Archive for August 2019
How the Media Politicizes Crime Coverage
Words matter. So does equal treatment. So, when the New York Times recently devoted a top-of-the-front-page, three column wide article equating the actions and words of the El Paso mass murderer to those of “right wing pundits”* I was curious to say the least. Was The Gray Lady saying conservatives somehow convinced someone to commit…
Read MoreThe Trend Toward Distrusting Police Could Hurt Us All
All democrats want to take your guns. All republicans are racist. So is law enforcement, and police brutality is commonplace. Of course, none of those statements is true but they highlight the groupthink that has infected the national conversation. When a police-involved death occurs it seems there are no shades of grey anymore, no need…
Read MoreWanted: Leaders to Tackle Mass Shooting Epidemic
(Photo: Vigil for Victims in Dayton, Ohio – courtesy Wiki Commons) After the recent horror of multiple mass shootings – at a garlic festival in California, at a Wal-Mart in El Paso, and, finally, at a popular nightlife neighborhood of Dayton – I went to social media and posed two questions: “What is wrong with…
Read MoreRemembering Betty
The marvelous Betty Winstanley died recently, just shy of her 98th birthday in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. She died in the captivity of a court sanctioned guardianship that haunted her final years. Her life never should have ended this way. Mrs. Winstanley was an elegant, eloquent, remarkable woman. In an era when women were undereducated Betty…
Read More