Posted Fri, Nov 11, 10:32 a.m.

The Australian Maritim Museum in Sydney mounted a poignant exhibit focused on this historic migration in January 2011. I had the great good fortune to see it. Thees immigrant children's stories were presented via photographs and text. Most moving were the recordings of interviews with them made in preparation for ...

Posted Sat, Aug 20, 11:10 a.m.

Hats off to whomever chose the photo accompanying this fine article. Both are superb.

Posted Mon, Aug 1, 11:20 a.m.

It is so lovely to hear Richard Lattimore's name mentioned. Brings back memories of past Augusts spent reading in the heat about great struggles on the rocky hills of Greece. Ah, August in Greece: where some of the finest tomatoes in the world might be found. Thank you.

Posted Sat, Jul 30, 11:12 a.m.

Brilliant! Love the un-distilled, unfiltered humor of it all. Toasting you with a glass of, what else, Spada Lake water. And looking forward, bravely, to eating and drinking what is put before me, even in Everett.

Posted Mon, Jul 4, 4:10 p.m.

I think most Americans would welcome a more nimble, accountable, and transparent national government. At least two features of the British version of parliamentary government, both of them absent from our system, champion such citizens' interests: the weekly appearance (in the House of Commons) by the chief executive (Prime MInister) ...

Posted Sun, Jul 3, 12:56 a.m.

Did they at least get their coffee in to-go cups?

Posted Sun, Jul 3, 12:32 a.m.

I'm newly arrived from the upper Midwest where the weather can kill you or drive you mad--winter brings blizzards, winds and cold straight from the arctic, terrifying tornadoes punctuate spring, summer is marked by suffocating clouds of mosquitoes and sweltering heat, and fall? Well, some years you tumble from summer ...

Posted Thu, Jun 23, 10:56 a.m.

If I understand correctly, eliminating a VACANT position means it no longer exists, thereby trimming the number of employees allocated to the department from which the position was lost. It is the same thing as DOWNSIZING, a term more commonly used in the private sector to describe a practice typically ...

Posted Thu, Jun 23, 10:50 a.m.

My first invitation to join a flash mob: Thank you!

Posted Tue, Jun 21, 10:11 a.m.

Nice piece, Ms. Alberg. I was wondering: Did you consider what, if anything, this new project might mean for Daybreak Star Cultural Center in Discovery Park?

Posted Mon, Jun 20, 11:57 a.m.

What an exquisite, heart-rending, brave piece of writing. Thank you, Crosscut, for running it again, thus giving newer readers, like me, a chance to see and marvel at it.

Posted Fri, Jun 17, 9:43 a.m.

Thanks for "ringin' bells" (Paul Revere-style) on this, Judy. Interesting thing, generosity is. Like love, it is subject, I believe, to Jane Austen's insight: "Multiplying harbors do not diminish the sea." See you on the Wave!

Posted Mon, May 30, 7:11 p.m.

Where grown men kiss fish.

Posted Fri, May 27, 7:54 a.m.

Fabulous news! As sweet a sight as the Seattle sun!

Posted Thu, May 5, 3:04 p.m.

I think perfectly ordinary people are capable of the most extraordinary wisdom. Mistaken attribution of a thoughtful idea does not rob it of merit. Similarly, a foolish statement from a prominent person does not transform it into wisdom.

Posted Wed, May 4, 7:13 a.m.

Thx 4 a gr8t piece. LOL

Posted Wed, May 4, 6:40 a.m.

Excellent piece. Arresting image.

Posted Tue, May 3, 10:28 a.m.

Mr Lukoff, Thank you for the correction. Must say, it still captures my sentiments.

Posted Tue, May 3, 10 a.m.

I offered MLK's remark simply as a reminder that OBL's death is itself a deeply layered event. I would agree that, in absolute terms, there is less evil in the world now that he is dead. But the manner of his death, the horror of the suffering resulting from his ...

Posted Tue, May 3, 6:58 a.m.

?"I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy." - Martin Luther King, Jr

Posted Sun, May 1, 3:09 p.m.

Mr Brewster, May I say I am completely delighted to have won such a lovely prize from Crosscut. Thank you! Makes my opportunity to move to Seattle seem all the more promising.

Posted Fri, Apr 29, 9:59 a.m.

Done, happily. As JFK's campaign manager reportedly said, "vote early and vote often!"

Posted Mon, Apr 25, 9:52 a.m.

Welcome back! We missed you. Come on it, pull up a chair, put your feet up and tell us all about it.

Posted Wed, Apr 20, 7:24 a.m.

I am a long time admirer of Wendell Berry and very much like your insight, "Yet there’s nothing soft or sentimental about Berry’s writing." I think what you say is true. HIs writing is not sentimental or soft because his love of the land is not sentimental or soft. Instead, ...

Posted Fri, Apr 15, 2:56 p.m.

As a dear friend of mine once remarked, "no goats, no glory!"

Posted Tue, Apr 12, 7:09 a.m.

Although I did not have the pleasure of knowing Vivian McClean, I would wager she might have had a response to the final sentence in this lovely essay by Kent Kammerer: "There is no trying, there is only doing."

Posted Mon, Apr 11, 8:22 p.m.

Mr. Brewster, does the subject of this essay fall within the subject matter of Crosscut's Citizen Activation Project?

Posted Fri, Apr 8, 8:40 a.m.

Discouraging news about the death of the "Cultural Access Fund." Denver's Botanical Garden, for example, which benefits from a similar funding scheme, exhibited a huge number of Henry Moore's sculptures from the spring of 2010 until early 2011 to great critical and popular acclaim. A few of Moore's pieces were ...

Posted Thu, Apr 7, 2:33 p.m.

Good thing I don't drink.

Posted Thu, Apr 7, 1:50 p.m.

Even if BlueLights examples are credible, and I have no knowledge of that one way or the other, I nevertheless do not think the presence few allegedly rotten apples means most barrels of apples are necessarily spoiled. I believe Mr. Conlin's central premise has signal merit: the quality of public ...

Posted Sat, Mar 12, 6:53 a.m.

What a lovely excursion from the printed word this audio piece and Judy LIghtfoot's video essay last fall about a picniking flock of mail carriers provide(d) your readers. Although Crosscut's content is uniformly lively, thoughtful and worthwhile, I would wager many of your readers enjoy a periodic dash of media ...

Posted Sat, Mar 12, 6:13 a.m.

This piece harmonizes beautifully with a sign, wise on many levels, taped to the wall of Wisconsin's capitol last week: "Bust a move, not a union." Indeed.

Posted Fri, Feb 25, 7:52 p.m.

I cannot speak for the union leadership, but union folk I know are not opposed to paying an amount for health care insurance or into pension funds equivalent to the amount paid by private sector folk who have access to such benefits. I think the central issue for those protesting ...

Posted Fri, Feb 25, 2:19 p.m.

Writing from Madison, I would like to add a few comments to Mr. Brewster's thoughtful essay. The apparent single mindedness of the Wisconsin Republican Party's desire to end collective bargaining is heightened by Mr. Walker's wish, I believe, to use his time as governor to audition for higher office. As ...

Posted Sat, Feb 12, 12:03 p.m.

This piece nicely raises a troubling question: what is our social contract in the United States? Speaking in the broadest possible terms, it seems we are content to allow the super wealthy to build estates unimaginable without society's active participation, for example, through its most powerful tool: the federal tax ...

Posted Tue, Feb 8, 1:06 p.m.

The New Yorker recently ran an article, "Social Animal" by David Brooks (yes, that David Brooks) that contains a passage relevant to themes in Ms Lighfoot's article: "The young achievers are tutored in every soccer technique and calculus problem, but when it comes to their most important decisions--whom to marry ...

Posted Fri, Dec 17, 8:27 a.m.

Fabulous to hear that young people are engaged and speaking out in poetry, the first language of human freedom. Thank you, Crosscut, for putting such important but rarely reported news on your homepage!

Posted Tue, Dec 14, 11:05 a.m.

Mr. Brewster, I find Crosscut's desire to cultivate and encourage citizen contributors in Seattle refreshing, even bracing . The idealism of the vision is undeniable. It raises images in my mind of the duties of civic engagement taken for granted in ancient Athens (at least among emancipated males). Fast forwarding ...

Posted Tue, Nov 30, 8:17 a.m.

Thank you for this most lovely piece. I am so pleased that Crosscut's editors view poetry to be of sufficient importance to merit an article on the paper's "front page." Reading this article is a wonderful start to the day, despite the grief and loss described. Because no matter how ...

Posted Mon, Nov 15, 5:59 a.m.

I'm fairly certain George Szell would approve. Lisa

Posted Sun, Nov 14, 8:37 a.m.

I fear that should President Obama take the Post's advice, Republicans will declare his presidency DOA and harden further against him and his ideas for the next two years. Democrats, on the other hand, would be thrown into a state of chaos with little clarity of purpose beyond scrambling to ...

Posted Sun, Nov 14, 6:35 a.m.

Deb, Yes, I would guess that there is broad agreement that intergenerational equity is as important as other kinds of economic fairness. How to do it is the rub, isn't it? As for David's proposal (I almost lost sight of it as we drilled down on pension issues!), I heartily ...

Posted Fri, Nov 12, 1:42 p.m.

Deb, Thank you for your note. I wonder if this particular horse is out of the barn. In other words, private pensions aren't coming back anytime soon. As you and David point out, taxpayers facing significant challenges close to home would understandably be less than enthusiastic about supporting a compensation ...

Posted Fri, Nov 12, 10:58 a.m.

David, Thank you for your prompt response to my short note. Please bear with me as I mull over you two points. Your first point seems to be that public pensions rest on too-optimistic assumptions about investment returns. In contrast, your second point seems to suggest that the whole notion ...

Posted Thu, Nov 11, 6 a.m.

David, I notice that you refer with frequency to the burden of public pension obligations in a wide variety of your pieces on public policy and the state's economic health. I have formed the impression that you view such a burden as largely unreasonable. If that impression is correct, I ...

Posted Mon, Oct 11, 1:32 p.m.

Your new address seems most fitting as Crosscut appears to be striking out as a pioneer itself, exploring the possibility that it can both reach and expand a civil marketplace of ideas, with as broad an array of products as Pike's Place and with similar high spirits. May Crosscut live ...

Posted Fri, Oct 8, 5:42 a.m.

Great piece, Knute. I, too, am happily, actively non-religious, yet found myself taking the Pew religion test to see just how well I am informed on a subject about which I actively profess my doubt. Like you, I scored 14 out of 15 correct, missing only the final (trick) question. ...

Posted Tue, Oct 5, 2:55 p.m.

Brilliantly vivid bit of writing. Has the richness and cadence of a prose poem. Lovely!

Posted Wed, Sep 22, 2:43 p.m.

I regularly read papers from the US, UK, Australia, India and elsewhere. But I never miss the daily pleasure that Crosscut brings. The lovely freedom and passion of its writers is evident without Knute Berger telling us (his readers) so. We already know--we recognize the freedom and passion in its ...

Posted Sat, Aug 14, 12:54 p.m.

Like Quinn, I look forward to a follow-up article to this "very good start." Joe Copeland's report offers a vigorous introduction to two issues: (1) the important question of whether animals at Woodland Park Zoo lead a good quality life; and (2) worries attendant to a zoo leadership, like the ...

Posted Thu, Aug 5, 9:57 a.m.

I found this article immensely moving. One part in particular caught my attention: the apparent freedom felt by certain friends and acquaintances of the author to hurtfully judge his decision to move his wife into an assisted living arrangement. I am puzzled by his friends' lack of imaginative sympathy, their ...