Tag: American Essence

‘Canceling’ the Pandemic Learning Gap

As I entered the third video call of the day, I was greeted by the teacher and 14 little faces, with adults sitting at each student’s side. As the principal, I would periodically visit these virtual classrooms to experience the chaos that had now become education. As I prepared to read the class a story,…


Diving Deep to Help Veterans Heal—Underwater

In the spring of 2014, while returning from “a whirlwind RV road trip” to his sister’s wedding, Josh and Neysa Grzywa and their two children learned that two more of Josh’s military “brothers” had committed suicide. Both of these suicides happened within a week. Eight of his military friends had died this way. All eight…


José Mayoral’s Escape from Socialism

José Angel Mayoral III is a man who lost his country. Born and raised in Venezuela, he grew up in a family of entrepreneurial business owners in Caracas. His Puerto Rican grandfather went to Venezuela as a salesman for Goodyear Rubber and Tire and decided to stay. His grandfather and father worked hard and created…


Patriotic 14-Year-Old Artist Paints Giant Military, First Responder Mural Covering 8,000 Sq Feet in Illinois Town

One young artist from Marion, Illinois, has painted an 8,000 square-foot mural highlighting American military and first responders—from Iwo Jima to Vietnam; from Operation Iraqi Freedom to 9/11. Madeline Deiters, or Maddie, 14, a ninth-grader who’s been homeschooled her whole life, began mapping her composition just days after September 11, and the massive mural took…


Fighting Suicide Through Camaraderie and Combat Boots

Irreverent Warriors is an organization that was built from the ground up to address suicide. It does not use conventional methods but instead uses laughter, shared suffering, and familiarity to fight suicide. It works with those most vulnerable to suicide: the veteran population. The Irreverent Warriors mission is “to bring veterans together using humor and…


Cast in Stone, That Is, Iron

For a growing number of American households, Teflon-coated pans, copper pots, or anything else for that matter other than a handcrafted cast iron skillet, would be, well, an outcast in the kitchen. Crazy as it seems, the people who make this heavily weighted and highly popular custom-made cookware are willing to face furnaces burning at…


Home Sweet Home in Oklahoma

Out in this part of America that is not quite the South and not quite the Ozarks, where the land is flat and the people free-spirited, Kelly and Brad Claggett are finally fulfilling their longtime dream after years of hard work. When they first moved to this 60-acre property in Grove, Oklahoma, around 2009, Kelly…


It’s Time for Solutions

Commentary We hear a lot of criticism and concern about how anti-American ideas and socialist principles have entered the mainstream political conversation. These are merely symptoms of a deeper problem. Our citizens have lost connection with this nation’s founding principles—who we were before we became a nation, why we fought for independence, how our founding…


‘Join, or Die’: Ben Franklin’s Warning of a Divided America

Benjamin Franklin published “Join, or Die”—now considered to be the most famous colonial political cartoon—on May 9, 1754. It appeared in “The Disunited State,” an editorial in his Pennsylvania Gazette, which was the most successful newspaper in the colonies at that time. The symbolism of the cartoon’s fragmented snake is significant, and the message is…


Greenane Farms: A Family Affair

Patrick Rider didn’t set out to run a livestock farm that supplies meat to fine dining restaurants and grocers. He simply wanted to provide healthy options for his family. “I didn’t want my family eating industrial food,” he said. In 2003, Patrick and his wife, Thanya, began purchasing farmland in Meredith, a sleepy town in…