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.

If only America could break up with its presidential nominees Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

Midwest Voices

America writes a ‘Dear John’ email

To Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton: Enough with the elitist attitudes and egomaniacal boasting. I can’t take it any longer. You know as well as I that things were never that great between us. I’ve faced the heartbreaking fact that, while you love the idea of loving me, all you really care about is yourselves. Love, America.

Women in the American Patriarchy are tired. This election in particular, with Republican candidate Donald Trump’s vulgar and abusive comments about women, has produced a kind of bone-deep exhaustion.

Midwest Voices

Women in the American Patriarchy: We are tired

The kind of brazen misogyny we’ve seen from Donald Trump ceased to be shocking long ago to the women in the American Patriarchy. Our girls learn that their safety is entirely their responsibility, and its compromise will be entirely their fault. So brothers, this American Patriarchy is yours to end.

Conversations via the internet on social media websites can become contentious. Thoughtful dialogue instead should occur.

Midwest Voices

Social media often lacks thoughtfulness

I experienced my first criticism on social media not long ago. It probably hasn’t happened before because my posts are usually garden-related — green heads of lettuce and giant sweet potatoes, which as far as I can figure, aren’t offensive (whether people care, of course, is another story).

Workers from 13 nations are sewing, cutting and packing U.S. flags at Allied Materials & Equipment Co., 1420 Kansas Avenue in Kansas City. People from other countries sometimes face harsh treatment when they seek refugee status in the U.S.

Midwest Voices

Refugees face poor treatment in U.S. lockups

The United States should treat women and children more humanely when they seek refugee status in this country. If the Department of Justice has found that private prisons are inadequate for adults convicted of crimes, why would similar centers be acceptable to house vulnerable women and children who have broken no laws?

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