A Vietnam-era novel about World War II veterans has lessons for our War on Terror times.

I’m not sure how many people in Denver are aware of the camping ban and of the bid to repeal it that will appear on ballots that soon will be landing in mail boxes. I wonder whether, unless you’re a journalist or a politician, it’s just too early to be paying attention.

Like many of the military veterans I met in Montrose, the managing director of Lincoln Hills Cares is at ease when he is helping.

I left a meeting feeling optimistic our open society can stay open. If nothing else, I was reminded we live in an age when technology again and again frustrates the powerful’s tendency toward secrecy at the expense of the weak.

A graduate student working on a paper on the sad history of black education in South Africa reached out to me after reading my first book, “It’s a Black-White Thing.” Among her questions:

“How do we move forward without having the past always present?”

Susurrthump. That’s the sound of the holidays.

On a single day, two stories I wrote received very different reactions.