When all the general election votes are counted, we could be heading for a non-democratic republic because some contenders believe democracy, as we have always defined it, is on the line. According to various candidates, our current system squanders money on people who won’t work and who live off the…
With the national political scene changing at lightning speed, anything I write will be outdated the minute I hit “send.” So what did I decide to do to be more relevant? Why, what any 77-year-old single woman with one cat should do. I threw my hat in the ring. Then…
Recently I read a story in the Sault News about a teenager who started a fundraiser for his father, Tim Hawthorne of Gaylord. The Hawthorne family is not well known. They’re not wealthy or major players on the political stage. Their skin is not the right color. Had it not…
In 1919, Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. wrote this Opinion in Schenck v. United States: “The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theater and causing a panic….The question in every case is whether the words used are…
Emotional terrorism is a term not often heard in our society. I became aware of it last week while having a casual conversation with a friend. As soon as I heard it, I thought it perfectly described a majority of Americans. People unconcerned about this type of terrorism are those…
This is my prediction of what might occur in 2025 if DJT is elected and gets another swing at the Presidency. I’m going to cut it out and stick it on my fridge. As the months tick along, I’ll see how well I’ve done without the aid of a crystal…
Many readers are familiar with Kafka’s novella, “The Metamorphosis.” It was my least favorite work by that author because I was too young to grasp its meaning. I thought it was disgusting. For those readers who’ve never heard of it, here’s a brief synopsis: A salesman awakens one morning and…
Well, I guess there’s ample ground for the impeachment and permanent removal of Grandpa Joe. After all the hullabaloo about finding highly classified documents in the basement of a Florida home, we now discover boxes containing some of the same stuff in Joe’s old office and the locked garage where…
The SideRoad Kids are anxious to tell their side of the story penned by the author. Tonight at 7:00 p.m. they’ll get their chance. They’ve waited a long time to speak up, and they’re ready for their Zoom call this evening. Flint is almost jumping out of his skin. He…
In Rome, there’s a marble mask called the “Mouth of Truth.” It rests against a portico wall in a village I won’t even attempt to spell. The other day I took a break from endless chores and watched an old movie called “Roman Holiday.” Audrey Hepburn was hysterical when Gregory…
My daughter with her dad and cousin Lion was tired. He was tired of Mr. Ted, the man who fed him meat twice a day. He was tired of people throwing hot dogs at him, waiting for him to growl and scare them. But most of all, Lion was tired…
Regardless of how Tuesday’s election went, if you’re not aware of the roadshow Ret. Gen. Michael Flynn is putting on, you should be. It hasn’t received much media attention, but if ever there was a mockery of Christianity, this is it. As Flynn and his band of devotees hit the…
The midterm election is one week away. Regardless of who takes the Senate and House, one thing is certain. If the donkeys are successful, Doomsday will follow due to “rigged machines, fake ballots” and a host of other excuses why they couldn’t possibly have legitimately beaten their opponents. If the…
It took 18 months for the public to learn that at least one House Republican called Donald Trump the “Orange Jesus” after witnessing the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol. I’m not being blasphemous. That really is how the unnamed person referred to the former president when his disciples attempted…
When I was earning my M.A. from Northern Michigan University, I was 53 years old. However, I was not the oldest student in the class. That distinction fell to Millie. No one knew how old she was, and we didn’t care. She was a sweet lady who was always prepared…
“Simon Says” was a silly game from my youth. There wasn’t much to it. It involved no technology and could be played anytime, anywhere. There were no age or monetary requirements, and everyone was welcome. In fact, the more players the better. This was especially true if the kids liked…
Dental floss is a great invention and so are those little plastic sticks we’re supposed to use to scrape plaque from our teeth. But like many inventions that didn’t make it off the inventor’s floor, floss and sticks also have kinks that occasionally must be dealt with. We’ve all experienced…
A long time ago, a man called Cat Stevens changed his name to Yusuf Islam. I remember some of his songs from the 1970s. “Roadsinger,” in particular, seems appropriate in light of the recent Wyoming primary. Mixing up a few of the lyrics, Liz Cheney might be asking: “Where do…
People who prefer peace to violence are probably not familiar with a 1978 novel written by Bill Pierce, a right-wing extremist neo-Nazi. Pierce wrote “The Turner Diaries” under the pseudonym Andrew MacDonald. The book eventually became the blueprint for revolution among present-day white supremacists. It influenced Timothy McVeigh and what…
While watching the Select Committee question people who were directly involved in the Jan. 6 insurrection, that line from the Bible kept repeating in my mind. I thought about the individuals refusing to listen to the witnesses who are testifying under oath. If they have nothing to hide — nothing…
A couple of years ago, I was watching a television program and the guest was former secretary of state, the late Madeleine Albright. She said something about the absurd becoming accepted as “normal” in today’s politics. Anyone who survived the past six years with their intelligence intact is aware that…
With the Supreme Court’s recent ruling regarding Roe v. Wade, it caused me to remember the summer I heard about newborns referred to as “Thalidomide babies.” I was quite young, perhaps just in my teens, when newscasters told of infants born with life-threatening birth defects. I recall sitting at our…
