True story, every morning, I make the bed. (I also wash my own laundry but that’s another story.) Over the years, my wife has occasionally mentioned this to others at social functions, as if performing such tasks was due to some anomalous male genetic mutation. (The shocking truth is, most men routinely have made their beds and other chores before...

Here Rests, In Honored Glory, An American Soldier, Known But To God – inscription on the tomb of the unknown soldiers, Arlington National Cemetery Palm Desert, California eighth-grader John Diaz, along with fifty other students, will be visiting Washington D.C. in June for their first time. Two students will be given the rare opportunity to place a wreath at the...

We are standing on a precipice of an Alt-Reality where self-serving falsehoods are driving out truth and objectivity. Goodbye Walter Cronkite; hello Alt-Deceivers. Fake news stories have quickly taken on a life of their own. Part of this is due to the hyperpartisanship of the recent election cycle. Another part is due to Donald Trump shamelessly pushing false information at...

Last August, the world was shocked and outraged at the tragedy that has become Alepo, Syria. However, it was the image of a dust and blood-covered Syrian boy, Omran Daqneesh, that crystallized the true cost of war. Although Omran’s older brother Ali died of his injuries, the rest of his immediate family survived an airstrike that turned their home and...

“Democracy is the only system capable of reflecting the humanist premise of equilibrium or balance. The key to its secret is the involvement of the citizen.”         – John Ralston Saul “A nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.” – Ronald Reagan “Nuclear weapons have posed an existential threat to humanity for decades. They undermine democracy by putting...

For the past sixteen months there has been a lot of talk that America has lost its way; that we are weak; that we have somehow, lost our greatness. If that is true, then why do so many want to come to this country, attend schools, build businesses, become citizens, grow and prosper? Nineteenth century French diplomat and historian Alexis...

In the waning days of the his campaign, Donald Trump has been setting the table to spur supporters’ anger after November 8th. “Jon A. Husted,” The New York Times reports (Oct. 16), “the secretary of state of Ohio, said it was ‘wrong and engaging in irresponsible rhetoric’ for any candidate to question the integrity of elections without evidence. Mr. Husted,...

The political earth has had a few seismic shifts over the past 7 days. First, the discovery of a video exposing Donald Trump’s penchant for trash-talking women, and the requisite 24/7 news coverage of that; followed by the Sunday debate where Trump paced around behind Hillary Clinton like an alpha-male lion. The week ended with another round of Republicans abandoning...

Well, boys and girls, here we are – the first of three presidential debates which may decide who goes to the White House: the Reality Star, or the Politically Calculated Czar; the extremely reckless, or “extremely careless.” I was previously invited to attend a screening of The Man with the Golden Arm, part of an Elmer Bernstein film series honoring...

So, why do we celebrate on July 4th? It has a little something to do with the way the founders and writers work. According to ConstitutionFacts.com, “We think of July 4, 1776, as a day that represents the Declaration of Independence and the birth of the United States of America as an independent nation. “But July 4, 1776 wasn’t the...