Midwest Voices

The new year can be a rebirth if you let it be.

Midwest Voices

Enter 2017 with happiness, gratitude, hope

If a new year is a rebirth, and it can be if we wish it, there is no need for recrimination, regret or anticipatory fear. We need but to walk slowly, bask in everyday miracles, and realize that while experiences and events are transient, love and faith are eternal.

Midwest Voices
Soon after the November election, anti-Donald Trump protesters marched from the Washington Monument to Inner Harbor in Baltimore.

Midwest Voices

Don’t take the easy way out — we must resist

In the ugly moments of our hardest history, acceptance of the unacceptable has been the easy path forward. But now, with hate crimes rising and our president-elect appointing a Cabinet of dangerous people, we must choose to resist. For those who fear the risk of hyperbole in the present moment, I challenge you to fear the risk of totalitarianism more.

Veterans have sacrificed much for us and our country, and they deserve to have systems in place when they get home to support them in every way. Recently, President Barack Obama joined Lt. Cmdr. John Terry in doing lunges at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md.

Midwest Voices

Once home, vets need us to fight for them

We each have an obligation to push on veterans’ behalf for ready and local access to comprehensive care (physical, mental and emotional), education and/or training, assistance in transitioning to private lives, housing and appropriate employment.

The wisdom of Benjamin Franklin bears repeating in the aftermath of this election.

Midwest Voices

Ben Franklin’s words resonate after election

Benjamin Franklin, as he addressed delegates at the Constitutional Convention of 1787, predicted the devastating results if their disagreements were left unchecked. They would be divided by “little partial local interests,” their projects would be “confounded” and — perhaps worst of all — they would “become a reproach and bye word down to future ages.” After the 2016 election, America would do well to remember his words.

In the U.S., social progress often looks like the country taking two steps forward followed by one step back.

Midwest Voices

Social progress is anything but straightforward

With the election of Barack Obama, and the subsequent racial tension, America took two steps forward in racial equality and hit a wall of resistance that pushed us one step back. But this is what progress looks like in America. It’s historically come in fits and starts. Blacks and whites must continue to talk about the problems that exist so that we can create a better tomorrow.

There are generational differences in communication, but it’s good to strive for common ground.

Midwest Voices

Respect our generational differences

It is natural for us to usually relate best to people in the same generation as we are, but we clearly coexist with others from different generations. And many values remain similar across generations. So look for common ground by understanding communication styles of different generations.

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Man charged in Overland Park wreck makes first court appearance

Bradley Woodworth, 45, accused of fleeing from an Overland Park traffic crash that killed two young men, made his first court appearance Monday in Johnson County.
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