President's Letters
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Iraq and Courage
July 2003
I don't recall just when the word "courage" entered our conversations. But the other day, during a break in an ethics seminar I was leading in the Midwest, it showed up in a discussion about Iraq. Some were appalled at the prospect of military action, incredulous that the United States could suddenly abandon its age-old values of justice and respect. Others were appalled that the nation might back down from its long-held commitments to defend the values of freedom and responsibility....
Introducing "Moral Courage"
February 2003
As I write this letter, the Institute has just completed its thirteenth year. I want to talk to you about the next thirteen. But first, some history. We began in a tiny fourth-floor, walk-up office on Elm Street in Camden. We had one-and-a-half employees. And like most entrepreneurial nonprofits, we began with more passion than planning. But we knew two things: There was a growing public yearning for ethical clarity, and there were frameworks of thought that could help resolve ethical dilemmas....
Digital Ethics
November 2000
Last month, Camden hosted the Camden Technology Conference — an astonishing aggregation of techies, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, media commentators, and newly minted corporate executives of the digerati generation. The conference, the fourth in as many years, took steady aim at questions of isolation and connectedness, privacy and community, tribalism and globalism, work and play, creativity, spirituality, and ethics....
Human Genome Project
August 2000
Without question, the hottest science today is genetics: Witness the recent buzz over the Human Genome Project, which is well on its way to mapping the three billion chemical base pairs that make up humanity's genetic code. Yes, the science is amazing. But so are the ethical ramifications, for good and bad....
Elián González
May 2000
Last month I spent an hour on a radio talk-show in Arizona. Four days before, federal agents had forcibly returned Elián González, the shipwrecked Cuban boy, to his father. That news was classic talk-show fodder: guns, kids, feds, pols, families, Commies, the whole works. No wonder we talked about it....
There's Only Ethics
January 2000
Ethics is not a luxury or an option. It is essential to our survival. To support that point, let me give you three assertions, two definitions, and one conclusion. Here is the first assertion: We will not survive the 21st century with the ethics of the 20th century....
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