Nov 5WE’RE GETTING PUNKEDWE’RE GETTING PUNKED By now, most Americans know that the reason Daylight Savings Time still exists is because of persuasive lobbying efforts on Capital Hill by the National Retail Federation and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The extra hour of daylight that they add to each day is meant to…2 min read2 min read
Sep 4Florida and a Call to Our Better SelvesThis boils my blood. That such hate can parade around, untrammeled, in two cities in Florida, this weekend, pushes me to speak out. Here are just two facts that we must accept. First, more than fifty million people were killed in a world war provoked by this dangerous ideology. Fifty…America4 min readAmerica4 min read
Aug 17Single — And Being Okay With ItEarlier this week, my mother said something that shocked me. In her normal, loving tone, she uttered, “I really wish you had someone.” Yeah — someone, as in a life partner. That was what she meant, and it was a sentence that I honestly never expected from her. But what…Love8 min readLove8 min read
Jul 2THINGS YOU LEARN (from May, 2023)THINGS YOU LEARN (from May, 2023) The good use of your talents requires good thinking, a liberation from the box called normalcy once promoted as acceptable. In that box, you were taught to think in a certain way, to behave in a certain way, and to only use your talents…Writers On Writing2 min readWriters On Writing2 min read
May 4Good Morning, Gabe Hager (Preface)[From the pages of the novel by Gary Harrell] “So tell me about last Thursday, Gabriel. How was the service?” Gabe noticed that his counselor’s eyes never left the notepad on his lap. The balding man in an ill-fitting coat and tie just kept writing, even after he asked the…Fiction2 min readFiction2 min read
May 4Good Morning, Gabe Hager (Excerpt #2)Gabe’s mobile phone was ringing again. This time, the call was from his brother. It actually was the second call from his brother in the last twenty minutes, and if Gabe had bother to consider it, he would have counted more than a dozen calls from eight, different callers over…Fiction6 min readFiction6 min read
May 1Good Morning, Gabe Hager![An excerpt from the novel by Gary Harrell] Even from the new international airport in Mobile, the drive to Prominence, Mississippi, took two hours, along remote stretches of roads that seemed to just disappear into the forests. Occasionally, the trees gave way to sprawling pastures of land or areas cut…Fiction12 min readFiction12 min read
Apr 18McCurtain County, OklahomaJust when you thought the depths of all this bigotry and vitriol couldn’t get more disgusting — enter McCurtain County, Oklahoma. There, a swathe of elected officials — Sheriff Kevin Clardy (R), County District 2 Commissioner Mark Jennings (R), Investigator Alicia Manning, Jail Administrator Larry Hendrix, and County District 3…America2 min readAmerica2 min read
Apr 7Why Our Plurality MattersTonight, our fragile democracy was assaulted. Unfortunately, that is not an exaggeration. In Tennessee, Deep Right Republican lawmakers voted to expel from the statehouse two young, black lawmakers, Justin Pearson and Justin Jones, for their protest against a gun bill. That a third lawmaker, Gloria Johnson, a white woman, avoided…Politics4 min readPolitics4 min read
Mar 16Things You Learn, 10 March 2023It is in the most unexpected moment, when we recognize just how fleeting life really is. That recognition can come in the middle of the day, when it’s business as usual — and then, suddenly, none of that matters anymore. It can also come in the wee hours of the…Life2 min readLife2 min read
