I am in aweof the deadeye imperturbabilityof the armed righteous,who look upon the world’s sufferingand see targets. . . .This is a fragment of a poem (“Vigil”) I wrote 25 years ago, in response to the “vigil” some gun-rights advocates held in front of a school in Columbine, Colorado, while Bill…

“Nation” equals identity. I’m an American! Hurray!It’s almost embarrassing to confess this, but yeah, that’s me (or used to be me), sitting back in my easy chair, waving a flag. My “nationality” is such a profound, lifelong part of who I am I rarely actually questioned it. At best I shrugged, then…

Breathe deep, sigh, embrace the next word: W-A-R.It doesn’t go away. I write about it far too often, and every time I do I feel torn inside . . . even though I remain personally safe from it (at least for now). Words can so easily turn the actions and consequences of war into abstractions, while…

“These are not social Dumocrats, these are hardcore, godless communists.” And they will “attack all religions, but in particular, Christianity. They always do. . . .“It's like crazy. They will close your churches in this country. . . . They will kill your people and that's what they're about. They…