“High college cost is a threat to Idaho’s economy at a time when employers are demanding a more educated workforce.” —Idaho Center for Fiscal Policy Denmark’s Higher Education Reforms In 1966 I traveled to Denmark as a Rotary Foundation Fellow…
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Struck v. Defense Department: A Better Case than Roe v. Wade?
When Susan Struck was 23, she volunteered as an Air Force nurse in Vietnam. Before she signed on, she was warned that if she became pregnant she would be automatically discharged. When she arrived in Vietnam, she started dating an…
Look What the Virgin Birth has Wrought
The doctrine of the Virgin Birth is a slur on natural motherhood. —Elizabeth Cady Stanton, The Woman’s Bible I’ve been studying the world religions for about 55 years, and early on I discovered patterns in the birth stories that I…
Mahatma Gandhi’s profound influence on Martin Luther King
Christ furnished the spirit and motivation, while Gandhi furnished the method. —Martin Luther King, Jr. I firmly believe that the Gandhian philosophy of nonviolent resistance is the only logical and moral approach to the solution of the race problem in…
The Neanderthals ate their veggies, too
Sometime after I told a friend that I had become a vegetarian, I saw a new bumper sticker on his truck. It read: “Vegetarian: Old Indian Word for Poor Hunter.” For years I’ve been preparing the following verbal arrows as…
WSU did the right thing on campus free speech
If you’re openly inciting violence, that’s a problem. But other than that, we can’t start doing this filtering of people’s words and what they say. —Jordan Frost, WSU student body president It is virtually impossible to articulate a standard for…
My journey as a Vietnam War protester
I watched the Ken Burns’ and Lynn Novick’s “The Vietnam War” on Spokane’s Channel 7, primarily because it offered two viewings each evening. At end of each episode, there was a phone number for a Veterans Hotline for those who…
“Deaths of Despair” Reveals America’s Troubled Soul A “White Death” Takes the Lives of 45-54 Year-Olds
The workman is not in harmony with his social position if he is not convinced that he has his deserts. —Emile Durkheim These people kill themselves slowly with alcohol or drugs, or quickly with a gun. —Anne Case, Princeton economist…
The myth of a monochrome ‘Western’ civilization
If Western civilization is defined by religion and culture, then Mexico—with its Catholic heritage and historic ties to European monarchies—is unquestionably an outpost of “the West.” But for Trump and his advisers, it too is a threat to the Western…
The Europeans pay more than their fair share
One would expect that in anticipation of meeting with the heads of NATO’s 29 nations, our so-called president would at least learn some basic facts about this nearly 70-year-old alliance. Instead, an ignorant and boorish Trump stunned these leaders with…