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Columns

December 24, 2020

Wearing a cross but violating basic Christian values

Everything that comes out of the White House today — the lies, the false claims of election fraud, the absurd lawsuits — makes me retreat and recoil. But I feel a particular sense of dread whenever I am watching the TV news and press secretary Kayleigh McEnany steps up to the podium in the White House briefing room.

December 17, 2020

Don’t withhold hazard pay from essential workers

As with many issues raised by this pandemic, the problem of hazard pay is fraught with deep, multiple inequities. Like the compensation that traditionally remunerated particularly dangerous work in such fields as military service, mining, or construction, hazard pay was introduced early in the pandemic to recognize the risks and dangers that frontline essential workers face every day.

December 3, 2020

E-waste reduction requires innovative approaches

“One of the biggest challenges of the 21st Century is dealing with the progress of the 20th Century — especially old computers, monitors, cellular phones and televisions. These appliances depend on hazardous materials, such as mercury, to operate. After a 5- to 8-year useful life, many are tossed into dumpsters and sent to landfills where those hazardous materials can leach into the soil, streams and groundwater.”

November 11, 2020

Giving thanks to military’s diversity this Veterans Day

Diversity in the ranks has been the lifeline of our all-volunteer military, but it wasn’t always that way. As we celebrate Veterans Day, we ought to be thankful for all of the men and women from a variety of ethnic backgrounds who put their lives in harm’s way to protect our freedoms and make safe our way of life.

November 5, 2020

Once we recognize the interdependence of the world, we can shape a better future

If there is one lesson that the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing global economic recession have taught us, it is that we live in a world that is so interconnected and inextricably interdependent that it has effectively become a single organism. This is a reality that no amount of denial will change. On the contrary, such denial will only cause us to suffer more intensely. We will be better off if we fully recognize and embrace this reality.

October 29, 2020

Trump’s broken promises to factory workers

Back in 2016, while campaigning for president, Donald Trump discovered a useful tactic for drawing the votes of disgruntled blue-collar workers: denouncing the loss of U.S. manufacturing jobs and promising to restore them.