Category Archives: Uncategorized

Agenda: 11/4/2020

“Racial Barrier Falls in Decisive Victory” New York Times front-page headline, November 4, 2008. How’s that working for the 105 Black and Brown people killed by police since Obama was first elected? “Clinton has the Edge One Day Before Election” … Continue reading →

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Victor Frankl’s Meaning in the Moment

The world is in a bad state, but everything will become still worse unless each of us does his best. – Victor Frankl Victor Frankl was a twentieth century Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist, a Holocaust survivor, and founder of the … Continue reading →

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Salve November’s Guilty Conscience: NOW

“I just don’t know what I’ll do if I wake up on November 4 and Donald Trump’s won.” “I’ll die if Trump wins the election. Then move to Canada.” Thus are the refrains I hear from friends who, in a … Continue reading →

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Referee Whistle: How to Broadcast the Presidential Debates

The dominant feeling that flushed over me at the end of last nights’ debate was: I am embarrassed to be an American. This is the state of our democracy. A mediocre moderator unable to guide a fork-tongued crank and a … Continue reading →

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The Patriotism of Isolation

This week’s post is penned by my niece, Caroline Bringenberg, an LA-based Millennial activist who challenges me to think about the world I am leaving the next generation. Growing up I remember hearing stories, at home and in history class, … Continue reading →

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The Measure of All Things

Pat Barker’s 1992 novel, Regeneration, is about many things. The futility of war, the assumptions of Freudian psychotherapy, the defacto caste system of early twentieth century Britain, the absurdity of England’s attitude towards homosexuals. An anti-war novel without a single … Continue reading →

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Two-Way Affirmative Action

  Recently, I completed a survey from Beth Israel Lahey Health, the mother ship of Mount Auburn Hospital, where I volunteer three days a week. It was a simple, two question survey from the Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Career … Continue reading →

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Pool Paddle

  A few years ago a friend of mine was minding his sister-in-law Adelaide’s son for the afternoon. The day was hot and sticky, so Mike took five-year-old Zach to a local pool. When it was time to go home, … Continue reading →

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Measuring Experience

Toni Morrison once told Hilton Als that being a black woman writer is “…richer than being a white male writer because I know more and have more experience.” (The New Yorker, October 27, 2003). Immediately upon reading that phrase, I … Continue reading →

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August Recess

I received an email ripe with despair from an activist mentor the other day, her festering rage deflated by exhaustion and lost hope. Instead of rallying her to carry on, I took a different tack. Told her to take a … Continue reading →

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