Ott Observations

I recently attended a weekend retreat and a man at my discussion table was bemoaning the decline of manhood in our country.   Out of empathy, I asked if someone…

In August, I wrote a column questioning the absence of a strong Christian voice about the terror campaign the Trump Administration is waging on non-white immigrants. The voice is emerging.…

As I watch the ads for the latest “Wicked” movie, I find myself reminiscing about my childhood when we watched the “Wizard of Oz.” The annual TV broadcast was the…

Perhaps unique in our history, all the senior leaders of our military branches were summoned from around the world to a meeting Sept. 30 in Quantico, Va.  Secretary of War…

At 1 a.m. Sept. 30, ICE agents raided a five-story apartment building in Chicago. Agents rappelled from helicopters onto the roof, kicked down doors, threw flash bang grenades and arrested…

There are some words that are descriptive of the core necessities for humans striving to co-exist. One such word is “accountability.” The ICE agents terrorizing and deporting non-whites wear masks.…

Last month, I was traveling in Alabama.  I had some spare time, so I visited the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery. The memorial consists of a pavilion…

Recently there was a provocative editorial in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch written by Thomas Finan.  He is a renowned history professor at Saint Louis University.  Ever since his editorial, there…

Recently I read an editorial by Solomon Stevens, author of the book “Religion, Politics, and the Law.” In his view, representative democracy can be so frustrating it draws us to…

When I attended the University of Missouri, there was a famous class primarily due to a dynamic professor that made a boring subject interesting.  Econ 51 was the foundational economics…