“Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable… Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.” – Martin Luther King, Jr. The words of Dr. King were meant to inspire us to grow beyond hatred, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive...

A conversation with a friend led to this question:  is it unethical to be cynical? On the surface it would seem that one can hold most any outlook on life they choose without much disruption to their moral sense.  It’s an outlook, not an action and ethics is about what we do, not how we view life. But let’s take a closer...

In honor of the baseball playoffs, I offer this story, as it appeared in May, 2008. In the early 1940’s, Norman Corwin was nearly as well known as Franklin Delano Roosevelt and much admired. Author Ray Bradbury calls Corwin, “…the greatest director, the greatest writer and the greatest producer in the history of radio.  His brilliant dramas, fantasies, and documentaries...

When it comes to apologia, creative people have the edge on most of us regarding imaginative rationalizations.  However, sometimes the more creative they are, the more cockamamie the reasoning. Thirty-one years after he fled the United States after pleading guilty to having had sex with a 13-year-old girl, Roman Polanski has been arrested in Switzerland and is being held for...

A Rap star takes the stage from one award winner shouting that another should have won. A TV pundit calls the President a racist. During a Presidential address to Congress, a representative shouts, “You lie!” Lumbering through a moral wilderness of incivility and unreason we are losing the best of ourselves to fear and uncertainty. With a struggling economy, rising...

Last Friday (Sept. 4) Huffington Post ran a photo on the front page of its site with the headline, “Snapshot of an Unseen War.”  The photo depicted the final hours of life of Lance Corporal Joshua M. Bernard, 21, after he was struck down by a rocket-propelled grenade in Afghanistan on August 14. Several newspapers around the country chose to run The Associated...

Last Friday, I offered an ethical dilemma. I asked readers to imagine sitting on the California parole board to decide whether to grant convicted murderer Susan Atkins “compassionate release” based on her terminally ill condition. I asked readers to offer their thoughts before submitting my own conclusions.  One comment that repeatedly came up in conversations with friends, “How can you show...

You sit on the California state parole board looking into a request to release Susan Atkins, the terminally ill prisoner convicted of participating in the killing of actress Sharon Tate and four others in 1969. At the parole hearing, you listen to family members of the victims. Debra Tate, sister of the actress: “I will pray for her soul when...

This past summer, social interaction has been a disgrace. I’m talking about the lack of civility brought about by the health care debate.  Among the most demonstrative was an interchange between Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank and a constituent. Holding up a picture of President Obama altered to look like Adolph Hitler, a woman asks, “Why are you supporting this Nazi...

“The summer of 2009 has not been our finest hour.” So wrote Newsweek editor Jon Meacham (Aug. 24) in response to those individuals who have brought Hitler and Nazism into the debate on health care. There’s political commentary and there’s hate speech and I’m sick and tired of hate speech passing for commentary. Earlier this month, conservative radio talk host Rush Limbaugh...