Category: current events
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“Nothing to fear but fear itself”
Instead of living in fear and buying guns, let’s ground ourselves in joy and trust. Joy for living, trust in a higher power and in each other.
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Of Loyalty Oaths and Gun Rights
To get a teaching job in the 1970s I had to sign a Loyalty Oath. Oaths usually included something like this: “I do not believe in the overthrow of the Government of the United States by force or violence…. I am not a member of any organization or party which believes and/or teaches directly or…
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Dear Mitt, please, not a repeat of the 1950s
Mitt Romney, as much as you’d like to return the country to the 1950s, the times were oppressive for African Americans, women, and gays and lesbians.
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Voucher plans vs. Medicare: one more decision
The Republican platform and the Romney/Ryan ticket want to substitute Medicare with a voucher plan so that seniors can be empowered. Thanks,folks, but good health care and enough money to live on make us feel empowered. Having to make one more complicated decision does not.
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God and Campaign 2012
10-0: the number of times Republicans mentioned God in their platform versus Democrats’ references to the Deity—until Fox News noticed the discrepancy. Which means Republicans are faithful to God, while the Democrats are guided by—Satan, I guess.
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Politics and Clotheslines
Are liberals more likely than conservatives to dry their clothes on a clothesline?
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The role of government in environmental issues
By the late 1930s the logging industry had destroyed the forests of the Southeast. Land that is today Pisgah and Cherokee National Forests is lush with fir-spruce trees because the government bought and reforested the land. We need government regulations.
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Civility in politics: Let’s keep Archie Bunker out.
Before Archie Bunker came along we Americans kept most of our bigoted thoughts to ourselves. Today telling it like it is has become a virtue, infecting our politics with an incivility unknown in recent memory.
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My advice to graduates
No one’s asked me to speak at graduation, but I’ve prepared a message for seniors anyway. The theme? The values you’ve been taught—get real. Nobody practices that stuff anyway.
Nancy Werking Poling 