Recent Commentaries

Featured image for “Let’s Be Honest – <em>The “Uncivil Season”</em> Edition”
Let’s Be Honest – The “Uncivil Season” Edition
Share this… Facebook Pinterest Twitter Linkedin  » Read more about: Let’s Be Honest – The “Uncivil Season” Edition  »...
Read More
September 14, 2009
Featured image for “September 2009 Ethical Hero – Stan Brock”
September 2009 Ethical Hero – Stan Brock
While everyone agrees that health care needs reform, agreement on exactly how remains to be seen. Stan Brock isn’t waiting for change.  His group provides health care for those that need it most. “If you’ve got a mouth full of bad teeth and you can’t see to function, to get a job, for you it is a disaster,” Brock said....
Read More
September 12, 2009
Featured image for “The Junius Kellogg Story”
The Junius Kellogg Story
It’s not easy to do the right thing when everybody’s making money but you.  That’s why ’50s Manhattan College basketball star Junius Kellogg stood out in more ways than one. In the superb 1998 HBO documentary, City Dump: The Story of the 1951 Basketball Scandal, broadcaster Al McGuire remembers, “You didn’t even have $15 for laundry in those days.  You had no scratch,...
Read More
September 11, 2009
Featured image for “When is it <em>Not</em> the Public’s Right?”
When is it Not the Public’s Right?
Last Friday (Sept. 4) Huffington Post ran a photo on the front page of its site with the headline, “Snapshot of an Unseen War.”  The photo depicted the final hours of life of Lance Corporal Joshua M. Bernard, 21, after he was struck down by a rocket-propelled grenade in Afghanistan on August 14. Several newspapers around the country chose to run The Associated...
Read More
September 9, 2009
Featured image for “How Would <em>You</em> Decide? – Part II”
How Would You Decide? – Part II
Last Friday, I offered an ethical dilemma. I asked readers to imagine sitting on the California parole board to decide whether to grant convicted murderer Susan Atkins “compassionate release” based on her terminally ill condition. I asked readers to offer their thoughts before submitting my own conclusions.  One comment that repeatedly came up in conversations with friends, “How can you show...
Read More
September 7, 2009
Featured image for “<em>Un</em>common Sense”
Uncommon Sense
In words that I can only describe as abominably ignorant, a number of state legislators and others have said the following regarding President Obama’s planned address to school children regarding education and achievement via the Internet Tuesday. Senator and candidate for governor of Oklahoma Randy Brogdon (R-Owasso): “President Obama has shown time and time again that he has little regard...
Read More
September 5, 2009
Featured image for “How Would <em>You</em> Decide? – Part I”
How Would You Decide? – Part I
You sit on the California state parole board looking into a request to release Susan Atkins, the terminally ill prisoner convicted of participating in the killing of actress Sharon Tate and four others in 1969. At the parole hearing, you listen to family members of the victims. Debra Tate, sister of the actress: “I will pray for her soul when...
Read More
September 4, 2009
Featured image for “An Uncivil Season”
An Uncivil Season
This past summer, social interaction has been a disgrace. I’m talking about the lack of civility brought about by the health care debate.  Among the most demonstrative was an interchange between Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank and a constituent. Holding up a picture of President Obama altered to look like Adolph Hitler, a woman asks, “Why are you supporting this Nazi...
Read More
September 2, 2009
Featured image for “What’s <em>in</em> a Name”
What’s in a Name
Most people may not recognize Carl Muscarello by name but are probably familiar with his picture. He’s the sailor kissing the nurse in Alfred Eisenstaedt’s iconic, 1945 photograph on V-J Day in Times Square. However, Carl describes himself as, “an Italian-American kid from Brooklyn, New York who has been fortunate in that happiness in my life has come from my...
Read More
August 31, 2009
Featured image for “With Passion and Purpose”
With Passion and Purpose
It’s curious to reflect on three moments in my life that are marked by the same question: Where were you when Kennedy died? As a high school freshman in New York, I was in the middle of learning some important but long forgotten piece of Algebra when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.  Our teacher, Mr. Freeman, was called out of...
Read More
August 27, 2009

Read Some of the Most Recent Articles
The Latest... And Often Greatest