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 Civic Virtue
As we prepare to celebrate Constitution Day, we should recall why the nation's founders feared democracy - and what we must do to reap its benefits and avoid its dangers.
With a blend of mastery, humility and generosity, Yo-Yo Ma has demonstrated the power of being a global citizen.
When we try to silence viewpoints we silence the dialogue and debate essential to democracy.
Civic rituals are a way to strengthen ties among Americans. Strengthening civic rituals can help ease some of our national divides.
Too many assume that the “red” and “blue” divisions in American cannot be healed. We sell ourselves short.
As perhaps the earliest Founding Father, Benjamin Franklin defined the meaning of citizenship for America and exemplified how to contribute to forming a good society.
Violent extremists can change. Former Ku Klux Klanner Chris Buckley and Muslim refugee Heval Kelli demonstrate the power of openness, listening and healing.
The NASA mission to recover a sample from the near-earth asteroid Bennu has a lot to teach us about how we address problems back here on our planet.
Jane Addams believed the ills or poverty and war could be corrected by the commitment of individuals to dialogue and action. She practiced this belief in Chicago’s Hull House and well beyond it.
Ian FIshback took a stand against torture of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan. Congress listened, but he paid the price for his honorable behavior.
Democracy thrives when citizens demonstrate civic virtue. Our leaders need to share more stories of it in our daily lives.
J. Robert Oppenheimer was celebrated for helping create the atomic bomb and vilified for arguing against the need for the hydrogen bomb. He loved his country in both cases.
Our meritocracy - you go as far and high as your talents and energy permit - has downsides. Those at “the top” may feel superior to others, who who lack their opportunities but work equally hard. Those at “the bottom” may feel unappreciated. Neither is good for democracy.
When we witness, hear about, commit or cannot prevent actions that violate our moral values, we suffer moral injury - and the broader society also often pays a price.
Any trial of Donald Trump is a test of the rule of law on which every American depends for their freedom. We must be be careful lest we fail that test.
When workers and African Americans needed help to organize and fight segregation, Myles Horton taught them how to help themselves, despite threats to his life and his dream.
Acts of kindness mean more to those who receive them than we think - and do more for our own health and happiness than we expect.
IRS Commissioner Donald C. Alexander insisted that everyone, regardless of position or income, be subject to the nation’s tax laws and treated fairly, even when they hated him for it.
High-level officials who leave government service often reap large financial gain from drawing on their government assignments. Is this always as good for democracy as it is for them?
The “Citizen’s Guide” offers helpful tips on sixteen core tasks of citizenship. How we answer the questions our role as citizens raise is important for our democracy.
