According to the most powerful man in the Senate, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, $11 per hour is as high a minimum wage as his state needs. Therefore, he says, he’s willing to kill the $15 minimum wage proposal included in the Covid Stimulus bill now before the Senate. Manchin, a Democrat, can make ...
As usual, I am overthinking the soon-to-arrive season of Lent. I have had a love/hate relationship with these 40 days for decades. On one hand, I subject myself to hours and hours of introspection prior to Ash Wednesday trying to figure out what my Lenten disciplines should be. On the other hand, I ...
Let’s turn away from the grotesque spectacle that is Trumpism and ponder the challenges confronting our new administration. It’s heartening that Joe Biden already has signed a flurry of executive orders addressing some of our most knotty problems — the pandemic, the climate crisis and immigration, for example. It’s a promising start, to be sure. ...
Since the invasion of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, we have been inundated with images of violence and hatred from that day of infamy. Each day seems to bring a new photo or video that shocks. A couple of days ago I saw for the first time video of a rioter leading other insurrectionists ...
Since midsummer of this awful year, the Trump administration has executed 10 people without much public notice. What little reporting this story has received has been drowned out by the election, the pandemic, and the torrent of lies and conspiracy theories still flowing from a crippled White House. Attorney General William Barr cleared the ...
When you swear off writing as long as I did, readers deserve to know why. My first excuse: I was overwhelmed by too much of 2020, depressed by the bizarre election season and numbed by alarming pandemic developments. So after my last blog on Oct. 8, I switched off my laptop and cleared ...
After my last blog (Forgiveness, Sept. 25), an old friend from my Springs days posted a comment. Bunny Bramson and I have known each other since the mid-1970s when we both worked in New York for Springs. Here’s what she said: Hey Buck. I anticipate reading your words but am now saddened at how ...
On Sept. 13, the 15th Sunday after Pentecost on the church calendar, my sermon at St. John the Evangelist in Newport, RI, was framed around the day’s gospel, Matthew 18: 21-35. Here’s the passage, from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible: Then Peter came and said to him, ‘Lord, if another ...
You don’t need a Ph.D. in ethno-botany from Harvard and have authored a dozen deep-think books to know that problems in our country runneth over. Being a Brainiac would help, though, if you had to boil down what ails us in one cogent essay. I couldn’t possibly do it, but I think I’ve found someone ...
I wake up most mornings thinking of ways to escape, even if just for a while, the distressing reality of life in America today. Many of you may also be looking for respite, given the daily onrush of alarming news. I cope by immersing myself in activities that bring both peace and a sense of ...
