It is not my intention to take sides one way or the other on the decision of the grand jury relating to the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, by Darren Wilson, a police officer.  My purpose here is to clear up some misunderstandings and incorrect information.

The national news media have, for the most part, portrayed Ferguson as a small town located in the distant suburbs of St. Louis.  Traveling by surface roads, Ferguson is about 1.5 miles from the City of St. Louis. 

St. Louis County is a large county: 524 square miles, consisting of ninety municipalities and ten unincorporated census-designated areas, with a total population of 1,001,500 people.  The City of St. Louis is a county in itself and, therefore, is not included in St. Louis County.  The City of Ferguson is one of the larger municipalities in St. Louis County, consisting of 6.2 square miles with a population of slightly over 21,000 people.

There has been much criticism of the county prosecutor’s decision to announce the results of the grand jury at night.  The New York Times (11/26/14, p. A24) described it as a “reckless” decision because “darkness placed the law enforcement agencies at a serious disadvantage as they tried to control the angry crowds . . .”  Read more…

An IRS office was keeping a close eye on a small company with only a few employees.  The income reported by the small business on its annual income tax form seemed to the IRS to be more than could be expected by the company’s limited number of employees, unless there was a lot of overtime.  The problem was that the small business reported no overtime being paid to its employees.  Hence, an IRS agent was sent to look into the matter.

When he arrived, he introduced himself and explained to the owner that he wanted to take a look at his books.  The owner responded by laying out his books on his desk and inviting the agent to spend as much time as he wanted looking over all the figures.  The agent confirmed that no overtime was being paid, yet the income was more than seemed reasonable for the number of employees.  He decided to interview the owner. Read more…

Staff members at a local Starbucks I frequent for hot chocolate learned that my wife and I recently celebrated our sixtieth wedding anniversary.  They are all relatively young, and sixty years seems like a long time to them.  So they asked me to write about some of the things a couple has to do in order to make it together for that long. 

In this day and age when so many married couples find they are not a match for each other and call it quits, it is not surprising that today’s younger adults find sixty years of marriage to be very unusual.  When my wife and I were married, celebrating a fiftieth anniversary was hailed as the “golden” anniversary that everyone was in awe of.  The fiftieth anniversary is still very special.  But today many marriages bypass the golden anniversary, as well as the sixtieth, and it is not unheard of for people to celebrate seventy-five years together, or even longer.  So there are many others who are more qualified than I to write about what it takes to make a marriage work.  But I will share my thoughts about making a marriage a lasting relationship. Read more…

Are people less friendly than they used to be?   

Being a clergyman, my family and I moved often.  I have never lived long enough in one town or city to compare the current attitudes of people with how individuals and families felt and acted in the past, say thirty-five or forty years ago.  It usually takes that long for basic living habits of populations to change to a noticeable degree.  I have had the “gut feeling,” though, that people today in small towns and large cities tend to be less friendly than people in past years.  I set out to find reliable information on this matter, and what I learned is very interesting.  Read more…

Here are some headlines appearing in major newspapers recently:

• “A Deeply Divided Supreme Court . . .”;
• “Divided Congress is Deeply Fractionalized . . .”;
• “The Deep Divide in Congress . . .”;
• “Obama Warns a Divided Congress . . .”;
• “The Sharp Political Divide in America . . .”;
• “The Most Divided Congress Ever . . .” 

These stories all suggest that the United States today is so divided along political lines that the politicians are unable to pass meaningful legislation and that judges (even in the Supreme Court) are unable to make unbiased legal decisions.  But does a sharply divided America necessarily mean that no meaningful legislation can emerge from our political leaders on both sides of the aisle?  I don’t think so!  Read more…

Democrats and Republicans are blitzing us with propaganda about the national debt.? My purpose here is not to side with either political party, but to add understating to the subject. ?Contrary to what many people think, China is not our largest creditor.? Our largest creditor is our Social Security Trust Fund.? But, if that?s the case, are we really in debt?? Do we have to pay ourselves back?? To understand all of this, let?s take a very brief look at history.?

Alexander Hamilton, the first United States Treasurer, was also experienced in banking.? Each state had accumulated debt in helping finance the Revolutionary War (1775-1783).? In 1790, Hamilton instituted a program of repaying the war debt to each of the thirteen states.? The payments were from the federal treasury with a certain amount going to each state, earmarking how much was for interest and how much for principal.???

For the next one hundred twenty-five years, the primary debt our nation took on was for fighting wars?the War of 1812, Read more…