I have written many times about spending the first five years of my life with my Quaker grandparents in Pennsylvania. The Swarthmore Meeting, located on the campus of Swarthmore University, remains today one of the most liberal enclaves in all of American academia. I learned about “tolerance and acceptance” by attending many Quaker meetings as […]
Today, Lynn and I sit on our patio, 126 feet above Skagit Bay on Blowers Bluff, Whidbey Island. A thirty-mile-long fog bank rolls across the water from south to north. On dry land, we feel safe and secure. We know exactly where we are, though the fog obscures whatever is directly in front of us […]
Having been raised for the first five years of my life by my Quaker grandmother, going to public school was a significant change for me. For twelve years, I received a very secular and homogenized education, especially regarding issues of faith and our country’s history. When my father returned from the Korean War, my family […]
I have no way of understanding what is in the hearts of other people. We can only judge their actions and words. Only God knows what is in their hearts. The words of many people on the political left after the terrible shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis last week, to me, were curious […]
It has recently been reported in both the Wall Street Journal and on CBS/NBC/CNN and Fox News that teachers leaving Blue States like New York and California that apply for teaching jobs in Oklahoma will be required to take a Civics test. Having a basic understanding of civics and American History should be a requirement […]
The following article is the opinion of the author and not the Gem State Patriot Sometimes you eat the bear, and other times the bear eats you” That was a saying that was often times repeated by my father to his three sons as we were growing up. Another ritual in our family was that […]
Precise and accurate words are required in order to have precise and accurate debates that are grounded in logic. If one side of a discussion is grounded in logic and reason, and the other side only offers emotion and feelings, there is little opportunity for agreement. After 150 years of failed ideas, socialists, communists, and […]
When I was 25 years old, I proudly served on the USS Virginia as a Junior Officer. Looking back now, 50 years later, it was one of the best years of my life. I qualified as Officer of The Day Underway, I was taught to sail by Master Chief Fred Wright, and probably most importantly, […]
The adage amongst both conservative and progressive political operatives is that “politics follows culture”. That is often times stated as a fact without understanding the cause. When cultural changes create new demands on governments, before they react to the changes, it is incumbent upon serious people to examine the causes. Like GLOBAL WARMING, EVOLUTION, and […]
Politics reflects our own human nature. There are stories about President Reagan and Tip O’Neal sharing a cocktail after they had excoriated each other politically—not personally, earlier in the day. Former District Judge Mike Wetherall told me the story about Senator Frank Church warning Barry Goldwater as they were eating lunch together in the Senate […]
We process information, discern complicated solutions to sometimes simple problems in different ways. Sitting around the coffee table several mornings ago with a group of professional men and women in Seattle—doctors, lawyers, educators, journalists, and a labor organizer, I was asked what informs my decision-making process. Most of the people sitting around the table had […]
Federalist Number 10 written by James Madison famously warned about THE VIOLENCE OF FACTION. Madison defined “faction” as being a number of citizens either in a minority or a majority that were united in a common interest adverse to the rights of others or to the wellbeing of the “common good”. This violence doesn’t need […]