Mark Twain once said, “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness…Broad, wholesome, charitable views of [people] and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.” I’ve spent the past two weeks traveling around the globe, with stops in Vietnam, Oman, Myanmar, and Kish Island. It has…

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For this day before the United States’ Independence Day, I’ve been thinking about America’s Founding Fathers, and the legacy they left us over 200 years ago. The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights – these documents describe the system of government they worked so hard to establish. And they didn’t just write…

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The night before delivering his famous “I Have a Dream” speech, Martin Luther King, Jr. assembled his team at the Willard Hotel to finalize his script for the next day. As usual, his speechwriters and advisors debated, one last time, exactly what should be said and how it should be communicated. Based on the conversation,…

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On the Fourth of July Americans light up the sky with fireworks to celebrate their freedom. Yet, as the United States commemorates its 235th birthday, two-thirds of the country believes America is heading in the wrong direction. What accounts for the widespread pessimism in “The Land of the Free?” Certainly, economic woes have dampened the…

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While attending a convention in Mexico City, Michaela Walsh was disturbed by the stark reality of economic disadvantage faced by women in many parts of the world. Globally, women worked just as much as men, but earned only 10% of worldwide income, and held less than 1% of the world’s property. Walsh realized that most…

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