Plenty of people in East Tennessee are livid over a school board’s decision to remove “Maus” from the language arts curriculum. But indiscriminate outrage on TV and social media isn’t helping the local dissenters who are trying to build a better way forward. A few minutes before I gave an […]
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The current crisis can help us feel closer to our family and our neighbors. It also exposes the gaps and deficits where we can do better. The other night Matt Coe and I looked at each other and acknowledged we’re entering a new phase of parenting and, perhaps, marriage. The […]
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My daughter probably doesn’t know that wherever she goes in our small city, she’s part of creating our interconnected world. But one day, perhaps soon, maybe she will. Last Thursday night, I found myself wondering if life could get more precious than this: My 6-year-old daughter Lucy stood next to […]
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More than a half-century ago, 12-year-old Ray Johnson tested the limits of the newly enacted Civil Rights Act in his hometown of Athens, Tennessee. He didn’t get too far. About a week ago, my friend Ray Johnson brought me a copy of an old newspaper article with the headline, “Negro […]
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