Recent Michael Josephson Commentaries

Featured image for “The Most Important Question Before Senators”
The Most Important Question Before Senators
As I write this commentary, I’m watching Chief Justice John Roberts ask all 100 Senators to stand and take a special oath for the Impeachment Trial of President Trump. “Do you solemnly swear that in all things appertaining to the trial of the impeachment of Donald John Trump, president of the United States, now pending, you will do impartial justice according...
Read More
January 17, 2020
Featured image for “What Do We Stand For?”
What Do We Stand For?
“These are the times that try men’s souls.” – Thomas Paine, English-born, American philosopher and activist. Taken from Paine’s essay, The Crisis, those words were meant to inspire American revolutionaries as they faced an extraordinary moment of character. Considering our current crisis, what Paine writes next is worth reflection. “The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will,  » Read more about:...
Read More
November 20, 2019
Read Some of the Most Recent Articles
The Latest... And Often Greatest
Revelations
In 1927, Sinclair Lewis gave America a character it did not want to recognize in the mirror: Elmer Gantry. Gantry is loud, magnetic, insatiable —...
The Story of Chips, and The Cost of Looking Away
It’s just a photograph: a wartime dog sitting alert, ears up, wearing a military harness. But the story about a World War II sentry dog...
It’s Time to Talk About Respect
A cancer has been growing in our national life, so embedded in our culture that we’ve stopped acknowledging it. In the 1940s and the decades...
Adversity and Perseverance
“How you climb a mountain is more important than reaching the top.”— Yvon Chouinard “Every new adjustment is a crisis in self-esteem”—Eric Hoffer “Retreat, Hell!...
Who Decides What’s Seen?
There are moments when a single arrest tells us more about the state of the country than a thousand speeches. The recent detention of Don...
The Death of Shame
Over the past several months, I’ve written commentaries revisiting moments in our history when individuals confronted serious challenges and rose to meet them — to...