Literature, Democracy, Freedom
"In the opening chapter of his new book, Churchill & Orwell, Tom
Ricks explains why he has picked these two great men for his subject: “In this
period, when so many of their peers gave up democracy as a failure, neither man
lost sight of the value of the individual in the world, and all that means: the
right to dissent from the majority, the right even to be persistently wrong,
the right to distrust the power of the majority.”
Ricks’ new book is not in the path of his
normal line, which has involved an examination of the American military and,
for the most part, its performance under the enormous pressures of combat.
Instead, he has chosen to highlight two of the major literary figures of the
20th century, Winston Churchill and George Orwell. Churchill, of course, is
famous as a statesman, but he also won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Orwell might well have won a Nobel Prize as well, but he
died shortly after publication of his masterpiece, 1984.
The politics of the two men, not to mention
their social backgrounds, could not have been more different. For much of his
political life, Churchill stood with the Conservatives and he was a member of
one of Britain’s great noble families. Orwell, on the other hand, stood on the
left, and at times the far left, throughout his political career. He did attend
Eton, but as a scholarship student. In his attitude toward class, he certainly
regarded himself as anything but a member of Britain’s elite.
How does Ricks manage to bring Churchill and
Orwell together, when they appear to be such poles apart? To many observers,
their only apparent connection is they were both writers. But Ricks zeroes in
on the fact that both were great defenders of human freedom, although Churchill
perhaps less so when it came to the assorted peoples that populated the various
overseas holdings of the great British Empire. But the crucial point here is
that in the dark days of the 1930s and 1940s, when in every respect freedom was
under massive assault from both the right and the left, the two men stood tall."
Women,
Divorce, Justice
"Over the years, Muslim women in India have complained of living
in perpetual fear of being thrown out of their matrimonial homes in a matter of
seconds because a Muslim man, if he chooses, can end years of marriage just by
saying the word "talaq" (divorce) three times.
A campaign to end the practice of unilateral instant
"triple talaq" began in India several decades ago.
But it picked up steam last year when a 35-year-old
mother-of-two approached the Supreme Court seeking justice.
Shayara Bano's petition, filed in February 2016, said she was
visiting her parents' home in the northern state of Uttarakhand for medical
treatment when she received her so-called talaqnama - a letter from her husband
telling her that he was divorcing her.
Her attempts to reach her husband of 15 years, who lives in the
city of Allahabad, were unsuccessful. She was also denied access to her
children."
Personal Development, Integrity
"If you ask company executives to reveal their “core
values,” integrity is always one of their first answers, says Joel C. Peterson,
chairman of the board of JetBlue Airways and a Stanford University professor of
management. The single most important ingredient to business success is trust,
Peterson says, and trust starts
with integrity.
Entrepreneur and angel investor Amy Rees Anderson borrows
from C.S. Lewis’s famous quote, defining integrity as “doing the right thing
all the time, even when no one is looking—especially when no one is looking.”
Anderson offers many
examples of acting without integrity: CEOs who overstate their projected
earnings because they don’t want to be replaced by their boards of directors.
Competitors who lie to customers to seal a deal. Customer service reps covering
up mistakes because they fear clients will leave. There’s no shortage of
high-profile major lapses, too: Bernie Madoff’s long-standing operation of a
Ponzi scheme considered to be the largest financial fraud in U.S. history,
Michael Milken’s conviction for violating U.S. securities laws after being the
one-time toast of Wall Street, and Major League Baseball star Alex Rodriguez’
use of performance-enhancing drugs.
“Do what is right; let the consequences
follow.”
But what does a person
acting with integrity look like? Positive examples may be harder to find.
Anderson, who lectures on entrepreneurship at the University of Utah, believes
“there aren’t enough of us saying that sometimes it’s better to lose than to
lose your integrity.” A plaque in Anderson’s office reinforces her philosophy:
“Do what is right; let the consequences follow.”"
Justice,
Myths, Slavery
"As a scholar of slavery at the
University of Texas at Austin, I welcome the public debates and connections the
American people are making with history. However, they still have many
misconceptions about slavery, as evidenced by the conflict at the University of
Tennessee.
I’ve spent my career dispelling
myths about “the peculiar institution.” The goal in my courses is not to
victimize one group and celebrate another. Instead, we trace the history of
slavery in all its forms to make sense of the origins of wealth inequality and
the roots of discrimination today. The history of slavery provides vital
context to contemporary conversations and counters the distorted facts,
internet hoaxes and poor scholarship I caution my students against."
Family,
Activities
"My
family will tell you that when I see a bug in the house, I scream. So, when our
friends suggested a camping trip
along the Delaware Water
Gap two years ago, it was not exactly a natural fit. But how could I
say no to my then seven-year-old daughter, Lena, a city kid who was thrilled
with the idea of sleeping in a tent and roasting S’mores around a campfire?
Even my then three-year-old daughter Annika, usually averse to dirt and bugs,
was game.
In
the spirit of adventure, we packed the car and headed to a New Jersey campsite
with a river view where, once in the woods, my kids magically transformed into
wilder, more industrious versions of themselves. Lena, who typically protests
when asked to set the table, eagerly hooked together tent poles and gathered
kindling with a smile. Annika, meanwhile, let loose chasing fireflies (though
still not quite touching them) with the older kids. The weekend went so well
that we did it again the following summer. And the one after that.
As
we approach our third annual camping trip, I realize we’ve made lots of rookie
mistakes. We’ve mismanaged our food supply, forgotten essential clothes, and
spent one night in a downpour inside a leaking tent. With this in mind, I asked
the experts how they prep for a family camping trip."
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