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After 36 years, I quit.
It took 36 years, but I’ve finally left school. The end came shortly after University of Colorado administrators denied faculty the ability to teach remotely amid yet another COVID-19 surge. Following the denial, a stream of unusual advice for professors trickled in: anticipate chaos, get creative and, if necessary, call the police. Over the years, […]
Children are dying for Republican ‘freedom’
Apparently, the bodies of sick or dead children are not a motivator for today’s Republicans. Then again, when were they? When 20 children were gunned down at Sandy Hook elementary school in 2012, Republicans didn’t fight to end gun violence — they doubled down on unfettered gun access. When scientists warned decades ago that generations […]
Literacy rates are falling and Democrats could lose big (or even bigly)
Twenty-five years ago Republicans were more educated than Democrats. Today, the inverse is true. The education gap is readily apparent. Facts have become partisan, and Republicans have tossed whole science books out the window. It’s a strategy that appears ill-considered at first glance — after all, what good is letting a virus ransack your base? […]
With all the unvaccinated, who gets emergency medical care may get murky
The hippocratic oath requires doctors to treat all patients equally — but what happens when you run out of doctors? This isn’t the first time medical staff and hospital beds were in short supply during the pandemic. There is, however, something notably different this time. In the early stages of COVID-19, patients overflowed hospitals at […]
Leave God out of government
A minister, a priest and a rabbi go to Washington. There is no punch line. All of them should uphold the separation of church and state. It often shocks people when I say I don’t believe in God. To them, it’s as if all of my morality hinges upon agreeing to a single, socially constructed […]
A just verdict is not justice, it’s accountability — and we need more
It took about 10 hours for a jury to convict former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin of murdering George Floyd, but we should not conflate the win with justice — this was accountability, and we need more of it. A stark reminder of the work yet to be done came when moments after the jury […]
Polar vortex highlights the need for grid innovation amid climate change
As a deep freeze clamped down across North America, millions of homes in Texas lost power and experienced rolling blackouts. In Colorado, at least two energy companies requested residents reduce consumption to avoid a similar fate. On cue, politics quickly got in the way of facts. Baseless attacks on renewable energy as the primary cause […]