For decades I used this phrase to convey my heartfelt belief that despite our differences we Americans have one thing in common and that’s that we are all human beings–that there is a commonality to our experience and despite the fact that human nature is flawed everyone is deserving of respect because we are all human. I believed with Anne Frank that “in spite of everything…people are really good at heart” and with Martin Luther King that “ the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.” read more

My first presidential election was in 1960, and I voted for John F. Kennedy. Kennedy was handsome, charismatic, literate, and a WWII naval hero. I was a newly commissioned Marine Corps fighter pilot and the world was full of promise.

Five years earlier Kennedy published Profiles in Courage, a book celebrating eight US Senators who had exhibited courage in the face of adversity and opposition. They included John Quincy Adams, Daniel Webster, Sam Houston as well as some whose names you wouldn’t recognize today. But Kennedy chose these men (yes, they were all men) from different eras of American history because he admired their integrity and principled action. read more