Blog
The ‘But why do trans…?’ questions often just ask about being human
Of course humans will disagree with and disappoint each other. So where are we going together? What’s the ultimate goal of all our values, judgments, opinions, discernments? What’s the end game we’re playing? Where are we going with all this change?
Then they came for the taxpayers
Not the tax evaders. The taxpayers. There is nothing we can do to earn our place in this system. The system is unfair, and it will come for everyone in due course.
Why was Palestinian student leader Mahmoud Khalil detained?
The meaning of ‘shalom’ I know is ‘peace.’ A political arrest isn’t peaceful. President Trump aims to take away freedoms to speak against injustice. He’s testing his power to defund Columbia University and arrest its students.
We are the book we’re talking about
And we are what’s at stake in truth-telling. If the interlocutor opposes me because of who I am, will they be impressed that I read a book? No. Even if it is a book they have heard of? No.
Humility: A needed balance
On early modern philosophers and online trolls. In Lewis Carroll’s ‘You Are Old, Father William,’ a young person asks: ‘You balanced an eel on the end of your nose - / What made you so awfully clever?’
What is human dignity?
Where does it come from? How do we know it exists? Does dignity need to be pinned to God, or can it have secular grounding? Is it about humility, pride, or both? What does interdependence have to do with it?
When we disagree on politics and I lose a friend
I have to be a good person, and even then, it’s up to someone else if they want to be my friend. They don’t owe me what I gave as a gift, and certainly they don’t owe me what I never gave at all.
Does ‘woke’ mean saying — or not saying — certain words?
In any case, careful speech—including refraining from speaking — can build trust. When the right wing refers to “woke,” they may want to prevent others from saying certain words—or to reserve certain words for themselves.
It’s not ‘free speech,’ it’s bigotry
If they really believe in free speech, this is how we’ll know. There are many reasons why people have prejudices and why they devote their speech to expressing bigotry. Not high on the list: commitment to free speech.