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...

Lists, lists and more lists! Every year, the media creates an endless series of lists. While many target the negative, here’s my list of ten women who inspire: Marissa Mayer –Yahoo CEO. Lots of changes on tap at the web portal company. In abolishing the company’s work-from-home policy, Mayer explained that face-to-face interaction among employees fosters a more collaborative culture...

Nelson Mandela was many things to many people. Husband, father, political prisoner for 27 years, and finally president of South Africa, a country he worked for and inspired change from within. South Africans called him Madiba. The name derives from a chief who ruled in 18th century. It is a sign of reverence and respect; respect, in this case, befitting a...

I recently learned of the death of Fran Striker, Jr. – a true friend who reflected the kind of character represented in his dad as well as the western hero made famous on radio and film. After the release of his dad’s final western “One More River,” Fran wrote, “To my good friend, Jim Lichtman – like my Dad and...

Every couple of years, The Gallup organization takes a poll on the honesty and ethics of professions. It’s not surprising that nurses typically come out on top. In the latest poll, from 2012, nurses were given an 85 percent rating of high or very high. I met First Lieutenant (ret.) Jean Mitchell-Baldwin when she and her husband, John, paid a visit...

“I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to earth.” Kennedy said it, and seven daring young, test pilots fulfilled one of America’s singular achievements. Heroes always seem to be in short supply. Scott Carpenter, the second American to orbit...

This is what inspiration looks like. Malala Yousafzai, the 16-year-old Pakistani girl who survived an assassination attempt by Islamic extremists for campaigning for women’s education, delivered another moving speech at the opening of a library in Birmingham, England. In a voice both settled and soothing, the young woman spoke to a small crowd with simple, confident words. In light of...

On April 4, 1968, New York Senator Robert F. Kennedy was campaigning for the 1968 Democratic presidential nomination. Scheduled to speak before a crowd in Indianapolis, Indiana, Kennedy had learned that civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had been shot and killed, but, despite concerns about riots, Kennedy chose to address the crowd. After being informed that the...

I have never heard such calm, yet resolute wisdom in the words of a sixteen-year-old. “I raise up my voice – not so that I can shout, but so that those without a voice can be heard.” Nine months after a Taliban terrorist shot her in the head returning home from school, Malala Yousafzai addressed a gathering of students from...

They were also there in Newtown, Oklahoma City and in New York City on 9/11. They’re police, firemen, paramedics, doctors, nurses, friends, neighbors – hundreds of typically anonymous bystanders who happen to be in the area during a tragedy like the one we faced Monday at the end of the Boston Marathon. They’re like Carlos Arredondo who said he acted...