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Republicans Come To Saint Paul
On Sunday, we went downtown to count the police and watch the Republicans gather. We were turned back at two of the parking lots on the west bank of the river where we usually park, but we were allowed to park on Water Street, just south of Harriet Island. We walked into the park where…
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Rich Man’s Envy
An op-ed piece in the New York Times identifies the reason why American’s work so hard. “Rising inequality,” writes Dalton Conley, “causes us to work more to keep up in an economy increasingly dominated by status goods.” Mr. Conley fails to notice that inequality alone does not motivate anyone. Even the perception that someone is…
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Abortion Still Matters
I’ve heard very little about the abortion issue during this political campaign. One reason is that neither Barack Obama nor John McCain seems willing to take a radical stance for or against abortion. I think the likeliest reason, however, is that everyone is everlastingly tired of the issue. Some are tired of hearing about it;…
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Social Networking Victim
I originally wrote most of this about a year ago when the events described happened. I decided to re-work it as a humorous speech for my Toastmasters’ Club, so I decided also to re-post it. One Sunday morning about a year ago, I got up as I always do and headed for the bathroom. I…
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Demands Without War
A week ago, when we were going to the Farmers’ Market in Saint Paul, we encountered people handing out fliers and urging us to march on the Republican National Convention in protest over the war in Iraq. I was particularly struck by the injunction to “demand peace, justice, and equality,” as if a better world…