One of the most unforgettable and tragic news stories of the last 60 years took place on November 22, 1963. I never saw it until years later because I was sitting in my High School Homeroom class in New Rochelle, New York. It began with a sober voice over announcement by Walter Cronkite. “In Dallas, Texas, three shots were fired...

This is the second of two commentaries about Maj. John Baldwin (Ret.) chest surgeon extraordinaire. Wednesday’s commentary talked about Baldwin’s quick thinking and skillful hands as a young resident. This piece story goes back in time to 1951. In 1951, nuclear testing continued with a 1-kiloton bomb dropped on Frenchman Flat near Las Vegas, Nevada. President Harry Truman relieved General...

Sometimes we get so caught up in the brush-fire of the moment that we forget about what’s really important – the people around us who contribute to our lives in special ways. I’ve been lucky to not only have met but developed deep friendships with many people through my work; people who demonstrated, through moments in their lives, the courage,...

Baseball season begins in just 10 days, and what better way to begin than with a great baseball story. Football may be America’s most popular game, but baseball is forever. Actually, that’s the title of a new book by former Washington Post columnist and peace studies teacher Colman McCarthy. Baseball Forever is a collection of stories McCarthy has written over...

It sounded like a good idea. (Strike that.) It sounded like a great idea: one simple blood test that required a single finger prick would give “everyday Americans unlimited control over their health,” The New York Times writes (Mar. 15). The key promise Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes made to investors and potential clients: “that drawing a tiny amount of blood...

There’s a moment during the first act of Orson Welles’s classic film, The Magnificent Ambersons – a period story about the rise and fall of a local family – where Welles, as narrator, points out what a terror young, self-centered George Amberson Minafer is to all the local citizens. “Someday,” a neighbor angrily remarks, “that boy is going to get...

“A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.”  – Winston Churchill* While most Americans have a wide variety of factual information – literally at their fingertips – when it comes to political tribalism, facts seem to go out the window. According to a study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology...

What have I learned after 1,418 commentaries? I’ve learned that ethics scandals are not isolated to any age, party, gender, or ethnicity; that Democrats have been just as shameless as Republicans; that women are not as innocent as they may appear and old age, in many cases, does not confirm ethical wisdom. Nonetheless, I remain inspired by those individuals who...

Ten years ago, March 8, I launched this website with two goals: “First, I hope to generate a greater awareness of the importance of ethics in our lives; second, I want to foster a dialog with others about the affect ethical principles, or lack thereof, have on our decision making. It’s a dialog that will include politics, sports, entertainment, immigration,...

“We are masters of the unsaid words, but slaves of those we let slip out.” – Winston Churchill No, this is not about the Oscar-winning movie examining Winston Churchill’s hard choices that helped save the world. It’s about the darkest choices ever made by a U.S. president. Last week, National Security Agency Chief Admiral Mike Rogers told the Senate Armed...