With my father’s encouragement and my mother’s doubts, I started at age nine delivering the Chattanooga Times and the Knoxville News-Sentinel to a modest number of subscribers scattered throughout my hometown. Each morning, I would leave home before daybreak and ride my bicycle across town to pick up newspapers at the bus station and deliver…
Life is an Adventure
Life is a source of many mysteries, perhaps none more puzzling than why some people make it to the top of their professions while others, who appear to have all the right stuff, try but stumble and fail along the way. This mystery intrigued me more and more as the years of my life passed…
A Picture’s Worth a Thousand Words
It’s just a hunch, but I have a sense that Tuesday, June 25, 2019 may be remembered as a game changer for our national political landscape. Three separate developments emerged that day, each powerful and consequential and collectively simply dynamite. First, the horrifying picture of the father and young daughter lying dead in the border…
Define Yourself or Be Defined by Others
Retirement offers many benefits. For someone who spent more than a half century in the public arena, decision making has now become a parlor game of sorts. Each day I scroll through a dozen or more media sources in search of a story or two about something that relates to lessons learned during my lifetime…
“Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely”
“Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Those words were written by English historian Lord Acton in 1887. In that same year, he added: “There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it.” Over the years, Acton’s oft-quoted words have been interpreted to mean that a person’s sense of…
Select Your Team Carefully, and Listen to Them
Recent events in Washington remind me of how important this is to the success of any leader. See “Sometimes, Aides Save a President From Himself.” Early in my career I always shot straight with my bosses. Later, when I became a leader I always tried to surround myself with people who would tell me what…
More on Bernard King
More on Bernard King from Marvin West, retired sports editor for the Knoxville News-Sentinel, referencing the story in my book about clearing King’s eligibility to play for UT. Enjoy! https://www.knoxtntoday.com/bernard-king-eligibility-saga/
Know When to Speak and When to Be Silent
The Mueller report spotlights two conflicting faces of the highly-charged Washington political scene — secrecy and leaks. See “Turn in Your Smart Phones.” Ironically, both ‘faces’ are featured in the pages of my recently published book. – CES My debut into the world of politics occurred in late January, 1970. My mentor, John Seigenthaler, then…
Zadrian’s Commentary, Part 3
Fifteen-year-old granddaughter Zadrian, was recently inspired to connect each lesson (ie chapter) in my book to a Bible verse. With her permission, I share the last 16 her 32 observations. Enjoy! See Part 1 here See Part 2 here —————————————————————————————————————– Lesson 17: Know When to Speak and When to Be Silent Knowing when to speak…
There are No Secrets in the Big Tent
Note: Given the high profile media attention being given to release of the Mueller report, the thought occurred that this excerpt from Chapter 12 of my book might be of interest. – CES There are two fundamental truths that a leader must understand: (1) There are no secrets, and (2) truth is almost always better…