Opinion
Genocide Warning at Home
Guest Opinion
By Quinn De Vecchi | July 12, 2025
Since January, Trump has deported over 70,000 people in the U.S. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are allowed to hide their identities as they illegally arrest, capture, and deport migrants or others. Some migrants have been detained and still have not been heard from—effectively, they’ve been “disappeared” by the U.S. government and ICE. The targets of the deportations and detentions are mostly Latin American immigrants. (Trump has been vehement about … Read More >>
What Kinds of Times Are These?
Guest Opinion
By Karen Mulvahill | July 12, 2025
What kinds of times are these, when To talk about trees is almost a crimeBecause it implies silence about so many horrors?—Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956), from To Those Born Later Summer in northern Michigan is inexpressibly transcendent. Everywhere we look, everything we touch, smell, or feel reminds us that we live in paradise on earth. I want to celebrate that, in this splendid season. I want to write about the patch of milkweed … Read More >>
Climate Conspiracies and Lies
Spectator
By Stephen Tuttle | July 12, 2025
We can’t seem to move away from magical thinking when it comes to doubting climate change reality. Never mind the overwhelming science now decades in the making, and never mind the evidence piling up before our very eyes with one catastrophic weather event after another. Even those denials are not the most distressing rhetoric of the science-deniers. No, that would be their conspiracy theories about nearly everything and outright lies concerning renewable … Read More >>
The Magic in the Pause
Guest Opinion
By Kate Lewis | July 5, 2025
There’s something about July that makes you feel like you’re supposed to be doing more. The weather is perfect, the water’s warm, and the region’s buzzing with energy—must-see this, can’t-miss that. And with that comes the pressure. There is this unspoken expectation that we should be out there squeezing summer to the very last drop. Like summer is some kind of competition, and we’re all racing to see who can enjoy it … Read More >>
Billionaire Benefit Bill
Spectator
By Stephen Tuttle | July 5, 2025
The United States Senate has passed the so-called Big Beautiful Bill (BBB) and sent it back to the House as this is being written. Some version of this travesty may already be law by the time you read this, but it is crystal clear it isn’t going to help most of us. The bill, at a minimum, makes corporate tax breaks the last Trump Administration passed permanent and increases them, along with … Read More >>
Legal Protection Would Be Better
Spectator
By Stephen Tuttle | June 28, 2025
As Pride Month fades for another year, it might be wise for us to take a look at what’s happening with the LGBTQ+ community. It has not been an especially good year for their members. According to the Center for American Progress (CAP), discrimination against this community is not abating but actually worsening. (Assume any reference to the “community” refers to LGBTQ+ individuals unless otherwise noted.) A circumstance already fraught for too … Read More >>
A Requiem for the Kennedy Center
Guest Opinion
By Isiah Smith, Jr. | June 28, 2025
We lived in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area (DMV) for 30 years, a time that was one of the most stimulating of our lives, partly because of our proximity to America’s arts and culture hub, the Kennedy Center. Years passed, and “Pure Michigan” beckoned; we responded to the call. We frequently returned to immerse ourselves in the DMV’s cultural events, particularly those regularly held at the Center, such as the NSO’s performance … Read More >>
A Wildfire Summer
Guest Opinion
By Lauren Teichner | June 21, 2025
I’m a mom, a camping enthusiast, and an environmental attorney, and in the past few years, these roles have intersected in painful ways. Like so many Michiganders, my family treasures summer camping. Blue skies, leafy green forests, s’mores, and sleeping under the stars. To us, camping is not just recreation; it’s how we restore, connect, and teach our kids what it means to belong to a natural place. But now, each trip … Read More >>
A Tradition of Violence
Spectator
By Stephen Tuttle | June 21, 2025
There was a certain inevitability to it given the increasingly violent rhetoric spewed by our president, elected members of both political parties, and way, way too much of the general public. Now an elected political leader in Minnesota, and her husband, lie dead for no rational reason. We have an unfortunate history of political violence, sometimes perpetrated by members of the public and sometimes politician vs. politician. We should be shocked this … Read More >>
Old-fashioned Term Limits
Spectator
By Stephen Tuttle | June 14, 2025
According to Pew Research, Ballotpedia, and pretty much all other public opinion research companies, the approval rating for Congress hovers right around 30 percent. So seven out of 10 adult Americans think Congress is doing a crummy job of which they disapprove. One suspects if more people were paying closer attention, the approval ratings would plummet even further. The public would be right; Congress has become a dysfunctional body of warring incompetents … Read More >>
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