Watching the memorial service for Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman appointed to the US Supreme Court, her son, delivering the eulogy, pointed to one of the former justice’s legacies. “Our purpose in life,” O’Connor reminded her children, “is to help others along the way.” Last Sunday, CBS reporter Steve Hartman offered a story demonstrating the power of purpose. Every...

Washington Post opinion writer Robert Kagan’s essay should act as a flock of canaries in the coal mine of America’s consciousness concerning a second Trump presidency. “Let’s stop the wishful thinking and face the stark reality,” Kagan writes, “There is a clear path to dictatorship in the United States, and it is getting shorter every day. In 13 weeks, Donald...

With much of the world in chaos, summoning the holiday spirit this year is daunting. Let’s stop thinking about ourselves and think of others. Easier said than done. Nonetheless, this wish came to me the other night when I attended a show at a local theater. Working my way through a large number of people in the lobby, I walked...

Embed from Getty Images It’s been 60 years since Dr. King spoke to 250,000 supporters on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on a warm August afternoon in 1963. King’s stirring words about character, however, were improvised not written. Standing close to the civil rights leader, gospel singer Mahalia Jackson whispered, “Tell ‘em about ‘the dream,’ Martin.” I have a...

Even as former President Donald Trump finds himself facing 4 criminal indictments, his hardcore supporters continue to parrot his false accusations that the charges against him are politically motivated. However, in his never ending bluster and blame marathon, Trump and his base overlook one crucial detail in the decision-making behind all those charges. Prosecutors don’t indict; grand juries do. That’s...

Last week’s arraignment of former President Donald Trump was unprecedented in many ways. I contacted retired journalist Bob Wilson to interview some of the individuals who waited in a long line, many overnight. Here’s how that conversation went. “Jim, I’m outside the E. Barrett Prettyman courthouse in downtown DC and the line of people waiting outside is something one only...

Attending to my 98-year-old father after a fall, I was leaving the hospital when I came across this message posted in an elevator. With America facing it’s most perilous time of division, it’s a message we all might ponder. We all have the capability to act responsibly. We all have the capacity to respect each other. We all have the...

“When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.”—Edmund Burke, Anglo-Irish statesman, and philosopher. Two simple questions with no easy answers. Why do so many tolerate dishonesty, incivility, irresponsibility, and a profound lack of character in far too many individuals, particularly leaders? Why do so many choose...

In 1940, journalist Edward R. Murrow stood in a church in England while the country endured German bombers night after night. Inside the church was a crudely written sign which read, “If your knees knock, kneel on them.” It’s time for Americans to get up off their knees and fight. Like a hamster on a wheel, we’ve become stuck going...

Think about this. Because of Putin’s war against Ukraine, millions of Ukrainian men, women, and children are enduring the harshest conditions imaginable: nightly bombing; an absence of light, heat and water. Ukraine’s health system cannot keep up with the sick and injured. Schools have closed in much of the country. Despite help from European and Western allies, life in Ukraine...