Where Liberty Dwells
“Where liberty dwells, there is my country.” — Benjamin Franklin Happy Fourth of July!
Category: Power of the Pen
To Bigotry No Sanction
“For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens…” –President George Washington, to the Hebrew Congregation …
We Shall Fight on the Beaches
“We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost …
Tagged with: Speeches
Independence Day
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. As we celebrate those words, …
Digging – by Seamus Heaney
In honor of St. Patrick’s Day: “Digging,” by Irish poet and Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney. Between my finger and my thumb The squat pen rests; snug as a gun. Under my window, a clean rasping sound When the spade sinks …
A Word from a Founding Father
Between our work writing about the performing arts and the insane popularity of the Broadway smash Hamilton this season, it seems only appropriate to quote Alexander Hamilton on this Independence Day. Here, he’s writing in the Federalist Papers, in 1787, …
Visible Ink
When I was diagnosed with cancer eight years ago, here’s how I described getting the news: This, by the way, is how you find out: You make an appointment at a prestigious teaching hospital in a major East Coast city. …
Our Undying Gratitude
On this Veterans Day, we remember all the living who have served in the military and all those who gave their lives for our country. These quotes are among the inscriptions at the National World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C. THE …
Tagged with: travel
The Best Obtainable Version of the Truth
In a bit of journalistic serendipity, I happened to hear Carl Bernstein speak at a small luncheon just a few days before Ben Bradlee’s death. Bradlee has been rightly eulogized as a giant of American journalism. But seeing Bernstein at …