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Castle Doctrine allows defense of homes, but how many real ‘homes’ are left?

ONLINE COLUMNCastle Doctrine allows defense of homes, but how many real 'homes' are left?"I just shot through my door with a gun," a Niles man recently told a police dispatcher.The Tribune Chronicle's front page story arrested my attention, for this happened just a few miles from my house.Part of the headline was a sign with giant letters, "PROTECTED BY OWNER," pictured with a hand holding a gun. Under this sign was the caption: "Home is your castle," which certainly is common knowledge; but what's the big deal here?Come to find out that 40-year old Roy Hahn, the caller, didn't realize ...

Crime is increasing … or is it?

At a recent family picnic, one of our cousins started talking about crime. She said she didn't think crime was any worse today than it was 40 years ago. I vehemently stood up to that remark and when I got home, made it my mission to prove that what she said wasn't right.I knew I could get factual information from the Internet. What I share here came from reputable statistics (www.disastercenter.com/crime/uscrime.htm), not hearsay or Huffington Post.First of all, you need to know that the population in America in 1970 was a bit more 203 million. That's important because when ...

Nurture children’s ‘soft skills’ in your children

Ironically, one of the hardest skills to learn in life, discipline, is a "soft" skill. Everybody is always talking about the importance of the hard skills such as science, technology, engineering, math, and languages; but the soft skills will almost guarantee your child's success.It's simply not good enough to be smart. For example, most bosses would pick a reliable worker with average intelligence over a brilliant but unreliable worker. The point is that your child has a much better chance of succeeding in life by learning how to be a responsible hard worker, than by simply being ...

Good starts on a personal level

There is far more good happening in our city and our Valley than any of us could ever imagine. The surprising thing is that most of this good is brought about by regular people doing regular things. I've written plenty about how change is possible in our city, and given some broad-stroke pictures of how we could join together to make that happen. But most of us are looking for practical steps to be a part of the change we need.That's why this column, and the column before it, focused on the everyday actions of everyday people - I am hoping their stories will inspire others to do ...

Public education is misguided

As a trained scientist, I do my best to let the facts speak for themselves, keeping my personal feelings separated from conclusions. It's never been more difficult.Nonetheless, most public school teachers, including myself, are unafraid of the truth: our public schools are not hitting their expected mark(s). We unanimously agree there is much room for improvement, but it is equally true that our public schools are nowhere near hopelessly broken as some in the media portray public education.The difficulty begins when we try to agree on why "too many" of our public schoolchildren are not ...

Literacy is local at the core

Literacy is ''the ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate and compute, using printed and written materials associated with varying contexts. Literacy involves a continuum of learning in enabling individuals to achieve their goals, to develop their knowledge and potential, and to participate fully in their community and wider society.''The educational branch of the United Nations composed that definition in 2004. It is a powerful and sweeping concept, and, no, I do not understand it fully. I do know this much: Despite its multinational origin, literacy is, at its ...