The Soap Box

Pulling the Plug...

This morning there was an commentary in the New York Times about end-of-life decisions (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/31/opinion/taking-responsibility-for-deat...), a topic that strikes to the heart of many of us these days. Like those of us taking on increased responsibility for aging parents. And those of us wanting to avoid wrenching family disputes over our own wishes. Death, that great equalizer, knows no favorites, though she can often be held at bay by throwing unbelievable (and usually futile) mountains of cash at her. If you have it. Read more »

Random Acts of Outrage

When I was a kid attending the Marathon County Fair I knew that if I wanted to ride the Ferris wheel I had to have money for a ticket. If I wanted a hot dog I needed a quarter. So I’m a little surprised at the confusion of people who just can’t figure out why we can’t fight two…or is it three?...wars and cut taxes at the same time. Never in the history of our republic have we attempted such an equation. No wonder we’re falling behind the rest of the world in math and science.
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September 11, 2011: Follow the Light

This month gives the world pause to remember that Tuesday morning ten years ago when, against a glorious clear blue sky, everything changed. What we had only read about in newspapers and heard in reports from distant marketplaces came to America in all its horrifying reality. On that day we saw acts of astonishing courage and selflessness. We heard the 911 calls and voicemails, not of hatred and revenge, but of love, of reassurance. It was not a day when the courageous first responders asked party affiliation or religion or sexual orientation or immigration status. Read more »

Wall Street Fact Revisionism by Phil Angelides

My thoughts exactly...JM

They say that winners get to write history. Three years after the meltdown of our financial markets, it’s clear who is winning and who is losing. Wall Street — arms outstretched in triumph — is racing toward the finish-line while millions of American families are struggling to stay on their feet. With victory seemingly in hand, the historical rewrite is in full swing. Read more »

An Open Letter to the GOP

Well it’s here, I guess: the 2012 Election Cycle. My poor friends up in Iowa and New Hampshire are bracing for the worst. Despite Obama’s many stumbles (some might say he was tripped…) there doesn’t seem to be anyone giving him a serious run for our money. But I do want to weigh in early here on my preferences. Read more »

Random Acts of Outrage: February 2011

The National Anthem at this year’s Super Bowl: forget about flubbing the lyrics, it was everything I dislike about the modern renditions of the song…all about Me instead of Us. Vocal acrobatics, self-aggrandizing performance, “listen to me, listen to me!” American Idol-atry. Impossible to sing along with, even for those few of us who actually know the words. And as a composer, it’s the trend of songs reduced to mere vehicles to show vocal skill. Why bother to write lyrics? Read more »

September 11th 2010

This month ushered in the most difficult remembrance of 9/11 yet. It was a reminder of how much we’ve missed, how much we’ve squandered since that Tuesday morning nine years ago. It was a day when the impossible seemed to make everything possible. The world rallied to our support. For weeks people lined up at blood banks to offer something, anything, their very blood…when it was clear by noon that day there was no one to give blood to. And these children of the Greatest Generation were waiting for word. Read more »

Tragedy at Moncoal, WV

When I was a young man of 19 years I first ventured from my home in Wisconsin to the Appalachians thinking I was going there to find banjo players. I found much more. I found families and communities that welcomed me into their homes and hearts, began to claim me as an adopted son, and will forever have a place in my own heart. Most of the first places I landed were coal-mining communities and I quickly became familiar with the routine and the risks of this industry and the people who help make our nation run. So it is with more than a little personal interest that I have read any news from the coalfields the nearly forty years since. Read more »

What's Good for General Motors...

As both Congress and the White House decide if and how to toss a bone to the American auto industry those of us footing the bill…or, more accurately, the parents and grandparents of those footing the bill…are left to wonder who the losers and winners are in the proposition. The $700 billion bailout of Wall Street taught us one thing: that the habits of privilege are difficult to unlearn. That fragile tension that exists in capitalism (the balance of greed’s energy and lust) only works when everyone plays fair and someone is there to make sure of it. Read more »

Artists for a Hate Free America

from The International Musician, September, 1996 Read more »