Justice - Compelled to Move Forward

April 22, 2024May 11, 2024

A TRAGIC SYMBOSIS

Most of us learned in public school how a symbiosis is a “close biological relationship between different species”. Most of the time these relationships are co-dependences that benefit both species. Sometimes they’re fatal. Tragically, as a growing number of Christians have tried to assert their influence in political arenas, the accelerating ties between those who call themselves Christians and most Republican “leaders” dependent on their votes, has devolved to the detriment and mutation of both.

November 27, 2023December 3, 2023

INSPIRATION FROM SELFLESSNESS

If life has taught me anything it’s to look and listen carefully, and remember when I see someone acting against their own self-interest, against their own inner disposition. It happened about ten years ago when I witnessed a young lady, at one of America’s elite universities, choose to enter a boxing competition. She stood at around five-foot tall, weighed maybe 110 pounds, her countenance was one of a gentle and contrite spirit, and it was clear she had not a mean bone in her body. So why would such a bright young lady, with no discernable physical prowess, press into something so antithetical to her self-interest and disposition?

November 6, 2022November 6, 2022

WHAT HAVE WE BECOME?

While advocating for America and protesting against candidates in my own Republican Party over the last five years, it’s been interesting to witness how much people have changed. Typically, hundreds of people respond with a big thank you and thumbs-up, while a few dozen hurl demeaning names at me and curse me. I’ve become accustomed to that, but several interactions lately, exemplifying a level of anger and ill-informed opinion I’d rarely seen before, lead me to wonder if it might be fruitful for all of us to take a step back and question the choices we’re making and what we’ve become.

September 30, 2022September 30, 2022

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A REPUBLICAN?

As a conservative and Republican for over 40 years, given the unraveling of the Republican Party over the last six years, and the upcoming elections, perhaps it would be of some value to recall the core values the Republican Party was built on and how most current Republican politicians measure up to those values.

July 13, 2022August 4, 2022

HOPE IS A VERB

Hope. It’s as essential as the air we breathe. And yet, here in America, in a land full of plenty and potential, in so many ways, it often feels like we are trying to run on some residual whiffs of hope. Daily, we struggle to cope with surging inflation, hear news about labor and supply shortages, and witness rising divisions among us, but rarely do we hear or speak of a more ephemeral, a more serious thinning of confidence and hope. Given the strength, scale and persistence of problems like racism, income and wealth inequality, global warming, crime and social strife, and political discord perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising that many feel beaten down, hoping for a silver bullet from somewhere, and eager to support pundits that might look like a political savior.

June 13, 2022July 22, 2022

FREEDOM AND THE GREATER GOOD

Beyond a plague upon life, if Covid has been anything it’s been a most serious teacher. It’s taught us that life is fragile and can be fleeting. It’s taught us to cherish time with family and friends. It’s taught us to pay closer attention to protecting our health. It’s taught us that effectively governing a diverse and polarized population is a really difficult thing. It’s taught us how important social time is to our children, as well as all of us. It’s taught us how a tiny virus can bring a huge and powerful country to its knees. And it’s taught us that beneath our beliefs about freedom lies a growing, dark underbelly, where individual freedoms can be elevated far above the common good.

April 4, 2022April 23, 2022

THIS IS THE PRICE!

As our hearts break for the people of Ukraine, it is imperative that we wrap our heads around the fact that this is the price of supporting a president who stridently promoted “America First”. This is the price of supporting a president that cast doubt on American’s commitment to NATO and weakened its deterrent strength. This is the price of supporting a president and his enablers who divided us here at home and made us weak in the eyes of adversaries. This is the price of supporting a president that invited Russian interference in our elections and choose to support Putin’s account of that election over the findings of our own CIA. This is the price of letting a president get away with holding military aid to Ukraine hostage to getting political dirt on an election rival. And this is the price of supporting a president that aligned himself with aggressive authoritarians and actively promoted selfishness and self-interest here at home and before the United Nations.

January 28, 2022January 28, 2022

What Patriotism Means To Me

While most of us have strong feelings about patriotism, its exact meaning seems nebulous and elusive. Perhaps that is why many of us practice patriotism so differently. Some exercise what may be the pinnacle of patriotism by enlisting in our military and putting themselves in harm’s way to defend our country. For most of us though, simply standing respectfully at the playing of our national anthem is our clearest expression of patriotism. Given the growing speed and strength of rebuke toward anyone who doesn’t conform to traditional patriotic practices and the way a number of politicians have used less traditional ways of practicing patriotism to advance their own political ambitions, perhaps it would be of some value to take a step back to reflect on the meaning of patriotism.

October 24, 2021December 11, 2021

DUPLICITY AND ITS DESTRUCTIVE CONSEQUENCES

While visiting Yale with my son 15 years ago, our tour guide said something that has challenged me since. Near the end of the tour, I inquired about on-campus church services. Our tour guide half-jokingly replied, “Oh yea, if you’re one of those hate-mongering Christians, we have several church services here on campus”. While our tour guide tried to take back his words, churning inside my brain was the question: “How could such an extraordinarily intelligent, perceptive and otherwise gracious young man, call Christians “hate-mongering”? “Hate-mongering!” It didn’t take more than a moment to recall news a few days earlier of Christians protesting outside the funeral of a fallen soldier returned from the war in Iraq. Against the backdrop of a grieving family was a small group of protesters, oblivious not only to their own callousness, but the far-reaching consequences of their hypocrisy. Hypocrisy and its consequences have always been with us, but far more troubling lately is the scope of disinformation and duplicity spewing from the mouths of political “leaders”. Few things are more dangerous and destructive than lies masquerading as truth, and the wholesaling of incongruent beliefs by shrewd and powerful people.

June 1, 2021August 26, 2021

RECONSTRUCTING CAPITALISM IN AMERICA

Given that income and wealth inequality in America has reached record highs, only 52% of Americans view capitalism positively, and the fact that the Federal Reserve had to rescue us from economic collapse twice in just the last 13 years, I submit that capitalism in America has morphed into a system that no longer serves us well and must be restructured. While America’s brand of capitalism has enabled our growth into an economic and technological behemoth, it has also left us far from the egalitarian society our founding fathers wished for us and encouraged an accumulation of debt and a concentration of business that have left us far from secure. Given our current relative stability, we are ripe, right now, to begin restructuring in ways that enhance freedom, build dignity, advance competitiveness and improve the stability of our economy.