Social Commentary
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Heritage Of Small Waushara County Newspaper At Stake, Owner Disagrees
“Somehow the letters-to-the-editor page, strange and wonderful as it always is, is one of the chief adornments of the society we love and seek to clarify for the world. The privilege of writing to the editor is basic; the product is the hot dish of scrambled eggs that is America.”— E. B. White, essayist and… Continue reading
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The First Amendment Didn’t Shrink — Some Newspapers Did
The Waushara Argus, my home county newspaper when I was growing up, continues to be delivered to my mailbox each week, these decades later. Like newspapers across the nation, these publications face economic pressures. But it is the self-imposed problems they create for themselves that often strike me as odd. The one that concerns me… Continue reading
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Why I Will Not Support The United States Soccer Team At The 2026 FIFA World Cup Games
At the risk of ruffling a few patriotic feathers, I need to say something plainly and to the point. When a nation behaves badly on the world stage, there should be consequences on the world stage. Right now, the United States is pursuing immigration and deportation policies that are cruel by design and racist at… Continue reading
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The Lowest Moment As We Watch Public Life Decline In Donald Trump’s Second Term
I was a toddler when President John Kennedy was assassinated. Over the course of my lifetime, there was always a respectfully placed invisible line around his death and the loss of life so young due to his role as our national leader. A young widow and young children, and the continuously unanswered questions of what… Continue reading
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Ridiculous Spectacle On White House Lawn With Cage Fight
John Adams was an intelligent man, a driving force for independence in the founding of our nation in 1776. He was also quick-tongued and not above bluntly saying what he meant. So, if he were to come back and look out at the South Lawn of today’s White House (what I think is fair to… Continue reading
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Favorite Pulitzer Prize Winning Author Allen Drury In My Dad’s (Royce Humphrey) Family Tree!
Allen Drury has been a part of my life since the middle school years. As a teenager, his books, which were filled with political drama, remained a source of amusement as his series involved a wide array of colorful and at times incendiary characters. As a young adult, I remained a faithful reader of his… Continue reading
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Wisconsin Fiscal Surplus Should Be Used On Big Ideas
Last week, a local television news report about the high cost of filling up at a service station caught my attention. The driver complained, and rightly so, about spending almost 70 dollars to fill the tank. Watching the coverage, I thought of the $300 the state had proposed to give back to Wisconsinites through a… Continue reading
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Letter From Home: “Do They Know How To Make Grits?” 5/29/26
After an intense 12-hour day, James and I are exhausted in every sense of the word. Our friend with Alzheimer’s was moved today to an assisted living facility in a fashion that was modeled after a White House move. Everything was orchestrated from those who would keep our friend active and away from all the ‘action’,… Continue reading
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Wisconsin’s Transgender Youth Deserve Better
The news from late last week continued an ongoing conversation about the need for transgender minors to be allowed to have gender-affirming care. This should be a no-brainer, but in our current political climate, it is a battle needing to be waged. A coalition of more than 65 Wisconsin organizations, including the Chippewa Valley LGBTQ+… Continue reading
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Letter From Home: 26th Anniversary For James Wilson And Gregory Humphrey, 5/24/26
James figured out how many minutes we have spent together as we celebrate our 26th anniversary today. We have spent most of the last 13,679,040 minutes together, and I wouldn’t trade that for anything in the world. When we met, he called me his Skinny Little Fat Man! (I weighed 132 pounds when we met… Continue reading
