Hate is a sickness; a dark force that shuts out the light of humanity. It grows in darkness, feeds on suspicion, fear, and doubt. It debases others in a torrent of racialism. In times of distrust and disaffection, it grabs onto any rationalization for violence. On September 11, 2001, the country witnessed the power of hate in the murder of...

Dysfunction is no longer an adequate descriptor of Washington leadership these days. We’re all aware of the key players in this madness. The media recites them in a 24/7 loop of chaotic images and infotainment. Nonetheless, the strong and the good eventually overcame the darker forces in our nation’s past. Before we continue our march toward the abyss of cynicism,...

Embed from Getty Images It’s been 60 years since Dr. King spoke to 250,000 supporters on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on a warm August afternoon in 1963. King’s stirring words about character, however, were improvised not written. Standing close to the civil rights leader, gospel singer Mahalia Jackson whispered, “Tell ‘em about ‘the dream,’ Martin.” I have a...

Yesterday’s Seattle Sun-Times perfectly captures the country’s zeitgeist. Political cartoonist David Horsey has two families standing alongside each other at a beach celebration. With fireworks bursting in air, the couple on the left—one wearing a MAGA T-shirt, the other that reads, “Don’t Tread on Me” —announce, “I love America the way it used to be! The couple on the right—sporting...

Think about this. Because of Putin’s war against Ukraine, millions of Ukrainian men, women, and children are enduring the harshest conditions imaginable: nightly bombing; an absence of light, heat and water. Ukraine’s health system cannot keep up with the sick and injured. Schools have closed in much of the country. Despite help from European and Western allies, life in Ukraine...

Here’s what I like about politicians. Every once in a while, we get heroes—people who stand up for what’s right and good and best not just for the people back home, but the entire country. Margret Chase Smith, the Republican Senator from Maine, was such a hero when she stood up against the lies and tactics of her Senate colleague,...

With the approach of Christmas, last Tuesday’s commentary was looking for a way back from all the hate-filled turmoil of 2022. I asked, what one essential quality have Americans depended on to help heal the nation’s pain? Speaking before a joint session of Congress on Wednesday, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky answered it for me. “Ladies and gentlemen — ladies and...

Amid all the chaos and divisiveness in Washington comes a political story of hope. Maxwell Frost, a 25-year-old activist from Orlando, Florida, is the US representative-elect from his home state. And, as his website makes clear, he’s focused on one thing, “Change Can’t Wait.” “Mr. Frost,” The New York Times reports, “who is of Lebanese, Puerto Rican and Haitian descent...

Attending a Padres/Dodgers game in San Diego, I’m sitting next to a die-hard Padres fan. Despite my lifelong Dodger fever, we shared laughs, baseball stories and favorite teams: he loved the Yankees; I loved the Red Sox. What makes baseball so compelling is that while both sides want to win, they play on the same field, follow the same rules,...

“A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom. But the tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason.” In the depths of the Revolutionary War, George Washington’s troops struggled with disease, hunger, and defeat. What Washington needed was a...