In exactly a hundred days I’ll be forty years old. And as I mark the completion of my fourth decade on earth, Americans will go to the polls in what will be most likely be a turning point in our country’s history. Put another way, it could be the best,
By now we’re all familiar with the shit show of unidentified federal agents terrorizing protestors in Portland. We’ve seen the footage of the storm troopers baton-chopping a Navy vet and teargassing a wall of moms. We’ve heard the Administration’s paper thin justifications. And now we know for sure that the
CDC Director Robert Redfield recently said he thought that if Americans uniformly wore masks the COVID-19 crisis in the United States could be “under control” within four to eight weeks. Two months. Sounds doable, Robert. I’m all in… I only see one issue. Americans live in America, and right now
This week America arrived at the secret police stage of its fascist descent, and that should horrify us all. Yet all I can think about it that not nearly enough people are paying attention. In the past month we’ve seen two major episodes that signal alarm: First there were the
What does a functioning democracy actually look like? Consider Aaron Sorkin’s The West Wing, a liberal fantasy about an American president and his staff of mostly white male idealists who always care about doing the right thing and always do their darnedest to make it happen. In the context of
In 2004 a promising United States Senate candidate from Illinois reintroduced America to the idea of hope. This skinny guy with the funny name stood on stage at the Democratic National Convention and delivered a keynote address like he was dictating it into the history books. If you watched that
Most afternoons in the Elysian Valley, or Frogtown as some locals call it, you’ll probably catch a lady selling bowls of Mexican street corn at the intersection of Ripple and Newell. The nasally honk of her dime-store bicycle horn beckons like a siren song. It’s a welcome interlude to the
Sunday was Father’s Day. On Monday I cut myself shaving. Again. These two things are related but I won’t say exactly how just yet. First, there are a few items that I need to get off my chest. To start I’ll admit there’s a lot I don’t know about my
Life is nothing if not a series of terrific detours. At least mine has been. But the unifying thread, the signpost that’s always been there no matter how far or wide I’ve ventured off the beaten path, is that I have some ability with words. That is to say, I
Well hello there friend! If you’re viewing my site for the first time in awhile you may notice a few changes around here, both in terms of layout and content. If this is your very first visit, welcome, and ignore my previous statement. The blog has always been this slick and