That Area Between Black and White
There’s a weird trend now. You’ll find a short list of some ways this Republican or that made the wrong choice between being a decent person who represents their constituents or a greedy, reckless yes-man. At the end of the list, a relentlessly positive or downright naïve person brings up one not-completely-horrible-thing that Republican has …
Weird things happen when you get old. Priorities change. Events come into focus. Life is like putting together a puzzle with no picture to guide you. There will come a point when you start to see what it’s probably going to look like if you ever finish it. There is still a lot of trial …
A frightening thing happened in the United States last week: White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders suggested that ESPN should fire Jemele Hill, a sportscaster, because she tweeted that the president is a white supremacist. Then Sanders said in her own defense, “I’m not the one making outrageous comments” as if reminding people that the …
We started down the slippery slope of ignorance ages ago, but this one should be fresh in our minds. Remember that con where the grifter sells you, the mark, an afterlife you pay for with “tithe” money your entire life? the one where you don’t find out that it was a con until you die …
Included in all the frighteningly divisive rhetoric lately in the news/politics/social media, I’ve noticed a strange dichotomy about sex. We’re supposed to identify as “us” against the “other,” divided by skin color, income, religion, nationality, etc. but for some reason (I suspect religion as the root, honestly) we’re also supposed to be divided along strict …
Trumpcare. The bill that wouldn’t die. Kill or be killed. The bill or the People? It’s a race for our lives. While we brush up on rules of impeachment and how pardons work and which rat is jumping ship today, the Senate is busy trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Again. There is a …
Beware: Ignorance Protects itself Ignorance Promotes suspicion. Suspicion Engenders fear. Fear quails, Irrational and blind, Or fear looms, Defiant and closed. Blind, closed, Suspicious, afraid, Ignorance Protects itself, And protected, Ignorance grows. (Above from Chapter 12 of “Parable of the Talents” by Octavia E. Butler) This passage comes to mind as I see serious people asking …
It’s like a scene in a movie. The car is speeding up a winding, mountain road, and you see The Curve ahead, maybe there’s a close-up of the rickety old guardrail, and there is nothing you can do to stop it. You’re thinking back, wondering what you could have done differently. Could this have been …
The upcoming week includes a celebration of this country’s declaration of independence from England. It is the anniversary we chose for the beginning or birth of this nation. We gather together with friends and family to celebrate our freedoms and responsibilities as beautiful, diverse members of a whole. For more than a year Americans have …
Two days ago, the Supreme Court made a ruling that public funds could be used for a playground at Trinity Lutheran Child Learning Center in Columbia, Missouri. I was furious about the ruling, but I read opinions by people I respect and tend to listen to in a couple of places, and they said not …