Category Archives: Dwight D. Sutherland, Jr.

Once more, our old buddie George Orwell gives us invaluable guidance on how to best deconstruct the pronouncements of the Kansas City Star editorial board… In the phrase above, taken from Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm’, we hear the classic voice of authoritarianism. … Continue reading →

   “Before the Hate had proceeded for thirty seconds, uncontrollable exclamations of rage were breaking out from half the room…But what was strange was that although the Kochs were hated and despised by everybody, although every day, and a thousand times … Continue reading →

 I was at a party with my son and his wife two years ago when another young couple came up and introduced themselves. Their names were Sydney and Beatriz Williams.  Beatriz told us about a book she’d just finished and … Continue reading →

I was wondering how long it would take the Kansas City Star to place the blame for Sunday’s shootings at the Jewish Community Center in Overland Park on conservatives… Forty-eight hours after its first story appeared the Star ran an … Continue reading →

 “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 →