Items tagged with: civility

Items are tagged with a keyword if their content touches on the topic in a significant way or, if the tag is a name, the item has some connection to the name (e.g., a quote, creative participation, location).

I have long had mixed feelings about songs that celebrate my country, and so here I offer alternate lyrics to USA’s national anthem. Although still quite rough, I could wait no longer; I wanted to share it now, on USA’s Independence Day. Here’s the thing: The songs I know are all laud and glory, yet over USA’s gestation and lifetime, there have most certainly been numerous cases in which our […]

Back Side Star-Spangled Banner

Diversity & Exclusion
I have long had mixed feelings about songs that celebrate this country I love, and so here I offer alternate lyrics to USA's national anthem. The USA story is not all laud and glory, but neither is it disdainful at the level some shout and spout. USA's reality is a complicated mix of these two extremes.
“Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” With these masterful seven words, the founders of the United States of America encapsulated humanity’s unalienable Rights. We may think these words in the US Declaration of Independence grant permission to do whatever we please, but “freedom,” the watchword of US Independence Day, is found nowhere in the document. Nor is there any reference to personal freedom. “Wait,” you say, “‘Liberty’ is the […]

Freedom Ain’t What We Think It Is

Society & Politics
Liberty stands only when my pursuit of Happiness encompasses, with mutual respect, the Life and Happiness of all in society. Otherwise, my liberty has devolved into license; my honor into my debasement.
Science, when sincere, principled, and dispassionate, is a beautiful tool. And it’s beautiful whether the conclusions are right or wrong; that’s part of the process. But how science is used in political discourse can turn it ugly. A little while back, I wrote about a politician’s fallacious appeal to science while advocating a particular COVID-19 response. In a tweet, the politician did what I call “playing the science card” — […]

They said “Science” — Did You Not Hear That?

Society & Politics
Science is a beautiful tool, but well-meaning societal concern does not justify political advocacy masquerading as science.
I must open this piece by clarifying three things off the top: I agree that strict measures were needed in an attempt to stem the spread of SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19. Further, action or not, there are many intricate concerns about how to equitably distribute the pain of the pandemic. Even more, there are deeply difficult questions about how alternative courses of action may trade off lives lost to coronavirus against […]

De-Weapon­izing “Prepared by Science”

Society & Politics
The image is a tweet dated 23 Mar 2020 @ 4:11am. The tweeter is blurred and the text is cropped and partially blurred. What we can see reads: "Good morning, Texas...prepared by science...move as a state from...#StaySafeStayHome...430,000 deaths"
If good science supports it, indeed we should believe it. But weaponized appeals to authority don't make for good science or healthy society.
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