Search Results for: So, Where to Now, America

Carl Sandburg Was Right- We Need Loneliness and Wilderness

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A  Visit to Sandburg’s Home Brought a Valuable Lesson

I have the good fortune of living not far from the booming (NOT) metropolis of Flat Rock, NC. Not a place on many bucket lists, but it should be. It is the rural home of the excellent State Theater and home to some exceptional BBQ.

But the real attraction is the country home of Carl and Lilian Sandburg. They lived here for many years, until his death in 1967. I feel an extra connection to Sandburg. He was America’s voice in so many ways (prose, poetry, music).

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The US Concentric Circles Are Breaking Up

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One Circle is Now Spinning Away and Jamming Up the Works. Let It Go.

 

Let’s acknowledge something up front. This blog is about to provide some simplified analysis. Bear with me; the sin should be worth making this short and readable. I hope.

America has been at its best, has worked best, when we recognize we all live in concentric circles. That is to say, we have our core groups and tribes that most express our beliefs and desires. But we have also found ground wherein those circles chose to overlap, to work together.

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What did we learn from The Week That Was?

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Last week we saw the spectacles of a NATO meeting in London and the summit in Helsinki. These two events told us a lot – about Trump, and the Republican party and about the rest of us.

I am not an historian, but I am confident in saying we have not anything in our foreign policy like this past week. A sampling of the headlines pretty well sums it up for most people:

          “This sad, embarrassing wreck of a man”

          “What does Putin have on Trump?”

           “If Putin wanted a US.

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In Business? Those Footsteps Behind You are Closing In

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The Lesson of Toys R Us, Blockbuster, et. al.

Our local Sears closed its doors this month, as are so many around the country. Speculation is that the corporation may not make it to the end of the year. That got me thinking.

I spent most of my adult life in government service, as an Army officer. I was in the nonprofit sector for 5 years. Between those two adventures, I spent more than a decade in the private sector. My time in the corporate world gave me an education for which I am most grateful.

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The Congressional Circus was in Town Last Thursday

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Welcome to Benghazi II. The sequel was as bad as the original, maybe worse. One thing about this one definitely was worse.

In case you somehow missed it, there was a circus in town last week. The combined House Judiciary and Oversight Committees conducted a “hearing” (or something…). Much was written while the hearing went on, into the early evening, and much immediately after. I decided to let things marinate a bit and see what I thought about all this with a little time for reflection.

To be fair, I did not watch gavel to gavel coverage.

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The Pruitt Syndrome – What Do You Value?

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Scott Pruitt is gone, finally. A lot of people lost bets on this one, figuring about 10 ethics investigations would be his end.It took half again as many. This might be a good time to think about what – or in whom- we invest our support.

There are people who support the policies that Pruitt & Company purveyed. Fair enough; people can argue policy with passion and substance. Challenge reasoning and call out  facts from opinions. Anything less would be downright Un-American.

Some also defend Pruitt and others whose conduct or performance fall short.

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Of Tribes, Truth, and Our Country

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We have some decisions to make about how we connect with our fellow Americans.

The 21st century has, so far, harshly demonstrated to us the fragility of democracy.

The train wreck that is the Republican Party of today and the Trump presidency, both built on fear, resentment, and a wholesale dismissal of facts as just one of many approaches to life, has been coming for a while; they did not start just last year.

And so, one of the big questions is:

How does this situation get corrected; or does it?

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