A hearty welcome to the new subscribers who have joined the ranks of faithful readers of Uncommon Sense. Issue #342 will not disappoint!

Conflict is all around us. I’m talking about the normal, day-to-day thorns we run into at work, at home, and elsewhere. Some of these conflicts are fairly minor, perhaps even petty to some degree. But we all experience them. Regularly. The Self-Development column will try to help you make sense of our everyday conflicts and how to best navigate them. Pay careful attention.

The Elephant in the Room column seems to often address matters of conflict and controversy. The previous two issues of Uncommon Sense (#s 340 and 341) had me addressing the horrific public assassination of Charlie Kirk, a man I didn’t really know all that well. I was ready to move on to new subject matter, but I read a very well-reasoned piece by the always articulate William J. Bennett and realized I had to share it with you. Bill Bennett was the Secretary of Education under President Ronald Reagan and was the nation’s first Drug Czar under President George H.W. Bush. Bennett is one of America’s most recognized voices on cultural, political and educational issues. He also served as a professor at Boston University, the University of Texas, and Harvard University. A native of Brooklyn, Bennett studied philosophy at Williams College (B.A.) and the University of Texas (Ph.D.) and earned a law degree (J.D.) from Harvard. Bennett currently serves as chairman of Resilience Learning and is the Founding Provost of Jefferson Classical Academies. He has written or co-authored more than 25 books, including The Book of Virtues. His article on the Charlie Kirk assassination, published on September 21st of this year, was so thought-provoking I decided to reprint it for you here in its entirety.

The From Ara’s Journal column offers a counter-balance to the theme of conflict I wrote about in the Self-Development column. This is a much more personal collection of my random thoughts on the more unfortunate side of conflict.

Finally, I am reminded that many people leave the distinct impression of their high intelligence by how elegant their language is. The World of Words column aims to boost your own capabilities at sounding a bit more sophisticated, a bit more learned, than you otherwise might sound, by exposing you to carefully selected words from the English lexicon that may well open doors for you if you internalize them and utilize them. Please do so.

OK, let’s get started.

Ara Norwood