“Fake news is cheap to produce. Genuine journalism is expensive.” Toomas Hendrik “In America the President reigns for four years, and Journalism governs forever and ever.” Oscar Wilde March 12, 2019 Dear Journalists of the Present and the Future, Before I talk about the role of your chosen vocation — “journalism” — in America today, a bit of autobiography, please. I read the Los Angeles Times in print everyday for some twenty five years. I had the newspaper delivered to my residence and I read page and after page of print, the black ink smudging my fingers. It was a huge part of my civic formation and shaped how my…

Today in class I finished showing the 1980 movie “The Elephant Man” to my students. We are reading “Catcher in the Rye” and focusing on how alienated, troubled persons do or don’t get the help they need by finding those that can help them, and then making allies of them and getting the help they need. They communicate, they connect, and they get their needs taken care of. Or they don’t. John Merrick, the “Elephant Man,” helps those who would help him. In contrast, Holden Caulfield in “Catcher” fails to communicate clearly to others what he needs, and so nobody gives it to him. It is a case of miscommunication…

It happened in 1974 or 1975, and I would have been 7 or 8 years of age. I was in suburban Milwaukee — in Waukesha County somewhere near the city of Elm Grove, Wisconsin to be exact. The exact details of when and where are blurry, but the events of that day remain clear in my memory. My mother was driving me to a tennis match I was supposed to play at some club I had never been to before. My coach and teammates were supposedly waiting for me there. I wish I knew what the name of this club was. On a day with picture perfect weather I remember…

I spent the Christmas holidays visiting family in the Bay Area. In doing so I had the opportunity to speak at length with two young men, one 30 and the other 35 years of age. They spoke to me about “their dreams for the future,” as they sought to reconcile their hopes for making money while contributing to the world. They both had good jobs and were successful in the workforce up to a point, but neither want to remain where they were forever. Both wanted to improve their position and find the “perfect fit” for their ideal futures. They had hopes and dreams. They were ambitious. They would make…

In my last essay, I talked about the “fraying” of American society, and how loosening social mores resulted in a tiny number of lonely, disturbed young men choosing to perform acts which were taboo in earlier eras of American history. I was talking about high publicity mass shootings. But as tragic, senseless, and dramatic such spectacular acts of public violence are, they are also rare, thankfully. The chances of encountering a random sociopath with a gun at school, at a concert, or some other public venue, are minuscule. It is akin to getting hit by lightning or infected by flesh eating bacteria. (Small comfort the statistics might be, however, if…

Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, the only mass murderers who will be named in this essay, with the exception of Mohammad Atta. I read about the recent shooting in Pittsburgh, and I had the same sick feeling in my gut I had when I previously read about the Las Vegas shooting, the Manchester Ariana Grande shooting, the Paris “Charlie Hebdo” shootings, or the one at the Paris Bataclan theater, or the Pulse nightclub in Orlando or the Inland Regional Center in San Bernadino — or at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, or the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting. They blur together, these horrible mass shootings. Almost all of these I can remember the first…

Every weekday morning it is the same. I race out the door no later than 7:30 am to take my daughters to school. I drop Julia off for her bus at 7:39, and then deposit Elizabeth no later than 7:43 at her school. I am in my own classroom standing tall and ready for students by 7:50. The bell rings at 7:55 and at 8:00 sharp class begins. My schedule is tight. Minutes count. I teach all day long, with some 45 minutes free for bathroom breaks and lunch. The compressed nature of my teacher’s workday means I am done in time to pick up Elizabeth from her school —…

“I will not allow Trump to make me crazy.” It is almost two years since Donald Trump was elected President of the United States. I am still so deeply embarrassed and ashamed of this fact. I am against Trump in most aspects of his presidency, and I am a confirmed centrist — far from a far left orthodox liberal who instinctively is against any Republican policy. I am open to good ideas wherever they might originate; I am not ideologically wedded to the right or the left. I like nuance. I see most arguments have two sides to them. The gray areas are the most interesting places for discussion. But…

Oh, how I have a love/hate relationship with AYSO soccer! So, gentle reader, you may well ask what does “AYSO” stand for? Officially, it stands for American Youth Soccer Organization, and it has been around forever. I played it back in 1976. But I and other parents refer to it as “All Your Saturdays Occupied.” So let’s start with why I love AYSO soccer. Firstly and lastly, there is the exercise. I see my daughters come running off the soccer pitch panting and covered with sweat, with cheeks red as tomatoes, and I see health. Our bodies are meant to be used, and exercise in young people is often a…

ON RAISING DAUGHTERS Two summers ago when she was preparing to start fourth grade, I read Romeo and Juliet with my oldest daughter, Julia. It took a long time to read each line and to examine closely the Elizabethan era prose/verse, and to discuss characterization and what Shakespeare was trying to do at that point in the play. After we had spoken the lines out loud and chewed over their meaning for some forty minutes, we would watch professional actors bring the action to life. We watched all of the Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 version and also Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 version. Julia loved it! Each night she begged to read and…

  My father and stepmother pose for the camera in Heisler Park, Laguna Beach on August 3rd, 2018. My father’s mother suffered a heart attack when she was 77. She survived it and was hospitalized, and all her children rushed to her bedside for support. A few weeks later, she had another heart attack and was gone. My grandmother did not suffer; she went quickly and painlessly. Only 77 years of age, she left perhaps too early. Her husband, on the other hand, was precisely the opposite. My father’s father, my grandfather, lived to be 91 years of age. But the last ten or so years of his life he suffered dementia,…

Hello, year 51! Yes, today I turn 51 years of age. It is an anti-climactic day in light of last year: turning 50 years of age is momentous, turning 51 is just another year. 55 will be more of a marker, and my 60th birthday will be a huge landmark — not to mention turning 70, if I even make it that far. I am not big on my birthday as a “big deal.” A quiet celebration with close family suffices. A birthday is yet another day in the year for me. I keep a low profile. None of my social media feeds acknowledges my birthday. I tell nobody at…

After my daughters went to sleep around nine last night I enjoyed my free hour before my own bedtime by sitting down in front of my flat screen TV to enjoy my Bose Soundbar 300 and Acoustimass (subwoofer) wireless sound system. The setup is new, and I am still seeing what it can do. Wow! I pulled up youtube and watched/listened to all 43 minutes of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s 3rd Piano Concerto, as played by Russian-American pianist Olga Kern. I have always loved Rachmaninoff. Critics claim his music is “sugary sweet,” as if the pieces were semi-cliched soundtracks for romantic movies. I strongly disagree. Young piano virtuosos supposedly line up to…

I read recently an excellent article by Jesmyn Ward about a book I teach each year, The Great Gatsby. It really struck home with respect to how the essayist suggests that the literary character Jay Gatsby resonates strongly for young people who see limitless opportunities as to what they can do with their life. I was once like this: young, full of dreams, everything ahead of me. But no longer. And not for a long time. Next month I am set to finish my 24th year of teaching. I am married, have two children aged 8 and 11, and work a full time job that exhausts me. I am a…

Protesters at the Gaza Strip border with Israel in May 2018. CHAOS IN THE MIDDLE EAST, AGAIN It was approximately March of 1999 and I was on the steps on the backside of Congress listening to Congressman Brad Sherman (D-CA) speak to my students and myself. He was our local representative in Congress, and he had given us a brief tour of the House of Representatives and was making some final remarks on the steps outside. “And I promise to do all I can to help get our United States embassy moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem where it belongs!” he concluded. Everyone applauded. I was chaperoning my students from the…

Last weekend I was at the PAC-12 tennis championships in Ojai, CA with my daughter and father where we saw the UCLA men’s team defeat USC. As we watched these incredible student athletes compete, my father asked me the following: “Do you regret the decision to stop playing tennis, Richard? You could perhaps have been one of these college kids competing here if you had stayed with it. Of all sports you had the most talent for tennis.” His comments set me to thinking. I do not regret that decision. By the age of 12 or so, I had had enough of tennis. For years I had hit tennis ball after tennis…

Last weekend there was published a photo taken at the funeral reception for Barbara Bush, the matriarch of the Bush family who died last Tuesday on April 17, 2018 at the age of 92, having been married to George WH Bush for 73 years. Americans from across the political spectrum (except for the far left) applauded Barbara Bush for her class and candor. She was lionized by historian Jon Meacham as “the first lady of the greatest generation” in the eulogy. The photo from the reception held large symbolic value, and not only to me, because it shows the entire American presidency for the last 30 years. Many commentators said something like this:…

‘Men have become the tools of their tools.” Henry David Thoreau So I have authored eight blog posts since I stopped posting to Twitter three months ago, and pretty much gave up all social media. Those eight essays cost me me many hours and much sweat to write. But they have also been enormously gratifying to complete. I remember hearing someone I very much admire tell my students that if they want to maximize their potential and be the best they can be, they should “turn off their cell phones and read one additional book per week.” His words hit me hard. They prompted me to reflect on how I…

AN EDUCATED WORKFORCE FOR THE “INFORMATION AGE” UNITED STATES “The U.S. economy’s largest and fastest growing sectors—business services, finance, healthcare and education—have little room for high school educated workers,” notes a 2015 report from Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce. “Access to education is pretty much the arbiter of middle-class status,” said Anthony P. Carnevale. “It becomes the nut you have to crack.” How to help young Americans to secure a better future? There is no end to the list of items we could spend on “those in need.” We could help Americans by making more taxpayer money available for health care, after school programs, neo-natal programs, housing assistance,…

March 27, 2018 I can hardly believe it. After some twenty five years of abjuring the National Rifle Association and considering them to be extremists who were more trouble than they were worth, I am about to join them. I am going to join the NRA. I am going to give them my money. I will hold my nose while doing so, but I see I have no real choice. How did I get to this point? I remember arguing heatedly with a buddy about the the Federal Assault Weapons Ban way back in 1994. I was in favor of the ban. This friend, Jim, a passionate gun rights supporter,…

Two weeks ago, in a burst of curiosity, I performed some fifteen hours of research on the current opioid epidemic that rages across the United States. Some 63,000 Americans died from overdosing on opioids in 2017, and every pundit seems to add that this means “more Americans died in 2017 from drug overdoses than died in the entire Vietnam War.” The “opioid crisis” has been much in the news. The media sadly explains that drug overdoses are why the average life expectancy for Americans last year had dropped slightly to 78.6 years of age, a “statistically significant” drop of 0.1. This is the second straight year life expectancy for Americans…

The other day I caught my youngest daughter reading in her loft bed at night in the dark at 11:00 p.m. I was more than a bit angry, as I saw her bloodshot eyes peering out at me from her bed; she would be comatose the next morning, short of sleep, I thought to myself. Getting her out of bed and to school on time on such mornings is difficult in the extreme. In fact, she was using the dim light emanating from her Kindle (ie. electronic book reader) to read the third Percy Jackson book that evening in the dark. Her grandfather gave her the box set of the five…

Back in the early days of the Internet it was not uncommon to have a “personal webpage.” It was in this environment that I started my own. More than twenty years later the topography of the Internet has changed. Fewer persons use “computers” (desktop or laptop) to access online, and use their “mobile devices” (cell phone or tablet). The HTML has changed over two decades: today webpages look different, and they load differently. The World Wide Web used to be almost entirely text, but now video is at least as prevalent as text. The Internet used to be more populated by individuals, usually “early adopters.” Now commerce and advertising have…

I think I have attended only a handful of meetings in my life that were worth the time. I’m not talking about the informal meetings with a co-worker on almost a daily basis about the nuts and bolts of the job — I am talking about formal meetings with the boss and many others.  One looks across the conference table or around the room and nobody wants to be there at this meeting, and they are wondering when it can end and everyone can get back to work.  There are those few who like to hear themselves talk. The boss announces what he is expected to say by his own…

I drive around the streets where I live at 3:30 in the afternoon and I am surprised at what I don’t see: kids running around playing. The streets seem devoid of children playing. I do see clumps of middle and high school students getting off yellow school buses and walking sullenly to their houses. But they enter and do not seem to come back outside. Are they inside playing video games? Doing homework? On their cell phones? Social media? Trolling around youtube looking at random videos? Regardless, everyone seems to be inside. I don’t often see kids throwing a football around or riding their bikes all over the place. Where…

For the better part of two decades I have been chronicling my New Years Resolutions, for better or for worse. New Years Resolutions This year is no different. Gentle and esteemed reader, I present to you my resolutions for 2018. Wish me luck! P.S. Although Elizabeth did buy that huge stuffed lion as a 2017 Christmas present with money given to her by her grandpa, it did not end well.

RIDING AWAY FROM THE CHURCH: Colin and Katherine are off and biking towards future adventures in their marriage! November 30, 2017 Dear Colin, I enjoyed your wedding last weekend; thank you for inviting me. I remember getting married on June 21st, 2003 — how stressful it was to be the center of so much attention, the strange confluence of the intensely personal moment of marrying another person and to do so in front of so many of your closest friends and family. You go out of your way to invite people to your wedding, and then they show up to witness it. “Witness,” I like that word. All these persons…

“Let no one weep for me, or celebrate my funeral with mourning; for I still live, as I pass to and fro through the mouths of men.” Quintus Ennius 21 years, mom. 21 years ago you died. At first, of course, it hurt worse since the wound was fresh. But now it hurts in a different way. It hurts worse, in a way. 21 years later it has gotten to the point where you died so long ago that it is almost a forgotten event. Not that it is forgotten by your husband or children; no, we remember your passing well and don’t forget, as we don’t forget everything you…

“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” Abraham Lincoln It is said that “rich and powerful men are a powerful aphrodisiac for women” – I remember hearing this line during the late 1990s with the Bill Clinton “bimbo eruptions” that culminated in the infamous Monica Lewinsky scandal and impeachment trial. I have no idea if women are indeed attracted to rich and powerful men. I never was rich or powerful, and it has been a long time (if ever) since women looked at me as an object of sexual desire. But it is worth asking the question in the…