Politics

These past few years have been putting this country to a test of sorts. On the one hand, the Democratic Party has been all about delivering benefits to the Common Good. On the other hand, the Republican Party has been fighting a rear guard Culture War. Two enormous swathes of the country fighting two completely different battles. And in the most recent clash at ballot boxes across the nation, the country seems to have opted for the Common Good. I was disheartened somewhat by the narrow margins, but not surprised by the results. The Culture Warriors have nothing to offer. Read more about Comfort Ye, My People

Seems as if this entire year has been all about the midterms – when it wasn’t about January 6th and The Former Guy, and even then it turns out to have been all about the midterms. Read more about Midterms

Just like Florida in 2022, I was not prepared 42 years ago when, coming out from a Fellini film on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh, I heard someone tell a friend, “Carter’s conceded. Reagan won.” Read more about Islands in the Storm

Hope rears its ugly head once again.

That is a line I have used accompanied by a deep sigh for everything from falling in love to politics, and for very good reason. So rarely does hope live up to its promises.

I was very lucky last week, on a flying trip to Seattle, to have an hour’s conversation with two of my favorite people, one of whom has been known to chide me, online, for being naïve. “Naïve!” I was prone to think. And here I am one of the most skeptical creatures I know. Read more about The Mad Persistence of Hope

Used to be maybe States’ Rights made some sense? Way back in the way back before there were trains, planes and automobiles. Before there was TV even, not to mention the Internet. Way back in the Once Upon a Time when no one knew everybody else’s business and even if they did there didn’t seem to be much they could do about it. Way back then, each State had qualities and laws that seemed to be unique to each one. One state grew cotton, another grew corn. One state mined coal, another mined forests. More to the point, each state almost had their own language. Read more about States Rights r Rong

Liberals have rights. Conservatives have freedom.

At least that’s how it seems sometimes. We insist on our rights to things like abortion, conservatives insist on their freedom to bear arms.

But I want women to have both the right and the freedom to have an abortion, if that is what she needs to ensure her own future plans. And I want freedom from the fear that I could be cut down by an AR-15 in the grocery store. Read more about A Right to Freedom

Relieved though I was to see Hungary welcoming Ukrainian refugees with open arms, I could not help but remember the rolls of barbed wire that greeted the Syrians and other refugees from the holocaust of their homelands when at last they reached what they hoped might be the safety of Europe. Read more about Refugees

I hear there are folks out there who want nothing taught or suggested in schools that might imply that the United States has not always been a trusted arbiter of truth, justice, and the American Way. That might even imply that the American Way has not always been the best way. They want it laid down in stone that there is, in fact, an American Way to which we have always held in the best interests of all involved. And that questioning that premise is, in fact, a kind of treason. Read more about The Conversation

Now, now, now. Don’t get your panties in a bunch. Yes, I am still an atheist. But I am also, at heart, a Christian. And so are most of you.

I was reminded of this recently in a NYT column titled How Christmas Changed Everything, by Tish Harrison Warren: Read more about Yes, Virginia, This is a Christian Country