About Me

My political and social world was shaped by my conservative birth family, but when I turned nineteen, I became --miraculously it seems -- an expert on all things political and religious, bravely and regularly informing my parents of their benighted understanding of our world. I became a real-life protester and then, for a long time, lived comfortably in a social justice world, but in 1998 I encountered the first real challenges to my worldview. It began with my first trip to Ukraine where the ruined remains of Soviet occupation jolted and unsettled me. A few years later, when I helped record the stories of Reformed Hungarian men and women who had survived Communist tyranny, it was impossible to quiet the persistent, nagging questions.

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The stories themselves are worthy of retelling, but seeing the ruins left in the wake of Communism, left me deeply troubled. For a long time, I looked for answers to questions like: How and why did Communism take root in Russia and spread, some say, like a malignancy to much of East Central Europe? Why was the West willing to take on National Socialism but unwilling to stop Soviet expansion? For a number of years, I got bogged down trying to find a way to combine the interviews transcripts with the historical background and my uneasy reactions. It was impossible! I have come to realize that the stories of faith and courage can and should stand alone, and I still plan to make them available. But I have also decided to make my personal journey (pardon the cliché) available in a blog. The next few entries will be largely autobiographical. The first few describe living Right, the second, Leaning Left, and the following entries will describe the journey beyond left and right.