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A celebration of gifts and of giving back

Integrity. Encouragement. Confidence. Accountability. These are some of the words I’ve been hearing from millennials involved in a relatively new effort called GIVEN. It’s a leadership network for Catholic women, with the goal of helping them “Discover the gift that only you can give because of the gift that you are.” The idea is that God created people in love and has a specific mission for us in life that becomes clear with the right tools — chief among them prayer. As I write, the second national GIVEN forum (international, really, with a participant from Ireland ...

Hypocrisy has lost all meaning in the age of Trump

There was a time when calling someone a hypocrite could stain their reputation. No more. Like the overused and often misapplied word “racism,” hypocrisy has lost the power to cause harm. The media and Democrats are agog over President Trump’s comment to former Bill Clinton adviser and current “Good Morning America” host, George Stephanopoulos. Trump said if a foreign power had “dirt” on one of his political opponents he’d “listen” and would not necessarily inform the FBI. On Friday, he backtracked somewhat, telling “Fox and Friends” he might tell the FBI ...

Honest Ads Act still in time

Our country is facing a national emergency. Not a single credible person in the federal government disputes the fact that foreign actors will continue to attack the infrastructure of our elections and interfere with how we choose our leaders. The president even told ABC News last week that he would consider listening to foreign governments with opposition research on his opponents in 2020. Regardless of our party or view about the 2020 elections, the facts of the matter are this: Russia, China, Iran and other enemies of democracy want us to lose faith in our political institutions. ...

Raise for Congress shouldn’t be radioactive

Leonard Pitts is on vacation. his column will resume on July 8. A plan by House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer, D-Md., to engineer a pay raise for members of Congress — whose salaries have been frozen at $174,000 since 2009 — has run aground, at least for now. It’s a reminder that pay increases for elected officials, no matter how modest, are politically radioactive. They shouldn’t be. Ideally, even populist-minded citizens would recognize that members of Congress should be adequately compensated and that their pay should be increased from time to time to reflect ...

Should we believe she’s even leaving?

You’ll be forgiven if the first thought that crossed your mind at the news that Sarah Huckabee Sanders is quitting as President Donald Trump’s press secretary was, “Oh, does she still work there?” You’ll also be forgiven if the second thought was, good riddance. Sanders stepped into the muck-filled shoes left behind by Sean Spicer in July 2017, and deftly continued with lies, half-truths and aggressive attacks on the media. Which, of course, is just exactly what her boss wanted her to do. Sanders stopped giving press briefings — near-daily events in previous ...

Despite policies, renewable energy capacity exceeds coal’s

You probably didn’t notice, but April marked a threshold for the nation. For the first time, our capacity for creating electricity from renewable sources crept past that for coal. Yes, that’s a good thing. Not good enough, mind you, to save us from the worst effects of climate change from global warming, but it’s further evidence that we’re at least moving in the right direction. And that comes despite President Donald Trump’s inane insistence that the nation drill more, burn more and export more fossil fuels — including his doubled-down promises to single-handedly ...