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Local View: Caribbean cruise the ultimate travel adventure — oh, really

 

 

By John Freivalds

Duluth News Tribune

Published 2/22/2024

Believe the government or the tour operator?

This from officials in Haiti: “Kidnapping is widespread, and victims regularly include U.S. citizens. Kidnappers may use sophisticated planning or take advantage of unplanned opportunities, and even convoys have been attacked. Violent crime, often involving the use of firearms, such as armed robbery, carjackings, and kidnappings for ransom that include U.S. citizens are common.”

Latvia: The Mouse that Roared (OK Sang!)

 

 

 

 

By John Freivalds

Published- TBD

Duluth News Tribune

The year 1959 saw the premiere of  a hilarious movie The Mouse That Roared starring Peter Sellers about a tiny fictious country, The Duchy of Fenwick, which went from irrelevance to world attention because it was rumored to have ”the bomb.”

 

My native country, Latvia, is lost in the grand scheme of geopolitics (40% the size of Iowa and three Latvia’s can easily fit into Minnesota). It lies across the Baltic Sea from Sweden and Riga , its capital, has been around since the year 1208. Latvia is part of NATO which has been its protection against Russia, its huge aggressive neighbor. But with the threat of a new administration coming in that is saying it will not support NATO or Ukraine in its war against Russia, we wonder what is our plan B?

 No High Moral Ground (anywhere)
When the Dogs of War are Let Loose.
 

 

 

By John Freivalds

Duluth News Tribune

Published: TBD

Shakespeare was perhaps the first person to use that phrase which aptly fits what is happening in Gaza. The dogs of war is a phrase spoken by Mark Antony William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar: "Cry 'Havoc!’ and let slip the dogs of war."

Local View: Immigration has long, brutal history, legacy in US

 

 

 

From the column: "The focus ... seems to always be on the physical requirement to keep immigrants out. You do not get headlines like, 'Politician solves immigration crisis by hiring more clerks'.”

Published October 7th, 2023

By John Freivalds

Duluth News Tribune

Illegal aliens, migrants, undocumented immigrants, open borders: those are words and terms in today’s headlines — yet we forget that the Pilgrims we now hold in high regard didn’t arrive that way. In fact, historian John Kuroski notes that the original illegal immigrants were the Pilgrims who we venerate every Thanksgiving with table decorations and turkeys.

Local View: Insisting on 'English only' is truly befuddling.

 

 

 

From the column: "The U.S. is not falling behind. Rather, the world is catching up. We think nothing about learning new software, and we should feel the same way about learning other languages."

Published 9/6/2023

By John Freivalds

Duluth News Tribune

We are living in an era when many people are saying, “Let’s be isolationist” and, “Let the world take care of itself.” Along with that comes the feeling that English, American English, is the only language that matters. In fact, many people believe English isn’t a language; it is like air or water in that you don’t think about it.

Thus, the University of West Virginia, faced with a budget crisis, dropped teaching and language courses this August. But, due to public pressure, it was forced to rescind some of the cuts. The New York Times reported that, “Language requirements for graduation have been eliminated at Amherst College, the University of Alabama, Johns Hopkins, George Washington University and Duquesne University, among others.”