What is going on in our country? That question is reverberating throughout the United States. Let’s view the chaos through the lens of common sense civics and citizenship. Since we don’t do the blame and shame routine here (we stick to principles, not personalities), I have been reticent to comment on such posts. I eliminate […]
Lessons Learned
Maybe you felt it or just got this sense about our nation in the past few weeks. Would you say that the Senate hearings to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court was the most involved America has been in decades? Perhaps. More importantly, what did we learn from this historic week in America? Here […]
Truth, Justice, and the American Way
Truth, Justice, and the American Way. This past week has made Americans question all three. Let’s talk about it. In a few days, my class of teenagers will recite from memory the Preamble to the U. S. Constitution. During our last class, no one said anything. I was looking at 7 blank stares. I couldn’t […]
Shoveling Dirt
“Every time you throw dirt, you lose ground.”- Dr. James MacDonald We digest a lot of “dirt” as Americans. Shovels full, in fact. A lot of “dirt” gets thrown in the media in the form of fake news, bending the law, starting arguments to move an agenda forward, and slander. “Dirt” gets thrown on this […]
Constitution Day, 2018
She is Alison LaCroix, a Professor of Law and an associate member of the Department of History at the University of Chicago. She quotes a colleague when she says, “There are wrong answers in constitutional law and there are right answers, and the right answers change over time.” Wait a minute…. What is your first […]
Is America Just a Mediocre Country?
Maybe you heard that widely circulated political comment this past week, “…[America] was never that great.” (If you missed it, you can look up that exact quote online and get the context). Let me be perfectly honest here. When I heard that sound clip on the news, my first thought was, “Who said that?” Maybe […]