The year was 1986. I was a somewhat normal sixteen-year-old, enjoying the Southern California summer weather, trips to the beach, and preparing to start my junior year of high school in Orange County. However, my... Read More

It’s ironic that, in unveiling his new national security team, then President-elect Obama would state: “The time has come for a new beginning, a new dawn of American leadership.” Though offering himself as a transformative... Read More

Neil Beagley died last June in Oregon. He had a urinary tract blockage that could have been corrected by a fairly simple catheterization. It wasn’t corrected though, because Neil’s parents had taught him that God,... Read More

“It’s hard for Americans to be humble,” Mike Boehm reflects, while talking with me on the phone about his humanitarian work. Boehm is being realistic, not critical, about the typical privileges and comforts Americans enjoy.... Read More

On September 2, 2006, Agustin Aguayo--an army specialist who had gone AWOL the day before while his unit was gearing up for deployment to Iraq--emerged from hiding to engage in an unlikely activity. “I’m about... Read More

If someone threw a party in your honor, would you go? Now, before you say yes and then ask where, when, and if you should bring your dance moves, consider the full question: If a... Read More

Over the past fifteen years United Nations tribunals have addressed genocide issues associated with conflicts in Bosnia, Rwanda, and Darfur. The most recent development in this connection is the arrest on July 18, 2008, of... Read More