The Ethics of Commitment; The Signal, June 15, 2025

David Hegg, The Signal; The Ethics of Commitment

"I recently watched the systematic dissolution of several married couples. All of them were good people and there was no infidelity on either side. The reason they failed to keep their marriages together was not some cataclysmic event or circumstance. Instead, it was their failure to live up to the commitments they made as they entered into the covenant of marriage. It boiled down to a gross misunderstanding of what commitment is and what it entails.  

First, commitment is a promise to persevere past the point of convenience, comfort and even common sense. Yes, that’s right. Commitment means staying the course even when it appears that all is lost. It refuses to give up in the face of daunting circumstances simply because what is about to be lost is irreplaceable. 

Think about the commitment of soldiers at war. Those we honor the most are the ones who remained radically committed to their comrades and the mission, even to the point of death. Commitment isn’t wishful thinking. It is a promise sealed with the life of the one who makes it, or at least it is supposed to be."

After soldier turns to social media, Army fixes barracks issue; Task & Purpose, February 26, 2025

JEFF SCHOGOL,

Task & Purpose; After soldier turns to social media, Army fixes barracks issue

"A soldier in Hawaii who posted online that the air conditioning in his barracks had not worked since January told Task & Purpose that the problem was finally resolved on Tuesday...

The soldier posted on Hots & Cots on Saturday that the air conditioning in Building 356 in Schofield Barracks C Quad, which houses about 150 soldiers, had stopped working on Jan. 30 following a power outage.

This is the latest episode in a growing trend of soldiers turning to online message boards and other services after long waits for service or other quality-of-life issues...

Although the Army has urged soldiers to go through their chain of command and submit work orders to resolve barracks issues, time and time again such problems have not been fixed until soldiers have raised their concerns on online forums such as Reddit, Facebook, Twitter, or other platforms."

How the Humble Paperback Helped Win World War II; The New York Times, October 6, 2023

Jennifer Schuessler, The New York Times; How the Humble Paperback Helped Win World War II

"The paperbacks were intended to help soldiers pass the time. But they were also meant to remind them what they were fighting for, and draw a sharp contrast between American ideals and Nazi book burnings.

That’s an aspect of the story that has only grown more resonant, amid today’s partisan battles over book bans. And Manning, for one, sees a clear lesson.

“During World War II, the American public came out very much one way,” she said. “And that was that there should be no restrictions on what people read."...

Books were seen not just as diversions, but as weapons in the fight for democracy. In American propaganda, the dedication to the free exchange of ideas was explicitly contrasted with Nazi book burnings. In a 1942 message to booksellers, President Franklin D. Roosevelt extolled freedom of expression, which was at the heart of his idea of the Four Freedoms. “No man and no force can take from the world the books that embody man’s eternal fight against tyranny,” he said.

But just how to get those weapons into soldiers hands was complicated. Shipping heavy books overseas was impractical. So in early 1943, the Council on Books in Wartime, a publishers’ group formed in 1942, approached Ray Trautman, the Army’s chief librarian, with the idea of producing special paperbacks for soldiers overseas. The result was the Armed Services Editions. which were designed to fit in either the breast or pants pocket of a standard-issue uniform."