Towards the end of yesterday’s most stimulating conference of Parents United for Public Schools, a slide appeared on the screen: “I skate to where the puck will be, not to where it has been.” Wayne Gretzky Gretzky was the almost superhuman hockey player who made it all look easy. I had the privilege of seeing […]
I’m very near 72 years of age. The people of my and my parents generation created the Middle Class, and have been huge beneficiaries of it, in endless ways, from Medicare to the GI Bill to Unions, and on an on and on. For the younger generation, as Joni Mitchell’s popular song goes, they may […]
A year ago today I was at a resort in suburban Albuquerque NM. It was a nice spring day, and I walked down to the Rio Grande River and saw this tree which was winning the race to be first to leaf out for 2011. Today, exactly one year later, I went to my favorite […]
The main front-page headline of today’s Minneapolis Star Tribune is pretty clear “election 2012 Ad blitz targeting Obama is on its way”*. Karl Rove and Company is baaaacckkkk, big-time. They were preparing for the Main Event, and here they are. There are no surprises in the article (click on the headline to see the entire […]
There are legions of people who toil in the trade of family history. I’m one of them. We can all tell similar stories: as you begin to peel the onion, you find endless layers. Dead ends turn into “aha” moments. Aha moments can later return to dead-ends. The quest for a families history never ends. […]
I’m not an enemy of Capitalism. From my earliest years some deference was paid to the person who lived in the biggest house in town; who occupied a position of status or rank; the most “successful” relative…. Right or wrong, they were thought to be deserving of being a bit better off. Today, Capitalism funds […]
If you aren’t normally involved in politics, or even if you are, you might be interested in this recap of last weekends local district political convention. We have a societal, essentially tribal, inclination to label and judge “broad brush”. Therefore, rather than talking face to face, we label: Iran, collectively, is evil; or, or or…. […]
UPDATE April 4: An excellent commentary on the economics of the lottery can be found here. And on another angle, here. A followup post on this topic is here. This morning started, as usual, with the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. The entirety of page A4 – no ads – was devoted to two topics: the top two-thirds […]
The issue of Bullying has been a very high profile one recently. Here is a unique opportunity to learn more. Saturday, April 28, 7 p.m. at St. Michael’s Church in Roseville MN (map here), there will be a unique opportunity to hear not only from a nationally known speaker on the issue of bullying, Jamie […]
(#4 is here.) Tuesday I was at the Capitol to deliver personal letters in opposition to Voter Suppression as embodied in HF 2738. Enroute there I stopped at the office of the Secretary of State and picked up a Voter Registration form, which is here: MN Voter Registration001 Print out this form, get to know […]