Category Archives: History

Art, History

Barcelona’s Sagrada Família, Antoni Gaudí’s Masterpiece

Architect Antoni Gaudí’s masterpiece, Barcelona’s enormous Basilica of the Sagrada Família (Basilica of the Holy Family)—as of 2026, the tallest church in the world—is impressive, original, remarkable. Its light-filled and colorful interior is vibrant and crisply carved; it’s hard to miss the beauty in the interior’s exuberant expressions of joy. But is its agitated, unorthodox, unsettling exterior with its surprising juxtapositions of elements in unexpected shapes, combinations, and mud-colored materials beautiful? Yes, though not in the expected, formal way that medieval Gothic cathedrals or 19th century New England Greek Revival buildings are. It is the strangeness of Sagrada Família’s beauty that makes it so extraordinary. Does that odd beauty amplify the basilica’s message of the power of Christian love? I think it does.

Though I am no longer a person of faith, I was raised in the Christian tradition. I still delight in many aesthetic elements of it—art, architecure, music, storytelling. Today, I approach religious structures like basilicas primarily as artistic and cultural marvels. However, I still feel their emotional resonance, and sense the deep spiritual impacts they have on believers. They still evoke in me strong feelings of respect and awe.

The full height of Sagrada Família is viewed in May 2026, just after its tower was erected. Construction cranes are still in place.
Sagrada Família, in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, as seen in May 2026, just after its tower was erected, making it the tallest church in the world | Image via Wikimedia Commons by Canaan, CC BY-SA 4.0

To eyes trained on the crisp lines and exact precision of medieval Gothic cathedrals, the organic and indistinct quality of this Catalan basilica’s undulating and hard-to-decipher surfaces can be confusing, bizarre—even off-putting. The Nativity Façade in particular is full of irregular figures and materials that blend strangely into one another. They do not have the crisply rendered formal expressions of Heavenly majesty and might that medieval stone cathedrals do.

Gothic cathedrals had precise verticals and evenly spaced flying buttresses, each one perfectly reproducing the one before. Gaudí’s religious dioramas are accumulations of images and shapes, some obscured by the sheer volume of activity around them. Though also carefully carved, Gaudi’s basilica gives the sense of being freely sculpted, not carved slowly and precisely into wood or stone. The three-dimensional people and scenes on the exterior feel as if they’d been gathered like mud by human hands, then pressed into the cathedral facade, instead of carved from stone. These sculpted façades have a definite gravity and weight to them; they seem to drip downward from Heaven rather like (forgive me) a muddy and collapsing hillside.

The extreme detail and irregularity of the Nativity Façade is shown in detail. Made of monochromatic mid-toned brown stone, its Gothic windows are pressed closely together, bumping up against chaotic masses of botanical, human, and architectural details over doorways that incorporate columns, turrets, and other structures.
The chaotic Nativity Façade of the exterior of the basilica embeds tiny characters in highly detailed downward cascades that resemble melting clay when viewed from a distance | Laura Grey

Is such an erratic, unexpected, and distinctive agglomeration of elements ugly, bad, or wrong? No! Not to the millions who love Gaudí’s personal, human, and singular vision of the beauty and wonder of his faith and his God. For them, Gaudí’s basilica accomplishes things that such grand structures rarely can. These include evoking feelings of both grandeur and intimacy, and precision and irregularity. The basilica combines the unusual combination of feelings and forces to celebrate the elevation of a human family into a holy one—the beatification and glorification of the most elemental elements of human society: a mother, a father, and a child. In Gaudí’s religious imagery, visitors can recognize their own families, as well as themselves. The greatest, most all-encompassing story in a Christian life, the story of Jesus, is made personal, real, and human by telling it through a structure both more vast than is comprehensible, and also deeply intimate and personal.

Instead of static, precisely defined features, Gaudí’s surfaces feel hand-sculpted and in motion. This quality gives Sagrada Família the feel of a living, breathing entity. It entrances some visitors, and makes them feel closer to the emotional core of Christianity—a very deep and very human love of God inspired by the sacrifice of his human son. Of course, for others, the building’s style and structure evoke feelings of the instability and impermanence that come from relying on humanity’s irregularities and imperfections.

Some visitors revel in Gaudí’s expression of the humanity of God made man in the body of Jesus. They feel the undulating unevenness of the building materials and decorations signify the humanity of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph—the Holy Family for whom the basilica was named.

Others find greater security, awe, and majesty in the precision of more traditional cathedral architecture. They look at a structure like St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, or Our Lady of Chartres Cathedral in France, and are awed, yes. But they are also amazed that such a remarkable and precise celebration of the glories of Heaven could be accomplished on Earth by thousands of human hands over hundreds of years. They feel the humanity inherent in the majestic structure, too. Just not in the same way.

A view halfway down a wall from the ceiling of the Sagrada Família shows the variety of the window sizes, large and small, and the intricately carved stone walls that create hundreds of small angular shadows as lights beam down from above and inward through the glass
Light rushes into the basilica’s interior through blue, green, and yellow stained glass, painting the ceiling and walls with vibrant washes of color | Laura Grey

But whatever one thinks of Gaudí’s exteriors, the interiors of Sagrada Família are another thing entirely! What magical spaces full of jewel-toned light! Standing inside that magnificent space, so different from any other, one can understand how it so often inspires people to feel devotion, awe, and the sensation of a divine presence. Gaudí’s basilica may evoke discomfort because of the organic, undulating, even unstable quality of its exterior. But during the very same visit, its interior brings a sense of delight, ease, and glory through the surprisingly naturalistic forms and colors created inside, thanks to the play of light through its windows and its forest of unusual columns.

In one particular, Sagrada Família has something charming in common with the medieval cathedrals of 900 years ago. One sees evidence of lighthearted humor in Gaudí’s sculpted tortoises and turtles, small but devoted guardians of the basilica that can be found holding up several pillars. The creatures provide welcome lightness and comic relief, as gargoyles or self-portraits of sculptors and architects did on medieval façades. 

A tall view showing the interior of the basilica from ceiling downward, including Gothic arches and a rose window, a smaller circular window behind a white marble carving of a saint, and tall columns with strange, abstract lights with glass lenses that look rather like eyes surrounded by eyelashes
The basilica incorporates some traditional cathedral structures—rose windows, ceiling bosses, columns, religious sculptures, and Gothic arches—while also introducing distinctly modern architectural details and abstract botanical shapes | Laura Grey

Gaudí had an extraordinary vision for the basilica, for which he became chief architect a year after building was begun in 1882. By the time he died as a result of a tram accident in 1926, he had spent 44 years reshaping the plans and implementing his Gothic and Art Nouveau-inspired designs for the building, which was only one-quarter complete at the time of his death. The basilica is still unfinished, but it is nearing completion. As of 2026, with the raising of the 566-foot-high central Tower of Jesus Christ, Sagrada Família became the world’s tallest church. It was inaugurated and blessed by Pope Leo XIV on June 10, 2026, in honor of the centenary of Gaudí’s death.

Though the cathedral was his greatest work, Gaudí managed to design and oversee the construction of a number of other major buildings, several of which hold UNESCO World Heritage status. These include the Park Güell, the Palau Güell, and the Casa Milà, Casa Vicens, and Casa Batlló; Sagrada Família’s Nativity façade, crypt, and apse; and the crypt of the Colònia Güell in Santa Coloma de Cervelló. The architect is so beloved in Catalonia that a sainthood guild has attempted to canonize him since 1992. In 2025, shortly before his death, Pope Francis declared Gaudí venerable; the Vatican described him as possessing “heroic virtue.”

A view of the ceiling includes views of the curving stone stairwells that climb to the ceiling among tree-like columns under bright floodlights that evoke stars in the sky
The sense of controlled chaos, movement, and intricacy of detail that plays out in monochromatic tones outside continues inside, but in a more linear way, and awash in color | Laura Grey

Before visiting Barcelona, I had never experienced such diametrically opposed aesthetic impressions about the interior and the exterior of a house of worship. That dichotomy is part of what makes this structure a masterpiece. There’s the fresh, strange wonder of the mind that envisioned it. And there’s his willingness to escape the linear precision of traditional cathedral architecture and explore a new, if sometimes lumpy, indistinct, even unsettling vision. The softened shapes bring this sacred space closer to the imprecise and organic shapes of nature, human bodies included. Visiting it may even make imagining the experiences of The Holy Family feel more personal and immediate to some visitors, while still expressing the grandeur of God. 

But, of course, what really brought the cathedral to life was a century of talent and faith expressed by the thousands of craftspeople who forced it into being. For an architectural plan is only a dream until the muscles and sinews, eyes and mind, and sweat and strain of those who build it combine to make it real.  

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The interior of the basilica was designed to evoke a forest. According to Gaudí’s vision, each type of column represents a different species of tree. The light that floods the interior reminds one of a colorful garden, or the changing of light from dawn to dusk, or, for some, the glory of God | Laura Grey

History, Politics & Current Affairs

Ms. Magazine & Gloria Steinem

Yesterday, journalist, feminist, and activist Gloria Steinem died at her home in New York City at the age of 92. As a profoundly honest, articulate, well-reasoned, tireless, and infinitely patient avatar and explainer of the need for gender equality and women’s rights, particularly during the 1970s and 1980s, Ms. Steinem was a powerful and influential voice. As founding editor of Ms. magazine, Gloria Steinem had a profound and positive impact on U.S. culture.

Last year’s HBO documentary about Ms. magazine, Dear Ms.: A Revolution in Print, explored the history and importance of Steinem and the magazine. Like Ms. Steinem herself, the documentary honestly addressed some of the magazine’s (and mainstream U.S. second-wave feminism’s) shortcomings, particularly the white, straight, middle-class focus of the magazine and the movement in its early days. Steinem and other Ms. founding mothers recognized and acknowledged that they needed to have a broader, more inclusive view of women and feminism, and relinquish some of their own personal vision in order to make room for the views of others under the wide umbrella of feminist thought.

The cover of the first issue of Ms. magazine from spring 1972 features an illustration of a woman with eight arms and blue skin based on the Hindu deity Kali, but wearing a knee-length sleeveless contemporary dress and holding the avatars of modern life for women: a clock, a rake, a pan with a fried egg, a typewriter, a clothes iron, a steering wheel, a hand mirror and a telephone, under the worlds Jane O'Reilly on The Housewife's Moment of Truth. The woman stands on a green hillside next to a pet cat, the sky behind her bright red. The word Ms. is at the top of the cover in golden yellow.
The first issue of Ms. magazine was published in spring 1972

My mother was a charter subscriber to Ms. magazine, the groundbreaking feminist publication that premiered in Spring 1972. As a kid, I read every single copy the minute it arrived every month. I remember when that first issue arrived in the same mail delivery as Women’s Day, Family Circle, and McCall’s, three of the most popular women’s magazines of the day. The difference between those standard, established, housewife-oriented magazines—with their emphasis on homemaking, child rearing, cooking, cleaning, and husband-pleasing—and the empowering, infuriating, and exciting articles in Ms. was as clear as the difference between midday and midnight.

I was a latchkey kid back then, and a precocious one. My serious adult interests made me popular with teachers, but deeply unpopular with my peers. I spent a lot of time by myself at home, reading all manner of things, from literary novels and magazines to the naughty books Mom hid (not very effectively) under her bed. My young, divorced, single mom—a high school English teacher—arrived home about an hour after I did every day from the time I was six years old onward. As the first person home, I was always the one to get the mail, and that gave me first crack at Mom’s magazines. Much as I loved flipping through TIME and LIFE magazines, and searching the back pages of McCall’s to find and cut out the Betsy McCall paper dolls every month (I was, after all, still a little girl), Ms. was the first magazine I read every month. That habit continued from the initial Spring 1972 issue until I gave up on it when it was sold and changed its focus in the 1987.

A page from a 1972 issue of McCall's magazine features an illustration showing a little girl in a dress holding an ice cream sundae. This is a paper doll, and she's flanked by two other dresses meant to be cut out and placed over the central image. The surrounding text says Betsy McCall Visits the Plaza and includes two paragraphs explaining the story of the fictional Betsy McCall's New York City adventure at the Plaza Hotel. At the top of the pge are three images from Betsy's day at the Plaza.
Every monthly issue of McCall’s magazine featured a page of Betsy McCall paper dolls for children to play with, like this one from 1972

For fifteen years, I flipped to the back of the magazine before reading another word so I could begin with the “No Comment” page. It consisted of photos of sexist, misogynistic, woman-dominating, infantilizing or pedophilic, insulting, even brutal imagery and messaging from TV, magazines, billboards, corporate PR documents, and other popular media. Seeing evidence of the relentless and ubiquitous yet socially acceptable advertising offensive against women was always shocking and enraging. The images were infuriating, and sent powerful messages about how pervasive sexism was (and still is).

Thus primed to recognize how baked into the system sexism was, I’d start over, returning to the beginning of the issue and reading through every article. There were features on sisterhood, nonsexist child rearing, abortion rights (remember, abortion wasn’t legal across the U.S. until 1973, nearly a year after Ms. first appeared on newsstands), opposing positions on pornography, cultural stereotypes of women, and gender inequality. I’d also read the interviews with feminist writers of different bents, from Andrea Dworkin to Betty Friedan to Angela Davis. I compared my nascent feminist opinions with theirs, often evolving over time as I grew up and saw the world and experienced sexual harassment directly and repeatedly in school, on the job, and simply walking down the street. Ms. helped me see that there were many different flavors, types, and branches of feminism, sometimes in opposition to each other. The magazine took the general position that opinions could, should, and did differ among people of goodwill about what feminism could and should address.

Seven of the founders of Ms, magazine smile and face toward the photographer in this staged photo by Jill Krementz. Gloria Steinem in a black turtleneck sits in a chair next to a round table at right. Letty Cottin Pogrebin and four other women stand behind the table. Another woman sits at the left of the table.
Gloria Steinem with some of the founders of Ms. magazine in 1971, shortly before the publication of the first issue of Ms. in spring 1972 | Photo by Jill Krementz

In the early era of Ms. magazine, two topics in particular were raised repeatedly. One was the definition of feminism, since so many people had negative associations with the word but didn’t understand its actual definition. The other was the proposed ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA.)

In those days, and even today, many people have refused to call themselves feminists, associating the term with loud, rude, anti-male opinions. However, the textbook definition of feminism is anything but outlandish or offensive to most of us. Feminism is simply the belief in and advocacy of social, political, and economic equality not based on gender. That’s really the whole shebang.

The proposed Equal Rights Amendment would have amended the U.S. Constitution to guarantee equal legal rights for all citizens regardless of gender. Often misrepresented as an effort by man-hating loonies to give women “special rights” or unfair advantages over men, here’s what the ERA actually said, in its entirety:

Section 1. Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.

Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

Section 3. This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification.

That’s it. The ERA was a simple request for nothing more than legal equality regardless of gender or sex.

First drafted by women’s rights leaders Alice Paul and Crystal Eastman, and first introduced in Congress in December 1923, the proposed ERA went through decades of discussion and debate. In 1971, it was at last approved by the U.S. House of Representatives. After the U.S. Senate approved it the following year, in 1972, it was submitted to U.S. state legislatures for ratification, as required by the U.S. Constitution. Congress required ratification by at least 38 states within seven years. It would seem a foregone conclusion that ratification of such a simple, obviously fair, true, and just statement would have been accomplished well before that deadline. However, Congress had to extend the deadline from 1979 to 1982. And even after ten years of public debate, both deadlines passed and the ERA was still three votes short of the necessary 38 states in 1982. As of 2026, the ERA has still not been ratified, and the Constitution still does not guarantee equality to all without regard to gender.

A black and white photo of seven young women sitting or standing around a wicker table over which is draped a suffrage flag, representing the fight for votes for women. Alice Paul sits at the center sewing a star on the flag.
Alice Paul, Crystal Eastman, and others sew a suffrage flag in support of votes for women, early 1920s

Gloria Steinem was certainly not the only well-spoken feminist of note to emerge as a thought leader and influencer (to use annoying contemporary terms) in the 1960s and 1970s. However, Ms. Steinem had great charisma, impressive composure and gravitas, and an uncanny ability to receive and deflect even the most egregiously offensive, condescending, insulting, infantilizing, and sexist attacks—many of them quite personal—in any setting. As the most prominent U.S. proponent of feminism in that era, she was seemingly everywhere, always responding with reason, wit, and specificity that left those who sought to degrade and wound her sputtering, red-faced, and laughable. They couldn’t hold a candle to her factual, well-reasoned, dignified message or delivery.

Ms. Steinem was conventionally beautiful enough to have passed as a Playboy bunny while undercover to write an expose about Hugh Hefner’s Playboy empire in the 1960s. But her physical attractiveness and beautifully modulated voice were actually stealth weapons against her detractors. Combined with her preternaturally calm demeanor and her skill with debate, her skills and attributes attracted positive attention, first to her, then to the subject of women’s rights and gender equality. They also gave the lie to the sexist stereotypes of feminists as being shrieking, irrational, and unattractive. It was always a joy to watch her surprise her ignorant antagonists by skillfully defending feminism in debates with everyone from sputtering attack columnists to sexist public intellectuals like Norman Mailer and William F. Buckley.

Today’s U.S. feminist discourse is more balanced, varied, and integrated across racial, cultural, and gender lines, and is more inclusive of all sexualities and multiple types of opinion than it was during Gloria Steinem’s most public era. But her life’s work continues to have a deep and lasting positive influence on feminist discourse. Ms. Steinem expanded and expressed her understanding of different feminist viewpoints, lifted up others who support the goals of feminism, and educated, inspired, and built a more egalitarian and respectful world for us all provide us all. What a powerful and lasting legacy.

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Gloria Steinem addresses a feminist rally, early 1970s

Art, History, Oddments

Why Do People Collect Things?

Since I was a very little girl, I’ve always enjoyed collecting things. I started with books, craft supplies, and stuffed animals, but it soon blossomed into a more expansive and extensive collection. By the time I’d turned 10, I’d already begun going to thrift shops, antique stores, and yard and garage sales to see what treasure I could find among others’ cast-offs. By the time I was in middle school, I was already buying velvet cocktail dresses and 1950s prom dresses from the Salvation Army for $5 apiece. I’d started collecting 1940s perfume bottles, powder compacts, and high heels at hospital thrift shops and the local St. Vincent de Paul outlet by then, too.

None of my friends were into this hobby. But I understood the appeal of it when I saw the things my Aunt Betty found on her weekly garage sale rounds. She was so skilled at finding cast-off treasures to shower the rest of the family with at holidays that the family took to calling her Garage Sale Santa. If you needed something, all you had to do was tell Betty, and she’d find one for you at a garage sale for 50 cents in no time at all.

Though some chic young things were already buying cool old clothes in the 1970s (the Pointer Sisters’ gorgeous 1940s vintage ensembles come to mind), I never heard talk about collecting “vintage” pieces until decades later when the term grew popular. When I was a kid, old clothes were old clothes, and my mom rolled her eyes at my penchant for bringing home a Chinese silk brocade jacket made before I was born, or asking her to turn the beaded satin handmade dress I’d bought into a Halloween costume for me. Why on earth, she asked me, did I want to wear old junk when I could have something new?

Discovering, researching, and learning about histories of objects made before my time has always brought me joy. So much beauty is lost every day when people damage or destroy things they no longer see any point to. I love keeping those things out of the waste stream, cleaning and polishing and mending them, and giving them a new life.

Enjoying more things has always meant more opportunity for discovery and fun, it seemed to me. That more-is-more maximalist streak continued as I got older and began collecting stamps, coins, and records, and later dishes, glassware, and artworks. Along the way I’ve found and dragged home all sorts of odd and interesting old objects, from Edison lightbulbs to antique sewing machines to 75-year-old booklets full of banana recipes. Often they have little to no inherent value to anyone else. But I still treasure them. Other times I’ve found rare and special objects that collectors actually do prize. They were sold or even given away by people who thought they had a garage full of junk. Junk! Can you imagine?

But when does a charming collecting hobby become a hoarding habit? When is it a noble desire to save overlooked handmade beauty from oblivion? And when is it evidence of unbecomingly covetous materialism?

I recently wrote an article about why people collect, what it means, and how their collections affect their lives for At Home with Style, the free online interior design magazine I’ve edited and published for the past few years. I thought it might be interesting to readers beyond my design website’s usual audience, so I’m sharing a link to the article with you here. I hope you enjoy it.

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A few of my favorite vintage and antique porcelain pieces gathered over the years | Photo by Laura Grey

Art, History, Oddments

At Home with Style

Several years ago I began publication of a free online magazine of interior design called At Home with Style. My mission wasn’t to force my opinions on others—I just wanted to help readers make their own design goals a reality. My design website (which has no paywall and doesn’t require registration to read the articles) includes medium- and long-form articles on scores of interior design-related subjects. I’ve included features, Q&A sessions, architectural and design history, links to other articles and resources—a whole bundle of tools to help readers achieve their design dreams. My hope has been to use my decades of experience in buying, selling, decorating, remodeling, and consulting on a number of homes and gardens to help others create spaces that they feel good in.

I encourage readers to figure out what makes most sense for them. Once they know what styles and features they like most and how they want to live, they’re invited to browse through my articles to pick and choose whatever might help them fulfill their own vision. And as I point out throughout the site, what I think about a design doesn’t matter if it doesn’t work for you.

The exterior of the Frank Lloyd Wright Home & Studio in Oak Park, Illinois. Shown is a low wall made of poured concrete and brick in sections with shingles and brick on others. The wall is topped with Wright's own half-globe-style planters. Behind is a view of the shingled exterior of the octagonal tower that held Wright's studio.
The Frank Lloyd Wright Home & Studio is featured in “Decorating Tips from Frank Lloyd Wright,” my article about the home and studio he created for himself and his family in Oak Park, Illinois—it was the very first home he designed and had built | Laura Grey

At Home with Style features articles on many popular topics, including these:

• Some of the most popular styles of home decoration from around the world and how to make them work in your home

• Tips on choosing and caring for textiles, home decor, garden plantings, and flooring (even if you have pets)

• How to choose and maintain outdoor furniture so you can double or triple its years of beauty and service

• Where to source sustainable home furnishings

• How to renovate your home for accessibility so you can age into it comfortably and accommodate disabilities (your own or those of others in your home) safely

• Learning how to tell whether vintage or antique dishes and glasses are contaminated by lead (or are safe to use)

A lush green lawn is surrounded by berms covered in trees, climbing roses, and all manner of blooming perennials. A brick-fronted Cape Cod-style house with wooden shingles and a white door is at back left. On and next to the porch are painted antique chairs.
A beautiful, comfortable garden setting goes a long way toward creating a mood—I’ve included several articles on creating and maintaining a beautiful, healthy garden. Here’s the cottage garden my talented friend, the garden designer Shon Robinson, helped me create for the Pacific Northwest home I owned circa 2010 | Laura Grey

I don’t outsource the writing of At Home with Style—I write every word of it myself. And I don’t take ad money, get kickbacks or subscription fees or other payments for my articles, or receive freebies in exchange for my opinions. I just want to share some of the many tips and tricks I’ve learned over the course of decades to help you find the inspiration and help you need to make your home feel the way you want it to feel.

An antique chest of drawers on slender legs is painted teal, and its drawer fronts have been covered in a patterned wallpaper featuring birds, leaves, and lemons. Source: @thedovestail on Instagram
An elegantly restored vintage chest of drawers is given new life thanks to a coat of peacock blue-green paint and drawers covered in wallpaper by vintage furniture transformation artist Beth West of The Dove’s Tail. I included this example of Beth’s beautiful work in my article “Off-the-Wall Wallpaper Projects” | Instagram: @thedovestail

My goal for At Home with Style is to help you establish a home that you find safe, comfortable, beautiful, functional, and affordable. I want to help my readers learn about the style, decorating, historical details, and maintenance tricks and resources I’ve found worthwhile over the past 40 years. I hope you enjoy it.

A small but vibrant room decorated for Christmas includes a tiny decorated tree, ornaments hanging from Venetian blinds, a glass bowl full of ornaments next to a vase of winter greenery, and piles of gifts on the floor in front of the door to a balcony with a view of apartments beyond
I believe any space, no matter how large or small, should reflect your own style, whether for holidays, special occasions, or any old night of the week | Laura Grey

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Your sense of style is about you and what makes you feel good, not about what someone tells you looks or feels “right.” If it’s safe, functional, and comfortable for everyone in the home, and it makes its inhabitants feel good, it’s golden. It’s your home—it should feel like you, not like someone else | Paul Hanaoka for Unsplash

Film & Television, History, Literature, Politics & Current Affairs

The Joyful Legacy of Rob Reiner

In 1987, I was a young film reviewer for the San Jose Metro (now Metro Silicon Valley), the South Bay Area’s popular weekly newspaper.  By October of that year, I’d reviewed about fifty movies for the paper, most of them cheaply made and awful teen movies with one-word titles, or lo-fi sci-fi from off-brand movie studios like Cannon Films. The paper’s senior reviewers wouldn’t waste time on such garbage, but I was the newest kid on the team, the “dog patrol” reviewer assigned to the worst dreck and drivel being shown at Silicon Valley’s cinemas. And I loved it. 

Most of the time, my job was to describe a bad film in 150 words. The trick was to warn people away from the worst flicks, and use humor to entice them to return next week for more funny zingers about upcoming films. In return for two hours with a bad movie, and an hour crafting and shaping a clever review that night, I earned two free movie tickets, $7.50, and my name in print. The Metro was the most popular paper among my colleagues at Apple, where I had a day job as a software test engineer, so everyone I knew was reading my work. That’s a heady experience for someone barely out of college. And it was a fun weekly Sunday afternoon gig for a kid in her twenties to share with a friend.

Very occasionally (maybe one time in ten), I was asked to write the week’s featured review. Each was 300 words and paid about $15. I sometimes reviewed an art house film; I occasionally saw a (not very good) foreign movie. But in October 1987, I was assigned a real winner. Based on one of my favorite novels by William Goldman, that week’s movie was the classic Rob Reiner comedy The Princess Bride. When I got the assignment, I felt joyful, but a little anxious, too—Reiner’s movies This Is Spinal Tap and Stand by Me (based on Stephen King’s novella The Body) had each come out not long before, and they were wonderful. I’d loved them, as nearly everyone did. But Goldman’s story was special to me. It needed just the right touch of silliness, madness, romance, adventure, and heart to work the way it should. Could Reiner pull it off? 

You know the rest. The film was glorious. I was rapturous. I gushed about the movie in my 300-word featured review, and urged all my friends to see it. The performances and so many of the best lines (written by William Goldman himself, who adapted the screenplay from his novel) have become indelible parts of the film canon: 

“Inconceivable!” 

“You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” 

“Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.” 

“Death cannot stop true love. All it can do is delay it for a while.”

“Have fun storming the castle!” 

“As you wish.” 

Of the 65 or so films I reviewed over two years at the Metro, none came close to entertaining me as much as Rob Reiner’s magical movie. Reiner had that rare gift of helping his audiences connect emotionally and immediately with his characters, whether through laughter, fear, love, or tears. As we’ve all heard and read many times by now, he also had that rare talent of connecting deeply and honestly with the people behind those characters. He made them feel trusted, cared for, and safe enough to give us brave, silly, beautiful, or heartbreaking performances. Their work hit us hard and stuck with us because it felt so human. 

Poster for the movie The Princess Bride—the image is a collage showing all of the film's main characters
The cast of Rob Reiner’s The Princess Bride (1987)

By all accounts, Reiner was a man who felt things deeply, and who loved collaboration. His sets, casts, and crews were famously collegial. In his work, he most enjoyed urging people upward and onward through kindness, decency, and humor. And when he wasn’t writing or directing award-winning films, he was helping to make connections among people who could effect lasting social change. He and his wife, the talented producer and photographer Michele Singer Reiner, were ardent and generous campaigners for equal rights for the LGBTQ+ community. They spent millions of their own dollars and countless hours successfully advocating for marriage equality. They also fought hard for early childhood education and healthy child development.

Rob Reiner was ardently and outspokenly liberal, and passionately critical of conservative Republicanism and Donald Trump. However, he also found friendship with people of different political persuasions, including former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Reiner spoke admiringly and kindly about Erica Kirk’s gracious words of inclusion after the murder of her husband, far right commentator Charlie Kirk, whose political beliefs were diametrically opposed to Reiner’s. The director sought to help people with opposing views to coexist and find common ground. He was a man of strong convictions, but also of great heart.

We’ve all heard many stories of people in the movie business who are good at playing heroes, but are less than gracious or kind behind the scenes. It’s always refreshing and moving to learn about titans of the entertainment industry who use their immense talent and influence for good. We’ll miss Rob Reiner’s continuing creativity and positive life force. But thank goodness we’ll always have his films to remind us of the importance of art, heart, compassion, and humor.

Articles, Film & Television, History, Literature, Theater

Charles Dickens: “Mankind Was My Business”

Christmas Carol Cover

[Originally published in 2020.]

“Oh! captive, bound, and double-ironed,” cried the phantom, “not to know … that any … spirit working kindly in its little sphere, whatever it may be, will find its mortal life too short for its vast means of usefulness. Not to know that no space of regret can make amends for one life’s opportunities misused! Yet such was I! Oh! such was I!”

“But you were always a good man of business, Jacob,” faltered Scrooge, who now began to apply this to himself.

“Business!” cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. “Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!”

—A Christmas Carol

In my family, A Christmas Carol is almost a sacred text. My grandmother quoted from it each Christmastime, and she, my mother (a teacher of English literature) and I watched each film and television version of it, cocoa and Kleenex in hand. We recited along with Marley’s Ghost, the Ghost of Christmas Present, Ebenezer Scrooge and Tiny Tim, weeping and hugging and loving every moment of the story.  Each viewing or reading of A Christmas Carol left us renewed in our commitments to each other and ourselves to hold Christmas in our hearts all through the coming year, and to remember Jacob Marley’s exhortation that looking after each other and lifting up those around us was our true reason for living. A Christmas Carol reminded us that humankind was our business, that “charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence” were our collective responsibility to each other, and the source of humanity’s greatest joys as well.

When my own daughter was old enough, I began reading Dickens stories aloud to her, and of course A Christmas Carol was among them. I read the whole of it to her in one evening, stopping occasionally to compose myself. She and I went to see a beautiful theatrical production of it in Seattle when she was a girl, just as my mother and I had seen multiple wonderful versions of it at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco during my childhood. Seeing A Christmas Carol has always meant far more to me than attending any production of The Nutcracker ever could.

This masterful work, so perfectly composed, so moving, so excitingly paced, was written in just six weeks when Charles Dickens’s fortunes were flagging, his coffers low and his popularity waning. But it was not worry about his purse or his reputation that inspired Dickens; it was his childhood spent in a debtor’s prison with his family that made him speak out so powerfully on behalf of the poor. While still a young boy, Dickens was forced to leave school to work in a boot blacking factory. There he spent his days pasting labels on bottles in hopes of making enough money to bail his father out of his debts. It was only through the efforts of children that Dickens’s father could pay off his debts and at last leave the Marshalsea Prison. Though Dickens later grew prosperous and world-renowned, he never forgot his time spent among the poor, the sick, the fearful and the abandoned.

In early 1843, Britain’s Parliament published a report on the damaging effects of the Industrial Revolution on poor children. The Second Report of the Children’s Employment Commission moved Dickens deeply, and he planned to write and publish an inexpensive political pamphlet to encourage commissioners and other lawmakers to do more on behalf of the poor.

Dickens gave a fundraising speech in October of that year at the Manchester Athenæum, urging workers and employers to come together to combat ignorance with educational reform. It was during that visit to Manchester that he realized his greatest ability to influence and inform was not through political tracts and speeches but through his works of fiction. In those early days of October 1843, he devised the plot of A Christmas Carol. When he returned to his home in London, he worked in a fury to complete the story in time for Christmas publication, and just made it: it was published on December 19, 1843.

History, Politics & Current Affairs

Why We Still Need World AIDS Day

Today is the 37th annual World AIDS Day. Each December 1 we commemorate the lives of millions of people who’ve suffered and died from HIV/AIDS around the world. On this day each year, we’re reminded of the millions who continue to suffer from the effects of the illness, the trauma caused by it, and the impact that losing loved ones to AIDS has had.

2025 White House World AIDS Commemoration Canceled

The photo here shows the World AIDS Day event at the White House in 2024, when Joe Biden was president. Note that the lawn was covered in AIDS memorial quilts that honor the memories of people killed by AIDS. These quilts have been international signs of commemoration and activism against the deadly disease for four decades now. But for the first time in 37 years, the White House under Trump has canceled all 2025 World AIDS Day events, and refuses to continue the tradition of annual remembrances of those lost to the disease. Trump has also ended former President George W. Bush’s phenomenal PEPFAR program, a U.S. government initiative which saved untold numbers of lives around the world since it was launched in 2003. The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief was the largest commitment by any nation to a single disease. It focused on saving lives, preventing new infections, providing treatment and care, and strengthening health systems in over 50 countries. It provided antiretroviral treatment, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), and care for orphans and vulnerable children, among other essential services. But now it’s gone.

HIV/AIDS is still a major health threat around the world. Despite Trump’s decision not to mark or mention World AIDS Day at the White House any longer, it is still an important day to commemorate the people we’ve lost, the battles we’ve won, the research that continues to improve treatment options, and the terrible inaccessibility of necessary HIV/AIDS treatments for millions of people who desperately need it.

But Isn’t the HIV/AIDS Epidemic Over?

No; it’s a continuing worldwide health threat. AIDS was first identified in 1981, and the link from AIDS to HIV was made in 1983. As of 2024, over 44 million people had died of AIDS worldwide. HIV continues to spread and kill massive amounts of people annually. An estimated 630,000 people died of it just last year.

It’s true that antiretroviral medications have saved untold millions from suffering and death caused by HIV/AIDS. But millions more with HIV still don’t have access to such drugs, and many people can’t tolerate them. About 1.2 million people in the U.S. have HIV today, and an estimated 13% of them don’t know they have it. Without treatment, they could become very ill, unknowingly pass the illness on to others, or even die.

Early Years of HIV/AIDS Awareness & Research

AIDS was an epidemic first identified in gay men, and prominent gay men were the first public faces of the disease. Entertainers like Rock Hudson attracted attention and scorn for being outed as both being gay and having AIDS in a highly homophobic era. But they had inspiring and powerful friends, like Oscar-winning actress Elizabeth Taylor, who’d been a close friend to Rock Hudson for decades. She co-founded amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research, one of the nation’s most influential and important AIDS-related organizations. The UK’s wildly popular Princess Diana also made expanding awareness of and compassion for people with HIV/AIDS one of her biggest goals. Ms. Taylor and Princess Diana normalized treating people with HIV/AIDS with warmth and compassion, visiting them, hugging them, and holding their hands and laughing or crying with them, instead of treating them like pariahs.

In 1980s America, President Reagan refused to even say the word AIDS publicly for several years, while it ran rampant, eviscerating the gay community—including many of his personal friends, among whom were many closeted gay actors. But during that time, the spread of AIDS galvanized activists, who established powerful awareness groups like ACT UP. Public health giants like Dr. Anthony Fauci researched the causes of AIDS and its spread, and provided essential public health services and advice.

Fauci’s initial experiences with anti-AIDS activists were contentious. Many activists verbally attacked him for not taking their greatest concerns seriously enough. To his credit, he recognized that he was not working effectively with the people most hard hit by the AIDS epidemic. He met with them, listened, and apologized for his previous arrogance. Dr. Fauci turned leading AIDS activist Larry Kramer from an adversary to a friend by learning how to better work with communities impacted by disease through mutual respect and dialog. Over time, Fauci learned not to bristle when the famously (and necessarily) outspoken and irascible Kramer gave him hell.

AIDS Treatment in 2025

In 1992, after the death of many friends—including the 1991 death of Freddie Mercury—from AIDS, Elton John established the Elton John AIDS Foundation, which is still going strong. The foundation has raised over $650 million to support more than 3,100 projects in 102 countries to end the stigma, discrimination, and neglect associated with HIV/AIDS. Since the organization was established, the world has seen huge forward movement in the prevention and treatment of HIV.

As a result of the successes of hospitals, researchers, activists, and community health initiatives, and the excellent HIV/AIDS meds now available, it’s no longer the uncontrollable public health menace it once was. Indeed, many assume that getting HIV today isn’t that big a deal, since you can take PrEP drugs to prevent it, or antiretroviral drugs to treat it. However, about one in ten people with HIV develop intolerance to treatment, or they become drug resistant. Many more people have a lack of consistent access to healthcare or insurance, and can’t afford meds. So the need for awareness, healthcare access, affordable (or free) medications, and counseling for those affected by HIV/AIDS is still great, and the services are vital.

How You Can Help Stop HIV/AIDS

World AIDS Day is a great time to find a way to support AIDS prevention, treatment, or counseling organizations. To find reputable and successful organizations that rely on public donations in the U.S., check out Charity Navigator, which vets organizations and lets you know which ones are most reputable, reliable, and spend their money most wisely. You’ll find a link to Charity Navigator’s best AIDS charities in the comments below.

History, Literature

My Grandfather and the Lost Generation

Much is made of the “Greatest Generation”—the people who fought in World War II and kept the home fires burning. We owe them an enormous debt, and it’s right and good to remember and honor their memories, today and every day. But the generation that fought in World War I was the first to experience the terrible technology of modern war. The millions who fought and died in what was long known as The Great War experienced previously unknown horrors. Those who came home were forever damaged by what they saw and were made to do. The psychic and physical damage done to them was so great that writers of the 1920s like Hemingway and Fitzgerald became famous for their stories of the Lost Generation—people so damaged by the war that they could never again regain their footing on this earth.

My grandfather was one of the men who went off to World War I, determined and duty-bound. These were his dog tags, given to him when he joined the U. S. Army in 1917. How his German-born mother must have ached as she watched her eldest child (of 10!) go off to fight against the children of those who were once her compatriots.

Grandpa George fought in France, fell in love, and said adieu to his French sweetheart when it was time to go. He sailed back home with his souvenirs, including a mortar shell and a German officer’s helmet. But, as the WWI-era song goes, how are you gonna keep ’em down on the farm (well, in St. Paul) after they’ve seen Paris?

Grandpa followed his younger brothers into the meatpacking business. He spent a little time as a butcher before wanderlust overtook him and adventure called. He rode the rails West, going weeks without bathing while hopping trains and looking for work. When he got to Montana, where he worked on a ranch for a while, he could finally take off his boots to let his feet relax. But when he did, the dime he’d so carefully stored inside his sock was gone! A dime was enough money for a meal, so he undertook a rigorous search.

After a while he realized that the callus he’d developed on his foot had actually grown around the dime. It had been so long since he’d removed his tight boots that his skin had stopped being irritated by the foreign body and just subsumed it. Good thing he had his Army knife on him to cut it out.

Eventually, my grandfather made it back to the Midwest. After a close call with an angry upside-down hog whose hoof nearly slit Grandpa’s throat before Grandpa could slit his, my grandfather left the slaughterhouse business and moved to Detroit, where he became a welder for General Motors. A staunch union member, he was part of a famous strike against General Motors in which GM attacked its own employees who were striking outside in the snow with high-pressure fire-hoses. The extreme pressure of the water knocked the wind out of strikers like my grandfather, who were forced onto the sidewalk and rapidly covered in ice.

When we think of the miseries of working for The Man nowadays, it’s good to keep in mind those who came before us. People like my grandfather stood up for the trade unions who fought successfully for eight-hour days, five-day work weeks, and safety laws that kept employees from dying on the job, or being hunted down by angry employers who didn’t like uppity employees who spoke out for what was fair and just.

Soon enough, Grandpa made the move to Ford Motor Company in nearby Dearborn. There he became their chief tool and die welder, and came up with many inventive improvements that helped Ford better their automobiles (but for which he received no credit or bonuses, of course). But in his decades at Ford, he could afford to buy a new car every few years, and he earned the pension that kept him and my grandmother going after retirement. What’s more, the company bestowed their much-coveted full scholarships on both of his daughters—the first time that two children from the same family ever won Ford Scholarships. They were the first people in their family to go to college, and both made much of their educations, and passed on their parents’ love of education to their own children.

He may only have had an eighth grade education, but my talented (if eternally cranky) first-generation-American grandfather fought for his country, raised and supported his family (and gave his girls the means to excel at college), and became a valued employee of the Ford Motor Company. He read Goethe in German, and Shakespeare in English for fun. Grandpa had seen abominable things, but felt he had no right to do other than fulfill his duty to his country, his family, and his company.

Much of his generation (my dreadfully poor grandparents included) grew up in deep poverty with little to fall back on but cussed determination to make things work. When fascists came to power in the 1930s in Europe, it was my grandparents’ generation who had prepared those of the “Greatest Generation” (like my Uncle Woody) to have the spine and steely determination to do what needed to be done. When we honor those who came before and fought to safeguard our way of life, let’s not forget them.

History, Literature

Dulce Et Decorum Est: The Poetry of Wilfred Owen

When World War I broke out in 1914, many young men with stars in their eyes signed up to be soldiers, expecting war to be glorious. Based on all the pro-war propaganda they’d received throughout their short lives, most thought primarily of the honor of serving their country, and of the glory that would accrue to their names if they should fall in battle.
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But the war was much more brutal, enormous, and seemingly endless than expected. New war technologies (planes and tanks among them) and endless miles of muddy trenches were nightmarish, and left millions of men exposed to the elements and to attack from every direction. The endless horror was too much for many men who retreated into their minds and lost contact with the world. Shell-shock was rampant.
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Rather than hide their broken souls from the world, some writers during and after the war poured their horror and hopelessness out on the page.
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“Dulce Et Decorum Est” is a poem written by Wilfred Owen during World War I, and published posthumously in 1920. It describes the horrors of a mustard gas attack. The Latin title is from a verse written by the Roman poet Horace: “Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.” In English, this means, “It is sweet and proper to die for one’s country”. The poem, which delivers a wry and ironic quotation of Horace’s words, is Owen’s best-known work.
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Wilfred Owen was killed in battle one week before Armistice Day. His parents learned of his death on the day the war ended. Their son was only 25 when he died, but he and his friend Siegfried Sassoon remain the best-remembered and most often-quoted English poets of World War I.
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Dulce Et Decorum Est

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of disappointed shells that dropped behind.

GAS! Gas! Quick, boys!– An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And floundering like a man in fire or lime.–
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,–
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie:  Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

History, Politics & Current Affairs

Trump & Tariffs: Increasing Inequality Is the Whole Point

Donald Trump’s attacks on parents who buy a lot of toys for their children have nothing to do with dolls or pencils. His recent comments have made some parents think, “I feel guilty about how many possessions my kids have; maybe Trump’s right and they SHOULD have fewer toys.” But he’s just attempting a diversion from the real issues he doesn’t want you to think about.

A Way to Shift More Power to the Richest 1%

Do you think Trump ever gave a thought to whether rampant materialism would make his children more selfish or shallow? Of course not. He doesn’t want you thinking about how he’s trying to create a future with even greater wealth inequality. He supports the restrictions on freedom, product availability, and product quality caused by restricting market availability. He likes billionaire-owned companies that engage in monopolistic practices. He’s all for power grabs by autocratic government entities and corrupt politicians—as long as he gets a cut.

The autocrat in chief and his friends want to tell you what you should and shouldn’t be able to buy, at what prices, and from whom. They want to control the market so they can create more opportunities for themselves to receive more financial kickbacks or power. Their support for heavy tariffs is about increasing their power while taking away yours.

Free Trade Increases Peace, Prosperity & Safety

Isolationism doesn’t make a nation stronger, safer, happier, healthier, or more peaceful. Strong international relationships, including trade, lead to a greater variety of available products, lower prices, and many more chances to buy things of better quality. People have known this for literally thousands of years. By trading with other countries, all countries involved can optimize sales of products they’re good at and that they have enough resources to create. That way nations can import things that are too hard or expensive to make at home, improving the standard of living across nations.

Greater access to affordable commodities leads to fewer wars. Wars interfere with the benefits of free trade, destroying trade routes and stopping the influx of needed materials, and the outflow of products from exporters who rely on foreign markets.

Beneficial Trade Agreements Lead to “Soft Power”

Making trade with other countries easier and more affordable makes our trading partners fonder of our products, sure. It also makes them fonder of us as people. The incentives to treat our trading partners with greater respect and appreciation lead to warmer relations. When we make trade deals, we also build positive relations that give us “soft power”—the power that comes from positive feelings, trust, and mutual respect. Strong trade agreements can lead to greater tourism, cross-border business deals that allow for faster innovation and business growth, stronger border agreements, and more information sharing regarding health and security matters. Strong trade agreements also help countries build alliances against rogue states who might want to attack or invade them.

Limiting Trade Restricts Freedom

Adding heavy tariffs and destroying trade agreements benefits oligarchs and corrupt government officials. Such people have the power or money to create regional monopolies, decide what items the market will or won’t sell, and push resources toward their favorite suppliers. When oligarchs and autocrats are in charge, they make international trade agreements giving lower tariffs to countries that promise to bend the knee politically, or that pay kickbacks to corrupt officials in our country.

The reason for Trump’s tirades about how many dolls or pencils small children own isn’t based in concern over modern child-rearing methods. He’s not stoking your guilt because he cares about your children’s welfare. Trump harps on dollies and pencils because he doesn’t actually believe in a free market. He wants to up-end conservative support for free-market capitalism, the holy grail of traditional Republicanism.

For its many faults, pure free-market capitalism does support the freedom to buy what you want, whether the purchase is wise or foolish, well-made or shoddy, bad for you or good, as long as you can pay for it—or can pay the bank fees on your line of credit. A free-market economy is the antithesis of having a government entity tell you what you can and can’t buy, use, or enjoy. It also tends to lower prices, and lower prices on commodities means increased freedom and opportunity to buy exactly what you want, at a price you can afford.

Protectionism & Isolationism Don’t Lead to Safety or Prosperity

Protectionism is the belief that taxing imported goods more highly, restricting or refusing their importation, and giving special deals to domestic businesses benefits domestic businesses and helps one’s own nation’s economy to grow while avoiding providing unfair benefits to those outside one’s borders. Isolationism, which often increases at tiems of greater protectionism, preaches that outsiders, their products, and their ideas are not to be trusted, and that we leave ourselves weakened and vulnerable if we make treaties, trade agreements, or join organizations like the United Nations that seek to create international legal structures and encourage economic, social, and health equality.

Such “America first” protectionist and isolationist politics and economic leanings have been popular at various times during the last two centuries. Many who have followed them believed that such policies would exclude unwanted “foreign influences” on culture and business, and would avoid the dilution of a supposed American way of life.

The result of this distrust of interactions with outsiders has instead often been a more insular way of thinking that led to greater xenophobia. What’s more, protectionism and isolationism left U.S. businesses and financial institutions at greater risk of failure because they did not diversify their funds, product pipelines, or markets across national or continental borders.

Doesn’t Capitalism Have Significant Flaws?

Free-market capitalism tends toward rampant materialism and encouraging ever-expanding markets, even when that causes pollution, dwindling natural resources, or social problems. It supports a mentality that says buying more is necessarily better, and that your success and appeal are based on what and how much you buy. It encourages waste and disposal instead of repair or reuse of resources.

Clearly, this system has many terrible flaws. But there are limitations on these downsides, including environmental impact laws and free-trade agreements that ameliorate many downsides of unfettered capitalism.

For millions, the chief attraction of a free market is that it supports the individual’s freedom to choose what to purchase and how much, IF a person has sufficient capital to do so. A good thing about a free market open to many sellers and buyers is that competition provides downward pressure on prices, and it tends to push the worst products out of the market based on lower demand. Those who can provide a greater variety of goods at better prices tend to do better.

Antitrust Laws Help Balance Free Markets

For the past century, the U.S. has had strong antitrust laws to avoid monopolistic practices (like having one big company buy up or destroy all its competitors, thereby driving up prices and driving down quality). Limits on monopolies help us avoid price-gouging and lowering of quality standards, and allow small businesses to compete more fairly with larger ones.

Other Laws Affecting Free Markets in the U.S.

Over the past century the U.S. has also developed a strong legal framework regarding the health and safety of products sold in the U.S. We’ve also passed thousands of laws about the safety and working conditions of those who produce goods and services on U.S. soil. These laws help to ameliorate further downsides of expanding markets. These include risks to human beings that are increased when competitiveness is prized above health, safety, and wellbeing.

Heavy Tariffs Are Hardest on Small Businesses

On the other hand, creating significant impediments to free trade through untargeted tariffs widens imbalances between resource-rich and resource-poor countries and people. This often leads to greater hostility between nations, and between people of different financial means. Smaller, more entrepreneurial companies bear the greatest brunt of high tariffs, and are at greatest risk of failure because they don’t have the scale and resources to pay huge tax levies or customs bills.

Higher Tariffs on Imports Can Lower Our Own Standard of Living

When Trump slaps tariffs on foreign-made goods imported to the U.S., he drives up prices at home, destroys jobs, crushes U.S. businesses and industries that rely on export sales, and destroys the trust of other nations in our government, or financial instruments, and our companies. The primary reason for a U.S. president to do that is so he and his friends and family can make more money and consolidate more power by taxing people in the U.S. who want or need imported goods. This takes money from everyday people and lowers their standard of living.

That shift, which disempowers the vast majority of the U.S., is the point of this unnecessary financial mess. Trump doesn’t care about you or your child. He doesn’t want to reset U.S. buying habits out of concern for the moral or financial welfare of the nation’s people. He just wants to grab a greater share of your resources for himself and his buddies.

Don’t fall for it.