Guest Opinion | Wednesday, December 22,2010

Steps toward a fear-less nation

I recently read In the Combat Zone by Leslie Marmon Silko, a Native American writer and activist. Published in 1995, the essay contains this sentence: “As the U.S. economy continues to ‘do

Guest Opinion | Thursday, December 16,2010

In search of six votes for neighborhoods

By Steve Combs

In Rock Island, it’s not called the Department of Public Works, it’s Housing and Neighborhoods. Their Planning and Economic Development is known as Community and Economic Development. Thei

Guest Opinion | Thursday, December 9,2010

What video gambling did to me

By E. Myles Ries III

Twenty-six years and eight months ago I walked into the Aloha to play my guitar and the songs that people liked. Everything was there that had been there the night before – the rice cooker, the

Guest Opinion | Thursday, December 2,2010

Christians under attack in Iraq

By Sr. Kathlyn Mulcahy

In the past couple of weeks, two events have brought wide media coverage in Washington and Baghdad: George Bush’s personal interviews about his book, Decision Points, and the news that after eig

Guest Opinion | Wednesday, November 24,2010

Memory is a heady thing

Lanphier Class of 1955

By Barbara Barron

I left the Island Bay Yacht Club at Lake Springfield about 10 p.m. and headed west toward the new access to 55 North. While pondering, I missed it due to new roads, so, I kept driving west on Toronto

Guest Opinion | Thursday, November 18,2010

Crisis in college education

By Nick Capo

In early November, I traveled with a colleague from Jacksonville to Mobile, Ala., to present a paper at the National Symposium on Student Retention (NSSR).Mobile is a proud city that has endured cycle

Guest Opinion | Thursday, November 11,2010

Charter for Compassion seeks unity

Learn more at 6 p.m. Nov. 12

By Don Ecklund

Imagine that religion became a force for good throughout the world, rather than an institution embroiled in world conflicts that often increase violence and drive people apart. Imagine that we could s

Guest Opinion | Thursday, November 4,2010

The urgency of shopping local

The Party Tree is over

By Crystal Crossland

It was a sad day at The Party Tree Oct. 31, when we made our final closing announcement and bid farewell to our customers and employees. I wasn’t sure how closing day would be since the month le

Guest Opinion | Thursday, October 28,2010

Every month is Breast Cancer Awareness month

By Carole R. Brite

Each year approximately 180,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer in the United States and 40,000 women die as a result of their illness. In Illinois, nearly 10,000 cases of breast cancer are dia

Guest Opinion | Thursday, October 21,2010

Teaching Millennials some manners

By Martha Miller

In an article for The New Yorker, Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, a social network that has had its problems with privacy, claimed that privacy is an “evolving social norm.” Sinc