I have a good friend who, when asked if he had ever been wrong, responded, “Once, but it turns out I was mistaken.” We laughed, but I knew that he was only partially joking. Another friend told me that his spouse once stopped abruptly in the middle of an argument…

While eating breakfast this morning I made the error of checking the news online. My custom is to first look at the Wall Street Journal. I find that publication to be less dramatic, less the-sky-is-falling than the others I read. As I scanned the articles, I could instantly sense my…

You might have noticed along our journey that I have little regard for conventional wisdom. It’s not because I am by nature an iconoclast. For most of my life, I have colored squarely between the lines. My respect for conventional wisdom has steadily dwindled because it has so often been…

First, a few words about last week’s essay, Respect. Although the essay was not intended as political commentary, some readers were concerned that I had seemingly equated former President Trump’s denial of his election loss and subsequent January 6th incitement of his followers with the Democrats’ insistence that the Supreme…

July 4, 2022 During his primary campaign for the Republican nomination for President, Donald Trump infamously demeaned and disrespected John McCain, a war hero and man of integrity. Most of us, no matter our political persuasion, were uncomfortable when he did so. After the 2020 presidential election, Mr. Trump disrespected…

I began this series of essays with this question: why are we so contentious? Abortion ranks near the top of the list of issues that have fostered our divisiveness. For the past fifty years, though, abortion has been a theoretical argument, an academic exercise. We had the luxury of stating…

Becoming outward-focused–our common purpose–does not appear to require a lot of skill. Working a few days a month at a food bank and helping an elderly person navigate daily activities would seem to be the kinds of activities that meet the criteria. …

Last week we slew the monster that is microaggressions. …

Something extraordinary happened during the live 2022 Oscar ceremony. Chris Rock, a well-known comedian, was about to present the award for Best Feature Documentary. Before doing so, he looked at Jada Pinkett Smith, wife of actor Will Smith with whom she was seated at a table in the front of…