Even as he took the oath of office, Lincoln knew that civil war was coming. In his first speech as commander and chief, even as he urged restraint, he made clear “In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war… You have no oath registered in Heaven to destroy the government, while...

On the first day of class, Professor William Hundert stands before his high school boys in the film The Emperor’s Club and succinctly explains the purpose he is reaching for with his students. “Great ambition and conquest without contribution is without significance. What will your contribution be? How will history remember you?” June is a time of graduation and having...

Charlie Rose is perhaps the best in-depth inquisitor in media today. The Emmy award winning journalist is not only the host of his own nightly PBS program where he interviews America’s best writers, business leaders, politicians, athletes, entertainers, innovators and thinkers, he is my go-to newsman/anchor at CBS This Morning. Rose likes to observe or ask, “What does it mean,”...

The political blog Think Progress reported (Apr. 1), “In March alone, 111 people died during police encounters… As in the past, numerous incidents were spurred by violent threats from suspects, and two officers were shot in Ferguson during a peaceful protest. However, the deaths follow a national pattern: suspects were mostly people of color, mentally ill, or both.” With misconduct...

In a moment that sounded like a clip from a TV courtroom drama, Atlanta Judge Jerry Baxter vents his frustration at the defendants: “All I want from any of these people is just to take some responsibility, but they refuse.” “Eight former city public-school educators were sentenced to prison Tuesday,” The Wall Street Journal reports (Apr. 15), “for inflating student...

Most actors achieve press attention promoting a book, film, TV, play, cause or, in rare instances a public mea culpa for some infidelity, (e.g. Hugh Grant). While Angelina Jolie-Pitt has addressed causes in the past, she took the unusual step in talking about her personal decision-making regarding a medical choice she began two years ago, and the reasons behind her...

In a big step to change the culture of misconduct on its campus, Dartmouth College President Philip J. Hanlon announced last Thursday, that it would ban hard liquor on campus. “The measures Dr. Hanlon announced Thursday in a speech on campus had been expected and were based largely on the work of a panel he created nine months ago to...

According to the Pew Research Center (Aug. 24, 2010), “The public continues to express conflicted views of Islam. Favorable opinions of Islam have declined since 2005, but there has been virtually no change over the past year in the proportion of Americans saying that Islam is more likely than other religions to encourage violence. As was the case a year...

Dartmouth has a history as a top Ivy League college. Long esteemed for its schools of medicine, engineering, business as well as liberal arts, Dartmouth has now gained another distinction. The Boston Globe reported (Jan. 8), that “Up to 64 Dartmouth College students — including some athletes — could face suspension or other disciplinary action for cheating in an ethics...

Imagine that you’re the black parent of a 9th grade student opening a textbook on United States History and read that the slave trade is referenced as the “Atlantic Triangular Trade.” How about this one: that same parent is helping his son study for a history final and read that during the era of segregation only “sometimes” were schools for...