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Rubio's mission was persuading rightness

National Columnists

It must be the highlight for any Roman Catholic to meet the head of his church. So it must have been last week for Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a practicing Catholic. Rubio was on more than a spiritual journey. His mission was to persuade Pope Leo XIV of the rightness, even the righteousness, of the Trump administration's actions to destroy Iran's goal of acquiring a nuclear weapon and likely using it as a means of intimidation, or possibly launching it as a weapon of war. The Pope is committed to resolving disputes through diplomacy. That course would be worth pursuing if Iran's ...

Nurses deserve more appreciation

National Columnists

My son came home from school the other day and announced that the two most underappreciated occupations were teachers and nurses. During National Nurses Week, he had heard that, he told me, from his teacher. And though her bias might have tinged the first part of her claim (frankly, I think one of the most underappreciated occupations has to be "person who cleans the bathrooms at O'Hare Airport"), it certainly got me thinking about the nurses I've known. Immediately, I remembered the nurses at the NICU when my own two preemies were boarded there, unflappable in the face of ...

Show love — reject bitterness

National Columnists

May 7 marked our nation's 75th annual National Day of Prayer. This milestone year of reverence to the Lord carried the theme "Glorify God Among the Nations — Seeking Him in All Generations." For many, this theme holds special significance, as we will be celebrating America's 250th anniversary in July. The prayer that was posted on the NDP website was written by Task Force President Kathy Branzell, and in it, she praises God for guarding and guiding our country since its inception. The beginning of the prayer is an earnest statement of confession, where Branzell writes, ...

Justice Jackson campaigns against Supreme Court

National Columnists

The call is coming from inside the house. The Supreme Court's decision in Louisiana v. Callais has made progressives even more determined to delegitimize the Supreme Court, and Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson is among them. In a dissent involving a post-decision procedural question, Jackson accused the majority of acting out of pure partisanship. Her opinion said that the court "unshackles itself" from all constraint and "dives into the fray" (meaning the partisan fray). In its jurisprudence, "principles give way to power." It is acting with an "abandon" that is "unwarranted and ...

China should be confronted on genocide

National Columnists

Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) joined together last week to sponsor a bipartisan bill that would require the secretary of state to determine whether the People's Republic of China is engaging in genocide against the people of Tibet. "Communist China is committing genocide in Tibet. There is no way around it," Scott said in a statement about this bill. "The regime in Beijing has engaged in systematic killings, torture, forced sterilization, forced displacement, government sanctioned kidnapping and a myriad of other crimes against humanity in its oppression of the ...

Party Americans want doesn't exist yet

National Columnists

In the decades since the 1850s, third parties – parties other than the Democrats and Republicans – don't have a great record of success in U.S. elections. Who remembers the Free Soil Party, the Know Nothings, the Populist Party, the Bull Moose Party, the Dixiecrats or the American Independent Party? And yet, I wonder whether things might be different in the coming decade. The Gallup Poll shows the largest political party in the country is no party at all. Forty-five percent of voters consider themselves independents with the Republicans and Democrats tied at 27% each. The ...