Theodore Roosevelt, our 26th president, was a military strategist who believed in the exercise of arms to advance U.S. interests. He was also a Nobel Peace Prize-winner who successfully negotiated an end to the Russo-Japanese War (1904-5). His “Big Stick” policy—“Speak softly

The delegates to the Philadelphia Convention of 1787 that drafted the U.S. Constitution had no liking for popular democracy—what the more blunt called “mob rule.” They were reacting against radicals who had taken over the government of Rhode Island and canceled debts. The delegates

With rents soaring, low-income renters face harsher struggles in their efforts to find a place to live. In its recently released report, Out of Reach 2002, the National Low Income Housing Coalition compares wages and rents throughout the country. Among its findings: at the fair market rate, the nati

It takes great courage to speak candidly in the midst of a crisis. To speak serenely when surrounded by mayhem requires wisdom and tact. To speak at all these days to the members of the National Conference of Diocesan Vocation Directors requires fortitude. Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas, the coadjutor bis

Debbie Lannaman and her 8-year-old daughter, Chelsea, live in Harlem, a legendary New York City neighborhood with 10 public elementary schools. To each of these schools Ms. Lannaman gives an F. The failures in these cases are not the fault of the teachers, who are front-line troops doing the best th

Even death penalty proponents do not want to see innocent people executed. In recent times, though, a number of prisoners have come within minutes of a walk to the death chamber before being exonerated of a capital crime. In Illinois alone, 13 men on death row were freed within the past two decades.