Mascots for Systemic Sin
Don Hall Don Hall Don Hall Don Hall

Mascots for Systemic Sin

We aren't looking at individuals and their behavior todays as much as we are why the system's in place allow (or at least refuse to stem) the behavior of the worst among us. Each individual anecdote about someone's lived experience becomes a puzzle piece to reduce whole institutions and practices as evil. As it is the opposite of scapegoating, I'll call it mascoting.

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Revisiting the Notes on the Columbine Shooting
David Himmel David Himmel David Himmel David Himmel

Revisiting the Notes on the Columbine Shooting

When Eric and Dylan murdered twelve students and one teacher, we were shocked—just like the two angry killers wanted. They also wanted the day to be remembered forever. And it will be. Because the Columbine High School Massacre is like Elvis Presley. Nothing like it came before and every mass shooting since can’t help but draw inspiration from it.

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A Quarter Flipped for Your Rational Thoughts
Don Hall Don Hall Don Hall Don Hall

A Quarter Flipped for Your Rational Thoughts

The old man was faced with a dilemma. He needed to decide between two options and he was torn. He understood that most decisions in his life often boiled down to two choices: do the thing or not. Sometimes it was a choice of doing one thing or another. A crossroads. This was not that.

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The Subjectivity of Historical Revisionism
Don Hall Don Hall Don Hall Don Hall

The Subjectivity of Historical Revisionism

The issue at hand with much of the faddish push to classify certain artists and historical figures as unassailably evil and worthy of complete erasure is that the most strident either have nothing with which to substitute for the thing they deem canceled or they have replacement art that is not up to the challenge.

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The Art of Having a Job and Making a Life at the Same Time
Don Hall Don Hall Don Hall Don Hall

The Art of Having a Job and Making a Life at the Same Time

The idea of the side hustle is not part of the new normal we've been predicting at the tail of this bizarre yet completely expected pandemic. The side hustle has always been with us. For all the hand-wringing about the evils of capitalism and greed and discriminating practices in the workplace, none of it is new.

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The Partnership
Wayne Lerner Wayne Lerner Wayne Lerner Wayne Lerner

The Partnership

9:30 am. It was already 95 degrees with a 1000% humidity. And it was only mid-June.

When I moved to St. Louis from Chicago in 1990 to take my first CEO job at The Jewish Hospital of St. Louis, I traded a lousy winter for an unbearable summer. 3 dress shirts a day to go with my suit. One more when I had an evening function to attend.

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Why We Gave Our Son Away
David Himmel David Himmel David Himmel David Himmel

Why We Gave Our Son Away

Parenthood requires sacrifice. Lots of it. A more optimistic person might say it’s not sacrifice but compromise, and to that I say they don’t know what they’re talking about. Over the last several years, my wife and I have been parents to a wonderful little human named Harrison. He’s intelligent, strong, funny, helpful, and kind. Most of the time anyway. He’s also a three-year-old toddler so he is also erratic, neurotic, sullen, mercurial, and violent. Why, just yesterday, he slapped me across the face after telling him I loved him. In a very tiny nutshell, that right there is parenthood. You give love, you get smacked in the face.

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