John m crisp biography

Columnist John M. Crisp is an op-ed columnist for Tribune News Service.
He was a 17-year-old seaman on the bridge of a destroyer when an airplane appeared suddenly from nowhere and dropped a bomb next to his ship.
Find John M. Crisp's articles, email address, contact information, Twitter and more.

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Crisp: Living in an age of great change

My birthday occurs this week. Which one, precisely, isn't important, except to say that while my best years may yet be ahead of me, they certainly will be far fewer than those that have already passed.

Which is fine. But it makes one think about when and where one happened to be born, the cosmic slot assigned to each of us - by fate, luck, God's will - and how our few years on earth mesh with civilization's ongoing, careless advance.

Billions of people have lived during humanity's hardscrabble epoch on the earth, but nearly all of them died in the same world, more or less, in which they were born. My generation may be only the second or third to experience lifetimes of technological and social change so rapid that it has the capacity to transform the world into unrecognizability over the course of a few decades.

My mother's life is a good example: When she was born near the end of 1912, her household included an aged aunt whose arms were still weakened by the effects of two arrows that struck her during an Indian attack early in her life

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John M. Crisp: What I learned in the US Navy

The Atlantic reported last week that in 2018 the president referred to the Marines who were killed during the battle of Belleau Wood, and more generally to anyone who serves in the military, as “suckers” and “losers.” I’m sure I’m not alone in asking myself this question: Was I a sucker and loser, too, for spending four years of my young life in uniform?

In fairness, the sources of these allegations are anonymous. But others, including Fox News, have corroborated the charges. They sound credible. A man capable of saying that John McCain isn’t a hero might reveal in unfiltered moments how he really feels about our soldiers and sailors, as well. As Ivanka Trump said at the Republican National Convention, you always know what her dad is thinking. He says it out loud.

Besides, Trump’s purported attitude reflects a popular canard, the idea that the military is a refuge for people not smart enough or ambitious enough to survive in civilian life. It’s an idea that Trump, obsessed with winners and losers, might find congenial.

I encounter

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Opinion: Please don’t privatize the U.S. Postal Service

There’s no money to be made in delivering to every address in America. And that's OK.

Crisp: School shootings undermine efforts to ban cellphones in class

In the face of country's unwillingness to do much about guns or phones, students have reason to keep devices close by.

Crisp: A word in defense of student borrowers

An unforgiving attitude doesn’t give them sufficient credit for the time and energy required to complete a college degree

Crisp: Are we willing to accept a Putin victory in Ukraine?

The crisis is a test of the depth of the United States' commitment to the values that we profess.

Crisp: The majority of Americans want their country back

How did Rep. Mike Johnson, whose views are so out of line with most voters, achieve the powerful House speakership?

Crisp: The real problem with all-electric automobiles

The problem isn’t cars with internal combustion engines; the pro