Numbers don’t lie – people do.   Statistics! When I was in school, if that subject came up as an elective course, I would have had no interest. I would have preferred history or philosophy. But now I know stats are where it’s at. Why? Because I believe in science and logic. Stats are a basic…

Biden’s Great Tests President Biden is being tested. This is normal. It’s usually what happens to new American presidents in their first year. But Biden’s work load and our challenges are greater and more complex than for any President in our history as a republic. The times are not normal.   Imagine that YOU are the…

A Highly Unlikely Scenario I had a dream. The timeline began now and concluded in the fall of 2023. Much happened that would not have been predicted and the odds of all this occurring would suggest a really bad bet. But in my dream, it all did happen and the world became a better place.   Fall 2021:…

Why you should read Heather Cox Richardson every day I am re-posting this “Letter From an American”. Some of us have been following Professor Heather Cox Richardson with growing admiration. I encourage you to subscribe to her letters on this substack platform. It is free. But, like me, you may ultimately want to send her…

A Staggering Lack of Priorities   The 3 Cs of American Child Care: Carelessness, Chaos and Callousness. We are failing and it is shameful.  We have liberated women to have careers. We ask that they be promoted and paid equally. But we have carelessly stopped short of helping them with child care. Affluent couples can afford expensive…

A Call for Mandatory National Service    A very long time ago, I found myself in Army basic training at Fort Dix, NJ. Mud on my boots or dust in my lungs. Forced marching and full pack running until we dropped. The guy next to me picked me up. He would have hailed from another…

Reflections on a sloppy educational system  “U.S. job openings hit record high as employers struggle to find workers” Reuters September 8, 2021 “There is not an available, skilled construction worker out there. They’re all working. They’re working overtime.” said Andy Van Kleunen, CEO of the National Skills Coalition, about the shortage of skilled workers needed…

Accepting Covid as “endemic” The Corona virus will never totally go away. We can’t eradicate it. We will just learn how to live with it. But how? That is the concept that two Atlantic articles present. Sarah Zhang suggests in an August 17th piece in the Atlantic that we must accept that it will always…

Where are the teachers? One of the features of aging is some perspective. You remember how different things were years ago. How different people were. I remember some religious leaders practicing what they preached. Or at least they preached the good stuff. Love of others, no matter who they were. Welcoming all to the Table.…

Empathy and Priorities There are more important things in the world than the current Afghanistan crisis. While one would have to be quite the hardened soul to not feel the pain and suffering at the airport near Kabul, I think the tragedy is disproportionately reported. Yes, Jane Ferguson of The PBS News Hour presents a…