Columns, pieces and posts
It has been a week of movement, of comings and goings that have reminded me of the wisdom of a friend, a businessman. He told me, a decade or so ago, that it is important to remember, especially when you have a problem or a particular challenge, that life is not a painting. Life is […]
I had a great experience the other night. I met some of the 114 living recipients of the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military award. It was at their annual dinner, held, as it has been the past four years, at the New York Stock Exchange. I met Nick Oresko. Nick is in his […]
I have been reading “Freedom at Midnight,” the popular classic of 30 years ago that recounted the coming of democracy to India. The authors, journalists Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre, capture the end of the Raj with sweep and drama, and manage to make even the dividing of India and Pakistan—I mean the literal drawing […]
This week’s column is a question, a brief one addressed with honest curiosity to Republicans. It is: When George W. Bush first came on the scene in 2000, did you understand him to be a liberal in terms of spending? The question has been on my mind since the summer of 2005 when, at a […]
Memo to: The Academy From: Just another viewer Re: Advice, as if you wanted more I cannot remember a time when, in the days after the Academy Awards show, it was not criticized, and even blasted. It’s an American tradition. Everyone enjoys saying it was too long and the acceptance speeches were interminable, or it […]
I want to revise and extend my remarks, as they say, from last week’s column on airport security. The reaction was great, but I have two reasons to amend. The first is that I didn’t really get to the heart of what is for me most offensive about airport security, and the second is that […]
We are debating port security. While we’re at it, how about airport security? Does anyone really believe that has gotten much better since 19 terrorists hijacked four planes five years ago? This week I flew to Florida and back to give a speech and got another up-close look at how well the Transportation Security Administration […]
The Dick Cheney shooting incident will, in a way, go away. And, in a way, not—ever. Some things stick. Gerry Ford had physically stumbled only once or twice in public when he became, officially, The Stumbler. Mr. Ford’s stumbles seemed to underscore a certain lack of sure-footedness in his early policies and other decisions. The […]
Listen, I watched the funeral of Coretta Scott King for six hours Tuesday, from the pre-service commentary to the very last speech, and it was wonderful—spirited and moving, rousing and respectful, pugnacious and loving. The old lions of the great American civil rights movement of the 20th century were there, and standing tall. The old […]
The president’s State of the Union Address will be little noted and not long remembered. There was a sense that he was talking at, not to, the country. He asserted more than he persuaded, and he chose to redeclare his beliefs rather than argue for them in any depth. If you believe, as he does, […]