Council Corner: City dynamics: The tail wagging the dog
After eight years on the City Council, I’ve come to the realization that an important piece of the governing process in Ashland is effectively broken. This may come as a shock to many, including those...
View ArticleCouncil Corner: My plan for Ashland in 2017
My platformHere is my plan for 2017. It's based on our community's proven ability to collaborate, to be objective about the facts and to problem solve instead of becoming distracted by ideologies.Top...
View ArticleCouncil Corner: Keys to a highly functional City Council
If you haven't cast your ballot yet, don't forget to take advantage of your opportunity to help shape the future of Ashland's political discourse. Having served as an elected volunteer for the past 14...
View ArticleCouncil Corner: Thank you, Ashland
Today, our votes will have been counted and as a community we will know who we have elected to lead us against the challenges we face in the future. Regardless how the final tally comes out, I can...
View ArticleCouncil Corner: City should look out for seniors
“It's paradoxical that the idea of living a long life appeals to everyone, but the idea of getting old doesn't appeal to anyone.”― Andy RooneyNot coincidentally, in recent years I have become...
View ArticleCouncil Corner: Two jobs end, another begins
Over the past four years, I’ve had the opportunity to serve as manager of Ashland Emergency Food Bank and as a member of the Ashland City Council. Serving in these two positions has left me with a deep...
View ArticleCouncil Corner: City responds to 'what's going on'
What is going on with our federal government? Two answers:1) I don't understand, and 2) I'm appalled, shocked and scared.Last week I did some reading and C-SPAN watching. I consciously tried to...
View ArticleJeffrey Gillespie: The problem with Saint Teresa
It’s tricky, even in this day and age, to go after a figure so universally revered and wholly worshiped as the newly sainted Mother Teresa of Calcutta.So beatific is she in the eyes of guilty...
View ArticleJeffrey Gillespie: A confederacy of deplorables
As far as gaffes go, Hillary Clinton and her "basket of deplorables" (when read within the context of her full statement) isn't nearly as bad as conservatives might have you think it is. Unfortunately...
View ArticleChris Honoré: Is it possible Trump could win?
Someone asked me this morning, “You don’t think Trump will win, do you?” I found myself hesitating, not immediately responding with, “Absolutely not!” Finally, I said, “I just can’t imagine — not if...
View ArticleChris Honoré: ‘History doesn’t repeat itself’
Mark Twain once said that history doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes. Which led me to think of Donald Trump. We’ve seen his like before, an individual standing stage center practicing the art...
View ArticleChris Honoré: The Ralph Nader syndrome
The millennials are those 18- to 35-year-olds who are now the largest age group in our country. There are some 75.4 million millennials in the U.S., surpassing in number the 74.9 million baby boomers,...
View ArticleChris Honore: Mike Pence — defending the indefensible
Mike Pence, former governor of Indiana (he withdrew to join Donald Trump on the Republican ticket), was raised in a Catholic family and served as an altar boy. He became a born-again Christian in...
View ArticleChris Honore: Donald Trump: Once again unshackled
Last Thursday I listened to a speech delivered in West Palm Beach, Florida, by Donald Trump at one of his political rallies. He was furious and spoke without restraint. If he had taken off a shoe and...
View ArticleChris Honore: Trump: ‘This election is rigged’
By now you have heard Donald Trump riffing to anyone who will listen that if he loses the coming election, well, it’s because the outcome was “rigged.” On occasion he uses the word “stolen.” He accuses...
View ArticleChris Honore:
So this long and arduous presidential campaign is nearing the end. Finally. I have often felt I’ve had to suspend my disbelief as week after week we’ve found ourselves in the weeds of “deportation...
View ArticleChris Honore: Issues that didn’t make the cut
October was filled with surprises that kept the press flush with material and the two presidential campaigns running out of fingers to point at each other. It’s all been head-shaking remarkable.But...
View ArticleChris Honore: Our national ‘perfect storm’
Regarding the outcome of the presidential election, it still remains a puzzle that continues to nag and perplex and likely creates for some a sense of political vertigo.What happened? How could the...
View ArticleChris Honore: The basket of deplorables
Back in September, Hillary Clinton, giving a speech at a fundraising gala event in New York City, said the following: “You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s...
View ArticleChris Honore: Suffer the little children
An old African Kikuyu proverb says, “When the elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers.” Nowhere are these words more chillingly insightful than now in Aleppo, Syria. The elephants are fighting...
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