Democracy dies in darkness. Sure enough: in the absence of a free press to throw light on the actions and decisions of our political leaders, we the people are left in the dark. We don’t know what they decided, what…
Loneliness and tyranny
“What prepares men for totalitarian domination … is the fact that loneliness … has become an everyday experience of the ever-growing masses,” according to Hannah Arendt in The Origins of Totalitarianism, written in 1951. Loneliness, it seems, has moved from…
‘A failure of imagination would be fatal to democracy’
On Jan. 6, 2021, “a date which will live in infamy, the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked” by ground forces loyal to then-President Donald Trump. They interrupted the constitutionally required certification of electoral votes from the…
J.D. Salinger, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and why Christmas is in trouble
Christmas has been in trouble for a long time. This year, decorations were out in Home Depot just past Halloween. And have you seen some of the yards around town? The Star Wars characters in the display down the street…
Robert Reich was right in 1994, and we must pay attention now
Thirty years ago, Secretary of Labor Robert Reich saw something on the horizon most of us missed. He spoke to the 1994 Democratic Leadership Council: My friends, we are on the way to becoming a two-tiered society composed of a…
The inertia of history
Inertia. Think back to high school, maybe physics class. Yes, that inertia: “a property of matter by which it remains at rest or in uniform motion in the same straight line unless acted upon by some external force.” History certainly…
Anthony, Aldean, Dylan and Guthrie
First there was Jason Aldean topping the Billboard Hot 100 with “Try That in a Small Town.” Then, two weeks ago, Oliver Anthony’s “Rich Men North of Richmond” became the first song ever to top the Billboard Top 100 by…
‘Try That in A Small Town’
We already tried that, and it didn’t work out so well. For some people. The small town was Money, Miss., population less than a hundred. Fourteen-year-old Emmett Till was accused of whistling at a white woman. They took care of…