BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON  |  ARP 2, 2026

Deep thinking can give you a headache.

While peeling a bright red hard-boiled egg during Easter time, a random thought creeped in. Where did the tradition of the Easter Bunny and the colored eggs come from? I turned to the Internet and found more than I cared to know.

The Easter Bunny was first introduced by German immigrants to Pennsylvania in the early 18th Century. The origins actually dated back to an ancient pagan festival that celebrated the goddess of fertility. The bunny laid colored eggs for the children. The egg is a symbol of life, spring, rebirth, and renewal. During the Christian observance of Lent, a 40-day-long period of prayer, fasting and charity, eggs were not eaten, and after the observance, were and are now adorned with bright colors and decorations in celebration of the resurrection of Christ.

Easter to Christians is of course a sacred celebration of their spirituality and eternal life reminding the faithful that death is not the end of life, but a new beginning. It is this holiday that should serve as the renewal of our devotion to the teachings Christ preached during his time on earth, which serve as the essence of our human experience and the promise for everlasting life.

And now a return to the daily grind:

The Great American Art Form

Do you know what it is, the great American art form? Forget jazz, Broadway, comics, hip-hop, movies, or ice dancing.

Max Nussenbaum, writing on The Substack Post Weekender says—and he may be right—it’s conspiracy theories.

He contends that “This country was built for them: start with a deep-seated distrust of authority, stir in the Protestant idea of unmediated access to individual truth and top with the First Amendment to let it all bloom in public.”

Think about the conspiracy theories and subterfuge that permeated the Revolutionary War. Other conspiracy theories were spread again during the War of 1812. Abraham Lincoln’s sex life and his assassination spawned them as did slavery; the American Indian wars; Woodrow Wilson’s stroke; the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and aliens among us. Some in recent history were zeroed in on Lee Harvey Oswald and the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Another theory going around back then was that the Moon landing was actually staged in a Hollywood movie studio. Then, of course, there was Russiagate.

“In today’s hyperconnected and information-saturated world, conspiracy theories have proliferated across the planet, transcending geographical and social boundaries. Defined as ‘an attempt to make sense of notable events by placing responsibility on a secret plot …’ have become a global phenomenon,” wrote Danield Stockemer and Jean-Nicholas Bordeleau with theUniversity of Ottawa in 2024.

True. Today we are drowning in conspiracy theories, especially on social media. Save yourself, get a snorkel, and swim to shore.

Education Declines While Education Department is Razed

Elon Musk has declared that the Federal Department of Education “no longer exists” after his DOGE campaign targeted the department. Unfortunately, while that declaration is premature, it soon won’t be. The Department is shedding agencies, ending programs, and shuffling money to other departments or terminated spending altogether. Survey research indicates however that our failures to educate continue, in crisis mode, especially in the education of younger generations, and that is tragic, not only for the future of the young, but the nation. Younger and older adults have experienced deficiencies in their education, as well, just compounding the problem.

Some are fighting back.

I read recently about a young man in Tennessee who was graduated from secondary school in the Clarksville-Montgomery district with a 3.4 grade point average, according to Fannie Block, an investigative reporter with The Free Press. The problem for the dyslexic student was that he couldn’t read his diploma. He was illiterate. He and his parents sued in 2023, charging that he didn’t get the education to which he was entitled under the Individuals with Disabilities Act. A judge agreed and the case went to the Court of Appeals, where the higher court agreed with the lower court and ruled that despite his dyslexia, with proper instruction, he can learn to read. It was reported that ”888 hours of compensatory education” had been ordered by the court.

What do you do with the shopping cart after loading the groceries? Fess Up.

An article I was given recently caught my eye and it got me thinking about the last time I went grocery shopping. It was a piece on an unscientific “Shopping Cart Theory” that apparently went viral on social media a few years ago. The premise of the Shopping Cart Theory, explained by Joy Manning and Dietician Katey Davidson in EatingWell this year, simply means “there’s no reward for returning a cart and no punishment for leaving it behind, the choice to walk it back is framed as a purely voluntary act of civic responsibility…people who return their carts demonstrate a willingness to do the right thing without external motivation, while those who don’t are said to reveal a fundamental flow in their character.”

There are a good many valid reasons why shoppers don’t return the cart, from disabilities, issues with balance and age, extreme weather, to not wanting to leave a small child unattended. Yet a valid reason is different from a lame excuse. It does say something about each of us. My wife and I always return our cart to its rightful storage area. It’s like my momma used to say, “You’re a good boy, Mikey.”

A Side-Trip in Memphis, Tennessee

President Donald Trump visited Memphis in March to participate in a law enforcement roundtable discussion and the impact of the National Guard he deployed there. While there he slipped off to Elvis Presley Boulevard to visit Graceland, the 13-acre estate of the late and great rock star.

I found it interesting that the President, who seems mesmerized by monarchical imagery, greatly admired Presley, the publicly anointed King of Rock ‘n Roll. I also was amused that when asked about his favorite Presley song, he said, “Hurt,” the very first line of which is “I’m so hurt to think that you lied to me, way down deep inside of me.” Maybe he does know how many of us feel. No kings here except Elvis.

Smile

My children gave me a calendar with a joke for Dad every day.

March 31: My friend said to me the other day, “You really have no sense of direction, do you?” Bewildered, I asked him, “Where did that come from?”

April 1: Did you hear about the submarine that went down in the Atlantic? It was a nice day and someone left a window open.