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What’s the matter with Minnesota?

Columnists

Minnesota? Somalis? Nine billion dollars in alleged welfare fraud? To understand what’s going on from a distance, it helps to understand basic culture. Minnesota was settled largely by people of Scandinavian and German ancestry. In survey after survey, Minnesota has ranked No. 1 or No. 2 among states, often just behind neighboring and much smaller North Dakota, in social connectedness, civic participation, workforce participation and voter turnout. It has traditionally led the nation in levels of trust and conscientiousness. This has been coupled with political behavior that ...

Is a red line still a red line?

Columnists

One of the most embarrassing moments of the extremely embarrassing Barack Obama presidency came in the context of the Syrian civil war. In August 2012, Obama vowed that “a red line for us,” which would thereby necessitate some sort of American intervention, “is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized.” The 44th president continued: “That would change my calculus.” Except it didn’t. A year later, former Iran- and Russia-backed Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad crossed Obama’s “red line,” launching a lethal sarin gas on his ...

Hard promises

Columnists

Overhauling Venezuela promises to be a chore. The Trump administration has had bad timing. Perhaps the President should be guided by Sir Thomas More’s Utopia, written in 1516. He observed that “the king, being distracted with the charge of two Kingdoms, could not properly attend to either.” Given the affair in Minneapolis, this seems to be what Donald Trump is facing. Having an explosive situation incited by the killing of Renee Nicole Good and the subsequent distortion of that action by the White House, it seems the President is “distracted” to say the very least. Even his ...

Elkins native lost his life in Vietnam

Letters to the Editor

I knew Dennis “Denny” Baxter as I had gone to school with him and played ball with him in the city park numerous times. His parents got divorced so he lived with his grandparents Jessie and Dennis Baxter on River Street in Elkins. His dad moved back to Summit, N.J., and his mother remarried and moved to Bridgeport. He enlisted in the Marine Corps where his mother lived and he signed up. He wanted to see his dad in New Jersey before shipping out to Parris Island. After I received orders to Vietnam, I was home on leave and stopped in Glen Edwards’ store on Diamond Street to get ...

Working on the business or in the business?

Columnists

A book I have found helpful is The E-Myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber. It was first published in 1995. When small business owners or individuals considering starting a business ask me what book I would recommend, this is my go-to suggested read. It is where I learned the concept of working on the business rather than only in the business. I became aware of The E-Myth Revisited as part of a roundtable of small business owners. An attendee suggested that we all read a book. As I waited for one of my own books to be suggested, The E-Myth Revisited was recommended. I bought ...

MLK

Editorials

For those preparing to enjoy a three-day weekend in observance of this Martin Luther King Jr. Day, it is important to also honor the memory of a civil rights leader who died working toward a dream that in many ways still has not been fulfilled. Honor King this weekend by looking around — at your community, at your state, and at this country — and doing some honest thinking about how far we have to go. We are approaching 60 years now since King was murdered for believing that one day “my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the ...