FRAN ALEXANDER: Lost down the river
If we follow the Mississippi River's watershed to its terminus, we reach the Gulf of Mexico. Cradled by five states, this water has long suffered body blows fr…
If we follow the Mississippi River's watershed to its terminus, we reach the Gulf of Mexico. Cradled by five states, this water has long suffered body blows fr…
"We all have a responsibility to figure a better path forward. This is not a liberal or conservative issue; this is about the fabric of our humanity. It is not…
The "Lost Year"
With our country up to its nose holes in water in the east and fires burning everything in their paths in the west, to say we are distracted right now is putti…
"Artists, in a sense, are the antibodies of the cultural bloodstream. They sense trouble early, and rally to isolate and expose and defeat it, to bring to bear…
In case you, whether Democrat, Republican, Green, Libertarian or whatever, are curious how the politics in our country reached its current condition, examining…
The main thing that can go terribly wrong with realism is that it can quash idealism. Yet, all real change, hope and getting off one's hindquarters requires so…
"National parks are the best idea we ever had. Absolutely American, absolutely democratic, they reflect us at our best rather than our worst."
"When thy cup runneth over, looketh out!"
Walter Williams, a professor of economics at George Mason University, in his article "Dead Wrong," rubbed the noses of several prognosticators of environmental…
When the going gets tough, the tough get going, and no volunteer band of citizens fighting for a clean environment has worked harder, longer or more incisively…
"If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging"
One of the more innocent notions we humans want to believe is that there is fairness within our government's policies. People usually don't find out otherwise …
“There but for the grace of God go I.” — attributed to many
If there is anything abundantly clear in this morass of appointments that will adorn the palatial Trump candy store ... er ... cabinet, it's that the barons of…
The power of publicity is sometimes proven more by its absence than by its presence.
Most of us have heard, "You are what you eat." As advice to eat right to grow strong or as an admonishment for eating junk, the phrase has proved useful for se…
"For the want of a nail the shoe was lost. For the want of a shoe the horse was lost. For the want of a horse the rider was lost. For the want of a rider the b…
"We say 'mni wiconi': Water is life."
"The sky is falling, the sky is falling!" screamed Chicken Little in a childhood morality tale written long before nuclear fall-out, air pollution, climate cha…
"You've got to be an optimist to be a Democrat, and you've got to be a humorist to stay one."
It’s not easy being green.”— Kermit the Frog Survival in the wild, or in cities for that matter, is not easy for animals or humans. To make matters even harder…
In our household, during the kid-raising years, a system evolved regarding things no longer wanted.
A fairly common insult is to call someone "batty" or "bat-brained," and we refer to erratic and irresponsible speeders as driving like "bats out of hell." Hall…
"The story of the tree is there if you'll listen to it."
When diverse backgrounds meet over a shared issue, especially in a microcosm the size of our state, gatherings can run hot and cold, but are important for figu…
"The World Conservation Union has estimated that 12 percent of all bird species are threatened with extinction because of habitat loss and invasive species."
"Standing on the corner watching all the cars go by," keeps repeating in my head. OK, I know the Dean Martin song was about watching girls, not cars, but Dean …
You must be the change you wish to see in the world.
"It's a corporate world," is a phrase often muttered more in frustration than fear, especially since the United States Supreme Court declared corporations to b…
"I urgently appeal for a new dialogue about how we are shaping the future of our planet. We need a conversation which includes everyone."
Our town recently lost two humans who accomplished amazing feats and left us far better off than had they not been with us, two whom I would classify as unsung…
In just the past few months, one shocking reversal after another has occurred on the environmental front. Most of these turning points on issues have been brou…
Some sort of lulled assumption settles over us as a society when it comes to realizing how things get done. For example, most of our lives are spent utilizing …
Alone in the living room with a book, and fully believing she was actually reading to her toys, my 2-year-old granddaughter unknowingly summed up our human rel…
One of the best things about being 90 is saying what you want, eating what you want and doing what you want, according to my friend, Verda Combs. She says the …
" Mama exhorted her children at every opportunity to 'jump at the sun.' We might not land on the sun, but at least we would get off the ground."
You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.
"Clean up your mess!" said our parents as we were growing up and developing skills (or not) of personal responsibility. When we became adults with our own home…
There's something very curious about the human species that certainly defies what living creatures are supposedly born with, the instinct to survive. Whether t…
Whenever politicians migrate back to the capital city, the citizenry of our fair state needs to be reminded of the old saw, "Nothing is safe while the legislat…
Imagine this scene: fierce, gigantic monsters, aliens, robots, transformers and invaders of recent horror movie fame standing in a line of self-defense opposit…
"Maybe Christmas, he thought, means a little bit more."
It is often said, "The business of business is business." Our job in the general population is to decide when business should mind its own business and not our…
Once again that dangerous season has arrived.
For 48 years I've lived in a mixed marriage. My husband is a math/physics person, and I am an English/humanities person, but we cross over on an as-needed basi…
"I am probably the wrong person to be organizing this, but no one else seemed to be doing it, so here I am," said Edward Hejtmanek of Fayetteville after discov…
"... and a little child shall lead them."
Confessions are good for the soul, or so I've heard, so I'll admit that in the past I have usually voted for the commissioner of state lands more in a partisan…
Providence -- noun; the foreseeing care and guidance of God or nature over the creatures of the earth.