“There’s a difference between what you have a right to do and what is right to do.” United States Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart said that. But it was not part of any written Supreme Court opinion or legal case. While it’s been widely quoted as Stewart’s judicial philosophy, there is no record of it in any official Supreme Court...

I happened across Frances Perkins while searching files at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library. She was the first woman in U.S. history to serve in a cabinet post, as Secretary of Labor under the most consequential president of the era. She shined brightest, not in seeking headlines, but in advancing the rights and well-being of ordinary Americans. Born in...

French philosopher Voltaire once observed, “Common sense is not so common.” Thomas Paine trusted it anyway and helped inspire a revolution built on it. In January 1776, Thomas Paine published Common Sense, a pamphlet that spoke in plain, direct language ordinary colonists could understand. English by birth, Paine became an extraordinary patriot. His words cut through chaos at one of...

Returning from summer vacation, the atmosphere in the country, sadly, remains unchanged. While future commentaries will highlight America’s triumphs as well as the times we found the courage to correct our course, the challenges before us now are too flagrant to ignore: the same divisions, the same anger, the same refusal to face reality persist. With armed National Guard units...

“If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher.”— Abraham Lincoln The absence of truth at the microphone tells us just how far we’ve fallen. And every day, we feel that distance grow—each news cycle thick with chaos, each headline steeped in grievance or fear. We are exhausted—not just politically, but spiritually. For years, we’ve been...

I’ve been looking back at history for moments when leadership wasn’t just a word, it was a responsibility carried with humility and moral strength. It’s easy to talk about leadership when the outcome is victory. The harder truth—the one that defines real character—is how a leader responds when the stakes are high, and the outcome is uncertain. Dwight D. Eisenhower...

Harvard University now stands at an ethical crossroads—not just for itself, but for every educational entity in the country. While I never attended Harvard, you don’t need a Harvard degree to see the deadly sword hanging over all of education. The moment universities start compromising their core values to appease an administration obsessed with control, they surrender more than autonomy—they...

As President Donald Trump celebrated the 250th anniversary of the U.S. military, one soldier was under attack. At Fort Drum, New York, Maj. Erica Vandal glanced at her phone. A message from her mother: “Just heard about the Supreme Court ruling. That totally stinks! How are you doing?” The court had just allowed Trump’s ban on transgender troops to take...

It begins subtly. A shrug at a cruel remark. A laugh at behavior once considered beneath the dignity of the office. A dismissal of a fact, a bending of the truth. “It’s just rhetoric,” they say. “He’s just being himself.” Norms don’t break overnight. They erode—quietly, steadily—until what was once outrageous becomes routine. But the temperature keeps rising. In April,...

When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.—Derived from “It Can’t Happen Here” by Sinclair Lewis This is the most prescient book I have ever read.  In 1935, Sinclair Lewis published a novel with a title that felt more like comfort than warning: It Can’t Happen Here. But the real message behind...