On May 25, I was one of the presenters at PechaKucha Batavia. PechaKucha is a format in which you present 20 slides for 20 seconds each. I shared “Questions That Matter.” Unfortunately, the accompanying slides are unavailable, but here are my questions:
I recently discovered that, 117 years ago, the United States Supreme Court enforced a Cambridge Massachusetts health board’s smallpox vaccination order. The plaintiff—an anti-vaxxer—claimed their ‘individual liberty.’ That liberty, it was said, included, not only the right to afflict themselves, but also the right to cause others to be afflicted. When I learned of this …
“When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are often stiffened.” Billy Graham I am scheduled to present my book, Humanity’s Journey Home, to a group of lifelong learners. But I’m frightened. I’m glad I wrote the book…I really am. However, there are days I wish I hadn’t. It’s not a book …
“Perfect is the enemy of good.” Voltaire Sometimes perfect finds us when we least expect it. Late last year, I was asked to keynote at a meeting of Chief Information Officers (CIOs) for school districts across the state of Illinois. I could never have conceived how this invitation would help save a life and change …
While unanswered questions are challenging, I wonder if an unquestioned answer could doom the species. Be forewarned, the slope I am about to ascend is so unbelievably slippery, I am frightened to even begin. For the species Homo sapiens, the answer to most any threat is annihilation. The greater the threat, the more willing we …
“I’m a burden to everybody,” she began when I answered the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. “Everyone would be better off if I wasn’t here.” “Are you considering suicide?” I asked. She paused, and quietly admitted she was. I asked her first name and age, for familiarity and a bit of context. “I’m Sue (not her …
Note: The following is a short excerpt from a book I have been drafting, about how lost the species Homo Sapiens has become. I have titled it Moving to a Different Rock: Humanity’s Journey Home. I welcome your thoughts. Ending Selfishness “What can we gain by sailing to the moon if we are not able …
“So here, then, is the last fifty years of American politics summarized: we became more consistent in the party we vote for not because we came to like our party more, but because we came to dislike the opposing party more. Even as hope and change sputter, fear and loathing proceed.” Ezra Klein I fear …
It is so very difficult. When I witness anger and hatred boiling out of a mass of humanity, as that which flooded my life on January 6, part of me wants to turn away and remain in denial. Another part sets out, with the rest of me as an unwitting accomplice, to hate those who …
“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” Martin Luther King, Jr. The arc of the moral universe does bend toward justice; however, its trajectory is not unerringly true. As I step ever so gently, perhaps timidly, into the new year, I feel a terrible vulnerability; my naiveté gone, replaced …