Copyright 2021 Katie Kieffer. All rights reserved.
Aug
30
2021
By Katie Kieffer
School is starting! As the air turns brisk, apples ripen and leaves reveal shades of gold, now is the perfect time to read books. Continue reading
Jun
29
2021
By Katie Kieffer
“What I like doing best is Nothing,” Christopher Robin tells Winnie-the-Pooh in A. A. Milne’s 1928 collection of stories, The House at Pooh Corner. The capitalization of “Nothing” is not a typo. Milne is introducing children (and re-introducing their parents) to a deep philosophical point through the voice of a fictional boy and his anthropomorphic stuffed bear.
“How do you do Nothing?” Pooh asks. Christopher Robin responds that being outdoors on a lovely day—as they are—sitting on a grassy knoll, enjoying one another’s company, with birds singing in the trees above, is: “a nothing sort of thing.” He further explains, ‘It means just going along, listening to all the things you can’t hear…” Continue reading
May
31
2021
By Katie Kieffer
Flanders Fields, Belgium, 1915: Poppies, the hue of human blood, blow in the gentle breeze. The scarlet blooms decorate thousands of Allied soldier graves. Graves of mud transfused with the blood of fallen brothers.
1,043 American soldiers perished in Belgium during World War I, 368 of whom are interred at Flanders Field American Cemetery. Today, Memorial Day, we remember their courage—and the courage of all American veterans—by revisiting the story of the vermilion poppies of Flanders Fields. Continue reading
Apr
26
2021
By Katie Kieffer
Green, green everywhere. Spring blooms are here: nascent lime green buds and tufts of emerald green grass—proffering glimpses of God’s enchanting creation—long hidden under snow.
On the first day of Spring, my mother—an avid gardener—visited with a big smile and a small box of heirloom Rudbeckia and hollyhock seeds. “Do you have a rake and a watering can? Today would be a great day to plant!” Continue reading
Aug
04
2020
By Katie Kieffer
We can ban police chokeholds in all 50 states—but the pervasive chokehold in America today is the “woke chokehold.” A majority of Americans feel frozen by fear—and are metaphorically choking—overwhelmed by a sense of powerlessness. 62 percent of Americans are afraid to speak their minds, according to a new CATO poll.
America’s largest police departments—Los Angeles in 1982, New York in 1993, Chicago in 2012, and Minneapolis in 2020— have banned the use of chokeholds by officers. Crime, however, is soaring in these cities. For example, even as the radical Minneapolis City Council works to eliminate police, robberies are up 37%. Continue reading
Jul
08
2020
By Katie Kieffer
“A light from the shadows shall spring,” J. R. R. Tolkien wrote in The Fellowship of the Ring. Hope is a dominant theme in Tolkien’s famous fantasy. Despair threatens to grip each of us in these turbulent times. Thankfully, there are many reasons to avert despair—and run into the arms of Hope: Continue reading
Jun
22
2020
By Katie Kieffer
Fathers matter. A child without a good father figure grows up with a disadvantage that cannot be erased by money, education or fame. Activists claim that whites and police are primarily responsible for holding blacks back. In truth, black father figures are the foremost differentiating factor in their offspring’s quality of life.
69 percent of black children are born to unmarried mothers, according to the latest data from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In contrast, the CDC reports that 28 percent of non-Hispanic whites are born to unmarried mothers. Continue reading
Jun
09
2020
By Katie Kieffer
45% of Catholics and 39% of “Protestant/Other-denomination” Christians voted Democrat in the 2016 Presidential Election, according to Pew. In other words, Christians have the power to swing the 2020 election—and a responsibility to exercise this power in a way that upholds Biblical values and religious freedom.
Churches have been barred from holding normal public worship for nearly three months. Restraints on churches have been most severe in Democrat-ruled areas. Democrats claim they “clean up the messes made by Republicans,” yet Christian oppression is strongest in cities like Chicago, Louisville, Madison and Holly Springs and in states like New York and California that are long-time Democrat strongholds. Continue reading
May
26
2020
By Katie Kieffer
We – the United States – are at war with China. And China’s next play – following COVID-19 – is to be “first” in the multi-trillion-dollar market of space. President Trump is taking concrete steps to beat China in space: last week, he launched the Space Force as the sixth branch of the U.S. Armed Forces and, this week, he attends the launch of a public-private partnership at the Kennedy Space Center meant to ensure America is no longer reliant on Russia for shuttles to the International Space Station.
“Our destiny, beyond the Earth, is not only a matter of national identity, but a matter of national security,” President Trump said in a statement. Now, Congress and military bureaucrats must also support American dominance in space. Continue reading
May
11
2020
By Katie Kieffer
“Don’t be evil” was explicit to Google’s motto and code of conduct for some 15 years. In 2015, Google updated its motto to “Do the right thing.” Today, Google, which owns YouTube, seems to have altered its motto to “Be evil” or “Do the wrong thing”—including censoring free speech of doctors, scientists, professors, politicians and journalists whose ideas differ from those of Google executives.
“This is the next step in the evolution of the Internet,” former Google CEO Eric Schmidt lauded Google’s purchase of YouTube for $1.65 billion in 2006. We now know Schmidt’s definition of Internet “progress” ostensibly centers around inducing users to think like him—by using YouTube to push assenting views and censor differing perspectives under the guise of legality or neutrality. Continue reading
