Columnist Jim Slusher: New voices join our lineup of syndicated columnists
A fundamental goal of the Daily Herald Opinion page is to provide an engaging mix of diverse points of view, from the community as well as from nationally syndicated columns we publish. From time to time, meeting that goal involves adjusting our regular lineup of columnists, and this week we're introducing three new writers who should provide some new personality and excitement to our rotation. I want to introduce them to you today.
Readers of last Sunday's edition met the work of Dr. Jessica Johnson, an Ohio State University English composition professor who examines faith-based, racial and social issues in popular culture, higher education, sports and politics. The author of a memoir chronicling the life of the first Black physician to become a full professor at OSU's College of Medicine, Johnson is active in her church and a steadfast advocate of the value of exploring ideas. "I have never forgotten," she says, "an essential truth that one of my English professors stressed in class during my freshman year when he said, 'The mark of an educated person is one who reads.'"
Wednesday's edition brought Jeff Robbins to our Opinion page. Robbins, a nationally recognized First Amendment lawyer, has a long record in public service roles, ranging from serving in legal posts representing Democrats in the U.S. Senate to investigating fraud and money laundering in Massachusetts. He teaches political science at Brown University and has written on politics, foreign policy and national security matters for numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, and the New York Observer.
Soon, you'll also meet Keith Raffel, who has served as counsel to the Senate Intelligence Committee, taught engineering at Harvard, founded and sold Silicon Valley's first cloud-computing company and managed a DNA sequencing business. In addition, he once mounted a failed campaign for Congress and has written five published novels.
For those keeping track of such things, Raffel and Robbins tend to approach issues from a liberal perspective. Johnson doesn't neatly fit into a political category, instead taking an approach aimed more at finding inspiration in matters of society and culture. The trio replace two liberals - Bonnie Jean Feldkamp and Jamie Stiehm - and join a field that otherwise comprises liberal-leaning Susan Estrich and conservatives Michael Barone, Debra J. Saunders, Veronique de Rugy and Byron York.
All thoughtful writers, of course, reach beyond the boundaries of pure political dogma, so, whatever your own political or social preferences, we hope you'll find in our columnist lineup writers who occasionally surprise you and always make you think, whether you agree or disagree.
As always, when they stir you to share your reactions, we look forward to hearing from you and building on the conversations they start with a letter to the editor. Write us at fencepost@dailyherald.com.
• Jim Slusher, jslusher@dailyherald.com, is managing editor for opinion at the Daily Herald. Follow him on Facebook at www.facebook.com/jim.slusher1 and on Twitter at @JimSlusher.