Opinion

Learning the ABCs was the way most English-speaking Americans began their journey in formal education.

From: Elizabeth T. Nolan-Greven

After months of self-care, protection and distancing, and with Thanksgiving and the winter holidays just around the corner, now is the perfect time to remind our children of the benefits of connecting with others through acts of kindness and giving. Like so many skills we teach our children, compassion and kindness take practice. Through their committed practice, they also can bring our children great rewards, such as increased confidence, improved collaboration and social networking skills, and a greater sense of community.

For a guy who prides himself on being so smart, self-proclaimed kingmaker Steve Bannon does some stupid things.

Nothing is new about the corrupting influence of money in politics. It’s been about 150 years since Mark Twain observed, “We have the best government that money can buy.”

We have made significant progress in the battle against tobacco use and nicotine addiction since the 1960s with enormously falling rates of smoking among adults and children. Reducing the smoking rates and progressively making smoking socially unacceptable has been a comprehensive effort involving prevention and cessation programs, media campaigns, smoke-free air laws, increased cigarette taxation and FDA oversight. But all this progress is threatened with the introduction of e-cigarette use, commonly referred to as “vaping”, especially among youth; it’s nothing less than an epidemic among middle and high school students.

Many of us look back on our time at school with fond memories, but those who were frequently bullied might look back and feel differently. There are not many logical reasons why someone is bullied, but to grasp a deeper understanding of what bullying is, we also need to know how and why bullying begins.

From: Ralph Jewell

Thanksgiving is fast approaching and I am looking forward to gathering with my family again since COVID precautions kept us apart last year. We’re planning our menu, which in addition to the usual fare, includes a large variety of pies. While I like all the food, I’m most excited to spend a few days with my dad, several of my siblings, and some of my nieces and nephews. We usually do some Black Friday shopping, play a few games, watch silly movies, and stay up too late talking.

The U.S. Congress is turning its attention to something called the Build Back Better (BBB) bill. This is a good time to think critically about the political economy of our national debt. It is good to start with some facts and acknowledge what we do and do not know about the economic consequences of a large public debt. A big part of this discussion must be the question of how we tax ourselves to pay for this debt.