‘The Lioness of Leiden’ by Robert Loewen — The Lioness of Leiden by Robert Loewen is a story about the Dutch resistance to German occupation during World War II. I found myself struggling with many thoughts and emotions as I read this evocative book. First of all, for the last few years it has felt as if we…

Every campaign is an opportunity to educate the general public, but the moderates always insist putting out a losing message — Here in Wisconsin, every time I turn on the radio or television I’m subjected to another ad suggesting that if voters don’t select the Republican candidate, our streets will be overrun with pedophiles, rapists, and murderers. There’s one radio spot where a woman with an annoying, nasally voice repeats the…

I’ve come to believe the idea of “merit” is just another lie designed to justify exploitation — In grade school, the teacher used to post our test scores for everyone to see. I distinctly remember that every time I received a 100, somebody would yell, “Lucky!” They never said, “Wow, you’re smart.” They never said, “Wow, you must have studied hard.” It was always just a matter…

The publishing industry elevates mediocrity and disregards the most important voices — Yesterday I stumbled across a video of a writer giving an interview for her book tour. The central idea of her book is that “wokeness” is destroying America. However, during the interview, she was unable to define the word “woke.” For the working-class writers out there, this example should fill…

Don’t be so focused on the consequences of your action that you overlook the consequences of your non-action — When I was about eight years old, I was tossing a football in the guest bedroom of my aunt’s house with my cousin. I can’t remember who threw the pass that broke the light fixture. All I remember is locking eyes with my cousin as debris floated down from the…

How to identify them, and the best tactics for dealing with a troubling infestation — I could write an article every day about some of the nasty comments I get. I see other writers put up articles like that from time to time and I always end up thinking, “You need to block those trolls and move on… never engage.” But I’ve been at this…

We can’t afford to be passive in response to the march toward authoritarianism — The American public needs to recognize that if your community doesn’t demonstrate tolerance for homosexuality, it puts EVERYBODY at risk. The recent wave of anti-gay legislation put forth by Republican politicians is terrifying. Unfortunately, the passive centrists/moderates always behave as if the positions of radical fascists are legitimate talking points.

There’s no way an algorithm made this choice — Today is March 21st. The boost was announced on February 21st. Like most of the writers on this platform, I was excited to see what would happen when something of mine was chosen. As I write this, I’m sitting at 7,500 followers. I also do a weekly column for The…

The debate is often directed onto inconsequential concerns, while issues of murder and suicide are ignored — I recently wrote an article about how my daughter played basketball against a transgender girl. It was a wonderful experience. Everybody had fun. The only people present who made anyone uncomfortable were the always hostile, conservative white men. I had a few people respond to my article with statements like…