Mark Knows It All

America has a sordid history in race relations.  Anyone who denies it doesn’t read the history books.  Slavery was real.  For those of us who live in the north…like northeast Ohio…slavery was just thirty miles down Route 11 across the river.  We may be distanced by time, but not space.  Even during the Civil War, slavery continued in upstart border state West Virginia until the war was over.  It was not isolated to the deep south.    Moving forward, one bumps into reconstruction, Jim Crow laws, institutionalized segregation, poll taxes and literacy tests…and scarier, the KKK and lynching.  Up in the smug north, de-facto segregation took root with red lining, segregated neighborhoods leading to segregated schools, and job discrimination.  It wasn’t pretty.  This week marks the 50 th anniversary of the famous and infamous March on Washington and Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.  There were many people b...

Shark Week on the Discovery Channel has become an American institution. Year after year the ratings for this fest of shark movies and shark documentaries keep growing and growing. Steven Spielberg’s 1975 thriller Jaws gave all of us pause before we stuck our big toe into the ocean. Just before the 9/11 attacks on the Trade Center the lead stories on the evening news were about shark attacks off the east coast. Every year we are subjected to a multitude of stories about swimmers being attacked by these aquatic giants. You won’t catch me going into the ocean…no-siree-Bob. If God had wanted me in the ocean, he wouldn’t have invented ocean view balconies. This year has been exceptionally fun. Sharknado, a movie about tornadoes dropping sharks from the skies, was a ratings hit…and there is going to be a sequel. Oh Boy. The kitchiness of the event hit new highs. Just in case you didn’t see the saga of Snuffy the Seal, here it is. I almost wet my pants.   ...

When did being a-political become fashionable?  Yes, I know the old adage, never discuss politics or religion.  But isn’t there something inherently wrong with that?  Our country is built on political discourse.  We need discussion to prosper.  We need discussion to solve problems.  We need discussion to try to fix things.  Yet when I mention a political topic, heads go down, eyes roll, and people turn their heads.  It’s a dirty business.  Go away.  We won’t lower ourselves to talk of such things. Well, to each his own.  But things in this country are about as bad as I can remember.  Income is down.  Savings is down.  A recent study shows the majority of Americans are living just outside or in poverty.  Violence is up.  Prices are up.   Companies have quit hiring.  And when they do, the jobs are part time. The labor participation rate is the lowest it has ever been.  The rich are g...