“Why so much grief for me? No man will hurl me down to Death, against my fate.And fate? No one alive has ever escaped it, neither brave man nor coward,I tell you – it’s born with us the day that we are born.”– Homer, The Iliad

This is the story of three journeys—two remarkable women on very different paths and the one we are all taking together.

What makes great societies and religions so strikingly powerful is the slowness with which they change. We may not agree with everything they stand for but we know they are built upon a foundation of beliefs and principles. Solid stone. They do occasionally metamorphosize but usually stop short of revolution and give us time to catch our collective breath.

When there is a lack of honor in government,the morals of the whole people are poisoned.”– Herbert Hoover

In honor of Independence Day and our 500th podcast we dedicate it to the memory of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, the three Freedom Summer organizers murdered, June 1964.

One thing all but the most fanatic Democrats must admit: The recent Supreme Court rulings overturning Roe v. Wade and the New York State gun control law prove that the Democrats PR strategy doesn’t work. Like most agency publicity hits, it’s not the number of placements that matter: It’s the quality of the placements, and while both agency and Democratic media campaigns might pile up enough hits to fill a wing of the Library of Congress they do nothing to change people’s minds.

Ever since the conclusion of the 2020 presidential election, I stayed away from writing columns about politics.  That’s because political pundits of the broadcast and print media are not contributing factual information to their audiences. New information is disseminated in the news sections and the pundits use those details to try to convince followers that  what the pundits write or say is reality, when, actually, it is nothing but the ego-centric opinions of pundits. It was this way yesterday, it is this way today and, thus, it will be this way tomorrow and the many tomorrows that follow until the end of time.

The problem with infidelity is not so much the act but the loss of trust.

The leak of Justice Samuel Alito’s first draft of Dobbs v. Jackson Health Organization is an act of unfaithfulness to the U.S. Supreme Court’s historic norms and is one more destructive blow to a country based on a voluntary experiment known as democracy.

It takes 90 minutes to drive from I-80’s Exit 111 to my hometown in northwestern Pennsylvania. I’ve made the trip so many times over the years that I recognize every twist and turn and a lot of local businesses.