Ott Observations

I watched President Jimmy Carter’s funeral at the National Cathedral. It made an impression on me, generating a lot of thoughts and reflections. The first stunning impression was that President…

While I have my doubts about the incoming administration’s true intents and their ability to effectively implement policies, I believe every incoming President and legislative majority deserves the chance to…

Human beings have an amazing capacity to keep different aspects of their lives in tidy little compartments, often trying to ignore the contradictions between these compartments.   Neatly defining each…

As I watched the election returns and realized Donald Trump will be our next president, I found myself thinking about our Founding Fathers. I imagined them traveling forward in time…

Earlier this fall, I was touring the Alps in central Europe. There were countless beautiful churches.  On the side wall of one of the churches there was this saying: “We…

For some of us, one election issue is a concern some legislators want to defund police.  In fact, this is only a handful of extremists in the Democratic Party and…

Lately I’ve been binge-watching “The Chosen.” If you’re not familiar with the series, it is an historical drama based on the life of Jesus as seen through his disciples. Now…

Probably the most famous political debates in American history are the Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858.   Abraham Lincoln was running for a Senate seat against Stephen Douglas.  They agreed to…

In the summer of 1978, I graduated from college and moved to Delaware to start my career with the DuPont Company. Joe Biden was a first-term senator representing Delaware.  I…

den’s presidency that I hear from conservative friends is that he is weak on defense and our country is more vulnerable than ever.   It is, in fact, a very…