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On the 4th of July: What is pride in country?
My feed today has lots of posts expressing pride in being American. I don’t share it. I am grateful to live in a country that affords me comfort and relative security. But I owe almost all of my good fortune … Continue reading
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Donald Trump gives the GOP its comeuppance
Upon signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Bill Moyers related decades later, President Johnson said, “I think we just delivered the South to the Republican Party for a long time to come.” It’s a popular story (though its truth … Continue reading
Abraham Lincoln had it pretty good
When our 16th president was inaugurated, seven of the 11 Confederate states had already walked. South Carolina’s secession resolution, like those of other rebellious states, was unambiguous that slavery was the cause: A geographical line has been drawn across the … Continue reading
Ten reasons I quit watching football
As a hundred million viewers turn on the 50th Super Bowl, I offer 10 perspectives on turning it off. My football viewing ended after the 47th edition, when in a moment of clarity I turned to other items of interest. … Continue reading
Model of consistency
Consider the nation when Barack Obama first swore the oath: In the depths of an economic crisis, precipitated by our collective disregard of financial stewardship, that would eliminate 8.8 million jobs and wipe out $19.2 trillion in household wealth Regaining … Continue reading
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Tagged Abraham Lincoln, gerrymandering, President Obama, voting rights
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The girth of the tax code – in one provision
Ever wonder about line 23 on your annual Form 1040? In 2002 Congress created a temporary $250 “above the line” tax deduction to acknowledge teachers for the money they spend on classroom materials that their employers won’t. Teachers spend several … Continue reading
Posted in Congress, Uncategorized
Tagged taxes, teachers
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A political phenomenon crashes the season of hope
Donald Trump is just the hired help. A canary in a coalmine, the reality-show star is a measure of our civic health. Trump has held up a mirror, and his polling finds a slice of the electorate angry about our … Continue reading
The Senate as kabuki theatre
The Senate’s vote this week on a bill to defund Planned Parenthood illustrates several forces that have converted the “world’s greatest deliberative body” into a mechanism of non-stop campaigning. The impetus for the vote came from group that claims to … Continue reading
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Tagged Center for Medical Progress, filibuster, Planned Parenthood, U.S. Senate
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Byway for a visionary country
Going-to-the-Sun is an engineering marvel, a highway scraped out of snow-capped mountains that lifts travelers over Logan Pass in Glacier National Park. That a park would be named after a chunk of ice in far-off Montana long fascinated me. In … Continue reading
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Tagged Congress, federal budget, National Park Service
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A tale of two tuition bills
Recently I tossed decades of canceled paper checks, but one I kept: $424 for tuition and fees at the University of Virginia for fall 1978, my sophomore year. If college costs reflected CPI, this year Mr. Jefferson’s Academical Village would … Continue reading
Transformational Citizenship 