Wake of Echoes

Liar . Thief . Crooked. Bully . Pig. Criminal . Name calling in politics is nothing new, but with less than a week until election day, America is engaged in a presidential battle like never before, taking us back to the darkest days of our childhood, when taunts, shoving, stuck-out tongues and sing-song comebacks were the fiercest weapons we knew how to launch. But when the ballots are cast and the election is won by either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump, will all that hair pulling and huffiness end? No. Because after multiple October Surprises ( Rolling Stone counted 23 , Fox News reported eight), we can only dream of a world where the controversies, lawsuits, investigations and theatrics surrounding these two individuals are behind us. And we'll be stuck with one of them as Commander-in-Chief. And don't forget those who are bemoaning (or maybe "pre-moaning"?) our fate as a nation should Trump manage to pull out a win, threatening to take their toy...

When I was in third grade, a family of Vietnamese refugees moved to the small Eastern Washington town where we lived at the time. The family was large and included two school-aged boys, Wa and Him, who started going to our school. Wa was in my class and I wanted to make them all feel welcome, so one day after school, my sister and I walked to their house and knocked on the door. Wa’s family welcomed us inside and gave us watered down Coke to drink. None of them spoke English, but they smiled and nodded at us while we drank our Coke. I don’t remember much else about the experience except that my feelings were all positive, they were super nice and I was glad that our little town had taken in refugees from a war-torn part of the world. I tell this story to remind you of who I am. To soften you for what I am about to say next. Because I STILL want to accept refugees from war-torn parts of the world and from our neighboring countries to the south. My heart bleeds for people despe...

Are modern-day journalists watchdogs or guard dogs? What's the difference? Watchdogs have their eye on public interests, sniffing out corruption or controversy and holding people accountable. But guard dogs protect, keeping people out, shielding preferred ideologies from closer inspection. When I was at Arizona State University, Bill Moyers visited campus to receive the Walter Cronkite School’s Excellence in Journalism Award. During a Q&A session, Moyers called on me. I asked him: “Is it possible for a conservative to have a successful career in Journalism?” Moyers shifted in his chair. I got the impression he was either uncomfortable or irritated with my question, but he quickly said “Yes. Yes, of course.” Then he started ticking names off his fingers. But here’s thing: I didn’t recognize any of the journalists he named and he never got to his fifth finger. I asked the question because I was concerned that I would find it difficult to work in the field I...