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Recent Posts: Transformational Citizenship
Author Archives: Bennett Minton
Books of the year
Some of my 2025 reading, whose theme was wandering through my shelves or used bookstores from Portland to Denton and places in between. Kai Bird and Martin Sherman, American Promethius: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer (2005). Sherman … Continue reading
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I’m lucky. And grateful. And furious.
Yesterday we gathered in Austin for the memorial for my aunt Marilyn Dickie, on a warm day in a light-filled chapel with friends, most of them generations younger than our 95-five-year-old matriarch of seven children, all of them present, all … Continue reading
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Return to South Pass: a tour of the Northern Rockies
On my Ruminations site, I’ve posted a travelogue of my 4,000-mile drive through the Northern Rockies with photos and mix of history and contemporary politics. I’m convinced South Pass is the most important spot in American history, with the exception … Continue reading
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Tagged Eastern Shoshone, Fort Benton, Logan Pass, Nez Perce, South Pass, South Pass City
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‘The past is never dead. It’s not even past.’
And Faulkner lives forever. Because it feels personal, I offer my perspective on the federal government’s assault on the University of Virginia. The Justice Department’s demand for the head of President James Ryan spurs me to describe two earlier chapters … Continue reading
Posted in civil rights, education, Thomas Jefferson, Uncategorized, University of Virginia
Tagged civil rights, DEI, Donald Trump, Glenn Youngkin, Gregory W. Brown, James Ryan, The Cavalier Daily, University of Virginia
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Not a sanctuary, but safer
On day 5 of a different America, Portland feels safer than most places I could be. Oregon Democrats won most of the races, flipped a U.S. House seat, retained all three statewide offices on the ballot, and captured a state … Continue reading
Posted in election campaign, presidential election 2024, U.S. Constitution, Uncategorized, Voting
Tagged Albina, Donald Trump, Keith Wilson, oregon, Portland, Portland OR, Vanport, Voting
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Vignettes of Las Vegas
Alexis was sitting on the stoop. A 28-year-old registered Democrat, my data informed me, he affirmed he was voting the straight ticket. His English, through a Spanish accent, was flawless. I asked him where he was from. Southern Mexico. And … Continue reading
Posted in election campaign, Las Vegas, presidential election 2024, Uncategorized
Tagged abortion rights, Donald Trump, elections, Kamala Harris, Nevada Democrats, politics, presidential election 2024
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The American founding of Oregon—in myth and fact
The martyrdom of Marcus Whitman, like the nobility of the Lost Cause, was taught to American school children for a century. The thumbnail of the story: The doctor/preacher convinced a president to safeguard Oregon for the United States rather than … Continue reading
‘Falsehood flies, and the truth comes limping after it’
So wrote Jonathan Swift in 1710. (The Web says so, according to Freakonomics.) Also: “A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes,” a variation attributed to Mark Twain, who may have … Continue reading
Posted in Oregon taxes, taxes, Uncategorized
Tagged estate tax, Kevin Mannix, Oregon Legislature, taxes
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Oregon’s legislative session: defeats, modest wins and one total victory
In my decades in D.C., I interviewed members of Congress daily as a reporter, met with staff and occasionally members as a lobbyist, and dug deep into policy as an analyst. As a citizen in Oregon, I do all three. … Continue reading
Transformational Citizenship 