Preserving American Values

Our nation stands under attack … not from without but from within. American values, our politics, and our culture have been corrupted.

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about

Websites: www.westillholdthesetruths.weebly.com; www.preservingamericanvalues.com; www.thepracticalbuddhist.com. A graduate of Brown U. and U. of Chicago Law School, I’ve had a varied career as a legal aid lawyer, survey researcher, nonprofit executive, management consultant, composer, teacher, and author. I have authored 7 books on topics as varied as Buddhism, child rearing, and politics, the latter of which received a pre-publication endorsement from James Fallows, National Correspondent, The Atlantic. My Buddhist blog was selected as one of the top 50 Buddhist blogs on the web.

Category: American Culture

  • American Spirit v American Character

    Recently I saw two very interesting and seemingly inconsistent interviews. The one was with David McCullough about his book, The American Spirit. The other was with Kurt Andersen about his book, Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire: A 500-Year History. McCullough talks about the American spirit in familiar terms. It is based on the aspirations of…

  • Exposing the Predator-in-Chief

    In the midst of the tsunami of allegations of sexual harassment and assault against a variety of public figures and their resulting fall from power, I kept wondering where is the media’s coverage of the allegations against Donald Trump? Finally, The Atlantic recently recounted the accusations of each of the nineteen women who have in the past…

  • Is It Justice to Apply Social Standards Retroactively?

    We have recently seen a rash of accusations against public figures involving various levels of sexual harassment/assault.  Most have been fired by their employers or Boards.  Only Roy Moore continues to receive unqualified support from both the Alabama Republican Party and his base. That these acts were committed is beyond disappointing.  To become aware of the extent to…

  • Can There Be an End to Racism?

    I am not a fool nor do I avoid unpleasant truths. I have always been well aware that, despite the stirring words of theDeclaration of Independence and the many laws that have been passed over the years to decrease the instances of discrimination faced by our Black fellow citizens, Black Americans continue to face a…

  • Heal the Racial and Other Divisions within Us

    W. E. Du Bois, in his classic The Souls of Black Folk (1903), stated that “the problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color-line, – the relation of the darker to the lighter races of men.”  In the United States, that relationship and the resulting divisions between the groups has, despite all the civil rights laws…

  • The Increase in Social Media and Autism – Coincidence or Causal?

    Over the last 4 decades, the number of children diagnosed with autism and related disorders has grown at an astonishing rate. In the 1970s and 1980s, about one out of every 2,000 children was estimated to have autism. In the year 2,000, with a broader definition and better diagnosis, the CDC estimated that one in…

  • The Amorality of Donald Trump – Part 2: Charlottesville

    I previously wrote in a post that Donald Trump will do and say anything he feels he needs to in order to get what he wants.  He has no morality or ethics.  It’s all transactional.  The end definitely justifies the means for him. The New York Times pointed out several days ago that the one group that Trump cannot…

  • The Curse of Specialness

    We have created a culture in which almost everyone is deeply dissatisfied with their lives in one way or another. I’ve written in the past that we all suffer from a deep insecurity which impacts how we feel about ourselves and everything around us. Part of that derives from our early childhood experiences within the…

  • The Responsibility Crisis

    There is a crisis in the United States of a failure to take responsibility for the impact of one’s actions on others. This crisis occurs at all levels … the individual, family, business, government.  Whether this occurs in other part of the world, I cannot say. What lies at the core of this crisis? The…

  • Democrats Must Save America from Self-Destructing

    I have never seen such an apparent deep split in the American people combined with such rage and intolerance towards the other side’s point of view.  This exceeds even the emotions generated by Vietnam.  Indeed, the ubiquitous nature of this rage is possibly worse than anything America has ever encountered. But is what we are seeing and…