Investigating The Bible: Following the child’s example
Jesus gave an urgent message involving children, which is recorded in three of the gospels. “I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” (Luke 18:17, New International Version; used throughout). What did Jesus mean when he said children must be role models for anyone who would enter the kingdom of God? The answer may surprise us.
Calendar of Quirk: You never Sauvignon such sights as this week’s set of oddities
Calendar of Quirk moves between backroom black-light and a prominent tribute to Wine Country you might never have seen, though it stands two stories tall next to a highway. Feb. 19 Sand and gravel silos ...
Vasquez: Restoring our faith in the American dream
In recent years, I have become increasingly confused about what it means to be an American.
As a child, the sight of our flag and sound of our anthem evoked the comforting assurance of shared devotion to our beautiful nation. That continued up until recent times, but no longer.
Bladine: Warning issued about consequences of PERS bill
Rick Metsger of PAC/WEST Lobby Group blew the whistle in his recent commentary about a potential PERS boondoggle in the making. But in the rush of a short legislative session, few are paying attention ...
Terry: State suffering tidal wave of drug overdose deaths
About the writer: Lynne Terry serves as editor-in-chief of the Oregon Capital Chronicle, a nonprofit news outlet based in Salem and found online at oregoncapitalchronicle.com. She has also served as editor ...
Bladine: Increased office vacancies create furniture challenge
Truckloads of used office furniture leaving our former downtown newspaper building are a microcosm of financial disturbances in the world of commercial offices. “America’s offices,” ...
Guest commentary needed for section
In addition to letters to the editor, limited to 300 words, we are on the lookout for guest commentary submissions of 500 to 750 words. Those allow the writer to take a broader view and cover more points. We ...
Investigating The Bible: ‘You shall not wrong him’: the subject of slavery
Feb. 12 is the birthday of Abraham Lincoln. In 1843, after Lincoln lost his bid to be in Congress a second term, he might have remained a successful country lawyer if Stephen Douglas, a Senator in 1850, had not proposed and passed a bill which allowed slavery in the new states of Nebraska and Kansas
Offbeat Oregon: Why legendary lawman Virgil Earp is buried in a S.W. Portland cemetery
Portland’s River View Cemetery is the state’s oldest nonprofit cemetery, founded in 1882 by three of Portland’s most prominent citizens: Henry Corbett, Henry Failing, and William S. Ladd.
All three of them are buried there — Ladd’s grave in particular was the target of a bizarre raid by a gang of grave robbers 15 years later, but that’s a story for another time.
Calendar of Quirk: Potcake and a potpourri of offbeat messaging, mobile as well as stationary
Mention was made two weeks ago of rock cairns on Amity Road; the reader who tipped me to them said only a few survived the snow and subsequent plowing. I did not spot them on a recent reconnoiter near ...
Bladine: You take your chances when applying political labels
Political labels are overused, misunderstood and often the bane of productive political debate. Related conversations quickly get complicated.BYU-Idaho Professor Hyrum Lewis wrote in 2022: “Our society ...
Calendar of Quirk: ‘Anno Lucis’ and other unusual sightings both heavy and light-hearted
Quirk ideas and other responses such as indicated in our first entry of this Calendar of Quirk are a big part of CQ; below is week four of our ongoing celebration of oddities around us. Before we get ...
Bladine: An unsettling decline in letters to the editor
January produced an abundance of comments from newspaper readers to us — no surprise given the change in newspaper size, delivery schedule and methods of publication. In that same month, however, ...
Rainey: Frankly, my dears, it seems we don’t give a gol durn anymore
About the writer: Barrett Rainey is an Air Force veteran, longtime pilot and former reporter for radio and TV stations from Cheyenne, Wyoming, to Washington, D.C. Now living in McMinnville, he writes regularly ...
Togneren: Intellectual humility is an asset, not a weakness
Mark Twain apocryphally said, “I’m in favor of progress; it’s change I don’t like.”
This quote pithily underscores the human tendency to desire growth while also harboring strong resistance to the hard work that comes with it. And I can certainly resonate with this sentiment.
