As I watch and listen to tech-sector representatives answer questions from Senators about Russian trolls, Facebook advertising, and fake profiles, I am reminded of something from the early days of the Internet. In 1993, Peter Steiner published a now-famous cartoon in The New Yorker . You probably have seen it. The cartoon depicts two dogs sitting in front of a computer. One of the dogs turns to his companion and says, rather smugly: “On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.” What the cartoon

A quiz question: What are 74 million Lutherans around the world celebrating this year? The answer: 500 years ago, Martin Luther started a major “Reformation” of the medieval Church by posting 95 “Theses,” or debate points, about unbiblical church practices. The tipping point that led this scholarly but lowly monk to stand up against the powerful Church in Rome was when the representatives of the Pope started selling “indulgences” – a strategy to raise money for the cathedral in Rome by

Across our nation, municipal, county and state governments struggle year after year to balance their budgets, using the same old tools to meet this challenge: raise taxes, take on more debt, cut vital services, layoff or ask for employee givebacks. Almost always these choices subtract from economic prosperity. History shows that a public bank would add to our economic prosperity. The historical model I speak of is the nearly 100-year-old public Bank of North Dakota. As a result, North Dakota has

Metaphorically speaking, the rural towns that make up north-central and northwest Illinois are pleading for all of us to turn off our computers, tablets, and smartphones this holiday shopping season. As citizens of our communities, we play a very powerful role in whether our towns prosper or diminish. One of the worst things we can do is not support our local retail sector because we buy most gifts online. This past week, Book World closed shops in DeKalb and Sterling. Just a few months ago, JC

There has been a rash of shooting incidents in DeKalb the last few weeks. On Halloween night, a woman was shot in the leg while driving in front of University Village. These acts of senseless violence are disturbing and angering at the same time. Thankfully the injuries are concerned non-life-threatening and the victim should recover. Because of the proximity of the shootings and ethnicity of some of the perpetrators, it’s become common to blame Section 8 and all African-American residents for

In the world of marketing, there’s an old joke about a dog food manufacturer who decided to put the finest ingredients into his product only to find that its sales plummeted … because the dogs didn’t like it. And that’s entirely on the manufacturer, who deserves to lose money. That brings us to the American voter. The political media constantly report on this election strategy and that one in order to win over the American voter. The losing candidate, it’s said, lost because he or she didn’t

The next two meetings of the DeKalb School Board will deal with a recent report recommending a district diversity plan to help ease racial tensions. Those tensions have been building for a long time, escalating last year after an incident at the high school. The report is the work of faculty from Northern Illinois University and Western Illinois University, who were commissioned by the board to study the situation. They conducted surveys and focus groups with students, parents, teachers, and

What’s in a name? Often when walking across campus, I will see a student I had years ago. I remember where he sat in the classroom, what time the class was, things he said in class discussions, and the exact topic of his major paper. But I won’t remember his name. This lone omission will be hurtful, even if it’s literally the only thing I can’t remember about this person is whether he’s called Tommy or Derrick or whatever. I’ve gone past trying to figure out why it’s so hard to remember names to

There are certain go-to phrases we adopt to thoughtlessly express a given moment. A way we say hello. A word when we hit every green light. A muttering when the dog tracks in mud. Mostly my go-to phrases are pretty tame. But three years ago, one of my phrases of frustration suddenly became tasteless. These words, never serious, often triggered polite smiles. They simply were meant to be a humorous release. I just was blowing steam, not thinking about other people’s lives. I hadn’t considered how

Only a red streak remained on the western horizon. A cold breeze tugged at my ragged coat collar. From a distance, a soft warm yellow light came through the kitchen window. Inside, my mother was standing at the stove preparing supper. My father turned another section of soil over, and I knelt on the damp earth picking potatoes out of the loose dirt. I was 8 or 9. Each year in the autumn, at the time of the first frost, my father came to the back door after being in the field all day. He held an