The expression “children should be seen and not heard” has its roots, some say, in an English proverb of the 15th century. I think this saying would be appropriate for our times. It could be applied to a huge swath of politicians, talking heads Read more…
I missed a few lessons early in life. But I caught up later, thanks in part to several wise mentors who showed up to fill in the gaps in my knowledge with practical experience. It should be no surprise to anyone that Read more…
In 2005, I had my first hip surgery. If you’ve ever had true hip pain, you know how debilitating it is. The week prior to my surgery, the spurs and rough surfaces on my hip joint were awful. Ouch. So, at 54 years old, Read more…
I’m not an economist. That’s good because I didn’t accumulate impressive grades when I took college economics. In fact, after that experience, I resolved being an economist wasn’t my vocation. Being a soldier was preferable to supply and demand curves and economy theory. Besides, Read more…
This week Shelley and I departed for the Midwest to visit children and grandchildren and attend an annual reunion with the 1st Infantry Division officers I served with in war and peace. I write about many of them in Desert Redleg: Artillery Read more…
That we have a crisis in fatherhood in American is as plain as the next crime committed by a young male, of any race, in any place, and without regard to the appalling nature of the crime. In almost every case Read more…
In the fall of 1968, I was considering where to go to college the following September. I was ambivalent and not a strong student. To be sure dyslexia and lousy study habits did nothing to improve my grades. I thought about different colleges. I Read more…
Some years ago, when preparing for battalion command, I joined others attending a pre-command course to brush up on Army operations, planning, training, and personnel matters. There is much on the plate of a battalion commander. For the most part, those selected Read more…
In 1992, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY) penned an article in The American Spectator titled “Defining Deviancy Down: How We’ve Become Accustomed to Alarming Levels of Crime and Destructive Behavior”. In it, Moynihan addressed the permissive decline of society in the 1990s. If he was Read more…
It’s so easy to complain about the government these days. Particularly the Federal government that has grown in power and reach for the last 100 years. Our Founding Fathers would be horrified by the aggregation of power from the states to the Read more…