• Preparing without Panic

    There has been a lot of talk lately about the possible use of extraordinary federal powers. The Insurrection Act is being mentioned more frequently, and that language understandably unsettles people. There are courts that are already preparing to challenge any misuse of it, and those legal fights matter. At the same time, people living in…

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  • The Shape of Permission

    The voice promised renewal. It promised safety. It promised pride. It spoke about enemies without ever fully defining them. It spoke about “them” with just enough vagueness that anyone already disliked could be folded into the category. Outsiders. Intellectuals. Journalists. Artists. Minorities. “Degenerates.” The list stayed flexible on purpose. At first, nothing felt extreme.

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  • I see the Screaming House brought up in groups, pages, and podcasts from time to time, and it always gives me pause. Not because I am eager to revisit it, but because it is a strange thing to watch your own life get discussed when you never said a word. That happens more than I…

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  • There is a negativity in the air right now that cannot be ignored. At moments like this, I find myself asking whether we are watching something genuinely dangerous unfold under familiar language. Christianity? Patriotism? Authority? I do not say that lightly, and I am not saying it from a distance. I am asking these questions…

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  • I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the fact that I’ve been doing this work for twenty-five years now. That number landed on me in a way I didn’t expect. Not as a milestone. Not as something to celebrate. Just as a quiet realization that a large part of my life has been spent sitting…

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  • 25 Years of My Life

    I want to tell you about this because it’s important to me. Architecture of Shadows came out of the last twenty-five years of my life. Not in an academic way, but in a lived one. Walking into places people don’t like to talk about. Sitting with people while they shared experiences they had carried quietly…

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  • Mornings Perfect Light

    Morning light. Quiet house. Everything exactly where it should be. It’s six in the morning and I’m lying here listening to my grandsons sleeping at the foot of the bed. They probably stayed up later than they should have, but we were having too much fun to care. Life doesn’t really prepare you for what…

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  • In fact, I wasn’t. When I was eleven, there was a kid in school named Dwayne Hayes. Everyone called him Didi. For reasons I never quite understood, he and I didn’t get along. Didi fancied himself a kung fu master. He was always kicking, spinning, throwing his legs into the air like he was auditioning…

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  • In fact, I wasn’t. When I was eleven, there was a kid in school named Dwayne Hayes. Everyone called him Didi. For reasons I never quite understood, he and I didn’t get along. Didi fancied himself a kung fu master. He was always kicking, spinning, throwing his legs into the air like he was auditioning…

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  • A Moment for Conscience

    I waited until Christmas was over to say this, because some things need room and the right moment to be said. As a son, a father, and a grandfather, I have been sitting with what has unfolded over these past weeks. The continued revelations surrounding the Epstein case, and the effort to minimize or obscure…

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