America takes pride in being #1 in a wide array of accomplishments. But a distressing milestone has been reached of half-a-million COVID-19 deaths, more than any other country in the world. The US has almost 28 million active COVID cases, the most in the world, and two-and-a-half times more than the next leading country, India, […]
Letters
2020; The Year In… (long high-pitched shriek)
Two days into 2020, while everyone was planning for a better year (how could it possibly be worse, right?), of all of the options on how to handle Iran, Trump decided to point his 45 at Iran’s equivalent of Colin Powell for reasons that are still unclear; c’est la vie. But Iran just wouldn’t take […]
Letter: Room For Debate – The Church Response During A Pandemic
Other than being called “a moron and not a pastor” (I am retired from the latter); suspected as suffering from depression (I am melancholy by nature); being lumped into a group of “far left Dems” (far from it); and it being suggested that I get out and do something positive for the community – a few […]
Parallels between Mask Wearing (or Not) and Texting while Driving
The battle lines have been drawn. In an effort to reduce and contain the spread of the novel coronavirus aka COVID-19, a statewide order in Washington now requires most people to wear a mask or other face covering. That change went into effect June 26. It led to an almost instantaneous surge in protests by […]
Lakewood, Your Home Is Not Yours
Brady Louwein is a tall 60-year-old strapping home renovator. He is soft-spoken and you will never hear him curse, a smile comes to him easily. He attends church every week and even took in a fellow churchgoer, well past 80, when they had nowhere else to turn. Brady has a social disability, so he has […]
Letter: “Are you watching me?”
“Grandma, watch me!” He’ll be demonstrating his dexterity as he fights off mobs of fun-loving zombies – 26 different types of zombies to be exact – as they attempt to invade the home. Absurdly, although perhaps not to a four-year-old, plants come to the rescue. Forty-nine zombie-zapping plants in fact. “Did you see that grandma? Are […]
Letter: A Coronavirus Fish (and golf) Story
For fear of being caught – not the fish, but himself – he didn’t invite his fishing buddy to go with him. Traffic was light but enough cars were on the road that his blended in with the rest. Chances of being stopped and having to explain where he was going were minimal. But even […]
Letter: Thousands of miles, hundreds of hours, buckets of tears
It’s Easter weekend which means, among many things, there’ll be a hunt for eggs in the front yard. It’s her first opportunity, with her newfound ability to toddle about on her own, that she’ll navigate her way robotically from one brightly colored egg to another and fill her little basket. She’ll be dressed in her […]
Letter: Digging deep, I found a rock
By the end of the day my series of shovel-dug trenches – over two-foot-deep and some about that wide – will be all-told nearly 40 feet long, spider-webbing here and there as if I didn’t know what I was doing, which I don’t. You’d think I was in the army. My dad was. But as […]