All Entries in the "Featured" Category
Why We Worry about Vaccines
Even as doctors try to reassure the public, and TV news anchors get their swine flu shots on the morning news, there remains a great unease about vaccinations in the US. People hesitant to take the needle are marginalized as anti-vaccine nuts, regardless of the many justifiable reasons to distrust giant pharmaceutical producers and government [...]
I’m Scared, Ma
At McGrath Elementary up in Michigan we were learning a lesson no other generation of children had ever been taught. Our school was new and the paint smelled fresh and the metal trim of the windows shined even on the innumerable gray days. The desks we had been given had separate chairs and glassy Formica [...]
The Roses of October
When we lived in our little white rented house a few miles north of the big river there were two bushes that grew in a corner of the back yard. They struggled because an old cottonwood and two orange trees took most of the sun and when the slanted rain came in off of the [...]
The Real Health Care Scare
In all of the white-hot vitriol being spewed over a national health care plan, very little attention is being directed at the pharmaceutical companies and the potential conflicts of interest involving the doctors doing their research. In America, we are generally of the belief that by the time a drug or vaccine has made it [...]
The Lies of Texas Are Upon You
“Life in Lubbock, Texas taught me two things: One is that God loves you and you’re going to burn in hell. The other is that sex is the most awful, filthy thing on earth and you should save it for someone you love.” – Butch Hancock, Texas Musician, The Flatlanders
A friend called to talk about [...]
The Other Time It Never Rained
When western writer Elmer Kelton passed away over the weekend, Texans lost his intimate understanding of the land and the nature of the American west. Writers with greatness in them all seem to have an innate connection to a place and access to the language needed to help grasp the depth of that relationship. In [...]
The Wolffe at the Door
When Richard Wolffe went to work for Austin-based Public Strategies, he was merely keeping viable a tradition whereby those of us formerly in journalism make transitions to more lucrative careers. The former Newsweek correspondent, however, has been caught attempting to change the game. Both Wolffe and his employer seem to see no contradiction between his [...]
Say it Ain’t So, Keith O!
I read with great sadness NBC’s decision to have Keith Olbermann back off of his criticism of Bill O’Reilly. I’m trying to convince myself the New York Times’ piece was satire but I did that with Judy Miller’s Iraq reporting and that taught me I don’t understand satire. Who is there left to keep FOX [...]
What the Hell is Public Relations?
I have lately been pondering the distinctions between public relations and journalism and, as usual on most topics, find myself increasingly baffled. These differences are getting more difficult to discern, actually, and my sense is that public relations practitioners are far out-performing reporters. We can blame this on the decline of revenue in the media [...]
My Grandfather’s War: July 1, 1916
“Now rather thank I God there is no risk
of gravers scoring it with florid screed.
Let my inscription be this soldier’s disc.
Wear it, sweet friend. Inscribe no date nor deed.
But may thy heart beat kiss it, night and day,
until the name grow blurred and fade away.”
– Wilfred Owens, poet and soldier killed in [...]