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It’s June 6—D-Day. Seventy-eight years ago, Americans and our allies displayed unfathomable courage on the beaches at Normandy. Unfathomable courage.

Almost eight decades later our country is suffering from unfathomable cowardice. A country that will not protect its citizens—and especially its children—is a lost and soulless society. It’s not that we can’t protect them. It’s that we choose not to.

Our national numbness is like general anesthesia. We feel nothing, even as our hearts and brains are being surgically removed. The prognosis is dismal.

Gun violence is now the leading cause of death for American children.

Did you just glide over that sentence?

I said gun violence is now the leading cause of death for American children. It’s more than unacceptable and intolerable. It should be unimaginable. This is the United States of America. Or at least it used to be.

We need to stage another D-Day. But this time it needs to stand for Decency Day. Or Dignity Day. Or Dawning Day. And that invasion of morality has to start with a cold, stark look in the mirror.

We’re ugly. We are coyote ugly right now. We are not the country our elders spilled blood on the beaches to protect.

But you blow it off with, “But we’re still the greatest country on Earth,” right?

No. No we’re not. Not even close, currently. We suck right now. Pretty much across the Full Suck Spectrum.

Let me cut you off, because I know you better than you know yourselves. Some of you are thinking, “Well, if that’s the way you feel, Alexander, you can leave.”

No. That’s not the way this works. I’m not going anywhere. This is my home. This is my country. I love it. You don’t abandon things you love. You work like hell to improve them and defend them.

And some of us don’t need 15-foot phallic guns to “protect this house.”

Ideas will prevail. Ideals will prevail. Principles will prevail.

Right now we are witnessing unfathomable cowardice. And like most cowards, they pose as tough guys.

We’ve had ten more mass shootings since Friday. That’s 246 so far in 2022. This is the 155th day of the year. We have had more mass shootings than sunrises.

We have had 33 mass shootings since Uvalde 13 days ago.

And spare me the, “This is just the price of freedom” claptrap. This is a uniquely American failure. And we are anything but free. We are imprisoned by our worship…our WORSHIP…of guns. It’s absolutely true that guns are not the entire problem. But it’s ridiculous to contend that guns play NO role in gun violence. That’s like saying hydrogen and oxygen play no role in water. Stop it.

Cowards fail to do what’s needed to address a problem. Frequently, cowards deny that there is a problem at all.

Societies are judged by their values. We value guns. We value guns more than we do our children. That statement is literal, quantifiable and undeniable. We’ve spent many more resources defending guns than we have defending children.

Where am I wrong?

Seventy-eight years to the day after displaying unfathomable courage, our country is now proudly promoting unfathomable cowardice. It’s disgraceful.

These coward cultists are neither tough guys nor patriots.

They’re Rainbows. They are The New Rainbow Coalition.

Like rainbows, they bend and distort light, and try to wrap that distortion in pretty colors. And like rainbows, ultimately there is no there there.  

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Paul's Bio

I clearly have the attention span of your median fruit fly.Look! Airplane!

Sorry. I’m back.

It’s both a curse and a blessing. I’ve never bought this stuff about, “He who dies with the most toys wins.” But I do think that a wide range of life experiences helps us grow as people, and helps us better relate to other people. I’ve been fortunate. And I am beyond grateful.

I show up on time. I go like hell. I’m a good listener. I hold myself accountable. I own my mistakes. And I have a natural and an insatiable curiosity. I’m never afraid to say, “I don’t know,” when I don’t. But then I try to find out.

The flip side is I’m a lousy ballroom dancer and my clothes sometimes fit me funny.

Stuff matters to me. I care. But while I take that stuff seriously, I try hard to never take myself seriously. As a result, I have sometimes been told, “Paul, it’s hard to tell when you’re serious and when you’re just having some fun. Which is it? Serious or fun?”

My answer is “yes.” But I think that is a legitimate criticism. I promise I’m going to work on that.

This has been the quickest and strangest half-century I’ve ever experienced. During that period, I’ve been afforded amazing opportunities in news and sports journalism across all platforms. I have taught wonderful students at the high school and collegiate level. Always, I learned more from them than they did from me. I’ve been a high school administrator. I spent ten seasons as a high school varsity football coach. I’ve been an advertising executive. I’ve hosted nationally syndicated television entertainment shows. In maybe the biggest honor I ever received, I was selected by NASA to be “Chet The Astronaut” for the “Land The Shuttle” simulator at Space Center Houston. (All I can say there, is “Do as I say, not as I do.” I put that thing in the Everglades more often than not.) Most recently, I just wrapped up a decade as a television news director, during which time our teams distinguished themselves in holding the powerful accountable, achieving both critical and ratings success.

What does all that mean? It means I am profoundly grateful. It also means I’m ready for “next.” So here we are. Radically Rational. It’s an idea I woke up with in 2017. I scribbled “Radically Rational” on a piece of notebook paper and used a magnet to stick it on our refrigerator. I saw it every day, and it just would not leave me alone.

I am second in charge at Radically Rational, LLC. My wife, Jo (also known as BB), is the president. Clearly, I have failed in my attempt to sleep my way to the top of this organization.

I hope you will learn that I’m loyal as a Labrador. But I will admit that this doggie can bite every now and then. My promise to you? I will show up on time. I will go like hell. I will listen to you earnestly and attentively. I will hold myself accountable. I will never be the least bit hesitant to say, “I don’t know,” when I don’t.

But then I’ll try to find out. Let’s do it.