“Heaven is under our feet as well as above our heads.” —Henry David Thoreau Buddhists in Asia celebrate their savior’s birthday on different days, and this year the date ranges from April 8 in Japan to April 30 in China…
Category: Uncategorized
Public Health: Essential Services of the “Deep State” Are We All Socialists Now? Definitely Not Libertarians
“I don’t like having thousands of people around when you don’t need them.” -Donald J. Trump on public health employees “It will soon be down to zero. . .it’s under control. . . the flu kills more. . . “…
I’m a Delinquent St. Patrick’s Day Boy
“What Patrick gave the Irish was a faith that took the best of traditional pagan beliefs and redefined those in Christian terms.” -Steve Rabey, In the House of Memory My birthday is St. Patrick’s Day, but I’ve never made much…
Making the Case for Tuition-Free Higher Education European Institutions Graduate 11% More Than U.S.
“High college cost is a threat to Idaho’s economy at a time when employers are demanding a more educated workforce.” —Idaho Center for Fiscal Policy Denmark’s Higher Education Reforms In 1966 I traveled to Denmark as a Rotary Foundation Fellow…
Struck v. Defense Department: A Better Case than Roe v. Wade?
When Susan Struck was 23, she volunteered as an Air Force nurse in Vietnam. Before she signed on, she was warned that if she became pregnant she would be automatically discharged. When she arrived in Vietnam, she started dating an…
Look What the Virgin Birth has Wrought
The doctrine of the Virgin Birth is a slur on natural motherhood. —Elizabeth Cady Stanton, The Woman’s Bible I’ve been studying the world religions for about 55 years, and early on I discovered patterns in the birth stories that I…
The Neanderthals ate their veggies, too
Sometime after I told a friend that I had become a vegetarian, I saw a new bumper sticker on his truck. It read: “Vegetarian: Old Indian Word for Poor Hunter.” For years I’ve been preparing the following verbal arrows as…
My journey as a Vietnam War protester
I watched the Ken Burns’ and Lynn Novick’s “The Vietnam War” on Spokane’s Channel 7, primarily because it offered two viewings each evening. At end of each episode, there was a phone number for a Veterans Hotline for those who…
“Deaths of Despair” Reveals America’s Troubled Soul A “White Death” Takes the Lives of 45-54 Year-Olds
The workman is not in harmony with his social position if he is not convinced that he has his deserts. —Emile Durkheim These people kill themselves slowly with alcohol or drugs, or quickly with a gun. —Anne Case, Princeton economist…
The myth of a monochrome ‘Western’ civilization
If Western civilization is defined by religion and culture, then Mexico—with its Catholic heritage and historic ties to European monarchies—is unquestionably an outpost of “the West.” But for Trump and his advisers, it too is a threat to the Western…