Gadfly

Do Muslims and Christians have to wear gloves to play football?
Gene and Matthew were both young teenagers when they realized they were gay. They finally met in the hallowed halls of Washington’s National Cathedral where leading American citizens are celebrated and buried. Gene was raised by Kentucky tobacco sharecroppers in a very conservative Disciples of Christ church. No dancing, no card-playing, no drinking, no movies—and the teachings of Leviticus were the order of the day.…

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When anarchy is loosed upon the world

A poem by William Butler Yeats perfectly catches the divisiveness of American politics in the Age of Trump. From the Second Coming:

“Turning and turning in the widening gyre, the falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere the ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of…

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TRUMP “HOAX” DESTROYS MEXICO BEACH, FLORIDA AT 157 MILES PER HOUR!
This headline could have appeared in The Donald’s favorite publication, his revered source of truth, the “National Enquirer.” But this is not “fake news” from “the enemy of the people,” the national press. How many billions Hurricane Michael is going to cost us will take months or years to determine. The mayor of Mexico Beach has told the residents not to come “home” for 12 to 18 months because there…

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How today’s “christians” hammered the nails into the hands and feet of christ

Historian Christopher Browning, who has spent a lifetime studying the Holocaust, Nazi Germany, and the World War II era of Europe, has expressed concerns about fascist leanings appearing in Europe and the White House. Over the years it is axiomatic that great civilizations support literature, art, and music. Even Adolf Hitler who approved the Holocaust had two favorite musicians, Ludwig van Beethoven and…

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Is Life Just Keeping House On The Deck Of The Titanic?

As a lifetime reader of thousands of books and a collector of thousands, I have had good reads and terrible reads. My Morrison County (District 54) of 25 students in grades 1-8 had a 300-book library. I read them all, regardless of topic. I majored in English, Journalism, and Creative Writing in college, and my Master’s Degree is in English literature. I just finished a great read I couldn’t put down—except I did once in awhile…

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The modern KKK and Kochkopus are choking American democracy

Kavanaugh lost his Kool and Kracked under pressure. I can spell. His rant before the Senate Judiciary Committee revealed he should not be a judge judging other people. He reminded me of the fanatic KKKers defending their racism.With his volatile temperament he should not even be a municipal traffic judge.He doesn’t need to be drunk to be aggressive, belligerent, and in a rage. Here he was before 11 Republicans and 10…

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To pee or not to pee—that is a question a worker needs to answer

The fact that the richest man in the world is screwing his workers around the world out of living wages while he makes $277 million a day is “Shakespearian” in drama and brings to mind the most revealing soliloquy ever written, Prince Hamlet’s ruminations about what kind of life he should lead and live: “To be or not to be—that is the question.” Jeff Bezos’s employees at Amazon and the Washington Post,…

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We failed to educate the players of “flag” football
I passed all of the American history courses in Morrison County District 54, Little Falls High School, and Moorhead State Teachers College, but I’m often appalled about what I don’t know about the history of race relationships in this “shining city on a hill.” I had never heard of the 1873 Colfax, Louisiana Massacre of blacks that took place eight years after our American Civil War killed 750,000 until I read a September 4,…

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The dilemma of spenders and producers
The Carnegies, Rockefellers, and Vanderbilts all killed workers who protested their wages and working conditions. They gained so much wealth using such tactics it has kept their descendants from soup lines for five generations. After acquiring so much wealth, power, mansions, and personal possessions enough to boggle our minds even today, these three families did do paybacks. Andrew Carnegie built 25,000 libraries across this great expanse of…

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Let’s start with a riddle
A car containing a father and his teenage son failed to make a curve and hit a tree. The father was killed instantly, but his son was severely injured and was taken to the city’s hospital and immediately wheeled into an operating room. The trauma surgeon on call raised the sheet on the boy’s face and exclaimed: “This is my son! I can’t operate on him!” How can that be?

I was going to write a column about a “real” fact that first-time mothers on…

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