Editorials

We all have so very much to be thankful for. Two events this past week were powerful reminders of that for me. First, our Hawaiian “mom,” Helena, died this past week. She was 74 and definitely the “glue” of her big family. The family of a co-worker at Stanford “adopted” me and my husband for…

Normally, our family avoids the number 13. It doesn’t make sense; we just do. My husband is especially triskaidekaphobic – fearful of 13. He doesn’t travel on the 13th, he doesn’t do anything out of the ordinary on the 13th. I’ve seen enough bad things happen around the number 13 that I kind of go…

t has been one year since the death of Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone. He, his wife, daughter, three campaign staffers and two pilots died in a plane crash near the Eveleth-Virginia Municipal Airport. Last year at the time, I was working out in a Minnesota Congressional office in Washington D.C. Part of my duties were…

“When donkey’s fly,” is a common expression that means something is highly unlikely to happen. Well, if they’re not flying now it seems they soon will be. During the last year we have seen a number of “flying donkey” events. It seems they’re escalating, too, as there have been many just this past week or…

The United States is now deeply committed to liberating the Iraqi people from an oppressive regime that has terrorized them for decades. The level of technology – both in weapons of war and in communication – is unprecedented in history. So is the coverage by the media, whether it’s print or broadcast media. A total…

It’s made national news. A Wisconsin woman trusted her doctor and hospital. She was told that she had an aggressive form of breast cancer and her only chance of survival was a double mastectomy. She and her husband chose survival and the surgery. Two days later they told her she never had cancer, that the…

The Clearwater River reaches from the rolling farm country surrounding Watkins to the Mississippi River at Clearwater, Minn. Winding through the pastoral valleys of Meeker, Stearns and Wright counties, creating abundant resources like Union Lake, Lake Caroline, Lake Augusta and Clearwater Lake, this once pristine river provided food and transportation to the Dakota people and…

It’s fair to say that most people on this planet do not live under democracy. In many countries, change in political leadership only comes with assassination, revolution or violent coup. We are indeed fortunate to live in a country where every man and woman has a right to vote in or out their political leaders.…