Have you ever wondered what Connie Schultz is up to? Same. So we just asked.

Greetings from Cleveland, where we enjoy a concert of cicadas until dusk, when crickets and katydids croon to armies of fireflies. Or are they lightning bugs? An ongoing debate here as autumn begins to whisper.

This week I wrote about how the same employees who gave their all during the pandemic are now feeling discardable by bosses with short memories and long histories of demanding more for less. My colleague Paul Davidson wrote recently, quoting Korn Ferry’s Mark Royal: “Employees are saying, ‘I’m not going to define myself by traditional markers of career progression and success. I’m going to put a box around work.”

As I wrote in my column, “I’m going to put a box around work” is a country song waiting to happen. What I didn’t mention is my lifelong dream of leading an all-girl country music band. In the photo, I’m the girl on the left, the oldest of four and the boss of everyone, forever. Over the years readers and I have had fun mining my shared hate mail for band names. My favorite remains Feral Feminist. 

Ever since I hit “send” on that column, I’ve been thinking of my journalism students at Kent State University, where I teach as a professional in residence. The issue of jobs and time management comes up a lot in class discussions. They share an almost universal desire for lives that are more balanced than the ones forged by their parents.

One day we were talking about the importance of identifying our values and carving out a career that doesn’t expect us to discard them. “You should be allowed to be off the clock,” I tell them, repeatedly.

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Immediately, a student called out my hypocrisy.

“You leave campus by 5, but you always tell us we can text you until 11 at night, seven days a week. Is your time less valuable than ours?”

Quite the discussion, that one. I highly recommend hanging out with young adults. They have a habit of holding you accountable at the most inconvenient times. If you’re lucky enough to teach them, you’ll find they have compassion for a large swath of the world, including you.

— Connie Schultz

What else has Connie been writing? Glad you asked

►Never was I at more of a loss than when the most important role of my life was redefined. Other parents’ lives helped me find perspective, fast.

►I have nothing against those who welcome retirement. But me? I still have too many things left to say.

►Her dream of a butterfly memorial for her son, a paved, quiet place with pollinating flowers and a plaque engraved with the face of her son, had finally come true. What a hard-earned moment of joy.

►This is not just an Ohio problem, but this is where I live, and the attacks here on this child illustrate the depths of malevolence the Supreme Court has unleashed with the reversal of Roe v. Wade.

As Texas targets 'inappropriate' books, I say keep going: A list of what to ban 

By Rex Huppke

At long last, good, wholesome Americans are taking on the country’s most notorious dens of iniquity: school libraries.

Books that could be gateways to thinking are being challenged, marked with warning labels or pulled off school library shelves. Liberals, of course, are treating this perfectly reasonable censorship as if it's some hysterical faux-moral-panic. Well, I’ve got news for you, libs: There’s nothing hysterical about our faux-moral-panic.

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