ENRON AND HYPE AND HUBRIS. (This is a long one) I hate hype. I learned this early from my parents. They each had a form of zero tolerance for inflated presentations. My mom can spot a phony a mile away and has been known to say things like “if you…

BABY I LOVE YOU. Go on and live your life. There will be endless posts about lessons of 9/11. The lesson I’ve taken away is this one: Every single person who knew their life might end that day left a beautiful message of love and appreciation. Every single person who could, told the people they cared about how much they were loved. People on their way to their death, even those who knew who was responsible, left messages of love. Not of hatred, or violence or revenge. Not of patriotism or politics. Love.

FOSSIL FUEL DEPENDENT CIVILIZATION Can we please have some Climate Realism? “Immediate complete annihilation of the fossil fuel industry is the only answer” from one climate activist. Here’s my take. “Immediate complete annihilation” of the fossil fuel industry would be the only path to doom faster and more brutal than…

(part of a series from the “Shipwrecked Project”) There are many definitions of a hard childhood. By any definition Mario had a hard childhood. A childhood shaped by deprivation and struggle. Mario did not have a complete understanding of the reasons his father abandoned his children and his wife. Though…

2016 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 One of our early Houston founding families supported the creation of settlement houses and community centers, because, as he said, “neighbors should live as friends”. I just recently returned from Germany. A country leading the struggle to welcome newcomers, to make a place for…

UPHEAVAL: (We’re sick of this damn virus) In the aftermath of disaster there are discernible patterns — stages of thought, behavior and emotions. Fifteen Years ago I began to map them. To document — from the experiences of people who’d faced the unthinkable — those patterns and stages. You can…

My appeal to Mayor Sylvester Turner and Judge Lina Hidalgo. Dear Mayor Sylvester Turner and Judge Lina Hidalgo: Let me be frank. If you step up and lead — call upon sector leaders to join you in navigating this unthinkable twin disaster — you will win the resources and support…

in the time of the virus — I am thinking of some of my most treasured relationships. People in Louisiana. Friends and family. Many Louisiana friends are “storm friends”. We came to know one another in the aftermath of Katrina. We’ve seen horrible stuff. We’ve hugged in a street surrounded by wreckage, when everything was gray dust…

The Oath Takers Some of us are in professions that require the taking of an oath. We ask it of doctors, of soldiers, of public servants. Of those we elect to represent us. Of people we entrust with power. Our doctors swear to ”respect the hard-won scientific gains of those…