November 2020
Six Changes to the Constitution
With the current focus on the Supreme Court and its essential role in American life, it is important to heed retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, who wrote Six Amendments: How and Why We Should Change the Constitution, a book published just before the disastrous 2014 election. He seemed to know what was coming.
This remarkable work notes that the Constitution has been revised only 18 times during our history, the most recent amendment introduced over to centuri more...
Humanity?s Underbellies
What makes world history so fascinating is the mystery of human behavior. We are communal creatures (few of us can really survive as hermits), yet most of us are endowed with a certain amount of freedom of choice. Our behavior is not governed as much by instinct, built-in wiring, as most other creatures lower on the evolutionary scale.
For our earliest humanoid ancestors to survive, their communities were more important than the individuals within them. Leaders led by hav more...
A Country Almost Divided
With Joe Biden winning the election with a popular vote surplus of at least 4.5 million people and a decisive Electoral College win, I, along with millions of my fellow citizens, gave a huge sigh of relief. When I heard that even France rang bells of celebration at the news that America had rejoined the world, I wept. Four years of daily assaults on every American institution, including disregard for truth, had taken a toll on the many of us who watched Trump?s media circuses.
Presidents Who Changed America
Whatever the Founding Fathers envisioned as the United States that they were creating, they seemed to know that over time, changes would be made. Most of them, for example, were slave owners, a system they inherited, but privately knew was an embarrassment in a society that promoted equal rights, justice for all.
Despite the efforts of "originalists" in our Supreme Court to roll back many of the changes approved by Supreme Court majorities over the centuries, the fact that the Co more...
Despite the efforts of "originalists" in our Supreme Court to roll back many of the changes approved by Supreme Court majorities over the centuries, the fact that the Co more...