“You know that the liberal media elites and the Obama Democrats are hoping you will put this letter down right now and do nothing…” – Michael Steele Steele is the former lieutenant governor of Maryland and current chairman of the Republican National Committee. “‘Let’s play grown-up.’ When I was a child, that’s what we said when we ran out of things...

I’m including the entire text of President Obama’s speech from his Sunday (May 17) commencement address at the University of Notre Dame because I think it speaks volumes about his character. An acknowledged Christian, Mr. Obama supports both pro-choice and embryonic stem cell research.  He has also come out in opposition to gay marriage.  All three are among the most...

Doesn’t he know that movie stars belong in the tabloids… police arrested… D.U.I. photo on TMZ? What’s this, Ann Curry interviewing him in Darfur? Must be a movie shoot or something.  I turn up the volume. Watching the NBC Dateline story, I learn that Clooney has travelled to Darfur a number of times not only in his role as United Nations messenger of...

Heavy snow fell the night before the inauguration. On Friday, January 20, 1961, I sat in my seventh grade homeroom class while the teacher rolled in a black and white television and announced that we would all be watching history take place today.  (Me, I always liked a good excuse to watch TV.) What I was unprepared for was how...

Much of the time we tend to think of compassion in terms of the extraordinary moments, events which seem removed from our daily perspective. The Dalai Lama’s story of a Tibetan monk’s compassion towards his Chinese jailers is one example. However, not long ago, I experienced a simple, yet powerful example of everyday compassion. My neighbor, Sue Adams, is funny, wise...

On November 13, a 17-year-old grocery bagger, found a brown, canvas money bag in the bathroom of the supermarket where he works.  When he opened it, he found $10,000 in cash. According to McClatchy Newspapers, the bag was “Stuffed with 50- and hundred-dollar bills… the life savings of a Vancouver, Washington man who accidentally left it in the men’s bathroom at...

Working with the Walter H. Capps Center for the Study of Ethics, Religion and Public Life, and the help of pollster John Zogby, we put a three question, post-election survey into the field on November 5th and 6th: 1.  What one or two qualities do you think the country needs most from the new president? 2.  What one or two actions...

Everyone and their brother is giving advice to President-elect Barack Obama these days.  (Mine was put forth in a letter addressed to both candidates the day before the election.) Listening to NPR’s “Morning Edition” yesterday, correspondent Steve Inskeep reported that Phyllis Palmer’s kindergarten class (not pictured) in Essex Junction, Vermont wrote their own memo to President-elect Obama. Here’s the advice the Vermont kindergarteners had for...

“The most important thing to understand about nuclear weapons is this:  these weapons do not and cannot provide physical protection to their possessors.” These are the opening words from a written appeal by David Krieger addressed to the next president of the United States. Last May, I chose Krieger as my ethical hero of the month due to his tireless...

Visiting the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston I was struck by the wisdom and relevance to today’s issues some of our 35th president’s words carry. After announcing his candidacy for the presidency on January 2, 1960, in a speech at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, Kennedy laid out the role of the president in his time. “…the...