In these first three days of winter, we’ve added just a minute between sunrise and sunset, but we’ve added. Hope glimmers in every bleak mid-winter, even if faintly.
Bob Neal
Posted inOp-Eds, Opinion
Bob Neal: The Countryman: Police, in the community or of it
Over the years, this military approach to police work starts to attract not the Norm Carons of the world but the cop who screams at a lost old man, the sergeant who pumps up his crew with stark warnings. In, but not of, the community.
advertisement
Posted inOp-Eds, Opinion
Bob Neal: The Countryman: Even when he’s right …
Donald Trump is undoubtedly the most damaged person ever to be president. Not to mention the most damaging. To our health. To our state of mind. To our very democracy.
Posted inOp-Eds, Opinion
Bob Neal: The Countryman: The Will Rogers curse
“I am a member of no organized political party,” Will Rogers said, “I am a Democrat.” Rogers, whose humor eased the load for millions of folks during the Depression, was born into Oklahoma’s Cherokee nation. On stage, he tossed out zingers and subtle barbs while twirling a lariat. The irony of a lasso-swinging Indian wasn’t […]
Posted inOp-Eds, Opinion
The population bomb bombs
Most of America may think of Maine as quaint, even rustic. Certainly not a trailblazer. Pine trees don’t make great innovators. But here’s an area in which Maine may be setting a trend. Population. Worldwide. Conventional wisdom is that the earth is lurching into a future of too-damned-many people. But Maine is coping with a decline […]
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
The optics of giddiness
Every endeavor has its lingo, a language that people in the field use as code. A vogue word in the lingo of political operatives these days is “optics.” It’s probably just a new word for an old concern. Did your parents caution you about what you look like when you, say, dye your hair purple […]
Posted inOp-Eds
The college dilemma: vocational or liberal arts?
Nobody has better framed the difficulty of a tough choice than Robert Frost. “Two woods diverged in a yellow wood,” he began in “The Road Not Taken.” He concluded, “I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.” Our choices don’t always narrow to two. But for decades America’s colleges […]
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
Seeing the whole picture
If a picture is worth a thousand words, what happens when the picture shows only part of the story or, worse, shows the wrong picture? In the past 10 days, we have seen pictures that generated way more than 1,000 words apiece yet remain unclear. People often saw in the pictures what they wanted to […]
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
A tragedy of errors on the wall
All sides are digging in on the issue of the closure of part of the federal government. When all parties dig firmly into extreme positions, it is easy to find fault. So I will. On one hand is the president who has decided that this is his last stand. The question is whether he is […]
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
Mixing up everything — and everybody
As one ages, one increasingly evaluates the events of one’s life. Not just one’s personal life, but the life of the larger world as well. This is about the life of the larger world. Having grown up white in segregated Missouri, I have been aware since I was barely past toddler age that race is […]