Archive for Russell Madden

A Consensus Society

Russell Madden (rdmadden@earthlink.net) teaches writing at Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and is a freelance writer. My wife and I last year completed a 5,000-mile road trip to Washington and back. A friend we visited in Seattle is a librarian in that city’s system. While we were there, she alerted us to the [...]

1Feb2005 | Russell Madden | 1 comment | Continued

Watering the Tree

Though my father is approaching 80 and is no longer able to do as much outdoors, a legacy of his retirement years is the orchard behind my childhood home. After my dad ended his trucking career, he took to heart an activity I would not previously have supposed to be of interest to him. His [...]

1Mar2004 | Russell Madden | 0 comments | Continued

Punishing the Many

Russell Madden teaches at Mt. Mercy College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Anyone who has observed children will recognize that, ironically, they often demonstrate a more stringent and uncompromising sense of justice than the adults around them. A small child who must divide a piece of cake, for example, will be excruciatingly precise in cutting it [...]

1Jun2000 | Russell Madden | 0 comments | Continued

Subsidized Education

Russell Madden teaches at Mt. Mercy College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. It’s an annual ritual. With a sense of dread tinged with resignation, college students, or their parents, wait to discover how much this year’s tuition will rise. Unlike their experience with new computers, they entertain no expectation that rates for their education will decrease. [...]

1Sep1999 | Russell Madden | 23 comments | Continued

For the Children

Russell Madden teaches at Mt. Mercy College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Most parents love their children and seek only the best for them. Indeed, the notion that the next generation should have better and easier lives is best illustrated by the countless immigrant parents who suffer backbreaking labor, long hours, and economic deprivation. That motivation [...]

1Jul1998 | Russell Madden | 0 comments | Continued

Government Versus the Environment

When the subject is the environment, the public perception is that a resource of such importance can only be adequately safeguarded by the benevolent, all-encompassing hands of the government. Whether that protection comes in the guise of the Environmental Protection Agency, the Forest Service, the Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management, or any of [...]

1Feb1998 | Russell Madden | 18 comments | Continued

One Freedom

Russell Madden is a communications instructor at Mt. Mercy College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. “A man was either free or not free. . . . Freedom was indivisible. . . . To talk of ‘several freedoms’ is to use the language of Europe, not of America; it is an abandonment of the basic principle on [...]

1Jan1998 | Russell Madden | 0 comments | Continued

Or Else . . .

Russell Madden is a communications instructor at Mt. Mercy College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Extortion has always been a favorite activity of governmental agencies. Ordinarily, threatening someone with harm unless he accedes to another’s demands is rightfully a crime. Whether the perpetrator is a neighbor seeking to use your lawn mower or an organized-crime thug [...]

1Dec1997 | Russell Madden | 0 comments | Continued

Taking Responsibility: Self-Reliance and the Accountable Life

Mr. Madden is an instructor in communication at Mt. Mercy College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Responsibility is a favorite buzzword on the current political scene. Yet even many conservatives have a faulty notion of what the concept actually entails. In his latest book, psychologist Nathaniel Branden sets forth a sound approach to this critical issue. [...]

1Oct1996 | Russell Madden | 0 comments | Continued

Rejecting Responsibility

Mr. Madden is an instructor in communication at Mt. Mercy College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. At a recent family gathering my father and I happened to discuss some of the problems facing Social Security. My 71-year-old dad received partial disability benefits before retiring and also claims veterans’ benefits from a wound he suffered in Europe [...]

1Jul1996 | Russell Madden | 1 comment | Continued

Dark Rivers of the Heart

Mr. Madden is an instructor in communications at Mt. Mercy College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Had this novel been released after the bombing of the Oklahoma federal building, it would no doubt be condemned by the Washington establishment as paranoid, extremist, hate-filled, and un-American. In its criticism of the abuses committed by those possessing the [...]

1Jan1996 | Russell Madden | 0 comments | Continued

No-Brainer

Mr. Madden is an instructor in communication at Mt. Mercy College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. In a recent issue of TV Guide the actor LeVar Burton was quoted as saying that, “The attack on PBS by the new Congress is a no-brainer. Anyone who opposes funding for PBS and does anything to discourage kids’ programming [...]

1Oct1995 | Russell Madden | 1 comment | Continued

The Ups and Downs of Unemployment

Russell Madden is an instructor in communications at Mt. Mercy College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Anyone who has found himself without a job for an extended period of time knows the problems that can accrue from having no work, As someone who has experienced such episodes firsthand at various periods in my life, I can [...]

1Aug1995 | Russell Madden | 0 comments | Continued

Eco-Fascism

Mr. Madden is an instructor in communication at Mt. Mercy College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The violations of private property rights that have flowed from the environmental movement and its adherence to the erroneous theory of "intrinsic value" have already caused intense hardships for many people. Individuals have been prevented from developing their land as [...]

1Apr1995 | Russell Madden | 0 comments | Continued

Little Lessons in Larceny

Mr. Madden teaches communication at Mount Mercy College, Cedar Rapids, Iowa. At a family gathering last Christmas, I had the opportunity to observe an event all-too-familiar to anyone who has spent time around small children. My three-year-old nephew was playing with a new toy he had received. The truck came with a number of smaller [...]

1Dec1993 | Russell Madden | 0 comments | Continued

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