Tonkin to You!

  There are days when turning on the news feels like taking a hammer to your own forehead. The economy is bad. Gas prices continue climbing while our retirements dwindle. A war threatens to spread to Europe while our biggest adversaries seek to expand their power and global influence. Here at home, our politicians seem to have established yelling as the new baseline of conversation, and are more concerned with "getting the other guy" than actually governing.  Sometimes, it seems like we are a binary country. You're red or blue. A one or a zero. A liberal or a conservative. You either want all guns to be banned or you believe everyone should have their own arsenal. We must be more divided than ever... Except we aren't. We, however, are being convinced that we are by people who benefit from such rhetoric...and we're falling for it.  The old expression in journalism was "if it bleeds, it leads." Directly, people are drawn to bad news. Plane crashes and bomb...

This past week, a co-worker of mine passed away. A professor beloved by both his students and colleagues, he died suddenly, leaving behind a wife, children, and hundreds of people whose lives he had made a better place through his daily interactions and insights about the world around us. My friend taught a wide range of classes, a man who helped students figure out everything from intro to philosophy to ethics, and he was liked by everyone. In all of my years working at my university, I have never heard a negative word said about him. His curiosity, positivity, and kind demeanor seemed to put everyone else at ease. It's difficult to think of my school without him. As an academic advisor, I could always tell my students "it's time for you to take business ethics with (my friend); he's a great teacher! You'll get a lot out of that class!" When I'd hit on ethics in my intro level business classes or upper-level management work, students would often tell me ...