Facing an empty nest
Our two children, Jeremy and Tova, are once again off to school. For the past 15 years, my wife, Judy, and I have rather looked forward to the fall, when we could send our kids back to school for most of the day after a busy summer spent juggling their schedules and ours.Things started to change when Jeremy graduated from high school three years ago. That fall he left the country to spend... READ MORE
A march remembered
Lucila Woodard was 29 years old when she made her first visit to Washington, D.C. On August 28, 1963, she attended the March on Washington in the nation’s capital and her memories from the day include hearing Martin Luther King, Jr.’s famous words.Today a resident of Greenspring Village in Springfield, Va., where she shared her story, Woodard is looking back half a century ... READ MORE
Courting controversy?
During the coverage of the Supreme Court’s landmark decision to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act in June, I first heard of 84-year-old plaintiff Edie Windsor. Although she had married her longtime partner in 2007, the marriage wasn’t recognized legally. When her wife died in 2009, Windsor was hit with a $363,000 estate tax bill she would not have had to pay if she her... READ MORE
Intractable problems
Why do so many of the social issues we currently face appear to be intractable?I think one of the reasons is that many problems in our society are treated as having a very limited range of solutions — as being black and white, leaning left or right, offering a choice of yes or no, take it or leave it. A few issues may really present such a stark choice, at least sometimes. But... READ MORE
Whatâs private anymore?
The recent revelations that our government collects telephone records and intercepts Internet communications have led to a great hue and cry throughout the world.I don’t deny the revelations are shocking. But what’s shocking to me is that the programs have been revealed, not that they are taking place.I am also shocked by how surprised so many people seem to be that privacy and... READ MORE
Catching up with KC and Melissa Etheridge
During the disco music-fueled days of the mid- and late-1970s, KC and the Sunshine Band was ubiquitous, getting down tonight on every top 40 radio station across the country.At the same time, nascent rock star Melissa Etheridge was honing her guitar skills in her small Kansas hometown and would burst onto the national scene in 1988 with her first album.The Beacon caught up with both KC and... READ MORE
Who will win this lottery?
Recently, a friend brought to my attention a relatively minor change being proposed to current immigration law that could have a significant impact on the daily lives of older Americans and their families. As I write, the Senate is marking up new legislation that would, among other things, eliminate the annual green card (or “diversity”) lottery that allows into the U.S. up to 55,000 ... READ MORE
Anonymously yours
The scariest thing about sitting down to write a column, especially in the Internet age, is that you risk putting your ignorance on display to the entire world, forever.It used to be if you made an error or there was an “editing mistake,” you might get a comment or two, perhaps a letter. You could then issue a retraction or correction (“sorry I misspoke”) and pretty... READ MORE
Driven by technology
Your broke your glasses (or your foot)? You had surgery recently? Your car’s in the shop?Getting from here to there — to the doctor’s office, to the grocery store, to a concert, to the hospital — can become a problem for all of us at one time or another.The solution? Call a cab. Call a friend. Take the bus. We can usually work around it for awhile.But getting around... READ MORE
Rubbing shoulders with celebrity
Last week, I had the pleasure of interviewing Michael Feinstein, who sings classics from the Great American Songbook by such composers and lyricists as Duke Ellington, Jerome Kern and Cole Porter in concert and shares information about these musical legends on his shows on PBS and NPR. Feinstein grew up in Ohio in the 1960s and ‘70s, the same as me, and shared how he came to be... READ MORE
