Recent Respect Commentaries

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Extremism
America is paralyzed by mistrust and extremism. The Southern Poverty Law Center’s “Intelligence Project” has identified 488 anti-government groups around the country that flourish exploiting lies and false conspiracies. “In 2021,” the project reports, “the conspiratorial and permanently dubious view of government was pervasive, as evidence by the movement’s popularity on such issues as COVID-19 regulations, local school curriculum, the...
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June 3, 2022
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Our Bitter Harvest
“Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this sun of York.” —Richard III, Act I, sc. 1 In March 1954, Democratic presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson spoke to a crowd of supporters about the poison that had infected much of the American public by a demagogic United States Senator. “We are witnessing the bitter harvest from the...
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May 20, 2022
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We Are Americans
Character is a word that’s rarely used today; rarer still is finding leaders who demonstrate character. But there are a few. Republicans Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, against their party’s wishes, chose to participate in an investigation into the causes of the January 6, 2020 insurrection. It takes character and courage to choose principle over politics. Where would we be...
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May 13, 2022
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What Will Smith Should Do First
“We judge ourselves by our best intentions, our most noble acts, our most virtuous habits. But we are judged by out last worst act.” — Michael Josephson Actor Will Smith’s actions at last Sunday’s Academy Awards ceremony was precedent setting inexcusable. Reacting to a joke by comedian Chris Rock about Smith’s wife, Smith stepped on stage and slapped the comedian....
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April 1, 2022
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Who We Really Are And Can Be, Again
SPECIAL EDITION – HOW PRESIDENT BIDEN CAN INSPIRE ALL OF US, TONIGHT. The New York Times asked four columnists to offer their own State of the Union speech. Columnist David Brooks’s words are the most honest, credible, humble, forward-thinking, and inspiring I’ve heard in years! Here’s what Brooks believes Biden should say, tonight. My fellow Americans: “People always talk about...
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March 1, 2022
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Something We All Need
In it’s February 28th edition, TIME magazine highlighted “19 Kids Changing the World.” On the cover, Kid of the Year, eleven-year-old Orion Jean, “Ambassador for Kindness.” Academy Award-winning actor and special envoy of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees recently interviewed Jean. Here are some highlights from the conversation. “When the pandemic began,” Orion began, “I saw a lot of...
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March 1, 2022
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The Way Forward, Conclusion: Where We Need to Be
Moral courage is a rare commodity, rarer still today. Those who stand up—frequently alone—to shine a light on corruption, deceit, and discrimination at the risk of their reputations and livelihoods are worthy of admiration. Republican representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, singer-songwriters Joni Mitchell and Neil Young, football coach Brian Flores—all have gone it alone in standing against reprehensible behavior,...
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February 4, 2022
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The Poison We Live With
“He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind . . .” —Proverbs 11:29 Denial is a superb film about a lawsuit brought by author David Irving against American Holocaust scholar, Deborah Lipstadt for libel. Irving writes and speaks on Nazi Germany and much his work centers on his fervent belief that the Holocaust never happened. The basis of...
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January 28, 2022
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At the Throat of American Democracy, Part 2
On February 9, 1950, Senator Joseph R. McCarthy stood before the County Women’s Republican Club in West Virginia and stated, “I have here in my hand a list of 205 [State Department employees] that were known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping the policy of the...
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January 21, 2022
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The Few. The Proud. The Stupid
It’s been little more than a year since the January insurrection where Senators and House members hid from an angry mob of Trump supporters, (And yes, Republicans, a majority of rational people know this. They’re just spending too much time on the bench to take action against what’s likely to come.) Now, with the surge of the Omicron, a variant...
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January 14, 2022