Updates at the end of this commentary. Military heroes are known for their immediate courage on the battlefield, but for some, ethical courage can be just as urgent. Just ask Captain Brett Crozier. As the commander of the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt, with a crew of 4,000 sailors, Capt. Crozier faced a challenge he never expected when he reported to...

On Friday I wrote about the painful decision-making confronting physicians throughout the world who are not only facing a tsunami of coronavirus patients, but a shortage of critical supplies including ventilators, devices that provide air to those who are unable to breathe on their own. Ethical decision-making goes back as far as Chinese philosopher Confucius, who advised, “What you do...

“If [the people are] given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts.” – Abraham Lincoln Every day this health crisis grows more critical. Every day we hear conflicting information. Every day people are dying for lack of medical support, some of which is sitting in...

Considering the skill and dedication of thousands of doctors, nurses and emergency workers battling a virus that continues to expand throughout the world, this story is yet another remarkable example such individuals perform every day. It’s a story worth reading. U.S. Army Major John N. Baldwin (Ret.) was one example of someone who has contributed to my life. As a...

Tonight, California Gov. Gavin Newsom took the extraordinary step in issuing a statewide “stay at home” executive order effective Thursday evening. Newsom called on residents to “recognize the reality” of the coronavirus pandemic. As this critical health crisis continues to spread throughout the U.S., I thought it would be important to update readers about the individual steps we can all...

At a February 28 political rally, President Trump said, “The Democrats are politicizing the coronavirus. … This is their new hoax.” In attempting to correct his meaning, Trump later said, “The ‘hoax’ was used with respect to Democrats and what they were saying. It was a ‘hoax,’ what they were saying.” No one is clear on what Trump was saying....

As the CDC and Trump Administration officials struggle to get on top of the Coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told the House Committee on Oversight and Reform yesterday that the impact of the virus “will get worse before it gets better.” “I can say we will see more cases,”...

Why can’t politicians just admit when their wrong? One answer is that such an admission is perceived as a sign of weakness that the other side will exploit. Growing up in Catholic schools on the east coast, the brothers were tough, but the nuns were tougher. If you even whispered the wrong thing, the penalty was immediate. It’s sad to...

Seventy former U.S. senators – Democrats and Republicans – wrote an open letter to their current colleagues in the Senate about the abdication of their Constitutional duties. Background – As reported by The Hill (Dec. 2019), “This is the pile of House-passed bills, 90% bipartisan, dead on [Senate Majority Leader] Mitch McConnell’s desk in the Senate #LegislativeGraveyard,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse...

Under a cloud of simmering fear, Senator Joseph McCarthy, absent any real evidence, announced to the American public that communists were working inside the federal government. During 1954’s Senate hearings investigating the Wisconsin Senator’s blatant character assassinations, one exchange was particularly noteworthy. Following McCarthy’s accusation that counsel for the committee, Joseph Welch, placed a member and communist from his own...