“Mr. President, I would like to speak briefly and simply about a serious national condition. It is a national feeling of fear and frustration that could result in national suicide, and the end of everything that we Americans hold dear. It is a condition that comes from the lack of effective leadership in either the legislative branch or the executive...

During the month of August, comfortably ensconced in my “cone of silence,” I spent most of the time reading a variety of books. While all of them speak to various ethical values, many of the authors were simply good storytellers. After listening to an interview of former Navy SEAL Robert O’Neill, I became interested in reading his account of how...

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”  – George Santayana Recently, I received an e-mail from a reader to a 2016 commentary (Fact-Checking a Reader) I wrote regarding candidate-Trump’s original statement calling for a “total and complete shutdown” of all Muslims entering the United States. “I think if Trump would have left out the word Muslim,”...

Political heroes are rare. The last genuine political hero, Senator Philip S. Hart, is remembered on the front of an office building in Washington, D.C. as: “A man of incorruptible integrity and personal courage strengthened by inner grace and outer gentleness…. His humility and ethics earned him his place as the conscience of the Senate.” Last Friday (June 30), another...

Have you ever tried handwriting the entire text of the U.S. Constitution? “On Inauguration Day, [artist Morgan O’Hara] went to the [New York Public] library with a small suitcase of pens, a few Sharpies, papers and copies of the Constitution. I brought old notebooks, half-used drawing pads and loose sheets to share with anyone who might show up. I began...

Whenever Press Secretary Sean Spicer is asked to explain one of President Trump’s tweets, he responds, “The president’s tweet speaks for itself.” When Spicer was asked what the president meant by “covfefe,” Spicer replied, “The president and a small group of people know exactly what he meant.” It now seems perfectly clear that Spicer, and that very “small group” were...

In a moving commentary in Monday’s (May 29), New York Times, Documentarians Ken Burns and Lynn Novick reflect on their ten-year research detailed in an upcoming documentary, The Vietnam War. “For more than a generation,” Burns and Novick write, “instead of forging a path to reconciliation, we have allowed the wounds the war inflicted on our nation, our politics and...

Today would have been the 100th birthday of John F. Kennedy. While he served less than three years as the nation’s 35th president, more books have been written about Kennedy – 62,000 – than any president in the last 152 years, (Lincoln comes in first with 111,000; Washington, second with 83,000). I have 31 books on Kennedy in my own...

A few months ago I learned about the dedication of a statue of John Gilbert Winant from Concord resident and college professor Stephen Ambra. “Who the heck is John Gilbert Winant?” I asked. “He’s one of this country’s great unsung heroes of World War II,” Ambra said. Ernest Bevin, a leading figure in Winston Churchill’s government, said “There is one...

One of the most iconic images in Hollywood film is a static black and white picture of a pair of train tracks trailing into a distant western landscape. By itself, it doesn’t seem to say much. However, in the western classic High Noon, the image represents a reckoning that’s coming and the man whose actions make him a reluctant hero....