by admin | Feb 20, 2024 | Activism, Christianity, Crime, Death, Foreign policy, Government, History, National security, Politics, Russia, War
“Let no joyful voice be heard! Let no man look to the sky with hope in his eyes!” says Davy Jones in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest as his captives slave away on his ship. “And let this day be forever cursed by we who ready to wake…the Kraken!” This...
by admin | Feb 8, 2024 | Activism, Climate, Coastal Management, Disaster, Disaster Recovery, Hazard Mitigation, History, Hurricanes, Natural Hazards, Personal health, Resilience, Social Equity, Texas, Tornado, Weather
It has been a couple of months since I last posted a video of our progress in filming for Planning to Turn the Tide. That last article summarized our film efforts in Jacksonville, Florida, in September 2023, but we had another trip in the offing then, to the Texas...
by admin | Jan 15, 2024 | Activism, Blogging, Books, Chicago, Christianity, Civil rights, History, Religion
Holidays have a way of taming and diluting the real importance of the legacies and events they are meant to commemorate. This tendency is particularly true of today’s holiday celebrating the legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. These efforts reflect some...
by admin | Oct 18, 2023 | Climate, Disaster, Disaster policy, Disaster Recovery, Emergency Management, Floodplain management, Floodplain management, Government, Hazard Mitigation, History, Iowa, Natural Hazards, Public safety, Resilience, Urban Planning, Weather
In the latter half of June 2008, it was hard to imagine Cedar Rapids as the city it had been just one month earlier. A massive flood along the Cedar River clobbered the city with a classic double whammy: About the time existing flood crests that had already swamped...
by admin | Sep 26, 2023 | Climate, Disaster, Floodplain management, Hazard Mitigation, History, Iowa, Movies, Natural Hazards
In 2008, much of Iowa experienced such massive floods that 10 percent of Cedar Rapids was evacuated, books were being rescued from the basement of the University of Iowa Library, and homes were under water in Cedar Falls. Dozens of other Iowa communities faced flood...
by admin | Sep 5, 2022 | Blogging, Books, Education, History, Immigration, Journalism, Literature, Personal history, Writing
My mother was definitely a neatnik. Everything in its place, but don’t keep too many things in the first place. If something did not have an obvious use, get rid of it. A sentimentalist, she was not. She lived her life in the suburbs of Cleveland, which is where I...
