As 2019 drew to a close, various organizations announced their word of the year. Oxford Dictionaries named “climate emergency.” Dictionaries.com named “existential.” Merriam Webster named “they.” As this new year begins, our choice for word of the year just past is Trust. We select trust not because of its presence in 2019 but because of its absence. Indeed, this absence of trust could be seen as one of the underlying reasons or a root cause of the climate emergency, which is precipitating an … [Read more...]

  In a famous 1970 Earth Day poster, cartoonist Walt Kelly had his title character Pogo, a possum, who lived in the Okefenokee swamp, say to his friend Porky Pine, a porcupine, after they have walked through a contaminated area, “Yep, son, we have met the enemy and he is us.” Approaching five decades later, the United States democracy is becoming a swamp. The enemy creating that swamp in the U.S. is the enemy within. In 2019, we have met the enemy and he is us. Donald Trump … [Read more...]

  President Trump: This is Norway. We have information on your opponent in this election. We would like to meet with your son Donald in Trump Tower and share it. We are certain that you would be happy to set up that meeting, as you generously invited us to make this contact in your exclusive interview with George Stephanopoulos. Some might question you arranging such a meeting. Here’s an idea. If they do, don’t tell them it’s to discuss election dirt but to address the possibility of … [Read more...]

The restrictive and punitive abortion legislation recently passed and signed into law in states such as Georgia, Alabama and Missouri has brought abortion into the national spotlight again. The debate around abortion is usually cast as pro-life vs. pro-choice. The pro-life side is anti-abortion and focused on the fetus in the womb. The pro-choice side is pro-abortion and focused on the woman and her bodily autonomy and reproductive rights. As we reflected on it and considered the context … [Read more...]

  In a May 31 CBS This Morning TV interview, Attorney General William F. Barr said, “Everyone dies, and I am not you know, I don’t believe in the Homeric idea that you know, immortality comes by, you know, having odes sung about you over the centuries.” In that part of his interview, Barr told the truth. This stands in stark contrast to his cursory and inaccurate four page summary of the 400+ page Mueller Report released on March 24. And his misleading … [Read more...]

  Push came to shove on May 22 in a 3-minute non-meeting in the White House between President Donald Trump and Democratic party leaders and the 2 trillion infrastructure plan collapsed, blown apart by the tornadic winds from the President’s mouth. The demise of the alleged plan was predictable, because from the start it was built not on strong pillars with deep pilings, but on a house of cards in which the joker was wild. The victim of all of this was the nation’s infrastructure, … [Read more...]

Is national service an idea whose time has come? The answer is maybe. The one thing that can be said definitively is that in the first half of 2019 it has re-emerged as a concept for consideration. Fareed Zakaria, journalist and author, suggested a national service program of some type in his commencement address at Ohio State University on May 5 of this year. Mr. Zakaria concludes his article for the Washington Post,adapted from that address, by opining, “National service will … [Read more...]

“The rich are different than you and me” F. Scott Fitzgerald allegedly said to Ernest Hemingway in the first quarter of the 20th century. Hemingway replied, “Yes, they have more money.”    Today, in the first quarter of the 21st century, the rich have a lot more money. And because of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), they will have even more and the middle class and average US citizen will have less.    That’s what William Gale, the Arjay and Frances Miller Chair in … [Read more...]