Continuing my series of responses to the New York Times’, The Ethicist, without imposing values, here is my take on today’s post, “Your Sister Won’t Vaccinate Her Son. Can You Help Him?” My sister and her ex are against vaccinating their kids, and I completely disagree with them. Vaccines have helped usher in the modern age; our life spans have been lengthened by the eradication or suppression of smallpox, polio,[…] Keep reading →

Continuing my series of responses to the New York Times’, The Ethicist, without imposing values, here is my take on today’s post, “What Should You Do When Customers Make Racist Remarks?” I grew up in New York and moved to a small Pacific Northwest ski town a year and a half ago. I work as a bookseller-manager at an independent bookstore. I love my job, but this election cycle brought[…] Keep reading →

Continuing my series of responses to the New York Times’, The Ethicist, without imposing values, here is my take on today’s post, “Do You Get Involved When a Parent Treats a Child Badly?” I was walking home from dinner with a friend one evening down a quiet residential street. Two boys, ages somewhere between 8 and 10, were biking down the road accompanied by a middle-aged woman. I assumed she[…] Keep reading →

Flexibility in your beliefs and mental models is a key part of intelligence and leadership. Your beliefs influence how you see the world. Only being able to see things one way confines you to a mental jail and keeps you from solving problems. Think of the 4-minute mile. When everyone believed breaking it was impossible, almost nobody tried. Once the first man did, within months another followed. Now high school[…] Keep reading →

A few weeks ago I posted about how the New School turned the men’s room into an all-gendered bathroom but kept the women’s room single sex in my post “This is equality?” On a hunch, this week I checked the bathrooms on the floor below. On that floor, they turned the women’s room to all-gendered and kept the men’s room unchanged. Sorry, I was wrong and jumped to a conclusion[…] Keep reading →

Continuing my series of responses to the New York Times’, The Ethicist, without imposing values, here is my take on today’s post, “Should I Call My Friend Out for Her ‘Service Dog’ Scam?” My friend got a service dog solely to circumvent the “no pets” policy in her building. She does have the disability this dog is trained to help with, but she doesn’t use him for this purpose and[…] Keep reading →

Continuing my series of responses to the New York Times’, The Ethicist, without imposing values, here is my take on today’s post, “Should Parents Be Expected to Donate to a Public School?” Our granddaughter is in kindergarten at a highly ranked elementary school: Test scores average in the top 1 percent of the schools in the state. Only 1.2 percent of the students are on a free or low-cost lunch.[…] Keep reading →

Continuing my series of responses to the New York Times’, The Ethicist, without imposing values, here is my take on today’s post, “Am I Obliged to Support My Elderly Mother?” I recently graduated from college — the first person in my family to do so — and am trying to make a life for myself in New York. My father passed away several months ago, and my mother, who is[…] Keep reading →

Continuing my series of responses to the New York Times’, The Ethicist, without imposing values, here is my take on today’s post, “Is It O.K. to Double-Cross a Swindler?” I manage my elderly father’s financial affairs and was unable to stop payment on a check he sent to a tech-support scammer. His bank investigated and determined, properly, that they could not intervene because he had signed the check. My phone[…] Keep reading →