During the summer break, my wife and I saw “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?,” a documentary about the life of Fred Rogers, aka Mr. Rogers. It was a break also from the constant yelling and screaming we hear around us today, not only in our individual...
Although readers know I lean conservative, they also know, if they bother reading my columns carefully and are open-minded, that I am usually careful to criticize both sides of the political spectrum as behaving badly and contributing to polarization...
I have been accused by some readers of being terribly confused. I plead guilty. I am confused, increasingly so, by a culture that makes less and less sense with each passing week.Perhaps someone can help me understand the following:• When Donald Trump...
I once wrote: “I have spent much of my adult life as a liberal. All the while, however, I sensed that, as I was aging, I was becoming more alienated from the left. It is not that I have abandoned liberalism. Rather, liberalism has abandoned me.”In...
April brought the following headlines regarding the U.S.-North Korea standoff on nuclear weapons: • “Kim Says North Korea Needs No More Nuclear or Long-Range Missile Tests”• “North Korea’s Kim Promised to Open Dismantling of Nuclear Site...
The second commentary I ever wrote for the Jewish Light was titled “Our Kvetching Culture,” in which I argued that we (humanity, including Americans) have never had it so good, yet never felt so bad.That was five years ago. This contradiction has...
In their new book “How Democracies Die,” professors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt of Harvard University examine the growing threat to democracy worldwide, including in the United States. A lot has been made about Donald Trump as an authoritarian...
“More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.” — Woody Allen, in his book “Side Effects”...
It is that time for New Year’s resolutions. The past year ended with “The Silence Breakers” — the women who came forward as part of the #MeToo movement to report their stories about sexual assault and harassment — being named Time magazine’s...
I read with special interest the New York Times front page report Nov. 14 that George David Banks, “special adviser to President Trump on international energy issues, led a panel with top American energy executives” at the United Nations conference...
I have to admit I am a Luddite. I tend to be skeptical of all the hyping of emerging technology, whether it is the self-driving car or robots delivering your cocktail at a restaurant. Nowhere has there been more touting of technology than in the field...
University of Missouri-St. Louis has been seeking to establish a new Hillel chapter, and I was asked by the organizers to write a commentary addressed to potential members. What follows are some themes I struck in making the pitch for young people to...
