That’s the Japanese word for survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The word translates as “explosion-affected people.” Rarely have I listened to such a compelling personal story. It’s the story of Setsuko Thurlow, a hibakusha, who, at just 13-years-old became a victim of war. Today, she is a Peace Ambassador of the United Nations University of Peace...

“A hero has two basic qualities: a selfless devotion to what’s right, whether that’s his duty or not, and the courage of his convictions.”  – Dale Dye, Marine Captain (Ret.) In 2012, while fighting in Afghanistan, Army Captain Florent Groberg demonstrated the kind of selfless devotion to duty Dye speaks of when he knowingly rushed a suicide bomber who was...

As I write this, the jury is in the process of rendering its verdict in the penalty phase of the Boston Marathon bombing case. Last month, a jury of seven women and five men convicted Dzhokhar Tsarnaev of all thirty charges against him – 17 carry the death penalty. While awaiting the jury’s response, I read a surprising appeal by...

Amid the chaos and violence of the Baltimore riots on Monday, one individual – a mother – took accountability into her own hands. In a video, captured by ABC Baltimore affiliate WMAR (Apr. 28), a suspected rioter got the surprise and woopin’ of his life when his mother showed up to personally take charge of her son’s wrongdoing. According to...

Speaking at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s annual National Tribute Dinner held each year on April 15th, FBI Director James Comey took time to make clear why he requires agents to visit the Holocaust Museum. Director Comey is a special breed of law enforcement official who not only sees and understands the big picture, but encourages his agents to...

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...

Where do you go when the court of last resort turns you down? For the past several years I’ve been researching a couple of aspects of the Office of Independent Counsel headed by Kenneth Starr and succeeded by Robert Ray. I interviewed Jo Ann Harris, the former assistant attorney general for the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division under then-Attorney General...

Once again, friend and colleague Colman McCarthy hits the nail on the head in his commentary regarding sexual assaults in the military. A former Washington Post columnist, McCarthy directs the Center for Teaching Peace in Washington and teaches courses on nonviolence at four universities and two high schools. It was Groucho Marx, and it usually was, who had it right:...

In his closing argument in the George Zimmerman murder trial, Florida state prosecutor Bernie de la Rionda told a jury of six women that Trayvon Martin  “is dead because another man made assumptions, because his assumptions were wrong.” That statement pretty much sums up the entire Martin/Zimmerman incident. From the outset, as soon as the shooting death of the 17-year-old,...

President Obama formally nominated former Justice official James Comey to succeed Robert Mueller as the next director of the F.B.I. However, it was in 2004 that Comey nearly resigned his position as acting attorney general under George W. Bush. In March 2004, a gravely ill Attorney General John Ashcroft had been taken to a Washington hospital for gallbladder surgery. At...