About

There was something different about it this time. My father, who typically worked 10-12 hours a day, was near enough to listen to what my mother said and interjected, “The way that things are going in this world today, what the boy needs to use is uncommon sense.” Of course, being seven years old, I asked what that means, and he told me that even when many people line up one side of something, if your head or your heart tells you differently, then be different. Over the years, a lot of wisdom came from this man’s mouth who had to leave school after the sixth grade, but I will carry his remarks from that day with me to my grave.

This year I will celebrate my sixty-fifth birthday. At this point, I can say without a doubt that 65 has been much kinder to me than it was to my parents. I attribute so much of what my siblings and I have accomplished to my parents and others like them. They made their primary focus in life, protecting and fighting for the children they brought into this world. One part of my motivation for creating this website is children. The world that we are creating for generations of children to come is an abomination. The social, political, and economic tea leaves project foreboding circumstances. As I approach this milestone, I see many situations that call for some uncommon sense. Incredibly, we are confronted with challenges that are being addressed with solutions that are inappropriate at best and too often misguided and destructive

Un-Common Sense consists of essays and opinion pieces that will address political, social, and cultural subjects, both big and small. Some topics will seem random, and others will construct a consistent thread that will make it clear where I stand on the current issues and what I think our priorities should be. At no time will I profess to know everything, nor will I shy away from discussing topics that have been deemed taboo by the people who decide those types of things (whoever they are).

I aim to exhibit a type of rationality that will allow a reader to disagree with me on the merit of my arguments but not based on demagoguery and personal attacks. I do not come to my views based on the “check the box.” ideology. I make an earnest effort to develop positions on my analysis of the situation and the review of others. Sometimes I will just raise questions because, quite frankly, some issues are so weighty that getting the questions right is more important than the answers we hear. I consider myself a common person that has been blessed with uncommon and extraordinary opportunities. The chance to share this page with you is one of those opportunities, and I hope that there is something in my writings that inspires introspection, debate, and action in each of you. I will be sharing a post twice a week, but I’ll write more often if I am motivated or agitated about something.