Opinion

I’ve talked about it before in this space: that you, dear reader, are forcing my profession and your newspaper to re-examine just about everything.

It is the biggest game in town. Not here in the middle of Middle America, but in Oakmont, Pa., just outside of Pittsburgh. We host the Special Olympics, the Show Me Games and Senior Games, but they are nothing compared to the biggest citizen tournament in the United States — the United States Golf Association’s 2007 Open.

Illegal immigration has grown out of control and the federal government seems unable or unwilling to help.

Memorandum to Mayor Darwin Hindman: Please lose the notion of appointment of a citizen review board to exercise oversight of the Columbia Police Department. This is an extremely bad idea, the application of which will cure nothing but create a problem that does not exist.

Some people insist that it will take a major tragedy to unite Americans because we’re divided by so many issues in so many ways. I hope that’s not true. It would be good if we could unite around a good idea. I believe if we could get a law passed making it illegal for candidates running for national office to accept or spend more than $50,000 for a single political campaign we could begin to repair the damage caused by the political divisiveness. For one thing, this would make it totally unnecessary for candidates to have to sell their souls to lobbyists in order to get elected.

Our university’s Board of Curators hasn’t managed, as far as I know, to hire a new president yet; but it has given us a perfect demonstration of the evils of excessive secrecy.

The easiest part of being a journalism professor may be teaching. The toughest part is trying to figure out what journalism will look like when our students are my age.

What do you like to read? I always want to know. I ask my friends. I ask my students. Their choices help me get to know them better. But I’m also looking for that next great read. Personal recommendations are more honest than dust jacket quotes. So I peppered friends and family with e-mails for suggestions for a summer book list. They came up with wonderful choices.

Unlike most of you, my experience with Columbia Regional Airport is not limited to the Veteran’s Salute Air Show and trying to catch a ride on Mesa Air to St. Louis or Kansas City. As of May 16, I am the newest member of the Airport Advisory Board. It says so on the Certificate of Commission signed by Darwin.

Columbians need to be aware of the following facts regarding the biolab which the Department of Homeland Security is considering locating in Columbia.

Had a little time on my hands the other day. So I thought I’d think a little about time. It’s a fascinating subject and one that will frustrate what little gray matter you might have. Funny. I had never thought about time before. So I tried to force myself to say what time is. Or what it was or what it will be.

This is the time of year that most proves the wisdom of my choice to make Columbia our retirement home as the weather begins to mirror the hospitality of its citizens.

Congress, apparently content to explore ever new depths in public disapproval, is on the verge of having a single member derail the most meaningful reform in years of the federal Freedom of Information Act.

A friend recently visited relatives in a Southern city, and he was impressed with the way the folks he stayed with clung to their family traditions. He was particularly struck by how the entire family gathered at the breakfast and dinner table, morning and evening, every day for meals and conversation. This was not common practice among his friends.

President Walsworth and members of the Board of Curators:

As you consider who to select as the new UM president, I suggest you consider the primary, if not only, job the new president will have and, accordingly, the primary, if not only, criterion for selection — to create a university system. The UM system exists in name only. Virtually no effort has been expended since the system was created in the early ’60s to create a real system.

Missourians should be very concerned about the impact of this anti-prevention, anti-sex-education bill, HB 1055.

Today’s discussion is about immigration, migration and even remigration. These issues are a great part of the current debate about immigration reform in the U.S. Congress. We’d like to put some perspective on that debate.