Ever since the day that Donald Trump rode the golden escalator in Trump Tower to announce his candidacy for the Presidency of the United States of America, the country has been more divided than I can ever remember despite the fact that I have lived through the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, protests over … Continue reading
Tagged with Politics …
Why Do Conservatives Think This Way? Reflections on Piers Morgan’s Surrounded Debate
It seems that I’ve exchanged my television viewing habits for online programming. About six months ago I caught an episode of an online debate program called Surrounded. If you have never seen this program, it consists of one person with a particular point of view facing off against twenty or so other people with an … Continue reading
Whatever Happened to Progress? A Gen-X Woman Reflects on the Return of Misogyny
The boys always threw harder when a girl was on the other side of the gym. Everyone knew it. The girls knew it. The boys knew it. Even the teachers knew it. Yet no one said a word. As a woman born in the early years of Generation X, I grew up expecting sexism. What … Continue reading
Before the Safety Net: The Reality We Seem to Forget
Why do people from the United States have such short memories? Many Americans, especially those who self-identify as “fiscal conservatives” will rail against social welfare programs such as Medicaid, SNAP, and the Affordable Care Act Health Insurance subsidies. They complain that the programs are too expensive and that many of the people receiving the benefits … Continue reading
Who Are We Really Protecting?
I remember standing outside the men’s restroom, trying to look calm. My son was small—too young for me to feel comfortable sending him in alone, but too old to bring into the women’s room without hesitation. I stood there, pretending not to worry, listening for any sign that he might need me. Every second stretched … Continue reading
What the Cold War Taught Me – And What It Got Wrong
What the Cold War Taught Me—and What It Got Wrong 1972 was an interesting year to be a third grader in the United States. Although it didn’t occur to me at the time, it now seems as if our class spent an awful lot of time watching television. It started with the 1972 Winter Olympic … Continue reading
Where Can I Buy a “Race Card?”
I love a good card game! My dad taught me to play Solitaire (with real cards, not on the computer, because…well…I’m on the elderly side of Generation X) when I was about 7 years old. In high school, we’d play Hearts and Uno in the school cafeteria at lunch time. When I got to college, … Continue reading
Who’s at the Bottom?
Between 1910 and 1970, it is estimated that more than five million African Americans migrated from the rural American South to northern cities. Perhaps, not so surprisingly, I didn’t learn about The Great Migration, until I took Black American History 200 during my sophomore year in college in 1982. Ironically, it was this same year … Continue reading
Who’d a Thunk It?
Have you ever noticed how sometimes an attempt to fix one problem can set off an entire series of unintended (and often unpleasant) consequences which we never anticipated? The first example which comes to mind was during my career as an insurance industry business analyst. When a state insurance commission required our sales agents to … Continue reading
Facing Hard Truths
The H1B Visa – it’s hard to believe that it has been only about eight months since Elon Musk’s controversial remarks regarding this program in the United States were generating outrage and dominating the news cycle. I think that this is perhaps why life seems so overwhelming at times; we never really bring one controversy … Continue reading
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