What Crosses My Mind

  • I Have A Broken Heart

    I watched my world unravel tonight, I believe in love, I understand pain and indifference, though cannot recognize ignorance.   This night I listened to voices familiar and strong speak with certain agonizing reactions to simple insecurities.   How soon do we lose ourselves, when hiding inside a square box incapable of having corners, unaware…

  • Be A Racist, It’s Ok, It’s 2017

    I walked into a nightmare today, names were dropped, words were tossed, I couldn’t get past an, an, an, an, omission of a hopeful anomaly, that turned awful, horrific, debatably ludicrous, seemed we were all so frivolous, funny, fanatics. Seemed we were all lost in the comfort of our WHITE PRIVILEGE! White privilege regarded itself,…

  • My America (written for contest)

    To understand, My America, I wanted to embody a lifetime of experience that could speak directly to my concept of living as a white man in the Midwest. I was fortunate to grow up with conscientious siblings all of whom were driven by values instilled by parents just trying to keep up with the norms…

  • When Once We Stood Together

    Today I remember then, only when I cannot quite comprehend. I know it was with intrigue I wondered about time, was this perhaps the proper sign. I would look to wonder each new design a telling of a simple future. Seems we all have a memory whereby we might all recall sweet passion was most…

  • Why Colin Kaepernick is Right for the Green Bay Packers.

    When the season began, and Kaepernick again became the center of a controversy for a quarterback with skills not being signed by a number of teams in need, I thought about the Packers, and because their position is secure with Aaron Rodgers, I didn’t give it a second thought. There wasn’t a need. Rodgers gave…

  • Episodic Rituals

    There are times when in my real life I cry, it is sudden, something I cannot control, watching the illusion of our reality, in the episodic nature of historical fiction, the retelling of the reality, we would all like to pretend is that fiction.   And yet, when I cry there are real tears, I…

  • I Have These Friends

    When they walk out the door, they have natural instincts, look over their shoulder, keep a skeptic eye, they constantly watch their step while they attend, make time to be in, express a similar value, as do I, when I go about living my regular, normal, daily life.   I have these friends, keep their…

  • The ‘Not Yet’ Reality of Racism

    A dear friend once used the phrase ‘not yet’ to suggest a descriptive moment in our lives that though I will not describe that context, I will explore the phrase as it pertains to our lives in America today. As I write this commentary, I notice a massive gathering of protesters in Boston to represent…

  • Our Violent Humanity

      It would seem we haven’t had enough, Watching our neighbors fall to the sword, The world around us eschewing the evil Of a nation lost in a swirl of self-pity. – No one to blame but ourselves, Yet that never comes into play, We are soon to discover some outlet, Easy to say we…

  • On Donald Trump and Ignorance

    For weeks, perhaps months, no to be sure, for the last two years I have struggled with the phenomena that is Donald Trump. I will secretly admit to everyone that a decade ago, when he first threw his name into the hat as a candidate and then swiftly pulled it out because the powers that…