As a nation, we need to accept - and acknowledge - our faults so that we can grow into a better tomorrow. That, after all, is how we can be the best patriots.

As I ran through the soggy mountains this Juneteenth morning, I thought about my clichés, about our clichés, about our collective desire to cling to them, and the courage it takes to see them as they are: trite and hackneyed expressions and concepts that often overlook the nuance of reality.

Genealogy fascinates me; it always has. Maybe it’s a nod to my childhood cemetery tours with my grandfather in Alton, Illinois, him pointing to carved blocks of granite and recounting stories of the bodies that lay beneath. For me, those “tours” were a roadmap of the past, a means of understanding and comprehending my history […]

The sun sets, but in nature's eternal optimism, it will rise again for a new day tomorrow. May we all - our leaders and all of us citizens - seize the dawn and lean into the optimism of tomorrow, with ethics and true leadership.