What are we doing to one another? What’s happened to our sense of honesty and respect for each other? Why must we tear apart the fabric of our democracy by fear, distrust and anger? We live in a democracy where we are free to express our thoughts, our ideas, and vote for those we trust to lead us forward. “If...

In 1877, Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar, a former distinguished Confederate officer, was the hugely popular Democratic Senator from Mississippi. So revered for his commitment to duty and integrity that a Washington reporter said of Lamar, “he would be a conspicuous personality anywhere, with a character and quality of his own.” Lamar was now faced with an impossible choice in the...

“A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way.” — John Maxwell, American clergyman Liz Cheney is smart, disciplined, honest and fearless. A rock-sold Republican from Wyoming, Cheney is one of only two House Republicans who sit on the House panel investigating the January 6 insurrection. Adam Kinzinger is the other. However, it is...

“Common sense is not that common.”—Voltaire Embed from Getty Images Yup, it’s official, the Republican Party is dead! The party of Lincoln, Reagan, Eisenhower, George H.W. Bush, and God Love ’em, John McCain, is dead from the neck up. On Friday, the Republican National Committee censured (formerly condemned) Republican Representatives Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney who “chose to join Nancy...

Moral courage is a rare commodity, rarer still today. Those who stand up—frequently alone—to shine a light on corruption, deceit, and discrimination at the risk of their reputations and livelihoods are worthy of admiration. Republican representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, singer-songwriters Joni Mitchell and Neil Young, football coach Brian Flores—all have gone it alone in standing against reprehensible behavior,...

There’s a scene in the movie, The Princess Bride, where the undaunted hero—with all the kindness, smartness, and decency required of heroes—is doing what heroes do: saving his beloved Buttercup from kidnappers. At one point, he chases them to the Cliffs of Insanity, a rocky crag so high and so treacherous it makes Yosemite’s El Capitan look like a picnic....

These are the things . . . that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long. — President Donald Trump, in a tweet posted on January 6, the day of the attack on Washington’s Capitol building. “The Mandate of Heaven was...

“Courage shows up all the time in this world and often without any fanfare.”—Michael Keaton, in a 2018 speech honoring the centennial celebration of the founding of the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission by Andrew Carnegie. On July 20, 2012 the horrific shooting an Aurora, Colorado movie theater left 12 dead, and 70 wounded. Heroism arrived on the scene when first...

That’s what Harry Truman said of Gen. George C. Marshall–a characterization that easily applies to Gen. Colin L. Powell. You won’t find a picture of Colin Powell next to Leadership in the dictionary, but you should. You also won’t find him alongside Merriam-Webster’s definition of a Statesman, but no one can deny that Powell was “a wise, skillful, and respected...

Jeffrey Wigand and Frances Haugen have two things in common. Both blew the whistle on impropriety within their respective companies, and both appeared on the news show, 60 Minutes to tell their stories. At the social media company, Facebook, Haugen—with a degree in computer engineering, and a master’s degree in business from Harvard—has 15 years experience in the computer world...