Commentaries

If you're a regular listener to NPR news programs, you're probably familiar with the occasional brief commentary during the morning or evening news programs by experts in various fields; people providing insight into public affairs, observations on the arts, and thoughts on how we live. This page contains transcripts and/or audio recordings of local commentaries that have aired on WYSU.

Leave Only Footprints

Published: Dec 15, 2009

Commentator: Carole Babyak

Transcript:

There is an old saying that the outside of a horse is good for the inside of a man. Wonder and exhilaration in looking at a pulsing, muscular animal eager to take you away. And that means taking you away physically as well as mentally. In art and literature horses have represented many things such as life and they are still the stuff of dreams and wishing.

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Religion in the Public Schools

Published: Oct 15, 2009

Commentator: Tom Shipka

Transcript:

Millions of dollars are spent on litigation annually over disputes about religion in the public schools. A great many of these lawsuits could be avoided if school officials and parents had a better understanding of the key laws and court decisions governing this area. Fortunately, a book has just been published which can promote such an understanding and help all parties comply with the law and minimize litigation. It is entitled Religion in the Public Schools: A Road Map for Avoiding Lawsuits and Respecting Parents' Legal Rights.

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Is Socialism Coming?

Published: Sep 24, 2009

Commentator: Tom Shipka

Transcript:

In the United States today health care reform is front and center. President Obama has stumped for reform in dozens of appearances across the nation, an address to the Congress, and no fewer than five televised news shows last Sunday. On a daily basis the media report the latest wrinkles in a spate of health care proposals under discussion in the Congress and speculate on the political prospects of the President's preferred "public option."

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John Stuart Mill on Women's Rights

Published: Sep 3, 2009

Commentator: Tom Shipka

Transcript:

The 19th century British philosopher John Stuart Mill is recognized in modern philosophy chiefly for two reasons. He refined the Utilitarian tradition of philosophy established by Jeremy Bentham and he reemphasized the primacy of individual liberty and self-determination against the inroads of the majority in democratic societies. One part of Mill's contribution has been largely overlooked, however. It is his call for legal and social equality for women in an 1861 volume entitled The Subjection of Women. (1)

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Cellphones - A Moral Challenge

Published: Aug 20, 2009

Commentator: Tom Shipka

Transcript:

I submit a simple moral principle for your consideration. A person who poses an avoidable and unnecessary threat of harm to innocent people should take steps promptly to end the threat.

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Isaiah's Resilience

Published: Aug 6, 2009

Commentator: Tom Shipka

Transcript:

Imagine a health affliction that ends a career but not a life: a surgeon contracts Parkinson's disease, a NASCAR driver goes blind, a world class sprinter acquires rheumatoid arthritis, or an orchestra conductor goes deaf. My last example is not hypothetical. It happened to Dr. Isaiah Jackson, music director of the Youngstown Symphony from 1996 to 2006. Isaiah, as he likes to be called, came to the Mahoning Valley with impressive credentials:

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Richard A. Clarke on National Security

Published: Jul 23, 2009

Commentator: Tom Shipka

Transcript:

Richard A. Clarke served seven presidents in important national security posts from 1973 to 2003. His new book, Your Government Failed You: Breaking the Cycle of National Security Disasters, (1) is two things, an expansion of his earlier criticisms of President George W. Bush's track record in national security and a wide-ranging evaluation of the current state of national security.

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Carrie Fisher

Published: Jul 9, 2009

Commentator: Tom Shipka

Transcript:

There is no transcript available.

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Political History

Published: Jun 25, 2009

Commentator: Tom Shipka

Transcript:

If you would like to learn about a contemporary admirer of Machiavelli, take a look at a book by James Moore and Wayne Slater, two long-time observers of the American political landscape, entitled The Architect: Karl Rove and the Master Plan for Absolute Power. (1)

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Faith Based Policies

Published: Jun 11, 2009

Commentator: Tom Shipka

Transcript:

In 1899 the U.S. Supreme Court issued an important decision on whether government may constitutionally grant public funds to a religious organization. In Bradfield v. Roberts the Court ruled that the District of Columbia could pay a hospital in Washington operated by an order of Catholic nuns to provide a secular service to the poor health care. (1) Under this ruling, many religious groups received public funds without controversy year after year. Typically such groups did not seek to proselytize their clients, only to serve them, and used no religious test in hiring and firing.

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