[November 27, 2023] Bonnie was my first “girlfriend.” I was six years old, and now as I look back from many decades and a number of girlfriends later, I didn’t actually know what having a girlfriend meant. Some folks will say it’s not possible for a boy to have a girlfriend so young when he is immature, unfocused,… Read More »
[November 23, 2023] Rowen, long ago I was your age, eight years old and living in a small town, so small there was no traffic light, no grocery store, no park, and no library. Thanksgiving was a big holiday, with family coming in for miles around to eat a great meal cooked by my grandmother; we called her… Read More »
[November 21, 2023] Rule #1 in learning how to live a good life is to realize that nobody owes you nuttin’. This is a valuable lesson that most of us learned as children, but some failed to get the message. Here we have a white female, Gen Z’er, who gets stopped for possible drinking and driving. And now… Read More »
[November 19, 2023] It was a red-letter day. On March 17, 2008, I took command of a Brigade in a U.S.-based unit. Brigade is the level of command that truly separates the best from the very best. The change of command was terrific, with hundreds of soldiers, mentors, family, and friends present. Immediately after I sat down with… Read More »
[November 17, 2023] “What’s the Boy Scouts?” I asked after my Dad said he’d signed me up as a brand-new Boy Scout. And the first meeting was that very night. Oh, great!! I started with the lowly rank of Tenderfoot. My brother was too young, so he had to stay home and help our Mom. He cried because… Read More »
[November 16, 2023] Sometime in early 2002, two Soldiers from my Engineer unit said something that shocked me. They said that they wished they had been on one of those planes that Muslim terrorists used to kill nearly 3,000 innocents on 9/11. Several officers and I were sitting around talking about preparing to go to war in Iraq.… Read More »
[November 12, 2023] The rain was coming down hard. The night was hot. For that reason, I was allowed to sleep in Bigmama’s twin bed on the first floor, next to an open window; only the screen kept out the night air. An old, oscillating fan blew a breeze over me; occasionally, a spit of rain would come… Read More »
[November 11, 2023] I grew up in the city of Philadelphia. We lived on a long narrow street lined with small row homes attached by a party wall. There were 23 homes on each side of the street. We knew everyone on our block and all the surrounding homes on the streets that made up our neighborhood. Our… Read More »
[November 10, 2023] I didn’t know it then, but I grew up privileged. Not with money, or status, or owning a big house or car or lots of clothes, but by being in the company of ordinary men, combat veterans from World War II and the Korean War, as well as those who served to protect us at… Read More »
[November 8, 2023] We’ve all seen supervisors who give excuses for employees who are failures in their jobs. Like the alcoholic whose family enables the alcoholic’s drinking behavior, leaders are also enabling failure in other leaders. Whatever the reason or excuse, there is an emerging trend in U.S. institutions where leaders fail to take quick, effective action to… Read More »