Opinion

Colleges and universities started class a couple weeks ago. I am hopeful the nation will see a slight bump in enrollment following the deep COVID declines. Many students stayed home during COVID, while others took advantage of rising wages for high school graduates. These facts make it a good time to outline the benefits and costs of a college education. These benefits are both private and public.

Two pictures of Indiana.

In the immense fanfare and ceremony that accompanied Winston Churchill’s funeral in 1965, Queen Elizabeth delivered a small but telling gesture.

I just finished listening to a discussion on the radio about Internet search engines. One of the guests wanted to determine the longitude and latitude of an emerging African nation and had begun his hunt with the phrase: WHERE IS_____? Before he started typing the name of the country, Google offered him auto-filled suggestions, anticipating what he might be trying to find. Their initial recommendations were: my tax refund; Frankenmuth, Germany; and Chuck Norris.

A flurry of orange and black fluttered inside the plastic container.

One of my favorite spiritual writers, Thomas Merton, offered an important insight about saints. He wisely observed that saints are not perfectionists. That is, we shouldn’t expect a saint to be someone who has lived a perfect life or has even aspired to live such a life. Saints are human beings; people who have struggled, questioned and disappointed themselves and others at times.

Fort Wayne, my hometown, has a telephone service that residents can use to ask questions, request city services or report situations that require attention from city departments. I’ve never used this service but I have a friend who contacts the 311 folks daily.

“As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster.”

OK, OK. I’ll admit it. I am a quitter.

Most kids learn to read around the time they start going to school, but years of educational research demonstrate that the groundwork for reading success is laid long before the school years start – from birth onward.