Th the Journal editor:

As I sat in church this past Sunday, I reflected on the two recent gun tragedies — one in Providence, Rhode Island and another in Australia — at a time of the Christian season of Advent and the Jewish season of the Festival of Lights.

These horrific events should cause us all to reflect on just where the human race is going and why we are so polarized and divided. Some of our national leaders are trying to make a difference, like Spencer Cox, Republican governor of Utah and Josh Shapiro, Democratic governor of Pennsylvania, who recently made a joint appeal for Americans to unite and seek common ground. Both governors criticized President Trump for his divisive remarks and conduct, saying, “Trump is not interested in uniting the nation.”

What happened to U.P. Nice, the land I have come to love because of our kindness and tolerance for each other? And that’s why I like reading The Mining Journal, a community paper celebrating positive stories of local events and the goodness of our citizens. I’ve been an avid reader since moving here in 1982, 43 years ago. But in the past few years, the Journal has succumbed to America’s polarization by printing columns by national syndicated authors who preach the propaganda of political division, often unfairly attacking minority racial and ethnic groups.

A recent Nov. 26 column was especially distasteful to me, entitled “What is an American?” by Josh Hammer. In his column, Mr. Hammer expresses a narrow and exclusive definition of who he views as an authentic American, limited to people who embody a Protestant religious tradition. He apparently excludes Catholics, Jews, non-religious, Muslims and the many others from the definition of an American.

He especially criticized Muslim Americans living in Dearborn, Michigan because they refuse to assimilate. But Mr. Hammer’s views run counter to the pluralistic purpose that founded America’s melting pot. Mr. Hammer apparently does not know that Protestants only represent 22% of today’s U.S. population. Aren’t Catholics, Jews, Muslems and the many others living in the U.S. also Americans?

Then on Dec. 6, the Journal printed a divisive one-sided column called, “Ilhan Omar a bad example,” by Rich Lowry. In his column, Mr. Lowry criticizes U.S. Rep. Omar and the other Somali Americans living in Minneapolis, most of whom he characterizes as undeserving welfare cheats.

He congratulated President Trump for stopping all new immigration from Third World countries, including Somalia. As you may know, Mr. Trump recently made undeserved and distasteful remarks against Somali Americans. The inescapable intent of both Journal articles is blame and shame politics–whose tactic is to build one’s power by directing anger, fear and animosity against weaker opponents–often by falsehoods and conspiracies theories.

Blame and shame politics are tools of authoritarians, like the president, who use the “us versus them” mentality to marginalize minorities and his opponents for political gain. U.S. Sen. Joseph McCarthy of the 1950s perpetrated the same tactic as he used anti-communist fear-mongering to falsely accuse innocent people. Alabama Gov. George Wallace of the 1960s engaged in the same tactic as tried to stop racial integration.

Both McCarthy and Wallace would end up in the dust pan of history. The Mining Journal can regain its U.P. Kind reputation by weeding out columns that push unfair propaganda against minorities and people that exacerbate division. And in 2026, let’s resolve to do our part to seek unity by abiding in Abe Lincoln’s famous speech in 1861, that we seek “the better angels of our nature.”