In the 1990s I worked for the PBS station in Austin, Texas. Our offices and studios were located in the communications building, which sat in the shadow of the infamous UT Tower. The tower was most famous for being ground zero for one of America’s first mass school shootings. In 1966 a student and former …
Last week I sat in the Memphis airport and waited to board a United Airlines flight. My dog was on my lap. My dog is a 10-pound, 10-year-old, double dapple miniature dachshund named Maui. Most people love Maui. She is small and cute and charming. When Maui travels with me she spends the plane ride in …
The current president’s proposed budget eliminates funding for the National Endowment for the Arts, abolishes the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, guts the Environmental Protection Agency, and slices community block grants to the bone. It gives more money to the military and, I assume, border walls. There doesn’t seem to be much logic behind the proposal, just a lot …
In 2009 my husband and I took a vacation to London. We stayed in an apartment just blocks from the Marylebone Underground Station, where the Beatles filmed the famous opening scene for Hard Day’s Night. We spent a week sipping beer in neighborhood pubs and eating lots of takeaway curry. We saw As You Like It …
It is International Women’s Day in the midst of Women’s History Month. February was Black History Month. In May we’ll celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage. In September we recognize Hispanic Americans. In November we give a nod to American Indians. Probably I’m missing a few. For years I worked at public television stations where these …
I have a trustworthy face. As such, people tend to give me the benefit of the doubt. I am always selected for jury duty. I’m never pulled out of line at the airport for additional screening. The one time I was randomly selected, the guy took one look at me and waved me through. On one …
I grew up in a blue household deep in red America. As a result, my social media feeds run purple. Unlike many of my friends in Colorado and Mississippi, I can’t count on a nonstop echo chamber for my views. Whatever I say, someone will disagree with and I’m okay with that. It’s not good for …
In 1997 in Pearl, Mississippi, a teenager opened fire on his high school classmates, killing two and injuring many more. I watched the news footage from my job at the public television station in Austin, Texas. I’d grown up just a few miles from where the shooting took place. I had cousins in Pearl and I …
For the past week or so I’ve been grappling with the news that the woman who claimed Emmett Till flirted with her in 1955 was lying. If you aren’t familiar with the Emmett Till story, this is the short version: Till, 14, an African-American boy from Chicago, was visiting relatives in the Mississippi Delta when he …
This week our new president promised to lift the Johnson Amendment, the rule that prohibits religious leaders from endorsing or campaigning against political candidates. This new administration believes pastors and priests should be able to throw their support—publicly—behind political candidates. On this, you may be surprised to know, I wholeheartedly agree. If corporate CEOs and celebrities can …
Render Unto Caesar: Why Churches Should Pay Taxes Read More »