“How you climb a mountain is more important than reaching the top.”— Yvon Chouinard “Every new adjustment is a crisis in self-esteem”—Eric Hoffer “Retreat, Hell! We’re just advancing in another direction.”–General O.P. Smith, UN Forces Leader, Korean War. “I think and think for months and years. Ninety-nine times, the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I am right”–Albert Einstein. “Of...

There are moments when a single arrest tells us more about the state of the country than a thousand speeches. The recent detention of Don Lemon while covering a protest inside a church is one of those moments—not because of who he is, but because of what it signals. “I was walking up to the room, and I pressed the...

Over the past several months, I’ve written commentaries revisiting moments in our history when individuals confronted serious challenges and rose to meet them — to remind us who we are and what we stand for. After writing about the tragedy in Minneapolis, I briefly turned to Steve Allen, an entertainer known for his intelligent wit — not to diminish what...

From the man who invented The Tonight Show. What Steve Allen understood—long before humor became sharper and more performative—is that laughter can be light and still leave a mark. His humor was humane and light, an invitation, not an attack. In a moment when so much public conversation feels joyless, this feels less like nostalgia and more like a reminder...

There are moments in history when power reveals its true character. During World War II, no American general was more central to victory than George C. Marshall. As Army Chief of Staff, Marshall oversaw the most rapid military expansion in U.S. history, transforming a modest peacetime force into an army of more than eight million. He selected commanders, managed logistics...

We toss the word “sacred” around as if it were a mood, something reserved for private faith. But in public life, “sacred” has a harder meaning. It names the few things a free society cannot afford to treat as negotiable. Ken Burns’ The American Revolution includes an episode titled “The Most Sacred Thing.” Even without quoting a line of dialogue,...

New information has now confirmed what many feared from the start: Alex Pretti was disarmed before he was shot—multiple times—by federal agents in Minneapolis. Whatever uncertainties once clouded this tragedy, that fact changes the moral terrain entirely. This is no longer a case about split-second judgment under imminent threat. It is a case about what happens after the threat is...

Not long ago, I stopped watching the national news. I told myself I was stepping away from the noise and the churn for some peace of mind. But reading a daily paper doesn’t guarantee a complete sense of calm; it simply delivers the chaos in longer form: page after page of anger, violence, grievance, retribution, and my-way-or-the-highway governance. It is...

First an update: Not long ago, 60 Minutes, the CBS news program, pulled a segment a few hours before it was set to air. The report, by veteran correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi, examined conditions inside CECOT—the massive maximum-security prison in El Salvador. The story was vetted by executives and attorneys. And then, without public explanation, it was removed from the broadcast...

I first read Clarence Darrow for an American Jurisprudence class in college and have returned to his work several times since. He is widely regarded as one of the most intellectually and morally impressive attorneys in American legal history. And he spent his career standing beside people most of the country didn’t want to see. Darrow, the legendary Chicago defense...