As I mentioned in my previous essay, “What Will It Take,” Russia, historically has had no shortage of brutal despotic rulers. I imagine that Vladimir Putin, reflecting on his country’s bloody past, must have felt a bit dwarfed by the towering dictators that have gone before, especially when it comes down to the murder of innocent people. In that regard,
The civilized world, it would appear, is eternally threatened by “barbarians at the gates.” The Online Etymology Dictionary defines “barbarian” as: “pertaining to savages, rude, uncivilized.” The term was originally applied in classical times to invading tribes that were not Greek or Roman, and were said to be less “civilized” that the Greco-Roman citizens. The term has long been used
They haven’t changed. Not at all. While contemporary commentators have lauded the perfectibility of man, writers and poets have waxed eloquent on the spiritual growth of people, societies and countries, and political commentators speak of “a new era,” they haven’t changed. Though the world’s people gave a collective sigh of relief upon the collapse of the Soviet Union (and the
As many of you know, for years I have extended Christmas and Hanukkah greetings to my readers. This year I’ve decided to send everyone on my list a Christmas present…. No, it’s not a subscription to the “jelly of the month club” although the gift I have in mind is indeed a “gift that keeps on giving all year long.”
To conclude this series on COVID vaccination, I’d like to leave my readers with just two photos. The first is of Paul Alexander, now age 75, who contracted polio, a viral infection, in 1952 at the age of 6, and who has spent 69 years in an iron lung. Polio left him completely quadriplegic and unable, even, to BREATHE. The
It is sometimes said that the study of ethics is “philosophy’s illegitimate child.” I think the gist of that saying is to question whether the subject belongs properly to the discipline of philosophy or whether, ultimately, it is the true province of theology, i.e. religion. My own position is that although ethics is often associated with religion, it does not
On this day of gratitude and celebration, I, like many Americans, will take a moment to reflect. Although Thanksgiving is understood to be just that, a day of thanks, our increasingly secular society seems to be a little vague on whom we are thanking. While many of us can easily identify WHAT we are thankful for, it might be less
Dear readers, I have a question for you: What is the ONE thing that “right wing crazies,” “left wing crazies,” and “people of color” have in common?…. Answer:… they all hate the COVID vaccine. Yes, distrust, paranoia and political and philosophical resistance to vaccination unites and animates these seemingly disparate groups. I suppose it’s interesting, in a way, that they
I certainly would not suggest that American citizens are the stupidest in the world; I’m sure there are scores of other countries vying for that distinction. But, if one considers the fact that we are among the world’s best educated, and if one were to imagine taking the ratio of intelligence divided by the amount of education received, I believe
(Adapted from a previous post on 9/11/16) Tomorrow is number twenty. Twenty Septembers. Twenty years. Two Towers. Four jets. One flank of the Pentagon. One field in southwestern Pennsylvania. Over three thousand souls. Four presidents. Two wars. Many determined enemies. Twenty Septembers later, America has moved on. As it HAD to. We treated the few survivors lucky enough to have