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A look back at the crazy week that was

Come Heller high water …

∫ OK, well, THIS has been a crazy week. If only one thing comes from it, I hope it’s this: That we as people — left, center or right — at least agree that separating children from the parents when other options are available is wrong. We need to re-establish some form of common ground. We used to have a lot of it. Maybe it’s time to start over, even if just to establish dialogue.

∫ I’ll start: Kittens are cute. How about that? Anyone object other than ailurophobes, allergy sufferers and people who hate cat pans?

∫ Your turn: Shoot me your thoughts on things all Americans can and should agree on. Make them serious or funny, but please don’t make them political. I’m really serious about this. If we can’t agree on something then we can’t agree on anything, and I like to think we’re better than that. My email is andrewhellercolumn@gmail.com. I’ll print the best in next week’s column.

∫ How else was the week crazy? Well, there was this headline: “Michigan woman may have served ex-lover’s remains at U.P. barbecue.” I’m from the U.P. so now I feel the need to ask all my relatives, “Hey, been to any neighborhood BBQs lately?” Can you imagine being one of the people who was at that party? I may never leave the house again. Too many weirdos out there.

∫ Thursday was the summer solstice and the longest day of the year. The optimist in me says, “Whoo-hoo, summer’s officially here! Time to par-tay!” (But not at a BBQ, of course.) The part of me that’s been beaten up by too many Michigan winters is saying, “The longest day of the year? It’s all downhill from here.” That part of me is a real drag.

∫ MSU president John Engler has ordered the MSU alumni magazine to emphasize all the good things he’s done in the wake of the Larry Nassar scandal rather than take a critical look. Wow, is that wrong. If I were an MSU grad and my alumni mailed me a propaganda puff piece, I’d be disgusted. What Engler doesn’t know about human beings, PR and communications stuns me. You don’t make despicable things go away by ignoring them. You recover from despicable things by talking about them openly and honestly. That’s the only way to move on.

∫ Speaking of moving on, Engler should. Nassar’s victims this week joined the chorus calling for him to resign. They wrote the board that “Engler and leaders at MSU have refused to listen. They persist in attacking our character, our integrity and our intelligence. These attacks send a clear message that survivors who speak up will likewise be attacked. They send a clear message that perpetrators and enablers will not be held accountable. They send a clear message that nothing at MSU – none of the mindsets that allowed Larry Nassar to abuse children for decades – have changed.” Good for them. Engler was an odd choice from the beginning. I suspect he was brought in to save the university money on the settlement. But his ham-handed communication style has been a disaster for a school that already has enough trouble.

∫ “The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” — George Bernard Shaw.

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