It was a brisk, cloudless, January morning, a perfect day to be out and about. I was working in the yard and considering a trip to the Home Depot. At a shopping center a few miles to the south, several dozen people were queuing up outside of a grocery store to speak with their congressional ... Continue reading
Stranded on the Islets of Langerhans
June 21, 2007 By 2 Comments
Nationwide Insurance's ad slogan is "Life comes at you fast." In one of their spots, Kevin Federline, the rapping former husband of Britney Spears, is performing in a music video draped in finery and surrounded by beautiful women. In the blink of an eye it all goes away and he's cooking fries in a ... Continue reading
Hope and optimism
March 26, 2007 By
By now you've heard that John Edwards will continue his run for president, despite the difficult news that his wife's cancer has returned. Many have second-guessed the Edwards' decision. Katie Couric, whose husband Jay Monahan died of colon cancer, grilled the two on 60 Minutes and wondered why the ... Continue reading
Silent voices
December 9, 2005 By
I read these items in the morning newspaper: A woman testified that she had been tortured by members of Saddam Hussein's regime, because they considered her an enemy of the state; A young mother is suspected of murdering her 3-month-old son by putting him inside a running clothes dryer; A couple has ... Continue reading
Finding respite
February 21, 2005 By Leave a Comment
[W]hatever else the computer age has given us—and it is often compelling, powerful and productive—it is not pleasant. It is unprecedentedly fast, even frantic; it is relentless. The price of digitilization's information and fun is frustration; it always needs to be rebooted or relearned. ... Continue reading
One nation, indivisible
September 30, 2004 By Leave a Comment
I grew up in the south at a time when there were only two races: colored and white. I am white.I remember signs on drinking fountains, restroom doors, shops and restaurants that read "White Only." I remember the shouted epithets and whispered insults. I remember the fear and loathing that ... Continue reading
Just war and Iraq
April 3, 2003 By 2 Comments
I saw a war protester on the news carrying a sign that read: "What Would Jesus Bomb?" Clever. And it's a good question, because it plays to the stereotype that many people have about Jesus, that he was a 1st-century pacifist.The trouble with stereotypes is that they contain a grain of truth ... Continue reading
