One of my college professors (Martin Schain) used to rail against what he called the myth of representivity, the assumption that one individual speaks for an entire population. He used Martin Luther King, Jr. as an example. During the 1960s civil rights movement, when the mass media needed someone to…

Even though liberalism embodies values people have fought for throughout history — inherent rights, equality, tolerance, humanitarianism, and leadership that’s fair, just, and accountable — in places where it has enjoyed success, including the United States, it’s seldom seen as an answer to such psychological vulnerabilities as purposelessness, meaninglessness, and…

Something of a follow-up to last week’s post . . . You’ve heard of Jackie Robinson, right? He’s the African-American athlete who in 1947 ended segregation in Major League Baseball. But what about Ed Stevens? Or Howie Schultz? No? They shared first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers the year before…

For not having much in common with T.S. Eliot, I sure do quote him a lot. This is from his play The Cocktail Party (1949): Half of the harm that is done in this world Is due to people who want to feel important. They don’t mean to do harm — but…

My father died shortly after I turned 16. In adulthood I’ve sought to learn more about his life, particularly his years as a soldier during World War II (see parts one and two on the topic). The obsession began when I was ten and he brought home a world atlas…

In the past few weeks I’ve been taken with the term “culture war entrepreneur.” As best I can determine, it first appeared in Guardian columnist George Monbiot’s June 15 opinion piece “The Hard Right and Climate Catastrophe are Intimately Linked.” Mister Monbiot, if you indeed coined the phrase, thank you. …

How does a public sector risk manager determine the settlement value of a lawsuit? First and foremost, not alone; without lawyers it’s impossible to identify and argue for a number both leadership and plaintiffs can accept. The chief risk officer for the University of California system used to joke that…

While researching the civil lawsuit over the Uvalde school shooting for last week’s post, I noticed plaintiffs were asking for $27 billion. I’ve seen exaggerated demands in lawsuits, but nothing that high. So I read the suit more closely. It’s a class action filed by some sixty plaintiffs on behalf…

I’ve made fun of Nextdoor in the past, but perhaps I’ve been wrong to treat it as a source of mirth. According to a recent study by University of Houston researchers, “those who use neighborhood apps . . . perceive local crime rates to be higher in their communities than…