Recent Commentaries

Featured image for “Then There’s Kevin McCarthy”
Then There’s Kevin McCarthy
Last night’s news is prologue to what’s likely to come from Republicans. Based on a leaked document, Politico reports that the US Supreme Court is likely to strike down Roe v. Wade, a ruling that has been “settled law,” as Justice Brett Kavanaugh told Maine Senator Susan Collins, for 50 years. If this is indeed true, Republicans “march to the...
Read More
May 3, 2022
Featured image for “And The Four Others Who Stand Up For Democracy”
And The Four Others Who Stand Up For Democracy
The John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award is distinguished by a ship’s lantern. “The lantern elicits immediate recognition and evokes the shared cultural symbols of light and truth,” designer Edwin Schlossberg says. “Light is the beacon of warning, of safety, of hope in the wilderness. A lantern symbolizes the search for an honest man. It lights a dark path,...
Read More
April 29, 2022
Featured image for “Profiles in Courage”
Profiles in Courage
In 1877, Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar, a former distinguished Confederate officer, was the hugely popular Democratic Senator from Mississippi. So revered for his commitment to duty and integrity that a Washington reporter said of Lamar, “he would be a conspicuous personality anywhere, with a character and quality of his own.” Lamar was now faced with an impossible choice in the...
Read More
April 26, 2022
Featured image for “No Magic in Florida”
No Magic in Florida
For decades, Florida’s Walt Disney World has been spreading joy and magic to billions who visit from around the world. And for decades, the Disney organization has pretty much remained politically neutral. Now, however, the “Most Magical Place on Earth,” has become yet another political battlefield. It all began when Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, signed HB 1557 into law. As...
Read More
April 22, 2022
Featured image for “The Pit”
The Pit
Schools and community libraries have now become battlegrounds for political division. Fearing backlash from parents, school officials have quietly been removing books from libraries that discuss race, gender and LGBTQ identities. “A growing number of communities across America where conservatives have mounted challenges to books and other content related to race, sex, gender and other subjects they deem inappropriate,” The...
Read More
April 19, 2022
Featured image for “Then There’s Madison Cawthorn”
Then There’s Madison Cawthorn
On one side, we have Liz Cheney, a thoughtful conservative who believes and practices the values of honesty, respect and accountability. Then there’s Madison Cawthorn, the 17-year-old, excuse me, 26-year-old who acts like he’s 17. Cawthorn, who, along with his far-right of far-right Republican colleagues—Lauren Boebert (R-CO), a devout QAnon believer, and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who embraces the white...
Read More
April 15, 2022
Featured image for “What Makes a Leader?”
What Makes a Leader?
“A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way.” — John Maxwell, American clergyman Liz Cheney is smart, disciplined, honest and fearless. A rock-sold Republican from Wyoming, Cheney is one of only two House Republicans who sit on the House panel investigating the January 6 insurrection. Adam Kinzinger is the other. However, it is...
Read More
April 12, 2022
Featured image for “You Can’t Kill Ideas”
You Can’t Kill Ideas
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”— writer, philosopher George Santayana In simpler terms: People who don’t learn from their mistakes don’t grow up. People who shut out the truth about the past, the present or both remain trapped in their own fear. “In Oklahoma,” The New York Times reports, “a bill was introduced in the...
Read More
April 8, 2022
Featured image for “An Expectation of Citizenship”
An Expectation of Citizenship
Washington Post columnist, E.J. Dionne Jr., and Miles Rapoport, a senior fellow at the Ash Center of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and a former Connecticut secretary of state, have proposed a solution to election voting long overdue. Their new book, 100% Democracy: The Case for Universal Voting, makes a clear and compelling argument. “Under this system, every U.S.  » Read...
Read More
April 5, 2022
Featured image for “What Will Smith Should Do First”
What Will Smith Should Do First
“We judge ourselves by our best intentions, our most noble acts, our most virtuous habits. But we are judged by out last worst act.” — Michael Josephson Actor Will Smith’s actions at last Sunday’s Academy Awards ceremony was precedent setting inexcusable. Reacting to a joke by comedian Chris Rock about Smith’s wife, Smith stepped on stage and slapped the comedian....
Read More
April 1, 2022