I originally wrote this in the spring of 2009, a time in which I thought we could be very proud of ourselves as Americans. We had become the first major country to elected someone from a minority of 15 percent or less as our leader. The racists among us had been beaten, but they fought …
A close friend of mine went to a job fair a few years back. He’s got a job, which is better than a lot of us can say these days, but he was looking to see if maybe he could find something better. His current job doesn’t provide health insurance, and it’s costing him a …
What is America? Who are we as Americans? What’s the most important thing about our country? It’s a question I’ve been asking myself for quite some time now, and it’s one I’ve written about in this space. What concerns me most about it is that our “republic, if you can keep it,” as Ben Franklin …
“They say it was a shocking sight, After the field was won; For many thousand bodies here lay rotting in the sun; But things like that, you know, must be … after a famous victory.” AFTER BLENHEIM, Robert Southey I wonder why it is that the English have always been so much more eloquent in …
“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” Those are the first 28 words of the 14th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, essentially bestowing what is known as birthright citizenship on anyone who is born …
At least they waited till he was dead. When major league baseball reinstated Pete Rose and other players who had been banned for life, there were plenty of fans who said it was about time and in fact it was a shame it didn’t happen while Rose was still alive. I couldn’t disagree more, and …
An American Pope. Hey, that’s great. One who annoys the MAGts and Trumpanzees. Even better. I wasn’t born into a Roman Catholic family, but I converted in the early 1990s when I married my second wife. I have been happy to be Catholic for more than 30 years. but as an American Catholic, one thing …
Is there a more negative force in the world these days than fundamentalist religion? Wikipedia estimates that there are 10,000 distinct religions worldwide, although most of them are extremely small. There are 12 different religions of significant size — Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Shinto, Islam, Sikhism, Confucianism, Jainism, Hinduism, Taoism, Baha’i, and Zoroastrianism. The two largest, …
As I recall, it was a pleasant spring day in Northern Virginia. April 19, 1975. Exactly 50 years ago — half a century. I was 25, she was 21 and it was our wedding day. There have been 50th wedding anniversaries in the two previous generations of my family, my maternal grandparents in 1970 (they …
I hope you’ll understand how grateful I feel today toward Alex Ovechkin. I have been writing very little here lately, in large part because my two favorite topics — family and politics — have been very depressing. But when the Washington Capitals captain scored his 895th career goal Sunday to become the all-time leading scorer …
