Columns

The Lion’s Den: Faith and freedom our saving grace

DANIEL MCCLOUD

As the newly freed became more comfortable with their newfound religious freedoms, they took ownership of how they worshiped. Ministers and preachers began a new form of religious oration that included the familiar call and response that was often found in spirituals and songs and the ‘Ring Shouts,’ which originated in West Africa

Nature Rambles: Seeds of hope help our prairies

If you want to restore natural areas, you must depend on seeds. Vast prairies once covered the Illinois landscape. Bit by bit, those prairies were converted by agriculture. In a period of a couple of hundred years, our vast prairies were replaced by fields of crop seeds. If we hope to save the prairie for future generations, we must become familiar with the plants, their seeds, and how to propagate them.