Voting as a Duty Yesterday I watched an interview with E.J. Dionne and Miles Rapoport, the authors of a somewhat radical new book called 100% Democracy: The Case for Universal Voting. This book argues that the best way to cut through all the voter suppression and voter fraud crap we are living through is to make voting a mandatory obligation of citizenship. That sounds so radical, but it really isn’t. There are many mandatory obligations…
The Art of Peace There are so many places one can take the subject of peace. It is perhaps one of the universal desires of mankind no matter what word is used to describe it, and yet it is certainly the most illusive of goals mankind has ever faced. I think it is fair to suggest that primordial man might know it when he saw it, but probably was not so presumptuous as to ever…
Faith I am rewatching the Netflix series The Crown and finding it great entertainment and chock full of thoughtful issues worthy of contemplation. That is the sign of well-produced, directed and acted movie or series. Being thought-provoking is something I very much value in my movie and TV viewing. It seems somehow easier to do be thought-provoking in a written piece and easier to be entertaining in a visual piece, but the ability to enroll…
The Jungle of My Mind My readers have often heard me harp about my distaste for the tropics. I lived six of my first seven years in the tropics of Venezuela and Costa Rica and it has left an indelible mark. There are few places I would rather not find myself stranded in than a dense dark jungle. I think its a combination of the humidity-driven discomfort and the truly creepy crawly things that thrive…
One Stolen Accordion There is a social media site that I now connect with that throws me bits and pieces about local goings on. It’s called Nextdoor and it has spread in it’s twelve-year existence to encompassing 116,000 local areas, serving over ten million members. That is still a relatively small fraction of the population, but if we assume it is more popular in non-urban settings, that is quite a lot of users. The U.S.…
The Magic Kingdom My visiting family just returned from a two-day stint at Disneyland. They are a Disneyworld family, but they enjoy Disneyland equally well. I wrote several months ago about my visit to Disneyworld and how impressed I was by the pleasure it evokes in so many people who visit and visit regularly. Yesterday, the state of Florida revoked Disneyworld’s special district permit that it has enjoyed for 55 years when it was used…
I’m Shrinking Do you remember that scene from the 1957 classic, but somewhat cheesy movie The Incredible Shrinking Man when he starts to shrink so much due to exposure to radiation and insecticide that he literally shrinks away into oblivion? As he does so you hear him say in a smaller and smaller voice, “Help! I’m shrinking…I’m shrinking…” Well, it turns out that this is where science fiction meets reality. News flash! We are all…
The Boys in the Boat All things pass. But sometimes they return, even if for brief moments. That may be the best definition of eternity any of us can ever achieve. This morning I was at JFK staying at the TWA Hotel, which I wrote about. I was reminded of John F. Kennedy and Howard Hughes. That was their glimmer of eternity as they sparked memories in one Baby Boomer’s brain and found their way…
Wild Animals I am surrounded by wild animals. First among them are Charlotte and Evelyn. Those are my two granddaughters, who are spending the week with us here on the hilltop. They are reasonably well-mannered wild animals, but wild animals nonetheless. What makes them wild is that they are visceral, unpredictable and do not follow any particular convention with which I am familiar. They don’t bite or present any particular danger to me, but neither…
The Earth as Property I have written about the awareness that has come to me recently about the increasing importance of ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) issues in managing corporations and, for that matter, all manner of investments. That awareness came prior to my formulating the syllabus for this semester’s course in Law, Policy & Ethics, so I added two full class sessions to focus on the policy and ethical issues of ESG in today’s…