Recent Frederick Douglass Commentaries

Featured image for “Pursuit of Excellence”
Pursuit of Excellence
While Americans continue to struggle with a deadly virus and financial starvation, excellence in national leadership has been reduced to a group of toxic enablers that appeal to an insular “base” that promotes our worst impulses instead of our best. The ’60s suffered its own challenges. Civil rights. Vietnam. The assassination of three political leaders. But then something stunning happened....
Read More
January 4, 2021
Read Some of the Most Recent Articles
The Latest... And Often Greatest
Year One
Not long ago, I stopped watching the national news. I told myself I was stepping away from the noise and the churn for some peace...
Removed
First an update: Not long ago, 60 Minutes, the CBS news program, pulled a segment a few hours before it was set to air. The...
Clarence Darrow’s Warning to a Tired Democracy
I first read Clarence Darrow for an American Jurisprudence class in college and have returned to his work several times since. He is widely regarded...
Accountability, Optional
On October 7, 2025, Pam Bondi, the nation’s chief law enforcement officer, appeared before a Senate oversight committee and refused to answer question after question,...
My Dinner with Jefferson, Hamilton and Madison
In June 1790, I attended an extraordinary dinner. Through a tear in the fabric of time, I found myself seated at a small table with...
When the Story Becomes the Scandal
For nearly sixty years, the CBS News program 60 Minutes has stood as one of the few remaining institutions in American journalism recognized as serious,...