In the cold pre-dawn of February 2nd, my husband and I drove to the neighboring town of Woodstock and joined the crowds scurrying toward the iconic Square. The classic movie, Groundhog Day, may be set in Punxsutawney, but it was filmed in Woodstock, and for the last three decades the …
Recently I listened to Robert P. George, Director of the James Madison Program at Princeton University, on a podcast. As he discussed the importance of teaching students to marshal evidence for their positions and arguments, he observed that historians sometimes label eras the Age of This or That. The medieval …
Years ago, I read two different news stories about two different girls. Both girls lived in poor and violent neighborhoods on the south side of Chicago. Both girls were 18-years old, and about to leave high school. The Chicago Tribune did not connect these stories; the stories are only linked …
The U.S. Department of Education has proposed a rule that prohibits the outright ban of transgender students in the sports of their gender identity. The rule “provides flexibility for schools to achieve important educational objectives through their athletic program. …(and will) allow schools flexibility to develop team eligibility criteria…(although) these …
Ten years ago, I volunteered to create a small garden in one of our neighborhood’s public parks. In hindsight, I made one bad assumption and one strategic mistake. Both seem like cautionary tales when I think about our current politics and governance. The garden was to be carved out of …
Forty percent of our nation’s young people—those born between 1997 and 2012; Gen Z— believe that the founders of the United States are better described as villains than heroes.1 Clearly, they haven’t attended a production of the musical, Hamilton. I am being only somewhat facetious. I think this 40% statistic …
Last summer the Chicago Tribune reported on a bakery that was harassed and vandalized after scheduling a “family-friendly” drag show at their shop. The owner was quoted as saying, “…people who haven’t been exposed to this need to learn about it and be more accepting.” (emphasis mine) Must I? For …
For 35 years, I’ve puzzled over why the act of confession is not part of the regular order of Sunday worship at my church. To be sure, in the Protestant tradition it is perfectly acceptable for me to confess my mistakes on my own time. There is no doctrine requiring …
The lyrics captured my imagination the first time I heard the song. 1 “Who knocks tonight so late?” the weary porter said. Three kings stood at the gate, each with a crown on head. The serving man bowed down, the inn was full, he knew. Said he, “In all …
To amuse myself, I counted the ornaments as I took them off the Christmas tree on New Year’s Day. One hundred sixty-five. Five weeks earlier, I had carefully hung the same one hundred sixty-five. Having quantified a vaguely uneasy sense of hours lost to unwrapping tissue, climbing up and down …
