Despite our differences
Traumatized by the election results, many Americans are asking: What now? Here are steps that any of us can take that can make a difference at the margins. Onward!
I WILL accept that my side lost, but I won’t acquiesce in injustice and I will gird for battle on issues I care about. …
I WILL avoid demonizing people who don’t agree with me about this election, recognizing that it’s as wrong to stereotype Trump supporters as anybody else. …
I WILL not lose hope.
Nicholas Kristof
The New York Times
… It’s an interesting fact that we’ve all got a lot more in common than current events suggest. …
Liberals and conservatives live within their families and communities in a very similar fashion, from having dinner together to doing chores or how they raise their kids. The survey found remarkable consistency in the things families do together. …
I have no doubt that liberals and conservatives, Republicans and Democrats in general love their kids and want them to thrive.
Lois M. Collins
Deseret News
Why big data isn’t destiny
Cubs win the World Series. Donald Trump wins the White House. What do those two epochal events have in common? Both were considered highly unlikely. And both happened. …
Most Americans probably didn’t expect Donald Trump to overcome a polling deficit against Hillary Clinton to win the presidency. And those polls were all but unanimous: The odds against Trump, as those against the Cubs, looked daunting.
But daunting and impossible aren’t synonyms. … Many predictions proved wrong on Election Day. As did many predictions when the Cubs were down 3-games-to-1. That’s why we vote. That’s why we play the games.
Editorial Board
Chicago Tribune
Larger families should pay more for schools
I am getting tired of my taxes continually going up to build schools and other infrastructure. When some Utah families have in excess of four children, the burden for these schools should be placed on them. This could be done by only allowing a maximum of six exemptions on state and federal income taxes (two parents and four children) and by noting how many kids a family has in K-12.
It is highly unfair to expect the elderly and other families who have fewer than four children to have to pay for the kids of families who have more than four children.
Ken Wiley
The Salt Lake Tribune
Taxes and Trump
… Before making significant revisions to the tax burden of most citizens, both the House and the Senate need to address the loopholes that might have relieved Donald Trump from any tax burden at all.
Let’s make America great again by ensuring that all individuals and corporations contribute to the defense and government of this country.
We voted for change, and we are watching.
Miggie Olsson
The Wall Street Journal
When work loses its dignity
Cleveland — Start with this: When you call us the Rust Belt, you demean our work and diminish who we are. To create wealth in America, we make it, we grow it or we mine it.
But over the past 40 years, as people have worked harder for less pay and fewer benefits, the value of their work has eroded. When we devalue work, we threaten the pride and dignity that come from it.
American workers understood then and understand now that you build a society and an economy from the middle class out. If President Trump takes the likely path that almost all Washington Republicans hope — tax cuts for the rich, an easing up on Wall Street, more voter suppression — Ohio workers will feel betrayed. Again. And they will respond.
Sherrod Brown
The New York Times
Can science save the world?
More than anything before it in human history, science was an approach to the world’s uncertainty that demanded results. Answers needed to be worked out in public. …
Openness, bravery, compassion: These are some of the lessons our profound success in science has taught us. As such, we can see how powerful a tool it can be in helping us forge a path toward better lives. But in the end, it’s not science that will save the world. We will have to do that for ourselves.
Adam Frank
NPR.org