The Take was amazed and gratified by three positive events that demonstrated the best we can be. Forgiveness – At the bail hearing for the murder suspect in the Charleston Church shooting this past week, a remarkable and noble spirit spoke. As reported by the Christian Science Monitor (June 20), “ ‘We already forgive him for what he’s done, and...

The style, the affairs, to be sure, but President John F. Kennedy also got much more right than some give him credit for. Looking through the lens of those who were there at the time, one inconsistency was brought to light by journalist David Talbot for a TIME magazine cover story from 2007. This remarkably perceptive story discusses Kennedy in...

In 2000, after I had received a number of responses to my “What Do You Stand For?” questionnaire, I struggled with a problem: What is the most effective way to share these stories, and talk about the individual who submitted them? At the time, I was reading journalist Tom Brokaw’s book, The Greatest Generation Speaks, subtitled, Letters and Reflections. Brokaw’s...

Character Counts! is the name of the character education program established by The Josephson Institute of Ethics utilized by schools and communities nationwide. While character in professional athletes can appear to be lacking, more organizations are waking up to the reality that reputation matters, and if a player has behavior issues it reflects directly on the organization for which they...

I’m always amazed at events honoring the day a renowned individual died versus celebrating what he or she stood for while they were alive. Certainly, such is the case with Abraham Lincoln who died at the hands of an assassin 150 years ago this month. There is, however, little doubt that Lincoln, although frequently referenced as our greatest president, was...

Reading about the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the Nazi concentration camp from World War II, reminded me of my own experience in visiting Dachau, the first of those camps. I was part of a small group of high school students visiting countries throughout Europe. On a day free from scheduled sightseeing in Munich, Germany, I took a...

On September 11, 2001, you shook American when you took 2,996 lives, but we survived, rebuilt and became stronger. On April 15, 2013, you murdered five individuals and injured 280, but rallies were held proclaiming “Boston Strong,” and the yearly event continues. In the short run, your attacks have succeeded in killing or injuring thousands of innocent men, women and...

“I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand.” – Atticus Finch, “To Kill a Mockingbird” There’s a moment in the film, To Kill a Mockingbird that’s particularly compelling. Tom Robinson, a black man falsely accused of raping a white woman in a small...

The Treaty of Versailles signed on June 28, 1919, officially ended the conflict known as “The Great War,” what we now call World War I. “However,” according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs web site, “the fighting ceased seven months earlier when an armistice, or temporary cessation of hostilities, between the Allied nations and Germany went into effect on...

“Facts are stubborn things…” – John Adams On March 5, 1770, the Boston Massacre began as a flash mob of citizens who surrounded and heckled British soldiers quartered in the city. With the local citizenry up in arms about the incursion of British troops by England’s King George, the growing crowd of Americans-to-be threw snowballs, sticks and ultimately stones at...