Among the papers I received from my New Hampshire students, this touching essay was written by a daughter about her father. Her paper reminds us that sometimes the “everyday” moments in life can have the greatest impact. Today, I was asked to write a paper on “the most ethical person I know,” and explain why. “In my 33 years of...

Should the U.S. government be permitted to collect data on citizens such as e-mails, phone calls, as well as Internet activity for the purpose of intercepting possible terrorist actions against Americans? “Fifteen years ago, I would have been outraged,” a friend confides. “However, we live in a post 9/11 and Internet age where terrorists are actively seeking vulnerabilities to exploit...

When I first learned of Edward Snowden, the computer whiz of Booz Allen Hamilton who leaked hundreds, perhaps thousands, of classified documents from the National Security Agency (NSA), the first person I thought of was J. Edgar Hoover. Hoover created the most sophisticated, large-scale crime-fighting mechanism of its time. The FBI was a formidable presence that got results. However, as...

It was forty-five years ago, last week that we lost Robert F. Kennedy – June 6, 1968. It’s difficult to describe to a younger generation the impact the younger brother of President John F. Kennedy had on so many of us. I was in my first year of college and what captured my interest in this man was something that...

Just when you think things couldn’t get any stranger… they do! Yesterday, the House Committee on Oversight and Reform heard testimony from Faris Fink, commissioner of the tax-collection agency’s small business and self-employed division. Fink was not there to testify about the wrongful targeting of conservative groups applying for 501(c)(4) tax exempt status. Mr. Fink was there to explain about a...

It’s become routine for Republicans in Washington to: a) discover an impropriety; then, b) examine if the president has any connection to it. Since his re-election, President Obama continues to deal with the fallout from three controversies: the deaths of four Americans at Benghazi, the questionable AP phone taps by the Department of Justice and the IRS scandal. Back in...

Last month’s revelation that the Internal Revenue Service wrongly targeted conservative groups who applied for tax exempt status under Section 501(c)(4) of the U.S. Tax code has done much to play into the conventional wisdom that the IRS does, indeed, target individuals and groups based on politics. Let me start by explaining to those readers who may be first-time visitors...

To say that Oprah Winfrey is a force is not to overstate the obvious. Known simply as, Oprah, she is, among other things, an actress, producer, talk-show host, business woman, and philanthropist. But she has become much more than that. Actually, that is precisely where Oprah’s particular excellence lies: inspiring others to become more in their own lives. In fact, the logline in the...

In his 1986 memoir, Confessions of a Parish Priest, Father Andrew M. Greeley wrote, “I’m a priest. Not a priest-sociologist or a priest-journalist, or a priest-novelist, or any multiple variation of those hyphenates. I’m a priest, a parish priest. The other things I do in life: sociological research, journalistic writing, storytelling, are merely my way of being a priest.” But no...

One is the loneliest number… …especially when you happen to be in a voting majority with your political colleagues, but those same colleagues are too timid to pull their extremist members back in line. Senator John McCain took to the floor of the Senate last Thursday (May 23) to give some of his “colleagues” a much needed civics lesson. Tea Party Senators...