A R C H I V E

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." — Lord Acton

Our country is politically divided, with the danger to our Democracy and, ultimately, our freedom so high it has compelled the United States Supreme Court to wade into politics.

Democracy’s inherent risk is the danger of “One man, one vote, one time.” From Putin in Russia to Xi in China, from Erdogan in Turkey to Abbas in the West Bank, more humans live under a strongman having been democratically elected than they live in a true functioning democracy. Like Adolf Hitler, who mastered this strategy in Germany in 1933, Donald Trump now has the potential to implement the same strategy in America later this year. 

On January 6th, 2020, Donald Trump tried to subvert our democratic process by exhorting his followers, however subtly or cunningly, to form a mob to overturn the will of the people. The Supreme Court will have the opportunity to decide whether to lean toward honoring the  sovereignty of the people, thereby risking that a demagogue will use the rules of democracy to become a dictator “on day one only,” or apply the 14th Amendment to label Trump an “insurrectionist.”…

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City Club member Eli Cohen’s parents were married in the Highland Gardens. In 2012, Eli joined our community as a 19-year-old summer intern and proceeded to graduate from McGill University in Canada with a degree in Finance. Instead of dedicating his career to international banking, Eli decided to take on a BHAG.

Since Eli is ultra-athletic by nature and competitive in spirit, he joined the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces). After spending six months learning Hebrew, he spent two years in the Israeli army’s Special Forces Unit. Within hours of Israel declaring war on Hamas on October 7th, Eli was on a plane headed back to Israel to fulfill his duties as a reservist. For the past three months, in addition to his service on the front lines of this terrible war, with help from his family and friends, Eli has raised over $60,000 to buy winter clothing and other necessary gear for his troops. 

Before proceeding further, once again I would like to state that all opinions expressed in this forum, including my own, are personal and put forth in accordance with City Club’s philosophy of Securus Locus to invite further honest dialog. That said, please allow me to share my position regarding the current conflict between Israel and Iran-backed Hamas…

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Since its launch in March 2005, City Club has strived to create a safe place for discussion and dialog. Like blind men touching an elephant, we each have our angle on truth but need each other, especially those with differing opinions, to better grasp reality.

The best strategy to create a Securus Locus, or a safe place, is by sharing our vulnerabilities, mistakes, and lessons learned from such experiences. Since I often wax philosophical on topics I am more curious than knowledgeable about, I’ll start by sharing that I made a wrong call last year on the state of the American economy. Given the backdrop of the pandemic, high interest and inflation rates, and the war in Ukraine, I had projected the market could drop by 15%. Instead, the market rose by 24%!

Now, at the risk of being labeled a Stoic, here is my take on the coming year, as I invite differing and opposing opinions so we can gauge better what might lie ahead…

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Harvard’s motto is veritas, Latin for “truth” and “reality.” Yale’s motto is Lux et veritas, meaning “light” and “truth.” The fortunate go to college to study the classics and philosophy in pursuit of truth and to get a grasp on reality. As parents, we do our best to teach our kids our truth but want them to find theirs by attending a college where the pursuit of truth is woven into the institution's fabric.

Today, with few exceptions, most elite universities strive to indoctrinate their students by promoting their institutional truths instead of creating a safe place for young minds to explore and discover theirs.

In May 2020, we launched the Highland Institute for the Advancement of Humanity, founded on the belief none of us has a corner on the truth. The Institute’s underlying principle is that through discussion and dialogue, our diverse community can attain a better grasp of reality.

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The cornerstone of Highland City Club's philosophy is built on the notion that rituals create community, not the other way around. We define community as a group of people engaged in working, socializing, and dining together in a supportive and non-judgmental way.

At the most fundamental level, human rituals, whether they be religious, national, or cultural, are based on food. From the Jewish tradition of the Shabbat meal to the Thanksgiving turkey feast, from the junk food we consume during the Super Bowl to the barbeque dinner preceding the Fourth of July fireworks display, food plays a pivotal role in building community.

Last year, I shared a vision for the future of our community and the important role food plays in it. Our main goals for 2024 include the expansion of our food program, the promotion of more social activities, and an increase in the size of our membership, all aimed at building a more diverse and sustainable community…

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The times are a-changin’. We live in such a crazy world that folks are having a hard time deciding where they stand, whether it happens to be politics, religion, sexuality, or child-rearing. Are you a he, she, they, or them? Do black lives matter, or do all lives matter? Is being anti-Zionist different from being antisemitic? Is Hamas a brutal terrorist organization like ISIS, or is Israel an aggressive white colonizer? Does the notion of good and evil exist, or does everything depend on the “context?”

In 2018, before purchasing Twitter, Elon Musk put a toe into our current political and social battlefield scene by tweeting the above cartoon by Colin Wright. In it, Musk tried to convey that while he is still who he is, the goalposts have been moved, repositioning him from a hero fighting against global warming to a demon in his support for free speech and First Amendment rights.

Once again, our country is dangerously divided, similar to the 1960s, 1850s, or the Civil War. The division could be one of pro-choice vs. pro-life, a law-and-order stance to beef up the police vs. one of defunding them on the basis that victims have rights too. These battles had been playing out on our public streets, corporate boards, the U.S. Congress, and the Supreme Court, but today, the fight is raging in our public universities…

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Throughout history, religion has been the leading cause of war, regardless of whether its underlying causes were economic, social, or thirst for power. Throughout history, the hatred for Jews, antisemitism, or what is now called anti-Zionism, has been the leading indicator of when the next war is coming.

From Philadelphia to Milburn, from Los Angeles and New York to major European capitals, from our Ivy League schools to Gaza, antisemitism is on the rise because, once again, we are experiencing a clash of civilizations, and the easy culprit for this trouble is the Jew, since they killed Christ and control banking, finance, newspapers, culture, and philanthropy. 

At the global level, China, Russia, and Iran are at war with America, Europe, and Israel. Soon, Japan, India, and Australia will be forced to take sides. So far, these are proxy, trade, currency, technology, and space wars.  

Internally, the right wing of the Republican Party is home to violence and depravity exercised by KKK, Proud Boys, Nazis, Oath Keepers, and the like. Howard Zinn’s People’s History of the United States made one think of the Right as responsible for all this atrocity. Hence, minorities, immigrants, blacks, the disenfranchised, and the Jews have traditionally found safety and hope on the Left, represented by Democrats…

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History measured the power of empires by the size of the land they ruled. The Persian, Roman, and British empires have come and gone to prove that ideology is more powerful than landmass. Using modern lingo, software is more valuable than hardware. The West has spent invaluable blood and treasure to defeat ideologies such as communism, socialism, Nazism and, once again, faces the challenge of radical Islam.

What is happening in the Middle East, playing out in the recent war between Hamas and Israel, is not about land or a two-state solution, but an ideology. The Crusades were a series of religious wars between Christians and Muslims over an ideology rather than simply a fight over Jerusalem, which both sides considered sacred.

While the Jews may be small in number, the Judeo-Christian ideals, like respect for life, individual freedom, and equal dignity for all humans, are the cornerstone of human evolution. Islam – which literally means surrender – values death more than life, requires constant expansion by Jihad, and considers Jews and the ideals they represent as obstacles to be overcome through the use of violence…

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Happy Thanksgiving. I hope everyone has had an opportunity to spend time with family and friends. This year, I spent the week meditating on how fortunate I am to have been able to live in these times of relative peace and prosperity in a world on the verge of tectonic changes. From global warming to wars in Ukraine and Israel, from the rise in antisemitism to the unknown dark powers of artificial intelligence, it sure feels like we are experiencing a Gatsby’s Roaring 20s era in the face of a looming equivalent of the Great Depression and WWII just ahead.

Tradition is the bedrock of every culture and religion. We celebrate America's independence every 4th of July and let freedom ring, whether during the good times or when faced with unprecedented internal and external challenges. And so it is with Thanksgiving that we embrace the attitude of gratitude, even when the specifics might be somewhat elusive. 

This year, I feel blessed to enjoy good health in my 70s, for my loving though non-traditional family, with special thanks to my son Dustin as he helps to carry the load and stays committed to our family’s vision of building an enlightened community, and for the privilege of living in the United States of America. More specifically, I want to thank our employees, members, colleagues, and friends for your dedication to our shared vision, whether that be your hard work or continued moral and financial support, as we further strengthen our City Club community. 

The only tangible strategy I have to express my heartfelt gratitude to everyone is to pour my heart and soul into our ongoing efforts to make Highland, both the Club and the Institute, the community of our dreams…

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One needs more than a lifetime to discover Rome, but if one is fortunate enough to have a good guide, the amount one can see and learn in a week is astounding.

City Club member Giulia Bernardini filled that role as she is a native Italian with two master’s degrees in art history and museum studies. Like her dad, who inspired her passion for sharing the city with others, Giulia’s bigger-than-life personality might just as well be the image of a classic Hollywood actress. After many years of teaching art history at the University of Colorado, Giulia now applies her extensive talents to conduct tours of Rome, Paris, Venice, and Naples. Having concluded that my creative batteries were running low, I jumped at the opportunity to join Giulia and seven others for a week-long tour of Rome.

Our deep dive into Rome’s 2600-year recorded history began with a study of archaeology as we encountered massive palazzos built atop churches built on ancient coliseum foundations. With the Tiber River regularly flooding, some of the sidewalks we were standing on were sixty feet above the foundation of the original building…

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It’s a jungle out there. It’s a dog-eat-dog world. Kill to eat, or you may wind up as someone’s lunch.

Humans harbor the capacity for unimaginable evil. Read Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables. Read Victor Frankel’s Man’s Search for Meaning. Read Howard Zinn’s People’s History of the United States. To this day, children are born, live, and die on the streets of Kolkata (Calcutta). From Stalin to Mao Tse-tung, from Genghis Khan to Hitler, history is full of people believing "one death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic."

Knowing this, how can one stay sane and function effectively amongst such cruelty? How did Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, and Gandhi do it? What’s the best strategy to survive and thrive in this seemingly unjust, bat-crazy world?

One can study history and become paralyzed by the evil we continue to inflict on each other, our planet, and other species. Today, we are amazed and ashamed that 150 years ago, America, the land of the free, the shiny city on the hill, sanctioned slavery. Seven generations from now, our descendants may be equally amazed and ashamed to learn we factory-farmed other sentient beings to eat and that a Chinese gourmand craze was eating the brains of live monkeys…

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Pogrom is a Russian word meaning “to wreak havoc, to demolish violently.” Historically, the term refers to violent attacks by local non-Jewish populations on Jews in the Russian Empire and adjoining countries like Poland and Ukraine.

Although the first such incident labeled a pogrom was the riots in Odessa in 1821, attacks on the Jews go as far back as Egypt’s enslavement of their entire Jewish population, Spain’s deportation of their entire Jewish population, and Germany’s eradication of all Jews as their “Final Solution.”

Before Islam got into the game, Christianity cornered this market with the claim that Jews were responsible for the death of Jesus, and the accusation that Jews were performing rituals using the blood of Christian children (a charge known as “blood libel”)…

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After nearly a decade of research and soul-searching, in May 2020, at the outset of the pandemic, City Club officially launched the Highland Institute for the Advancement of Humanity.

Webster defines an Institute as “A society or organization founded for a religious, educational, social, or similar purpose.” My definition of an institute has evolved to include a safe place, or a Securus Locus, to discuss and debate difficult, complex, but important topics that can help pave the way for human evolution.

Last week, City Club member Matt Query and I discussed and analyzed the current Israel and Hamas war, how Hezbollah and Iran fit into this equation, and China and Russia's role. Many of you responded positively and supported our efforts to address this complex situation. However, we did receive an anonymous comment stating my quote of the Koran was not accurate, compelling Matt Query to respond by saying: It is a relatively well-known Hadith, with Al-Bukhari (famous 9th century Hadith scholar) attributing it to Ibn ‘Umar, who was one of Muhammad’s companions. Responding to Matt’s comment, another member offered: “Al-Bukhari is synonymous with Islam. While it’s accurate that the quote is not from the Koran, it is a standard teaching all over the Islamic world.”…

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I decided to take time to cool off and deal with my shock, sadness, and anger before writing about Israel’s October 7th equivalent of Pearl Harbor, 9/11, or the 1973 Yom Kippur War. I strived to explore the root cause of this evil, its potential silver lining, and the outline of a global solution to this problem.

In the first part of the Koran, in Madina, Muhammed sees Islam as the final chapter of the Abrahamic religions, friendly to Jews with Jerusalem as their rightful homeland. In the second part of the Koran, while in Mecca, Muhammed turns on the Jews, making it incumbent upon Muslims to kill Jews.

Muhammed’s passing marked the Islamic split between the Shia and Sunni sects, representing the liberal and conservative sides of Islam depending on which is in power at the time.

In 1979, with the fall of the Shah of Iran, conservative Ayatollahs took over and tried to take back Islam’s mantle of Jihad from Saudi Arabia. Iran declared America the ‘Big Satan’ and Israel the ‘Little Satan,’ took 52 Americans hostage, and strived to establish a global Islamic Caliphate using proxies like Hamas, Hezbollah, and Islamic Jihad…

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There is an old adage that says, be careful what you wish for, you might just get it.

Life is full of missed opportunities, losses, and failures. Anyone who has experienced a major setback – launched and lost a significant enterprise; built “it” and they did not come; fallen in love, married, only to divorce – develops a fear of loss and is naturally afraid to go out on a limb. 

A male is focused on food, shelter, security, and sex. A man, then, is the male who can make and keep a commitment and die for a cause he believes in. A superior man, or woman (Narges Mohammadi, the winner of the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize) strives to give more than s/he takes, hoping to make a small dent in the universe to promote the advancement of human evolution.

One of the great benefits of launching our City Club community is the privilege of mentoring some of our members. Whether it’s a member’s 17-year-old son embarking on the dating world and experimenting with alcohol and drugs, a new college graduate striving for that first job, or a late-20s member facing the decision of whether his girlfriend would make a good wife, or the late-30s member struggling to establish a career and purchase a house, everyone is a candidate for solid mentorship…

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They say a man can live a month without food, and a week without water, but not a day without hope. 

We grow up full of hope and idealism, and then slowly start letting go, giving up, and compromising our dreams. In the past, I have written about Viktor Frankl’s three-year survival ordeal in multiple hellish concentration camps; Nelson Mandela, who endured 27 years of imprisonment, much of it in solitary confinement; Moses, who wandered in the Sinai desert for forty years looking for the Promised Land. 

Without tenacity and grit, talent is nothing more than unmet potential. Or, as Thomas Edison put it, genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.

As a Stoic, I often think about these and other historical heroes such as the great Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, who dealt with a combination of war, famine, and the Antonine Plague; Lincoln and the Civil War he fought to free slaves and keep our country together; and Golda Myer’s founding of the State of Israel, and nearly losing it during the 1973 Yom Kippur war…

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I find it fascinating that two of our Constitution’s biggest First Amendment advocates are foreign-born, self-made American billionaires willing to take considerable risks to protect what most of us take for granted.

Rupert Murdoch, who at age 92 resigned as the Chairman of his two media companies, spent seven decades building a media empire with a significant global impact on public life. Mr. Murdoch’s crowning achievement was the purchase of the Wall Street Journal in 2007 at the then-thought exorbitant price of $5 billion. Many, myself included, had concerns that Mr. Murdoch would commercialize this venerable paper and drain it as a private equity play. Mr. Murdoch, instead, invested heavily in the Journal as he fully embraced the digital revolution and made it into an even better publication.

While I learned to speak English by watching TV for nine months, I learned to write proper English by “studying” the Journal for the past 44 years. Mr. Murdoch believed that “self-serving bureaucracies seek to silence those who would question their provenance and purpose. Elites have open contempt for those who are not members of their rarefied class. Most of the media is in cahoots with those elites, peddling political narratives rather than pursuing the truth.” Upon purchasing the Journal, Mr. Murdoch made clear he wanted to hear what his Editors truly thought, not what they thought he wanted to hear…

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Walter Isaacson’s new biography of Elon Musk is all over the news, and many see their reflection in this complex man: wealthy, genius, charming, polarizing, combative, and mercurial. Quoting Shakespeare, Mr. Isaacson sees Musk as a man “molded out of faults.” While Musk’s Asperger syndrome and his “demonic modes” make him hard to deal with, it gives him a voice, which is why he bought Twitter.

In the book, Musk quotes Albert Einstein, who lived during the McCarthy era, as saying that American Democracy seems pretty resilient and has an internal gyroscope that makes it right itself when it looks like it’s about to go off the cliff.

Looking at these gyrations at the global level, we see China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea aligned against America and the West. Domestically, we are at each other’s neck, facing two bad presidential choices in 2024. Locally, our streets are littered with the homeless, many of whom are mentally ill, addicted to drugs, and/or are outright criminals….

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Ernest Hemingway’s description of his main character’s bankruptcy in The Sun Also Rises, “gradually, then suddenly,” is aptly relevant to the aging of the American leadership and its consequences. 

President Biden, who is 80, frail, and accident-prone (both physically and verbally), is running for another term. The 81-year-old Mitch McConnell, the powerful Senate Minority Leader, keeps freezing up like the software glitch in The Matrix. The 83-year-old Nancy Peloci, the powerful 52nd speaker of the House, just announced she wants her old job back. The 77-year-old ex-president Trump oscillates between the prospect of a jail cell and visions of the White House. 

This trend compels one to ask, what is going on? What are the consequences of an aging American leadership as we consider the role of experience and wisdom in the context of the vitality, grit, and tenacity required of a leader in today’s complex world?…

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One need not be a Stoic to realize life is hard, and then we die. In between, there is a lot of pain and suffering due to societal pressures to conform, get an education, get married, raise kids, pay off the mortgage, and save enough to retire. But the Stoics also teach that while pain is the flavor of life, those who thrive in the face of hardship focus on what they can control and, act as if the obstacle is the way.

As such, life is meant to be an active engagement rather than a passive experience; as per Benjamin Franklin’s observation, “Many people die at 25 but are not buried till they are 75.”

Thus, we bear witness to that rebellious minority who buck the system to remind us we want more than just to live, but to feel fully alive. Not just survive, but thrive. In 1969, this was the impetus to gather in Yasgure’s 300-acre farm for Woodstock or, follow Jimmy Buffett to Margaritaville. And, more to the point here, annually gather in one of the most inhospitable deserts in the world to Burn The Man…

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