Recent Commentaries

Featured image for “Mr. Cool”
Mr. Cool
Since the announcement of his death last week (Sept. 25), lots of photos have been posted of golf legend Arnold Palmer. However, this is how I remember him – the total professional standing off to the side, cool, collected, waiting to wallop that little white ball straight down the fairway. (I went out and bought a golf sweater just like...
Read More
September 30, 2016
Featured image for “That First Debate”
That First Debate
I never intended to write about the first debate. However, several readers, in private emails or conversation, have made that request, so, here goes. Monday night’s event, (Yes, I went to the movie and recorded the debate), the first of three presidential debates, was, as expected, packed with drama: e-mails, taxes, climate change, race, defense, cyber terrorism, stamina, and the...
Read More
September 28, 2016
Featured image for “A Debate Which May Live in Infamy”
A Debate Which May Live in Infamy
Well, boys and girls, here we are – the first of three presidential debates which may decide who goes to the White House: the Reality Star, or the Politically Calculated Czar; the extremely reckless, or “extremely careless.” I was previously invited to attend a screening of The Man with the Golden Arm, part of an Elmer Bernstein film series honoring...
Read More
September 26, 2016
Featured image for “The Ethical Take – The Gallup Edition”
The Ethical Take – The Gallup Edition
The Gallup organization has been taking the pulse of American’s attitudes regarding social, economic and political issues since 1935. Compromise, trust and transparency – three issues voters say they care about when it comes to the candidates. Compromise – In a poll taken earlier this month (Sept. 7-11) Editor-in-Chief Frank Newport for Gallup Poll writes, “Americans continue to believe that...
Read More
September 23, 2016
Featured image for “Meanwhile, Back in Trumplandia…”
Meanwhile, Back in Trumplandia…
After five long years (Remember, Trump was the first to announce his own investigation into Obama’s citizenship status in 2011: “I have people that have been studying it and they cannot believe what they’re finding.” ), Donald J. Trump finally announced, (Sept. 16): “President Barack Obama was born in the United States, period.” It doesn’t matter to Trump (or sadly, many...
Read More
September 21, 2016
Featured image for “Ethics and the Powell E-Mails”
Ethics and the Powell E-Mails
The publication of Colin Powell’s private opinions of both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump – obtained from hacked e-mails from the former secretary of state’s private e-mail account – is only the latest example of the thorny ethical issues that journalists and media organizations must navigate. In this new universe, everything that’s been hacked appears to be fair game after...
Read More
September 19, 2016
Featured image for “Denial”
Denial
The Will Smith movie, Concussion, is about the brutal reality the National Football League continues to ignore. It’s also the story of one man’s ethically courageous attempt to bring critical attention to what he uncovered and what is now called C.T.E. – Chronic traumatic encephalopathy. Boston University’s C.T.E. Center defines the condition as “a progressive degenerative disease of the brain...
Read More
September 16, 2016
Featured image for “The Spirit of Humanity”
The Spirit of Humanity
You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.  – Mahatma Gandhi Olympic athletes train for years for events that, in some cases, are over in a matter of minutes. New Zealand’s Nikki Jane Hamblin is a middle distance runner who specializes in...
Read More
September 14, 2016
Featured image for “Willful Blindness? There’s a Reason”
Willful Blindness? There’s a Reason
Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.                   – John Adams, in his defense of British soldiers wrongly accused of the so-called “Boston Massacre.” In my 2011 e-book, Shameless, I wrote that supporters of political critics Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter and Glenn...
Read More
September 12, 2016
Featured image for “Colin Kaepernick: Right or Wrong?”
Colin Kaepernick: Right or Wrong?
“What Kaepernick did was totally uncalled for and disrespectful, but America gives him the right to do it. I am tired of all of these multi million-dollar athletes and celebrities who do nothing to improve conditions putting down the country that has given them the opportunity to get to where they are.” “Congratulations to Colin Kaepernick for making a statement...
Read More
September 9, 2016