Author: Op-Ed

Today marks the beginning of a new year. It was traditionally a moment reserved for hope, renewal, and forward-looking resolutions. But for many Americans, the arrival of 2025 feels less like a celebration and more like the crossing of an ominous threshold. Gone is the pervasive sense of crisis that marked the first days of previous new years. No sudden spike in COVID-19 cases that killed millions of Americans, no missile strikes raining down on the people of Kyiv, no earthquake shattering the calm of Japan’s towns and cities. Yet the absence of such catastrophes does little to counterbalance...

Once upon a Tuesday … there was a schoolhouse in a small rural town where some young children spent their time learning in class, while others goofed around at play. Every morning semi-trucks would roar by the schoolhouse without regard to the speed limit or the safety of the students. It would vibrate and shake for most of the day. Some parents had complained that the big trucks should be rerouted to another road to protect the children. Other parents complained that re-directing traffic would slow the transport of goods and hold back the progress of the local economy....