Month: July 2026

It’s never too late to be won over to new things, whatever they might be. I just had a conversion to G-R-A-N-O-L-A, something I routinely dissed for years as an affectation of preachy, overzealous tree-hugging health nuts. Not just any granola, but Outer Banks Granola (OBX Granola), a small batch enterprise from North Carolina that…

I’ve been writing this commentary since 2008, most seriously since 2019. Time enough to help me make sense of the political climate. The one thing that stands out is that an unbridgeable gap exists between the ideological left and right, Democrat and Republican and others who share American politics. Recently, several comments by acquaintances and…

I’ve always believed that if our democracy gave way to authoritarianism, it would come from the right, never from the left. The last six years has confirmed my worst fears. Over the course of its history, the United States has experienced numerous challenges to its democratic-constitutional government both from the right and left. This despite…

A poet friend sent me the enclosed poem as a commentary on the United States today. It was written by Lawrence Ferlinghetti in 2007 after a poem by Khalil Gibran. It prophetically and succinctly says what needs to be said out loud. For your thoughts Pity the Nation By Lawrence Ferlinghetti (After Khalil Gibran) Pity…

Anyway you tell it or spin it, the United States is DIW (dead in the water) as I write this. I don’t mean to imply that the country is on the brink of destruction or even a major catastrophe, but that it is simply treading water and going nowhere, as if waiting for a breakthrough…

“A Letter to Our American Friends” by Raphael Melancon, public affairs consultant and political analyst. Ottawa Citizen, July 4, 2026 Ottawa CitizenJul 04, 2026 Canadians will not be raising a glass to you — and you deserve an honest explanation why To our southern neighbours, Today, across all 50 states, millions of you will be…

DON’T LET HIM DOWN!

Every morning I read the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal hoping that the flagship newspaper for conservatives will finally have come to its senses about what is happening in America. This 4th of July holiday offers a propitious opportunity to stand up for the principles of the Declaration of Independence before our democratic…