Thoughts on the Pending Paramount/Skydance Merger

Is CBS, in pandering to the tender sensibilities of President Trump to gain administration approval of the merger of its owner Paramount with Skydance Media, diminishing the value of the property and making the transaction less attractive to Skydance?

Summer Memories

Last night, at Open Mic Night at Sulfur Books, I read my poem “Summer Pleasures.” That poem evokes various experiences of my childhood in New Orleans. Members of the audience had childhoods different from my own, of course, but I had hoped that my poem would inspire them to think of their own childhoods.

One woman told me that “Summer Pleasures” did indeed cause her to recall her own childhood memories. She raised the question of what sort of memories present-day children and teenagers will have to look back on when they become adults. Will they recall playing video games and texting friends on their cellphones? Or will they remember being driven by parents to organized activities like soccer practice and soccer games? Will their memories and, in fact, their childhoods be impoverished in comparison to those of their parents or grandparents? Or, perhaps the joys of a present-day childhood are merely different from those of a less technological age but somehow wonderful in their own right.

Bring the War to Russia

What if, on December 8, 1941, President Roosevelt had gone before Congress and asked for an increased military budget to build more weapons to defend against Japanese aggression, rather than asking for a declaration of war against the Empire of Japan?

Would enhancing America’s defenses have been a reasonable action in 1941? Or did the nation do the right thing by mobilizing for total war against Japan?

If you believe that active military action against Japan was indeed the proper response to Pearl Harbor, then why do we limit military shipments to Ukraine to defensive armaments? Can the war in Ukraine possibly have a satisfactory resolution—not simply the “peace” that President Trump seems to desire, but a victory for the West and punishment of Russia for its aggressive expansionism—if the war is never seriously taken to the Russian homeland? Why are Russian civilians not experiencing the daily horrors being visited by Putin’s military upon the civilians and the civilian infrastructure of Ukraine?

It’s time to ensure a Ukrainian victory against Russia, not simply a holding action that can only result in Ukraine’s ultimate defeat and the country’s annexation by an expanding Russian empire.

The Texas Ten Commandments Law

In June, the Texas legislature passed a law requiring that the Ten Commandments be posted in every public elementary and secondary school classroom. By any reasonable calculus, this law is unconstitutional. Whether it will eventually be declared such is to be determined. If the Supreme Court eventually gets to weigh in, the Republican justices will likely undermine the wall between church and state even more than they have weakened it already.

My essay The Texas Ten Commandments Law examines the details of the Texas legislation. I examine the source of the biblical text that must be on the mandated posters and consider why some people might think passing this law was a good idea.