Important Note:
Opinions are fun. My friends tell me I am someone with lots of opinions and that's fine since I don't get mad at others when they disagree with me. In this same spirit I am interested in hearing yours views as long as you are able to share your views without boiling over. I look forward to hearing from you. I tend to write in the form of short essays most of the time, but contributions do not need to be in this same format or size. Some of the content here will date itself pretty quickly, other content may be virtually timeless, this is for the reader to judge.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 36 <Prev 1 2 3 4 Next>
It is simply wrong.
Posted at: Oct/27/2023 : Posted by: Mel
Related Category: People, Perspectives, Society,
Just hours after the October 7th attack at an Israeli music festival details began to emerge of the brutality and barbaric cruelty perpetrated by Iranian-backed Hamas terrorist. As the details of the cruelty enacted on Israeli civilians came to light, University of Michigan President Santa J. Ono joined a select club of campus leaders: those willing to publicly condemn the atrocities and stand wi.....read more…
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Progressive purity, or public safety
Posted at: Sep/28/2023 : Posted by: Mel
Related Category: People, The Law,
America is in the middle of what many would call the culture wars. Gender identity, crime and punishment, racism and being canceled are all aspects of this. There is no doubt that we have plenty of things in our society that need fixing. In the midst of all this chaos of thought we have backed away in many jurisdictions from punishing criminal behavior for fear of being accused of being racist......read more…
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The Office Apocalypse
Posted at: Dec/15/2022 : Posted by: Mel
Related Category: People, Society, Watching America,
It’s interesting how things change. Before the pandemic, roughly 95% of all big city offices were occupied according to the National Chamber of Commerce. Today (December 2022) that number is closer to 47% (Bloomberg News). Employees and employers are not returning to their previous downtown offices. This downtown exodus has had a domino effect, less foot traffic, less public-transit use, the shut.....read more…
Trivializing inhumanity
Posted at: Feb/07/2022 : Posted by: Mel
Related Category: People, Society,
It is interesting how things work. There is a lot going on in my life and the world around me. Periodically these many things have a common theme rises to the surface. I had a conversation with a rabbi recently and was challenged on the topic of what it means to be part of the Jewish people. If you follow any news you are likely aware of Whoopi Goldberg’s recent comments that seemed to take and.....read more…
The Mean Girls are loose!
Posted at: Sep/17/2020 : Posted by: mel
It is interesting how words change with time. Growing up I collected stamps because I wanted to do something my father also did. I learned that the postal mark on a stamp meant it had been used and was considered “cancelled.” Of course, for the less nerdy: “canceled” was what happened to television shows you wanted to see, but were not popular enough to come back. A lot of shows I liked got canc.....read more…
A look at the 2019 California fire season
Posted at: Nov/14/2019 : Posted by: Mel
Related Category: People, Politics & Gov, Society,
If you are a California resident, 2019 has been one heck of a year. The homeless populations of San Francisco and Los Angeles have repeatedly made the national news. We can no longer get plastic straws with our cancer causing soda. But more prominent in our minds is the 2019 fire season. Any of us who have lived here a while have seen these fires, and on occasion been personally impacted. It .....read more…
Protesting the National Anthem
Posted at: Oct/12/2017 : Posted by: mel
Related Category: People, Politics & Gov, Watching America,
There has been a lot of media noise recently about professional athletes protesting the national anthem. The response to these protests have ranged from Presidential tweets to calls for boycotting the sporting events of these athletes. Others say the anthem itself is racial. Regardless of your personal stance, nothing creates controversy more than snubbing national symbols. Colin Kaepernick,.....read more…
Dealing with choice
Posted at: Apr/12/2017 : Posted by: mel
Related Category: Behavior, People, Society,
Despite the content from our 7/24 news cycle, the world that most westerner’s live in has unquestionably gotten a lot better. People live longer, are wealthier and more secure than ever. Medical care is readily available along with primary and secondary education. Never before in human history could anyone have imagined that obesity would be a problem except for an elite few. While undeniably p.....read more…
What makes a perfect parent?
Posted at: Apr/04/2017 : Posted by: mel
There are lots of things that all of us attempt to do not just well but perfectly. High on this list is the art or task of parenting; raising our children. To this task we look to our personal experience and the families we were raised in and the families we knew growing up. Learning by example is a great tool, but in this era of self-help books we are also blessed with a wealth of books publis.....read more…
Trying to define 2016
Posted at: Feb/09/2017 : Posted by: mel
Related Category: People, Perspectives, Politics & Gov, Society,
We are 5 weeks into 2017, so it seems only fair to look back and try to access or define 2016. Definitions by their very nature need to be short to be effective and understood. In a dictionary, definitions are seldom more than 8-10 words in length. Sometimes a year is best described by a new word added to our lexicon, in this case I have settled on an old word that has taken on a new emphasis. 20.....read more…
