Harlan Ullman

Defining a year with a single word defies logic and common sense.  Yet, in many ways, 2017 was a year defined by the word outrage that crossed political, economic, social, cultural and emotional boundaries in the United States. The source of much of this outrage was fear of the future. Fear unleashed anger.  And anger became outrage. Diminishing standards of living; wage stagnation; the skyrocketing costs of health care and education; and the increasing gaps between rich and poor were grounds for fear of the future.  In this highly polarized, divisive and entirely partisan political environment, for many Americans, the target for this outrage was failed and failing government. Cleaning [...]

As 2017 draws to a close, how different might the last year have been if Hillary Rodham Clinton had been elected 45th president of the United States?  Clearly, where one stands on the political scale defines this hypothetical answer.  Yet, the tragedy is that the highly polarized, divisive and pernicious condition of American politics today suggests that no matter how unpopular President Donald Trump is today, a President Clinton may not have been much better received. For Republicans, President Hillary would have been a catastrophe. In their view, America would have continued to proceed down the disastrous path of President Barack Obama.  Obamacare would have survived.  There would have been [...]

HO, HO, HO. Christmas and New Years are upon us. In the Dickensian spirit, how might the ghosts of Christmas Past, Christmas Present and Christmas Future haunt us as they did poor old Ebenezer Scrooge? And who might play the role of Tiny Tim whose own future was very much in doubt? Today’s Christmas Past would challenge us to answer the question of what has happened to America? While an imperfect democracy, America did serve to help win two world wars, the second against truly evil enemies in the form of fascism and Nazism.  Through the Marshall Plan, America turned enemies into functioning democracies. Through its vision it helped create [...]