Dwain Northey (Gen X)

There’s a certain appeal to stepping off the treadmill. Not disappearing from society or becoming a survivalist caricature living in a bunker, but simply asking a question that seems almost radical today: How much do I actually need to live well?

The older I get, the more appealing that question becomes. For those of us pushing retirement age, the idea of getting off the grid starts sounding less like something dreamed up by a guy wearing a tinfoil hat and more like a solid retirement plan. Every year brings another increase in property taxes, insurance premiums, utility bills, grocery prices, and some shiny new subscription we’re apparently supposed to need just to exist. At some point you stop asking, “How do I make more money?” and start asking, “How do I need less of it?”

We’ve built an economy where people work longer hours just to afford bigger mortgages, larger vehicles, and subscriptions to things they barely use. Meanwhile, the basic necessities of life—food, shelter, water, and energy—seem increasingly out of reach for the average person. Maybe the answer isn’t making more money. Maybe it’s needing less of it.

Imagine purchasing a modest piece of land in a state like Nebraska, North Dakota, or Montana. Land is still relatively affordable in many rural areas compared to much of the country. Instead of building an enormous house, you build an efficient one. You dig an eight- to ten-foot-deep greenhouse, taking advantage of the Earth’s natural thermal mass. Below the frost line, temperatures remain remarkably stable throughout the year, dramatically reducing the energy required to heat or cool the greenhouse.

Cover it with modern greenhouse materials, add thermal mass such as water barrels or stone, and supplement it with a modest solar array. Even in northern climates, you could grow lettuce, spinach, kale, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, herbs, strawberries, carrots, and countless other fruits and vegetables year-round. Fresh food wouldn’t arrive on a truck from two thousand miles away. It would be growing a few steps from your kitchen.

Raise a small flock of chickens, and suddenly you have a reliable source of eggs, natural fertilizer for your garden, and, if necessary, meat. If you have the skills—and the stomach—to hunt, deer, turkey, rabbits, or other game could provide much of your protein without relying on industrial agriculture. Add rainwater collection, composting, and perhaps a modest orchard, and you’ve built something remarkably resilient.

This isn’t about rejecting technology. Quite the opposite. It’s about using technology intelligently. Solar panels, efficient insulation, geothermal principles, LED grow lights when needed, rainwater harvesting, and modern greenhouse engineering allow one person or one family to produce far more food than would have been possible a century ago.

More importantly, it changes your relationship with work.

Imagine working because you want to, not because missing two paychecks means missing your mortgage payment. Imagine grocery stores becoming supplemental rather than essential. Imagine inflation making the evening news and realizing it barely affects your dinner table because most of your food comes from your own property.

There’s also something wonderfully satisfying about telling the utility company, “No thanks, I’m good.” The older I get, the more I appreciate the idea that my retirement plan doesn’t hinge on what Wall Street did today, whether the power company needs another rate hike, or whether eggs have suddenly become a luxury item again. If my biggest concern is whether the tomatoes need watering, I’d call that a pretty good day.

Would you still participate in society? Of course. Most people would still want internet access, healthcare, travel, and the occasional luxury. But your dependence on an increasingly fragile economic system would be dramatically reduced.

There’s also a psychological benefit that often gets overlooked. Gardening, caring for animals, repairing your own equipment, and producing tangible results each day provide a sense of accomplishment that many modern jobs simply don’t. Instead of staring at spreadsheets or answering emails that will be forgotten tomorrow, you can literally watch your efforts bear fruit.

Would it be easy? Absolutely not. Gardening requires knowledge. Livestock requires responsibility. Hunting isn’t for everyone, and greenhouse systems still require maintenance and occasional repairs. Off-grid living isn’t an escape from work; it’s trading one kind of work for another. The difference is that your labor fills your own pantry instead of helping some CEO decide whether this quarter’s bonus should buy the yacht or the vacation home.

As technology continues to improve and renewable energy become more affordable, this lifestyle becomes increasingly attainable for people of moderate means. It may never be completely independent of the outside world, but it doesn’t have to be. Independence isn’t an all-or-nothing proposition. Every tomato you grow, every egg your chickens lay, every kilowatt your solar panels produce, and every meal that comes from your own land is one less thing you have to purchase from a system that seems to become more expensive and less stable every year.

In an age of economic uncertainty, climate disruption, and a culture that constantly tells us happiness is one purchase away, perhaps the greatest luxury isn’t owning more.

Perhaps it’s needing less.

And honestly, if retirement means trading rush-hour traffic for gathering fresh eggs, harvesting tomatoes in January, and listening to birds instead of cable news, that sounds less like dropping out of society and more like finally figuring it out.



Dwain Northey (GenX)

One of the most frustrating things about modern political media isn’t bias in the traditional left-versus-right sense. It’s the breathtaking inconsistency in what is treated as front-page news and what is quietly ignored.

Think back to 2016. Every stumble by Hillary Clinton became a medical emergency. Every cough was evidence she was dying. A bout of pneumonia somehow morphed into internet diagnoses of Parkinson’s disease, seizures, secret illnesses, and elaborate cover-ups. The speculation became the story.

Then came President Joe Biden. Every verbal slip, every slow walk, every awkward pause became another twenty-four-hour news cycle asking whether he had dementia. Television panels, podcasts, opinion columns, and social media armchair neurologists all suddenly possessed medical degrees. Every gaffe became proof of cognitive decline. If Biden tripped on a staircase, it wasn’t just a man tripping—it was breaking news that “Sleepy Joe” was mentally and physically unfit for office. The diagnosis had already been made; they were simply looking for the next clip to reinforce it.

Now compare that standard to how similar stories are often handled on the other side of the aisle.

President Donald Trump has had his own verbal misstatements, rambling speeches, name mix-ups, and public stumbles. Yet many of those moments are dismissed as “Trump being Trump,” colorful personality quirks rather than evidence demanding endless speculation about his fitness. The same media ecosystem that could spend days dissecting a Biden stumble often moves on from a Trump gaffe before the next commercial break.

The inconsistency doesn’t stop at the presidency.

Earlier this year, a Republican member of the House was absent for several weeks with little public information before returning and explaining that he had been dealing with emotional or mental health issues. It was reported, acknowledged, and then largely disappeared from the national conversation.

Now there is continuing public speculation surrounding Senator Mitch McConnell and his health. Numerous rumors have circulated online, some making dramatic claims about cardiac arrest, CPR, or severe neurological injury. As of now, those claims have not been confirmed by reliable public reporting and should not be presented as fact.

But regardless of what ultimately proves true, the disparity in attention is difficult to ignore. If an 83-year-old Democratic senator disappeared from public view for weeks amid widespread health rumors, the media would almost certainly be saturated with discussions about succession, transparency, and whether the individual remained capable of serving. Panels of commentators would speculate endlessly. Every anonymous source would become a headline.

From my medical background, I understand how serious cardiac arrest can be in an elderly patient. Someone requiring CPR faces significant risks, particularly regarding neurological recovery, though outcomes depend on many factors. That’s precisely why verified medical information matters more than rumor.

What frustrates me isn’t that journalists ask questions. They should.

It’s that they don’t always ask them consistently.

When a Democrat has a bad day, it becomes a weeklong national conversation about cognitive decline. When a Republican disappears for weeks, the story often fades with remarkably little sustained curiosity. If the roles were reversed, does anyone honestly believe the coverage would look the same?

The constitutional questions are important regardless of party. If an elected official is unable to carry out the duties of office for an extended period, the public deserves reasonable transparency. The office belongs to the people, not to the individual occupying it. Succession laws exist for a reason, and they shouldn’t become political chess pieces simply because one party wants to preserve a seat.

Too often, transparency has become situational. If it’s the other party’s politician, we demand medical records, cognitive testing, and hourly updates. If it’s our own, suddenly privacy is paramount and questions become inappropriate.

That’s not journalism.

That’s not principle.

That’s tribalism.

The public deserves one standard applied to everyone. Democrats. Republicans. Presidents. Senators. Representatives. If fitness for office is truly a matter of public concern, then it should be a matter of public concern all the time—not only when it can be weaponized against the opposing party.

Consistency is what gives journalism credibility. Without it, the media ceases to be a watchdog and becomes just another participant in the political game.

Dwain Northey (Gen X)

Every city has something that makes you stop and ask, “Who thought this was a good idea?” For me, living in Phoenix, it’s palm trees.

They’re everywhere.

Drive down any major street, into any shopping center, past office buildings, apartment complexes, golf courses, or neighborhoods, and there they stand like giant botanical flagpoles. Tall. Skinny. Looking vaguely like they wandered in after taking a wrong turn somewhere around Hawaii.

And every time I see one, I ask the same question.

Why?

Palm trees don’t provide meaningful shade. They don’t cool the surrounding air. Most of them don’t produce edible fruit. Birds don’t seem particularly interested in them. They don’t stop dust storms. They don’t help much with our urban heat island. They’re basically decorative telephone poles with bad hair.

Which inevitably reminds me of the scene from Dune: Part Two when Paul Atreides asks the keeper of the royal palms why they maintain trees that consume the water of five men every single day. The keeper doesn’t really have an answer beyond saying they’re sacred.

On Arrakis, at least there was symbolism. Water was life. Those palms represented wealth, power, and the ability to waste the rarest resource in the universe.

Here in Phoenix?

They’re not sacred.

They’re just landscaping.

We’re sitting in the middle of the Sonoran Desert, where today it’s a perfectly reasonable—and by “reasonable” I mean ridiculous—105 degrees. Every summer we’re reminded to conserve water. Don’t overwater your lawn. Take shorter showers. Fix leaking faucets. Yet somehow we’re still planting thousands upon thousands of trees that contribute almost nothing besides the illusion that we’re a tropical paradise.

News flash.

We’re not.

We’re a desert.

A beautiful desert, mind you. We have towering saguaros, palo verdes that actually provide shade, mesquite trees, ironwoods, desert willows, and countless native plants that evolved over thousands of years to survive here. They belong here. They help wildlife. They cool the ground. They make ecological sense.

Palm trees are basically botanical tourists who never got the memo.

It’s almost as if somewhere decades ago a developer said, “People associate palm trees with luxury,” and everyone else nodded without asking whether luxury should perhaps include shade.

Imagine that.

A tree.

Whose revolutionary feature is…

…being useful.

Instead, we have these towering sticks with pom-poms on top. They cast a shadow roughly the size of a pizza box while standing eighty feet tall. If you’re trying to escape the Arizona sun beneath one, congratulations—you’ve found the only square foot of shade in a fifty-yard radius.

Hope you don’t mind sharing it with a pigeon.

Maybe Phoenix simply wants to look tropical. Maybe palm trees make visitors think of vacations instead of heat advisories. Maybe they photograph well against our spectacular sunsets.

But no amount of palm trees is going to convince me I’m living in the Caribbean while my car’s steering wheel is attempting to achieve nuclear fusion.

If it’s 105 degrees before lunch, I’m not in paradise.

I’m living in Earth’s convection oven.

So every time I drive past another row of palms, I hear Paul Atreides asking why they exist. On Arrakis, the answer was tradition and symbolism.

In Phoenix, I still don’t think anyone has a better answer.

Dwain Northey

The older I get, the more convinced I become that the Democratic Party’s greatest political strategist isn’t some Republican consultant. It’s ourselves.

If history has taught us anything, it’s that Democrats have an uncanny ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Republicans don’t even have to beat us sometimes. They just have to wait patiently while we start arguing with each other over who is sufficiently pure enough to deserve support.

That is my greatest fear heading into the 2026 midterm elections.

Not that Republicans will suddenly become wildly popular. Not that they’ll unveil some brilliant new governing philosophy. My fear is far more mundane—and far more historically accurate.

We’ll turn on each other.

We’ll dust off the ideological purity tests that have become our favorite self-inflicted wound. Someone won’t be progressive enough. Someone else won’t be moderate enough. One candidate voted the wrong way fifteen years ago. Another used the wrong phrase in a speech. Someone else failed to embrace Issue Number 47 with sufficient enthusiasm.

Before long, social media will be filled with Democrats explaining why another Democrat is somehow “just as bad.”

No. They’re not.

Politics isn’t a search for your soulmate. It’s public transportation. You don’t refuse to board the bus because it doesn’t stop exactly at your front door. You get on the one that gets you 95% of the way there instead of standing on the curb congratulating yourself on your ideological consistency while the bus headed in the opposite direction wins the race.

Republicans understand something that Democrats often refuse to acknowledge. They know coalition politics is messy. They know every member of their coalition doesn’t agree on everything. Libertarians, evangelical Christians, fiscal conservatives, populists, business interests—they argue plenty behind closed doors.

Then Election Day arrives.

Suddenly they’re rowing the same boat.

Democrats, on the other hand, have a bad habit of drilling holes in our own hull because someone painted the oars the wrong shade of blue.

It’s maddening.

The Republican strategy practically writes itself. They know that if Democrats remain united around protecting democracy, expanding healthcare, defending voting rights, supporting workers, preserving reproductive freedom, and maintaining the rule of law, they’re facing a very difficult election.

But if they can sit back while Democrats begin the familiar ritual of cannibalizing our own candidates over relatively minor disagreements, they don’t have to win the argument.

We lose it for them.

And let’s be honest—that has happened more times than many of us care to admit.

A coalition isn’t supposed to be made up of clones. It’s supposed to be made up of people who agree on the big picture while accepting that they’ll disagree on the details. If you agree with someone 95% of the time, maybe—just maybe—that person is your ally, not your enemy.

The perfect candidate doesn’t exist.

The perfect political party certainly doesn’t exist.

Democracy itself is an exercise in compromise. The Constitution wasn’t written because everyone got exactly what they wanted. It was written because enough people agreed on enough things to move the country forward.

Imagine if the delegates had behaved like modern political social media.

“I agree with 95% of the Constitution, but I don’t like Clause 17, so burn the whole thing down.”

We’d probably still be arguing in Philadelphia.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: every minute Democrats spend attacking fellow Democrats over the remaining 5% is a minute Republicans don’t have to spend defending their own record.

That’s a bargain they’re more than happy to accept.

So my plea heading into 2026 is simple.

Save the family arguments for after the election.

Fight passionately in the primaries. Debate ideas. Challenge assumptions. Demand better from candidates. That’s healthy.

But once voters make their choice, remember who the actual opponent is.

Because history has already shown us what happens when Democrats mistake allies for enemies. We become experts at moral victories and spectators at actual governing.

I’d much rather have a coalition that agrees on 95% of the journey than perfect agreement while watching the country head in the opposite direction.

Let’s not become the authors of another chapter titled How Democrats Managed to Lose an Election They Were Poised to Win.

We’ve written that story before.

It wasn’t a comedy the first time.

There’s no reason to produce the sequel.

Dwain Northey

Even Mother Nature Wasn’t Buying the Hype

I have to admit, I was mildly amused that Mother Nature herself seemed to become the biggest spoiler in Donald Trump’s attempt to co-opt America’s 250th birthday.

This was supposed to be the celebration of a nation that has somehow survived 250 years of wars, depressions, pandemics, political stupidity, disco, reality television, and Congress.

Instead, it often felt like the celebration had been rebranded as “America: Starring Donald J. Trump.”

Because, apparently, even the birthday of the United States isn’t allowed to be about the United States if Donald is in the room.

Then Mother Nature said, “Hold my cumulonimbus.”

The heat became oppressive. Thunderstorms rolled in. Lightning started popping. People on the National Mall had to scramble for shelter, turning what was supposed to be a triumphant patriotic spectacle into an impromptu evacuation.

And here’s where history decided to show off its sense of humor.

Many attendees took refuge inside the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

You couldn’t write satire this good.

For years we’ve heard endless complaints about museums that dare tell America’s complete story instead of the sanitized, gift-shop version. Yet when the weather turned ugly, one of those very institutions became a sanctuary.

Apparently, when lightning starts flying, the culture wars can wait.

Even Mother Nature seemed to be saying, “Sit down. You’re all getting a history lesson.”

Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t the only storm.

When Donald finally took the stage, what should have been one of those rare moments when a president simply celebrates America became—surprise!—another episode of The Donald Trump Grievance Hour.

Imagine being so breathtakingly self-absorbed that you look at the 250th anniversary of the birth of the United States and think, “You know what this really needs? More me.”

Only Donald could take a celebration of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abigail Adams, Benjamin Franklin, the soldiers at Valley Forge, the signers of the Declaration, generations of immigrants, civil rights leaders, scientists, teachers, factory workers, nurses, farmers, and every ordinary American who built this country… and somehow make himself the headline act.

That’s not patriotism.

That’s narcissism wrapped in red, white, and blue bunting.

The Founding Fathers didn’t risk hanging for treason so that 250 years later one politician could treat the nation’s birthday like it was his own campaign rally with better fireworks.

America is an idea.

Donald Trump is a temporary employee.

Those are not remotely the same thing.

The office of the presidency is supposed to elevate the individual. Increasingly, this individual seems determined to lower the office to his own level.

And then there’s the irony that never seems to get old.

For someone who constantly portrays himself as larger than life, the crowd looked…well…surprisingly manageable. Mother Nature literally rained on the parade, and the optics became almost poetic. It’s difficult to proclaim yourself the center of the universe when thousands of people are sprinting toward the nearest museum because lightning has decided your speech can wait.

Nature, it turns out, doesn’t care about polling numbers, social media posts, or gold-plated egos.

The atmosphere is gloriously nonpartisan.

On a much happier note, congratulations to the United States Men’s National Team for defeating Mexico and advancing to the World Cup quarterfinals. Unlike politics, sports occasionally remind us what genuine national pride looks like. Eleven guys wearing the same jersey, playing for the name on the front instead of the ego on the back.

Maybe that’s the lesson.

The 250th anniversary was never supposed to celebrate one man.

It was supposed to celebrate an experiment in self-government that has outlived every president, every political party, every demagogue, every would-be king, and every oversized ego that mistakenly believed the country revolved around them.

America was here before Donald Trump.

America will be here after Donald Trump.

And judging by the weather, even Mother Nature wanted to make that point.

Dwain Northey (Gen X)

Somewhere Between Blind Faith and Permanent Suspicion

Human beings have always lived on a spectrum. At one end are the people who believe everything they’re told. At the other are those who believe absolutely nothing. Neither position is healthy, yet both seem to be growing more common.

Some people have adopted the philosophy of “Question everything. Trust nothing.” It sounds intelligent. It sounds rebellious. It sounds like the kind of slogan you’d find on a T-shirt next to a wolf howling at the moon, right above a quote that was probably never said by Einstein.

The problem is that, taken literally, it eventually becomes a prison.

Science itself exists because someone questioned accepted wisdom. If nobody had questioned Aristotle, we’d still believe heavier objects fall faster. If nobody questioned the Earth-centered universe, we’d still think the Sun revolves around us. Every scientific breakthrough begins with skepticism.

But science doesn’t stop at asking questions.

It demands evidence.

That’s the part many people conveniently skip.

A scientist asks, “How do we know this is true?” Then spends years gathering data, testing hypotheses, inviting criticism, and trying to prove themselves wrong. Good science welcomes challenges because the goal isn’t winning an argument—it’s getting closer to reality.

Conspiracy thinking works in exactly the opposite direction.

It starts with the conclusion that everyone is lying.

Then every piece of evidence becomes proof of the lie.

If experts agree, they’re colluding.

If they disagree, they’re creating confusion on purpose.

If there’s no evidence, that’s because it was destroyed.

If there is evidence, it’s fake.

It’s a wonderfully efficient system. The answer is always the same, regardless of the facts.

Ironically, people who proudly proclaim they “trust no one” often end up trusting the least trustworthy people on Earth. They’ll reject decades of peer-reviewed research but will absolutely believe a guy livestreaming from his pickup truck wearing mirrored sunglasses, explaining how the moon landing was filmed in his cousin’s garage.

Apparently everyone is lying except the fellow whose profile picture is an eagle wrapped in the American flag.

Meanwhile, on the opposite end of the spectrum are those who never question anything. Every headline is true. Every politician is honest. Every commercial is completely accurate. Every celebrity endorsement is heartfelt. Every chain email from Aunt Martha is apparently breaking news.

Blind trust isn’t wisdom either.

History is filled with governments lying, corporations covering things up, religious institutions making mistakes, and powerful people abusing trust. Healthy skepticism isn’t cynical—it’s necessary.

But healthy skepticism is very different from pathological suspicion.

Questioning everything while trusting nothing eventually leads to believing almost anything.

That sounds backwards, but it isn’t.

Once you’ve decided every established source is corrupt, you’ve removed every filter separating credible information from fantasy. Suddenly, the wildest explanation seems just as reasonable as the ordinary one because you’ve declared all evidence equally suspicious.

That’s how rabbit holes become sinkholes.

One conspiracy leads to another.

Then another.

Before long, every weather forecast is a government plot, every disease was engineered in a secret underground laboratory, every historical event was staged, every famous person was secretly replaced, and somewhere a billionaire, three aliens, and a medieval secret society are apparently holding weekly planning meetings.

Living in that constant state of suspicion has to be exhausting.

Imagine waking up every morning convinced every news story is fake, every scientist is lying, every election is rigged, every medical breakthrough is poison, every weather event is manufactured, and every institution is secretly controlled by unseen puppet masters.

At some point you’ve stopped questioning reality and simply started writing fan fiction about it.

There has to be a healthier middle ground.

Question claims.

Verify sources.

Compare evidence.

Accept that you might be wrong.

Trust—but not blindly.

Question—but not compulsively.

Recognize that some institutions deserve criticism while others have earned credibility through transparency, expertise, and a long history of getting far more right than wrong.

The goal isn’t to trust everyone.

The goal isn’t to trust no one.

The goal is to become a better judge of who and what deserves your trust.

That requires humility because every one of us has been fooled at some point. Every one of us has believed something that later turned out to be false. Intelligence isn’t measured by never making mistakes. It’s measured by being willing to admit them and move on instead of doubling down because your ego won’t let you exit the rabbit hole.

Perhaps that’s the lesson we’ve forgotten.

Questioning should be a path toward understanding, not an identity.

Skepticism should be a tool, not a personality trait.

And trust should be earned—not automatically given, but not permanently withheld either.

Somewhere between believing everything and believing nothing is the place where reason actually lives.

It’s admittedly less exciting than imagining you’ve uncovered the greatest conspiracy in human history while sitting in your recliner watching YouTube.

But it’s a much healthier place to build a life.

Dwain Northey (Gen X)

They Already Won: The Calendar Doesn’t Lie

Years ago, I heard a comedian making fun of Christianity and the endless efforts by some believers to “spread the Gospel to the whole world.” His punchline was simple.

“Are you kidding? You’ve already won.”

At first, it got a laugh.

The older I’ve gotten, the more I’ve realized it was also historically accurate.

When I was a kid, BC meant Before Christ, and AD meant After Death—or at least that’s what I believed. Even then, it never made much sense to me. Christians were always telling me that Jesus didn’t stay dead; he rose from the dead. So why divide history into “Before Christ” and “After Death” if the whole point of Christianity is that death wasn’t the end of the story?

Years later, I learned that AD doesn’t mean “After Death” at all. It stands for the Latin Anno Domini—“In the Year of Our Lord.” The calendar isn’t counting from the crucifixion but from the traditional year of Jesus’ birth.

Modern historians know the dating is probably off by several years. Ironically, Jesus was almost certainly born Before Christ.

History has a wonderful sense of humor.

In recent decades, scholars and publishers have increasingly adopted BCE (Before Common Era) and CE (Common Era). Personally, I don’t have a problem with the terminology. It’s intended to be religiously neutral in an increasingly diverse world.

But here’s the amusing part.

Changing the labels doesn’t change the reference point.

Whether you call it AD or CE…

Year One is still Year One.

The entire globe is still measuring time from the traditionally accepted birth of a Jewish preacher from an obscure Roman province in the Middle East.

Think about that for a moment.

No civilization decided history should begin with the birth of Moses.

Not Abraham.

Not Muhammad.

Not Buddha.

Not Julius Caesar.

Not Alexander the Great.

Not even the founding of Rome.

Instead, nearly every passport, legal document, scientific paper, business contract, archaeological report, and space mission on Earth is dated according to the traditional birth year of Jesus.

That is an astonishing level of cultural influence.

What’s even more remarkable is that this didn’t happen overnight.

The Christian movement began as a tiny, often persecuted sect in the Roman Empire. Three centuries after the crucifixion, Constantine the Great embraced Christianity and helped move it from the margins of society toward the center of imperial life. The cross—once an instrument of execution—became the defining symbol of the faith.

But Constantine didn’t invent the calendar.

That came roughly two centuries later.

In the sixth century, about 500 years after the death—and, according to Christian belief, the resurrection—of Jesus, a monk named Dionysius Exiguus proposed a new way of numbering years. Instead of counting from the reign of emperors or the legendary founding of Rome, he suggested counting from the birth of Christ.

Think about how extraordinary that is.

Five centuries after the events themselves, a religion that had begun with a handful of followers in an obscure corner of the Middle East had become influential enough that its central figure became history’s universal reference point.

That system spread throughout Christian Europe. Then European exploration, trade, diplomacy, colonialism, science, and eventually globalization carried that calendar around the world.

Today, nations with every imaginable religion—and many with no official religion at all—still use it.

Centuries later, we changed the initials from AD to CE in many academic settings.

It’s rather like repainting the house while leaving the foundation untouched.

The labels changed.

The foundation didn’t.

Some critics object that using CE somehow erases Christianity.

Others insist everyone should abandon AD entirely.

Personally, I think both sides overlook the historical irony.

You can rename the calendar all you want.

You can change the initials.

You can make them as religiously neutral as possible.

But you’re still counting from exactly the same moment in history.

That’s the point the comedian was making.

Christians trying to spread Christianity?

From a historical perspective, they accomplished something far more remarkable.

Their faith became so culturally influential that, centuries after its founder lived, died, and—according to Christian belief—rose again, much of humanity agreed to reset the calendar around his birth.

Whether you’re a Christian, a Muslim, a Jew, a Hindu, a Buddhist, an atheist, or someone who has never set foot inside a church, every time you write the date, you’re participating in a system whose starting point was chosen because of Jesus of Nazareth.

History doesn’t offer many examples of influence on that scale.

You don’t have to share the belief to acknowledge the impact.

The calendar already did.

Dwain Northey (Gen X)

When I was a kid, one question always nagged at me, and I never seemed to get a satisfying answer.

Why is the symbol of Christianity a torture device?

Think about it for a second. If you were starting a new movement today and your leader had been executed by the state, would you really make the execution method your logo? If a modern political dissident died in an electric chair, no one would wear little gold electric chairs around their necks. If they died by guillotine, nobody would put tiny guillotines on church steeples. Yet somehow Christianity’s defining symbol became the very instrument used to execute its Messiah.

Even as a child, that struck me as…odd.

Historically, the answer has less to do with Jesus than with politics.

For the first few centuries after Jesus’ crucifixion, Christians generally avoided emphasizing the cross. Early believers used symbols like the fish, the shepherd, or the Chi-Rho monogram. They were a persecuted minority trying to survive in the Roman Empire, not decorating themselves with the empire’s favorite execution device.

Then along came Emperor Constantine.

Before the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in 312 CE, Constantine reportedly had a vision. Depending on which ancient source you read, he either saw a cross in the sky or the Chi-Rho symbol accompanied by words meaning, “In this sign, conquer.” Whether you see that as divine intervention, political inspiration, or brilliant wartime branding is up to you.

Constantine won.

And once the emperor won, the symbol won.

Suddenly the Roman emperor ordered the symbol to appear on military standards, shields, banners, and imperial regalia. The same empire that had crucified Jesus was now deciding what Christianity’s public image would be.

There’s a historical irony almost too rich to ignore.

The Romans executed Jesus.

Three centuries later, the Romans decided what logo Christianity would use.

Talk about history being written by the winners.

Imagine your worst enemy not only killing your founder but then showing up centuries later saying, “We’ve been thinking about your marketing strategy. We believe the murder weapon really captures your brand.”

And somehow everyone nodded.

Now, to Christians, the cross represents sacrifice, redemption, forgiveness, hope, and victory over death. I completely understand that theological meaning, and it has inspired billions of people for nearly two thousand years.

But from a purely historical perspective, it’s fascinating.

The symbol wasn’t universally embraced immediately after the crucifixion. It became dominant only after imperial Rome embraced Christianity and intertwined faith with political power.

History is full of these strange twists.

Sometimes the people who try to destroy an idea end up shaping how future generations remember it.

So every time I see a cross atop a church or hanging from someone’s neck, part of me still hears that curious little kid asking the same question:

“Wait…why is the symbol of Christianity the thing they used to kill Christianity’s founder?”

And then history answers with one of its favorite plot twists:

“Because three hundred years later, a Roman emperor thought it would look great on military equipment.”

Sometimes history isn’t just stranger than fiction.

It’s stranger than satire.

Dwain Northey (Gen X)

America’s 250th Birthday: Celebrating the Beginning, Not the Finish

As America approaches the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, I’m reminded that one of our greatest challenges isn’t political—it’s historical illiteracy. We celebrate our nation’s founding every Fourth of July, yet many Americans don’t actually understand what happened on that day, or what didn’t.

Ask enough people, and you’ll hear that George Washington was our first president when the Declaration was signed in 1776. He wasn’t.

Washington was the commander of the Continental Army. He would not become the first President of the United States until 1789—thirteen years later.

That fact alone should make us pause.

On July 4, 1776, the United States as we know it didn’t yet exist. The Declaration of Independence was exactly what its name says: a declaration. It announced to the world that thirteen British colonies intended to become independent states. It did not magically create a functioning nation overnight.

In fact, we weren’t even operating under the Constitution. That wouldn’t be written until 1787 and wouldn’t take effect until 1789 after enough states ratified it. Between those years, the young nation struggled under the Articles of Confederation, a system so weak it couldn’t effectively tax, regulate commerce, or even compel states to cooperate with one another.

Technically speaking, on July 4, 1776, we had declared our intentions—but we hadn’t yet built the country.

Even the signing itself has become wrapped in mythology. Many people imagine every important colonial leader gathered in one room, enthusiastically signing the document together while church bells rang and fireworks exploded.

History is rarely that tidy.

Not every delegate signed on July 4. Most signed weeks later. There wasn’t unanimous enthusiasm in every colony, either. Independence was controversial. Many colonists remained loyal to Britain. Others were uncertain. The delegates who approved the Declaration represented their colonies in the Continental Congress, but they were navigating shifting political realities back home. Independence wasn’t inevitable; it was debated, argued, feared, and ultimately chosen.

Then came the hard part.

Declaring independence was one thing.

Winning it was another.

For the next seven years, the outcome remained uncertain. Had Britain prevailed, the Declaration might today be remembered not as the birth certificate of a nation but as evidence from a failed rebellion.

History only looks inevitable in hindsight.

Perhaps that’s what makes America’s story so remarkable. Our nation wasn’t born fully formed on a single July afternoon. It was built through years of military struggle, political compromise, constitutional debate, economic experimentation, and countless disagreements among people who often had very different visions of what America should become.

The Declaration was the opening chapter—not the final page.

As we celebrate our semiquincentennial, perhaps the best way to honor those who came before us isn’t by repeating comforting myths. It’s by appreciating the extraordinary complexity of what they actually accomplished.

They didn’t simply create a country.

They imagined one first.

Then they fought for it.

Then they argued about how to govern it.

Then they wrote a Constitution.

Then they spent generations trying to live up to the ideals they had so boldly proclaimed in 1776.

Our history deserves more than slogans. It deserves understanding.

America’s 250th birthday isn’t merely a celebration of a document. It’s a celebration of an idea—one that was declared before it was secured, debated before it was codified, and remains unfinished even today.

The Declaration of Independence wasn’t the end of the American story.

It was the moment we picked up the pen and began writing it.

Dwain Northey (Gen X)

The Fourth of July has never belonged to a president.

Not to George Washington. Not to Abraham Lincoln. Not to Franklin Roosevelt. Not to Ronald Reagan. Not to Barack Obama. And despite what Donald Trump appears to believe, it doesn’t belong to him either.

The 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence should be one of those rare moments when Americans pause our endless political arguments and remember what we actually celebrate. We don’t celebrate a man. We don’t celebrate a political party. We don’t even celebrate a government.

We celebrate an idea.

That idea was radical in 1776. It was that governments derive “their just powers from the consent of the governed.” It was the notion that liberty belongs to the people, not to kings, not to emperors, and certainly not to presidents who believe the nation revolves around them.

America wasn’t even technically a country on July 4, 1776. We declared independence, but we had no Constitution. We had no presidency. We had no Bill of Rights. George Washington wasn’t President because the office didn’t even exist. The Declaration was the birth of an aspiration, not the completion of a nation.

Our country has spent the last 250 years trying to live up to those words.

That is why I find it troubling when Donald Trump attempts to wrap the entire anniversary around himself. Whether it’s speeches that portray him as the embodiment of America or events designed to elevate his personal image, the underlying message is always the same: I am America.

No, you’re not.

No president is.

America survived Washington stepping down voluntarily. It survived the Civil War. It survived the Great Depression. It survived two world wars, Watergate, Vietnam, recessions, pandemics, and every other crisis because America is larger than any individual.

The office serves the country.

The country does not serve the office.

The irony couldn’t be richer. The Declaration of Independence was, at its heart, a rejection of concentrating power in one man. The colonists listed grievance after grievance against a king who believed the government existed to serve him.

They didn’t trade one king for another.

The founders intentionally built a system where presidents come and go while the Republic endures.

That is the point.

Trump’s “Festival of the States” on the National Mall was apparently envisioned as a grand patriotic celebration. Yet reports and images suggested it struggled to generate the excitement and attendance one would expect from a once-in-250-years event. Rather than becoming a unifying national celebration, it often appeared overshadowed by its association with one political figure instead of the broader story of the American people. Public enthusiasm for the semiquincentennial cannot simply be manufactured through branding or personality. It has to be earned by inviting everyone into the celebration, regardless of party. When the focus shifts from the nation to the leader, the celebration loses what made it meaningful in the first place.

Perhaps that’s because Americans instinctively understand something our politicians sometimes forget.

We don’t celebrate presidents on Independence Day.

We celebrate independence.

We celebrate ordinary farmers who became soldiers. Merchants who became diplomats. Printers who became revolutionaries. Women who kept families and communities alive while the men fought. Enslaved Americans who heard the words “all men are created equal” and spent generations demanding that the nation finally live up to them. Immigrants who arrived decades later believing that this imperfect experiment was still worth joining.

That is America.

Not one man.

Not one administration.

Not one political movement.

An idea.

Ideas cannot be trademarked. They cannot be copyrighted. They cannot be licensed to a political campaign or turned into personal branding.

Thomas Jefferson’s words belong to every American, including those who disagree with whoever occupies the White House.

The greatest presidents have understood this. Washington surrendered power. Lincoln spoke of “the better angels of our nature.” Roosevelt reminded us that democracy belonged to the people. They recognized that history would judge them by whether they strengthened the Republic—not whether they convinced the Republic to revolve around them.

That is the lesson of 250 years.

Presidents are temporary.

The Constitution endures.

Political parties rise and fall.

The Declaration remains.

The fireworks fade.

The idea survives.

That is what we should be celebrating—not the ego of whoever happens to be holding the office at this particular moment in history.