Kendall Stanley: Whoa! What a change

It was a nice Sunday afternoon and hoping to get out of the house, Diana and I took a short drive up to North Central Michigan College and the Harris Gardens.

What a change we found!

For those unfamiliar with the Harris Gardens, it is a collection of outdoor sculptures spread across the center of campus. The late Jack Harris was the driving force for the Gardens, picking the spots for 26 sculptures from around the world.

We hadn’t been back since the gardens opened, so it was great to see the scrap iron horse standing tall after all these years.

What was truly amazing, however, was the incredible change to the campus!

I went to NCMC back in the early days, 1966-68 to be exact.

Back then the old Sheridan school held classes and the cafeteria, and in my second year there the main classroom building was opened. There were also three separate buildings, the library and two that contained science classrooms.

Later came the dormitory, conference building/cafeteria, a new library/conference facility and the Student and Community Resource Center.

But that campus has now been filled out with the new Jack and Dorothy Harris Health Education and Science Center and the Boora Learning Center, a large addition to the main classroom building. What started out as a few buildings years ago has now matured into a campus that can match those of some small colleges.

It’s not that we haven’t been on the campus as we regularly attend the luncheon lectures in the library building. But coming in through the back door of the library means we really miss out on seeing other improvements at the campus.

Indeed, the college has come a long way since I attended, becoming an incredible community asset.

Makes one proud to be an alum!

Really, Judge Thomas?

Financial statements released for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas recently had the judge disclosing that he took private jet travel from a friend, Harlan Crow, because of security concerns after the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade was leaked.

Of course, the jurist didn’t list that travel prior to this time, or the other luxury travel and vacations offered up by Crow.

Now he expects us to believe — given the security he normally receives — that he needed to travel private at the suggestion of his guard detail.

He and Justice Samuel Alito, who also received luxury travel from a friend who subsequently had business before the high court, have made no bones about what they believe has been nothing wrong with their actions and why they didn’t report it on the annual financial forms.

Just a question for the justice: What about all those luxury trips, etc., before the Dobbs decision?

What reconciliation looks like

On Sept. 10, President Joe Biden will be in Hanoi, Vietnam, to expand diplomatic relations with Vietnam where, young Vietnamese diplomats noted at a luncheon in Washington recently, 90 percent of its population admire the U.S.

All this after we destroyed villages, carpet bombed large areas and defoliated large swathes of the country with Agent Orange.

The Washington Post’s columnist David Ignatius wrote a column recently about the luncheon and the role his father, Paul, who is now 102, had as a government official during the war.

One young diplomat said Vietnam had a long history of reconciliation with countries they have warred with, even sending emissaries to countries they defeated to say it was really Vietnam’s fault. Gives the other country the ability to save face.

If only, as one looks around the globe, other nations were like Vietnam.

— Kendall P. Stanley is retired editor of the News-Review. He can be contacted at kendallstanley@charter.net. The opinions expressed in this column are those of the writer and not necessarily of the Petoskey News-Review or its employees.

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Kendall Stanley: Whoa! What a change