Columns

Cape Girardeau County just finished one of the most unique elections in our history. To the 17,000-plus voters who braved uncertainty to fulfill their civic duty and vote, thank you. Every election is a community effort from a group of mostly volunteers who are committed to maintaining our civic integrity. This election was uniquely so. As a county, we are very fortunate to have so many selfless, civic minded individuals committed to a healthy democracy...

Just what kind of cynical game are Democrats playing in keeping Joe Biden on their presidential ticket when everyone can see he is slipping? How long can this ruse continue? The real news is not that Biden is failing. It's the Democrats' fraud in pretending otherwise. They know he is not mentally up to the job, and they're trying to ride it out, using the coronavirus as a cover to keep him hidden in the basement and exercising damage control each time he is flushed out...

This month marks the 75th anniversary of the dropping of two atomic bombs on Japan, at Hiroshima on Aug. 6, and Nagasaki on Aug. 9. Each year, Americans argue about our supposed moral shortcomings for being the only nation to have used an atomic weapon in war...

Talking about death isn't easy. But this update is really more about friendship, and the bonds that are created working together, caring together...

Humanity has struggled through challenges before and prevailed, and we will do so again, because we are not alone. Faith, hope and love are instilled in each one of us. And from them grows courage.

ALTOONA, Pa. As the scent of fresh-cut grass delicately fills the air, so do the aromas of hot dogs and hamburgers coming from the grill on the lower deck. Just past right field, there is an amusement park where you can hear the slow clink, clink, clink of the roller coaster as the carriage climbs its ancient wood scaffoldings. The kitschy music found at any ballpark in America echoes throughout...

It's time to vote. I'm not talking about the upcoming presidential election. I'm talking about voting taking place in various states across the country. Today's the big day here in Missouri. Maybe you, too, are in a location where people go to the polls today, or maybe that takes place in the days ahead. Either way, my message is a simple one: exercise your right...

"John Lewis believed in the Lord, he believed in humanity and he believed in America. He's been called an American saint, a believer willing to give up everything, even life itself, to bear witness to the truth that drove him all his life. That we could build a world of peace and justice, harmony and dignity and love. And the first crucial step on that journey was the recognition that all people are born in the image of God, and carry a spark of the divine in them."...

"Burn it down" is rarely a wise or prudent sentiment. A cadre of Republican opponents of President Donald Trump is nonetheless calling for a purifying fire to sweep through the GOP in the fall, taking down as many Republican officeholders as possible...

How do we make sense of the nonstop craziness going on in our society? Is there a common denominator, or is it all happening randomly? Well, it's unlikely that multiple sectors of society just happen to be imploding at the same time without some causal forces behind them. And you don't have to be a garden-variety conspiracy theorist to realize that some kind of intelligent design is at work here...

Earlier this year, the U.S. government passed the largest piece of stimulus legislation in our nation's history. The Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act included a very generous expansion of unemployment insurance benefits. The idea was to help people to keep paying their bills during the forced COVID-19 shutdowns. These benefits are expiring, and Congress is now fighting over whether to extend them as they are or to modify them...

Cultural suicide used to be a popular diagnosis of why things suddenly just quit. Historians such as Oswald Spengler and Arnold Toynbee cited social cannibalism to explain why once-successful states, institutions and cultures simply died off. Their common explanation was that the arrogance of success ensures lethal consequences. Once elites became pampered and arrogant, they feel exempt from their ancestors' respect for moral and spiritual laws like thrift, moderation and transcendence...

A couple of erstwhile Republican operatives who notably failed to elect Republican presidents are now trying to elect a Democratic one. They call their super PAC, self-importantly, The Lincoln Project. The operation is devoted to churning out harsh and often ridiculously over-the-top ads attacking President Donald Trump that are invariably praised by the media and progressives on Twitter, who are The Lincoln Project's political base...

Several potential vaccines have moved into the next stage of trials with two in the United States now in 30,000-person studies. Early results are promising, leading health officials to start discussing who will receive vaccines first.

"Out of sight, out of mind," we flippantly say in reference to things on the back burner of our lives, but when a person begins to get along in years and both sight and mind begin to challenge them, what has not been at the forefront may come back to haunt both them and those who love them...

In the 1960s and early '70s, the U.S. was convulsed by massive protests calling for radical changes in the country's attitudes on race, class, gender and sexual orientation. The Vietnam War and widespread college deferments were likely the fuel that ignited prior peaceful civil disobedience...

During the 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump directly appealed to African American voters for their vote, asking them, "What do you have to lose?" Trump should have received more credit for this, as Republicans have often been criticized for not wooing African Americans from Democrats, who crucially depend on their overwhelming support yet take their votes for granted...

One of the top races in Missouri politics -- certainly in Southeast Missouri -- is the primary between Holly Rehder and Kathy Swan, two Republican state representatives vying for the 27th District Senate seat. Both women own small businesses and profess some of the same basic views on top issues for GOP voters, ranging from pro-life views on abortion, to support for the Second Amendment and a general philosophy of limited government. ...

Here we are, in a worldwide pandemic, with incendiary and destructive comments volleying back and forth between grudge-driven politicians. Power is their game; and no charge against an opponent is out of bounds.

Michael Hickson should be a household name. From best I can tell, he was a tender soul. He was living in a residential home when he contracted COVID-19. He was transferred to a hospital and was, by all indications -- including a recording of a conversation a doctor had with his wife -- not cherished as a patient with rights and dignity. His cognitive impairment and physical disability marked him, for at least that one doctor, below a quality of life worth fighting for...

PROSPERITY, Pennsylvania How this little village earned its name is rooted in an old tale featuring a common last name, one-in-a-million odds and a likely exaggeration about how many settlers were attracted to the middle of the frontier. "It was founded in 1848 by a gentleman named Robert Wallace," explains Clay Kilgore, executive director of the Washington County Historical Society. ...

If only mobs were allowed to destroy federal property without consequence. Then, there wouldn't have to be any dispute over federal agents defending a federal courthouse in Portland, Oregon; it could simply be overrun and burned to the ground with no unwelcome resistance...

Race is at the forefront of our lives, as much has gone topsy-turvy. Not that we have ever been free of its focus, but its impact these last several months has been of the in-your-face kind. We should all be disgusted by the divide, and people of faith, in particular, ought to be wondering if we have a role to play in the healing. This is the issue I addressed last Monday when I was honored to speak to the Remix ministry at Cape First Church, delivering a message I entitled "Race and Identity."...

I have had the privilege of serving as the State Representative for Missouri's 108th district for five years. In 2018, 11,097 voters -- over 61% of the electorate -- supported my bid to continue representing them in Jefferson City. In 2016, 14,271 votes were cast in support of my reelection -- 68% of the vote. ...

This is part 3 of an interview with Cape Girardeau Police Chief Wes Blair. Following the case in Minneapolis where a police officer put his knee on the neck of George Floyd, the conversation regarding police training and reform has resurfaced. In some areas, municipalities have given in to "defund the police" demands by shifting money away from law enforcement to other social services. ...

Commentators came out of the woodwork to ridicule President Donald Trump for allegedly turning his July 14 press conference into a campaign rally (and for being unpresidential). So what if he did? They objected that he veered into other topics when he was supposed to be talking about China and Hong Kong. Horrors!...

The National Football League celebrated its 100th anniversary last year. This should be a time of self-congratulation for the brutal sport, which has no similar counterpart outside the United States. The NFL's megaprofits dwarf those of other professional sports in the U.S. The Super Bowl, not the World Series, is America's national sports event...

If only the rest of the country could handle COVID-19 as well as New York. That's the lament of progressive commentators as coronavirus cases spike in the Sun Belt and the South. Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin hailed New York City the other day after it reported no deaths for the first time during the pandemic. This is what competent government can accomplish, she gushed...

So how do we manage around a deadly virus while wanting the economy to rebound and businesses to open up? It can't be one extreme or the other: either shutting everything down or acting like the virus doesn't exist. The first way leads to economic and social devastation; the second to unnecessary deaths and human pain. The middle way is to be personally responsible, socially distance, wear masks as appropriate, wash hands regularly, stay home when sick. At some point, a vaccine will come; or herd immunity will be developed.

This is Part 2 of an interview with Cape Girardeau Police Chief Wes Blair. At the center of the George Floyd death in Minnesota was a police officer with multiple red flags on his record, a system where officers could get lost in the paperwork, and a union that traditionally makes it more difficult to terminate the employment of an officer...

ENON, Pennsylvania Somewhere along the line, the little village of Enon was reclaimed by the land. For years, this was where the hopes and dreams of immigrants were realized, the dreams of many Welsh Baptists and Quakers who fled their homeland when the British government persecuted them for their dissent from the Church of England. That same government also wanted to force them to adhere to English culture...

It was "a plan by the Devil to have our kids committing suicide at an all-time high." So said Kanye West, the recently declared "Birthday Party" presidential candidate. It's about the best explanation I've heard for the non-coronavirus issues that plague us. There's some serious good-and-evil combat going on, and neutrality isn't a viable option...

What are the chances that we have come to the point that someone's thoughts are subject to the control of others? 100%, apparently. Just ask Goya CEO Bob Unanue. What is wrong with people? How have we reached a place that someone's opinions must line up with another group's opinions? What happened to "live and let live"? What happened to "agree to disagree"? What happened to being free to "think as you please"? Hey, what happened to common sense? Out the window, they have gone. ...

I am so pleased that Jeff Long highlighted the Southeast Missouri State University Law Enforcement Academy. This resource is a valuable asset to the community, and especially with Carl Kinnison as the director and Dr. Michael Brown as its founder. When I moved to Cape Girardeau, one of the first community leaders I met was Police Chief Kinnison. ...

WESTMORELAND COUNTY, Pennsylvania — The ad shows a drive-by of a rural, post-industrial unnamed town in this western Pennsylvania county. The woman in the ad says her name is Janie. She is a fisher who caught two legal Northern pike the day her daughter was born, voted for Donald Trump in 2016 and now believes the choice was wrong because of his attempt to try to cut Medicaid...

There's a battle taking place in the national media about the meaning of dramatically rising Covid-19 cases but decreasing deaths. Will significant spikes in hospitalizations in some metro areas translate to more fatalities? In a few weeks we'll know more. ...

A TikTok video that recently went viral on social media showed a recent Harvard graduate threatening to stab anyone who said "all lives matter." In her melodrama, she tried to sound intimidating with her histrionics. She won a huge audience as she intended. But her video also came to the attention of the company that was going to give her an internship later this summer, Deloitte, which decided it didn't want to add an intern who threatened to kill strangers who said something she didn't like...

New York Times columnist Tom Friedman's proposal that Joe Biden shouldn't debate President Donald Trump unless "a real-time fact-checking team" is part of the mix is an ironic illustration of the closed-mindedness of the left. Why would Friedman want a candidate who is eager to contrast his views with Trump's to impose conditions that would make a debate less likely, unless, of course, Friedman realizes that the failing Biden would be particularly disastrous in a debate?...

If nothing else, President Donald Trump’s July Fourth speech at Mount Rushmore clarified the battle lines of our culture war. The New York Times called the speech “dark and divisive,” while an Associated Press headline declared, “Trump pushes racial division.” A Washington Post story said the speech “crystallized” the president’s “unyielding push to preserve Confederate symbols and the legacy of white domination.”...

After he's repeatedly survived the unsurvivable, we are supposed to believe that President Donald Trump might quit the presidential race before it truly begins because of a spate of negative polling. This is the latest chatter among (unnamed) Republicans, according to a widely circulated Fox News report and cable news talking heads...

I see that talking about coronavirus mask mania triggers some passionate responses, and I knew it would, of course, when I wrote last week's column. In light of some things I've heard, I'm compelled to follow up. So let's get to it. I'm no politician, and I don't give a flying flip about what politicians say about most things, so my thoughts about masks have nothing to do with politicians. ...

America is in crisis. Her destiny is on the line, and she will survive only if we still love her. A battle rages in the streets, in academia, in the culture, and in the hearts and minds of the American people over whether America was and remains a good and great nation...

Despite national upheaval around law enforcement, there's a more positive story to be told in Cape Girardeau where officers have developed good relationships in the community. Wes Blair, the city's police chief since 2013, spoke with me this week in a wide-ranging interview. A two-part column begins today with the second half to publish later this week...

Dear Mayor Fox and Members of the Cape Girardeau City Council: I write on behalf of the Kellerman Foundation to offer a suggestion concerning the proposed removal of the Confederate monument from Ivers Square. According to our bylaws, the Kellerman Foundation is organized to preserve the history and culture of southeast Missouri, especially through the protection, preservation and maintenance of architectural structures and historical artifacts in our region. ...

This Fourth of July we celebrate America's 244th birthday. Not quite a Sestercentennial but close. If you were to have taken a poll back in 1776 you would be hard pressed to find many around the globe who would have thought that this fledgling upstart of a nation would have made it to 244 candles on its birthday cake. ...

When mobs tore down a statue of Ulysses S. Grant and defaced a monument to African American veterans of the Civil War, many people wondered whether the protesters had ever learned anything in high school or college. Did any of these iconoclasts know the difference between Grant and Robert E. Lee? Could they recognize the name "Gettysburg?" Could they even identify the decade in which the Civil War was fought?...

Some quick comments about hot current events. The problem of Black shooting deaths in Cape is certainly not because of excessive use of force by law enforcement, and to their credit, some local protesters have identified Cape PD's positive and sustained outreach over the years. But there is a shooting problem in our town, and it is drug- and gang-related. It is also mainly Black-on-Black. This scourge costs more Black lives than what BLM is protesting.

The Historic Preservation Commission is a volunteer board that encourages and engages in activities pertaining to the preservation of the city's historic resources. The commission welcomed the mayor's request to review the C.S.A. Monument and provide a recommendation to the city council. It was a unique meeting but aligned with our purpose as a commission...

We live in a society gripped by a quasi-religious fervor and obsessed with symbols and irrational fears. Anything that is thought to have the slightest association with racism, no matter how attenuated the connection or how innocent the explanation, must be crushed and expunged. ...

BEALLSVILLE, Pa. If you are driving too fast, you'll miss her. It often happens at the pitch of the rolling Appalachian Mountain, where she has stood for nearly 100 years: the statue of a sturdy frontier woman holding a rifle in one arm and an infant in another, with another child clinging to her long skirt...

I hadn't worn a mask until then, and I hadn't planned on it -- as long as I was in my neck of the woods. But then came the stop in Pennsylvania as I made the road trek to New York. The Keystone State gas station store was one thing: my first experience facing a sign denying me entry without a mask. New York is something else altogether. I'm still here, and I'm still suffocating...

"Here is the truth ... From us there is nothing except ingratitude." Those words come from a sermon from Saint Junipero Serra, founder of the California missions. Statues of Serra are currently being expunged from the state. Watching the scenes around the Golden State and the country, I'm thinking he was a prophet. The ingratitude seems to capture what we're watching, as a stubborn, violent ignorance seems to reign as the likes of Serra, Abraham Lincoln and even Jesus himself are being targeted...

President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden agree on one thing — the other side is trying to steal the election. Trump told a gathering of students in Phoenix that this “will be, in my opinion, the most corrupt election in the history of our country.”...

Nestled behind Academic Hall and facing Memorial Hall at Southeast Missouri State University is the new Veterans' Plaza, a tribute to military members -- past, present and future. While significant in tribute, it's also a reminder of the university's commitment to America's returning veterans...

How long can this nation survive when its main cultural and educational institutions preach a relentless, unchallenged stream of anti-Americanism to young people (and others) who lack the background to resist this toxicity? Along with others, I have long argued that the American left has a major problem with America as founded. Yet Democrats are outraged by the suggestion, and too many Republicans seem insufficiently concerned about it. They better wake up...

They're coming for Thomas Jefferson. This was always obvious, but now it's even more plain. Protesters in Portland, Oregon used axes and ropes to topple a statue of President Thomas Jefferson. The New York City Council is agitating to remove a statue of the author of the Declaration of Independence from its chambers...

The old 2020 election was supposed to be about many familiar issues. It is not any more. Up until now, the candidates themselves would supposedly be the story in November. The left had cited Trump's tweets and erratic firings as windows into his dark soul...

The Payroll Protection Program, or the PPP, is the crown jewel of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act's attempt to rescue small businesses from effects of the coronavirus pandemic. Unfortunately, the program has been a mess in its implementation and its results. This predictable failure is likely to distort and delay our economic recovery...

Adoption made the news in recent days because of a Republican congressman unveiling the surprise news that he has been raising an adopted son from Cuba. Though the reaction on the hyperpartisan internet has been shrill and unpleasant, perhaps this can nudge us toward a radical shift in our thinking -- one where adoption is more commonplace, because we are more welcoming...

JUMONVILLE, Pennsylvania What happened here 266 years ago had repercussions so profound they changed the course of world history abruptly and irreversibly. A disputed moment occurred that led to the French and Indian War, the first true world war that would drag on for seven years, draw blood on five continents and have costs that would directly lead to a colonial uprising...

I have found a certain level of peace in remaining out of the thick of things while still maintaining awareness of goings-on. What's going on now that I cannot turn a blind eye to is this movement to defund police departments. Who suffers? The most vulnerable, of course...

In the wave of cancellations sweeping America, Confederate statues have been particularly hard hit. They have been graffitied, assaulted and torn down, while authorities rush to remove them. For his part, President Donald Trump has been a steadfast defender of the statues and other forms of recognition of the Confederacy. ...

Lately it seems that we conservatives can’t win even when we’re winning. But the country is under siege, so we cannot indulge the luxury of being discouraged. This year has been one body blow after another to the nation we love. First, there was the coronavirus, and we thought, “How can this get any worse?” Then came the economic shutdown and the incalculable pain and suffering it brought. ...

Covid-19 cases continue to steadily increase in the area with more young people testing positive for the disease. According to Cape Girardeau County officials, at least five confirmed local cases have been connected with the Lake of the Ozarks exposure from May 29 to May 31. There are now more individuals 20-29 years old who have tested positive than any other age group in Cape County. These individuals are recovering or have already recovered, almost always without hospitalization...

Fathers too often get the short end of the stick. You can chalk it up, at least in part, to a culture that too often paints dads to be ignorant, incompetent or worse. But the reality is fathers play a vital role in society. Last week, President Trump held a roundtable discussion at a Texas church. ...

Unlike coups or political revolutions, cultural revolutions don’t just change governments or leaders. Instead, they try to redefine entire societies. Their leaders call them “holistic” and “systemic.” Cultural revolutionaries attack the very referents of our daily lives. The Jacobins’ so-called Reign of Terror during the French Revolution slaughtered Christian clergy, renamed months and created a new supreme being Reason. Mao cracked down on supposed Western decadence like the wearing of eyeglasses and made peasants forge pot iron and intellectuals wear dunce caps.

Selective social distancing rules are one of the great scams in American life Earlier this week, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot had big news -- the city is opening up its iconic Lakefront Trail after months of being closed off as part of a COVID-19 lockdown...

Hypocrisy and lack of seriousness abound, causing good people to question just how much politics taints everything in the world today. Determining approbation according to political favoritism is worse than dishonest. As for the media, its focus is often on drama and emotion, not helpful information.

When Pope Francis came to the United States in September 2015, he quoted the Declaration of Independence while addressing Congress: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."...

BUTLER, Pennsylvania -- Last Monday was supposed to be a celebration, a coming together across the ages and across the country to mark the day "Ghostbusters" debuted in 1984, a film that made movie executives cringe but won the hearts of moviegoers. The film was going to be shown at drive-in theaters from coast to coast...

My brother, my superhero: What a real man looks like By Adrienne Ross "Being a mother is not easy. If it were easy, fathers would do it." Such a great line from "The Golden Girls," that classic sitcom I love. Everyone gets what the character Dorothy Zbornak, played by Bea Arthur, was saying, so we all laugh. ...

Protecting Americans and American way Editor's note: The following column originally published June 12 in National Review. By Josh Hawley In the early hours of June 2, amid violent riots in St. Louis, looters gunned down David Dorn, a retired African-American police captain who had responded to an alarm at his friend's pawnshop. ...

President Donald Trump is in the midst of a polling swoon largely of his own making. It’s true that events have taken a hand — a pandemic with a death toll of more than 100,000, a sharp recession, double-digit unemployment and civil unrest would be the horsemen of the apocalypse for any incumbent president...

This feels like 1994 -- and I'm not thrilled about it. Let me explain. My historical frame of reference is in the form of baseball. Name the year (within my baseball-watching years) and I'll tell you who won the World Series and maybe an anecdote about where I was at the time or something memorable about that season...

Apparently, the United States now has a Lobster King. This great title was bestowed upon the Trump administration's trade adviser, Peter Navarro, when the president recently threatened to impose tariffs on European Union cars if the bloc does not drop its tariff on American lobsters. Needless to say, the president is upset...

Unfortunately, in the world of social media so many conspiracy theories abound that many people just end up believing what they want, perpetuating lies. It was common to find some commenters discounting the United Way's information as a "cover up," which is what makes so much on Facebook insidious. Verifiable, sourced information is discounted when it doesn't conform to prejudice.

Confronted by a clear and present fascist threat, the staff of The New York Times rose up last week to humiliate and punish quislings in its ranks. In a now famous op-ed, Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton called for federal troops to quell riots and looting, an idea that the Times staff considered worthy of Oswald Mosley or Benito Mussolini...

The ancient Greeks created new words like "paradox" and "irony" to describe the wide gap between what people profess and assume, and what they actually do and suffer. Remember the blind prophet Teiresias of ancient drama. In the carnage of Athenian tragedy he alone usually ends up foreseeing danger better than did those with keen eyesight...

NILES, Ohio -- Truth be told, neither the home William McKinley was born in nor the front porch 55 miles west of his birthplace from which he conducted his presidential campaign exist anymore. The small, wood-plank-sided home here on state Route 46 is a replica of where the 25th president of the United States was born. ...

The wound that is George Floyd's killing is still raw. It hasn't gone away. Its impact is far-reaching and deep-rooted. From violent riots to peaceful rallies, prayer meetings to Facebook posts, thoughts and feelings are expressed passionately. I've limited my intake because I honestly don't want to feed on it all. But I have strong feelings of my own from what I have observed. Four things, in particular, are worthy of sharing...

There is an awakening in cities across the United States, which has prompted peaceful marches and protests. Unfortunately, some people, with no interest in justice, used those demonstrations as an opportunity to destroy property and loot stores. The peaceful protesters were seeking justice for the wrongful death of George Floyd, a black man in Minneapolis, Minnesota. ...

"Disappointment" doesn't even begin to cover how I feel about the news lately. A man dies at the hands of police, and what could and should have been a righteous quest for justice broke out into destruction. What could have been a presidential prayer for wisdom, strength and protection became a profane misuse of a sacred text. What could have been a joyful moment in support of religious freedom devolved to a botched P.R. attempt...

Breaking things and burning buildings is enjoying a vogue it hasn’t had since the late 1960s or early 1970s. Arson and looting are a perennial feature of urban unrest, but they have been pretty universally condemned for decades now — until the past week or so...

Once again, President Donald Trump is being scapegoated for societal problems that he didn't cause. He didn't bring the coronavirus to our shores, and he has not created an atmosphere of racial disharmony in this country. Is there anything Trump's haters won't blame on him? They've been trying to remove him since before he was sworn in, and every time they fail, they find another excuse -- from the Russia-collusion hoax to Ukraine to the coronavirus to economic hardship from the shutdown to the murder of George Floyd to the subsequent mayhem in our cities.. ...

One of the things I enjoy about the Semoball Awards is seeing how athletes from different schools and sports interact with each other at the River Campus. It's become almost a league of its own. The best athletes in Southeast Missouri who know each other but rarely -- or in some cases, one time per year at the Semoball Awards -- talk with each other about their shared experiences. There is a healthy and shared respect...

The words have meaning in themselves, separate from politics. And our brothers and sisters who are black deserve to hear: “You matter. You are important. You are loved. Your pain is felt and suffered in my heart.” Not because of politics. Despite the politics. Because this is bigger and so much more important than politics, and because it is true.

George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis last week when a police officer used brutally excessive force to arrest him. It was the latest in a string of high-profile cases nationwide in which citizens, most of them African Americans, died from reckless police force. Once again, protests over police brutality turned violent and rioting ensued...

BRISTOL, Tenn. There is not one thing in the jeans, flannel-lined jackets, denim jackets, overalls, shirts, carpenter pants, custom uniforms or masks produced by L.C. King Manufacturing that is not made in America. Nothing -- not even the threads or the rivets...

Restoring order to America's cities isn't a complicated proposition. All it requires is resources and determination, and a firm rejection of the longstanding progressive fallacy that an overwhelming police presence is "provocative" and "escalatory" and must be avoided...

I had written something different for this week, but I had to take a hard turn. As much as I did not want to weigh in, and as much I wish there was nothing of this sort to weigh in on, here I am. I have to speak because the George Floyd and all the George Floyds of the world deserve it. Why did I not want to broach this subject? It’s just so painful.

It all comes back to what we think about life. Is it a gift? Is it precious? One thing I worry about these last few weeks and months now: Have we been staying home out of respect for others more vulnerable than we are, or have we been hiding in an act of somewhat universal self-preservation? One of the healthy lessons from this time is a deeper appreciation of the fact that we are all going to die!

It’s 2009 again, or feels like it. That was when spontaneous, grassroots protests against overweening government sprang up and were widely derided in the media as dangerous and wrongheaded. The protesters then were inveighing against Obamacare; the protesters now are striking out against the coronavirus lockdowns...

"We are continuing to see community spread, and with an increase in testing and reopening, there will be an increase in case numbers," said Maria Davis, health educator with the Cape Girardeau Public Health Center.

Don't listen to White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany's predictable critics. The level of vitriol the leftist media hurls at her daily -- during and apart from the press briefings -- conclusively proves she is doing a superb job. Liberal journalists whip their long knives in her direction and seem shocked she doesn't grovel. ...

The current U.S. budget deficit could soon exceed a record $4 trillion. The massive borrowing is being driven both by prior budget profligacy and a hurried effort by the Donald Trump administration to pump liquidity into a quarantined America. The shutdown has left the country on the cusp of a self-inflicted economic collapse not seen since the Great Depression...

Every now and then as a diversion from hard news about the coronavirus, I like to write about family. Something funny. Or at least an attempt at humor. In this case, COVID-19 has changed how I approach an important part of worship. How about you? Can you relate?

Do you remember when Pope John Paul II went back to his native Poland, about eight months into his pontificate? The Communist officials couldn't not let him in -- he was too beloved. As Pulitzer Prize winner Peggy Noonan, author of "John Paul the Great," has written, from the moment he eventually arrived behind the Iron Curtain, "the boundaries of the world began to shift."...

While serving as a sentry with French forces in the Argonne Forest in 1918, a black American private fought off German attackers. Unfazed by his wounds, he hurled grenades until they ran out, shot his rifle until it jammed, used his rifle as a club until it broke, and finally used a bolo knife until reinforcements arrived...

Most local Memorial Day services were canceled this year due to the coronavirus. That didn’t stop Jackson resident Steve Sebaugh from paying his respects to America’s fallen heroes. I drove through the Avenue of Flags at Cape County Park on Monday where 727 flags waved in the air. After stopping at Veterans Memorial Plaza where a granite wall honors Cape Girardeau County’s military veterans, I noticed Sebaugh walking up with his trumpet. ...

Lockdowns are ending as states are loosening restrictions resulting from the Chinese coronavirus. Missouri opened things up a couple of weeks ago. Some are uncomfortable or even downright fearful but are doing their best to resume activities. Then there are those who are not. It is to that latter group I speak...