Recent Citizenship Commentaries

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The Good, The Bad of Last Year
Looking back over the past year we have faced the challenges of a lifetime. During that past year, Pew Research has been asking American’s their views and reactions to the COVID-19 virus. How the virus has affected their lives. The results show a mix of the depressed, fortunate, money-savers, readers, angry, happy and more… Here is just a small sampling...
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March 12, 2021
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The Common Good
The good news is the level of vaccinations around the country is up. As of March 10, “At least 62,451,150 people or 19.0 percent of the population have received at least one dose,” reports USA Facts Covid vaccine tracker. “Overall, 32,904,161 people or 10.0 percent have been fully vaccinated.” NPR reports (Mar. 10), “President Biden has declared a goal of...
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March 10, 2021
The Compassionate and the Moralizer
Two stories about the coronavirus vaccine caught my attention. Embed from Getty Images In a recent letter to New York Times ethicist, Kwame Anthony Appiah, one reader writes: “I work for a hospital, but in an administrative job. I do not interact with patients. I have worked from home since March. I am not at high risk for contracting Covid-19...
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March 5, 2021
What Stands Before Us
Embed from Getty Images In 1941, as President Roosevelt remained reluctant to enter the war in Europe, Prime Minister Winston Churchill was dining with U.S. Ambassador John Gilbert Winant discussing England’s fate. Listening to the BBC, the radio station announced that the Japanese had attacked American ships at Pearl Harbor. Within minutes, Churchill received a phone call from FDR confirming...
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February 24, 2021
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History Will Record
Among the books in my library is a series from TIME/LIFE entitled, The Decades. In words and images from 1910 to the 1990s, editors have distilled each decade’s most notable events. For example, the ’60s: Vietnam, racism, assassinations, Woodstock, the space program – each volume memorializes the triumphs and tragedies of the American landscape. If the series continues, editors are...
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January 29, 2021
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What Lies Ahead
I was all set to post Monday’s commentary Sunday night when I realized that it was another piece reacting to the chaos, and rage surrounding Washington. It was about the country living with a cancer of hate and division that has not been seen in decades. It was about facing the greatest health crisis in 100 years and many individuals...
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January 19, 2021
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Pursuit of Excellence
While Americans continue to struggle with a deadly virus and financial starvation, excellence in national leadership has been reduced to a group of toxic enablers that appeal to an insular “base” that promotes our worst impulses instead of our best. The ’60s suffered its own challenges. Civil rights. Vietnam. The assassination of three political leaders. But then something stunning happened....
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January 4, 2021
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A New Hope
In 1620, a small band of pilgrims came to this country to escape religious intolerance. They were also looking for freedom from political turmoil, warfare, poverty, famine and disease. They were looking for a new beginning, a new hope in a new land. While they endured unimaginable hardships, their courage, determination, and hard work made them stronger because they were...
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December 24, 2020
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Democracy Calls on Us
We are living in dangerous times. In his biography of George Washington, Douglas Southall Freeman wrote that President Washington led the country “by directness, by deference and by manifest dedication to duty.” Donald Trump is the polar opposite of Washington in character and duty. Indeed, Washington would be sickened to see that the nation’s capital that bears his name has...
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December 11, 2020
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The Unconventionalist
In his Peace Studies class at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, Colman McCarthy engages students in his chosen religion: nonviolence and peace. “If peace is what every government says it seeks,” McCarthy writes, “and peace is the yearning of every heart, why aren’t we studying it and teaching it in school?” In Reverend McCarthy’s weekly sermon, “studying peace through nonviolence is...
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December 2, 2020

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