Time to Think

The Art of Politics By Hank Silverberg The United States has lost some of its best artists in recent years, and it doesn’t appear we will be getting any new ones soon. Wait! Before you start listing great painters, musicians or writers, let me clarify. I am talking about those who practice “The Art of Politics.”  (The U.S.Capitol) Done the right way, political discourse and decisions have always been art. You come up with a good idea, float it around the political circle and the public, seek input, and redraw it based on the views of colleagues and constituents. We’ve had some wonderful political artists in our history. Ben Franklin comes to mind. There was Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt and Ted Kennedy. Yes—they were partisan many times. But in the end, they compromised for the good of the country. (Sen. John McCain)  I write about this now because we have lost one of our current political artists this week— Republican Senator John McCain, of Arizona. I interviewe

Raining on the Parade By Hank Silverberg When I was a 15- year-old High School student in Connecticut, my father was learning to walk with canes and would soon be confined to a wheelchair. He was stricken with Multiple Sclerosis, an illness eventually linked to a chest wound he received on February 20, 1945 on the sands of Iwo Jima,  just two week after his 20th birthday.  He was getting some help from the local VA hospital and that inspired me to volunteer there. During the spring of 1970 I ran a 16 millimeter movie projector in a hospital ward of the V-A. Th ere was no internet or cable TV so those movies were what passed for entertainment and I think they were appreciated. The men there were all confined to their beds. Some of them were veterans of World War One or World War Two, but many had just come back from Vietnam and were not much older than me. Most of these men did not speak much. A few asked me how old I was and where I went to school, but mostly they just wat

Unite What’s Right By Hank Silverberg   There they were again--Nazis, skinheads, white supremacists--standing in Lafayette Park across the street from the White House waving the flag and calling it a “white civil rights movement.” Your first reaction should be, “What?”  For those of you who read this blog on a regular basis, you will find this one a bit different.   It has to be.  For more than 200 years, with some notable exceptions, the white, protestant, elite has ruled America. But the majority of people in America stopped being white years ago. There are hundreds of millions of people who know that and believe it makes us a stronger nation. The folks with the Swastikas and Stars and Bars represent a small minority who don’t get it.  In fact, after all the media coverage and all the rhetoric, only about two dozen people came to the “Unite the Right” rally at Lafayette Park this past Sunday. They were far out numbered by a variety of counter-protest groups and th

“Don’t Kill The Messenger” By Hank Silverberg The phase “Don’t kill the messenger” dates back to 441 BC, and is mostly attributed to Sophocles, a Greek philosopher and playwright. In his scenario, a messenger comes from the battlefield bringing the King bad news. The King, enraged by the news, kills the messenger. Shakespeare re-used the concept in both “Henry IV” and “Anthony and Cleopatra.” Today’s primary messenger, of course, is the press, and the man in the White House appears to be acting like an enraged king. America woke up to this tweet on Sunday morning:  Donald J. Trump ( @realDonaldTrump ) 8/5/18, 7:38 AM The Fake News hates me saying that they are the Enemy of the People only because they know it’s TRUE. I am providing a great service by explaining this to the American People. They purposely cause great division & distrust. They can al