Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

In this world of froth and bubble

Wizard of Oz

As the Cowardly Lion found in the “Wizard of Oz,” simply wanting to have courage is courageous. Courage begets courage.

Lockard is an Iowa resident who regularly contributes to regional newspapers and periodicals. She is working on the second of a four-book fictional series based on Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice."

In this world of froth and bubble,
Two things stand as stone.
Kindness in another’s trouble,
Courage in our own

This verse by Adam Lindsay Gordon emphasizes the enduring value of kindness and the importance in having courage as we confront the world.


There is certainly plenty to make us worry, and most of us do. Careening modern problems barrage us every day: Artificial intelligence threatening our jobs and our very humanity, climate change wreaking havoc on our planet, terrible wars abroad, dissension at home, increased political polarization. Our consistent ingestion of news reinforcing our own viewpoint does not help, and all amidst the “froth and bubble” of social media and breaking news. Too much is, by definition, too much.

But we do not have to eat what is served, and are wise not to. Instead, there is a timeless recipe, a not-so-secret sauce to make the world around us and within us more palatable. It changes adversity to challenge, obstacles to opportunities. Its ingredients, only two, are kindness and courage.

Much has been written about kindness in the past years; still, it is an elusive practice. In a country where a majority of us enjoy the blessings' of the modern age, families are broken, neighbors and friends with divergent viewpoints dismissed, walls instead of bridges built. Kindness changes that: The very act of being kind begets kindness, understanding, reconciliation. Kindness is essentially an expression of joy in living well with others.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

Can we not empathize with both the policeman and the young man (excluding of course, brutal criminal acts)? Cannot we sympathize with both the desperate immigrant and the citizen who feels his city is being invaded? Answers do not have to be either/or. The crux of any problem requires first understanding and then the solution: conscientious leadership, which calls for both kindness and courage.

With courage we can embrace challenges, and can throw back even harder what life throws at us. It takes courage to nourish hope in a world seemingly hellbent on destroying itself, pecking away at our very souls. But, as the Cowardly Lion found in the “Wizard of Oz,” simply wanting to have courage is courageous. Courage, too, begets courage.

True courage is like a kite; a contrary wind raises it higher. (J. Petit-Senn)

There are, of course, issues which cannot be compromised and people to whom kindness is seen as weakness and courage to stand against tyranny is necessary. In our past and now, courageous people voluntarily carried out controversial and dangerous acts, fought to uphold justice, stood up to unfair and discriminatory practices. Often, and too often well beyond the time they lived, we recognized their courage. We called them heroes.

Kindness and courage are essential traits in a hero. One enhances the other. Writing of a character who suffered many trials in “Persuasion,” Jane Austen called this “combo platter” the “choicest gift of Heaven.” Why? Because one’s outlook changes everything.

…but here was something more; here was that elasticity of mind, that disposition to be comforted, that power of turning readily from evil to good, and of finding employment which carried her out of herself, which was from nature alone. It was the choicest gift of Heaven.

Indeed, it was. We can all possess this “choicest gift” through the transformative potential of kindness and courage. Such “superpowers” convert a bowl of gray mush to a smorgasbord, plain water to sparkling wine. They cost nothing, but are more precious than gold, or, in our modern age, maybe lithium.

“We may scatter the seeds of courage and kindness around us at so little expense.” (Bentham)

Because, ultimately, despite our circumstances, it is we who choose how we will live. This must be both the most frightening and the most exhilarating concept imaginable.

So, how to make a positive difference in our own life and in the lives of others? It comes down to the age-old question: “How then shall we live?”

Bestow kindness upon others? Have courage ourselves? We then change the world — our own, and the bigger one we live in.

Read More

a group of people arranged in the shape of the United states of America map

A group of people arranged in the shape of the United states of America map.

Getty Images, attjeacock

Where Is the “Real America”?

Is there such a thing as a “real America”? A battle now rages over this simple question. Some Democratic party operatives claim the real America are so-called “Trump voters,” who they say they need to better “study” in order to win future elections. Many Republican voices argue the real America are just those who support the new administration 100% of the time. Still, others assert that different demographics or geography comprise the real America. It’s as if the real America is one particular slice or another of our nation.

These caricatures lead us sorely astray. But there is a real America. I work in it every day.

Keep ReadingShow less
‘When People Spend Time Together, They Are Less Inclined To See Each Other As the Enemy’: ​A Conversation With Matt Grossmann

Picture of Matt Grossmann

‘When People Spend Time Together, They Are Less Inclined To See Each Other As the Enemy’: ​A Conversation With Matt Grossmann

In The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway famously observed that a character went broke in two ways: gradually, then suddenly. The same dynamic has been at work in American politics. For decades, the composition of our principal political parties has been slowly shifting, without a great deal of public attention. And then the 2024 presidential election happened, and it was suddenly obvious: the Democrats, traditionally the party of the working class, had become the party of educated elites.

Matt Grossmann has been a keen observer of this transition. A professor of political science at Michigan State University, Grossmann also directs the Institute for Public Policy and Social Research and hosts the “Science of Politics” podcast for the Niskanen Center. With his co-author David A. Hopkins, Grossmann recently published Polarized by Degrees: How the Diploma Divide and the Culture War Transformed American Politics, a book that documents a remarkable shift in American society. Since 1960, we have seen a massive expansion in the number of adult Americans earning college degrees—from roughly 7 percent of the population to nearly 40 percent.

Keep ReadingShow less
Drain—More Than Fight—Authoritarianism and Censorship
Getty Images, Mykyta Ivanov

Drain—More Than Fight—Authoritarianism and Censorship

The current approaches to proactively counteracting authoritarianism and censorship fall into two main categories, which we call “fighting” and “Constitution-defending.” While Constitution-defending in particular has some value, this article advocates for a third major method: draining interest in authoritarianism and censorship.

“Draining” refers to sapping interest in these extreme possibilities of authoritarianism and censorship. In practical terms, it comes from reducing an overblown sense of threat of fellow Americans across the political spectrum. When there is less to fear about each other, there is less desire for authoritarianism or censorship.

Keep ReadingShow less
The Moral Awakening of Cory Booker's Marathon Speech
Cory Booker | U.S. Senator Cory Booker speaking with attende… | Flickr
www.flickr.com

The Moral Awakening of Cory Booker's Marathon Speech

Just when prophetic witness felt muted by political expediency, Senator Cory Booker's unprecedented 25-hour marathon speech on the Senate floor is a powerful testament to moral courage and democratic resilience. Beginning at 7 p.m. on Monday (3/31/25) and extending through Tuesday (4/1/25) evening, Booker's historic address surpassed Strom Thurmond's infamous 1957 record, though with a profound difference, reconstituting the meaning of a "moral moment."

The New Jersey senator's sustained oratory wasn't merely a political gesture—it embodied the prophetic tradition that has long animated America's moral progress. Like the Hebrew prophets who stood before kings, speaking truth to power at high personal cost, Booker's political discourse represented a contemporary form of bearing witness. His physical endurance became a metaphor for the sustained resistance required in facing injustice.

Keep ReadingShow less