Opinion

Today is Saturday, Sept. 12, the 256th day of 2020.

Dear Annie: I was a high school teacher for nearly 40 years, and, before I landed a full-time public school job, spent a year or two as a substitute. I know the frustrations of students who assume you don’t matter because you’re not “our real teacher.” It can be even more annoying when the students are teenagers. Yes, parents should teach their children to respect the temporary teacher as they respect the regular one.

The presidential campaign is at knife’s edge. Both parties’ campaigns assume that patterns of support will closely resemble those in 2016. And both are making surprisingly little effort, considering how close that contest turned out to be, with the 46 crucial electoral votes decided by just 77,744 votes, to increase their levels of support.

If Donald Trump loses the election, history will attribute his defeat to a pandemic that killed 200,000 Americans during his reelection campaign, and a historic depression deliberately induced to put the economy in a coma as the nation suffered through that pandemic.

For to be carnally minded is death: but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. — Romans 8:6 Dear Annie: My wife and I have just celebrated our ninth wedding anniversary.

As Washington has been frozen in debate about whether to pass massive new economic stimulus legislation, something interesting has happened in the real world. In the real world, Americans sent a message to politicians saying they can take care of themselves just fine, thank you.

With less than two months left before the presidential election, polls in the swing states are tightening, and the focus is sharpening. Remember, it's not the total popular vote that determines the outcome of the presidential election but the final tally from the Electoral College. It takes 270 Electoral College votes to win.

The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous runneth into it, and is safe. —Proverbs 18:10 Dear Annie: As we live in an electronically connected world, there is a downside that bothers me.

On the morning of Dec. 22, 1944, German soldiers waving white flags approached American troops defending the Belgian city of Bastogne against the Nazi counterattack known as the Battle of the Bulge. The German army had the American defenders completely surrounded and outnumbered, and the Americans were rapidly running out of supplies by five to one.

In the fall of 2019, 1,003,524 American high school boys played 11-man tackle football, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations, or NFHS. That made 2019 the 21st straight year in which at least 1 million American high school boys played football.