Pew Research does an excellent job of objectively exploring questions that few of us think to ask. They’ve released a study showing how much urbanism (and to a lesser extent, sub-urbanism) increasingly characterizes our nation. The country’s 100 most populous counties now have a solid majority of all citizens.  Read More 

My goodness, they choose a chief executive and just 48 hours later, she moves into the equivalent of the White House. Prime Minister David Cameron loses the national referendum on Britain remaining in the European Union (a fact that seems to have eluded some of my leftist friends, who blindly blamed him for whatever), and even though the loss was only by a few percentage points, he dutifully resigns. His Conservative Party, which holds the majority in Parliament, caucuses and decides on a new leader, and Theresa May walks in as prime minister without most of us ever hearing of her. Over here, we’d still be re-counting ballots and calling for investigations.  Read More 

I’m so sad about my old friend Congresswoman Corrine Brown of Jacksonville – and even sadder because I’m convinced that she’s guilty of at least some of the two-dozen counts of fraud that federal prosecutors have charged. And, yes, the ultimate boss of those federal prosecutors is another African-American Democratic woman, Attorney General Loretta Lynch. That just shows that individuals have to be judged as individuals, not by race or gender or political party.  Read More 

If you read this column last week, you probably can guess that I spent most of July 4th weekend at my computer, doing a rewrite for my New York publishing associates that means cutting words. Last week, I asked you to pick up scraps of American women’s history from colonial times to the Civil War, and this week, I’m going to do the same – but skipping forward to the 1920s. It’s a particularly interesting decade because there was great social liberation, at the same time that political activism diminished. I’ve rewritten this a bit to highlight Florida. Here goes:  Read More 

The last few days have not been good for me, as Hubby’s health deteriorated at the same time that I had a major disagreement with my longtime New York publishing associate. I thought I was almost done with a project for her, but it turned out that we had differing expectations, and now I’m rewriting for peanuts in pay.  Read More 

I’ve mentioned before that I have an 86-year-old friend in Gainesville whose personal experience in Florida history runs deep. He’s Jack Price, formerly of the National Conference of Christians and Jews, and I know that some of you know him, too. He doesn’t travel anymore, but he was on the phone soon after the Orlando massacre.  Read More 

The first of several notable things last week was Hillary going over the top. I have expected it for a long time -- but it is historic, and we should pause to reflect. I remember when Geraldine Ferraro became the first vice-presidential nominee. That was much more of a surprise, and dozens of us gathered on short notice in a Seminole Heights backyard to toast with cheap champagne.  Read More 

I’m writing this on June 6, which is D-Day, but more on that later. I had intended to be speaking right now on the history of the League of Women Voters, but that was cancelled because of the season’s first tropical storm.  Read More 

I was mystified by this recent outbreak of hostility about transgender folks and public restrooms. They are such a tiny minority of a minority, who could possibly think that their differences greatly affect our societal whole? In all of my long life, I’ve seen perhaps a half-dozen people whose gender I couldn’t determine – not that it was any of my business.  Read More 

You probably will recall that I’ve written before about statues in the nation’s capitol. Each state is entitled to two, and several states recently have updated theirs to be more representative of real people and a true version of the past. Florida’s two have been John Gorrie, the inventor of air conditioning, and Kirby Smith, who was the last Confederate general to surrender in the Civil War. I’ve detailed their biographies in the past, so I won’t repeat that now -- but I would appreciate your action on this.  Read More