Nearly a half century ago, an anthropologist named Cora Du Bois analyzed the values of U.S. society and concluded that Americans are optimistic activists. They expect that they and their institutions will succeed and succeed quickly. When they run up against a hard question, they want the answer tod

Election night proved to be the most exciting moment of the 2000 presidential campaign as American voters split almost perfectly over the candidacies of George W. Bush and Al Gore. The closeness of the race had been anticipated, but the networks added to the roller-coaster excitement by first predic

Criminal justice is on the agenda of the U.S. bishops at their annual fall gathering in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 13-16. They will be discussing the draft of a pastoral statement entitled Responsibility, Rehabilitation and Restoration: A Catholic Perspective on Crime and Criminal Justice. Their comm

Do Americans think their public schools are in what Gov. George W. Bush has been calling an education recession? It depends. Which Americans and which schools? Parents in Scarsdale, Grosse Pointe, New Trier Township and Beverly Hills do not seem to think their local public schools need radical overh

The Vatican document Dominus Iesus has been poorly received by Christians and non-Christians with whom Catholics have been in dialogue for the last 35 years. Although experts will debate its theological arguments in the months to come, it was the general tone of the document that upset most of our d

We all saw the newspaper photos, and some of us caught it live on television: a father desperately calling out The child! The child! and the terrified 12-year-old Muhammed al-Durrah dying on the spot. That is not the only thing that has died in Gaza and Nablus and Jerusalem. It is hard to believe th