Distancing Social Media
There was always that guy in class with whom you’d never agree. Each brought their experiences (and sources) to the class texts. Each came up […]
Continue reading »Author: Kevin
First they came: When a warning becomes a confession
Federal Agents who may actually be contractors (Conroy) on the orders of an acting Director of Homeland Security whose authority may not be legal (Blake) […]
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Thunderstruck, by Eric Larson
Eric Larson has a fantastic narrative style that teases the story out of history. He writes about events that shaped our world so that in […]
Continue reading »Technical note for Citations used in this blog.
I have traditionally used inline links for my citations within my blog. It’s a stylistic choice that I told myself I do for convenience, but […]
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Undeligated authority.
SOTUS affirms that when Congress makes a promise, convieniance is not a valid reason to break it.
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Self-evident
Traditionally I post the Declaration of Independence on The Fourth. This year, I decided that focusing word for word on the language of the 18th […]
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The Alaskan History missing from our curriculum
Alaskan history overlooks the destruction of the Tlingit villages of Kake, Angoon, and Douglass.
Continue reading »No, it wasn’t better.
In the mid-80s, I joined my mother at Amnesty International meetings in the Centennial Building. Nelson Mandela was never one of the prisoners of conscience […]
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Jeff Davis street
While there is a national debate on monuments and statues, it’s worth talking about more than just the Confederates. Sitka has a street named for […]
Continue reading »The four stories behind every statue
A statue tells four stories. First, there is the story of the person to be memorialized. Statues are not very good at this. For this […]
Continue reading »Relearning Curiosity
It’s time for my semi-regular series, things I’m learning from my son: It’s fascinating watching a young one grow. Every day there is a new […]
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Aunt Janice
I’m going to ask a favor of you. Imagine the best storyteller you know. The one who can sit and wait her turn, knowing full […]
Continue reading »Remembering Music
Today’s installment of things I have (re)learned from my son: I’ve been singing. A lot. I have gone through my most recent repertoire and had […]
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Relearning Patience
Another in the occasional series “things I learn from my son.” Nothing teaches how to be frustrated at a situation without being frustrated at a […]
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Rembering How to Sing
The difference between a tourist and a traveler is in what they are willing to bring home. Tourists may buy souvenirs, but except to return […]
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The Message of Colonialism
In one of the seminal works on media analysis, Marshall McLuhan wrote that “the medium is the message.” The idea is that the medium has […]
Continue reading »Mitch, Splashing in Time
We tend to look at history as a series of people or events that have made a big splash. This is disempowering, as it ignores […]
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Nuking Ourselves
When asked how I can remain positive about our future, I remember a past where we were ready and willing to nuke ourselves.
Continue reading »Asking for Help
Things I’m learning from my son: Every animal learns the necessary survival skills first. A horse can run within hours of birth. An adder can […]
Continue reading »Brian
One of my oldest friends died this weekend. I’d like to tell you how we met. Brian Kokke and I shared a few things in […]
Continue reading »We own our history, but we own our future too.
I’ve read a lot about the crisis on our Southern border. We see pictures of kids in cages, or of their bodies. We want to […]
Continue reading »There There
There There, by Tommy Orange, was the May book of the month for the radio show Native America Calling. It’s an incredible book. I obviously […]
Continue reading »How does it feel…
Many people have asked me in the last few weeks how it feels to be a papa. I generally hedge, I deflect the question saying […]
Continue reading »The Things we Build
To all of you who are a part of the Three Barons Fair: I think it’s sometimes easy for us to focus on just the […]
Continue reading »A love letter to those who taught me.
In the last few weeks, I’ve had my world rocked by learning something I’ve always known. I have dyslexia. This is not news, this is […]
Continue reading »April Fools
The following is an old piece of writing long thought lost. April first is a time of jest, when people test their wits and compare […]
Continue reading »Another Shutdown
I’m reading a lot of discussion about who “won” and who “lost” the government shutdown. Spoiler alert, we all lost. The arguments for both sides […]
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Pantopol
I was flipping through some of my pictures when this one surfaced. It’s the sculpture Pantopol, by Ted Jonsson, at SeaTac international airport. I’ve always […]
Continue reading »Dr. King
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was an amazing leader. Facing down institutional violence, he was able to talk about the long arc of history bending […]
Continue reading »The Meaning of Everything
“The Meaning of Everything” is not my favorite Simon Winchester book, but that’s kind of like saying La Belle Heaulmiere is not my favorite piece […]
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Hoshino and Joseph
I love this pole. It is a master of one art form memorializing a master of another. The figure at the base of the pole […]
Continue reading »Market genorosity
Today’s lesson in unintended consequences: King Mansa Musa of Mali was the wealthiest person the world has ever seen. Mali was a center of trade […]
Continue reading »Fatima al-Fihri
Today, in “women I wish we knew more about,” Fatima al-Fihri. Fatima bint Muhammad Al-Fihriya Al-Qurashiya was probably born around 810 AD in Kairouan, modern […]
Continue reading »The Politics of Waiting
Politicians and pundits really like Christmas, but then everyone likes a baby shower. You can show off your Christian bona fides in a nice safe […]
Continue reading »Whale oil is no more. Petroleum is next.
A week ago, Shannon and I were crawling through the remains of the U. S. whaling industry. At one point, the industry accounted for one […]
Continue reading »Death Penalty
This week, we have a stark example of one of the reasons I strongly oppose the death penalty. Ledell Lee’s trial was overseen by a […]
Continue reading »Radicalization
This week, a man walked into a school where his estranged wife worked. He shot her, and two of her students, in front of a […]
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Coffee Forthright!
What happens when you are having blood-work done in the morning which requires fasting? Well, if you are me you apparently dismember Sondheim. To the […]
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Pictures on the wall: Miriam Daniel Mann
If I were a more patient person or a better communicator, I would be a high school civics instructor. There is a fundamental problem with […]
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First they came…
Well. You know the poem. I learned this poem at St. Olaf, a college of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Harold Ditmanson, a professor held in […]
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