I grew up in what you might call a genetically Democratic family, but one in which partisan heterodoxy was not uncommon. My parents voted for Dwight D. Eisenhower twice, for Richard M. Nixon in 1960 and for the occasional Republican candidate for U.S. Senate from Maryland.
For three years, I worked for an organization in Nebraska that was dedicated to abolishing the death penalty. It was thrilling when we won. After a hard-fought battle and years of disappointment, our legislature did away with capital punishment.
The default positions guiding Vatican diplomacy these days badly need re-setting. That re-set must begin with a frank recognition that, whatever its intentions, Ostpolitik was a failure.
Had I the resources, the one new book I’d give every delegate to the national political conventions meeting later this month is James Traub’s masterful biography, “John Quincy Adams: Militant Spirit” (Basic Books). Traub grabs your attention quickly, seven sentences in: “[Adams] did not aim to please, and he largely succeeded.”
When snooty selectiveness threatens our reasonableness and sanity, it then becomes inadmissible. Circumscribing ourselves by overemphasizing “me,” “mine” and “I” leads to illogical conclusions.
Like a fire or a garden, marriage is a “living” thing. It needs to be tended regularly and that takes deliberate effort.
Summoning memories of a time when the good folks won, cleanly and against all the odds, is the singular accomplishment of a splendid new documentary, “Liberating a Continent: John Paul II and the Fall of Communism.”
The term “elitist” has been bandied about so promiscuously in this election cycle that it’s become virtually content-free. Yet “elitist” is also being weaponized as a scare-word to prevent legitimate criticism of ideas, attitudes and behaviors. That kind of bullying is bad news for an already degraded political culture.
Following the passing of Muhammed Ali, Carole Norris Greene recalls meeting the legendary boxer and reflects on the man he was and who he became later in life.
How can we be instruments of peace amid corrosive divisiveness? One way is to imitate the actions of Nobel Peace Prize winners such as Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King Jr., Rigoberta Menchu or Nelson Mandela. Another way is to follow the lead of those who try to foster peace, justice and reconciliation.
