Recent Citizenship Commentaries

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Hey Jim, is there any good news out there? Your faithful reader, Virginia
Yes, Virginia, good news does exist. Sumeja Tulic reported to the website Gothamist.com: “[A] few minutes before the train arrived, a man in his late 50s/early 60s fell on the subway tracks. Without hesitation, 3 men jumped on the subway track and pulled him out. The man was unconscious and bleeding.” “Ms. Tulic,” The New York Times reports (June 14),...
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June 24, 2016
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They’re in!
Last February, I wrote how Elaine Harmon, a member of the Women’s Air Force Service Pilots (WASP), was refused burial at Arlington National Cemetery. While not technically considered part of the military, nevertheless Harmon and her colleagues provided a vital service during World War II. Thirty-eight WASPs died in service to their country. Harmon’s granddaughter, Tiffany Miller who, along with...
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May 27, 2016
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Take Three Gifts
When I learned that President Obama had decided to visit Hiroshima while in Japan for the Group-7 meeting next week, the first person I contacted was David Krieger. As founder and president of The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, Krieger has worked tirelessly for the abolition of all nuclear weapons. (And I thought ethics was a tough sell!) Obama’s visit gives...
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May 20, 2016
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Showdown at the D.C. Corral
Tomorrow is “T-Day”; the date presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald J. Trump sits down with Speaker of the House Paul Ryan to “hash out” some accommodation on policy and personality issues as Trump moves forward with his campaign. Last Sunday, Ryan was brutally honest in an interview when CNN host Jake Tapper asked if he would be willing to support...
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May 11, 2016
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Go Ahead, Make my Day… Leave a Comment
I was overwhelmed and grateful to have received more than 20 comments on my three-part series, Trust and Confidence, about Secret Service Director Lewis Merletti’s 1998 principled battle with Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr. I have discussed this story with a handful of friends who kept wondering when I was going to write-up an analysis of a story that I had...
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April 25, 2016
Featured image for “Dear Mr. President, Visit Hiroshima”
Dear Mr. President, Visit Hiroshima
Last Monday (Apr. 15), the editorial board of The Washington Post took notice of President Obama’s upcoming trip to Japan and called for him to visit Hiroshima where, almost 71 years ago, an atomic bomb was dropped by U.S. forces to end the war with Japan. “The bombings of Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945,” The Post board writes, “and of...
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April 22, 2016
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What Was Absent from the Security Summit
One week ago, President Obama closed the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington with these words: “This afternoon’s session turns the focus on the terrorist networks themselves. It tells us the possible consequences of terrorists obtaining and using a weapon of mass destruction. Fortunately, as I said this morning, no terrorist group has yet succeeded in getting their hands on a nuclear device. Our...
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April 8, 2016
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I’m Abraham Lincoln and I Approved This Message
Okay, I missed Lincoln’s birthday on Friday, but this is good. In light of the fiery attacks GOP candidates have thrown at each other, it’s interesting to consider a question presented by FlackCheck.org, the political literacy site: Could Lincoln be elected today if his opponents used today’s political tactics? The concept was developed into a 2012 social studies lesson plan...
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February 15, 2016
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The Shirt Off His Back
Last Friday, on a New York subway, a simple act of compassion was captured on a phone which has been viewed by millions. A young man is seen literally taking the shirt off his back and helping a shirtless and shivering homeless man. Joey Resto is the 23-year-old man on the left. Interviewed by a Fox News affiliate in New...
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January 15, 2016
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A New Hope
Every year newspapers put forth editorials about expectations for the New Year. Looking back, 2015 has been perhaps, the most unsettling in the first decade of the new millennium. With the rise of the Islamic State, we have seen a global war by a group of extremists who justify killing non-believers in the name of their religion. Factually speaking, the...
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January 4, 2016

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