Archive

I’ve tuned out of the endless forensic analyses of how news media failed the electorate. In fact, other than having misread the political and cultural pulse of many Americans, I’m… Read More

I’m sitting in a dentist chair recovering from my latest oral sandblasting when the dentist pops in for his mandatory “dental consult” – a “drop-in with remarks,” as my grandmother… Read More

As headlines about young men massacring random or specific targets multiply, we must repress our implicit bias and the tribal labels we apply to these troubled young men. Otherwise, we… Read More

Pilgrims fleeing religious persecution in Europe made up the first great American in-migration. Lincoln ended the bitter debate on slavery with the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, leading a century later… Read More

I grew up in the arms of the Holy Cross Catholic Church in Morrisville and, although I fell out with the church in my teens, I maintained a deep friendship… Read More

Public education is Vermont’s largest and best investment. And by re-imagining it as a publicly financed continuum of learning, we could deepen its value and cost-effectiveness. In today’s world, where… Read More

When I was young and in search of the facts of life, there was no discernible pornography. The closest we ever got was a book we found hidden in our parents’ bedroom called… Read More

It’s a New Year. Daylight’s lasting longer, though our perception is mostly mathematical. We have a sprinkling of snow if not much sun, and I’m ready for a new year.… Read More

In the early-mid-19th century the British East India Trading Company maintained large poppy farms and opium factories in India to supply their growing market in China. When the Chinese defended… Read More

NASA defines a black hole as… “a place in space where gravity pulls so much that even light cannot get out. The gravity is so strong because matter has been… Read More

Obesity is a principal driver of health care costs, our nation is obese, and at 350 pounds I, too, am obese. But my doctor tells me that at seventy years… Read More

We look at a stranger and subconsciously register gender, race and perhaps class markers. These reflexive cognitive observations reveal nothing about the person yet often carry heavy judgmental baggage. In… Read More