Byron McNutt - Vilas County News-Review
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  • America’s cultural battles intensify

    A SIZABLE SEGMENT of Americans are obsessed with our country’s past when they should be laser-focused on the future where we face growing, threatening challenges. Many are asking “Is pride in America a thing of the past?”
    America’s past wasn’t perfect. We can’t, and
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  • Personal philosophies of men, women

    I CAME ACROSS the following article titled “Believe” about 20 years ago. There are numerous essays with the same theme and most are shared without accreditation. The poem has inspired many people. It sums up many of life’s challenges. See if you agree.
    I believe that
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  • Is it moral to routinely break rules?

    WHAT PERCENTAGE OF your fellow Americans do you believe are honest and trustworthy? When you read various reports about the number of people gaming the system in one way or another, the percentage may raise doubt about our strength of character.
    Honest people are
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  • Have you ever been broke and hungry?

    AMERICANS JUST CELEBRATED Independence Day so this is a good time to wonder what tens of millions of legal and illegal immigrants truly think about America’s culture, history and traditional holidays such as Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Memorial, Labor and Presidents days.
    Immigration is a divisive topic for many Americans. But
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  • Words of hope heard around the world

    THE DECLARATION OF Independence has been described as the birth certificate of the American nation, the first public document ever to use the name the United States of America, and has been fundamental to American history longer than any other text.
    It enshrined what came to be seen as the most
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  • Valuing your name, image and likeness

    Nearly every state has introduced some sort of legislation that legalizes college athletes to earn compensation from the use of their name, image and likeness (NIL). In fact, many states have already passed and signed those bills into law. They are known as NIL laws.
    Profiting off name, image and likeness would allow student-athletes to
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  • Life lessons learned from our fathers

    SONORA SMART WAS one of six children. When she was still very young, her mother died. Smart and her five brothers were raised by their father, William Smart, a veteran of the Civil War.
    In 1909, Sonora Smart got the idea for Father’s Day. She
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  • Is their democracy the same as ours?

    DEMOCRATS ARE PLAYING a dangerous game by toying with the judiciary, said liberal Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer. It would be a bad idea to turn the Supreme Court into a super legislature. Adding justices by packing the court would undermine the court’s legitimacy with
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  • Are you ready for the Roaring ’20s?

    ARCHAEOLOGICAL BOOKS HAVE documented the advances made during the Stone, Bronze and Iron ages. Someday soon, historians will fascinate our children and grandchildren with tales and anecdotes about the age of the baby boomers.
    That generation will hardly be remembered when compared to
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  • For love of country our heroes died

    MEMORIAL DAY IS a time to honor those men and women who fought bravely and made the greatest sacrifice one can make to defend liberty: their lives. In all, more than 1.2 million Americans have died in wars since our country was founded.
    Too often we take for granted the ideals for which our ancestors fought. It
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  • Don’t make excuses, embrace your gift

    AMY CHUA, AN author and professor at Yale Law School, offered this advice to her graduate students: “Everything precious in my life is something I was almost too scared to do.”
    “Keep trying hard things and
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  • Save the planet with cultivated meats

    HOW DOES THIS sound? You’re dining at a five-star restaurant that is offering you a gourmet buffet featuring prime rib of beef, roast turkey, honey-glazed ham, broasted chicken and a variety of barbecued meats. It’s a feast fit for kings.
    We know the world is changing. Would you feel any different if
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  • Parable about sacrifices of motherhood

    WITH MOTHER’S DAY this Sunday, I’d like to share with you an essay titled, “A Parable of Motherhood,” written in 1933 by the late Temple Bailey, an American author and short story writer. This parable first appeared in Good Housekeeping magazine.
    “The young mother set her foot on the path of life. ‘Is this the long way?’ she
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  • Gumperson’s common life mysteries

    GUMPERSON’S LAW ACCOUNTS for the fact that you can throw a burnt match out the window of your speeding car and start a forest fire, while you can use two boxes of matches and an entire edition of this newspaper without being able to start a fire under the dry logs in your fireplace.
    Gumperson served as a consultant to the armed services during World War II and evolved the procedure whereby the more a recruit knew about a certain subject, the better chance he had of receiving an assignment involving some other vital skill.
    The law, stated simply, is that the contradiction
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  • Emerging technologies fuel growth

    THE WORLD’S AUTOMOTIVE industry is pivoting to electric vehicles at breakneck speed to meet new emissions requirements and rushing to establish the vast infrastructure from battery factories to charging networks, needed to sustain the growing market.
    There is a fervor for
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  • What is a free and fair election?

    ELECTIONS ARE THE essence of democracy. They allow people to select their political leaders and then, to hold them accountable. Standards must be set to define what is ideal. Most countries meet those standards imperfectly. Thus, the devil is in the details.
    A free election is
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  • Behold, no one is getting younger

    AS WE GET older, it’s remarkable how many crises we have lived through that we were too innocent to recognize at the time. Anxiety begins with the power to grasp and comprehend what is obscure.
    Want to be obsolete without anxiety? Just
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  • Could crypto tokens get outlawed?

    DO YOU UNDERSTAND the fascination and legitimacy given to bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies? I would be very suspicious about something most people don’t understand because cryptos are volatile and speculative.
    Bitcoins are
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  • Our frustration has taken many forms

    HAS THE PAST year of the COVID-19 pandemic and the related civil unease got you frustrated? Have events caused mood changes, irritation, resentment, depression or feelings of exasperation?
    You’re not alone. The past year has disrupted the lives and
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  • Irish honoree’s tenets for success

    THE LATE ROBERT Gallagher once said “A true leader is a student of people. Each individual has his own different temperament. Handling this requires study, tact and knowledge. No one size fits all in handling people.”
    Gallagher’s distinguished career earned him many honors by
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  • Some challenges are cleverly disguised

    WHAT WOULD OUR lives be like without challenges? A person’s greatest strength develops at the point where they overcome their greatest weakness.
    What we do when confronted with these challenges has a lot to do with how we perceive our place in the world. We can face the challenges or we can
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  • Seniors: green before green was hip

    IT’S NO SURPRISE the world is changing in this era of social media. There’s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google and Apple. There is a striking disconnect from generation to generation. Here’s an example of “The Green Thing.”
    In the grocery store checkout line, before the pandemic, the
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  • Why so much dislike for Americans?

    AS THE WORLD has grown smaller, more volatile and unstable, how the United States is perceived by the rest of the world has taken on new importance.
    With about 330 million people, the United States represents
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  • Wise counsel from past presidents

    THEODORE ROOSEVELT SAID “This country will not be a good place for any of us to live in if it is not a reasonably good place for all of us to live in.”
    Presidents Day, which we celebrated Feb. 15, officially honors the birthday of George Washington, which is Feb. 22. But the holiday also commemorates all past presidents of the United States including
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  • There is no limit to aging humor

    I’M AT THAT age where my mind still thinks I’m 29, my humor suggests I’m 45, while my body mostly keeps asking if I’m not dead yet. Old friend Arnie DeLuca said “There is no limit to aging humor.” He sent me this list of interesting and perhaps true thoughts on our now older age.
    For example, you don’t realize how old you are until
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  • What’s the limit for believability?

    ARE YOU THE type of person who sees a sign that says “Don’t touch this bench, the paint is wet,” and you go ahead and touch it to make sure the paint is really wet?
    Maybe you are inclined to
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  • How to live a happier financial life

    DID YOU KNOW that the average 65-year-old American will live an additional 19.3 years? One in four will reach age 92, according to the National Center for Health. That can be good news for some people and bad news for others. Are you financially prepared to live to age 85?
    Six years ago, Jonathan Clements, a financial columnist for the Wall Street Journal, thought back over his career and
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  • Penn sees path for agreement, unity

    AS THE COUNTRY prepares for the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris administration to take over the leadership of our government this week, it’s interesting to note what Mark Penn had to say about the disposition of the American people. We need to support the new government and be open to new ideas if we are to unite for
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  • Student debt plans face scrutiny

    ARE YOU ONE of the 43 million Americans saddled with student-loan debt? Maybe you owe $40,000 and your financial situation is such that you struggle just to pay the interest on the loan. In fact, you have other loans to pay and the burden is overwhelming.
    Now, let’s say the Joe Biden administration is
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  • We need uniform voting standards

    THE USE OF absentee ballots exploded during the pandemic. Does this foretell how we’re going to see state and national elections play out in the future? Should we expect this phenomenon to happen again in 2022 and ’24?
    More than
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  • Promises to keep for a special 2021

    IT’S THAT TIME of year again to make your New Year’s resolutions. For those seeking a challenge, here are a few goals to set for yourself. Start 2021 by promising yourself:
    • To be strong, so that
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  • O. Henry’s classic Christmas love story

    IT WAS CHRISTMAS Eve day and poor Della Young counted her money. She had just $1.87 to buy her beloved husband a Christmas present. Much of the money consisted of pennies she had scrimped and saved for months by skillfully dickering with the grocer, butcher and vegetable man. But it would clearly not be enough. Della was
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  • Adults are lucky, teens get no help

    ADOLESCENCE IS A mental illness when it happens to anybody but a teenager. In a 30-year-old, for instance, a state of adolescence is called a nervous breakdown. This was an observation made in 1982, by Bob Myers, the eccentric owner of The County Press in Lapeer, Mich. Myers wrote a column under the pen name of
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  • Biden: unite, pull together to heal

    IT HAS NOW been five weeks since the presidential election. Time to reflect and put things into perspective. Whether your candidates won or not, we should all want the new Joe Biden administration and our country in general to succeed. We need to believe the sun will shine again in America.
    President-elect Biden has
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  • Ready or not, I’m a septuagenarian

    THERE COMES A time in everyone’s life when you know all the answers, but nobody asks you the questions. I pulled off my 70th birthday Dec. 1. The crossing of that milestone was almost effortless and went amazingly fast. And as many birthdays prior to this one, it was basically uneventful.
    What do you consider milestone birthdays in your life? Was it 16, 21, 30, 50 or 65? Maybe it
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  • Giving thanks alters our behavior

    SHOW YOUR GRATITUDE this Thanksgiving. Researchers say it is good for your health. Expressing gratitude improves cardiovascular strength, sleep quality and more, according to Robert Emmons, a psychologist at the University of California, Davis.
    “Gratitude enhances performance in
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  • How do we tackle income inequality?

    INCOME INEQUALITY CONTINUES to grow in many countries including 20 out of 29 advanced economies. Wealth is significantly more unevenly distributed than income worldwide. This has many people very concerned for the future of America.
    Recent events have reminded us that
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  • Veterans of all ideals defend our values

    THIS VETERANS DAY, we reflect on the sacrifices made by those who volunteered to defend the United States. But let’s also find time to consider that these sacrifices were undertaken to defend values that our “ruling class in waiting” seeks to undermine.
    Many students at elite colleges don’t
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  • Family caregivers are unsung heroes

    MORE THAN 90 MILLION Americans improve the quality of life for loved ones who have chronic conditions, disabilities, disease or the frailties of old age. They are our country’s unsung heroes. November is National Family Caregivers Month. Of family caregivers, 60% work full or part time.
    Caregivers can be
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  • Will election mollify chaotic 2020?

    WHO WON’T BE relieved when this general election cycle is over? The year 2020 has been one for the history books. We all need some closure as our bitterly divided country braces for the Nov. 3 election. It’s critical for the survival of democracy that we trust the results.
    If 2020 has taught us anything, it is
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  • A class divided, lessons learned

    GOD CREATED ONE race: the human race. Humans created racism. Because of that, celebrated educator Jane Elliott concluded that racism can be fixed. She has spent more than 50 years adapting the now famous “blue eyes/brown eyes exercise.”
    As a school teacher in the small town of
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  • No surprise; an election in crisis

    WE MUST TAKE all measures possible to ensure the integrity of our elections. Nov. 3 has been called one of the most important presidential elections in our nation’s recent history.
    What a shame it would be if
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  • Jim Lehrer’s ‘Rules of Journalism’

    THIS WEEK, OCT. 4-10, is National Newspaper Week and it’s being celebrated for the 80th time. Famed journalist Jim Lehrer died earlier this year, Jan. 23, at the age of 85. Following are a select few of the rules Lehrer thought were important:
    • Cover, write and present every story with
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  • Over time, the tides rise and fall

    WINDS CHANGE, TIDES rise and fall, political fortunes have a lot to do with momentum. You can be on top one day and on the bottom the next. In just a few weeks, an estimated 150 million Americans will vote in the most important national election in history. Some will vote in-person, some via absentee ballot and others by
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  • A battle for peace, harmony, wisdom

    THIS STORY IS a popular legend of unknown origin often attributed to the Cherokee people. The story, “Two Wolves,” is used to explain the inner conflicts we have between our good and bad thoughts.
    One evening, an old Cherokee told his grandson about a
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  • Gloomy news causes stress disorder

    MAYBE IT’S TIME for us to step back from all the news that gives us fits. Do we really need news from social media sources every hour of every day? Do we need messages and alerts arriving on our computers and phones every minute?
    To let tomorrow’s worries overwhelm today’s joys is
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  • Let’s all meet in the town square

    ARE YOU AFRAID voting problems in November will create chaos and be a disaster for our confidence in democracy? Questions have been raised by leaders of both major parties, and the potential for fraud and logistical problems is a legitimate concern.
    First, we should
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  • Core values undergoing challenges

    THE CIVIL EXCHANGE of ideas is under attack. Opinions are met with hostility and resistance. Divisive issues confound us. Frustrated people are intent on maximum disruption. These are crazy times.
    It’s hard to believe a majority of people, whether
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  • ‘Lady Luck’ doesn’t make you successful

    THE LATE PIANIST and actor Oscar Levant once said “Happiness isn’t something you experience; it is something you remember.” But what is real happiness? In just a few minutes, I’ll share with you a story that uses coffee as an analogy to tell you the simplicity of life.
    But first, Frayda Levin, a
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  • Wimpy’s character ahead of his time