culture
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Optimistic
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2 min read
I have the most optimistic friends. Despite all evidence to the contrary, they believe that so much is possible! It’s inspiring, truly. I’m not sure how. Every time, they just keep believing: cutting taxes will make them wealthier moving will make them happier keeping out refugees will make them safer money can fix their problems…
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City With No Children
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1 min read
I’ve loved this song from the moment it first came through the car’s speakers. From Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs, it speaks of desperation and the isolation, trapped feel of that location. Beautifully haunting, youthful, aging, wistful and anguished. Pure pop genius. It has lingered lately. That sense expanded beyond the suburbs, to the country, the continent.…
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Why We Need a New Year’s Resolution…in November?
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5 min read
It’s that time of year when people wax nostalgic about the year that has passed, give thanks for all of the acts of generosity they have been called to, and name the changes they want to make in the new year. You aren’t doing that? It’s just me? [bctt tweet=”‘I really can’t expect a person…
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Weaning From Outrage
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7 min read
As I drove north, along I-70 into Indianapolis, then taking I-69 all the way up to the wilds of the back roads north of Lansing, I listened to podcast after podcast. It was a time to catch up on the backlog, and it seems that a trio of shows has cultivated a moment, a sense…
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When we hate cheating…and following the rules
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5 min read
Imagine if Mitt Romney got caught stuffing ballot boxes in 2012. Well, not actually Mitt, but staff. Volunteers, actually. You’d be pissed, right? That’s serious, land his ass in jail stuff. Now imagine that election law only says that it is against the law to stuff ballot boxes. It doesn’t say what it means or…
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The one acceptable hypocrisy
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5 min read
The biggest problem we’re facing in the 21st Century involves the limits of inclusion. It is at the heart of the so-called culture war, the immigration debate, and post-9/11 foreign policy. We are seeing it now in matters of race: in policing and in flags: and in matters of guns and safety. And we are (quite remarkably)…