Thank you to all who entered. Below you’ll the winning columns. Please Note that print categories and entries that did not include links are not listed below. For a complete list of winners click HERE. Congratulations to the winners and happy reading!
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Humor Online
General Interest Online
General Interest Print
Student
Sports
Lifestyles
Crisis
Social Justice
Editorial Cartoon
Humor Online
First Place – Max McCoy
Calling Dr. Crumbine — Kansas is sick and needs a prescription | Kansas Reflector
Desperate for help fighting the coronavirus pandemic, we invoke the spirit of Kansas public health pioneer Samuel J. Crumbine.
How Kansas’ infamous goat gland doctor carved a political path for Donald Trump | Kansas Reflector
John Brinkley, a charlatan known as the Kansas Goat Doctor, had a political career that resembles the practices used by Donald Trump.
Second Place – Mary Kay Jordan Fleming
Packing After 50: It’s a Whole New Trip
Travel after 50 may not be as carefree as it once was, but it’s still fun as long as you take a few precautions and pack essential items.
The Non-Stop Fun of Retiring in the Middle of a Pandemic
Mary Kay Fleming made fun of her husband for not adjusting to retirement better. But retiring during COVID, she learned that karma’s a bitch.
Third Place – Dave Jaffe
Honorable Mention: Elise Seyfried
Elise Seyfried – Medium
Read writing from Elise Seyfried on Medium. I’m the author of 4 books of humorous essays, and freelance essays for publications including HuffPost, Purple Clover, The Philadelphia Inquirer and many others.
Make Money as a Neurosurgeon: The New Side Hustle
These days, many of you are worrying about how to make ends meet (or at least how to make ends wave to one another from a safe social distance). Maybe you’ve been “furloughed” or “laid off” or “fir…
Honorable Mention: Lee Gaitan
My 2020 Brain Has Gone to the Dogs
As this monstrous year draws to a close, I am enormously grateful for two things. 1) My husband has recovered from a rough bout of Covid and 2) I have so far escaped its heinous clutches. That is n…
Missing the Target on Father’s Day
After four months with no access to a hair salon, but plenty of access to peanut M&Ms, there is no part of me that is ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille. Yet, despite not being camera-ready, I …
General Interest Print
First Place – Mark Brown
Ghosts of summers past: When the big worries were bees, barbed wire, bullies — and that bull
On a summer day like this, you could run barefoot through a sprinkler in the backyard, that is until you stepped on a bee. Or you could try to get enough kids together for a sandlot baseball game up at the school. Afterward, you’d need to have a Popsicle to cool down.
Edison Park mainstays’ 7-decade love story ends with coronavirus deaths 36 hours apart
Irvin Kaage Jr. and his wife Muriel were behind the Kaage’s Corner newsstand on Northwest Highway in Edison Park. And what a love story they lived.
Second Place – Leslie McCarthy
Four Generations, One Christmas Eve
Mom wanted us out of the house. It was Christmas Eve 1973, with four kids under 13 underfoot, along with food to prepare and gifts to wrap. She had that
The Sound Of The Bell
The Frisco Bell would have started ringing on Tuesday at the afternoon pep rally at Kirkwood High — its high, happy clang resonating through the halls.
General Interest Online
First Place – Jill D. Lawrence
As coronavirus deaths near 100,000, Trump makes America exceptional in all the wrong ways
Trump has transformed America well beyond COVID-19 and the economy. He’s eviscerated transparency, accountability, accuracy and competence, for a start.
Resolve after appalling Roger Stone commutation: Don’t let Donald Trump break us, America.
COVID and Trump have brought America to its knees. The utter failure of our system has allowed him to scale new heights of corruption each week.
Second Place – Luis Martinez-Fernandez
Do the Riots in Minneapolis Forebode Greater Civil Unrest for the US?
The United States is as polarized as it was during the time of Reconstruction and the parallels between the last ten years and the Antebellum are glaring and foreboding.
Pandemic, Pandemonium, and the November Elections
Trump’s handling of the peaceful antiracist revolt has further eroded his popularity and electoral support.
Third Place – Brian Reisinger
Unite or Die: The Making of the Badger State Battleground | National Review
An inside account of how the Wisconsin conservative movement learned to punch above its weight in a blue state — and what it will take to keep up the fight.
Brian Reisinger: In Wisconsin, addiction remains ripe for bipartisan reforms
Even in divided times, we can pursue worthy bipartisan reforms without either side of the aisle compromising its principles.
Honorable Mention: Max McCoy
Kansas’ Confederate flag fliers say, ‘Honk if you love hate’ | Kansas Reflector
In 2020, flying the Confederate flag isn’t bold, or rebellious, or a nod to history. It just shows you’ve been seduced by hateful dreams.
This story of a famous photograph, taken at the end of a horrific year, starts and ends in Kansas | Kansas Reflector
Among the Apollo 8 artifacts at Hutchinson’s Cosmosphere is the camera astronaut Bill Anders used to take the iconic “Earthrise” photo.
Honorable Mention: Lee Cataluna
Lee Cataluna: Scapegoats And Fall Guys For A Leader Who Cannot Lead
Gov. David Ige’s pandemic horror show: when the bureaucrats bail, who’s left to manage the crisis?
Lee Cataluna: We Don’t Mind Standing In Line In Hawaii — If We Want To
Hawaii has a love/hate relationship with waiting in line, but we’re all pretty accustomed to it.
Student Winners
Camille M Daniels, General Interest Online
Being a Black graduate student isn’t easy
Making the adjustment to graduate school has its difficulties, especially as a Black student searching for safe spaces. This struggle exposes the need for designated spaces for Black graduate students to cater to their social needs and mental health.
Ivy Leagues aren’t everything. Look at our next president, vice president
Being the first Democratic ticket in over thirty years to have candidates without Ivy League educations, Biden and Harris’s election stands as a strong inspiration to SU students.
Alexandra Bowman, Humor online
Cats Can Have a (Reluctantly) Positive Review, as a Treat
I unironically enjoyed the Cats movie. Now before my professional, academic, and social futures are irreversibly compromised by this possibly disastrous public admission, I shall add a flashing neon caveat. By no means was 2019’s Cats (year specified because the 1998 version is superb) without flaws…
Disney’s Decade of Live-Action Remakes
The “Disney remake” is grounded in the premise that adapting an animated story in the live-action medium updates a story. The studio seems to believe that new technology is enough to “update” these films, which are often celebrated for their timelessness, for a new generation. This assumption falter…
Sydney Murphy, Lifestyles
Resisting Gender Definitions: Alok Leads the Trans Community in Social Change
ShareTweetPin3Share3 SharesAlok is a gender nonconforming writer and performance artist who identifies as nonbinary. Alok uses they/them pronouns, believing that their gender resists definition and continues in a fluid motion. Alok’s work is focused on gender and racial justice. They also write abou…
Do Some of Us Have a Subconscious While Others Don’t?
ShareTweetPinShare0 SharesWhile some listen to their inner voice and non-verbal thoughts throughout the day, others hear nothing at all and spend their day filling the silence by speaking out loud. The phenomenon of inner monologues has recently been brought up in conversations on a variety of socia…
Rudy Gabriel Malcom, Crisis
Learning how to manage my emotions
Soon after quarantine began, I realized that I tended to run away from my negative emotions. I’d channel my anxiety into The News-Letter’s all-consuming, weekly production cycle. I’d hide my sadness by flitting about M-Level. Bury my emptiness at Power Plant Live!. Manifest my stress through low-gra…
As COVID-19 reduces blood supply, we must put science over homophobia
The coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak has decimated the nation’s blood supply. Amid the closures of schools, churches and other organizations, thousands of blood drives nationwide are being canceled at an unprecedented rate. In addition, social distancing guidelines and shelter-in-place orders have ke…
Jonathan Zhang, Social Justice
ABC: American or Chinese?
As a Chinese-American, there are times when I wonder which of my two nationalities I really am. When I’m at home, I feel like I’m Chinese: I speak Chinese, eat Chinese food, celebrate Chinese holidays and conform to Chinese customs and traditions. Once outside of my home, however, it’s like I’m a di…
ABC: “B-sians” need to proudly accept who they are
“Grades are back.” My heart starts racing, beads of sweat start to gather on my forehead and my hands suddenly feel as if I’ve soaked them in a pool of oil. It’s amazing how just a few words can change your entire mood. It’s more amazing how much a simple number can dictate your life….
Sports
First Place – Derrick Z Jackson
Big-time colleges care more about money and winning than black athletes getting degrees
The tragic stereotype that the only thing a black man can be is an athlete — and a dumb one at that — tortures the nation’s psyche, perpetuated by the very inst…
NCAA must stop perpetuating academic and financial disparities for HBCUs
In The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin warned a nephew that America “set you down in a ghetto in which, in fact, it intended that you should perish.” It is time t…
Second Place – Dom Amore
“Difference maker,” published in print on 2/18/2020
“Denehy talks about his time with a Mets Legend,” published in print on 9/8/2020
Third Place – Steve Greenberg
“Down but not out,” published in print on 11/21/2020
“His passion for hoops has no limits,” published in print on 1/4/2020
Lifestyles
First Place – Pam J. Hecht
Let kids fail and 8 ways to help them
To survive pandemic parenting, find some peace and quiet (and chocolate)
Second Place – Mark Gauert
What I didn’t know then about the Super Bowl
By Mark Gauert City & Shore Magazine Broadway Joe Namath and I had two things in common: We were both at the Super Bowl on Jan. 12, 1969, in Miami. And we both didn’t understand what happened that day. Other than that, Broadway Joe and I had nothing in common. He was 25. I was 11. He was from the…
Broadway Joe Namath, the Super Bowl and me: The Miami game that changed the NFL
Remembering the ‘most important’ Super Bowl in history: Jan. 12, 1969, in Miami
Third Place – Laurie Stone
What I Wish I Had Known About Raising Teenage Boys – Laurie Stone Writes
The other day I overheard two women talking about their high school-aged sons. “I can’t motivate him,” said one with a sigh. “He’s smart, but his grades are awful. I don’t know what’s going to happen with college.” The other murmured in sympathy. Their conversation caught my ear because I used to be…
As You Grow Older, Do You Become…“More?” – Laurie Stone Writes
Someone once said we discover who we really are as we age. I used to wonder if that was true. And yet as the years have crept by, some personality traits seem not only hardwired, but (God forbid) more pronounced. Here are seven ways I’ve gotten worse (or better) in my sixties. Can you relate? More […
Honorable Mention: Phillip Tutor
Phillip Tutor: Anniston, a dog and a little girl’s legacy
There are two Abigails in this story, one from Texas, down near the Gulf of Mexico, and one from Alabama’s Appalachian foothills. They never met, but they’re perpetually linked by
Honorable Mention: Dave Lieber
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Here’s a look at modern school life through the eyes of two students
Students today run the risk of becoming a Lost Generation due to what experts call a monumental “pandemic learning loss.”
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What Pete Hamill, my favorite writer, taught me four decades ago applies more so today
Watchdog columnist Dave Lieber’s writing mentor died earlier this month. Dave reflects on his importance to him — and the value of a mentor in everyone’s…
Crisis
Tie – First Place – Ken Dixon
Ken Dixon: Storming the market with the dawn patrol
Columnist Ken Dixon checks out the supermarkets at sunrise with seniors getting a head…
Ken Dixon: The CT town that COVID has yet to find
Columnist Ken Dixon visits Scotland, Connecticut, a town of about 1,730 people that has…
Tie – First Place – Rose Carmen Goldberg
Opinion: Losing and finding my dad during the coronavirus pandemic
‘I woke up to a late-night voicemail. My dad had fallen from his bed and was unable to move his right side or talk.’
My father always assured me not to fear death. Then I watched him fade away.
When my father couldn’t see me, hear me, or talk to me, I still needed to talk to him. But he taught me how to be with him when he’s gone.
Second Place – Patricia Bunin
“Love finds a way,” published in print on 07/19/2020
“Worst thing in the world hasn’t happened yet,” published in print on 06/072020
Third place – Theodore Decker
“We can be 6 feet apart but bonded together” published in print on 3/15/2020
“Protesters’ anger not rooted in morality” published in print on 4/19/2020
Honorable Mention: Kathy Eliscu
KathyEliscu.com » Blog Archive » Day 4 – or is it 5?
The first day or two of quarantine while waiting to get results of the corona virus test had been kind of interesting, ignoring the part about being sick with what felt like an cold virus with an extremely leaky water hose. Maybe that’s all it was. I still don’t know. I’m somewhat symptomatic, but a…
KathyEliscu.com » Blog Archive » Old Lesson from Marge, Redux
Posted by Kathy on Apr 15, 2020 in Uncategorized |
Honorable Mention: Derrick Z. Jackson
Fighting for a Just COVID-19 Response
As much as hurricanes Katrina and Maria upended African American and Latinx families, the landfall of the coronavirus brings a gale of another order. This Category 5 of infectious disease packs the power to level communities already battered from environmental, economic, and health injustice. If res
When COVID-19 Science Comes Home to Roost
A delusional president, a host of sycophant governors, and a handful of greedy business leaders have, in essence, declared that we should trust them more than we do doctors, more than epidemiologists, more than public health experts, more than even common sense. Their arrogance, incompetence, and ra
Honorable Mention: Renee Schafer Horton
“Recognizing my privilege as a white woman,” published in print on 6/7/2020
“Hatred of fellowman and learning to move forward,” published in print on 11/15/2020
Social Justice
First Place – Derrick Z. Jackson
Second Place – Naomi Ishisaka
“Marching On: How a history of racism, police brutality and a pandemic led to an ‘extraordinary moment’,” published in print on 6/7/20.
“The police have long been a reliable source for some. But it’s time to reexamine that trust.” published in print on 7/20/20.
Third Place – Dave Lieber
Honorable Mention – Ken Dixon
Honorable Mention – Mary C. Curtis
Honorable Mention – Rose Carmen Goldberg
Editorial Cartoon
First Place – Jen Sorensen
Second Place – Sage Stossel
