I have been following the Health Care Reform debate as carefully as any ordinary person reasonably can. I’ve written often about the topic in this space since about July 24 of this year (see the Index under categories.) There is a particular reason for this interest: when my first wife died of kidney disease at […]
Comments at the end of this post. Here is the Minneapolis Star Tribune story of the event. My uncle is mentioned in the story. I happened to be next to the reporter who was covering the story, and luckily had an extra copy of the 9 pages of archival materials I had just given Mr. […]
Six years ago today – it was a Saturday in early afternoon – I first breathed Haitian tropical air, outside the airport at Port-au-Prince. For the next week, six of us were immersed in background sessions on Haitian policy and politics, present and past. By the time we left, on December 13, 2003, it was […]
Several Comments follow this post. To comment, send an e-mail to me. My e-mail address can be found on the “About” page. Short comments preferred. A year ago, October, 2008, I worried that the American financial system, and thus my modest nest egg, was in meltdown. I have a 401(k) from work career days, and […]
In a couple of hours President Obama will deliver an important address on Afghanistan at The U.S. Military Academy at West Point NY. As is usual with these kinds of addresses, every body on every side knows everything about what is going to be said tonight, and is already, and will continue, to interpret what […]
Today at my Church, the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis, Fr. Tim Power chose to frame his sermon around a story told by a guy I’d never heard of: a famed hair stylist and entrepreneur named David Wagner. Fr. Tim told us that Wagner once recalled a phone call from one of his clients. […]
Last week I had two opportunities to listen to a motivated lady, Margaret Trost, head of WhatIf? Foundation, a U.S. non-profit dedicated to the possibility that some hungry children in Haiti might have at least one good meal a week. Margaret was inspired nearly ten years ago when she made her first trip to Haiti, […]
Saturday night the U.S. Senate voted 60-39 to avoid filibuster on the Health Care Reform Issue. Every Republican voted “no”. The realistic expectation from here on out is that the Republican mantra will be to make sure Health Care Reform fails; indeed, that anything that the Democrats and/or President Obama wants will fail. It’s a […]
Monday and Tuesday I took a trip out to ND to give my Uncle a little help at the farm near Berlin; the place where Mom grew up ‘way back when’. The hardest part of the work is the drive back and forth, though there was some heavy lifting that needs two people. This time […]
Yesterday my Uncle Vince and I were driving down a country road* near his farm, and and out of the blue he said, “tomorrow must be Armistice Day, right?” Right, indeed. I was surprised to hear him call it Armistice Day, since in the U.S. it’s been called Veteran’s Day since 1954, when an act […]