Opinion
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Opinion: Pandemic helped spread fentanyl, drive opioid overdose deaths to new high
For the past 20 years, I have been engaged in efforts to end the opioid epidemic, as a public health official,…
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Opinion: Missouri lawmakers must take action to legalize marijuana
In 1984, I was arrested for felony possession of marijuana for a half-pound of marijuana, for which I served five…
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Opinion: A perspective on Gov. Parson’s unprecedented attacks on journalists
I begin this column with a confession. We journalists are reluctant to report about ourselves because under journalism ethics, a…
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Opinion: After a breakthrough COVID infection, I believe in the vaccine more than ever
In April, when I received my first shot of the COVID-19 vaccine, I was hopeful for the first time in over a…
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Opinion: Make holiday decisions that work for everyone
This is a holiday season like no other. Many people have been apart for nearly two years and have had…
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Opinion: Celebrate the bipartisan infrastructure bill for more than new roads, bridges, jobs
Is it safe to say that most Americans are sick and tired of all the partisan fighting dominating the national…
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Opinion: The biggest lies Missouri politicos tell themselves (and others)
Denial, said Missouri’s greatest export to the world, Mark Twain, ain’t just a river in Egypt. It’s also a problem…
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Opinion: We’ve never been here before. We’ll be judged on what we do next
They say outer space has a smell, and it stinks. Astronauts who have come back from space walks have described…
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Opinion: Investing in Missouri public schools
Missourians, if you would be so kind, please indulge us by participating in a brief exercise. First, raise your hand…
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Opinion: Funding prisons is a higher priority than funding education; why?
In America, the land of the free, there are more prisons and more prisoners than any other country in the world. This…
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Opinion: Prison nurseries could help keep families together, reduce recidivism
Imagine you are eight months pregnant and about to complete a prison sentence. You give birth, and the baby is…
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Opinion: Governor’s charge of a journalist hack is outrageous
I’m writing this column after one of the most vicious and unfounded attacks I’ve heard by a Missouri governor against…
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Opinion: Being good stewards of Missouri lakes and rivers
Missouri’s waterways are some of our state’s greatest features. How many of us have spent part of the summer at…
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Opinion: Denying history is a major impediment in state legislatures, Congress
If you do not know your history or, worse still, know it but deny it, how on earth do you…
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The checkup is in the mail? Letter carriers could help deliver health care
Two of America’s toughest problems can be tempered with one solution. The baby boom generation is graying, creating an ever-larger…
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Opinion: Grievance envy discounts the oppressed while denying them justice
For decades, people have used the phrase “playing the race card” to shut down conversations about our nation’s racial caste…
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Opinion: Can you identify national values that unite us as Americans?
Just weeks ago, we paused to remember those who lost their lives on Sept. 11, 2001, as the unthinkable happened: America was…
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Opinion: ‘Mild’ breakthrough case of COVID-19 can be unpleasant surprise
The test results that hot day in early August shouldn’t have surprised me — all the symptoms were there. A…
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Opinion: What was it all for? Looking back on military service in Afghanistan
I can still taste the sand, feel the heat on my skin. We were told to smell our water before…
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Opinion: If vigilante justice spreads, who will be the next target?
Let’s set aside our views on abortion. Instead, let’s consider one aspect of the new Texas abortion law that took…
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Opinion: In suspension of Reign Night Club’s liquor license, what is really going on?
The way I see it, if the Reign Night Club and its owner are being targeted and penalized, the baseball…
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Opinion: The great silence after 9/11 offers lessons for pandemic era
On the day before the 20-year observance of the Sept. 11 attacks, I want to tell you a story. Two…
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Opinion: A letter of encouragement, and some words of warning, to my fellow teachers
Nearly a month ago, I was asked to consider writing a letter of encouragement to teachers as they start another…
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Opinion: Is America experiencing a different kind of ‘civil war’?
Wars are not always fought by armed military forces with guns, bombs, stealth fighters, and sophisticated weaponry. And the enemy…
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Jaco: St. Louis’s newest COVID treatment is an expensive right-wing favorite
The choice seems simple: Prevent COVID with a cheap vaccine that’s being offered free, or wait until people catch COVID,…
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Opinion: Everything we know about work is wrong, and the pandemic proves it
So what can the plight of a little cafe tell you about the state of the American economy and the…
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Jaco: Missouri’s COVID Taliban wants your kids
Four things happened in the past few days. St. Louis-area kids returned to in-person school; new figures show hospital ICUs…
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Opinion: Refusing the COVID-19 vaccine isn’t just immoral – it’s ‘un-American’
Decades ago I helped organize a conference that brought together vaccine skeptics and public health officials. The debate centered on…
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Jaco: The racists who want to bring down Kim Gardner have an ally: Kim Gardner
Kim Gardner could be the most transformative circuit attorney in St. Louis history if she would get out of her…
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Opinion: In our mad, polarized, COVID surge summer, the only way out is through
It all kind of piled up this week: COVID hospitalizations and deaths are up. We’re still trying to convince the unvaccinated to get…
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