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Our homegrown extremists

The suspect in the Minnesota murders, Vance Luther Boelter, has been charged, for now, with second-degree murder. He allegedly killed two people, Melissa and Mark Hortman, in cold blood, and shot and wounded two others. According to Minnesota police, he showed up at the homes of at least two other people who were on his 45-person hit list (they were away). What stands out about the descriptions of Boelter we’ve seen thus far is that everyone agreed he was “deeply religious.” In other words, he’s a religious extremist. He was also an ardent Trump fan. Those things are obviously ...

Getting clarity at a project’s start saves a lot of hassle later

Years ago, when I was working at Mercy Hospital in Janesville, Wisconsin, a request was made of me. I put other items to the side to make it happen. Later I found out the request was not urgent. I had let other items slide that were more important. How could I have prevented this from taking place? By asking the person making the request about its timeline and relative importance. It sounds simple and obvious, but many people forget to do it. I am one of them. After the learning experience at Mercy, I made sure to bake the “get clarity first” practice into other organizations I was ...

This week my second cousin, Logan Smith, called me to alert the Kump side of our family that our Logan Clan will be featured in the noonday parade Saturday for the Scottish Celtic Festival at Randolph County 4-H Camp near Beverly. The Celtic activities will begin at 9:00 with local highland dancers at 10:00 and 1:30. Many Celtic values are shared by all Americans. In our telephone conversation, Logan and I agreed that James Harvey Logan is our early ancestor that we both admired most because he was a seeker of the truth. He was the first person in Randolph County to complete a ...

Restless tiger

Given the enthusiasm that demonstrators displayed at the “no kings” rallies, you would think that Democratic leaders were encouraged by the turnout. But this is not the case. As usual, the party at the national level largely ignored the grassroots parties’ efforts, only giving them the usual weak pat on the back. They should be careful; the rallies prove there is a restless tiger within the Democratic party who is eager to get out. Instead, the DNC, led by Ken Martin, seems to have as its slogan “when in doubt murmur”. Generally, the DNC blithely ignores the rank and file as ...

Evaluating Trump

Given that it has been ten years since Donald Trump came down the escalator in the Tower that bears his name, it is appropriate to measure his impact on American society, culture, and politics. There is some peril in measuring a presidency that has not ended, but perhaps it is worth a shot. So far, Trump has won only one battle, which has been his complete conquest of the Republican Party. Despite every device being used to prevent “the Donald” from actually doing what he prefers, he has managed to unite most Republicans under his banner. However, he had some difficulty persuading ...

A requiem for Doug Skaff

I really wasn’t expecting to have to write, in essence, an obituary for former lawmaker and politician Doug Skaff last Tuesday. The accident that killed him remains under investigation, but by all reports it was a freak accident on I-79 near Weston. Skaff’s SUV went into the back of a semi-truck and despite trying to brake in time, it was too late. Skaff was only five years older than me at 48. I had known him since his first stint in the House of Delegates in what was once the largest of the multi-member districts covering Kanawha County. He was a rising star in Democratic ...