Having dinner at my favorite local restaurant recently, I’m scanning the menu when a server recognizes me as a fellow Boston fan. She approaches the table and shouts, “Go Patriots!” She then remembers what I do and quickly adds, “I DON’T WANT TO HEAR ABOUT IT!” Completely nonplussed, I ask, “Hear about what?” “The deflated balls,” she says. “I don’t...

Reading about the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the Nazi concentration camp from World War II, reminded me of my own experience in visiting Dachau, the first of those camps. I was part of a small group of high school students visiting countries throughout Europe. On a day free from scheduled sightseeing in Munich, Germany, I took a...

Since the death of New York radio personality and TV talk show host, Joe Franklin last Saturday in Manhattan at 88 years of age, everyone’s been telling their own Joe Franklin story. This is mine. It’s 1996, I’m on a book tour for my first book, The Lone Ranger’s Code of the West (An Action-Packed Adventure in Values and Ethics...

According to the Pew Research Center (Aug. 24, 2010), “The public continues to express conflicted views of Islam. Favorable opinions of Islam have declined since 2005, but there has been virtually no change over the past year in the proportion of Americans saying that Islam is more likely than other religions to encourage violence. As was the case a year...

Last week, the Associated Press reported (Jan. 11), that two members of the famed 100th Fighter Squadron also known as the Tuskegee Airmen, died on the same day. Lifelong friends, Joseph Shambrey and Clarence Huntley (pictured), enlisted in 1942 and were shipped overseas to Italy in 1944. Both were mechanics who kept the planes flying. “Huntley,” the AP writes, “serviced...

Dartmouth has a history as a top Ivy League college. Long esteemed for its schools of medicine, engineering, business as well as liberal arts, Dartmouth has now gained another distinction. The Boston Globe reported (Jan. 8), that “Up to 64 Dartmouth College students — including some athletes — could face suspension or other disciplinary action for cheating in an ethics...

“Je Suis Charlie,” (I am Charlie) has become a symbol not only of free speech, but freedom itself. Looking like a scene from the Broadway musical Les Miserables, more than a million, including leaders from around the world, marched in the streets of Paris on Sunday in support of freedom of expression. Despite the murderous attack on the offices of...

Since the terrorist attack against the French satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo (Jan. 7), in which 12 individuals were murdered, there’s been no shortage of opinion writers denouncing the assault as an attack on freedom of expression. But can satire go too far? Dictionary.com defines satire as “the use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule, or the like, in exposing, denouncing, or...

On September 11, 2001, you shook American when you took 2,996 lives, but we survived, rebuilt and became stronger. On April 15, 2013, you murdered five individuals and injured 280, but rallies were held proclaiming “Boston Strong,” and the yearly event continues. In the short run, your attacks have succeeded in killing or injuring thousands of innocent men, women and...

This remarkable story of a confession coming decades later is surpassed only by the extraordinary power of forgiveness. As reported on the CBS Evening News (Jan. 5), it’s a reminder to us all about the power of redemption. “Nearly four weeks ago, Ricky Jackson was exonerated after spending 39 years in prison — serving the longest sentence for a wrongful...