Ouch! People make stupid comments all the time. Provocative language is a key element in current culture wars — efforts to generalize and judge others that mostly have no basis in reality. Case in point: Coming out with zingers that…
In case you haven’t heard, the Washington Post is going through an identity crisis, and what is happening there deserves our attention. A quick summary: The Post hired a British man named William Lewis, who has spent his career working…
We are heading toward the end of the school year when graduates and their proud families gather to see diplomas received and hear wisdom shared by commencement speakers. This tradition will not happen at the University of Southern California (USC)…
School shootings in the United States have a rapidly multiplying effect. One murderous act ripples out and ruins countless lives – victims, relatives and, often, the rest of the community. When school shooter Ethan Crumbley killed four Oxford High School…
Once in a while, something in the news fires me up. I remain centrist on most issues, trying to find common ground right and left, but occasionally, something moves me out of the middle. Reading that the Alabama Supreme Court…
When a school shooting happens in America, we cry for the deaths of the little kindergarteners, the high schoolers just embarking on adult life, and the school administrators who try to intervene to stop the violence. Despite this phenomenon that…
I bet the Board of Governors of the Academy Awards – whoever they are – are getting the side eye from female relatives and any of their younger ones. Boy, and I mean boy! Did they miss the whole point…
During our Christmas Eve service many years ago, the minister spoke to the congregation’s children and said the animals would talk at midnight. I think of this every year: Do the very earliest hours of Christmas give our animals a…
There is no way to ease into the topic of homeless children in our community. You can only be blunt; no child should be without a consistent place to live. However, here we are with an estimated 54 Traverse City…
I lived abroad in Asia for many years while my husband worked for General Motors. I have written about some of the experiences and benefits we derived from living in Singapore, Shanghai, and Seoul. One sincere bonus of this life…