Tagged with Politics

Always Define Your Terms

Always Define Your TermsI’m sure that anyone out there who has studied Algebra is familiar with the maddening nature of word problems. You know the ones: “The PTA Bake Sale raised a total of $177.50. Cookies were sold for 50 cents each and frosted cupcakes were $1.50 each. If the combined total of cookies and … Continue reading

Forgive Us Our Sins

Back in 1995, actors Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt starred together in the crime thriller, Se7en, about a serial killer whose crimes fashioned to represent the seven deadly sins: sloth, gluttony, lust, wrath, envy, greed, and pride. The order of the sins is important; they traditionally begin with sloth, which is considered as the least … Continue reading

Do All Lives Really Matter?

For all of Facebook’s virtues and vices, there is one aspect of it which those of us of a certain age probably marvel at more than most. It provides a way to peek into the lives of friends and acquaintances from high school in a way that we otherwise would be unable to do. It … Continue reading

A Kinder Gentler Place

The nation said goodbye to former President Jimmy Carter last week, and as all of the living former Presidents and many of the former Vice-Presidents gathered to pay their respects it was impossible, for those of us old enough to have lived through each of their administrations to make comparisons among them. I was only … Continue reading

Too Much of a Gentleman

Here I am in 1976. I was 13 years old and in the eighth grade. From ages 9 to 12 I had been somewhat vaguely aware of the Watergate scandal, not because it was interesting (the long summer of the Watergate hearings made for very boring television), but because, from the adults all around me, … Continue reading

The Power of We

Colossians 3:12-14 English Standard Version (ESV) 12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all … Continue reading

Accentuating the Negative? The Quora Chronicles Part 2

“You got to ac-cent-tchu-ate the positiveE-lim-i-nate the negativeAnd latch on to the affirmativeDon’t mess with Mr. In-betweenYou got to spread joy up to the maximumBring gloom down to the minimumAnd have faith, or pandemoniumLiable to walk upon the scene.” (Arlen & Mercer, 1944) With its relentlessly upbeat lyrics, it is fairly ironic that Arlen and … Continue reading