Dr. Riedy's Random Thoughts

  About a month ago, having a cup of coffee and reading the U-T with my wife, I was not paying much attention to the background drone of the morning TV show hosts. But when we heard this statement both my wife and I independently were struck by the depth of its insightfulness. Almost simultaneously we turned to one another with reactions bordering on ”Wow, did you just hear what I heard?” The guest being interviewed had said, in a matter of fact way, “We can’t fix what we can’t face.” It was a simple truth, stated in the context of the discussion of civil rights and racism in the United States. But like so many other simple truths, it can be applied to a multitude of issues and challenges. Also, because it is short, easy to remember and yet so powerful, I wanted to share the phrase with you and ask you to send me examples of situations where this truth applies. I will publish the list while maintaining strict confidence in the sources. Applications can be personal or societal. On a...

  Accreditation Standards for Candidates for Public Office Nine hundred nine-nine billion, nine hundred nine-nine million, nine hundred ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety-seven. In my last essay I said “my guess is that it would be easier to count back from one trillion to zero by threes than to get duly elected politicians voluntarily to create a statement of expectations, qualifications and professional standards required of those seeing to become candidates for public office.” Then I received about 20 responses to my essay, all of which one way or another agreed with the idea that accreditation/professional standards would be a good idea, which got me to stop the countdown after the first number. Maybe the idea does have traction after all. Or am I blowing smoke? I have only heard from readers who agree, however, so I have no way of knowing the strength or depth of the resistance likely to exist in opposition to standards.   With a hearty invitation for all r...