Last January, Megan, one of my New Hampshire students, responded to the question, “who is the most ethical person you know?” with this essay about a neighborhood mom named Pat. When most people think of an ethical person they think of Mother Teresa, Mohandas Gandhi or Jimmy Carter. They all did great things in their lifetime, which is why people...

This is a story about discrimination and the possibility of change. Next month, the National Council of The Boy Scouts of America will vote on an issue that has deeply divided the Scouts for decades. The Scouts announced early this month, a split-the-baby approach allowing openly gay boys to become members. If the proposal is accepted by a majority of...

I wasn’t born when Jackie Robinson first stepped onto a major league baseball field on this day sixty-six years ago, breaking the color barrier. Growing up, for the most part, in Southern California, I was already accustomed to integration. It was a given. From the first moment I saw Chavez Ravine in 1962, I discovered a world where sunshine and...

“He was the very, very first to come and apologize to me. For a private citizen to come along and say, ‘I’m the one that attacked you; I’m the one who beat you,’ it was very meaningful…. His story and the way he arrived at his position must be understood, must be told.” That was civil-rights leader and Georgia Representative John...

In his book on George Washington, Richard Brookhiser writes that “all modern manners in the western world were originally aristocratic. Courtesy meant behavior appropriate to a court; chivalry comes from chevalier – a knight. Yet Washington was to dedicate himself to freeing America from a court’s control. “Could manners survive the operation? Without realizing it, the Jesuits who wrote them,...

The president’s State of the Union address signals the start of a new federal cycle. What will this new chapter bring? How will the elected few guide the nation? Here are some thoughts for both Congress and the president to consider. At the close of Mr. Jefferson’s Declaration are these immortal words: “…we mutually pledge to each other our Lives,...

After reviewing the PBS Frontline documentary, A Class Divided, Professor Stephen Ambra led a class discussion on bigotry and intolerance. However, it was a conversation I had at the break with one of the students that led to a special written assignment. Sitting in the back of the room, clearly uncomfortable with the discussion, this student confided that the subject of...

This final ode to baseball comes from writer Norman Corwin. Originally posted May 12, 2008, he talks about two words that largely go missing today. Last week I attended a special memorial of this master of word, wit and wisdom known to most simply as Corwin. After listening to stories from Norman Lear, Stan Freeburg, Norman Lloyd and others, I...

Memo to: President Obama and Governor Romney With both of you remain busy ramping up your campaigns, I offer some ethical wisdom from now until November, and… hopefully, beyond. 1. Loyalty is important, but… It’s nice to have loyal friends and followers who have the same passion to want to make this country work for the betterment of all, but not...

Last Wednesday, (Mar. 21) comedian Bill Maher wrote an Op-Ed for The New York Times; the gist of it being that he’s tired of all the apologies. From celebrities to politicians, anyone and everyone with a voice in the media for what Maher believes are incidental infractions of polite society. “I don’t want to live in a country,” Maher writes, “where...