The coronavirus is taking its toll, for sure. The human tragedy is just that, a tragedy. Congress finally moved on a $2 trillion aid package, yet the virus continues to wreak havoc across the nation. But this will end, and then what? Will we come out of this a stronger, more unified ...
We keep hearing that the social distancing mandates meant to prevent the spread of the coronavirus changes our everyday lives. And more and more things keep coming up to prove the point. To wit: Last week, reporter Steve Schulwitz detailed the ways virus prevention has affected the Huron ...
Most of us weren’t designed to stand six feet apart from each other. We were designed to hug and shake hands and pat each other on the back and offer a comforting hand on the shoulder. That’s what makes the “social distancing” mandates designed to slow the spread of the coronavirus ...
People are stepping up to help their communities in many ways through the COVID-19 crisis. From mutual aid groups to practicing responsible social distancing, Michiganders are doing their part to get through this together. If you haven’t done so already, taking the census is a small act ...
While there have been no reports of it Northeast Michigan, we’ve been extremely discouraged by the photos, videos, and stories popping up in the media of grocery store fights over toilet paper and other such nonsense. By all accounts, the supply chain for our grocers remains strong, and, ...
Last December, in the warmth and comfort of the executive residence and with no hint that an insidious virus would engulf her second year in office, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer had time to reflect on her approach to commenting on the performance of President Donald Trump. As you listen to her ...
We are glad Gov. Gretchen Whitmer saw the wisdom in declaring the news media an “essential service” as she ordered other businesses closed in an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Journalists the world over, including right here in Northeast Michigan, are working hard to ...
When people think the sky is falling, there’s an obvious risk in saying, “Yes, it is … but it’s also not.” I’m going to take that risk. Yes, the coronavirus is awful. It’s killed roughly 12,000 worldwide as of this writing. But it could have killed more. Believe it or not, the ...
School employees with no students to teach are stepping up to hand out food so kids can eat at home. Restaurants with no customers to serve delivering their food to seniors and others. Food banks, too, are ramping up operations to feed the hungry. Scared police, firefighters, and ...
Time. Webster’s Dictionary defines time as “the point or period when something occurs.” As you and I grapple with “sheltering” in the confines of our homes, I have a new appreciation for time. Admittedly, for me, Monday through Friday, I still head to the office and work. As an ...
“‘Emergencies’ have always been the pretext on which the safeguards of individual liberty have been eroded.” — F.A. Hayek These are weird and hairy times. Tensions are high. Bernie Sanders dropped an F-bomb on a reporter who dared to ask his plans after another day of dismal ...
By now, we probably all are beginning to feel a bit “cooped up.” With that in mind, let us offer what we will call an “attitude adjuster” this morning. Read the following line by line, from top to bottom. Then, when you get to the bottom, read it again, line by line, from the ...
This evolving coronavirus pandemic got me thinking. One of the things I’ve been thinking about is my mother’s survival of the 1918 flu epidemic. She was born in 1909, so, when that contagion hit Alpena, she was 8 or 9 years old — old enough to remember. She did. What my mother remembered ...
What a simple word: science. Two short syllables, easily pronounced. Yet, to many, science is mystifying. As we cope with COVID-19, perhaps it is a good time to discuss how science works. According to the National Academies of Sciences, our most prestigious scientific organization, science ...
If there can be a silver lining in all the craziness in which we live these days, perhaps it is this: With Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s mandate to stay home, we have more time for a good book. March is Reading Month, and that’s one thing the coronavirus can’t take away from us. That’s ...
“Climate change happens; now what?” How would you respond to that question? How would your response change if you were asked that question before an audience of more than 300 people? On Feb. 18, the Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies at Grand Valley State University hosted a ...
It remains unclear how long our students will be out of class. Unfortunately, it also remains unclear what the coronavirus shutdown will mean to their academic futures. How will seniors earn the necessary credits for graduation? How will the time off of school affect athletics? What role ...
“His life was spent giving back to the community,” Alpena Police Department Lt. Eric Hamp said of his friend and coworker, Officer Lee Grant. Hamp described Grant as a very loving guy who had a knack to be able to talk to anybody. “Lee had a huge heart and was a very giving guy,” ...
In Saturday’s edition came a letter to the editor from a reader who suggested we dress up our town in pink to show our support for our health care workers. We love the idea. Though these times are unprecedented, our health care workers are doing what they always do: Showing up, staying ...
As the founders were painfully and methodically cobbling together our democracy, little did they know that, hundreds of years later, something called a virus would set into motion a movement that could nibble away at the very individual freedoms they fought so hard to enshrine for generations ...