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Opinion

Mike Pence’s important new book about the USA

Editorials and columns

Former Vice President Mike Pence is now promoting his new book, "What Conservatives Believe: Rediscovering the American Conscience." Distinct from most stuff appearing now for the nation's 250th birthday, Pence's book is targeted not at the nation as whole, but at the Republican Party in ...

What fathers and faith have in common

Editorials and columns

One of my favorite historical photographs is of John F. Kennedy Jr. playing beneath his father’s desk in the Oval Office. The White House photographer captured the image in 1963 while JFK Jr. was playing beneath the Resolute Desk. This was not a staged photo-op using a child as a prop. The ...

A future so uncertain I’m eating figs

Editorials and columns

I have decided to accept the advice from an Italian card playing game — also known as tarot. And no, I don’t believe I’m delusional for that decision. The cards told me to let go and enjoy the present — pretty standard advice if you ask a rando on the street. Tarot is a divination ...

Loneliness: People do need people

Editorials and columns

Ashley, North Dakota, is a small farming town where the local diet leans hard on sausage, deep-fried chicken and strudel. It has something of a medical center, but the nearest trauma hospital able to handle the most serious injuries is almost four hours away in Fargo. Yet the elders in ...

The collection that started it all

Editorials and columns

The Besser Museum for Northeast Michigan celebrated its 60th birthday this past May. It sent me down a rabbit hole of old museum photos taken in 1966. Something in those early images kept grabbing my attention: the emptiness. Sixty years later, our collection has grown to more than 40,000 ...