Every mine safety law is written in a miner’s blood. —Phil Smith, United Mine Workers Initially, I could not find a connection between the 40-year decline in coal consumption and Christmas, and then suddenly it came to me: there will…
The 100th anniversary of the end of World War I
Their minds were numbed by the shock of peace. —Colonel Thomas Gowenlock, U.S. intelligence officer At 11 a.m. on November 11, 1918, the guns fell silent on the battlefields of Europe. Four million soldiers died, 6 million civilians were killed,…
Psychedelic Drugs and Mystical Experiences
Not a month goes by that I don’t run across yet another misuse of the word “mystical.” I just finished Walter Isaacson’s biography of Leonardo da Vinci, and I cringed when he described Mona Lisa’s smile as “mystical.” The right…
Controversial days of Thanksgiving and prayer in early America
When you pray, go into your room and shut the door. —Jesus, Matthew 6:6 When the church and state tucked into bed together, it was the church that ended up asking: “Will you respect me in the morning,” and the…
Mahatma Gandhi: Love other religions as your own
“So precious is a person’s faith in God that we should not harm that. Because God gave birth to all religions.” —St. Francis of Assis “I’ve broadened my Hinduism by other loving other religions as my own.” —M. K. Gandhi…
The day Confucius went to the United Nations
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaims that “all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights,” and that they have “the right to life, liberty and security of person.” Slavery, torture and other inhumane treatment are…
The negative effects of income inequality on mental health
The world’s richest large country, the city on a hill, seems to be coming apart. —The Economist(6/14/18) In 2011 British epidemiologists Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett released the second edition of their book The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes…
Sexually transmitted diseases at all-time high
The Centers for Disease Control has just released preliminary data on sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), and they show a dramatic increase in infections over four years. In 2017, there were 2.3 million new cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis, more…
An update on unions in higher education
The advance of higher education unions has generally stalled at about 375,000 faculty—21 percent of private schools and 35 percent of public colleges and universities. This significant movement has leveled off primarily because 23 states still do not allow collective…
Lost in a world of red and green
As I read about the fires raging across the western states, I’m reminded of my three years on “hot shot” crews in the late 1960s. One June day on Oregon’s Rogue River National Forest our crew was digging a practice…