JUNE 8, 2020 – As the train of justice hurtles down the track and we privileged folks decide whether to (a) jump aboard; (b) jump out of the way; or (c) get run over, I must sing the praises of the baked potato. The track isn’t smooth, so in walking through the carriages toward the …
BREATHE WHILE YOU CAN
JUNE 7, 2020 – If relaxed curfews now allow us to catch our collective breath, we’re not out of the woods yet. We might well be facing more serious danger ahead—too little reform too late; another case of overt police brutality; some other flashpoint, starting with the prosecution of the four Minneapolis cops. All four …
“HOME OF THE FREE”?
JUNE 6, 2020 – On the way to our cabin recently, we saw a huge, road-side sign that read, “HOME OF THE FREE BECAUSE OF THE BRAVE.” Honestly, the sign didn’t remind me of today–the anniversary of D-Day, start of the Allied invasion of Normandy to drive Hitler’s Wehrmacht back to Germany; an operation that …
SAVING “GOOD” SO “PERFECTION” CAN LIVE
JUNE 3, 2020 – An attorney I know often quotes Voltaire famous line, “Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.” The lawyer’s point: by pressing too hard for perfection, you risk blowing the deal that your client desperately wants. At the same time, you must touch all the bases and home plate to score, …
REVOLUTION?
JUNE 2, 2020 – How will the current chapter of our history read? There’s no script, no pre-determined outcome. There are signs, however, of what could well unfold. Not to sound melodramatic—which means the exact opposite: to sound melodramatic—but current dynamics in our body politic prompt thoughts about revolution. And I’m not thinking ala the …
EXTREME MODERATION
MAY 31, 2020 – Instead of Netflix over the last three evenings, my wife and I have watched “Riots in the Street,” starring . . . people in the streets. Fortunately, thanks to Governor Walz’s leadership, last night ended differently from the previous two. Exhausted by the ongoing crisis, my wife retired early. I stayed …
BEFORE THE SUN GOES DOWN
MAY 30, 2020 – The charge, trial, sentencing, and execution of a black man—where a single police officer, given free rein by his three fellow officers, served as police, judge, jury, executioner—took mere minutes, end to end. It will now take a collective, herculean effort to tame the beast of chaos. That people outraged by …
AMERICANS: TAKE NOTICE, SUMMON HOPE
MAY 29, 2020 – We live at the center of the Twin Cities, with downtown Minneapolis six miles one way and downtown St. Paul equidistant the opposite way. Yesterday brought more destruction in reaction to the killing of George Floyd. From our back yard amidst bird chatter and spring fragrance we heard the regular wail …
GRANT’S DEFEAT
MAY 28, 2020 – Yesterday evening in my chair of privilege I faced the stark, tragic reality of America: Grant’s defeat. Two nights before, Netflix had been acting up, depriving me of my regular fix of The Medicis. I switched to the History Channel and chanced upon a three-part documentary about Ulysses S. Grant, produced …
THE TIP OF THE SPEAR
MAY 27, 2020 – By now everyone’s seen the video of the Minneapolis police officer kneeling on the neck of a cuffed, black man lying in pain on the street. The face of the officer reveals the absence of fear, and as officially reported, the arrestee had been apprehended not for violent crime but because …
ROTTEN APPLE VS. OVER-RIPE BANANA
MAY 26, 2020 – What now unfolds is Rotten Apple vs. Over-ripe Banana. Rotten Apple is crawling with worms, mushy with rot, and devoid of any “core” values. This fruit’s so bad, it’s not fit for pigs. Many people who’ve seen an apple know at a glance that this one is inedible. (That I can’t …
CONFESSION OF A COULD’VE BEEN “EVANGELICAL”
May 22, 2020 – I used to be a Lutheran—the moderate strain, meaning, E.L.C.A. (“Evangelical Lutheran Church in America”), which, ironically, was in contrast with the “Evangelical” persuasion that one usually associates with that term. How and why I became entrenched in mainstream, moderate Lutheranism—congregation president, chair of the worship committee, perennial Sunday school teacher, …
AMERICA: LAND OF “FREEDOM”
MAY 19, 2020 – This morning I saw the CNN headline, “America’s Covid-19 response is the most American thing ever.” The image featured a woman waving a large American flag, seated atop a parked jeep. The sub-headline read, “The country’s conflicting behavior in the face of coronavirus is a symptom of a national value that …
CONVERSATIONS
MAY 16, 2020 – This past week I had three political conversations: one with a strong Trump supporter, two with vehement anti-Trumpsters. The Trump supporter was convinced that Corvid-19 was hatched in a Chinese lab and aimed at bringing us down; that our best foil is a re-opened economy. One of the anti-Trumpsters, meanwhile, was …
STANDARD OF MEASURE
MAY 14, 2020 – Paradoxically, one way to distract yourself from The Virus is to read all the lengthy articles on the subject by epidemiologists, statisticians, and the world’s leading conspiracy theorists. Personally, I’ve checked out of the discussions. This wasn’t the case early in The Crisis. I found myself sucked into all sorts of …
SEQUESTRATION: STATEROOM, NOT SAFE ROOM (WITH OR WITHOUT STEAKS)
MAY 12, 2020 – Usually I’m sequestered from the nonsense that reigns supreme elsewhere on the good ship America. This morning, however, sudden zig-zags in the vessel’s course prompted me to leave the quiet of my stateroom to have a look. The air smelled sulfuric. Blindfolded passengers with bad hair, bulging eyes, and carrots jammed …
V-E DAY
MAY 8, 2020 – On the 75th Anniversary of V-E Day, I wonder: should I think of “V-E” as “Victory in Europe” and dwell upon its lessons or . . . should I view today as “Very Easy” and live obliviously? If like Simon the Simpleton I don’t care about the portents of history and …
THE GLASS AND THE WAR
MAY 4, 2020 – My wife often observes how some see the glass half empty while others see it half full. The latter group, she says, are more likely to seize victory from the jaws of defeat. Generally, I’m a “glass half full” person. When the forecast is “partly cloudy,” I think, “partly sunny.” If …
A/K/A “LET ME TREAD ON YOU!”
MAY 2, 2020 – Perhaps you and I see the same images. Perhaps we don’t, for we live in the Disunited States of America. In any case, witness gun-toting protesters in Michigan and beach crowds in California. “What?” They say. “A killer virus is afoot? It’ll take time . . . and patience . . …
FREE SPEECH DOOMED
MAY 1, 2020 – In school I got “schooled” in the First Amendment. It was essential for a free, civil, and democratic society. Now I’m unsure. My uncertainty, however, is not because I’ve lost faith in the foundational precept of our democracy. I’ve always understood the First Amendment as a “mixed water” faucet, from which …
VIVA A REVOLUÇÃO DOS CRAVOS!
APRIL 25, 2020 – Feeling outraged that America’s led by a village idiot, I think about this day in Portugal in 1974. That’s when the military initiated the largely bloodless “Carnation Revolution”—named so because citizens stuck carnations into rifle barrels of soldiers guarding the streets. It signaled the end of Estado Novo—the “New State”—under the …
PARENTS, IT’S NOT LOOKING GOOD
APRIL 20, 2020 – In these upside-down times, explanations abound as to which way is up and which is down; the differences among black, white, and gray; that “up” is “down,” green is red, and black is bad. Math, anti-math, math models, science, non-science, news, “fake news,” fake “fake news,” and information—baked, half-baked, misperceived, misstated, …
THERE’S ALWAYS TOMORROW
APRIL 16, 2020 – As the world struggles with The Virus, we’re learning that the spread of an invisible, highly contagious pathogen is as big a threat to humans as humans are to humans. But this attention-grabbing contagion is doing lots more than making people sick. It’s revealing in stark fashion many of the flaws …
TAX FREE DAY!
APRIL 15, 2020 – Recently, all set to “do our taxes” by the traditional deadline, I realized that thanks to The Virus, the filing deadline is now July 15. Then a client called: what could he do with retail clients who can’t pay rent? (Fortunately, the client’s property isn’t mortgaged.) “Negotiate,” I said, “but condition …
CASSANDRA, SILENCED: A CALL TO ACTION
APRIL 13, 2020 – We are deep into the era in which millions of Americans can’t hear Cassandra say, “I told you so.” Even when irrefutable evidence and ironclad proof fill the eyes, ears, mouth, and nostrils of a naysayer or human ostrich, the truth of her prior warnings is denied or ignored. When Bush …