Author Archives: jharrin4

The other day, a Chicago tribune columnist wrote a very personal piece about the death of her family’s dog. By the end of the column, Scout, the dog, had been given its due respect as a 14 year, integral part … Continue reading →

A few more things: First, a post-script on the modern military combat veteran. In the age of endless deployments & re-deployments, statistics document the highest suicide rate among them than ever before. Post dramatic stress disorder. Well, done, Pentagon, Bush, Obama. Who’s your … Continue reading →

 There’s so much digital information to sift through our senses these days: bits and bytes of self-indulgent bombast, frivolity, foolishness, not to mention banality. iPhones, iPads, androids, tablets, kindles. We have the whole world in our hands. Movies, TV, streaming video, podcasts, … Continue reading →

Cinco de Mayo. May 5th. No, it’s not Mexican independence day. The 5th of May marks the Mexican defeat of French troops at the Battle of Puebla in 1862. Let’s celebrate, amigos.  What were the French doing in Mexico then? Well, they were there to … Continue reading →

May 1, 2012. May Day. A celebration of labor, workers, unions, brotherhood. If the old Soviet Union were still chugging along on its creaky ideological tracks, there’d be a  May Day parade in Moscow, and then on May 9th, a “victory … Continue reading →

Good riddance, 2011. Sack the coach! Throw the bums out! If I never see another…  Just once I’d like to see…  You fill in the rest. I, for one, have little faith that the world-at-large or the local village quite small, … Continue reading →

As a college instructor who teaches  speech and media classes, I hear a lot of arguments formally advanced during persuasive speaking rounds. Recently, there’s been a repetition of one “hot button” issue, the controversial “conceal & carry” laws that are … Continue reading →

June 6, 1944. The Allied invasion of the northern coast of France. The push-back of the German army, and their ultimate defeat, along with Italy and Japan in the last real war. I say real, because WWII had distinct consequences … Continue reading →

Recently, two news stories struck me as evidence of how our emotions tend to rule us, mostly at the expense of rational thinking. The first event regards those 33 miners finally freed from their subterranean confinement following a mining mishap. … Continue reading →