The struggle with infertility is a lonely, frustrating and often humiliating journey. Six years ago as I walked into our small Chicago apartment, I noticed something strange when I came home from work. The bedroom door was closed. It was just my wife and I who lived there, so…

Nearly 60 years later, what is the legacy of Lyndon B. Johnson’s war on poverty? Fifty-eight years ago, Lyndon B. Johnson took a helicopter to the small, rundown Kentucky town of Inez in the heart of coal country. The landing field reserved for the president was an abandoned miniature…

Several weeks ago, the chairman of Illinois Policy Institute’s board, John Tillman, called me with a new idea. It was clear. It was simple. It was brilliant. I asked how he came up with it. “I thought of it in the shower,” he said. “That’s where my best ideas come…

Mother Cabrini rode the same “L” train as we do today. She walked our streets. Situated just across the street from North Pond in Lincoln Park is an ultra luxury high-rise. Passersby may assume that’s all there is to the building — but 2520 N. Lakeview Ave. has a much…

History often tells a different story than the narrative we create in the moment. Last week, I had dinner with Ben Schreiner at his home in Camden, South Carolina. Ben has gray hair and the strong chin line of a 20-year-old football player. …

Last month I made a phone call to an attorney to start drawing up my will. Last month I made a phone call to an attorney to start drawing up my will. There is nothing wrong with me. But as my wife has informed me, “It’s about time.” As…

I’ve changed my views on human dignity. I no longer think it is a good thing. In fact, it’s dangerous. Here’s why: the definition of dignity has changed. It’s being used to harm people. The way dignity is used today is something like, “Every person is born with an inherent…

That sounds like some pretty bad math. And at one point in my life, I would have argued it was impossible. 1+1 can never equal 3. But the more time I spend working at the Illinois Policy Institute, the more I am convinced that this is not bad math. …

For over a decade, I was certain the famous London-based clock was inexplicably located off the highway in southeastern Wisconsin. I was scrunched in the middle seat of a Ford Taurus station wagon. I sat between my older brother and sister on a family road trip that took us…