When most people hear that my siblings and I graduated high school years ahead of normal, scored high on state-standardized tests, and attended top colleges and universities, they generally assume our schooling was extremely strict, long, and arduous. Our schooling was challenging, but it was never impossible. In fact, I realized only years later how
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Chain, chain, chain (Chain, chain, chain) Chain of fools So ran the chorus to Aretha Franklin’s 1967 hit song “Chain of Fools.” One hundred twenty years earlier, the Communist Manifesto of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels proclaimed: “Workers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains!” The chains of Franklin’s song
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A friend of mine recently relayed the story of how her daughter asked why she couldn’t get her ears pierced like her older sister. “Well, she’s more responsible,” was the gist of my friend’s reply to her daughter, “and when you learn to be more responsible, you can get yours pierced too.” Lo and behold,
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One of the most frustrating signals of something wrong is always the price of a gallon of milk. I ran into our local grocery store last night to buy two gallons for $3. I remember back when that price was only $1.50. It’s not my imagination, either. According to this resource, monthly grocery costs have risen
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The average American spends over seven hours daily on screens. That means most of us live about half our waking hours inside a digital vortex. Engagement with the digital world is no longer an occasional pastime, an interruption in an otherwise analog existence. For many, it’s not a tool, but a way of life since vast portions
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Back in the 1980s, writer Florence King began her essay “Democrazy” by recounting a scene from the 1946 Japanese war trials. At one point, the former propaganda minister, Shumei Okawa, leaped to his feet and cried out: “I hate United States! It is democrazy!” That unintended pun is the theme for King’s piece, which appears
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