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Survey indicates Americans are less optimistic

National Columnists

Gallup released 2025 survey data this month from its National Health and Well-Being Index showing a significant drop in Americans' optimism for the future. Taken from four quarterly surveys conducted last year, a total of 22,125 respondents were asked to "imagine a ladder with steps numbered from zero at the bottom to 10 at the top." They were then asked to select the number that represents where they presently stand. Slightly over 59% of those in the sample size believed their lives would be prosperous in five years. While this number may not seem disturbing at ...

We lost champion of justice

National Columnists

It seems like everyone in Chicago has a story about the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who died last week at the age of 84. Here's mine. I was a young reporter when I first talked to him, working the weekend and holiday shifts, which meant I often covered some of the bleakest stories in the newspaper. This story was among the bleakest. I had been awoken early that Christmas morning by the sound of the phone ringing. My husband answered groggily, mumbling an "I know who you are," before handing me the phone and going back to sleep. It was my editor at the newspaper calling to tell ...

1980 winning was greatest sports story told

National Columnists

Everyone who witnessed it remembers where they were. The victory of the gold-medal-winning U.S. men's hockey team over the Soviets at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York, was the greatest American sporting event of the 20th century, featuring the greatest call of all time — broadcaster Al Michaels indelibly counting down the final seconds before exclaiming, "Do you believe in miracles? ... Yes!" On the occasion of this year's Winter Olympics, Netflix has released a new documentary on the team, "Miracle: The Boys of '80." It is a story that has been off-told, but ...

Black history cannot be erased

National Columnists

This year marks the 100th anniversary of Black History Month. While we celebrate this milestone, we are also grappling with efforts to remove or revise Black history in the classroom as well as the exhibits found at federal parks and museums. But Black history cannot be erased; it is preserved because individuals and communities decide to step in. One example of this is found in Michigan, and it began with state legislation to support a celebration in 1915. The National Half Century Exposition and Lincoln Jubilee ran from Aug. 22 to Sept. 16, 1915, in Chicago. The celebration ...

America has large spending problem

National Columnists

Despite what progressives have been arguing lately, the United States does not have a tax problem. Federal revenues, even after last year's extension of the Trump tax cuts, are running above their historical average as a share of GDP. What America has is a spending problem so large that the Congressional Budget Office's latest 10-year outlook reads less like a fiscal forecast than a warning label. Between now and 2036, the CBO projects $94.6 trillion in federal spending against $70.2 trillion in revenue, a decadelong deficit of $24.4 trillion. Outlays reached 23.1% of GDP in ...

What is the value of personal freedom?

National Columnists

Recently, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which covers Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, ruled that the problem of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. is so acute and vast and the Fourth Amendment so burdensome and time-consuming that it should cut some constitutional corners. The federal judiciary is supposed to be in the business of protecting the rights of individuals from infringement by Congress or the president or the states. In this case, the court saw fit to allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, to trample the sacred American right to ...