“Hello…I’m Gary, and I’m a Stutterer.”

1/8/2021: Now that the 2020 Presidential Election is behind us (HA!), I’m coming back to this post I started back in November… Samuel L. Jackson. James Earl Jones, Charlie Sheen. Jack Welch. Winston Churchill. Joe Biden. Me. During the runup to the November election, much was made about Joe Biden’s verbal gaffes. People were concerned […]

Virus

COVID-19 virus

I had no idea earlier this year I would have read so much about virology. One tidbit: virologists have learned that viruses are something less than alive: they contain genetic information but cannot reproduce. They require a host that they can take over and make do their bidding. Once a bug is inside us, its’ […]

Transparency

What do Police Departments and Public Schools have in common? In 2020 they’ve both been forced to reckon with situations that question their legitimate, organizational authority. One over perceived systemic racism and safety (Black Lives Matter) and the other over COVID-19: how to engage with stakeholders, how to share information, and (allegedly) safeguard the personal […]

A Really Long View on COVID-19

I’ve been reading a bit about the 200 viruses that are known collectively as “the common cold.” Three or four of those are coronaviruses, the latest of which science believes jumped to humans approximately 10,000 years ago (~8,000 BCE). They estimate the world population then was between 1-10 Million. The upper end is the current […]

My Day at the Capitol: #oklahomateacherwalkout

April 4, 2018 Today Karen, Miss P and I drove down to Oklahoma City, adding our voice to the thousands of educators who, for almost all of my daughter’s life, have that their salary buying power reduced by over 10%, and per-pupil funding reduced by near 20%.  Putting Oklahoma last in overall education funding. I’m […]

Unintended Consequences

September 24, 2017 Like most of the U.S. (of a certain age anyway), I’m slogging my way through Ken Burns’ Vietnam on PBS.  Since I was a youngster back then, it’s been educational to fill in the blanks of my memory on the War that Won’t Go Away.  I’ve been relearning the terms “Viet Minh,”  […]