Gerald R. Ford Leadership Forum
by Richard B Gunderman, IUPUI It is difficult to think of two world leaders more widely divergent from one another. Gerald Ford, the 38th President of the United States, is admired today for his lifelong commitment to decency, honesty, and integrity. Vladimir Putin, the incumbent second President of Russia, is equally reviled for his vindictiveness, …
Political Virtue and Vice: Gerald Ford and Vladimir Putin Read More »
by Jason Peters Ernest Hemingway wrote “Hills Like White Elephants” while on his honeymoon with his second wife, Pauline Pfeiffer, a somewhat boyish looking woman (in the style of the day) and a Catholic, though not a very good one. By this time (1927) Hemingway was also a Catholic—and also not a very good one. …
Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” and Two Notions of the Good Life Read More »
by Jeff Polet On this 247th birthday celebration of our nation, we might be forgiven if we indulge the impulse to feel good about ourselves. A genuine patriotism should reveal both affection and gratitude, as well as self-correction. Like a family, those who belong to a nation are all-too-aware of its flaws, and don’t particularly …
by Matthew Green, The Catholic University of America Many accounts of Gerald Ford’s service in Congress, where he served from 1949 until 1973, depict him as a moderate-minded lawmaker who was willing to work with members of the other party to pass legislation.1 A closer look at Ford’s congressional career, however, reveals a politician who …
Balancing Party with Collegiality: The Example of Gerald Ford Read More »
by Patrick M. Garry, University of South Dakota As Charles Dickens wrote about Victorian England in A Tale of Two Cities: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” However, it is difficult to imagine anyone describing America in the mid-1970s as the best of times. To the contrary, most observers …
by Michael P. Federici, Middle Tennessee State University The American founders were acutely aware that human beings desire power. Like Lord Acton, they believed that power tends to have a corrupting effect on those not only who attain it but those who reach for it. Consequently, the Framers of the Constitution safeguarded power by creating …
Transparency and Illusion in the Acquisition of Power Read More »
by Lee Trepanier Over the past decades, the controversy over civics education in the United States has only gotten worse. The political left believes that civics education should be an engine of social change with students exposed to subject matter such as the 1619 curriculum. Those on the political right have responded with state legislatures …
by Richard Gunderman, IUPUI Perhaps the most remarkable Boy Scout Annual Awards Dinner in scouting history took place at the Sheraton-Park Hotel in Washington, DC, on the evening of December 2, 1974. The Boy Scouts of America organization was riding high at the time, having just reached the highest number of youth participants in its …
by John von Heyking, University of Lethbridge During the bleakest days of the Covid pandemic and the shutdowns, numerous voices exhorted us to practice kindness. These exhortations were in response not just to the challenges of the pandemic and the lockdowns, but also in response to the social dysfunction that resulted. How quickly social bonds …
by Jason Peters [Ed. Note: The full poem appears at the end of the essay. You are encouraged to read it first, remembering that poetry is meant to be read out loud.] We do violence to a work of art by using it for our own ends, especially for our own ideological or political ends, …
Robert Frost’s “Mending Wall” and One Means of Ordered Civic Life Read More »
