Symbols are powerful, conveying profound messages with the simplest images. Soldiers carry a flag into battle and face death to hoist it aloft. Christian churches are identified by T-shaped pieces of wood or metal affixed to prominent places. In some ancient Eastern religions, the swastika represented peace, but it is today universally recognized as a…
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It’s been more than a half century since the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, 51 years since he was shot dead standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. In this era of resurgent bigotry, of hateful rhetoric emanating from the White House, of violent protests by white supremacists, it…
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There is, indeed, a national emergency, but it’s not at the southern border. A despotic, corrupt, infantile, clueless and mendacious narcissist sits in the Oval Office, at the wheel of what is still arguably the most powerful nation in the world, his fingers on the nuclear buttons. He is reckless, impulsive and ignorant of the…
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Let’s give Mitt Romney credit for one thing: He knows how to draw headlines. Returning to elective office Thursday as a newly-sworn-in U.S. Senator from Utah, Romney had two days earlier published an opinion essay in The Washington Post in which he harshly criticized President Donald J. Trump. “It is well known that Donald Trump…
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Even if humankind lasts another 100,000 years, which seems unlikely, we may never have peace on earth. Human beings seem wired for conflict, for envy of the neighbor, for hatred of the other. Besides, experts predict that climate change will bring on ever more strife as the hard-pressed and unlucky — residents of low-lying island…
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