Consider, Reconsider
A Reason to Think, and Think AgainExamining Violence by Protesters … I Mean Sports Fans
Let's get my one-paragraph soapbox out of the way: I used to find it intolerable that people don't understand or accept that protest can be both peaceful and unpeaceful. After all, it may be peaceful all day across one or more cities, but then things seem to always...
A Moral Lens on Protests and Reform
TEACHERS. LAWYERS. MOTHERS. JOURNALISTS. MEDICS. VETERANS. The equivalent of Federal SWAT teams have been tear-gassing and "arresting" them, even breaking international standards for WAR by destroying medical supplies used to combat their unlawful use of chemical...
A Badge-Bully’s Bill of Rights
In what is possibly the most counter-productive proposal under a head-shaking euphemism of police "reform", a county Sherriff is urging lawmakers to double down on the very things people are trying to fix. Instead of listening to the community to understand why law...
Our Unrealistic Expectations of Police
Someone asked what would have happened on 9-11 if the police had been "defunded". The assumption is a worse disaster, and they may be right. There were a number of heroes in blue that fateful day in Manhattan when the towers were hit, and we should be grateful for...
Who’s Lives Matter, Again?
When the "Black Lives Matter" (BLM) movement started in 2013, there were conflicting reactions, especially among the "White" community. There were some negative views based on the perception of the group that started it. The message was pointed, as could be expected....
Loading ...Born Into, Not Earned
{Facebook post by Sarah Bonse reprinted here with permission.} I was born into a world I did not "earn". Born to parents who have navigated their own worlds and struggles to bring me into my own. From birth I have enjoyed privileges so freely given, they seemed...
Protests: The Good Cop’s Salvation
If you learn anything from Gandhi and Dr. King, et alia, it's that the power of peaceful protest is to demoralize those who are doing violence against them. Only the most psychopathic souls can keep abusing people day after day, even if they are ordered to and have...
No Justification for Harm
If someone is hurt in the course of police action, it's not always the police's fault. But when it is, making it about the rap sheet of the victim or what they may have done to not comply or "provoke" law enforcement is irrelevant. The Police hold the badges and guns....
I Thought I Was the Freedom Fighter
I grew to believe over my lifetime, that as Americans, our liberties have been chipped away at for generations and I often felt I was the rare crackpot that noticed or cared. There are countless laws and permits for every occasion, and I've written and spoken out on...
The Pitiable Habitual Conspiriacts
There are many authentic conspiracies, and many we don't even know about. The problem is that thanks to the Internet there are a THOUSAND TIMES more fake ones, and their prevalence is based on psychological stickiness, not fact. The real ones probably won't even be...
The Quarantine of Our Time
I don't know what people a hundred years will say about COVID-19. People only talk about the death tolls of the Spanish Flu a hundred years ago. But in the middle of this, I see life coming into focus as a society like never before. We're rationing our attention onto...
Suleimani’s Assassination: Concerns and Consequences
{Posted by Gerard Strauss, esq., on Facebook, 6 January 2020.} When Trump entered office, we had a nuclear non-proliferation agreement with Iran, and we had a relative if contentious peace. If the terms of our treaty with Iran were not satisfactory to our leaders,...
The Government Reality Show Addiction
Let me "splain" something. Leadership is about people. Bureaucracy is not. Just like it mattered far less than we think who won the election, it matters just as little if the president is impeached or not. Now I know what you're thinking, or feeling rather -- that so...
Repub: Bonhoeffer on the ‘Stupidity’ That Led to Hitler’s Rise
{Republication of article by Annie Holmquist} Although he was in power for only a handful of years, Hitler and his Nazi government slaughtered millions. One of the more well-known victims of that slaughter was Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was executed on April 8th, 1945,...
Should the Incarcerated Vote?
It would make sense that those who pose a threat to society should probably not be calling the shots. Of course I am referring to a large number of politicians, but let's talk about those who are incarcerated under such pretenses. The current law is that those (in...
Love it or leave it? How about fix it?
I would like to think one can refuse to believe their country is the "best" in this or that way and not have to be told that if they don't like it they should leave. I've even heard the question, "What's stopping you?" in ignorance of personal and financial reasons...
What an Inappropriate School Lesson Teaches Us
In an 8th Grade classroom of a charter school in Texas, a teacher hands out an assignment: to list the "pros" and "cons" under the heading "The Life of Slaves: A Balanced View". Of course this was inappropriate, but not for the reasons everyone thinks. According to...