AMERICAN LIFE

Not long ago I was visiting friends here in New York City and found out their seventh-grade son was something of a quiet hero at school. I hope many kids across America confront bullying the way Christopher did, but what makes this story different is that he later wrote about it. I was deeply touched by the simplicity of what he said and decided to publish it here. I thought of another friend, Paul Coughlin, who years ago started a group called “The Protectors.” Paul focuses on teaching kids to speak out against bullies. After all, a school’s real culture is what happens when the teachers’ backs are turned. And kids define that culture. What I’ve learned from Paul Coughlin over the years seemed fully realized in young Chris’ actions to protect a fellow student. I hope this seventh-grader’s story will inspire other children to speak up once their parents explain to them why it’s so important. It’s their school. It’s their conscience. It’s their life. Chris’ experience speaks for itself, and is the heart … Continue Reading

Millions of Americans born around the time of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision are about to turn 40. They don’t realize what it was like to live before the Supreme Court ruling. Back then, most liberals had an open-minded view of abortion due mostly to a lack of medical knowledge. Early-term fetuses were thought to be hardly more than cellular formations, which doctors called “products of conception” or “blobs of tissue.” Lacking any real science on early fetal development, the main arguments against abortion tended to be religious. Things have changed. Now four decades later, anyone can own beautiful videos that show every stage of the gestation process. Thanks to state of the art 4D Ultrasound scans, scientifically accurate special effects and microscopy footage, we can witness the unborn child forming fingers and toes. We can learn how science knows its gender, when its heart starts to beat, when it smiles, when it feels pain and much, much more. Plus, we can watch it all happen from the comfort of our living rooms. I … Continue Reading

“He was a bully and a coward,” Tom Cruise recently told Parade Magazine, talking about his own father. “He was the kind of person where, if something goes wrong, they kick. It was a great lesson in my life – how he’d lull you in, make you feel safe and then, bang!” “For me it was like, ‘There’s something wrong with this guy,’” said the famous actor, then drawing the “life lesson” most children with father problems draw: “Don’t trust him.” I sympathize with Tom Cruise more than I can say, although my distrust problem was not rooted in an abusive father but in my parents’ divorce. I spent three difficult years in a boarding school for “emotionally troubled youngsters,” although who knows, Pleasantville Cottage School may have actually saved my life, giving me the stability my mother hoped for until she remarried (she left my father when I was 5). Yet, being separated from my parents was unbearable, and I remember running away from school regularly, trying to get back to New York City … Continue Reading