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Lesson for Americans from World Cup

The World Cup showed why you shouldn’t be ashamed of America’s heroes and heritage. While only Argentina and Spain made the World Cup final, citizens of many countries enthusiastically cheered on their teams. Norwegian fans became an internet phenomenon for their “Viking Row” cheer. Sitting like they were in a longboat, fans moved their bodies backwards and forwards in unison while pretending to row. To complete the cheer, they chanted, “Ro!” They rowed in stadiums and Times Square. The Norwegian soccer team rowed after defeating Senegal. Norway’s soccer team embraced ...

Orchids & onions

ORCHID: To Canfield-based Troop 25 of Scouting America, formerly Boy Scouts of America, for robustly enduring the test of time with their ongoing successes in youth and community development. The troop last weekend celebrated its 100th anniversary with a festive picnic at Canfield Presbyterian Church. Members and former members gathered to share in the great history of the troop and the lasting contributions its Eagle Scout members have made in community improvements over the decades. We salute past and present troopers for the stellar wilderness and leadership skills they have acquired ...

Resolve all challenges for successful merger of high schools in city

A new and exciting era is about to dawn on the Youngstown City Schools. In a little more than one month, the urban school system that once boasted 24,000 students and six traditional high schools will be reduced to just one unified high school. Considering the district has witnessed a nearly six-fold decline in enrollment over the past five decades to about 4,500 students today, the major merger decision made 14 months ago makes eminently good sense on both academic and financial fronts. Nonetheless, this approaching consolidation brings with it a fair share of gnawing challenges. ...

Who are our domestic enemies?

The oath is a familiar one. The president and vice president take it, as do members of Congress and many other high government officials. It requires the oath taker to defend the Constitution “against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” We can identify many of America’s foreign enemies, but what about domestic ones? Now that the Democratic Socialists of America have published their platform, it appears they would qualify as a domestic enemy of the Constitution. If they achieved power they would, to quote the stated goal of former President Barack Obama, “fundamentally ...

Americans are free to be suckers

Many of today’s consumer loans are legal but abusive. Payday lenders and used car sellers often steer customers into costly contracts they barely understand. Low-income borrowers with jobs, and therefore, dependable cash flow to siphon off, are favored targets. Sure, there’s a sucker born every minute, as P.T. Barnum allegedly said. But now we have a federal government that’s gone backward in providing protection from predators just as they adopt sophisticated technology to ply their craft. Criminals now use AI to generate fake images and scrub their pitches of misspellings ...

What the latest wave of neo-Nazis says about us

On July 4, the nation’s 250th anniversary, a mysterious group of young men in khaki pants, navy blue shirts, logoed baseball caps and white face masks surfaced in the capital, marching out of a downtown Metro subway station and into the news. By now they look oddly familiar, part of the menagerie of uniformed street brawlers and torch-carriers that emerged in the tumultuous first term of President Donald Trump. And there are unsavory historical echoes as well. Though smaller in number, the neo-Nazis in the capital brought to mind the 1925 parade down Pennsylvania Avenue by ...