Growing up in the ’50s and ’60s citizenship was a practical part of daily life. I remember standing up, with the rest of my classroom, and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.  I remember the “proper” way to sit at my desk:  sit-up straight, hands folded, feet flat on the floor.  Be prompt, attentive, be studious, do not waste paper or...

Steve Allen wrote 52 books, acted on stage, films, and TV, created and hosted The Tonight Show as well as more than 1,000 episodes of Steve Allen Shows and in his spare time, composed more than 9,000 songs! In the last several years of his life, he traveled around the country speaking to groups about the importance of ethics and morality. Although I received...

David Krieger is a founder of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, and has served as President of the organization since 1982. One afternoon over lunch, I came to realize how much David’s goals and mine have in common. We’re both working to raise awareness as to the importance of right conduct. And we’re both striving for positive change through that...

In the early 1940’s, Norman Corwin was nearly as well known as Franklin Delano Roosevelt and much admired. Author Ray Bradbury calls Corwin, “…the greatest director, the greatest writer and the greatest producer in the history of radio.  His brilliant dramas, fantasies, and documentaries reached into American homes – and across an ocean – as far as the radio could...

There’s a moment near the end of the 1999 movie The Insider where Jeff Wigand is watching his whistle-blowing interview on 60 Minutes with his two daughters.  During the interview, one of his daughters looks over at him and slowly smiles. Between 1995 and 1996, Dr. Jeffrey Wigand lost his job, his house, his wife and for a time, his...

Cue the summer movie, world-in-peril music, followed by a deep-voiced narrator. “There has always been a delicate balance between chaos and control.  Now, with that balance threatened, it’s time to turn to one man…” CUT TO: A ROTUND MAN SITTING AT A MICROPHONE – “Rush Limbaugh had listeners register as Democrats for one day to go vote for Hillary… This...

The CBS news show “60 Minutes” ran two compelling stories last Sunday (May 4).  I’m not sure if the producers were aware just how similar, yet ethically different the first two stories were. Both segments talked about mistakes that were made.  Both discussed the tragic, personal costs of those mistakes.  However, that is where one story took a “right” turn....

Dick Capen’s career is a unique blend of newspaper publishing and diplomacy. After leaving as publisher and chairman of The Miami Herald, Capen served as the United States Ambassador to Spain and Assistant Secretary of Defense. Known for his commitment to personal values and a positive approach to life, he is a nationally recognized columnist, author, and speaker on contemporary...

Air Force Colonel Morris Davis chief prosecutor at the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba resigned last October due to political interference. “…we’ve really taken ‘military’ out of military commissions and inserted politics in its place,” Morris said in a December, 2007 interview on National Public Radio. “I took the job… with the agreement that I’d stay… as long as...

Yesterday, Senator Barack Obama spoke out against the inflammatory remarks made by his former pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Last Friday, Wright gave a performance before the National Press Club in Washington that can politely be described as all show and no substance.  He blustered, he shouted, he postured and puffed, he drifted, he wandered and along the way he...