Ott Observations

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…

Our daily news cycle constantly features district court, appeals court and Supreme Court decisions about actions taken by our executive branch of government. We are a government fighting amongst ourselves. …

In 1956, then-Senator John F. Kennedy wrote a book titled “Profiles in Courage.” It consisted of a series of short biographies describing acts of political bravery and integrity by eight…

Some people think Mother’s Day is a holiday contrived by greeting card companies and florists to sell more of their products.  Certainly the crass commercialization of religious or historical events…

Depending on the day of the week, we have heard many different reasons for President Trump’s proposed and real tariffs.  Many of Trump’s supporters believe he is trying to restore…

This opinion column started with a Letter to the Editor I wrote in November 2020 immediately after the election.  My Republican friends and neighbors were aghast at the pending destruction…