Seeing the rise of “cancel culture” can lead one to despair. But don’t believe the hype. Virtue is not being canceled. Most Americans, in fact, believe forgiveness is an essential part of a just society.
Politicians and various social justice groups have long used labels that have nothing to do with the real intent of legislation, or an organization, to dupe the public. But, to paraphrase Shakespeare, a rose by any other name is still a rose.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has called the coronavirus “the Trump virus,” explaining that the president has caused deaths with his initial, ho-hum reaction to it. The verbal assault should be no surprise. After all, she said Republicans “were trying to get away with murder” on a police reform…
‘Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.” – Aldous Huxley
War is not a game. But impressionable kids may not be able to tell the difference if the U.S. military continues its e-sports recruitment.
Flowers:
There is an acrimonious debate between urbanists and anti-urbanists. Some analysts say emphatically that the suburbs are unpopular and that people are fleeing them for the dense city core of metropolitan areas. Others say the opposite.
If President Donald Trump loses the election on Nov. 3, what are our chances of a peaceful, dignified transfer of power of the sort that has generally characterized our republic from its beginning?
A right to know
Over the course of the last several months, COVID-19 has dominated our lives. Schools closed, churches closed, theaters, bars and restaurants have all closed. For months we were told to stay home and stay safe. We lived in lockdown except for the occasional trip to get groceries.
Trump for safety
With the threat of COVID-19, schools already knew they’d be facing unprecedented challenges this fall. But as we saw in Detroit last week, school district leaders must brace for other wrenches thrown at them, too, especially if they attempt face-to-face instruction.
When restaurants were closed for dine-in service this spring, I discovered a fun alternative – the drive-in.
Editor’s note: The following column was written in response to a community column from the West Michigan Environmental Action Council published in the Tribune on July 17.
In a stunning overreach, President Donald Trump’s administration ordered federal agents to police Portland and Chicago protests. This perversion of the federal duty to provide help and stability has provoked righteous anger.
I am not in the habit of quoting leftist Noam Chomsky, but this line seems relevant when one considers our growing national debt: “When you trap people in a system of debt, they can’t afford the time to think.”
Trump is wrong for America
It’s not a secret that many routine trips to the doctor have been delayed amid the COVID-19 pandemic, but a recent report showed a worrisome trend: Fewer children in Michigan than usual are currently up to date on routine vaccines due to postponed well-child visits amid the pandemic.
In any other year our small berg would be (mostly) looking forward to upcoming Coast Guard celebrations. My own church fronts Washington Street, and every year we gather for a sung Morning Prayer and fellowship as the parade marches slowly past. We eat authentic tacos and pop up sun umbrella…
James Naylor, a Marine veteran and self-described “gun-owning Republican” from Annapolis, looks earnestly into the camera and, for nearly five minutes, explains why voting for Donald Trump is one of his life’s “biggest regrets.”
In support of the Spring Lake library
Right now, America needs heroes. And we have one for the ages in John Lewis.
College football games are being sharply curtailed this fall because of the risk of spreading the new coronavirus. To the dismay of many fans, the entire 2020 season appears to be in jeopardy.
Which presidential candidate is qualified for the job?
When you think of heroes nowadays, health care workers and first responders are likely the first to come to mind. Prior to the pandemic, you might have cited someone from the Avengers movies or a sports figure perhaps.
Defending free speech?
High waters flooded two of the three coal ash ponds at the Harbor Island J.B. Sims power plant in mid-May, according to Dave Walters, general manager of the Grand Haven Board of Light & Power (BLP).
The right to free speech
Flowers:
The past few months have been difficult for all of us. We have had to endure shelter-in-place, and wear masks when going to public places to reduce our chances of contracting COVID-19.
Members of Congress who are itching to send out more coronavirus relief dollars should take a deep breath and consider how some of the funding they’ve already allocated is being spent. It’s not all going to good use.
Voting for issues, not party
Six years ago, the New York Daily News made the decision, when covering the National Football franchise in Washington, D.C., to dispense using its official nickname, noting that while “enormously popular and deeply ingrained in sporting culture,” the moniker “is a throwback to a vanished era…
Before I fell in love with geology at Grand Valley, I was going to be a history major. If you think about it, it’s all history; geology just deals with history that is just a little bit older.
If you watch Ken Burns’ documentary on the Dust Bowl, you see how much help was provided to the poor by FDR’s New Deal. Jobs were provided through the WPA and CCC, people were fed, Social Security was enacted, and on and on. Today, our federal government seems to be missing in action on so m…
Trump is right
I think we all can agree on one thing: Due to COVID-19, it’s a different kind of year. Schools shifted to online learning. Many jobs did, too.
It’s the summer of 1978 and I have everything I need. A powder-blue Schwinn 10-speed, The Rolling Stones’ new album “Some Girls” and a slew of neighborhood friends to tool around with.
President Trump wants to have it both ways: He is pressuring U.S. public schools to reopen, citing nations such as Germany, Denmark and France that have led the way, while insisting that our schools don’t need the kind of money that those countries have spent on safely reopening.
As near as I can tell it began in 1995, when Republicans won control of the House of Representatives for the first time in 40 years and captured a Senate majority.
I wear a mask
Christopher Columbus did not set out to prove that the world was round (educated people had proven the flat-Earthers wrong centuries earlier). He was not the first European to cross the Atlantic (that title goes to Norse Viking Leif Eriksson). And he never, ever set foot on what is today the…
Darts:
We began the week by waking without power. Again.
Pen pal?
The U.S. Supreme Court last month made a stand for school choice and religious liberty. Yet while Michigan choice proponents can share in that victory from afar, families here aren’t likely to see any tangible change.
American sports are changing, and the Kansas City Chiefs are on the clock.
Have you ever done something wrong? Of course you have! We all have. The Bible says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23)
Brace yourselves. It appears we likely are set to receive a beating from the pandemic coronavirus that ground our nation, and much of the rest of the world, to a halt in recent months.
Vote yes on museum millage
Michigan tax revenues won’t generate as much money for the state budget as expected last year. Lawmakers will have to re-examine their priorities as they won’t have as much revenue to spend. The state budget has increased over the past decade, so when tax revenues turn the other direction th…
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