America needs more kindness, not more wealth and power. Please vote for men and women who demonstrate the kindness and civility our nation needs. We need Dumbledore, not Voldemort, and we need to save our democracy.
Category Archives: Sparks from Science and Society
For Those We Have Lost
In the United States this year we have lost 200,000 people to the COVID-19 virus. I invite you to join me in singing the old African-American spiritual “Michael Row the Boat Ashore” in memory of the many people we have lost here in the US and around the world.
A Little Politics: You Are the Ones
I know there are plenty of political ads out there, but I have always preferred books. Many of the people I am most willing to put my faith in as leaders have offered some of their ideas in book form, giving us a source we can think about, argue with, and return to as we wish. I hope they have the opportunity to serve as the leaders we so clearly need right now. Some years ago I wrote a song celebrating some of the outstanding graduate students who chose to study folklore, a relatively small field of research and ethnography that grew in part from the early efforts of the Grimm Brothers. Folklorists attend to and value what ordinary people create and treasure. I would wish, for America, leaders who display that same respect for all people. I think these people can offer that.