Category: Commentary
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Commentary: Biden wins — What does it all mean? Ten takeaways from the 2020 election
By Paul Rozycki In a year of pandemics, racial division, economic crisis, and the most divisive election in the last century, it’s a challenge to uncover the things that really matter in this year’s presidential election. In the last weeks, we’ve all had wall-to-wall coverage and analysis of this year’s presidential contest. It may be…
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Commentary: Beyond Biden and Trump, who else and what else is there in Election 2020?
By Paul Rozycki Who’s your choice — Trump or Biden? Sometimes it seems like the only thing on the ballot this year is Donald Trump vs. Joe Biden. It’s hard to turn on the TV without seeing an ad for either candidate. We’ve all felt the impact of the most divisive…
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A comet, a COVID pandemic, and a summer of crisis. Is there any good news?
By Paul Rozycki This summer, astronomers have discovered a new presence among the stars, the Neowise comet, in the northern sky. It’s not a large comet, just visible under the Big Dipper. It has come closest to the earth in the middle of July, and has been observable for the last few weeks. Many ancient…
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Review: “Begin Again” blends James Baldwin’s urgent lessons and a call to face “the American Lie”
By Robert R. Thomas BEGIN AGAIN by Eddie S. Glaude Jr. is a clear example of a historical genre I call living history, i.e., history being written in real time by living historians. Glaude is the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of African American Studies at Princeton, where he is also the chair of the…
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He changed my life: A remembrance of John Lewis
By Harold C. Ford “When you see something that is not right, not just, not fair, you have a moral obligation to say something. To do something.” — John Lewis, December 2019 It was Sunday, March 7, 1965. I was an 18-year-old freshman student at Flint Community Junior College (FCJC). I still lived at my…
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Commentary: An August primary primer–how it’s different and why its important
By Paul Rozycki In a time of the COVID-19 virus, economic shutdowns, Black Lives Matter protests, and 500-year floods, it’s difficult to focus on something as routine as an August primary election. Even in “normal” times, the primary is often overshadowed by summer vacations, county fairs, and car cruises, and the turnout is usually low.…
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Village Life: Of a big green chair, two bad haircuts and the Ministry of Silly Walks
By Jan Worth-Nelson I seem to have been sitting too long. Day after day of it. Day after day, for about 75 days now, obsessed with numbers, I’ve pretzeled myself into a big green chair too close to a glaring screen. The chair is sort of a comfort—it’s wide enough to accommodate the girth of…
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Commentary: Vote by mail is an idea whose time has come
By Paul Rozycki How do you want to vote this year? No, I don’t mean whether you like Democrats, Republicans, Joe Biden, or Donald Trump. I mean, how do you actually want to cast your ballot? It seems simple, but there are a lot of choices. It’s been done many ways Voting: It’s the most…
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Commentary: Mixed messages on COVID-19–whom should we believe?
By Paul Rozycki What’s your answer to any of these questions about the COVID-19 crisis? Should we wear a face mask or not? If so when? Will the summer heat kill the virus? Will hydroxychloroquine get rid of it? Will there be a vaccine by the end of the year? When should the nation begin…
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Commentary: We are NOT equally at risk for COVID-19. Racism makes all the difference
Editor’s Note: This essay is a response to a recent commentary by Dick Ramsdell posted here.We welcome the expression of divergent views and hope they will foster respectful discussion. It is reprinted from Woodside World, the newsletter of Woodside Church of Flint, where Pastor Conrad is senior minister. By Deborah Conrad This week, a white man…
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