It’s Indepence Day in the United States. Historian Heather Cox Richardson has a marvelous newsletter to mark the occasion, one that reminds us to live up to our highest ideals in this country, rather than sink into our lowest manifestations of a society. We haven’t been doing a good job of reaching the ideals of life, liberty, equality, or the pursuit of happiness lately. There’s a sliver of people who would rob the majority of…
I saw a bumper sticker recently that I could see slapping on my car if I were the type to use bumper stickers: “Make Orwell Fiction Again” Right on! Let’s get rid of the Big Lie, up is down, over is under, right-wing politicians making up a bunch of nonsensical propaganda so they can keep their fascist dreams alive and distract the rest of us from their criminal activities. And then I looked closely at…
This meme greeted me on Facebook one day and it irked me, as often these Facebook memes do. Usually, it’s because they strip complicated issues down and leave important parts out, serving as sound bites that rarely get analyzed. I can’t not analyze them and argue back. This one is so irksome to me that it’s generating at least 2 blog posts. Here’s the first. Until the most recent election cycle and the takeover of…
The other day I wrote a post about being cynical in my middle age, positing that perhaps it was because of the polarization we’re feeling in politics and the sense that things aren’t working as they should. I just want things to be fixed. I received a thoughtful comment from a reader that indicated that people on both sides of the political spectrum believe they have the answers to fix what’s going wrong in America.…