Recent Compassion Commentaries

When Will America Reclaim Its Soul?
Embed from Getty Images I will return Friday. “Individual faults and fragilities are no excuse to give in and no exemption from the common obligation to give of ourselves. Today, more than ever before, I believe that each of us as individuals must not only struggle to make a better world, but to make ourselves better, too….” – Senator Edward...
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February 9, 2024
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What’s Happened to America’s Morality?
What a way to end the year. The erosion of America’s moral integrity is overwhelming. Entitlement has overtaken personal responsibility. Meanness has overwhelmed kindness. And hatred has crushed tolerance. Many of today’s “leaders” place self-interest above public interest. They role model viciousness and lies instead of kindness and facts. They believe that the best way to influence the public forum...
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December 29, 2023
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“Their joy — that’s the gift to you.”
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...
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December 19, 2023
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A Novena for Strength and Peace
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...
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December 14, 2023
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A Message of Hope
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...
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July 19, 2023
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Healing America’s Pain
Much of the country is lost . . . painfully lost. Overwhelmed by suspicion and fear, a terrible ugliness pervades our times. Some feel so threatened by anyone who knocks on their door or comes up their driveway, that they answer with a gun. Chained to their own fears, they stare at the dark shadows of their self-imposed isolation, trusting...
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April 28, 2023
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“What is essential is invisible to the eye.”
Violence, upheaval throughout much of the world, what would Mohandas “Mahatma” Gandhi, the father of nonviolent resistance, say? This week marks the 75th anniversary of Gandhi’s death at the hands of an assassin on his way to a prayer service in Delhi. While Gandhi was an anti-colonialist who practiced and taught his followers non-violent resistance to deal with injustice, Gandhi...
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February 3, 2023
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Shortness of Breath
How much anger and rage do five police officers have to have to beat a man to death after being pulled over for a traffic stop? Watching and listening to Tyre Nichols’s plea for help during a police gang attack in Memphis, Tennessee, the most heart-wrenching moment came when Nichols called out to his mother, twice. Nichols’s death is another...
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January 31, 2023
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What Was Good About 2022
Two Scientific Milestones – With the increasing threat of global warming the news that scientists were able to successfully create nuclear fusion that would produce more energy than it would cost is a remarkable breakthrough. “Scientists studying fusion energy at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California announced on Tuesday that they had crossed a long-awaited milestone in reproducing the power...
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January 3, 2023
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Hurricane Ian Reminds Us of All That is Good
Attending a Padres/Dodgers game in San Diego, I’m sitting next to a die-hard Padres fan. Despite my lifelong Dodger fever, we shared laughs, baseball stories and favorite teams: he loved the Yankees; I loved the Red Sox. What makes baseball so compelling is that while both sides want to win, they play on the same field, follow the same rules,...
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September 30, 2022