Monthly Archives: September 2017

If you want elevated dialogue, you need an elevated mind. Most Americans, across the political spectrum, seem to mourn the loss of civil dialogue. Indeed, civil dialogue has been kicked to the curb in the age of Trump. But Trump is only a symptom, even if a modern icon, of discord. The true villain here is the mundane minutia that fills our minds through round-the-clock information on social media. It has lowered our civic IQ, then lowering the substance of civil dialogue.

Social media creates the delusion that all opinions are of similar value. Social media is the great equalizer. Unfortunately, its egalitarianism is mongrelized not idealized. It often displays the beauty of humanity along side the “wild ranting of the unhinged masses” – the opposite of any truly transcendent environment. Look at a museum or an art gallery or, what used to be, the college classroom. Very discriminating. Very enlightened. Very serious. Then look at social media. Picture yourself standing in the Louvre and now picture yourself in any number of social media conversations. read more

At the crux of the current and contentious, nearly decade-long, debate over health care is one question: What the hell is our objective? For me, the humane objective is to ensure that everyone receives the medical care they need when they need it. In doing so, we must incentivize personal responsibility and supercharge our sense of moral obligation to provide medical care for those who are unable, at any moment, to obtain it on their own. But, as our all-knowing yet ever-learning president discovered, achieving this objective is complicated. read more

When Donald Trump issued an executive order putting Dreamer kids on a short game clock he reignited a legal and constitutional debate about separation of powers, presidential powers and the rule of law. This debate first stirred passions in 2012 when Barack Obama first issued his own executive order enabling a specific subset of undocumented immigrant children to stay in the United States without fear of deportation. Those kids are among the many known as Dreamers – children brought to the United States by their parents through no choice of their own. read more

Were you to Google the term “Imposter Syndrome” you would most likely run across a quick definition: “Individuals who are marked by an inability to internalize their accomplishments and a persistent fear of being exposed as a fraud.” I can relate. I have lived with the burden of this Imposter as far back as I can remember.

To be even more exact, upon impending success, the Imposter constantly whispers in my ear that I am a poser, always the worst person in the room, always fearful that I’ll be discovered as a fraud, always needing to work harder than everyone else because everyone else was smarter and more talented, always waiting for the other shoe to drop, careful to avoid celebrating success, uncomfortable taking compliments, never happy with my work, self-defacing, self-critical, self-sabotaging and self-deprecating, never content and always, always focused on my weaknesses, shortcomings and failures. read more