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

  • The Radical Right/MAGA Perspective Is Not True to the Intent of Our Founding Fathers

    The Radical Right of the Republican Party—whether it’s the MAGA movement or radical jurists and historians who may not be MAGA—all hold to the same basic tenet:  that the Constitution and Declaration of Independence are to be interpreted as the words were intended at the time it was adopted.  The theory is called “strict construction”…

  • The Ongoing Negative Cultural Impact of the Pandemic

    How many times have I heard that things are the way they are today because our practices changed during COVID, because of the then-need to distance ourselves or isolate ourselves? For example, it used to be that auditions for actors for parts in plays were done in person.  Today, there is almost no such thing…

  • Are Liberals Destroying America’s Ideals?

    In the opening paragraph of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, it wrote, “America is now divided between two opposing forces: woke revolutionaries and those who believe in the ideals of the American revolution,”   What a perfect example of fake news.  By taking on the mantle of American values and attacking their opponents as destroying those…

  • Trump Violates Freedom of Religion

    A recent article in the New York Times detailed how prevalent Christian prayer and Christian conservative perspective has become in the daily operations of the White House.   Trump has elevated the Faith Office to high visibility.  And that office has promised, “an ambitious agenda, including ending what it sees as Christian persecution in America and to…

  • Pluralism or DEI – or Both – or None?

    Even before Trump’s actions against DEI, many in the academic community and elsewhere felt for some time that DEI had taken an unintended turn.   What was meant to provide support—in jobs, education, grants, and other ways—to those groups who historically and currently have suffered from discrimination, became for others a sign of exclusion because…

  • Living in Trumpland

    I live in semi-rural Maine, in what’s called Mid-Coast, not the vast interior hinterlands.  This is Trump country.  Before the election, Trump banners, signs, constructions, icons, and of course the American flag, were everywhere. What has surprised and disheartened me is that after 3 months in office, wreaking havoc on the country, doing nothing that helps the…

  • The Failure of Contemporary Arts Culture, including Broadway

    Artistic culture has a role to play in society, historically.  Whether it was art, plays (e.g. Shakespeare), or music, the function of art was to lift the souls or lighten the hearts not just of the well-to-do but also the common man.  And so, until recent times, there were always a decent number of affordable…

  • The Trump Magnet – It’s All About Power

    It’s no secret that for many ambitious people in our culture, it’s all about obtaining as much money and power as possible.  And people do all sorts of unethical or questionable things in order to gain money and power.  This is nothing new. But in any dictatorship, you have an added factor thrown in.  You have a leader…

  • Another Hitler – Trump Analogy

    I wrote a post on October 7, 2024 noting an analogy between the state of Germany and Germans in the 1920s that facilitated Hitler’s rise to power as well as Hitler’s propaganda tactics and that of the United States and Trump. There is another unfortunate analogy that must be pointed out.  Hitler became all-powerful with the…

  • Lessons To Be Learned from the Election

    There is a lot of finger pointing going on in the Democratic Party.  But the lesson to be learned from this election is rather simple:  when you know something is a problem, you must deal with it in an effective manner. Problem #1:  Trump and most people connected the Vice President with the actions/record of the unpopular Biden…