Politics

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

Years ago, when I was reading the Little House books, I remember being disappointed in Ma because of her dislike of Native Americans. Indians, as we all called them at the time. “Savages” as Ma thought them. I was in love with the idea of Indians. My first TV crush was Jay Silverheels as Tonto in The Lone Ranger. Laura Ingalls was in love with the romance of the Indian too. Ma was horrified. Read more about Woman: Nature’s Conservative?

It was over 40 years ago that I thought I saw a future that looked less like Star Trek and more like Mad Max and today I think we stand on a narrow ledge between a nation that builds back better and the world I feared: one of waterless barrens peopled by tribes that shoot first and ask questions later. Read more about Make America Amazing

Joe Biden spoke for all of us on Friday when he said that we had had enough of this nonsense. When one full quarter of the country is equating a roundup by a gestapo with efforts to save them from a death dealing disease, we have had more than enough. They may not care that their children die, but the rest of us do. I hope they sing “The Star Spangled Banner” as those tiny coffins are lowered into the ground. The rest of us are singing a different tune. Read more about Reclaiming Our Time

Fifty years from now, what will the history books tell us? Will they say, without fear of contradiction, that the United States narrowly missed an attempt to overthrow democracy in the years of the pandemic? Or will they tell us that there are still questions surrounding a stolen election? Read more about Big Lies Never Die