Oct 29, 2024 | Alan's Letter
One unintended consequence of this election is that we are by now overfamiliar with and becoming desensitized to things such as plutocracy, autocracy and even fascism. Autocracy, just a hop, skip and a jump away from plutocracy, is globally on the rise, as the New...
Sep 24, 2024 | Alan's Letter
I send out my letter on the last Tuesday of each month, so imagine my surprise when I realized last night that today is the last Tuesday of the month. I thought I had another week! This led me to ask: why did September get shortchanged by a day? In the very early...
Aug 27, 2024 | Alan's Letter
This isn’t poker. It’s democracy. And it’s time to take one’s 501c3 chips and put them all on the table to support voter engagement and election protection. The Crises Charitable Commitment’s mission is to encourage donors to simply give more, without specifying...
Jul 30, 2024 | Alan's Letter
Have you been reading the newspaper? What a month! I’m writing this letter on July 27, the one-month anniversary of the Presidential Debate, and I’m asking myself: When was the last time we’ve experienced thirty days like the last thirty?! The debate; the withdrawal...
Jun 25, 2024 | Alan's Letter
I must be in a religious or spiritual moment. Last month I quoted a university Chaplain whose uplifting commencement words touched a nerve. Then, a couple of weeks ago, and please don’t take this as partisan, one of my prayers was answered when a courageous jury found...
May 28, 2024 | Alan's Letter
It is college graduation season, and it is hard to think of the occasion as anything but a mixed bag: On the one hand it is a supremely joyous occasion; on the other hand, one can’t help worrying about the future that awaits these graduates. For some in the class of...
