Recent Responsibility Commentaries

Featured image for “No QVC?”
No QVC?
Hunter Biden has a new career: painting and selling his artwork. While that’s good for him, it’s not so good for dad. Big ethics issue. “‘The whole thing is a really bad idea,” said Richard Painter, who was chief ethics lawyer to President George W. Bush from 2005 to 2007,” The Washington Post reports (July 8). “‘The initial reaction a...
Read More
July 14, 2021
Featured image for ““Festival of Truth””
“Festival of Truth”
“Terror is nothing other than prompt, severe, inflexible justice.” – Robespierre While the French revolutionary’s words ignited an uprising that ultimately overturned the despotic empire of Louis XVI and opened France to new age, his words resonate today, but not in the way he originally intended. Today, we have our own King Louis who is supposed to be in former...
Read More
July 12, 2021
Featured image for “Fact, Fiction and Adam Kinzinger”
Fact, Fiction and Adam Kinzinger
Adam Kinzinger is a committed conservative. However, that commitment does not extend to supporting Donald Trump and his Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen and that Vice-President Mike Pence had the power to throw out votes when the electoral votes were being certified in the Capitol on January 6. Kinzinger calls the obsequiousness by Republicans to Trump, “capitulating...
Read More
July 6, 2021
Featured image for “Heroes are in Short Supply”
Heroes are in Short Supply
“If it’s naïve to want peace instead of war, let ‘em make sure they say, I’m naïve. Because I want peace instead of war.” — Benjamin Ferencz Right now, I can’t think of a more important time in the country and the world where we need heroes , ethical heroes, men and women of principle. Ben Ferencz is one of...
Read More
June 30, 2021
Featured image for “This is Where We Are”
This is Where We Are
This is what irresponsibility looks like, where dishonesty thrives and “loyalty” trumps rationality. This isn’t a close call. This isn’t, well, you know, it might have been this, or maybe that. No. The January 6 attack on the Capitol building by fervent Trump supporters and armed extreme right insurrectionists is not opinion. It’s fact. Many of those who didn’t see...
Read More
June 28, 2021
Entitlement
Entitlement is the new justification where people behave badly believing they can pretty much do whatever they want by claiming… “It’s my right to (fill in the blank).” They feel entitled to refuse to wear masks and social distance (even though federal guidelines are intended to protect themselves and others). They feel entitled to punch anyone in the face who...
Read More
June 23, 2021
Featured image for “Mending Wall”
Mending Wall
“Man is free at the instant he wants to be.” – Voltaire Looking up at the nation’s Capitol, two small children, a boy and girl, were standing at the bottom of the steps looking up, awed by the size and brilliance of the white building. Each began climbing the 365 steps to reach the top. When one had trouble, the...
Read More
June 21, 2021
It’s Not Over
Embed from Getty Images In three days, June 10 to June 12, the country endured 6 mass shootings: Yonkers, New York; Detroit, Michigan; White Center, Washington; Savannah, Georgia; Austin, Texas; and Chicago, Illinois, accounting for 6 dead and 38 injured. Year to date, Chicago has had 16 mass shootings. The non-profit research group, Gun Violence Archive, defines a mass shooting...
Read More
June 18, 2021
Featured image for “It’s Over!”
It’s Over!
With the rate of vaccinations continuing to rise and the number of COVID-19 cases declining, Americans are jumping back into life. Yesterday, California’s governor announced that the state was open for business with a few guidelines. “Californians who are two weeks removed from their last vaccine dose will be allowed to go mask-free in nearly all settings,” The L.A. Times...
Read More
June 16, 2021
Featured image for “The Diminishment of Our Democracy is Not About Trump…”
The Diminishment of Our Democracy is Not About Trump…
…it’s about us. It’s about those who support him, those who mimic, tweet, or Facebook his outrage and lies, and those who remain silent. He’s no longer president. He no longer has direct control of our lives. There’s nothing left but the clown show of rallies where he reiterates the same tired lies and conspiracies to supporters who feed his...
Read More
June 11, 2021

Read Some of the Most Recent Articles
The Latest... And Often Greatest
It Was Important Then. It is Important Today
Freedom of speech in America is under attack, not only when people are denied the right to speak, but when lies, intimidation and the deliberate...
When Political Identity Replaces Ethical Judgment
The political and cultural landscape has become a minefield of conflicting beliefs, many now rooted less in public policy than in personal identity. One of...
Principles Matter.
A few nights ago, I was watching The Way We Were, a film I’ve seen more times than I can count. This time, a single...
All the President’s Men 2.0
“Politics had infiltrated every corner of government—a strong-arm takeover of the agencies by the Nixon White House.” —Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, All the President’s...
The Threat to November Is Already Here
“Cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government.”—George Washington’s...
Jon Ossoff and the Conscience of Atticus Finch
I’ve written about Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff before, but after watching his questioning of Jay Clayton, President Trump’s nominee for director of national intelligence (DNI),...