Time to Think

Happy Birthday, America!                          #394 By Hank Silverberg  In 1787, as Ben Franklin was walking out of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, a woman named Elizabeth Willing Powell asked him what kind of government we were getting.  Franklin replied, "A republic, if we can keep it." Those words have come back into the public mind often over the last 250 years, and as we approach the big birthday celebration at the end of this coming week, it has become more than just a history lesson.  (Liberty Bell, Courtesy of National Park Service)  There will be celebrations in big cities and small towns across the country leading up to July 4th, but somehow those usually patriotic and uniting celebrations have seemed a bit sour this year.   Why? Well, let's look at the Great American Fair that opened on the National Mall  in D.C. this week.  It was supposed to include boo...

                                The Rest of The Story                          #393 By Hank Silverberg I haven't written much about the war in the Middle East, mainly because the events happen so quickly there a once-a-week blog would be outdated by the time I posted it online. Much of what comes out of that region is terrible. But little of what we hear is the truth.  Words like "genocide" are thrown around so much without evidence of planned mass murder, it has weakened the meaning of the word. And much of what we hear is anti-Israel without any balance on what is really going on.  So a United Nations report caught my eye this week which may enlighten many of those people who take a side without knowing the rest of the story.  (Courtesy Univ of Texas) The general narrative has been anti-Israel. That comes despite the Hamas inva...

  It's A Dog's Life                                  #392 It's strange how one little thing can make a big change in your life.  This week my wife and I adopted a dog! We have had three dogs throughout our marriage, but it's been ten years or so since the last one.  We needed a dog. So this week we adopted Dill, a four-month-old Australian mix. We got him from a local Humane Society shelter. Technically we bought him for a fee. (See photo.) He weighs just ten pounds, and he's rambunctious and very affectionate.  He's still adjusting to our routine, or should I say my wife and I are adjusting to his. We were both up late last night because he was crying in his crate, and we needed to comfort him. He has gotten attached to us very quickly, and gets really upset if one of us goes out of the room. But really, the dog has done a lot for us. With the children grown up and the grandkids not...

Just The Facts !                            #391 By Hank Silverberg We are rapidly approaching a midterm election where all seats in the U.S. House of Representatives will be chosen. An analysis done by the Cook Political Report last month shows that just 16 of the 435 seats are considered toss-ups, with the rest of the 419 seats likely to stay with the party that currently controls them. It varies a bit with Larry Sabato's Crystal Ball (UVA) predicting that only 13 congressional races will be competitive. Either way, the direction of the next Congress will be decided in a few swing congressional districts across the country.  Voters will have to decide what to do based on a few facts relevant to their own districts, and most likely won't focus on the bigger issues, like war and peace, climate change or the growing federal deficit. Turn on the TV and listen to voters who will tell you they are going to be doing t...

250 Celebration Not What It appears To Be     #390 By Hank Silverberg In  a few weeks , the United States will start celebrating its 250th birthday. It could be a time of renewal, of bringing the country together, of celebrating our democracy, with its successes and its flaws. Independence Day in general is supposed to be a day to remember American history, how we got here and where we can go. (Tall ships sailed into New York Harbor, July 4th, 1976)   It was so in 1976 when we celebrated the Bicentennial. The nation had just finished the Vietnam War poorly, Richard Nixon had resigned after Watergate, and President Gerald Ford, who technically had not been elected to the office he held, was trying to put things back together. The events lasted more than a year with Ford lighting a lamp in the Old North Church in Boston on April 18, 1975 and traveling to Concord,    Massachusetts the next day to commemorate the "shot heard 'round the world," and the begi...