Who I am determines what I write

What I've been thinking about this first month of 2024 is how much who I am determines what I write each week in this column.

So, for better or worse, here are a dozen elements that have helped make me the person I am.

1. I'm a supporter of the American democratic experiment. I worked as counsel to a U.S. Senate committee. The Constitution was ratified in 1789 to "establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity." This country has come a long way from its beginnings and yet there is still much to do to form a "more perfect Union."

2. I'm a novelist. I write stories. I read them, too. The Nobel Prize winner for literature Gao Xingjian wrote, "It's in literature that true life can be found. It's under the mask of fiction that you can tell the truth." Schools should impart to students a love for reading, storytelling and learning. Something needs to be done as well to support those who write the stories that we love and learn from. (A recent survey of just under 6,000 published authors shows their 2022 median income was around $5,000.)

3. I'm an entrepreneur. I worked for three decades in Silicon Valley. I believe in American ingenuity and capitalism. Certainly, the government needs to set rules (such as ones against illegal monopolies) and standards (such as how genetic engineering should be used) for business, but it should do so without creating needless barriers to innovation and progress.

4. I'm a resident of a college dorm. Of course, my undergraduate neighbors will need to support themselves after graduation. But as then-presidential candidate Robert Kennedy lamented over 50 years ago, we have "surrendered personal excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things." In addition to providing the skills needed to make a living, we must provide our progeny the tools to lead a good life.

5. I'm a believer in religion. I believe we should work to leave the world a better place than we found it. The way religion works for me is personal. I am committed to letting others observe their personal beliefs, too, so long as those beliefs lead to respect for the beliefs of others.

6. I'm a family man. Nothing is more important to me than my spouse and children. I believe in the centrality of family to our lives. Does that belief make me a conservative? Sure. Families have been around for thousands of generations. But I don't care how the family is constituted, whether it includes multiple races, different religions, widely varied DNA, diverse political leanings or LGBT members as my own extended family does. I don't think the government or other people should care either. Does that belief make me a liberal? Sure to that, too.

7. I'm a father. I want a better world for my four children. I want my three adult daughters to have the freedom to deal with their own bodies as they wish without undue government interference.

8. I'm a son. My father fought against Nazism to preserve democracy and was there at the liberation of Dachau, the concentration camp. His legacy makes me a strong supporter of democracy, a stubborn enemy of authoritarianism and a determined opponent of racism and antisemitism.

9. I'm a grandson. None of my grandparents were born in this country. As Ronald Reagan declared in his last address as president, "Thanks to each wave of new arrivals to this land of opportunity, we're a nation forever young, forever bursting with energy and new ideas." I'm a sucker for that American dream.

10. I'm a grandfather. To allow parents to make ends meet, the federal government should be doing more to support child care. The governments of other rich countries contributed an average of $14,000 per year for a preschooler's care in 2021. The United States? $500. Helping with child care is an investment that enables families to better support themselves and live more enriching lives. It also causes the overall economy to grow.

11. I'm a voter. It does no good to complain about the direction taken by our school district, city, county, state or federal government if we don't vote.

12. I'm an American. I feel so fortunate to have grown up in this country of opportunity and freedom. While my column may at times come across as critical of the American people and their government, I write because I care.

So, for better or worse, now you know a little more about where I'm coming from. As Bill Murray called out in the classic comedy "Stripes," "That's the fact, Jack."

I wish you all a year of joy, commitment, learning, fulfillment and good health.

© 2024, Creators