The Unclad Soul

The New Year begins with some startling statistics. In a recent article on Counterpunch, Dr. Lawrence Wittner, Professor of History emeritus at the State University of New York, offered a shocking list of dismal statistics regarding the state of America. We are first in the world’s military spending. In August of 2018, the president and Congress passed a gargantuan military budget of $717 billion. Can you imagine what that amount of money could do for American infrastructure, public education, health care, social services, and immigration reform? According to Demos, a public policy organization out of New York City, it would take approximately $175 billion to eliminate poverty in America. Eliminate it! Think about that. And yet, our war spending continues to climb. The Program for International Student Assessment of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development recently gave its latest report. In testing 540,000 students from 72 nations, American studen...

The world today aches. It trembles with pain. It longs for something kind and good and human. People are tired. Worn down by the hatred of cold and calculating tactics of the powerful. Weary to the point of despair because of an unfair and unjust system that works only for the few, for people with influence and wealth and who alone pull all of the essential levers of life, always in their favor. Most of our modern world, including America, is lost in a sea of corrupt financial vandalism. The greed of the powerful knows no limit. Although that greed is primarily carried out by polished men in expensive suits whose lives glitter in luxury and extravagance, their greed nonetheless oozes out of them like a foul discharge. Their Joker smiles betray any attempt at normalcy. Their giddy gluttony is not the attractive superiority they boast or they presume. Instead it pollutes and harms and ruins. And for many if not most of them their wealth is by no means a sign of high intelligence or ...

I find it astonishing that in this country we have political and religious leaders who seem perfectly fine creating a society that dismisses the poor, the sick, children in crisis, and the frail elderly who don’t have enough resources for their many medical and prescription needs. These leaders have no interest in providing a safety net for the most vulnerable people in our country. They talk about cutting social spending but are fine with bloated defense budgets.  They want the government out of their lives but are happy to get Medicare. They want to pay little or no taxes but then scream the loudest when the system doesn’t work for them.  They are fine shutting down agencies of care for people desperate for help, all the while they tell us how righteous they are. They quote random Bible verses and use them as validation for their indifference to others. They lift themselves up in pompous claims of religious fervor even as they detest those who differ from them in co...

Newt Gingrich has come out with a public pledge stating he will defend marriage, oppose gay unions, and push for a constitutional amendment that will define marriage as “the union of one man and one woman.” A constitutional amendment! He also pledges his own “personal fidelity” to his current wife and promises to “respect…the marital bonds of others.” Let there be no misunderstanding about the purpose of this statement. It was made only to win the votes of very conservative Republicans and fundamentalist Christians. It has no other relevance. Why didn’t Gingrich make this pledge before now, like when he married his third wife? There is only one reason. He has decided he wants to be the president so he puts out this self-righteous pledge that he will now take marriage seriously. This is the worst kind of political pandering. It’s manipulative and disingenuous. Why not say instead, “I know voters are troubled by my past mistakes and worry if I can be trusted to live by th...