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This is the real world, not Fantasyland

Two weeks ago, Lynnda and I were at Walt Disney World with our youngest son and his four children. We had a great time in the Magic Kingdom. Guess we are still kids at heart. The rides were fun. What makes them so much fun is the story that goes with each ride. You can cruise through a jungle or be part of a pirate ship crew. Disney’s goal is to transport you to where, with a little imagination, you can be part of the adventure. In Fantasyland you can fly on Dumbo the Flying Elephant, ride a mine train through the Seven Dwarfs’ diamond mine or fly with Peter Pan to Never Land. ...

Leaving the nest —­ it happens faster than you think

Just like that, we became “empty nesters” at our house. Empty dove nesters, that is. Earlier this month I wrote about a pair of mourning doves who chose a hanging spider plant on our front porch as their newest home some time before Memorial Day weekend. In that nest, the female laid a ...

Is your pension funding China’s military through our markets?

Americans are understandably worried about China right now. There’s the recent spy balloon that floated across the continental United States, plus tensions over Taiwan. But there’s also America’s heavy dependence on essential goods and medicines from China. And if that’s not bad enough, China is also continuing to use slave labor in some of its factories. Americans are deeply troubled by all of this. And yet some of their own investments and pensions are actually helping to prop up China’s authoritarian regime. How is this possible? Because China keeps using America’s ...

Celebrating and supporting our LGBTQI+ co-workers this Pride Month

Diversity is an essential component of a successful team. The more skills, experiences and ideas we have to draw from, the more equipped we are to develop creative solutions. America’s diversity has always been one of our greatest strengths, which is why the Department of Labor is proud to support and enforce laws that protect America’s workers in all of our diversity. Diversity, however, has to consider and acknowledge any barriers to full participation and inclusion of all workers. For workers in the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex (LGBTQI+) ...

Hatching some reasons to celebrate Father’s Day

Here we are in June with Father’s Day upon us. For me, this holiday, like Mother’s Day, has become bittersweet after the loss of my parents. In May, I wrote about some memories of my mother, including one of her sitting on her porch swing a cooing at mourning doves that had landed nearby. A couple of weeks later, after I had started putting my houseplants outside for the season, I stepped onto the porch and noticed something strange in the spider plant I had hung behind her porch swing. A dove had landed there, but it quickly flew away when I opened the door. Soon, though, it ...

Fathers’ role changing but still critical to children

The evidence suggests that the role of the father in the United States is changing and that the male parent can contribute much more to the child’s development during the first months of life than was formerly believed. At a Rotary meeting that I attended, a pediatrician doctor who is very well known in the community for numerous awards in studies in pediatrician medicine, said that scientist have concluded that what happens in an infant’s life in the first 100 days affects how the child’s brain is developed. After the child’s brain has been formed it is almost never reversed ...