The Editors
Articles by The Editors
Another Bad Idea In American Public Schooling
Claremont, CA. Outside of Los Angeles County, few people have heard about the latest dangerous idea in public education. Two local public school districts have adopted a "legacy admissions" policy.…
Root Hog or Die
Henry County, Kentucky. Every Memorial Day my husband takes our children to visit three cemeteries in our county. We take grass from the family farm for a great-grandfather, rhubarb for…
Sing that Dead Man’s Songs: The Music of Chris Gaffney
Thanks to Brian Frizzell, Brooklyn patriot and Americana music maven, this link http://www.reverbnation.com/manofsomebodysdreamsatributetochrisgaffney to a new album paying tribute to the late Chris Gaffney, a dolefully beautiful voice of the American…
Scruton’s Challenge
Authors and readers of FPR should spend some time reading this extraordinary essay by Roger Scruton, from the most recent issue of Intercollegiate Review. Scruton is that rarest of academic…
Whaddya Know, the Hicks Can Spell
Allow me a moment to bask in some regional pride. Kavya is from just down the road, and I love her Kansan's dialect, flat midwestern accent, and plain manner of…
Stormin’ Norman, Decentralist
BURNED-OVER DISTRICT, NY--One of the precious and few political campaigns in recent years to embody Front Porch (or, rather, front stoop) principles was Norman Mailer's 1969 candidacy for mayor of…
The 3/50 Project
It's not a difficult argument to understand. You have a responsibility to your community because, among other things, you are not your own. So act like it. It ain't hard.…
Commencement Address
Take heart though, for most of your triumphs, large and small, lie in front of you as well. Which is just to say that you stand at a grand beginning,…
Meritocracy, Urban Design, and Culture: Observations from a Friend
PHOENIX, ARIZONA. (Note: this post has two pages, thanks to webmaster Lundy's new-and-improved FPR technology.) I am gratified by the many responses, here and elsewhere in the sphere, that were…
What Is to be Done?
On Amtrak Regional Train 130 Daniel Larison has written a number of related postings here (and here) and elsewhere that have insistently raised and sought to answer the question: what…
Summertime Blues
Wichita, KS. I'm more than capable of putting on my localist and communitarian hat(s) during the fall, winter, and spring: I defend the public schools, speak out in favor of…
Science and the Spirit in an Age of Hostile Presumption
Washington, CT. Winter was a hard-nosed professional this season just past. It sunk its icy teeth in long and hard and mocked us with a one day January thaw that…
Blog Flu
JEFFERSON COUNTY, KANSAS.* Recently on this virtual stoop, questions have arisen about the "tone" of discussion generally, and particularly in the comment section (I refuse the neologism "combox" as an ugly stain…
The Immoral Life of Children
A few weeks ago a friend's ten-year-old daughter came home from school, turned to her mother with a frown, and speaking low, so as to stay out of earshot of…
Good Job, Bruce!
A retirement dinner party for an Ivy League professor follows certain conventions. It begins with the cocktail hour where guests renew old and make new acquaintances while sipping wine and nibbling appetizers.…
Localism And Cosmopolites
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS. Remarking on Jeremy Beer's article on meritocracy, Patrick Deneen concludes with this grim, but correct, observation: This, in a microcosm, is a central paradox of our political system:…
Go Home, Young Person
Jeremy Beer has masterfully articulated the ideology of meritocracy and the destruction it wreaks upon the small towns and non-major cities of the nation. Still, a number of sympathetic readers…
The Sacrament of Death
James has penned an eloquent essay on his son this morning. I am moved again to remind us all of a central truth. And that truth is that abortion remains…
An Unholy Alliance
At "Minding the Campus," there's an essay by ME that touches on the implicit similarities between our technocratic administrative class and our post-modern radical professoriate. For all their differences they…
The Great Recession and the Rebirth of Community
An article in last week's Washington Post explores the revival of communities as a response to the economic crisis. According to the article, As the neighbors got out of their…
Practicing the Discipline of Place
My "Place" (Photo by AMS) JEFFERSON COUNTY, KANSAS. If you think I'm reprinting yet another old essay because I'm too lazy or beset to keep up with my bettors on…
Act Like a Man, and We’ll Arrest You
Interesting article in the Philadelphia Inquirer today about a blind man from Brussels who, not bein' from around these parts, didn't realize that American freedom meant the Freedom Not to…
Mortgaged Myth and the Monuments of a Depauperate Republic
Washington, CT. In August of 1311, the Doge of Venice.... as big shots are wont to do.... decreed that a monument to the government would henceforth be constructed and its…