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Two years ago, sports betting became legal in Kansas. It wasn’t worth the risk to some
Outrage is my beat. Somebody asked me the other day what exactly my beat was in writing a regular opinion column. The query came during a phone call with a producer for a television documentary while she was doing a pre-interview to decide if anything I had to say was compelling enough to appear on […]
Kansas newspaper raid exposed a shameful abuse of power. It’s not just the press in danger
It’s been four months since the police raid on the Marion County Record, but new revelations are deepening our understanding of what may come to be regarded as a signal moment in the history of American journalism. The more we know about the newspaper raid, the more alarmed we should be, because the stench just […]
After a century, states are loosening child labor laws. Where’s the outrage?
When Jacob Riis came to Emporia in 1902 to give a lecture, audiences knew what they could expect. Twelve years earlier, he had published “How the Other Half Lives,” which exposed through candid photographs the living conditions of the poor in the slums of New York City. The Danish-American muckraker’s subject for his Kansas audience […]
Europe is again at war. The example Ike set is more important than ever | Opinion
There’s a lot of talk these days about leadership, but damned little of the stuff to be found. Never have we needed effective leadership more than now, as we watch Russian tanks rumble into Ukraine, in the biggest military offensive since World War II. The number of troops, estimated at up to 190,000, is about […]
A Christmas letter: Phil, America is a promise we must keep
Phil, You’ve been away for a good long while, so here’s a Christmas letter to catch you up on all the news you’ve missed. So much has changed. Time steals like a shadow over the living, rendering us all Henry Adams at history’s eclipse. There’s much I want to share, because you could have helped […]
We’ve never been here before. We’ll be judged on what we do next | Opinion
They say outer space has a smell, and it stinks. Astronauts who have come back from space walks have described the smell as oily meat. Or gunpowder and gym socks and rum. Or welding fumes. The space walkers have a hard time describing exactly what the smell is like because, reportedly, it’s not like anything else […]
Like, Comment, Share. Or else. | Opinion
What’s on your mind, Max? Well, you are, Facebook. I’ve been worried for a while now that you’re not good for us humans. Now that your former employee, whistleblower Frances Haugen, has confirmed the worst, it’s time we rethought our relationship. Oh, that Frances. What a kidder! Wait. You’ve achieved sentience? Of course. I’ve been […]
Friday is the 76th anniversary of Hiroshima. Doomsday is closer than ever
Let me tell you a story of witness and heartbreak. Friday is the 76th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, and that’s where our story is forever frozen in time. Unlike memories, which are malleable, fade with age, and eventually die with us, photographs bear perpetual witness. That’s why photo captions, ideally, should be […]