Time to Think

The Debate                                                                                                                #300 By Hank Silverberg                                      Commentary   The debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, coming up Tuesday night, could make or break the presidential race for either one of them. Or it can have no real impact at all.  Polls,   which are taken almost every day this close to an election, show an extremely tight race, particularly in the seven swing states that will lead to the presidency. So one major mispeak or major flub by either of the candidates...

  American Labor                                      #299 By Hank Silverberg   Commentary It's time again to celebrate the American worker.  We work for many reasons. The first of course, is to make a living and pay the bills for things we need, like groceries or rent. If you  work hard and become skilled, you should be able to afford a few of the things you want, rather than just what you need. Many people  work in jobs they don't like, sometimes two, because they have to bring home a paycheck to support their families.   Many others work for modest income because they are doing something they like. They are giving back to society because they either enjoy it, or feel obligated to do it. Teachers, Firefighters, Journalists and Social Workers come to mind here.  But this week it doesn't matter if you are a bricklayer, doctor, or nuclear physicist....

  Renewal                                                           #298 By Hank Silverberg   Commentary A new semester begins for me this week. I have two classes and 50 students at the community college where I teach as an Adjunct Professor.  The start of a new semester always brings a fresh look for me with a new group of students and some revised material I have added to my syllabi. I teach introductory courses in Public Speaking and Communications, so many of my students, though   not all, are right out of high school.    A large number of these students chose a community college because they can take the introductory courses with lower tuition and then transfer later to a four year college. In Virginia, the curriculum for my classes is identical to that of freshmen taking the same class at a four year co...

The Next Generation                   #297 By Hank Silverberg  You will notice in the upper right hand corner of this blog the number 297. That's approximately how many blogs I have done in the last few years. It is in fact many more, because I failed to number the first dozen or so I wrote. Of all those, this is the one I find difficult to write.  Regular readers know I have two children and two grandchildren, and as I approach my 7th decade of life I have seriously begun to think about what the world will be like when my six-year-old grandson reaches 70 years of age.  Climate change, dwindling resources, including fossil fuel and water, and the constant inability of the human race to live in peace among nations all clog my mind about the future.  The Baby Boomer generation of the 50's and 60's in the last century grew up with these same worries, but in the end we went to school, got jobs and had children. As we rais...

 How To Read Polls                    #296                                              B y Hank Silverberg  I was doing my usual search through social media earlier this week when a new poll in the presidential race was released. It was done by Marquette University Law School, and for the first time it showed Kamala Harris ahead of Donald Trump among likely voters 53% to 47%.  That got some Trump supporters all in a tizzy, claiming that the media is manipulating the polls, they don't count and it was all fake.  It was a  good reminder that all the polls are not  the same, and that the public often doesn't understand the different methodology.  There are various types of polls. Some, like the Marquette poll, or the ones done by highly respected Marist College, are independent. They have no ...