During a conversation with a friend about the Parkland school shooting, I was struck by something she said: “I’m not a Republican or a Democrat; I’m an American.” Wednesday’s news was consumed with the aftershock of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting. The first half of the day was occupied with a listening session held by President Trump, attended...

In one twenty-one day period, we witnessed the worst and the best this country can demonstrate. August 11, 2017 began as a quiet day in the suburban town of Charlottesville, Virginia, and ended as a violent clash between several hundred Neo-Nazis, White Nationalists, Ku Klux Klan and counter-protestors. During the violence, self-proclaimed white-nationalist James Alex Fields, Jr., drove his car...

Charlie Gard is only 11 months old, but his short life has stirred a controversy concerning the ethical limits of medicine. Charlie has a rare, genetic and incurable disease that has now involved doctors, three British courts, the European Court of Human Rights, as well as hundreds of thousands of petitioners, including Pope Francis and President Trump. The bottom line...

Two weeks ago, James T. Hodgkinson, a 66-year-old unemployed home inspector and disgruntled Democratic supporter from southern Illinois, opened fired on Republican representatives who were practicing for a charity baseball game just outside Washington D.C. House Majority Whip Steve Scalise and four others were wounded before capitol police shot the gunman. While the scene could have been a much greater...

True story, every morning, I make the bed. (I also wash my own laundry but that’s another story.) Over the years, my wife has occasionally mentioned this to others at social functions, as if performing such tasks was due to some anomalous male genetic mutation. (The shocking truth is, most men routinely have made their beds and other chores before...

“…if truth were everywhere to be shown, a scarlet letter would blaze forth on many a bosom…” – Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter Maddi Runkles, an 18-year-old high school student with a 4.0 grade average, was not allowed to attend the graduation ceremony with her class in Hagerstown, Maryland, because she is pregnant. Technically, according to a statement to parents...

“We are not makers of history. We are made by history.” – Martin Luther King, Jr. Twenty-five years before the Thirteenth Amendment to the US Constitution, an incident took place that squarely placed the issue of slavery before the public and the courts. In 1839, fifty-three Africans were kidnapped from Sierra Leone and sold into slavery. While being transferred by...

With all the noise in the world – much of it negative – it seems pretty clear that change is necessary and it begins with each of us. When religious historian Karen Armstrong discussed a long desired wish for a better world at a TED talk she gave in 2008, the organization decided to help fulfill that wish. On November...

Last August, the world was shocked and outraged at the tragedy that has become Alepo, Syria. However, it was the image of a dust and blood-covered Syrian boy, Omran Daqneesh, that crystallized the true cost of war. Although Omran’s older brother Ali died of his injuries, the rest of his immediate family survived an airstrike that turned their home and...

My friend and trainer, Steve Gordon, was all set to have an incredible trip with his two daughters to New York City for a family reunion, but misfortune steered them in another direction. “Hey Jim, change of plans,” he texted. “My cousin lives in Hartford, Connecticut, which was to be the focal point of the entire trip, took a turn...