Opinion

A president’s speech, a Democratic counterpunch and a Coast Guard swimmer honored for saving a girl in Texas floods: politics and plain heroism shared the same stage this week.

This week’s headlines — from a pacemaker used to narrow a search to the imperative of a clean short program — remind us that the quiet and the obvious both send messages worth listening to.

This week the nation paused — remembering a civil-rights figure as guides for money, programs and even where to buy gold arrived in inboxes, and a U.S. athlete took home a milestone victory. On the porch, we make sense of it all.