Latest Posts
Is This Who We Are?
By now more than 75 million Americans have already voted. Even the mythical low-information undecided voters, hunted to near extinction this fall, must have come to some kind of decision. Still, I feel weirdly compelled to share this overly long and quite useless post…
Recently I wrote and taught an adult education course on 2024 election issues. I’ve been teaching courses on immigration and law enforcement for a few years, so I figured I could research the background of the various issues – immigration, crime, inflation, the deficit and so on - and present accurate information dispassionately and professionally.
I was wrong.
The experience was infuriating and transformative. I’ve been radicalized.
The scope and scale of the lies by the Trump campaign on all issues was staggering. But the worst thing was uncovering the details of Trump’s malicious treatment of legal...
Nov 04, 2024, American Life, Blog
Featured Posts
No One-Night Stand: LT Clark’s Improbable Mission at Inchon
They needed a team of Navy SEALs. They got a 39-year-old lieutenant and two Korean intelligence officers.
It was late August, 1950. The Korean War was two months old. Officers on General Douglas MacArthur’s Far East Forces staff were struggling to complete plans for an amphibious assault at...Apr 11, 2020, Military History
Quintessential Cleveland
Across the street from Cleveland’s Progressive Field lies one of the last surviving remnants of the city’s early history. The Erie Street Cemetery, established in 1826 when the city’s population had not yet reached one thousand, is an 8.9-acre rectangle of green within the slightly gritty edge of...Jun 19, 2019, Northeast Ohio
Ulysses S. Grant and the Ku Klux Klan
He didn't free the slaves, but he offered them a glimpse of a better future.
Ulysses S. Grant, who served as president from 1869-1877, is best known as the Union general who finally defeated Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia, effectively ending the Civil War. Grant is also acclaimed...Oct 13, 2018, U.S. History
American Life Posts
Is This Who We Are?
By now more than 75 million Americans have already voted. Even the mythical low-information undecided voters, hunted to near extinction this fall, must have come to some kind of decision. Still, I feel weirdly compelled to share this overly long...Nov 04, 2024, American Life, Blog
2024 Voter's Guide
As I mentioned previously, this fall I put together an adult education course on election issues to help voters assess candidate positions.
I learned a lot from the experience, but the takeaway that surprised me the most was the ready...Nov 03, 2024, American Life
Well, That Kind of Thing Used to be a Problem
As American politics continues to evolve, we are seeing a shift in behaviors that are considered disqualifying for the office of the presidency.
Apparently, now it is disqualifying to:
Be nominated by a political party without the specific...Oct 27, 2024, American Life
Military History Posts
‘A Higher State of Preparedness’: The U.S. Navy and the Special Attack Units
As American military forces converged on the Mariana Islands in the summer of 1944, Japanese Navy admirals understood what was at stake. Loss of the islands of Guam, Saipan, and Tinian would leave the Americans in possession of airfields within B-29 bomber range of Japan as well as naval bases for ...Oct 14, 2021, Blog, Military History
One Hour and Ten Minutes at Cherbourg
It was no chance encounter.
When the Confederate warship CSS Alabama glided out of the French port of Cherbourg, her Captain, Rafael Semmes, and her crew knew that the USS Kearsarge was waiting just offshore.
It was Sunday, June 19, 1864. The U.S. Navy had been chasing Alabama since her...Aug 05, 2021, Blog, Military History
"I Think I Can Get You Through"
“You won’t get thirty miles,” said the young naval officer. “Those destroyers out there are thicker than flies. They’ve been patrolling all day and all night for weeks.”
Lieutenant Commander John Morrill didn’t care what the officer from the USS Tanager (AM-5) thought. He was leaving and the...Feb 18, 2021, Blog, Military History
Emergency Management Posts
Build Resilience as Part of our COVID-19 Recovery
We are flying blind.
As Ohio restarts its economy, no one knows what to expect. We scarcely know what has already happened, let alone what might happen next. We are making important decisions with astonishingly little information.
Will there be a vaccine or a treatment? Does having the virus...Jul 15, 2020, Blog, Emergency Management
Shape the Future by Building Community Resilience Today
The future looks ominous, but for emergency managers, it always has.
Since emergency management emerged as a specialized discipline in the mid-twentieth century, practitioners have always seen a future filled with disasters. Recall that today’s emergency management agencies are descended from Cold ...Apr 12, 2020, Emergency Management
You Can't Handle The Truth
Earlier this week, an article about the coronavirus in a national newspaper described “panic buying” at a big box store in Hawaii.
Except there was no panic. According to the article, hundreds of customers waited patiently in long lines for hours. Even when the life-saving items - paper...Mar 18, 2020, Emergency Management
Northeast Ohio Posts
“We Have to Do Better”
Unchecked urban sprawl is weakening Greater Cleveland, causing disinvestment and abandonment of inner-city neighborhoods and threatening the character of rural communities in the surrounding counties, said a panel of local government officials Wednesday.
“Greater Cleveland’s population stopped...Feb 06, 2021, Northeast Ohio
Here Comes the Sun
There’s never been a better time for Cuyahoga County homeowners to invest in rooftop solar arrays. That was the message delivered by Solar United Neighbors Ohio Program Director Tristan Rader at an information session held at the Bay Village Public Library Thursday evening.
The combination of...Oct 25, 2019, Northeast Ohio
They Don't Know You
After many years of stagnation and decline, the Cleveland Metropolitan School District is again moving forward.
That was the upbeat message delivered last week by Cleveland Metropolitan School District CEO Eric Gordon at his 2019 State of the School address at the Renaissance Cleveland Hotel.
The ...Sep 28, 2019, Northeast Ohio
U. S. History Posts
“Once they get to know me, they’ll see I’m okay”
We know the story. Part of it, anyways.
It was 1957, three years after the United States Supreme Court ruled that ‘separate but equal’ public schools were inherently unequal. The court’s Brown versus Board of Education decision meant that America’s public-school systems had to stop segregating...Oct 24, 2020, U.S. History
That Can't Be Legal
It was a New Deal program that promoted old-fashioned housing discrimination and caused lasting damage to individuals and urban neighborhoods.
The 1934 National Housing Act revived the nation’s struggling construction industry and provided improved housing for tens of millions of Americans. Later, ...Feb 29, 2020, U.S. History
They Didn't Have Four Hours
It could have been the greatest rescue in maritime history.
Immediately upon receiving the distress signal, Captain Arthur Rostron ordered his ship to race to the aid of the stricken vessel. His crew rushed to ready their ship to receive two thousand survivors of the sinking passenger liner....May 24, 2019, U.S. History
Nature & the Environment Posts
Take This Bag and Shove It
Plastic pollution is a growing environmental problem which kills countless animals every year and may be threatening human health. But the problems with plastic pollution are self-inflicted, and can be mitigated if we decide to do so.
That was the message presented by Ohio State University’s Sea...Jan 31, 2020, Nature and Environment
It's Not About Sea Turtles
Plastic pollution doesn’t just threaten sea turtles and
marine mammals – human health is at risk as well.
That was the message Thursday evening from a panel of
environmental activists and government officials who spoke at the Rocky River
Public Library. The discussion was sponsored ...Sep 17, 2019, Nature and Environment
Warning Lights Would Be Flashing
American politics over the next 18 months will help decide the fate of earth’s environment, said a panel of environmental experts today at Cleveland’s Huntington Convention Center.
Christine Whitman, former Republican governor of New Jersey and former Administrator of the United States...Jun 24, 2019, Nature and Environment
Science & Technology Posts
We're Here. Now What? How the Cold War Froze NASA
It seemed like a good idea at the time.
It was April 1961. The Soviet Union’s Yuri Gagarin had just become the first person to orbit the Earth. America’s nascent Mercury program had not yet launched a single astronaut into space. It would be more than a year until John Glenn would become the first ...Apr 22, 2020, Science and Technology
A Year in Space
In 1960 an explosion at the Soviet Union’s Baikonur launching complex killed hundreds of people. Rather than halt their program to investigate the disaster and implement safety...Feb 11, 2019, Science and Technology
Shake, Rattle, and Roll
Had an opportunity today to spend an hour or so inside a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machine.
If you haven’t had one, an MRI might sound futuristically high-tech, like the handheld medical scanners on science fiction shows. And while an MRI will provide high resolution images of the internal ...Jan 14, 2019, Science and Technology
Criminal Justice Posts
An Impossible Job
On her first night as a reserve police officer in Washington DC’s poverty-wracked Seventh District, Rosa Brooks’ training officer told her, “Everyone around here would be happy to kill you. These people hate you. They would dance around your dead body.”
Brooks wasn’t convinced, and nothing she...Oct 19, 2021, Blog, Criminal Justice
They Make House Calls
Recently I was asked why I became a police officer and what advice I would give to a person considering joining a police department. Here's what I wrote:
Like pretty much everyone else who ever did it, I became a police officer out of a desire to help people. I felt that the most important...Jan 21, 2021, Criminal Justice
We've Heard it Before
Calls for major police reform are nothing new.
From Theodore Roosevelt’s efforts to reform the New York City Police Department in the late 1890’s, to President Lyndon Johnson’s Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice in the 1960’s, to President Barack Obama’s Task Force on...Nov 23, 2020, Criminal Justice
International Posts
We Are Way Behind
We are losing a war that most if us don’t even know we are fighting. That was the sobering message delivered by CNN Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent Jim Sciutto at the Cleveland City Club yesterday.
For three decades, China and Russia have been conducting carefully calibrated, disciplined, and...Jun 20, 2019, International
A Rumor of Spring
February in Ohio
February 23,2019
Spring has already arrived in London, where our daughter is attending university. This is in contrast to the situation here in Northeast Ohio, where we have another month or two of wintry weather ahead of us.
London’s mild climate is a little surprising...Mar 13, 2019, International
It's Always Something...
Martens are small, weasel-like mammals that are common in Europe. Too common, for some car owners.
For reasons that are not exactly clear, it seems that martens enjoy eating the rubber insulation from automobile engines in Germany. That’s tough. Here we don’t have to worry too ...Mar 08, 2019, International