I begin with a conversation I had with documentary filmmaker, Ken Burns. “The most powerful guiding principle in my life,” Burns begins, “has been and is now the conviction that the past is indeed prologue and we cannot know where we are headed if we do not understand from whence we came. From this, we can clearly see the futility...

It was the harshest election in memory. A country divided, split down the middle. Each side believing the other is the enemy. Emotions turn to marches and riots. Each side believing the other is to blame. The man the country had now elected must lower the temperature, turn away from ugly rhetoric and unify. “We are not enemies, but friends....

Cartoonist Dan Piraro has a skillful way of approaching the day’s issues through the backdoor. A recent panel uses Samuel Beckett’s classic play, Waiting for Godot, to underscore CDC coronavirus guidelines. While Godot offers no reason for canceling his meeting with the story’s two central characters who spend the length of the play waiting, Piraro provides a witty spin even...

Dear Undecided Voter, I’m hoping to aid your decision-making and help clarify what’s at stake in tomorrow’s election. Here’s what we know: According to Washington Post fact-checker, Glenn Kessler, since his time in office, Donald Trump as made a total of 22,247 false or misleading statements since assuming office. FactCheck.org and Politifact.com offer similar lists. Absent any evidence,  » Read more...

I don’t know about you, but I am spent – emotionally, psychologically spent from everything Trump does, declares, defies, defiles, denies and doublebacks. For nearly four years, the country has endured Trump’s erratic autocracy from name-calling to pulling out of treaties; from Twitter rants to his recent doublebacks on a stimulus plan. He’s gone from fawning over administration appointments to...

Sadly, every day brings a new low from the man who sits in the White House. Sadder still are republican Senators who lack the courage to publicly hold him accountable. After Trump’s mockery of a debate – his lies, his indecency in attacking his opponent’s dead son and allegedly World War II soldiers buried in France – he consistently demonstrates...

“To meet the challenge of our times… we must first defeat the enemy within.” —Robert F. Kennedy While Kennedy was addressing corruption in labor unions, he could have spoken those words today, given the multiple challenges we face: — A massive virus; unemployment; a struggling economy; companies struggling with new protections for workers and protocols for conducting business; attacks against...

Some citizens in Wolfford, Texas see the refusal to wear a mask to protect others as a principled stand. “I’m not doing it because I woke up in a free country.” “… we’re done with all that.” “…we don’t care.” Facing a tidal wave of defections from advertisers angered by the hate speech that appears next to their names in...

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...

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...