How did you respond? We don’t watch Trump rallies, so we were unaware in real time until we noticed a text minutes later from a local Young Life representative. We turned on the TV and viewed the tape in horror. Being old enough, I flashed back to the assassinations of President John Kennedy, Senator [...]

The fireworks have been for me all along, right? I celebrated another birthday on July 4th. Always loved sharing my birthday with America—the fireworks have always been for me—so I decided I’m going to pass into glory on…July 4th, many years from now. Hey, stranger things have happened. Like this…the Declaration of Independence was [...]

It continues! “C’mon, Mike,” you might be saying. “Don’t you have anything more relevant to write about?” Well…yeah. But the date of June 16, which landed eight days ago, got stuck in my brain last week for reasons other than Father’s Day. It so happens, on June 16, the year of our Lord 1884, [...]

Are we still a melting pot? “On the boats and on the planes, they’re coming to America. Never looking back again, they’re coming to America.” - Neil Diamond Words from a rousing anthem that induced pride in country a generation back. The melting pot. The idea was such that a schoolkid could understand it. [...]

Does it have a role in our republic? In 1835, Alexis de Tocqueville, a French political thinker and historian, wrote and published Volume 1 of his book, Democracy in America. The second volume followed in 1840. Together they represent a comprehensive analysis of American society, politics, and institutions during the early 19th Century. In [...]

To those who don’t agree, please set aside any animus you may harbor toward former President Trump…or the Make America Great Again movement...or any notions about conservatism that may cause you to point and say, “That’s the problem.” This is not a political post (culture and history are my topic areas). I’m not a [...]

Fire from the cliffs of hell. Thousands of American and Allied troops stepped from the tractable bow ramps of their landing crafts into waist-deep water as hellfire rained from the bluffs above the beaches at Normandy. Who can imagine the gut-wrenching experience of these young men, boys really, wading toward [...]

In my recent Substack, I wrote about the subject of moral character, and whether it is declining in America. Perhaps we need look no further than our elite college campuses to help answer this question. There the world has been witnessing the worst displays of antisemitism and moral corruption in my lifetime, perhaps since [...]

Americana music of the 1950s-60s I came from a musical family. My father sang bass in a barbershop quartet. That started everything. Okay, get ready for some name-dropping. My brother Morrie, a noted classical guitarist in the 1970s, once gave Bob Dylan a guitar lesson. Flo and Eddie, the stage names of Mark Volman [...]

Consult the chair for your answer. May 24, 1787. Pretend you are there. The air is supercharged with the weight of history and the hopes of a new nation that is all but four years old. Fifty-five state delegates gather with you at Philadelphia’s Pennsylvania State House, later dubbed Independence Hall. The place where [...]