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Americans fail to understand rarity of liberty around world

This well-known rhetorical flourish at the beginning of the Declaration of Independence needs closer consideration. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness,” it states. Look through history and you’ll find little evidence that most people experienced these self-evident truths. Until the West led the way in abolishing it, slavery was an accepted historical institution. Notre Dame Professor Keith Bradley once ...

Ohio business prosperity not getting to all corners yet

Gov. Mike DeWine and Lt. Gov. Jim Tressel took a victory lap of sorts after CNBC said Ohio is the No. 1 state for business, with a nine-stop “Heart of Opportunity Tour” that wrapped in Springfield at the National Advanced Air Mobility Center of Excellence. Other stops were in Cleveland, Youngstown, Toledo, Lima, Piketon, Middletown, Columbus and Cincinnati. Regarding his stop in Springfield, DeWine said. “The investments we’re making in aviation infrastructure, workforce, research and innovation are creating an environment that’s allowing companies to build the future of ...

Thank you, Dolly, for your music, humor, public service

Since imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, I am told, I was not surprised to hear Dolly Parton say in an interview that she once entered a “Dolly Parton lookalike” drag queen contest in Los Angeles unannounced — and lost. Parton, who died a week ago today at age 80, enjoyed telling that story, which illustrated, among other things, that it wasn’t always easy to be Dolly, even for Dolly. “Nobody applauded,” she said in a May 2025 radio interview, “like a little trickle that was probably David, my hairdresser.” Go figure. Maybe she looked too much like the ...

Trump’s foolhardy conflict with inoffensive ally

President Trump’s tariffs aren’t popular, but he’s found a way to make them even less so — a trade war with America’s most inoffensive ally. When one thinks of countries that deserve to be subjected to a steady stream of insults (it’s Lake America now, not Lake Ontario) and a punishing regime of tariffs, Canada is far down the list. Ottawa has been a loyal, if occasionally annoying, friend of the United States for nearly 100 years. The presence of a well-meaning country with similar values along the 5,000-mile border to our north is a gigantic geostrategic blessing, ...

180th Canfield Fair basks in deserved national spotlight

Longtime residents of the Mahoning Valley have recognized for decades that the Canfield Fair truly is something to crow about. Now, however, its proud blue-ribbon status has been shouted out for the entire nation and world to recognize. A recent issue of Business View, a national and international digital magazine, featured the upcoming 180th Canfield Fair as its featured profile of May 2026 with a 10-page color-illustrated spread. It rightfully trumpeted Canfield’s status as the largest county fair in the Buckeye State, the third largest in the nation and for the whopping $30 ...

Groups must rebuild trust

In April 2020, San Clemente, Calif., dumped 37 tons of sand into a skate park to keep teenagers out of it. Down the coast, deputies arrested a man for paddle boarding alone in the Pacific Ocean. Towns unbolted basketball rims. The mayor of Los Angeles told Angelenos that snitches get rewards, and, God help us, people snitched. Then Gavin Newsom went to dinner at The French Laundry. All that explains two fights now burning down county commission meetings, fights that look like they have nothing to do with COVID: data centers and Flock cameras. In March 2020, Americans closed their ...