Mike the plumber was at our house last week, replacing a couple of old hot-water radiators. One morning, I asked him to pause his work and step into our main bathroom. “You smell sewer gas…
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This morning, you come downstairs to find me. You greet me in that sunny voice with which you always bless the beginning of my days. Then you slump on the couch beside me. Your youthful…
I admit that I counted my proverbial chickens. Once the distribution of the COVID vaccine was well underway in the U.S., I thought the pandemic would soon be over here. Bursting with optimism, I changed…
Empty seats at the National Mall prior to the inauguration (Photo: Carlos Barria/Reuters) Today I will not attend the inauguration of Donald J. Trump. Nor will I watch it on television or listen to it…
I submitted this piece some days ago to run in my local paper, The Brookings (SD) Register. But it’s likely to be obsolete before it’s run, since Mr. Trump is so quickly squandering my good…
This is a difficult day. I will spend it writing. I will spend it hoping, and praying in my way, that the man just elected President of the United States might, with our help, prove…
[This is a copy of a speak-out I submitted to the Brookings (SD) Register. It was published on March 15, 2016. Corrections made on March 16.] The other night I was cooking supper with my…
Did you know that the democratic government of the U.S. was inspired by the Iroquois Confederacy? That constitutional framers like George Washington and Ben Franklin so admired…
A Post-Election Nonpartisan Prayer for the Nation By Phyllis Cole-Dai, Election Day, November 6, 2012 The voting done, the ballots counted, all the winners announced, and our nation’s next president elected, let us now fold…
Note: This is a letter to the editor that I wrote after the “United for Women” march & rally, held last Saturday here in Brookings. I submitted an abbreviated form of it to the Sioux…
(Note: This piece of political satire, which I authored, was published on the editorial page of The Brookings Register today, April 19, 2012.) Corporations are now being sought as candidates for elective office…
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