Delivered to the Connecticut College Student Body on October 13, 2010

I used to believe in happy endings -- not in the way that things end in children's fairy-tales, but the way that they end in Reese Witherspoon movies -- when the pretty-but-down-to -earth girl gets to live happily ever...

On July 4, 2010, I witnessed the unlawful arrest of a young black man in Provincetown, MA. While walking down the street following the fireworks, a gathered crowd caught my attention. The young man, whose name I do not know, was a member of a group of bystanders that formed...

President Obama's nomination of Elena Kagan takes me back to January 2008, when a line of undergraduate students waited outside of my history department office, asking for excused absences so that they could campaign for Obama. When they returned from the snowy climes of Iowa, they explained to the class...

Once upon a time, the United States had a full-fledged national health care system. The federal government employed 120 doctors, constructed 40 hospitals, provided medical care to over 500,000 people, and even created special facilities for orphans and the elderly.
That health care system, which lasted only five years,...

In the wake of the devastating earthquake in Haiti, many Americans were quick to offer financial support and proud to see U.S. military forces leading search and rescue missions, providing medical care and keeping peace. Yet some have been critical of U.S. aid efforts, arguing that our country has no...