With Covid cases raging, the January 6 Select Committee intensifying its efforts and stalemates over voting rights and other Biden administration agenda items, it is perhaps understandable that events in Kazakhstan may have fallen from the radar screen of many disciplined media watchers. Even on the international plane, events in Ukraine and North Korea’s recent … Continue reading Lessons from Kazakhstan
Naming the Unthinkable
It has been a year since the insurrection at the Capitol in January of 2021. There are several retrospectives airing this week on that infamous day. What was initially hard to watch has become numbingly familiar and the sound bites and video clips tend to lose their power. But this week, Maryland’s Congressman Jamie Raskin … Continue reading Naming the Unthinkable
Slow-Motion Trauma
Have you noticed how our anxiety level seems to be through the roof? It manifests itself in many ways—increasing incidents of violence on airplanes; short-tempered patrons in restaurants who hurl hateful epithets at servers for minor offenses; a general irritability. Just the other day, my wife witnessed customers in our local pharmacy embroiled in a … Continue reading Slow-Motion Trauma
Christmas During Omicron
The scenes are reminiscent of days past—long lines waiting for Covid tests, overwhelmed hospitals, calendar dates altered or crossed-off. It is Christmas in the midst of Omicron and celebrations this year have a texture all their own. Plans with loved ones are in flux, sometimes quickly canceled or changed overnight with news about surges in … Continue reading Christmas During Omicron
The Dying Planet
I came across a devastating article in the New York Times this week. The title of the article—"Postcards from a World on Fire”—is enough to arrest your attention and send cold water down your spine. The article—which is better consumed on-line than in the print edition because of the powerful visual imagery and often heartbreaking … Continue reading The Dying Planet