Preserving American Values

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

recent posts

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

  • Rethinking Criminal Justice in a Civilized Society

    When someone is convicted of a crime in our society, the operative focus in sentencing is typically punishment/retribution and that focus is carried out within the prison setting. The one slight exception to this regards the death penalty. Many states no longer impose the death penalty regardless of the severity of the crime, In a…

  • The Destructive Impact of Our Us v Them Perspective

    During this holiday season, I think it timely to address a fundamental problem in the development of human societies … the us v them mentality. People band together in groups, whether formally or informally, because they feel something in common and want to be part of a group, not alone, often to increase their feeling…

  • Hate Speech – The Time Has Come to Regulate It

    Hate speech is defined as “speech that attacks and is an incitement to hatred of a person or group on the basis of race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation.” Hate speech is not a rational discussion of the pros and cons of a group’s values or actions. It is targeted solely at the listener’s emotions.…

  • The Self-Help Scam

    The self-help industry is huge.  Although numbers are hard to come by, in 2008 Nielsen Bookscan reported that 13.5 million self-help books were sold in the U.S.  The self-help industry is said to be worth around $11 billion annually, including seminars, DVDs, etc. Obviously, lots of people are crying out for help.  They feel miserable or frustrated…

  • The Ultimate Failure of Rick Warren’s The Purpose Driven Life

    Rick Warren wrote an amazingly successful spiritual book, The Purpose Driven Life.  According to amazon.com, it has sold more hardback copies than any other non-fiction book in history and it is the most-translated book in the world, except for the Bible.  Recently a new edition was published.   If so many tens of millions of people have read his…

  • Income Inequality Per Se Is Not the Problem

    In an ideal world, at least in my mind, you would not have the extremes of rich and poor.  But people have different intelligence levels, different talents, and different aptitudes which, even with all other things being equal, would translate themselves in the real world to significant disparities in earning opportunities.  Add to that that all other…

  • The Fallacy of the War on Drugs – Getting to the Root of the Problem

    There is no question but that the drug abuse epidemic that has swept across our nation is a catastrophe. It is a catastrophe for those who are addicted and are subject to its cravings. It is a catastrophe for their loved ones, who suffer in innumerable ways. It is a catastrophe for our economy because…

  • What Are We Celebrating on July 4th?

    July 4th … Independence Day … is fraught with symbolism.  It is the beginning of American exceptionalism, the beginning of America taking its place on the world’s stage, the beginning of freedom and prosperity for Americans.  It is a moment for us to pause, and so many years I write a post about July 4th. There is…

  • A Meaningful Right to Die

    There is a worldwide movement, with organizations in most developed countries, to foster the right of individuals to choose to die with dignity.  This is necessary because, unfortunately, most people today do not die with dignity because the medical profession will not allow it; they are focused on keeping people alive regardless the cost, spiritually…

  • Peak Oil or No, the Answer is Back to the Future

    I have been a firm believer in the peak oil theory. A recent article in the Atlantic, however, “What If We Never Run Out of Oil?” provided updated facts and changed my perspective. If one believes in peak oil, then one believes in an oncoming economic disaster since the world’s economy is based on oil.…