A commentator on Fox News while justifying the ICE raids, internment camps and border walls, said, “Illegal aliens are killing Americans.” Not one to take such a concern lightly, I locked all the doors and did a head count. My defenses were on alert and I went online (curtains drawn so the aliens wouldn’t see…
Category: Gary Kroeger
Life and Death
Gun Control was a very difficult subject when I was running for the Iowa House. Not because I was afraid of the subject, I wasn’t, but because the forces that disagree with anything short of the proliferation of firearms would rise in obstinate (and loud) opposition. Money gets thrown in to defeat you, and even a fearless candidate has…
Walls and Bridges
There are certain issues for which I cannot be silent. Civil and human rights are such issues. When people of any group, any nation, any persuasion, are marginalized in any way, I am called to emotional arms and I will be vocal. As a businessman I am more cautious today, politically speaking, than, perhaps, I…
Remembering Our Friend
Our community lost one of its greatest citizens. Known by many, but not by enough. Loved by all who knew him. Steve Mager was never the mayor, nor on city council. He never led Main Street, or chaired a major organization. He wasn’t elected or appointed to anything that I know of. Yet he…
Tabula Rasa
The father of modern philosophy, Rene Descartes (“I think, therefore, I am”) believed in “Innatism”; he believed the human mind is born already containing certain knowledge, specifically the difference between right and wrong, and at our core was an innate knowledge of God. His theory was countered by the Empiricists, John Locke, in particular, who…
The Weaponization of #MeToo (a guest article)
#MeToo started as a public solidarity movement to expose the widespread problem of sexual assault and harassment, and to provide support to people who have experienced it. I applauded that, because it’s (now, quite obviously) a serious problem. As both an assault survivor, and a longtime advocate for other survivors, I was very hopeful about…
“With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah!”
“Maybe there’s a God above, but all I’ve ever learned from love was how to shoot at someone who outdrew ya. It’s not a cry you can hear at night, it’s not somebody who has seen the light, it’s a cold and it’s a broken Hallelujah!” Leonard Cohen bemoaned the bitterness of love. Or at least…
Walls and Bridges, Part II
The wall debate is a perfect illustration of different rhetorical patterns between ideological viewpoints. Wall supporters are now comparing ALL walls in order to connect the logic of good walls to a Mexican wall : “Heaven has a wall,” “People in gated communities have a wall,” “Parking garages have walls!,” “Obama has a wall!” (he…
A Fair Bargain
There are two things I hear consistently from people who oppose social spending: “It’s MY money,” and, “I don’t want my hard earned money being spent on people who want to live off handouts!” Their assumption often seems to be that the poor are that way because they haven’t been chastised enough to stop being…
The War Between The States (of mind)
When Bill Clinton was being excoriated by the right for weak morals, the term “Family Values” was coined. It may have been around already, but that is when Republicans took it to the People’s Bank. The internet existed, but social media was still in its infancy and the brushfire of negativity was experienced through traditional…