Opinion
Learning to play as an adult
It’s two in the morning and I’m still awake.
Grief, worry, hope, and kindness
At the end of January, Will and I suffered the loss of a beloved pet. After talking with friends, we found out that three of them also recently had pets reach the end of their lives. Some lost people in their family as well. Some, like me, are worried about family who are sick.
Retiring the Corporate America flag
Throughout the past few years, so much of what I believed has been turned onto its head. Most notably, my view that corporate influence on government is the greatest threat to democracy.
Happiness, simplicity, and other worthy pursuits
The other morning, while watching snow gently falling, outlining the lampposts and trees, I felt peace. More than that, I felt happy. Soon after, I found myself asking, “why can’t others find happiness in these simple things?” Of course other people do, but maybe not enough.
Will, my significant other, has said to me, “sometimes I feel like asking people, ‘have you ever turned around to watch the sunrise?’”
It is a question that should be asked of people who resort to violence. Surely there must be some deep unhappiness that leads people to act as they ...
Defending America from the U.S. Department of Defense
In his final year in office, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had also been the 5-star general who led the allied forces against Nazi Germany in World War II, warned Americans against the dangers of maintaining an oversized military and the military-industrial complex itself. He knew this joining of industry and the military could easily grow out of control, could easily drain rather than protect the nation, could easily become a threat to the future of democracy.
Here is a portion of a speech President Eisenhower gave to the American Society of Newspaper Editors in ...
The common foe; the common solution
We are done being divided by the elites. We are done being distracted into hating one another. This is both a challenge and a hope.
My family, my wife and I, our children, their spouses, and our grandchildren over the age of 18, probably canceled one another’s presidential votes this past election. Some voted for Biden, some for Trump. These are all intelligent people, they all have formal education beyond high school, and they all have the same concerns. They want a better life and a brighter future for themselves and their families. When Bernie Sanders, who to my ...
The time for Fair Maps is now
After the 2010 census, the Republican party that controlled the governorship, the state Senate and the Assembly hired a private law firm, Michael Best and Friedrich, to redraw with precision and in secret the legislative and congressional district maps to favor the party in control at that time. Keith Gaddie, a political science professor at Oklahoma University, was hired to engineer the district maps. Wisconsin taxpayers paid the law firm $431,000 to gerrymander the districts.
A poll done by the Marquette University Law School (NPR, January 16-20, 2019) found: 72% of ...