Half and Half

My parents met at a race riot. On opposite sides. My mom, the Hispanic beauty queen, was on the side trying to get the LaRaza flag raised on her campus in East LA. My dad, the Vietnam vet (recently returned), was on the side of the MP’s, trying to keep order. He asked her to […]

What Happened to Common Sense?

When Thomas Paine wrote his book “Common Sense,” no one disputed what common sense actually meant. While some may have objected to Paine’s application of some common sense to political actions, no one argued that his actions were common sense. The argument at the time was, much like it is now, that common sense must […]

What A Christmas Story Teaches Us About American Values

Christmas is a time when the entire world cannot escape Christian values of some sort. Many–including non-believers–are concerned at the declining values a culture saturated by commercialism seems to indicate. Some of us even find ourselves caught up in it. We go to the store, fully intending to buy a Christmas gift for someone else, […]