“Terror is nothing other than prompt, severe, inflexible justice.” – Robespierre While the French revolutionary’s words ignited an uprising that ultimately overturned the despotic empire of Louis XVI and opened France to new age, his words resonate today, but not in the way he originally intended. Today, we have our own King Louis who is supposed to be in former...

Standing before a judge to fight a traffic ticket was a matter of principle to me. Embed from Getty Images Back in my college days I was helping a friend move. I had loaded up my car with boxes and was waiting for her to come down, get in her car so I could follow her to a new apartment....

In 1826, a month before the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter to Washington publisher, and civic leader Robert C. Weightman declining an invitation to attend next month’s celebration due to his “sufferings and sickness.” While the first reading of American Independence took place on July 8, 1776 in Philadelphia, the first event honoring...

This is what irresponsibility looks like, where dishonesty thrives and “loyalty” trumps rationality. This isn’t a close call. This isn’t, well, you know, it might have been this, or maybe that. No. The January 6 attack on the Capitol building by fervent Trump supporters and armed extreme right insurrectionists is not opinion. It’s fact. Many of those who didn’t see...

With the rate of vaccinations continuing to rise and the number of COVID-19 cases declining, Americans are jumping back into life. Yesterday, California’s governor announced that the state was open for business with a few guidelines. “Californians who are two weeks removed from their last vaccine dose will be allowed to go mask-free in nearly all settings,” The L.A. Times...

…it’s about us. It’s about those who support him, those who mimic, tweet, or Facebook his outrage and lies, and those who remain silent. He’s no longer president. He no longer has direct control of our lives. There’s nothing left but the clown show of rallies where he reiterates the same tired lies and conspiracies to supporters who feed his...

Embed from Getty Images Thirty-one minutes and forty-three seconds into his speech at the GOP Lincoln-Reagan Dinner in Manchester, New Hampshire, former Vice-President Mike Pence said this about the January 6th insurrection of the Capitol building and President Trump: “…I don’t know if we’ll ever see eye-to-eye on that day…” That’s it? “Eye-to-eye”? What a feeble attempt at characterizing your...

For 3 long days, the battle raged. The following night, in a heavy rain, General Lee withdrew his troops from the battlefield of Gettysburg. The union had won a costly but critical battle and turned the tide of the Civil War. Four months later, Lincoln, a Republican, standing in the midst of a crowd, summed the words that would be...

In my 2004 book, What Do You Stand For? I asked a cross-section of more than 100 individuals to answer a questionnaire: What do you stand for, what principles have you lived by? Describe a “moment of principle” in which your convictions were tested or a story in which you were inspired by another. Last night, on the floor of...

“In a democracy, every citizen, regardless of his interest in politics, ‘holds office’; every one of us is in a position of responsibility; and, in the final analysis, the kind of government we get depends upon how we fulfill those responsibilities. We, the people, are the boss, and we will get the kind of political leadership, be it good or...