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Yearly Archives: 2020
December Birthday Card
http://Bobhowittbooks.com??page_id=22 It’s December: a mishmash of conflicting circumstances in what is supposed to be a Holiday season. You want to socialize but the experts are telling you to stay in bed, pull the covers up, breathe only when necessary, and instead of counting sheep, cross off the days until a vaccine is widely available and […]
Holiday Missive
It is totally obvious: this is the most unique Holiday period in our lifetime. I hope you and your family are able to both enjoy the season and stay safe. Time for some random thoughts (Hey, I’m in lockdown mode too!) *For those who are anxious, stressed, depressed (aren’t we all to a certain extent), […]
October Birthday Card
It’s October. Fall is here. The sun shines while the temperature is cool, a nice combination. College protocols remain confusing, putting more responsibility on students to have great resolve to finish, to earn that credential which gets them into the employment conversation. Meanwhile, the presidential race heats up. It’s as ugly as expected, policy ideas […]
Route 517
Driving on Route 517 in rural Tranquility, New Jersey, I noticed an interesting sign, “what you are not changing, you are choosing.” I thought what a great message for individuals who consistently complain about personal situations which can be changed. My immediate contrary thought was that during the pandemic, being able to change many things […]
Charter School Performance
I COULD CARE LESS! This essay is satire. Any resemblance to the attitudes of living people is purely coincidental. I bought a house in a neighborhood without knowing a soul. The schools are highly rated. Why would I choose to stay where I was living in the city and send my kids to decrepit buildings […]
Fractionalization
THE DEMISE OF NUANCED DISCUSSION Let’s say that I am in favor of police reform: transparency on disciplinary situations over a certain threshold, increased training, and more diversity. But I am against defunding the police department. To many, my fractional disagreement with the list of demands put forth by those wanting change makes me not […]
Cleaning Out
Cleaning out various files and folders prior to retiring my aging desktop (remember those!), I found some thoughts which have stood the test of time. Here for your reading enjoyment, and maybe a touch of utilization, are a few that were not too dusty. Thank you to all those unnamed sources who over the years […]
Wind and Flame
“Distance does for love what the wind does for a flame. It extinguishes the weak and feeds the strong.” I wonder what distance, specifically that caused by COVID-19, does for the connection between a college student and their school. If everything is on-line, it seems inevitable that there is a weakening of the bond associated […]
The Fire
In 1963, the famed African-American author James Baldwin wrote “The Fire Next Time.” Every time there is a terrible racial “incident,” people have wondered if a fire was being lit which would defy extinguishment, that would not run its course until substantive societal changes had been accomplished.Enter 2020. The virus has physically hurt minorities more […]
Truth or Fiction
“On the day I was born, the trait which received the most attention was not my height or weight or how loud or long I cried or my inability to stop squirming. The trait that, unknown to me at the time, was to define my life was not my simple personhood. This was stolen at birth. […]