Saetta’s current foster, is hoping to find his perfect home.
Blue, a 7 year-old Shepard mix, is waiting for his forever home. Madi Long
Now around 7 years old, Blue spent most of his life wandering the streets of Texas. People sometimes left food out for him, but his mangy, dirty coat kept them from stopping to pet him. Today, he has a chance to experience something different.
Blue is still waiting for his forever home. Saetta believes he would do best as the only dog in a household or alongside another senior dog. He will need someone willing to continue working with him on his training and understand that a dog with his history needs patience.
But what he gives in return is a whole lot of love.
“He’s so enthusiastic, he’s so excited for life, he’s so friendly, and he’s got such a good heart, and he loves to cuddle,” Saetta said. “He’s a good, good, good dog.”
For more information on adopting Blue or how to foster, visit ccbsanctuary.org.
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