From the Lefthand Corner

I don't know who came up with "the first 100 days" of a presidency, nor why it is deemed of such importance. I guess FDR came sailing in in early 1933 with a lot of dramatic and drastic changes that the populace of the time direly needed and much appreciated, except those he tread...

We've had a few months to reflect and wonder how our country could ever come to such a combination of apathy and stupidity, even for one day, to elect Donald Trump as our president. A side effect and consequence of that day of infamy was to re-elevate the already too high status of...

It's health care assurance that we need in this country, not health care insurance. What our society needs is the assurance of good health care for everyone, affordable and accessible for all. What our society does not need is the wasteful practice of pouring huge amounts of our government...

Whenever people in your midst get uppity about their own heritage, or continue our lessening but still existent discriminatory actions and attitudes toward black folks, remind them that by long heredity we are all Africans - including them. The current issue of Discover magazine contains...

We consider a silent treatment quite negatively, whether it is as a punishment in prison, in a family grouping or in a close, personal relationship. Some of us, however, endure a sort of silent treatment all the time. It is far more unintentional than deliberate. We are fortunate...

Hello out there. This is another insignificant cry from our wilderness, our ever lessening wild, as our Minnesota is passing steadily from rural to urban. Our Earth is getting warmer. The ones who know the most about our warming are warning that it is dangerously so, that with our...

As I sit in my comfortable rocker recliner this snowy Friday, I think of a concluding quote from a layperson"s sermon a few years ago. As she said, I can truly say, "Thank you, God, for everything." This is an easy Thanksgiving column to write because I have so much to be thankful...

I'm ever hopeful of a government that is caring, constructive and compassionate. I wish George Bush could have fulfilled his self-label of "compassionate conservative." I want a foremost objective of government to be acknowledgment that we are our brothers/sisters' keepers. Another...

We are finally reaching the end of the long and arduous "race" to the U.S. presidency in 2016. I hope we don't have another delayed determination as in 2000, and that the decision will be finalized on Nov. 8 so we can still have a true and thankful Thanksgiving, and a time for joyous...

There will be just a few more hectic weeks before America selects its president for the next four years. It has already been a long, grueling, testing and strange process. By the time this column comes out, the much ballyhooed first debate between the contestants will have been held....

Wendell R. Anderson died recently at age 83. I only knew him as Wendy. That is the only way he wanted to be known. He reportedly died from pneumonia, but suffered from dementia and other maladies over the last couple years. His most remembered public service was as governor of Minnesota...

I guess I became a National Convention "junkie" rather early in life, which is quite a few years ago. During the summer of age 8 I remember, in our Roosevelt Democrat household, my Dad talking of FDR's failing health and Dad's leaning toward Henry Wallace for President, and later...

Recently, media and experts have expressed great concern over the high usage of opioids as pain killers for seniors. The alarm has been rung because some expert and not-so-expert poll takers, study makers, insurance statisticians and medical writers have all concluded that a third...

We are down to two choices for president of our United States in November 2016 (unless some miraculous Republican event occurs). Republicans have apparently selected Donald Trump and Democrats have seemingly settled on Hillary Clinton. While we'll certainly hear it all over again...