Let’s be honest shall we. There are no heroes in the Kyle Rittenhouse story. If we believe the best about Rittenhouse, then it was self defense. But it was also a 17 year old kid who decided to go to Kenosha to beat back the hordes of rioters. He had no business being there but he came ready for action. And his action took the lives of two men and crippled a third. If we believe the best about his... Read more
I know I have been blogging a lot on race lately. I promise you that while I do plan on blogging more on racial issues than I have in the past not every blog I do will be on racial issues. In fact, after this one, I have promised myself that my next two blogs will not focus on racial issues. Last week I discussed the presence of institutional racism. Dealing with that racism is the challenge that faces many... Read more
As you may have figured out by now, I have been posting a lot on race lately. And that will continue for the foreseeable future. To be honest I thought I was mostly done talking on racial issues about ten years ago. At that time I had come out with a book – Transcending Racial Barriers – which basically stated what I wanted to talk about as it concerned racial issues. The Mutual Obligations Approach detailed in the book was... Read more
Three years ago, it was immediately clear to me that I could not support Donald Trump as president of the United States. It took a little longer, but I eventually decided that neither could I support Secretary Clinton for president. So I decided to vote for the political group that best reflected my values which is the American Solidarity Party (ASP). It felt good for once to vote for a person who best represented my values rather than someone who... Read more
Imagine that you are the CEO of a large business or president of a university. We are at a time where racial animosity and division has moved to the forefront of our nation. As the leader of your organization you may be concerned with dealing with the effects of our country’s atrocious legacy of racism. You may be concerned due to what such conflict will do to the bottom line or you just might have a passion to end racism.... Read more
Watching a country tear itself apart is quite a spectacle. This is the cycle I have come to expect when we have a national racial incident. We have the racial incident, the protest and the backlash. Is it a cycle that we can break? Not if we keep doing what we have done before. So here is my attempt to move away from that cycle and to encourage us to think about a mutual accountability approach. Many of those who... Read more
I did not want to blog about this. I really wanted the Floyd issue to come and go without comment from me. I mean we just had the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, and I just am not ready for one more murdered black man. Not only mentally and emotionally am I not ready for it, but I simply do not have the time. I am finishing the manuscript for a book and working on a grant in addition to putting... Read more
Today many churches are reopening up, probably largely thanks to the comments of President Trump. Those comments are unfortunate. Although he likely does not have the power to actually order churches open his words will encourage more of them to engage in civil disobedience. But I cannot just blame Trump. Some of the restrictions governors have laid out are far from realistic. When the North Carolina governor attempts to restrict all churches, even those with sanctuaries that can hold 2,000... Read more
In our current ongoing discussion of when we should open our society back up, there is a new argument being laid out. That argument is that support of the lockdown is tied to the privilege of the elite class. Take Robby Soave’s argument that the lockdown protesters are ill-advised but understandable given the destruction of the financial place of many of them. Or Matt Walsh who stipulates that those with jobs should not “sneer” at unemployed protestors. Glenn Harlan contends... Read more
“If we get to the part of the curve where it goes down to essentially no new cases, no deaths for a period of time, I think it makes sense that you have to relax social distancing.” This is what Dr. Anthony Fauci said a few days ago. He is a good man. I am glad our president is listening to him. He is also dead wrong. He is not wrong because he does not understand the biology of what... Read more
Shattering Paradigms
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