You all know the cliche - "if it bleeds, it leads." Local news, and increasingly national networks, promote stories off the police scanner. As a result, for decades, the perception of crime has exceeded the reality of crime across society. Naturally, if you've been mugged or a neighbor's house broken into, crime is indeed a …
To debate or not debate: new rules are the question
So, now he's said it. President Biden told Howard Stern recently that he'd be willing to debate Donald Trump. With all due respect, I disagree. I just don't think there's anything to be gained. I have always embraced the high-minded goals of candidate debate: well-reasoned,fact-based discussion; values-driven argumentation; clarification, prioritization of positions. Dignified dialogue serves …
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Controlling our end-of-life medical care
Judy Kugel’s beloved husband, Peter, suffered from advanced Parkinson’s and the residual effects of a stroke,which led him to the point where he could no longer bear to continue. If he had lived in Vermont or Oregon or one of several other states, he could have, while still mentally competent, requested medication that would have …
Book Retells our Lives with Love, Loss and Hope
An Unfinished Love Affair: a Personal History of the 1960’s by historian and biographer Doris Kearns Goodwin is the book I have been waiting for, and it doesn’t disappoint. It is an intimately told, stunningly impactful history of the 1960’s told through the eyes of her husband, presidential speech writer and himself a shaper of …
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More books to delight and challenge,pt. 1-fiction
The Lioness of Boston by Emily Franklin is a lush historical novel about Isabella Stewart Gardner, Belle of Boston, an upper class young woman who refused to limit herself to the cultural norms prescribed by the wealthy social elite of her time and who, in her struggle to assert herself, made an impact on the …
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Turning down the news and looking elsewhere
If you think today’s headlines are bad, you’re right. We’re dogged by the apparent philosophy of those in my lifelong profession: bad news is good news, and good news is no news at all. Just consider a few of the all-too-real headlines in my morning email on April Fool’s Day: World Central Kitchen suspends aid …
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Love in the golden years: cohabitors need protection
Consider the plight of my friend, let's call her Barbara. A widow, a vivacious, smart and active woman "of a certain age," she found love again more than a decade ago with a widower. After a long time of dating, she moved in with him. Let's call him X. They seemed perfect for each other, …
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Books: non-fiction, early spring reviews
How Minds Change: The Surprising Science of Belief, Opinion, and Persuasion by David McRaney offers what could be an eye-opening look at how to talk to “the other.” It’s about much more than when every day becomes Thanksgiving Day and seemingly reasonable people turn out to be crazy Uncle Harry. McRaney shares what he has …
Books: a fictional interlude in our non-fictional life
Study for Obedience by Sarah Bernstein is a short, dense and intense meditation on what it means to be an outsider and a survivor. The first-person narrator speaks directly to the reader spinning the tale of how, as a child, her family had taught her to subdue her own wants and silence her own voice …
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Israel’s response to Hamas: when does enough become too much?
The October 7th Hamas terrorist attack on Israel was barbaric, gut-wrenching and a blatant violation of international law. For many, especially those whose extended families have been caught up in the terror, the attack was also deeply personal. At least 1200 Israelis were killed, many of them raped and dismembered. The much-vaunted Israeli intelligence apparatus …
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Marjorie Arons-Barron 