Lori Falce Columns category, Page 13
Lori Falce: Is your kid just a piece of wood?
The saddest commentary on our education system that I have ever heard didn’t come from a politician or a pundit. It came from the woman who taught my sister in kindergarten. “Everyone brings us their children like lumps of wood for us to carve into something. They all want us...
Lori Falce: Newspapers are daily memorial to fallen journalists
At 2:34 p.m., I am usually sitting in a planning meeting with an assortment of editors talking about what is going where in the next day’s edition. I am not under my desk deciding whether I should call 911 or worrying if that would be loud enough to draw a...
Lori Falce: Political cartoons pack visual punch
I’m a big believer in the power of words. I think that words convey things in a way that is truly amazing. They don’t just transmit information, like the 1’s and 0’s of binary code, delivering a copy of this data to that receiver. That would be enough to still...
Lori Falce: Trump, Dems can’t just preach to choir
I learned the best lesson about politics from a missionary. I was covering a church event. The missionary had come to town to promote a book. It didn’t go well, and she pegged me early on as someone who wasn’t there because I identified with her message. Maybe the notebook...
Lori Falce: LGBTQ still need allies, support
We went to the grocery store to buy tomatoes and bread, and on the way in, my friend and I would check the community bulletin board in the entry. It would be filled with posters for bingo and ads for babysitting services and used cars. The flyer we tacked up...
Lori Falce: Summer vacation spells new way to learn
Getting my kid out of bed for school requires an act of Congress and the jaws of life. Like a bull alligator, he will twist away, snarling, rolling deeper into the covers, ready to snap at anyone who dares disturb him. I am about to have a reprieve from my...
Lori Falce: What can Brown v. Board of Education do for you?
It’s a question that has been asked of many judicial nominees in recent years. “Is Brown v. the Board of Education settled law?” More surprising than the question is the lack of answer. Lately, what has always been a softball is being bounced on the fingertips like a hot potato....
Lori Falce: Our heroes shouldn’t be human shields
I don’t want my son to be a hero. I don’t want to have someone come to me and tell me how brave he was as he stood up to someone with a weapon and a grudge and a message for the world. I don’t care if he grows up...
Lori Falce: Dr. Phil’s Slippery Rock mistake is about labels
How important is the school name on your diploma? For some, it might be worth a lot more than the paper it’s printed on. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the graduates picking up diplomas this weekend started their freshman years paying about $17,000 for a year at...
Lori Falce: Give 2020 election an NFL Draft makeover
All over America, people are doing their research and looking at needs versus wants and paying attention to trends and a final goal and assessing the pool of potential that could get the job done. And unfortunately almost none of that has to do with the 2020 presidential election. Nope,...
Lori Falce: Mueller report proves we lost Russian info war
Information warfare. That is the term Special Council Robert Mueller used in his report detailing the two year investigation into Russian hacking and possible collusion or obstruction by the Trump campaign or administration. Information warfare. The weaponization of people’s thoughts and ideas. The strategic deployment of a mixture of facts,...
Lori Falce: Biden uproar shows consent, intent matter
We have all been there. A sweaty hand shake that lasts forever. Aunt Margaret’s aggressively red lipstick kisses. The airplane seatmate who falls asleep on your shoulder. It’s all about the overlapping circles of a Venn diagram. It’s where consent meets comfort and intentions. It’s easy to make this about...
Lori Falce: Washington has ADHD
My son is smart and hilarious and almost criminally lazy. He also has ADHD, which means that he is a never-ending fountain of ideas. “I want to be a paleontologist engineer so I can create Jurassic Park but like safe so nobody gets eaten by velociraptors.” “Could you do time...
Lori Falce: How does religion turn into violence?
For the love of God. It’s a common phrase. For the love of God, can’t you pick up after yourself? For the love of God, why can’t someone do something about these potholes? For the love of God, who is calling me now? But, for the love of God, we...
Lori Falce: Parents in college scandal cheated kids out of failure
I screwed up a lot in middle school. And high school. And college. I rolled my eyes with disgust at the things my mother didn’t understand. I had a moral objection to homework. If there was a way to work a shortcut, I probably tried it. I did a lot...
Lori Falce: Women’s history is quiet, nameless
My grandmother didn’t make history. She made home. Grandma was a force of nature. She was barely more than 5 feet tall and was as delicate as the robins she fed on the porch, but I never knew anyone who did more in a day. She raised a family of...
Lori Falce: Favorite teachers show more than curriculum
My favorite teacher in elementary school was Mrs. Jones. She was my homeroom teacher, and in a small Catholic school, that meant she was the default for a lot of other classes. In addition to social studies, she handled religion, health and art. But her passion was geography. There was...
Lori Falce: Can I still trust a priest? And do I want to?
I have known a lot of priests in my life. I went to Catholic school, where we were generally much more intimidated by the nuns. The priests were like visiting guest lecturers, celebrities who made appearances in the odd morning religion classes and were on hand for Friday Masses or...
Lori Falce: Do you face white discrimination?
I am white. I’m not just a little white. I’m a lot of white. According to my AncestryDNA results, if there’s a way for a human being to be white, it’s part of the unique cocktail that is me. I am mostly English, a quarter German, a fifth Scotch-Irish, seasoned...
Lori Falce: Virginia racism, sex scandals provide lesson on consequences
Yes, Virginia, there are consequences for things you did in college. Or high school. Or a hotel room in Boston. Not to pick on the state known as “The Mother of Presidents and the Mother of Statesmen,” but lately, Virginia is also the “Mother of Chickens Coming Home to Roost.”...
Lori Falce: Experience matters
My husband loved The Rock. A wrestling fan and a movie buff who owned a video store, Matthew thought Dwayne Johnson was entertaining and funny. And there’s no way he would vote for him for president. I know this because Matthew was just as passionate about Lynn Swann. He loved...
Lori Falce: Social media has no indoor voice
We all have that person who doesn’t really get technology. Maybe it’s the TV remote that’s outside their scope. Maybe it’s the smartphone he never really wanted. For many, though, this is most publicly seen with social media. For me, it is generally with family. Names and relationships have been...
Falce: Be a good man
I want my son to be a good man. It’s not just that I want him to learn to be a hard worker. I do want that. And I want him to be someone who stands up for himself. I want him to be somebody who protects and provides for...
Lori Falce: Where has all the purple gone?
I don’t agree with you. I don’t believe the same things that you believe. I don’t want the same things that you want. I don’t think the same way you think. None of that needs to be the first step in a battle to the death of my will against...
