My dad recently reminded me that my grandfather's cousin was Lefty Frizzell.
As my dad said you have an obligation to leave the world better than how you found it. And he also reminded us to be givers in this life and not takers.
Washington's answer to a self-inflicted financial crisis reminded Americans why they so deeply distrust the political class. The 'fiscal cliff' process was secretive and sloppy and the nation's so-called leadership lacked the political courage to address our root problems: joblessness and debt.
In Paris one is always reminded of being a foreigner. If you park your car wrong it is not the fact that it's on the sidewalk that matters but the fact that you speak with an accent.
If any country was a mine-shaft canary for the reintroduction of cholera it was Haiti - and we knew it. And in retrospect more should have been done to prepare for cholera... which can spread like wildfire in Haiti... This was a big rebuke to all of us working in public health and health care in Haiti.