I have begun to see year-end essays lamenting 2017 as our worst year ever, a “just add water” dystopian prequel, the heart-breaking denouement in the last episode of “America The Tragedy” on Netflix. I would like to offer an alternative view. Not to inspire hope, mind you. Hope is not a strategy and hope usually … [read more]
Political / Social
How Do We Go Back?
Since the Greek philosophers and then, reiterated over the millennia since, the concept of “the common good” has been a prevailing notion in civilised societies. Despite variants and contradictions, Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Locke, Hume, Rousseau and Madison, among many others, all spoke or wrote of this concept as being the highest order within the polity, … [read more]
Distress Signal
Open letter to the Democratic Party Attention: Tom Perez, Keith Ellison, Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and other potential candidates in 2018 and 2020. From Geoff O’Keeffe, Citizen, Colorado Congressional 2nd District. 26 October, 2017 Tom Perez and Democratic Party leaders, In full disclosure, I have been registered … [read more]
Flipping The Bird: A Primer and a Prescription
Ahh. The venerable bird, that ancient gesture of abandonment of civility and any pretension of effort to understand the other. “Fighting words”, as it were, in one finger. Let me preface these brief remarks by saying that by no means do I recommend any of us traipse about our lives flipping one another off. Doing … [read more]
Clues To The Election: An Amateur Analysis
Clues To The Election: An Amateur Analysis Geoff O’Keeffe November 24, 2016 I am no political scientist. Rather, I’m an amateur but passionate observer of our national political Thanksgiving Day family dinner food fights. Most everyone I know and read was surprised by the presidential election results two weeks ago, pundits, partisans and politicos alike. … [read more]
Kaddish For The Honeybee
After a long period of quiet and focus on other projects, O’Keeffe Woodworks is pleased to present a new poem, Kaddish For The Honey Bee, by long-time contributor and friend of the Woodworks, Barbara Jackson. Barbara is a Northwest native who resonates deeply within the land and water of that place, and who has … [read more]
