Upstander Reflections

Dear French Voters, Bonjour! It’s me, your old friend, the American voter. Long time no write. I’ve been thinking a lot about us lately, so I decided to write you a letter. After all, we’re the ones that started this whole “democratic republic” thing.   So many memories. Heck, if it wasn’t for you guys, we still might be part of Great Britain, ruled by a king! Can you imagine that? Your Enlightenment thinkers like Descartes, Voltaire, Rousseau, Montesquieu, and so many others were the architects of both our revolutions. Those were challenging times but we both pulled though. You guys had our back when we fought off the Brits, and man we were cheering for you as you stormed the Bastille. Vive la République! This whole “democratic republic” thing has not been easy. We’ve both had our missteps and learning curves. It took us a while to realize that ALL the people in our nation deserve the rights we set aside in the “Bill of Rights,” and you guys struggled with the whole col...

13 weeks ago, I walked through the National Mall on the eve of Donald Trump’s inauguration and I was moved by the juxtaposition of the political climate and the monuments. Words from FDR, MLK Jr. and JFK spoke directly to me and contradicted the words that I was hearing from the soon-to-be president. I was bewildered as I led 24 students though that experience. In the past two weeks, an image from that trip has reappeared in my head. It is an image I photographed late on the night of January 18th. We were just finishing the long day that gave me the inspiration to start this blog, and it is literally the last picture I took that day.         Korean War Memorial Washington DC January 18, 2017 On that day, I was not concerned about North Korea. I’m not really sure why I took the picture. Maybe it was because my wife’s grandfather fought in the Korean War, or maybe it was just because those soldiers looked so ominous. Their faces were tired...

I had a pretty normal week. I went to work. I hung out with my family. That’s about it. Nothing special. Weeks like this come and go and most the time I don’t give them much thought. However, now that I am writing this blog, I have become more reflective. As I thought about the week, I found myself focusing on little things that annoyed me. Isn’t it funny how we do this? Instead of thinking about all the good things, we think about all the bad things--and they aren’t even bad! They are just “normal.” Here’s a vague list of things that annoyed me this week. You can play, too. Check off the ones that annoyed you.   ⃞ The weather. ⃞ Traffic or a commute.   ⃞ Something or someone’s actions at work. ⃞ Something or someone’s actions in my family. ⃞ Some minor illness or minor pain. ⃞ Money or lack thereof. ⃞ Some sort of bureaucracy (government, insurance company, etc…). ⃞ Other. How many did you get? Eight out of eight? Seven? Six? If less than six, good for ...

One of my childhood role models died this week. His name was Father Daniel Mallette. He was the pastor of St. Margaret of Scotland Church on the Southside of Chicago for 35 years. I was lucky enough to be around during some of that time. He was 85 years old and sick, so his passing was not particularly noteworthy. However, his life most certainly was.* Father Mallette and his dog Tuffy Catholic New World     Where I grew up things were Black and White. By this I mean, one side of the railroad tracks was Black and the other side was White. As you may have guessed, I lived on the White side. This geographic situation was created by three major historical events. The Great Migration. Large scale migration of African Americans from the South to the North from 1915-1960s. White Flight. The migration from cities to the suburbs of “White” populations because of the influx of minority populations.   The Chicago Residency Requirement. The 1919 ordinance that ...