Crossing Nebraska

We can’t help but behave authentically when our “backs are against the wall”—when there’s nothing else to do and nowhere else to go. There’s no room for false pretense when we’re in a fight or flight situation. We act as strong as we are. We punch as hard as we can. We run as fast as we’re able. Between the adrenaline coursing through our veins and the lack of anything else to attend to, either mentally or physically, we can apply 100% of our energy to the situation at hand. We are never stronger than in such situations. It's in so-called everyday life that our authenticity is more variable. We might hide our hobbies, religion, or politics when we’re with the work crew. We might conceal our flaws and foibles when trying to impress a new love interest. We might be more polite than we really want to be when we’re around those acquaintances who’ve proven less than trustworthy. Being inauthentic is draining, though. It saps us of our mental energy and inhibits our physical performanc...

  We are in danger of entering something of a Dark Ages-like period here in the United States. DOGE’s mass government firings and funding cutoffs are whittling away at institutional knowledge and hampering or scuttling altogether what had been mission-critical work . Information is being removed from government websites (our websites) in order to further an anti-diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) agenda, and data that would reveal the misguided nature of proposed or newly adopted policies is being scrubbed . In such a climate as this, simply holding on to our clear memories of a more enlightened society and government will be an extremely important act of resistance! One particularly perverse situation involves the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Civil Rights Division . To understand what has driven a mass exodus of seasoned staff, you simply need to reflect on the words of the new Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, Harmeet Dhillon, as quoted in Bloomberg L...

We’re living in a cruel season—unlike any I’ve ever lived through. The headlines abound with stories of the powerful inflicting great cruelty upon those caught in their crosshairs. Where once it might have seemed merely to be the unintended byproduct of a blind, faceless, and inflexible bureaucracy (from a privileged perspective anyway), cruelty is now being used as a strategy in and of itself. The cruelty of today is blatant, overt, shameless, and unapologetic. The cruelty of today is a tool. Upon reflection, I can see that cruelty has been used throughout history in this way. My own naivete that our society might have moved beyond it was likely due to my coming of age as a member of the dominant culture after the Civil Rights Era ushered in a certain semblance of decency and respect for human rights. What was lynching, after all, but a cruel and terrorizing show of force to warn others to “stay in their place.” What were the whippings and mutilations of recaptured enslaved individu...