Over these past two weeks, many of us have been trying to stay cool during long stretches of dangerous heat. And we’re fortunate. Elsewhere, it seems like every week brings another weather emergency. One community is overwhelmed by floodwaters after receiving months'...
We come to our final episode of this series as our nation celebrates the Declaration of Independence, adopted 250 years ago. For the most part, our experiment in representative democracy is working, despite some daunting challenges along the way. However, it feels as...
Most of us think of a mortgage as a loan on a house. We receive something valuable today and agree to pay for it over time. At its best, a mortgage helps build a future. A family finds a home. A community grows stronger. An investment today creates something of...
Have you ever missed your exit on the interstate? Larry, my late older brother, loved to tell a story about a time he and my sister, Ann, were driving to visit our parents. Ann was behind the wheel while my brother slept in the passenger seat. She didn't want to wake...
As Father's Day approaches, I can’t help but think about my own father. I admired many things about him. He worked hard. He was humble. He treated people with respect. He believed a person's character mattered more than their status. Looking back, I realize much of...
Southern man My parents were sharecroppers in Arkansas before moving to Memphis after I was born. They worked alongside other poor farmers in the cotton fields of wealthier landowners to help make ends meet. I was the fourth of six children, so my parents decided they...
Like thousands of other boys before me, I was a Boy Scout. I loved it. I loved camping and building things. I loved learning how to make do with what I had. My favorite merit badge was Pioneering. Give me some rope, a few poles, and a challenge to solve, and I was...
Our companion book for this series is Walter Isaacson’s The Greatest Sentence Ever Written. At first glance, his title sounds like an overstatement. After all, the Declaration of Independence is a key document that has helped shape our nation’s history. Yet, our...
I suspect that every parent eventually deals with the question of focus versus shared attention. I can still remember arguing with my parents about homework. They wanted the television off. I insisted I could multitask. “I can do both,” I insisted, “I can keep one eye...
As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, Americans are once again arguing about who we are, what we value, and whether truth itself still matters. Nevertheless, our experiment in representative democracy has been the model to which other nations strive....