How we communicate and why it matters
Another Polar Vortex? Time to reread The Tempest.
It’s been quite a year: Record cold, snow and ice throughout the eastern U.S. California faces catastrophic drought; southern England was battered by wind and rain; volcanoes devastated Indonesia. And high above the earth, clear air turbulence played havoc...
Nelson Mandela: forgiveness, strategy and virtue
I’ve always thought of forgiveness as a virtue, something that good, moral and kind people do better than the rest of us. Nelson Mandela showed me a different perspective.Before the extensive coverage that followed his death, I knew he forgave his enemies...
Worst Communicators Ever
The other day, dozens of tornados swept through the Midwest. Lives lost. Property destroyed. Such widespread and severe storms are unusual this late in the year.Having recently moved, this was the first storm I would watch from a high-rise condo. I...
Exceptionalism. It’s always been a tough slog.
Dear President Putin,First, thanks for trying to get the chemical weapons removed from Syria. Infinitely better than an American air strike.But I’m writing in reference to your comments about American exceptionalism.When I first read yesterday’s op-ed,...
Ambivalent Blogger
Some years ago I heard the author Russell Banks speak at Cincinnati's Mercantile Library. He said something to the effect that 19thcentury Americans who could read and write deeply valued their ability to do so. They believed they had something to say –...
Less Tech
As I watched the fear generated by the attacks in Paris morph into fear of Syrian refugees in America, I was curious to know more about Americans’ reactions to immigration over the years. When did it begin? At what point were there so many new arrivals...