Just say no to reliving past glories
Last week’s Viewpoints cover piece was headlined, “Can our political leaders shake the Curse of Apollo?” In other words, can they forsake the hollow lure of manned flight bragging rights ...
Terms like ‘white privilege’ trigger oversensitive officials
Many people have a hard time understanding the concept of white privilege — often because they are privileged whites who in fact have a hard time understanding any experience other than their own. Exhibit ...
No room at the inn for low income
As Scottish poet Robert Burns wrote almost 250 years ago, “The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” And so it seems with well-meaning city and county plans to foster new housing ...
It’s about a sick society as much as sick people
A 1993 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine concluded a handgun in the home triples the chances someone will be shot and killed there. Horrified, Congress took immediate action. It cut ...
Attend a concert and save a park
One highlight of summer in Yamhill County is always the mid-week concert series hosted by local non-profits and agencies. This year, the McMinnville Parks and Recreation Department is celebrating its ...
Editorial: Monitoring government a noble cause to pursue
The American Civil Liberties Union has begun training local volunteers to monitor federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity at the Yamhill County Courthouse. As a result, some members of our ...
Local discretion snuffed out in land use realm
City councilors passed ordinances Tuesday that clear the way for the controversial Oak Ridge Meadows subdivision near Baker Creek. The city’s planning staff had been claiming for months that they ...
Republicans stop worrying and learn to love deficits
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell once called the national debt “the nation’s biggest problem.” And he blamed it on President Barack Obama. Of course, that was in 2012, when members ...
Manufacturing growth depends as much on the arts as sciences
There are those who see little practical value in art. It is a luxury, they believe, like dessert for a society that still needs to eat its healthy food. Reading, writing and arithmetic should receive ...
New construction likely the future for recreational center
Local residents surveyed by the McMinnville Parks & Recreation department were split on whether to renovate the aquatic and community centers or to build new structures. If respondents had seen ...
Mac’s Turkey Rama festival a tradition worth supporting
This weekend marks the 59th edition of Turkey Rama, McMinnville’s annual community festival. Let’s be honest: It’s a mere shell of its former self. Major features like the World’s ...
Brown should resist urge to act unilaterally
On April 22, 1793, George Washington signed the nation’s first executive order, authorizing prosecution of citizens caught defying American neutrality by interfering in a war pitting England against ...
Developing on floating zone likely a tough sell
Are any private developers eager to build transitional, temporary housing in McMinnville’s industrial zone? We have our doubts. Unless city planners know something we don’t, it’s hard ...
Marginalizing the opposition also marginalizes Democracy
It was the best of sessions; it was the worst of sessions. It was the best in the view of Democratic Party partisans and the public employee unions that bankrolled them to 60 percent supermajorities in ...
Personal fireworks aren’t worth the trauma inflicted
Americans annually celebrate their freedom by setting off explosions that traumatize many of the veterans who fought for that freedom. Does that make any sense? Celebrating America is a pretense many ...
