With offensive slurs and threats thrown around, Friday’s election of a House speaker was another example of a lack of civility in America. But our first president, George Washington didn’t have the best of dispositions either. He had a reputation for “tumultuous passions that accompany greatness,” Gouverneur Morris, one of the Founding Fathers, noted of Washington. The Latin word civilis...

“Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence!” —insurrectionist shouts during the attack of the U.S Capitol on January 6th. “We don’t want you to think of Lexi as just a number. She was intelligent, compassionate, and athletic. She was quiet, shy unless she had a point to make.” —Kimberly Rubio, mother of Lexi Rubio—one of 21 killed in a school shooting...

On any given day, I can drive around the small town where I live and easily see two-dozen or more individuals on cell phones. Some are on a call, some texting, tweeting, Facebooking, or just plain surfing. All of us appear to be spliced to our phones. I’ll come back to this later. Elon Musk is the man who gave...

“As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master.”— Lincoln Too many have become slaves to fear and prejudice losing the best parts of themselves to an ideology of lies and hate. I was in the process of writing about the media’s continuing obsession with reporting every word and action about Donald Trump and the...

Is there any Rubicon, despicable, illegal or otherwise, that Trump could cross that would change the hearts and minds of loyalists? Fox pundit Sean Hannity asked former president Donald Trump about Top Secret, classified documents he took with him to Mar-a-Lago. This was Trump’s response: “If you’re the president of the United States you can declassify just by saying it’s...

Every time another mass shooting occurs, the debate begins again. FOR GUN CONTROL – Nineteen, the number of mass shootings that have occurred since January 1st of this year—68 dead; 69 wounded. AGAINST – “The right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” FOR – In 2021, Texas passed a gun law that allows those...

     “If there’s one American belief I hold above all others, it’s that those who would set themselves up in judgment on matters of what is ‘right’ and what is ‘best’ should be given no rest; that they should have to defend their behavior most stringently. … As a nation, we’ve been through too many fights to preserve our rights...

Of all the books written by historian David McCullough the book I return to is a compilation of his speeches. The American Spirit offers exactly what its title implies and at this moment, we need a big dose of that spirit more than ever. In a speech to Dartmouth College in 1999, McCullough draws inspiration from a line in the...

Just when you think cynicism has become the default setting in much of America today a story comes along that reminds us of our humanity. Dodger pitcher Clayton Kershaw—who, last week, came within 6 outs of a perfect game—was answering questions at a press conference for major league baseball’s All-Star game when a member of the media pointed to 10-year-old...

Ever since Wyoming Republican Representative Liz Cheney voted for Trump’s impeachment as a result of the January 6 attack on the Capitol a very vocal base of Trump supporters back home have turned on her. Cody resident Bob Ferguson sums up what most feel. “She hasn’t just turned on Donald Trump — she has turned on Donald Trump’s supporters. …...