Benning Printing & Publishing

Taxation without representation is not a thing of the past. But what does it really mean? Legally and historically, the phrase has a narrower definition. But the meaning I am getting at is more than just voting—it is about meaningful representation. If you: 1. Pay taxes 2. Follow laws 3. Fund public systems yet feel that your lived realities, values or needs are consistently ignored or overridden, then representation only exists on paper—not in practice. But first, let’

Distractions… We are surrounded by distractions. They pull our attention away from what is really important and from what is actually going on. I have felt this over and over again for the past few years, but especially this past year. It seems like everything is a distraction—TV, the Internet, everything. There is a lot going on in the world, and in Minnesota alone, to make things unsettling for people who are used to the “nothing ever happens here” mentality. That was

I spent last week in Las Vegas, Nevada. I had never been there before, but it wasn’t my first foray into big city life, having gone to Nashville, Tennessee, for the first time in September of 2025. The two cities were built on very different things—one on music and one on gambling. But really, they were very similar. Both had millions of people living in the city or in connecting suburbs. Both had grown exponentially over the past 20–40 years, and both were built on hope. L

It’s a new year. 2026. I never thought I would see it. But here it is with all its potential for being the best year yet! Every year has this potential. It’s like January arrives and we suddenly are filled with all the ideas and thoughts about things we want to accomplish in the new year. And then, about a week or a month later a whole lot of people either forget about their goals or simply do not have the drive or ambition to carry through with their plans. According to Dr

A few years ago, I wrote about my friend Stacey Kananen. She and her family lived in the Clarissa area, and we were classmates for a few years—from about second grade until around fifth or sixth grade. After Stacey and her family left without saying a word (her mom, Marilyn, had worked in the office at the Central Todd County Care Center), we kept in contact for a while, but eventually we lost touch. Another friend helped me reconnect with Stacey years later when Jerene (Pe

I turned 60 on Sunday. For the most part it was just like every other day of the last year it just had a different name. What was different was the mindset that came with the event that wasn’t very eventful. I spent a lot of time thinking and pondering what, if anything, turning 60 meant. Was I supposed to have some big epiphany and suddenly see clarity? Was I supposed to evaluate my entire life and my decisions and come to some groundbreaking conclusion? Turns out, 60 is

I just returned from some training for my oils business that took place in Nashville, Tennessee. It was awesome. More than the training,...

I was part of a special training that took place this past weekend. It was for the business I do in my spare time (I know! What is spare...

I think if I see or hear one more advertisement for GLP-1 injections, I will quite possibly scream! I watched one GLP-1 weight loss...

This one is a hard one to write... There is a lot of feeling and pain behind it. You see, I shouldn’t be here writing this, sitting at...