September 2020

Death by Zoom

As I was making it through what is now the normal day’s worth of Zoom calls, I couldn’t help wondering, “Has anyone on any of their work Zoom calls we’re all enduring witnessed a coworker die from something like a stroke or heart attack?” I figure, with the millions of people on Zoom each and every day speaking to their coworkers, someone has to have died during a call. Given the law of averages, it has to have happened. I mentioned this to someone (on a Zoom call, of course), and they forwarded this story to me about someone…

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RBG: The case against early voting

Now do you understand why early voting is a mistake? There are many reasons why early voting is a bad idea, and any one of them alone makes the case strongly enough to end the experiment. Here’s a few… Most obviously, you never know what will happen between the day you vote early and election day. Who saw the death of Ruth Bader Ginsberg coming? (Although, anyone paying attention to 2020 should have been able to guess that anything that can happen, will happen.) RBG’s death opens the door to a Supreme Court pick for President Trump and the…

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More exposure, more immunity

Basic science and years of experience tells us that the more exposure we have to germs, bacteria, and viruses, the more immunity we build. That’s why we let our kids play in sandboxes, pick up things off the floor and put them in their mouth, and play with other sick kids. It’s the single greatest argument we have for kids returning to school. By staying at home, the entire nation is weakening their immune system. By not exposing ourselves to the latest viruses and illnesses, we are only hurting our ability to overcome them. I think this may work…

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Vote to join the US

I was just reading about Hawaii and their vote to become the 50th state in the United States. How many countries around the world, if they were to take a vote, would vote to become one of our states? If you asked that a year ago, I suspect the answer would be quite a few. Sure, national pride and culture may make many vote against it, but I suspect we’d still get quite a few takers. But even now, with all of our discord and division, I wonder how many countries would love to hitch their proverbial wagon to…

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I get to write to you

It sure seems like we’re all taking a lot for granted these days. There are so many people who think they’re owed so much. I wonder how much better each and every protester could make their own lives if they took the time they spent getting up, going to the protest, and doing things to disrupt the lives of others, and spent it networking on LinkedIn or applying for a job or another degree. Perhaps if each protester started volunteering with local charities, or even starting their own, what kind of a difference they really could make. If the…

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Colin Kaepernick: the man who destroyed professional sports

I think it’s very possible that ultimately, Colin Kaepernick’s legacy may be as the man who destroyed professional sports. In 2016, when Kaepernick first kneeled for the national anthem, politics was officially introduced into American professional sports. Sure, there’ve been plenty of intersections between sports and politics in more “unofficial” ways. Many players left sports to join the military in times of war. Obviously, the racial integration of the leagues was a huge milestone. Many players have written things on their shoes or personal playing equipment. Most of the sports have embraced breast cancer awareness. The military often has…

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Why so many shots?

As I write this, police are hunting for a gunman who walked up to a police vechicle in Compton, CA, and fired several shots at the two officers inside before fleeing. I’ve not been able to find an article with details on exactly how many shots were fired, but we do know both officers were hit multiple times, meaning at least four shots were fired. My question: how can that be? Isn’t one of the big questions asked about all of these brutal incidents of police shooting innocent black criminals, “why did they shoot them so many times?” In…

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That’s not who we are

It’s not uncommon for politicians (especially Democrats) to say, in reaction to some action or statement they don’t like, that “that’s not who we are.” It’s ironic, because Democrats are making it clear every day that they have nothing in common with the foundational principles of America and no interest in sharing commonalities. The code meaning behind it, when used by American politicians, is that it’s un-American. For example, “stopping people from protesting on highways and disrupting traffic is not who we are.” (No one, that I know of, said this. I’m just using it as a hypothetical example.)…

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Grace, empathy, and perspective

There’s plenty of dissection going on regarding the daily splitting of the United States, and there’s no shortage of theories: parenting, smart phones, video games, biased news, public school indoctrination, moral decay, pop culture, removal of God, etc. Obviously, it’s not just one thing, but probably a mix of all the above, plus factors not even considered. But what’s the path back? I think three key ingredients we’re missing are grace, empathy, and perspective. Without grace, we can’t forgive, and that’s the foundation of cancel culture. Cancel culture is all about finding one transgression in one’s past – usually…

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How we’ve changed since 9/11/01

19 years ago today, the twin towers of the World Trade Center were felled by Islamic suicidal soldiers who hijacked commercial flights and piloted the planes into the towers. The country was largely united after those events. The support for President Bush and Mayor Giuliani was high. Love for firefighters and police officers was off the charts. They were heroes wherever they went. Just 19 years ago… one set of events, unified understanding of what happened, what it meant, and that we were all hurt by it. As you think about 9/11 in the year 2020, can you conceive…

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