Modify the river’s course Make the waters work for you Cast your lots with loaded dice Make sure all that’s old is new Keep on preaching to the choir It’s getting smaller every day I’m sure they’ll validate your sins You never loved me anyway Go on claim that you own God And let the wretched refuse yearn Those shithole rats will do you harm Sit on the wall and watch them burn When the least of those your brother... Read more
For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. 1 Timothy 6:10 That verse has apparently become lost among the most conservative of Christians who continue to proclaim President Trump’s first year in office as a success. It’s high time it gets some more publicity. The fact that so many far-right Christians continue to proclaim that Donald Trump is a champion... Read more
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Welcome to Bizarro World. For more than a year now, millions of Americans have been walking around in disbelief. I’ve been struggling to put my thoughts on this into words for a while now. A quick perusal of my archives will reveal dozens of attempts to express my exasperation. Sometimes I fear I’m caught in a Groundhog Day scenario where I get up and write the same article day after day. I keep searching for a new way to say what... Read more
About 18 months ago, after some soul searching, I made a big change in my life. I decided to begin to write in the realm of politics. By nature, I find politics distasteful. In my public life, I normally avoided sharing political opinions. In some ways, that is likely a symptom that stems from my profession as a history teacher. When I stand before my students, I take great care not to steer them in any political direction. I take much pride... Read more
When I first began my personal blog in December of 2015, I didn’t have any idea what to expect. I just committed myself to the idea that I would start writing about what was on my mind. I opened a WordPress account and got off and running. I was really very pleasantly surprised when some of my musings began to be read by a few people people. Occasionally, one would get shared a few times on social media and the readership... Read more
The nation and world are still reeling from President Trump’s comments about immigration when he supposedly questioned why so many immigrants had to try to come here from “shithole countries” and lamented the fact that we didn’t get more people coming from places like Norway (It should be noted that President Trump denies making those statements but, since he has been documented to have lied more than 2,000 times in his first year in office, you’ll have to pardon me... Read more
Dear Martin, You don’t know me. Our paths never crossed. I was a just a baby when you left this world but I feel like I know you. You left quite a mark. I know what you stood for and I know how much you sacrificed during your time here. You, like all of us, had your faults, but the way you comported yourself in the face of hatred and fear was something truly amazing and admirable. Your steadfast message... Read more
The Martin Luther King Jr. holiday is upon us and Black History Month is right around the corner. It’s a fitting time to take a look at America’s sorted and complex racial history. For my money, there is no better place to start than with one of our most beloved and misunderstood founders, Thomas Jefferson. The photograph above shows a journalist named Shannon Lanier. He is standing in front of a statue of Thomas Jefferson. There is a lot going... Read more
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Worker Bees and the Politics of Poverty
We are a nation of worker bees. We have been so for a long, long time. Worker bees spend their lives fulfilling their mission–doing anything and everything needed to serve the needs of the queen bee, the sustainer of life for the colony. Unlike nature’s bee hive, where all worker bees are on the same “team”, in our human colony, worker bees were long ago divided into opposing groups working at cross-purposes but still serving to keep the queen fat... Read more