Recently I was troubled by an email exchange with a friend. He supported the removal of children from parents seeking asylum at our southern border. I called it kidnapping, and insisted such acts were atrocities. He disagreed. His argument was that these parents were neer-do-wells intent on defrauding our government. Therefore they deserve to…
Tuesday morning 8AM at Starbucks. Outside the rain Is falling in a dense curtain of water. Thunder rolls. If this keeps up there is going to be flooding. Usually a downpour abates in a few minutes. Sometimes it does not. I find myself thinking in a parallel fashion about the state of our society,…
Now I get it. With everyone else I was agitated, on edge at the thought that our President would confront the dictator of North Korea with an ill-considered demand that he immediately give up his nukes. No doubt that would have ended badly for everyone, especially for those in the area, South Korea and…
This instagram photo posted by Prime Minister of Germany Angela Merkel is striking for the story that it tells. Note Prime Minister Abe of Japan’s stoic expression showing dismay. Stay tuned…………………..
We attended a Memorial Day ceremony in Beach Park. I did my best to enjoy it. It always seems tragically sad to remember those who died prematurely in unnecessary wars. I consider the Vietnam War and all of those since, including those underway,–unnecessary. To disregard the evidence of your own senses, and to believe…
Often cause and effect is not obvious. The direction of the process, and the meaning of the ultimate result may be concealed by a tortuous chain of ambiguous links. Where, how did the cancer begin? Such news comes “out of the blue.” the last thing one expects to hear. The lethal condition was not…
I’ve not posted in several days. The writing routine has been interrupted by a remodeling project at my preferred spot for contemplation, my examination of soul for proper words. I think that good work requires being at home in a context. The renovation of the Starbucks is nearly complete and I should return to…
Rage! Menis! How much history, as though a blind fate, –is a story of rage and the aftermath. April 2, 1865 the Confederacy was essentially finished. After four years of war, the Union army entered Richmond while the city burned. A way of life based upon slavery, the blind determination to unjustly use human…
The rage of Achilles—sing it now, goddess, sing it through me the deadly rage that caused the Achaeans such grief and hurled down to Hades the souls of so many fighters, leaving their naked flesh to be eaten by dogs and carrion birds, as the will of Zeus was accomplished. Begin at the time…
The primary is over here in Illinois. The gubernatorial primary ended with the incumbent Governor Rauner victorious over Jeanne Ives. Ives, a West Point Graduate, a female-warrior, brought a warm, steely, fundamentalist authenticity to the camera. I liked her at a emotional level while being terrified of her intentions. Rauner on the other hand…
