Traditional Environmentalism

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Traditional Environmentalism

In 1996, I enrolled as a freshman at Michigan Technological University (MTU) in Houghton, Michigan, located in the Keewenaw Peninsula which I honestly believe is one of the most beautiful parts of the country. During my senior year at Airport High School, 40 minutes south of Detroit, I was recruited to run Cross Country by MTU’s Coach Gary Nichols who had a thick Yooper accent inherited from his Finnish ancestors. He was a wonderful coach and he also coached me in Nordic Skiing and Track & Field. Coach Nichols and my teammates were like extended family. As much as my life revolved around endurance sports, I did also enjoy the vast majority of my classes. It was through majoring in environmental engineering, playing on three Varsity sports teams, competing in Ultimate Frisbee tournaments, going on multiple hiking trips with a scouting club, and being involved in a couple of environmental clubs all in a beautiful setting, that I was certainly becoming more and more in love with nature.

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Are Jews Our Friends?

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Are Jews Our Friends?

On February 19, 2020, Bishop Kevin Rhoades wrote a statement for his Fort Wayne-South Bend, IN diocese regarding how Catholics are to relate to Jews. Seeking collaboration in human affairs, however, often spills over into religious issues about which Christians and Jews are naturally at odds. It is a tough road for those who are seeking human friendship to wade through the rough waters inherent in spiritual matters. Over the last 70 years or so, various Catholic and Jews have attempted to forge these deep waters. Unfortunately, they find the pathway strewn with the dead bodies of compromise, contradiction and confusion. As a case in point, let us delve into the bishop’s efforts to give it another try.

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Home Alone: A Neighbor's Thoughts on Pete Buttigieg

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Home Alone: A Neighbor's Thoughts on Pete Buttigieg

Reading The Shortest Way Home, I found myself searching for literary models that might have influenced the author, who is also mayor of South Bend, Indiana, where I happen to live. The connections between me and the mayor of South Bend are actually closer than just living in the same city at the same time. The author grew up three houses down from where I have lived for the past 40 years and spent his entire life up to his 18th year in close proximity to me and, more importantly, to my five children. He is ten years younger than my oldest child, with whom he shares a remarkably similar educational trajectory. Both he and my son attended St. Joseph’s High School, roughly half a mile north of where we live. Both trod the same path to high school every day. Both ended up first in their respective classes, becoming valedictorians, which entitled them to speak at their respective graduations. And both then went on to attend Harvard University.  

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