To the Cannon Beach Fire Department Board of Directors, I wanted to write you a letter to tell you that, while I don’t necessarily know “why” you fired Mike Balzar, I simply cannot understand the “how.” I originally met Mike and two of his daughters Kellye and Krysti, playing on a co-ed softball team […]

Most Sundays (though this week it was Saturday), I talk with a German friend of mine, Volker, using the wonderful Skype software. Because we talk via our devices and not the phone, the “calls” are free (except for the Internet charges we pay in any case).[More…]

As of 2012, the estimated population of Americans belonging to the so-called “millennial” or Generation Y numbered around 80 million, making those born between the mid-1980’s and late 1990’s approach one-third of the total population. Of these 80 million, only 41.2 percent that were of voting age bothered to cast a ballot in the 2012 national elections, according to the Census Bureau’s 2012 Voting Report. As a member of this generation and a friend or colleague of many who abstained, I can hardly blame them.