There are a lot of critical issues in America that we, as voters, have to consider. According to polls, Climate Change receives a significant ranking and is the issue that concerns younger Americans the most, but ranks lower as voters get older. The Economy ranks high with overall voters, but according to one survey the…
And that’s why I don’t like Donald Trump…
Recently, I posted on Facebook my disdain for “candidate bashing.” Every day I receive (and so do you) countless posts and articles about the dubious misgivings of so-and-so candidate and how activities or votes from their past indicate a sinister set of ideals. I have voiced my dislike for negative advertising and attack commercials for…
Who’s on Second?
We have this tendency in America to fictionalize the stories of our founders in order to create a shorthand understanding of their great accomplishments. George Washington certainly told a lie, but it inspires us to believe that the Founding Fathers were cut from divine cloth. This has been on my mind as I read positions regarding gun control…
Life and Death
Gun Control was a very difficult subject when I was running for the Iowa House. Not because I was afraid of the subject, I wasn’t, but because the forces that disagree with anything short of the proliferation of firearms would rise in obstinate (and loud) opposition. Money gets thrown in to defeat you, and even a fearless candidate has…
Remembering Our Friend
Our community lost one of its greatest citizens. Known by many, but not by enough. Loved by all who knew him. Steve Mager was never the mayor, nor on city council. He never led Main Street, or chaired a major organization. He wasn’t elected or appointed to anything that I know of. Yet he…
Tabula Rasa
The father of modern philosophy, Rene Descartes (“I think, therefore, I am”) believed in “Innatism”; he believed the human mind is born already containing certain knowledge, specifically the difference between right and wrong, and at our core was an innate knowledge of God. His theory was countered by the Empiricists, John Locke, in particular, who…
A New “Contract For America”
Have you noticed how Republicans rarely, if ever, ask “What went wrong?” Even when things go wrong they stick to the plan, unleash new, or refurbish old, Republicans and keep moving ahead. 25 years ago Newt Gingrich laid the foundation for winning with the “Contract With America.” There were 8 government and operational reforms listed…
The Weaponization of #MeToo (a guest article)
#MeToo started as a public solidarity movement to expose the widespread problem of sexual assault and harassment, and to provide support to people who have experienced it. I applauded that, because it’s (now, quite obviously) a serious problem. As both an assault survivor, and a longtime advocate for other survivors, I was very hopeful about…
“With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah!”
“Maybe there’s a God above, but all I’ve ever learned from love was how to shoot at someone who outdrew ya. It’s not a cry you can hear at night, it’s not somebody who has seen the light, it’s a cold and it’s a broken Hallelujah!” Leonard Cohen bemoaned the bitterness of love. Or at least…
Walls and Bridges, Part II
The wall debate is a perfect illustration of different rhetorical patterns between ideological viewpoints. Wall supporters are now comparing ALL walls in order to connect the logic of good walls to a Mexican wall : “Heaven has a wall,” “People in gated communities have a wall,” “Parking garages have walls!,” “Obama has a wall!” (he…