Terry Newell is currently director of his own firm, Leadership for a Responsible Society. His work focuses on values-based leadership, ethics, and decision making. A former Air Force officer, Terry also previously served as Director of the Horace Mann Learning Center, the training arm of the U.S. Department of Education, and as Dean of Faculty at the Federal Executive Institute. Terry is co-editor and author of The Trusted Leader: Building the Relationships That Make Government Work (CQ Press, 2011). He also wrote Statesmanship, Character and Leadership in America (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013) and To Serve with Honor: Doing the Right Thing in Government (Loftlands Press 2015).
All in Establish Justice
As Artificial Intelligence (AI) advances, we are beginning to confront a host of ethical issues. More will be coming as AI moves from science fiction to fact in our lives.
Americans love to shout “unfair!,” but what’s fair differs depends on who’s deciding. Checking our emotions, seeing the world through others' eyes, and seeking compromise help bridge gaps in our views.
Nearly a hundred years ago, Dr. Frances Weld Peabody said "The secret of the care of the patient is in caring for the patient." That requires empathy.
The now-ritualized response to politicians discovered to have a racist past consists of condemnation, words of apology, and calls for resignation. Is this ritual helpful, and when is forgiveness appropriate?
The seesaw between personal freedom and social obligations has waxed and waned. The last fifty years, however, has seen an imbalance: the demand for more rights without a corresponding balance of social responsibility.
As we confront the horror of Las Vegas, we are framing the problem the wrong way: solely as an issue of gun control. This distracts us from asking why Americans want guns and why some use them in violent acts.
In regard to the health care debate, we seem to be in a zero-sum game. Anyone who benefits from a change would do so at the expense of someone else, for whom a musical chair is pulled away. Perhaps we are asking the wrong questions, framing the problem in the wrong way.
Many Americans believe we do too much for other countries. They think it is time to pay attention to our own interests, misunderstanding that this is exactly what George Marshall did when he sought to avoid another world war and build a peaceful, integrated Europe through American multilateralism.
The fight for gender equality for women must go on, but we have to look at what we can do for the development of boys and the success of men. America needs all its citizens. When we fail for males, as when we fail for females, we also fail all those whose lives they touch.
Jobs matter, but so does meaningful work. As technology and globalization advance, we will be challenged to create both.
The theatrical film, Hell or High Water, by design or coincidence, offers a useful vehicle for an important national concern. What do we do when the law and justice conflict?
It is easy to tear down international unions, especially when you take no responsibility for articulating how else to achieve the same ends they are designed to address. Going it alone has led to two world wars. We should learn from that experience.
The public health crisis due to high lead levels in the water supply of Flint, Michigan claimed many victims. This did not have to happen if those in government had been guided by their moral responsibility to those they serve.
As the National Rifle Association puts it, any parent who owns a gun must “absolutely ensure that it is inaccessible to a child." Unfortunately, this is expecting too much of too many parents.
While it’s important, of course, what if we put aside the argument about what's causing global warming? Might it help liberals and conservatives seek agreement on at least some principles to guide us in dealing with our warming earth?
Who our graduates become as people not just what jobs they get, as adults of character not just competence, matters. If it does not, that is a loss to them - and to all of us.
The Occupy Wall Street movement has grown virally but needs to move from the streets to the halls of legislatures, and there are thus far not enough signs of that happening.
The Constitution’s Preamble grants no specific rights to citizens nor powers to government. But that does not render it meaningless, especially in regard to the epidemic of gun violence in America.
The Founders worried about majority tyranny. Representative government was their solution. But much has changed since 1787. Today, we need to worry about the danger of minority tyranny as well.
Those angry at the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the death of Trayvon Martin see not just that a man has been set free but that justice cannot be defined by what happens in a courtroom alone.
