Monday, May 18, 2026

#138 / We Will Kill You

 
Here is a quote from an article in The Intercept:

The Trump administration’s new official counterterrorism strategy outlines in broad terms who it views as terrorist threats and priority targets, ranging from anti-fascist activists to ISIS and so-called narco-terrorists. The line "We will find you, and we will kill you" appears in the memo. 

Please do click that link just provided, if you'd like to verify the claim. The "we will kill you" promise appears in an official document, immediately above the distinctive signature of our current president. 

If you'd like to read the article in The Intercept, try clicking here.

According to The Intercept, this official promise, made on behalf of all of the citizens of the United States, actually puts U.S. citizens "at risk." I, personally, think that's probably true. When told by someone that he or she is planning to kill you, the temptation is to kill the person who said that first. Note that the statement by our current president does use the word "we," thus promising, on behalf of all of us, that "we" will kill the persons identified.

I do agree that this statement puts U.S. citizens "at risk," but I want to raise a related but slightly different objection to the statement made by our current president. Since the statement, potentially, affects every U.S. citizen, many of whom travel widely in the world, and who are thus exposed to those who might like to kill them, I believe that any such statement (or promise) should have been made, officially, by the United States Congress, and signed by the president only then. 

The president's role in our government, of course, is to serve as our "Chief Executive," which means that our president is assigned the job of carrying out and "executing" the directives enacted by the elected representatives who must first debate what makes sense, before issuing the orders that the "Chief Executive" is then supposed to put into actual effect. 

The failure of our current president to understand this basic principle (and the apparent failure of a majority of members of the U.S. Congress to understand it,) not only puts U.S. citizens "at risk," it threatens what most like to call our "democracy." 

Everybody is aware of this, I think, but it never hurts to reiterate the point, especially when what our current chief executive is doing puts all of us "at risk" of being murdered by those who believe that American citizens, in general, have sworn to hunt them down and kill them first.


Image Credit:
https://theintercept.com/2026/05/15/podcast-trump-counterterrorism-strategy/

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Sunday, May 17, 2026

#137 / When Cruel Death Surrenders

 


When the first number comprising the entire number that states your age starts rhyming with the word, "great," you had better start contemplating that "Memento Mori" topic I have advertised from time to time, here in this daily blog of mine. As I do my personal "Memento Mori" contemplation - and I do, and particularly as I go out for one of my walks around town, listening to Bob Dylan, and to those "Memorial Songs" of his that I have amalgamated into a personal playlist - the topic of "death" most certainly comes to mind. 

I, personally, have gotten quite fond of the last verse of Dylan's song, "Changing Of The Guards," which goes as follows: 

Peace will come
With tranquillity and splendor on the wheels of fire
But will bring us no reward when her false idols fall
And cruel death surrenders with its pale ghost retreating
Between the King and the Queen of Swords

As I trust we are all aware, there is no doubt that we, each one of us, are going to have to surrender to death. As for the possibility that death itself will surrender, as false idols fall - a possibility that Dylan advertises in his song - I think that we get access to that place of peace, and tranquility, and splendor only by "faith," not "works," to allude to a common theme of religious discussion. 

May peace come to us all (as promised here, in Dylan's song)! 

And may we also, all of us (my wish for anyone who chances upon this blog posting) come, ourselves, to a personal peace! 


oooOOOooo

Changing of the Guards
Written By Bob Dylan

Sixteen years
Sixteen banners united over the field
Where the good shepherd grieves
Desperate men, desperate women divided
Spreading their wings ’neath the falling leaves

Fortune calls
I stepped forth from the shadows, to the marketplace
Merchants and thieves, hungry for power, my last deal gone down
She’s smelling sweet like the meadows where she was born
On midsummer’s eve, near the tower

The cold-blooded moon
The captain waits above the celebration
Sending his thoughts to a beloved maid
Whose ebony face is beyond communication
The captain is down but still believing that his love will be repaid

They shaved her head
She was torn between Jupiter and Apollo
A messenger arrived with a black nightingale
I seen her on the stairs and I couldn’t help but follow
Follow her down past the fountain where they lifted her veil

I stumbled to my feet
I rode past destruction in the ditches
With the stitches still mending ’neath a heart-shaped tattoo
Renegade priests and treacherous young witches
Were handing out the flowers that I’d given to you

The palace of mirrors
Where dog soldiers are reflected
The endless road and the wailing of chimes
The empty rooms where her memory is protected
Where the angels’ voices whisper to the souls of previous times

She wakes him up
Forty-eight hours later, the sun is breaking
Near broken chains, mountain laurel and rolling rocks
She’s begging to know what measures he now will be taking
He’s pulling her down and she’s clutching on to his long golden locks

Gentlemen, he said
I don’t need your organization, I’ve shined your shoes
I’ve moved your mountains and marked your cards
But Eden is burning, either brace yourself for elimination
Or else your hearts must have the courage for the changing of the guards

Peace will come
With tranquillity and splendor on the wheels of fire
But will bring us no reward when her false idols fall
And cruel death surrenders with its pale ghost retreating
Between the King and the Queen of Swords

Copyright © 1978 by Special Rider Music


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Saturday, May 16, 2026

#136 / Party Off!




The photo above, from the Daytona Beach News Journal, accompanied a story about how the community of Smyrna Beach, Florida, was seeking to discourage Spring party-goers, way back in 2023. My own focus, in today's blog posting, is on political parties, not on the kind of parties that are held in various seaside locations (including Santa Cruz, California) as good weather draws crowds of young and old beach lovers to gather in large numbers, usually armed with alcohol, and to behave themselves badly.

In fact, my ruminations here stem from the fact that I recently ran across one of my past blog postings, from July, 2024, which was titled "Party On!" In that past blog entry, which was written after the disastrous demonstration, in a televised debate, that our then-president Biden was almost certainly not going to prevail against the challenge facing him from then past-president Trump, I suggested to the grandees of the Democratic Party that they should "use some of their money to assist working class voters, Latinos and others, to build an organization that can deliver for the working class this November." 

Let's eliminate "Top-Down" party politics; that was the essence of my message. That is still good advice, in my opinion. That's still what I think! 

This current blog posting is titled, as you can see, "Party Off!" I am once again suggesting (as I also did yesterday) that our political involvements should not, ideally, be initiated and solely mediated by our political parties. This is a suggestion that I have made rather frequently, going back quite a long time, as I found when I reviewed my past thinking:







Many believe that our political choices are two: "Red" or "Blue," "Conservative" or "Liberal," "Republican" or "Democratic." That perspective, I think, which promotes party polarization, is the main cause of the kind of political constipation that is so horribly evident in the United States Congress, and that blocks effective action by our elected representatives. Effective representation of the diversity of this nation demands discussion, debate, and compromise. The kind of polarized politics presented to us by both political parties is effectively preventing our system of democratic self-government from operating in the way it is supposed to. 

Policy debate, not party-line power struggles, is what we need to promote - at least that's what we need to promote if we want to be able effectively to confront our challenges, and to realize our opportunities. So, "Party Off" is my suggestion!


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Friday, May 15, 2026

#135 / Read My T-Shirt!

 

That's Rob Sand, pictured. He is currently serving as Iowa's State Auditor, but he is running for Governor. According to The New York Times, Sand has Iowa's Republicans both "nervous" and "worried." The "worried" description comes from the hardcopy version of the headline to the article I've linked. The "nervous" description is what you'll find when you go online to read that article.

Personally, what caught my attention as I paged through The Times on Saturday, May 8th, was the T-Shirt that Sand is wearing, as he is depicted in the picture above. I especially liked the first part:

 BLUER. 

REDDER.


I am REALLY tired of people thinking that "politics" is all about making a binary choice between "Red" and "Blue," and "Blue" and "Red." There are usually very real differences between those who run for office as "Republicans" and those who run as "Democrats," but when you want to "talk politics," and decide which candidate to vote for, talk about the differences, not about those party "colors," or those party titles. I was very fortunate that my personal involvement in politics, as an elected official in Santa Cruz County, California, for twenty years, was always as a "non-partisan" candidate and as a "non-partisan" local official. I was involved in LOTS of debates about "differences," but on the policy merits not on some "party" basis.

Real self-government, emphatically, is not about whether a candidate is "Redder," and more "Republican," or "Bluer," and more "Democratic," than the other choices that might be available. Partisan polarization, which has helped lead us into our current political situation, is absolutely the wrong way to go about the task of self-government. 

I am not sure that trying to differentiate on the basis of "Truer" and "Better" is exactly the best way to do it, either, but as I think about that "Redder" / "Bluer" dichotomy, the warnings provided in that long-ago Bob Dylan song come to mind: "It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)." 

Click that link just provided to read the lyrics. Click this link to listen to Bob Dylan sing the song. There are lots of "warnings" provided in Dylan's lyrics, and here's one of them: 

While some on principles baptized
To strict party platform ties
Social clubs in drag disguise
Outsiders they can freely criticize
Tell nothing except who to idolize
And then say God bless him

Is that clear? Maybe not, really! Dylan is nothing if not "poetic" in his way of making a point, but those who pursue the "Red" or the "Blue," as a way to achieve their political goals, are never going to get there. Like Dylan says, "God bless them!"
 

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Thursday, May 14, 2026

#134 / I Believe In The Impossible

 


oooOOOooo

CONFLICT PROVEN
FRONTLINE READY

AEVEX designs and delivers autonomous precision strike systems to dominate the modern battlespace. Proven in conflict and frontline ready, AEVEX engineers to need, delivers at speed, and enables the United States and its allies to thrive in contested and denied environments. AEVEX. Faster. Farther, Forward.

oooOOOooo


A full-page advertisement for AEVEX ran in the Friday, April 17, 2026, edition of The Wall Street Journal. I am talking about the hardcopy version of the paper that was delivered onto my front walkway sometime in the early morning hours. 

I wanted to find a copy of that advertisement, and to paste it into this blog posting, but I couldn't find it online. The picture I have provided, from the AEVEX website, is only a pale imitation of the picture used in the ad, but you can probably get the idea. Basically, AEVEX builds and deploys drone killers, with a big, omnivorous "eye" at the front, the better to track you down and kill you (if you are chosen as a target). 

The text, above, at the very top of this blog posting, is the actual text from the advertiserment I am writing about. As you can see, AEVEX says its drones are "frontline ready," which means ready to kill you (if you are chosen as a target). The advertisement assumes that the reader will identify with whoever is deploying the killer drones that AEVEX builds, those "autonomous precision strike systems," as the company calls them. Funny, though, I found myself identifying with the persons whom AEVEX promises will be tracked down and killed, and did not feel very much aligned with those doing the killing. Investors, though, may not see things the way I do, at least according to an article in the April 18-19, 2026, edition of The Wall Street Journal. According to the news story I have just linked, AEVEX stock "took off," and rose 35% in it debut on the New York Stock Exchange, that debut occurring on the same day that AEVEX ran its full-page ad. 

I was an antiwar activist at the time of the War In Vietnam, and I personally refused induction into the armed forces. My antiwar sentiments have not diminished. They have grown. Whole cities are being turned into rubble - homes, schools, and hospitals gone. Our current president is quoted as promising to extinguish an "entire civilization." 

Bob Dylan's song, "Masters of War," pretty much sums up my position on companies like AEVEX. Click the link for the lyrics. Dylan's song is a pretty robust rejection of the idea that we should be celebrating the corporations that are building the latest edition of our death machines, and here's my thought. Along with global warming, income inequality, massive environmental pollution, and species extermination, let's get rid of nuclear weapons and remote control death-dealing machines, too.  

I know. I know. That's a pretty tall order, but to refer to Bob Dylan one more time: "I believe in the impossible; you know that I do." 

When "the impossible" becomes "the necessary," it's time to make it happen!


Image Credit:

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Wednesday, May 13, 2026

#133 / Such A Mistake

  


An article in the March 10, 2026, edition of The New York Times reports that plans are afoot to launch a "Space Mirror" that would "bring daylight to the nighttime." You can click right here for the article, and I am informed that there won't be any paywall to defeat your effort to learn about this newest high-tech plan to turn Planet Earth into a human-built environment. After all - don't you agree? - "night" is just plain inconvenient. With this "space mirror" idea, we can bring sunlight to places on our planet that would otherwise be shrouded in nighttime darkness.

My "Two Worlds" hypothesis postulates that our "human world" is constructed within a "World that God created." We do, ourselves - and there isn't really any doubt about this - build the world in which we most immediately live. One term that describes that human world is "civilization." 

Ultimately, though, whatever humans think up and then construct turns out to be completely dependent on the "Natural World" that came before us, and before any of our efforts to construct a "human world" within its confines. Not to understand this is a really, really big mistake. 

[Think "Global Warming" if you want an example of just how big our mistakes can be.]

That article I cited in the first paragraph indicates that we continue to make the mistake of thinking that we can do anything we want to. Our job is not to start trying to "run" Planet Earth, or to replace it. Our job is to find good ways to live, happily, and together, in the Natural World that is absolutely not the product of human action. 



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Tuesday, May 12, 2026

#132 / Sasse's Suggestions (And Mine)

 


Pictured is former Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse. If you click that link to his name, you'll get some information about Sasse, provided by Wikipedia. Here's a quick excerpt, though, to save you the click: 

Benjamin Eric Sasse was born February 22, 1972. He represented Nebraska in the United States Senate from 2015 to 2023. He is a member of the Republican Party. A critic of Donald Trump, Sasse is one of seven Republican senators who voted to convict Trump of incitement of insurrection in his second impeachment trial. Sasse resigned from the Senate in January 2023 to become president of the University of Florida, and he resigned his position at the University in July 2024, citing his wife's health issues. In December 2025, Sasse announced that he had been diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer.

Sasse is now writing opinion columns for The Wall Street Journal. Click the following link to read one of his columns, published in the Saturday/Sunday, May 9-10, 2026, edition of the paper. Sasse's column is titled, "Habits For Humanity In The Age of AI." It's a "gift article," which I believe means that no paywall will prevent your efforts to find out what Sasse has to say, even if you're a non-subscriber. 

Among other things, Sasse says: (1) We're lonely; (2) We don't trust our institutions; and (3) We don't trust one another. Nonetheless, Sasse also says that "this is an incredibly exciting moment to live." The challenge, Sasse says, is "how to live with virtue and technology when technology tends to erode virtue and place and human texture." The proper response, Sasse says, is to "cultivate habits, community and a revivification of place."

It is encouraging to me that Sasse is up front about the difficulties we face, as we try to navigate our current situation. He is suggesting four starter habits: (1) Reading; (2) Hard Work; (3) Tech Sabbaths (and he doesn't mean a weekly worship of technology and its advocates, either; he means "abstentions from tech"). Finally, Sasse is recommending: (4) Serious Travel.

I think that what Sasse has to say is worth thinking about, and that his suggestions are pretty good. This is why I have provided you with his column in The Journal in the form of that "gift article." Let me just pile on with my own favorites, in addition to Sasse's suggestions: (1) Find Some Friends; (2) Get Involved In "Politics," along with those friends! This is really what we need to do, if we want to indulge ourselves in the satisfactions of "self-government."


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Monday, May 11, 2026

#131 / Agentic?

 


The New York Times Magazine has spotlighted the word "agentic" in an article that appeared in its April 12, 2026, edition. Here is a link to the article, which was authored by Nitsuh Abebe. The article is fairly short, and no paywall should prevent you from reading it in its entirety. Just click that link provided.

The word "agentic," according to Abebe's article in The Times, is being used as a way to talk about "having agency - possessing the capacity to influence and control outcomes through assertive individual action." Abebe cites to the Oxford English Dictionary in providing this definition. It is worth noting that this definition does come from a list of "new entries" into the OED. Abebe observes that Silicon Valley aspirants are "eager to apply it to themselves," sometimes talking about "being agentic people," or applauding the "Highly Agentic Individual," the "kind of person who simply acts, assertively, to shape the world, rather than seeking approval or meekly following the herd (emphasis added)." 

Abebe is thinking about those who are involved in "high tech," but see if the defintion of the "agentic individual" that I just provided doesn't remind you of someone who isn't, but wishes he were, a "king." 

As Abebe notes, most Americans remain connected to a more traditional meaning of the word "agent" than the definition that emphasizes the "agent's" ability to act without seeking approval. In fact, as Abebe says, "we're used to the agent as representative - someone who acts on behalf of." 

Right! Absolutely right! Almost everyone who is reading this blog posting (presuming that somebody is actually doing that) will undoubtedly remember that it has been our idea that the United States government is a "representative" democracy. Our elected officials are "agents," responsible to us.

My suggestion is the following: Despite the "new definition" in the OED, let's go back to our traditional understanding of how our elected officials (our "agents") are supposed to act. They are supposed to do what we want. 

And what if they don't? 

We get rid of them, remember? The time is coming to do just that, in both June and November. Wouldn't it be nice to have a Congress that took seriously its obligation to act on behalf of those whom it represents, instead of doing nothing, as millions protest that our current president is trying to turn himself into a "King"?

 
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Sunday, May 10, 2026

# 130 / Collective Sin And Evil

 


In one of his recent Daily Meditations, Richard Rohr suggests that we should try to move beyond an emphasis on personal sin, in order to regain an accurate understanding of the deadly nature of true evil:

No one can deny that evil is very real, but what many of us now observe as the real evils destroying the world—such as militarism, greed, scapegoating of other groups, and abuses of power—seem very different from what most people call sin, which has mostly referred to personal faults or guilt, or supposed private offenses against God. These did not actually describe the horrible nature of evil very well at all. So, we lost interest in sin....
Sin and evil must be more than personal or private matters. Convicting people of individual faults does not change the world. I believe the apostle Paul taught that both sin and salvation are, first of all, corporate realities. Yet, we largely missed that essential point, and thus found ourselves in the tight grip of monstrous evils in Christian nations, all the way down to the modern era (emphasis added).

I am not thinking I have much to add to this excellent statement. Except, maybe, this.....

"Politics" is one very direct way we can join together to "change the world," and to battle evil. 

Consider enlisting!
 
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Saturday, May 9, 2026

#129 / No Kings? Ok. Great! But Then What?

 


Millions of people have taken part in the "No Kings" demonstrations that have been held in every state in the nation. I understand that the picture above was taken at the State Capitol Building in Jefferson City, Missouri. It could have been taken in Santa Cruz, or in any one of 3,000 or more locations, throughout the United States, during the most recent "No Kings" protests, on March 28th.  Well, I guess that's only true if we keep the focus on the people and the signs. We had a comparable crowd in Santa Cruz, with similar signs, but we don't have any marble columns like those shown in the background of the picture I have provided.

The three "No Kings" demonstrations, held nationwide, each one larger than the one before, were, in fact, "demonstrations." The point and purpose was to "demonstrate" what the people participating were thinking about - what they "cared about," what they objected to. These gatherings and marches demonstrated that there are lots of people (arguably the majority) who do not want a continuation of the kind of authoritarian and unilateral governmental action that our current president is providing. 

Fair enough! "No Kings!"

But if "we, the people" are not willing to offload governmental decision-making and governmental action to a "Chief Executive," and particularly to one who seems to revel in the idea that he'd really like to be a king (and who also seems to think that he's a lot like that guy Jesus), that means that someone else has to step up to the plate. 

You know who that means, right?

That means you! And me! And all of us! Everyday, ordinary people are the ones who need to step up. "Self-government," if we want to keep it, requires that we - each one of us - need to be personally engaged in the political life of the city, county, state, and nation in which we reside. 

Being honest, how many of us are fulfilling our obligations?

If we are not spending an hour or so a day - or maybe something like one day every week - working on what we might normally call "politics," then we have not quite fathomed the implications of that "No Kings" expression. 

A government "of the people, by the people, and for the people," does have to be "BY" the people. That is, in fact, the most important part of Lincoln's famous phrase. 

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Friday, May 8, 2026

#128 / Two Cheers For Liberal Democracy



Tunku Varadarajan, writing in The Wall Street Journal, has reviewed a book by Adrian Wooldridge. Wooldridge's book is titled, The Revolutionary Center. Varadarajan's review is titled, "Two Cheers For Liberal Democracy," and his review begins with an attempt to understand "liberalism." Here is how Varadarajan initiates his discussion (emphasis added): 

Liberalism has come to acquire a bewildering range of meanings over the years; our understanding of the word is, by necessity, contextual. Winston Churchill, believe it or not, called himself a liberal, as did John Maynard Keynes.

In its primordial form, liberalism was a political belief that the building block of society is the individual—an idea tethered loosely to the Christian notion that every single human being contains a divine spark. In “The Revolutionary Center” Adrian Wooldridge sums up the early liberal demand thus: “Do not judge me as a member of a group . . . judge me as an individual with unique talents.”

My reaction to this claim, that the "building block of society is the individual," is not an immediate repudiation, but is rather an augmentation. I can absolutely agree that individuals are "primary," and are the building blocks upon which all human society is constructed. However, as we build our human society, individuals never act "alone," but always  in concert with others. We do not exist as isolated individuals, but we work with others to build, maintain, and in some cases destroy the society of which every one of us is an invaluable part. 

My understanding of the "individual," puts emphasis on how individuals work in concert, and collectively, to create, and modify or replace, the realities that define our lives. This is not, apparently, an understanding to which Wooldridge subscribes. To me, it seems obvious (as I often say) that "we're in this together." How could we not - every one of us - understand and acknowledge our mutual interdependence? 

Varadarajan's judgment is that for all its troubles, there is no better system than "liberal democracy" to "protect free markets, freedom of thought, and a just social order." 

Call it "liberal democracy," or what you will, our democratic system of self-government, which values collaboration and cooperation above all else, is not beguiled by the myth that it is the "individual," and "individual" actions alone, that make our world. 

We're in this together!


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Thursday, May 7, 2026

#127 / The Latest Book From Malcolm Harris

 


Malcolm Harris was born in Santa Cruz, California, which is where I live, and where I have now lived for over fifty years. Harris has written a book, Palo Alto, which is named for the city in which I grew up. 

I mentioned Palo Alto back in the middle of last year, and I noted then that I hadn't yet read it. Well.... I still haven't read it - or, at least, I haven't finished reading it. It's over 700 pages long, which is a lot, but I can report that I am more than halfway through, and I am now operating on a full head of steam. I'll be done soon! As it turns out, Palo Alto is focused not only on the city of Palo Alto itself, but on "California, Capitalism, And The World." Click that link just provided for a review in the "Los Angeles Review of Books." I want to recommend that you, too, should undertake your own odyssey through the 700+ pages of Palo Alto. It's worth it, even if you didn't grow up there.

Based on having read over half of Harris' Palo Alto, I am already planning to read Harris' most recent book, What's Left: Three Paths Through The Planetary Crisis. According to the publisher, that book is only 320 pages long! I am fully expecting it to be just as thought-provoking as Palo Alto. 

If you'd like to get an idea about what would be in store for you, if you do decide to read What's Left, here is a link to  a recent review in The New York Times.  You might also want to click right here. That link will take you to a discussion between Adam Lowenstein and Harris, published online by "Drilled Media." Drilled Media describes itself as "a global multimedia reporting project focused on climate accountability," and Lowenstein is "a journalist and writer covering corporate power and political influence."

Here is the end of that discussion just mentioned, between Lowenstein and Harris, in which they talk about our planetary crisis: 

[Lowenstein] I feel like in this moment in particular, being hopeful and despairing in useful ways is a pretty worthy aspiration.

[Harris] I think so. I think people are trying to figure that stuff out. It’s hard. It’s a hard environment in which to think. I don’t fault anyone who feels completely overwhelmed by even just the task of thinking critically in this moment. But we’ve got to do it. There’s no other choice.

We need to think? Think critically? There's no other choice? Sounds right to me! 

Harris' latest book is RECOMMENDED on that basis!


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Wednesday, May 6, 2026

#126 / Apologies And Forgiveness



Apologizing is an important way to confront the truth of our human situation. If we are honest with ourselves (and with others), we must admit that we make lots of mistakes in life, and that we also do things we know are wrong, even as we are doing them. The things we have done, and are sometimes continuing to do, can have horrific impacts on other people - and on the natural world that sustains our human existence. 

Each of us could make up a substantial list of things for which we need to apologize, as individuals, and for which we will hope for forgiveness. I am pretty sure I am right about that. 

A "business" website, dedicated to "creating customer-driven growth," has published a list of "Six Steps To A Great Apology." Here they are: (1) Act quickly; (2) Apologize in person; (3) Explain what happened; (4) Show how you will avoid the problem in the future; (5) Apologize - actually say, "I'm sorry"; (6) Make restitution.

Here's a thought - and I'm serious. Let's set up a way that we, as a nation, can formally apologize for the harms we have caused, following those six steps, and making restitution. A lot better than bombing and bullying the world at large, don't you think?

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Tuesday, May 5, 2026

#125 / The Boy In The Striped Pajamas

 


The story that comprises the book pictured above was written by John Boyne, and his book was published in 2006. Boyne calls it "a fable."

According to Wikipedia, Boyne "wrote the entire first draft of the book in two and a half days, without sleeping much." Wikipedia also reports that "the book has sold more than 11 million copies worldwide and has been translated into over 58 languages, making it one of the best-selling books of all time." The story was also made into a movie, which I guess got mixed reviews. 

Maybe you know all about this story. Maybe you saw the movie, or have read the book. If you haven't read the book, this blog posting is my suggestion that you read it. 

I knew nothing about Boyne's "fable" until my wife brought home the book, in pristine condition, several weeks ago, after finding it at the Little Free Library that is located at the end of our block. I picked it up, idly, at about three o'clock in the afternoon, expecting to put it right back down, after finding out what it was. Instead, I ended up setting aside all the things I had promised myself I was going to do that afternoon, and read the book right on through, finishing its 216 pages just before dinner. 

Boyne's story is about a place in Poland that Boyne calls "Out-With." A person whom Boyne calls "The Fury" is one of the significant characters in the story. If those names don't immediately tell you what this story is all about, it won't take long till you get it.

I was crying at the end, and here it is. Here is the end, the last two paragraphs of The Boy In The Striped Pajamas: 

And that's the end of the story about Bruno and his family. Of course, all this happened a long time ago and nothing like that could ever happen again. 
Not in this day and age. 

One more time, and very sincerely, here is my suggestion: if you haven't read Boyne's book, this blog posting is my suggestion that you read it.
 
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Monday, May 4, 2026

#124 / Girding Students For The Obstacles Ahead



Click Here For The Blog In The Original

Frank Bruni, pictured above, used to write for The New York Times. Well, I guess I should say that he still does write for The Times; however, while Bruni was previously on the staff of The Times, he is now on the faculty at Duke University, as the Eugene C. Patterson Professor of the Practice of Journalism and Public Policy. Bruni has held that position for five years now, and in a recent column (in The Times), "Being A College Teacher Is Strange Right Now," Bruni says that this year is the most challenging, and indeed the "strangest," he has encountered so far:

That’s not about Duke. It’s about higher education. It’s about America. It’s about dynamics — chiefly, this country’s tilt toward authoritarianism and the rapidly accelerating advances of A.I. — that render our tomorrows even hazier than usual. None of us knows what we’re in for and up against, and that confusion crystallizes on college campuses, which are by definition gateways to the future. They’re supposed to leave students with maps, routes, a destination. Not with compasses whose needles gyrate this way and that.

Let me provide you with my response to Bruni's column - and you can read his column in its entirety by clicking the link provided above. No paywall will block you - or so I am assured. 

Here is my reaction to what Bruni is saying. As a former newspaperman, Bruni may be leaning too heavily on his former career "reporting" the news. In fact, "reporting" on the realities in which we are enmeshed is critically important, but being an "observer" is different from being an "actor." 

I would like to think (as a former college instructor myself) that education needs to be more than an introduction to what "exists," to "reality," to what we can "observe" as we look around. Education needs to open an avenue to "possibility," to what "might be," and should not be limited to what already "is." 

Persons interested in etymology might want to see what Teachers.Institute has to say about the etymology of the word, "education." Here is a section from the website discussion that I thought most important (emphasis added): 

What the etymology tells us about education’s deeper purpose 

Whether we approach the word through its Latin roots or through the Sanskrit concept of Shiksha, the same fundamental truth emerges: education is not – and has never been – simply about the delivery of information. Britannica describes the Gurukula as a place where students studied “religious teachings and traditional scriptures, as well as politics and science” – a curriculum broad enough to prepare learners for full participation in civic and social life, not just for a single trade or examination. 
The etymology of “education” therefore carries a profound message for educators today. Educare reminds us that students need structure, guidance, and the transmission of accumulated human knowledge. Educere reminds us that every learner carries latent capacities that no curriculum can manufacture – they can only be drawn out through trust, inquiry, and the right environment. And the Indian tradition of Shiksha adds that genuine education is always transformative: it disciplines the self while liberating the spirit. 
Together, these roots suggest that the ideal educator is neither a passive transmitter of facts nor simply a facilitator standing on the sidelines – but someone who both nourishes and leads forth, who both instructs and inspires.

True education "draws out from us" what exists within us, as possibility, but that is not revealed until it is "realized" - made into "reality" - by action. 

That was the lesson I tried to deliver to the Legal Studies students I taught at UCSC. I am sharing this thought with you!

https://sanford.duke.edu/profile/frank-bruni/

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Sunday, May 3, 2026

#123 / Please Don't Dismiss My Case

  


You may know the song in which you can find those lyrics I have made into my title. It's "Dear Landlord" and it's one of my favorites. You can click right here for the lyrics. If you click the next link, you can listen to Bob Dylan sing it. 

The verse I like best is the last one: 

Dear landlord
Please don’t dismiss my case
I’m not about to argue
I’m not about to move to no other place
Now, each of us has his own special gift
And you know this was meant to be true
And if you don’t underestimate me
I won’t underestimate you

This blog posting is being scheduled for a Sunday, so that should give you a hint as to who I think that "Dear Landlord" person actually is. And if we're talking about "underestimation" (always a good topic to consider), that is something that is mainly our problem, not the Landlord's. At least, that's my experience. My observation is that we tend to underestimate the Landlord, while we also underestimate ourselves, and that's certainly a mistake, whichever way we aim our underestimation!

Each of us does have some special gift,
And sometimes we have more than one. 
Within this world, there's no boy or girl, 
Who ever ends up with none!  

I think Bob would agree!
 
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Saturday, May 2, 2026

#122 / Free Market Drugs

 

Click Here For The Blog In The Original

The Wall Street Journal believes in "free markets." Of course it does! And on February 26, 2026, Roland Fryer made a pitch for applying some "free market" principles to our "War on Drugs." Click that link for a Wikipedia write up, outlining how that "War on Drugs" term is currently understood. Click right here for the Opinion column I'm talking about. [This is supposed to be a "gift" link, but realize that my typical paywall warnings apply. The Wall Street Journal may, or may not, allow non-subscribers to read what Fryer has to say.] Fryer, by the way, is an American economist and a professor at Harvard University.

I am not a doctrinaire believer in "free markets." Still, I think Fryer does make a couple of good points in his recent column, the concluding two paragraphs of which are reproduced below (emphasis added): 

There is something deeply peculiar about a country that considers itself the global champion of free markets but refuses to apply market logic to drug policy. In November 2025, the Congressional Budget Office’s director testified that he had no evidence the interdiction campaign has affected drug use or prices in the U.S. A classic RAND Corp. study found decades ago that treatment is 23 times as cost-effective as source-country control and 10 times as cost-effective as interdiction. The data aren’t ambiguous. They are ignored. 
At some point, a great nation must follow the evidence—even when the evidence leads somewhere politically inconvenient. Every administration for 50 years has exposed its citizens to more violence, more incarceration and more death rather than confront the basic economics of drug markets. The evidence isn’t wrong. Our policy is.

What Fryer is saying is that those addicted to drugs need help, and that helping those who are addicted, as opposed to prosecuting them as criminals, will work out better for everyone - and even when plain old "economics" is concerned. 

You can read the economic arguments in Fryer's Opinion column. A law enforcement "War" against drugs (and those who use them) isn't, he says, citing statistics, a winning strategy. For another idea, you might unbottle whatever store of empathy you have available, and find out that taking care of people who have a problem that affects not only them, their family and friends, but all of us, is actually a better and more effective - and a more "cost effective" - way to confront what is a truly serious public problem. 

If I were president, or governor (and we all ought to think about ourselves that way, as we think about what it means to be an effective citizen in a system that promotes "self-government"), I believe that Fryer's proposed approach would be worth a really serious try!

https://www.ukatlondonclinic.com/drug-addiction/heroin/

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