Opinion

Remnant of bygone era.

We can’t be quick to walk away from our faith when struggles appear.

This is not a “letter to the editor” per se, but it is a letter to thank you, Josh and Nichole, and those who have helped to launch and continue the Brookings Beacon with such excellence.

Much is being made of a progressive proposal for “Medicare for all” as we approach the 2026 midterm elections.

Maybe politics in South Dakota is cyclical. Or maybe the state’s political parties just keep making the same mistakes.

Chuck Cecil returns to Stubble Mulch!

A donut isn’t purchased because of the hole. The hole simply makes it what it is. Likewise, our weaknesses, losses, and unanswered questions don’t define our worth.

Does evidence of a corrupt Trump Administration really matter to the American public?

The city of Brookings Dakota Nature Park contains undesirable invasive species of Siberian/Chinese Elm and cedar in the shelter belts bordering the park on the north, south and east.

Honey Days. That’s it. That’s the sentence.

In the political arena, reference to a judicial activist judge or justice is intended to mean the judge or justice has strayed beyond the judicial responsibility of interpreting the law and has assumed the role of a lawmaker.

My voter registration as an independent was something I wore like a badge of honor.

As I look back, I realize our family vacations have never been just about the destination. They’ve been about the journey.

President Trump has been very busy questioning the integrity of the election process in our Nation

Thank you to the 53 concerned citizens who gathered on the steps of the Brookings Post Office on July 20.

Just when you thought it was time to fire up the grill, along comes Senate Concurrent Resolution 604.

Those that have experienced camp (Bible or otherwise) know what I mean when I say camp is just different.

The teenage years bring incredible growth, but they can also bring challenges that leave families feeling unsure of where to turn.

The outcome of June’s Republican gubernatorial primary raised plenty of questions and provided few answers.

The Communists are coming! The Communists are coming! They are lurking behind every lamp post and under your bed.

Throughout scripture, God’s people gathered for festivals that were about much more than religious observance.

Various pollsters have been busy trying to capture our views about the present and our future during this historical year.

I can’t help but wonder what it would be like to have just five minutes with the president to explain how his policy positions are making life tougher for South Dakotans.

There is a distinct magic to sitting at a baseball diamond on a summer day, watching your children take the field.

We pause to celebrate the 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence by 56 colonists who pledged “their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor so that future generations might live free from tyranny”.

If Obi-Wan Kenobi were here, he’d say he’s feeling a great disturbance in the force.

The Trump White House’s assault on Green Energy initiatives and his stated determination to maintain fossil fuels including coal as our nation’s primary sources of energy have caused me to reflect on conflicts surrounding our nation’s energy policy over the last half century.

When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her” – John 8:7

The Republican majority in the U.S. House and Senate recently approved another $70 billion for ICE and Border Patrol operations through use of a reconciliation budget measure that allows the majority to avoid the 60-vote threshold ordinarily required in the U.S. Senate for passage of legislation.

A week has passed since the SD primary was held with most of the attention focused on the Republican primary to determine the Republican nominee for the Office of Governor of South Dakota. The fact that no candidate reached the 35% threshold to win the nomination outright was not a surprise but the order in which the four candidates finished surprised voters across the state.

The Great Commission. The words from Jesus to head out and do the work. Spread the good news and bring followers to Christ. A powerful set of verses. A cry to the faithful. But how badly have we missed the point?

Numerous political columnists are asserting that President Trump has finally gone too far with his brazen form of governance.

The evolution of public education in the US after the adoption of compulsory free education by the states involves a history of political struggle that is best seen as an ebb and flow rather than one of straight-line change.

The quiet that settles over a cemetery two days after Memorial Day is unlike any other silence.

Springtime is always a season of change. The plants and bugs are coming back out of their winter slumber. Farmers are turning dirt and sowing seeds. But one of the biggest changes we see every spring is that of graduation.

It was apparent in this year’s legislative session that Attorney General Marty Jackley was trying to bunt his way on rather than swing for the fences with the bills he proposed to tighten the state’s open meetings laws.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth recently appeared before Congress to defend a $1.5 trillion defense budget request for the coming fiscal year. The request is more than $500 billion more than the current defense budget.

From the pulpit, we often speak of justice as a divine mandate. It is not an abstract political concept or a mere set of procedural rules written by human hands. True justice is the structural expression of God’s love in a flawed world.

Marcie Dierks is an excellent choice for our Brookings School Board.

Citizens who believe in political equality and oppose racial discrimination in voting must become more engaged and support candidates for local, state and national office that believe as they do.

“God does not need my body to be ‘standard’ to use it. God needs my heart to be open, and often, it is through the vulnerability of my disability that I am most open to the Divine.”
Amy Kenny — ‘My Body is not a Prayer Request’

Thanks for community effort; City needs to step up for new pool; Vote Diercks for school board

Different shades part of what makes here great.

In the traditional liturgies of many faiths, we are often taught to look upward to find the Divine. Yet this psalmist invites us to look outward and downward into the deep soil, the wide oceans, and the shifting winds to encounter the Living God.

Democratic governments worldwide differ somewhat in how they are structured but one common feature is a separation or division of governmental powers to protect against too much power being centralized in one person or a single institution.

The Beatitudes. The long list that Jesus gives us of who is a blessed individual. Did you find yourself in this list?

Bob Burns comments on the recent SD Republican Gubernatorial Candidates Primary Election Debate

The ancient city of Corinth was a bustling hub of ambition, status and competitive excellence.

New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan released an article on April 7, 2026, titled “How Trump Took the US to War with Iran.”

Rep. Greg Jamison was flat out wrong. Last November, the Sioux Falls Republican said his colleagues in the Legislature would support reforms to improve prison inmate recidivism and rehabilitation.

Holy Week is one of my favorite seasons in the church. It is a roller coaster of emotions. On Palm Sunday, we cheer in jubilation as Jesus enters Jerusalem. We wave our palms and shout ‘Hosanna in the highest!’

The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act has passed the U.S. House, but faces the 60/100 vote challenge in the US Senate unless Senator Thune can succeed in inserting the bill’s provision in a reconciliation measure that will be advanced by Republicans to resolve the ICE and Border Patrol funding issue.

The “No Kings” rally held last Saturday in Brookings and across the nation, serves as a modern cultural mirror to a pivotal shift in the Hebrew Bible.

Among the essential elements of modern-day liberal democracy is political equality, including the equal right to register to vote, to vote, to have your vote counted along with all others, to seek public office and to hold public office if elected.

Hundreds of locals join nationwide No Kings protest

For years, communities like Brookings have faced a familiar challenge: how to responsibly fund major public projects without overburdening taxpayers or delaying needed investments.

This week in the lectionary we see Jesus’s raising of Lazarus.

The third “No Kings” protest is being organized across our nation including here in Brookings from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday, March 28 on the Sixth Street side of Hillcrest Park.

I have been thinking recently about the decline in church worship attendance which we have seen across denominations. This is of course, a phenomenon that has been advancing over the last few decades. So I started to reflect upon what I view as the three main causes.

This tender encounter is a powerful narrative of grace, dignity and transformation. At its heart, it shows Jesus crossing social, cultural, and moral boundaries to extend compassion to a woman who had long been marginalized and misunderstood.

The final days of the 2026 South Dakota Legislative Session are winding down with mixed reviews.

Jackson a masterful public orator; Brookings a great place to live; Indivisible Brookings save the dates

May we as individuals and as a nation, recognize that (despite how the writers of the Old Testament usurp the voice of God) violence and war are not God’s desire for us. And may we give more than lip service to the concept of peace; but truly live it out the way Jesus emulated.

By a 6-3 margin, the U.S. Supreme Court held in Learning Resources v Trump that President Trump acted beyond presidential authority under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act in ordering wide ranging tariffs on the imports of scores of nations. The majority of the Court rejected the Administration’s contention that the power to “regulate” trade during a time of a declared emergency includes the power to levy tariffs.

When we read the Bible, there are different ways of interpretation you can look at. Do you read it from the author’s perspective and how the events of the time affected them and others. Or you can read it more from your perspective. How does this affect me now in this moment. How is this speaking to me? You can do the same thing with music.

As the seasons shift and the light begins to linger, we find ourselves at the threshold of an annual journey that is centuries old.

Modern political theorists might quibble a bit about the essential elements of a modern liberal democracy, but there is universal agreement that adherence to the rule of law doctrine is fundamental.

A breath of fresh air is what we need right now.

How prevalent is voter fraud?

My wife and I recently watched a documentary program on SDPB that featured the role that Walter F. White played as the leader of NAACP from the 1930s to the 1950s.

Over the last few weeks, we have seen and heard a number of very disturbing interactions between the various agencies of our Department of Homeland Security and people who are protesting their actions.

Recently the South Dakota Legislature approved a Joint Resolution calling on one another and all South Dakotans to “seek the Lord Most High for his healing presence and mercy upon South Dakota.”

South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden has been getting some flak recently from his Republican primary election opponents for using his office to bolster his reelection campaign.

January 28, 2026

Stuie Lewis is a first-year seminary student and the former mayor of Bruce.

Reckless and unhinged are adjectives that I and tens of millions of Americans are using to characterize last week’s bizarre behavior of pretend monarch Trump at the World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland and the actions of ICE/ Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis as they killed VA ICU Nurse Alex Pretti.

Remembering Martin Luther King Jr.’s teachings alongside that of the Apostle Paul

Established Constitutional doctrines recognize limitations on the power of the US president even when inherent powers are asserted in the area of foreign affairs

January 21, 2026

On being a neighbor and sharing tea

Contrary to popular belief, the upcoming South Dakota legislative session will be more than just a slugfest over property tax relief. Some of the bills that have already been filed show that in addition to deciding the fate of property taxes, lawmakers will also be revisiting some old topics.

Concern for our democracy, and Indivisible Rising Again

It is true that the text of our Constitution’s seven original articles and 27 amendments remain unchanged, but the Constitution is not self-executing.

At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what race you are running. What matters is that you are running your race.

On resolutions in the new year

On being intentional in 2026

First off, I need everyone to take several deep breaths.

Present company very much included.

Letters to the editor

By Bob Burns For The Brookings BeaconAs we prepare to celebrate 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence, many in our nation are fearful that the very future of the United States of America is being threatened by national governing failures, disregard for constitutional safeguards and heightened political conflict among our citizenry.…