Author Archives: Dwight D. Sutherland, Jr.

 “Po’ Folks” was the name of a treacly country and western song from 1961 by “Whisperin” Bill Anderson.  It’s about a family so poor that even a wolf would know not to bother coming to their front door without bringing … Continue reading →

One of the most well known uses of allegory is by the Greek philosopher Plato, who meant it to illustrate the limited understanding we have of life’s events given our narrow perspective.  He gave the example of people chained to … Continue reading →

When I left Nallwood Junior High in Overland Park for Pembroke Country Day almost 50 years ago, I felt a sense of liberation and elation… I was leaving the land of Beatle boots, I.D. bracelets, and tight pants (plus mullet-style … Continue reading →

In 1989, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down what many saw as a troubling decision.. In Employment Division v. Smith, the Court held that an American Indian was not exempted from a criminal law prohibiting use of hallucinogenic drugs, even … Continue reading →

 A new novel by the author Susan Minot (“Child, Slave, Soldier”) was reviewed favorably in the New York Times this past weekend.  It made me think of the time I went to see her speak at the Unity Temple on … Continue reading →

A Silicon Valley billionaire got himself in considerable hot water a few weeks ago… He did so by equating the growing campaign against the wealthy “1%” in the Bay area to the Nazi campaign of anti-semitism in pre-WWII Germany.  Thomas … Continue reading →

My friend Stephen was in Italy when he was a child…  He was visiting Venice when his grandfather, who was showing him the sites, introduced him to a very old man.  The old man glared at Stephen without speaking and … Continue reading →

During its brief two and a half week run at the Tivoli in Westport, Paolo Sorrentino’s masterpiece got scant notice here locally.  (The Star ran a perfunctory, syndicated review by the Minneapolis Star Tribune’s Colin Covert on the day before … Continue reading →

Lincoln Kirstein was a brilliant American artistic impresario who founded everything from the Hound & Horn (the foremost literary magazine of its era) to the New York City Ballet.  When he was at graduate school at Harvard in the early … Continue reading →

One of the most hateful legacies of Karl Marx is the notion of “class enemies.” This is the idea that if you belong to a certain social class (e.g. Stalin’s “Kulaks,” Mao’s “rich peasants”) you are by definition an exploiter … Continue reading →

 “Some are more equal than others!”  “Two legs bad,four legs good!”  Such phrases from the writings of the British writer George Orwell, notably his two classics ‘1984’ and ‘Animal Farm,’ have entered the English language and describe how journalism and … Continue reading →

There’s a movie coming out in February starring George Clooney called “Monuments Men.”  It’s based on a non-fiction book about the U.S. Government’s efforts to recover art looted by the Nazi’s during World War II, “The Monuments Men:  Allied Heroes, … Continue reading →

With apologies to British rockers Dire Straits, the creators of the 1985 hit with the lyrics ever so slightly modified, the above-referenced line could be the slogan of the Kansas City Star’s own Barbara Shelly as she pushes for Medicaid … Continue reading →

 Caroline Lamb’s description of the English poet and adventurer Lord Byron applies in some respects to his modern counterpart, an Anglo-Irish writer and world traveler by the name of Patrick Leigh Fermor.  Like Byron, “Paddy” spent most of his adult … Continue reading →

  One of the most discouraging things you can do if you’re interested in public affairs is to go to town hall meetings with your local member of Congress or one of your state’s U.S. Senators.  I went to such … Continue reading →

One of the puzzling things about the local environmental movement is what I call the “Mrs. Jellyby Syndrome.”  This is the name for a character in Charles Dicken’s Bleak House, a woman so consumed with the plight of the natives … Continue reading →

“The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls.  And tenement halls…..”  Simon and Garfunkel may have had it right when they wrote “Sounds of Silence” almost 50 years ago.  Nowadays, you find pearls of wisdom in chat … Continue reading →

One of the saddest figures in recent American history is Major General Edwin Walker… A West Point grad with a brilliant war record in both World War II and Korea, he was the officer ultimately responsible for seeing that Little … Continue reading →

Well over a hundred years ago (in 1902), the philosopher William James wrote a book called “The Varieties of Religious Experience.”  The thing that struck him the most was that all the different religions he studied had a number of … Continue reading →

Even if the founders of Kansas City had stuck to their initial plan to name the town after our favorite native creature, one suspects André Maurois, roving intellectual, French patriot, and all-round good guy would have still been as fulsome … Continue reading →