Getty Images The good news for Democrats is that the mid-term elections are still a year away. More troubling is how they will respond to Tuesday's wake-up call. Early signs are that the moderates and progressives in Congress, organized as circular firing squads shooting inward, are not drawing the same conclusions. Despite suddenly agreeing to …
Continue reading What are the lessons from Tuesday’s results? Part 1
If you’re feeling down, don’t read today’s blog. After 35 years in journalism and still longer as an inveterate news junkie, I can barely read or watch the news these days. I delayed posting, hoping for a shred of something positive to cling to, but, aside from the Boston Red Sox, there is precious little. …
Congressional Democrats appear to be circling the wagons and shooting inward. Their recent behavior is outrageous, worthy only of a schoolyard brawl, the result of which is far less tasty than a well-made legislative sausage. Many newly elected members of Congress coming from gerrymandered safe blue districts have never been in charge and don't understand …
Continue reading Are Democrats the gang that can’t shoot straight?
Remember their daring performances on the bars or balance beam, in the vault or on the floor. All championship accomplishments. But their Olympic gold medal-winning performances are nothing compared to the bravery shown by Simone Biles, Aly Raisman, McKayla Maroney, and Maggie Nichols testifying in graphic detail before the Senate Judiciary Committee about sexual abuse …
Continue reading Olympic gymnasts are gold medalists on and off the floor
In the early morning of September 11, 2001, a small group of lawyers, engineers, contractors, developers, and architects gathered for a communications seminar on crisis management at the Seaport Hotel in downtown Boston. Their objective was to consider how best to react to a simulated collapse of a large building. My husband, a lawyer, was …
Nat King Cole's "lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer" linger on, offering precious time for reading and musing. Today I offer some non-fiction selections. Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest by Suzanne Simard is a surprisingly powerful and disturbing book. Simard is a Professor of Forest Ecology at the University of …
Continue reading Stretch summer with books, pt. 2, non-fiction
Summer remains the perfect time to kick back and experience the pleasures of reading. There's still plenty of time to extend the season. The Four Winds by Kristen Hannah packed a huge emotional wallop. By the author of The Nightingale, this family saga starts out in the early 1920’s in Texas. Elsa, the thoughtful and …
There is no pretty way to lose a war, but the chaotic exit from Afghanistan over the past week has been particularly disturbing, especially for short-term political optics and long-term shameful treatment of those who risked their lives to help coalition forces and their ever-evolving mission. Bodies falling from planes departing Kabul Airport, as desperate Afghans tried …
Continue reading Afghanistan collapse a predictable disaster
Getty Image Andrew Cuomo's well crafted resignation speech proves once again you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. The speech was outwardly everything a PR person could recommend when spinning such a deplorable situation, except for its having come weeks later than it should have. And it left unanswered questions of …
Continue reading Cuomo resignation leaves unanswered questions
Forty-two years ago, the city of Newton had four local newspapers: the Newton Graphic, the Newton Times, the Waltham Tribune (which also served Newton) and the Newton TAB. Residents had to work hard to be uninformed about local government and community comings and goings. As a reporter, then political editor of the Times, I thought …
Marjorie Arons-Barron 