Recent Respect Commentaries

Featured image for “This is How Change Begins”
This is How Change Begins
Apologies. I’m working on a special project that has taken up yesterday and today. “What We Need to Be,” is scheduled for Monday.   “We have always held to the hope, the belief, the conviction that there is a better life, a better world, beyond the horizon.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1941 As protests against racial and police injustice surge...
Read More
June 17, 2020
Featured image for “Words That Matter”
Words That Matter
During the times that try our souls, inspiring wisdom is needed more than ever. Perhaps it’s time to remind ourselves of those who, by their words, encourage us to live out of our better angels. “We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now.” – Martin Luther King, Jr. “To sensible men, every day...
Read More
June 15, 2020
Featured image for “New York Times: Right or Wrong? Part 1”
New York Times: Right or Wrong? Part 1
The headline hits you between the eyes: “Tom Cotton: Send in the Troops” On Wednesday, the New York Times published a controversial editorial by Arkansas Republican Senator Tom Cotton. Cotton is a full-throated supporter of President Trump and he used the opinion section of The Times to clear his throat in support of the actions President Trump suggested to quell...
Read More
June 5, 2020
Featured image for “The Piraro Principle”
The Piraro Principle
This cartoon, from the wry and witty mind of Dan Piraro, could not be more timely. The first meaning suggests that we expect others to change rather than ourselves. However, a second meaning, Piraro says, “insinuates how we try the same failed things over and over, expecting the results to change.” The cartoon is the visual equivalent of an expression...
Read More
June 3, 2020
Featured image for “The Meaning of Memorial Day”
The Meaning of Memorial Day
Note: I will return Friday. On May 30, 1868 Ohio Senator James A. Garfield gave the first address to a crowd of more than 5,000 at Arlington National Cemetery. The event, known then as Decoration Day, was organized to honor those who died during the Civil War. However, five years before Garfield’s address another political figure stood to deliver a...
Read More
May 25, 2020
Featured image for “Why I Continue to Write About Trump”
Why I Continue to Write About Trump
He is an angry, arrogant, bigoted, unprincipled narcissist who was elected to the U.S. presidency by the slimmest of margins. He is the most illiterate, contradictory, and inarticulate individual who has ever held the highest office in the land. According to the watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), he has more than 3,000 conflicts of interest....
Read More
May 22, 2020
Featured image for “Prayer is Not Enough”
Prayer is Not Enough
In “Finding Hope,” a special report by TIME magazine (April 27-May4), the editors asked a variety of notable individuals to offer their perspective on handling the effects of Covid-19 have had on us all. See if you can identify the common thread in the collection below. Basketball star Stephen Curry on individual actions: “I was the first NBA player tested...
Read More
April 20, 2020
Featured image for “How Do We Restore America’s Integrity?”
How Do We Restore America’s Integrity?
We have survived crises before. However, the events we are now facing have brought about an unimaginable chain reaction. This is not the America many of us grew up with and loved. We’ve faced down bullies before, but these current threats come in a different form: deceit, corruption, unreason, and disease; not just disease from a deadly virus, but an...
Read More
April 13, 2020
Featured image for “How Do They Make That Call? – Conclusion”
How Do They Make That Call? – Conclusion
On Friday I wrote about the painful decision-making confronting physicians throughout the world who are not only facing a tsunami of coronavirus patients, but a shortage of critical supplies including ventilators, devices that provide air to those who are unable to breathe on their own. Ethical decision-making goes back as far as Chinese philosopher Confucius, who advised, “What you do...
Read More
March 30, 2020
Featured image for “Why It Matters”
Why It Matters
Last Thursday, Judge Amy Berman Jackson handed down her sentence to President Trump’s long time friend and campaign associate, Roger Stone. However, before that sentence was read, Stone, his defense team and Justice prosecutors listened to words not only directed to those in the courtroom, but the American people… ALL Americans. Key passages are worth repeating. ”The defendant isn’t public...
Read More
February 24, 2020