When I speak to audiences of children about my books on the Constitution and Bill of Rights, I emphasize the role of debate and compromise in the creation of both of these charters of government. I say that compromise means giving up something to get something. I explain that the Founders had much that divided them – big states vs. small states; farmers vs. merchants; North vs. South; whether or not to end slavery – and argued over provisions that some of them wanted in the C

The most difficult thing for me to do as a newspaper reporter was interview people who had suffered a personal tragedy. Accident victims, crime victims, fire victims, families of murder victims -- I had to intrude on their personal space at a time when they were most vulnerable and ask them to give me quotes for publication. Ugh, I hated it. The reactions I got could go either way. Sometimes people resented my being there, like the poor woman in Houston who snapped at a CNN r

I am an optimist. I think our country is going through a difficult time, but I think we and our system will prevail. I believe this administration will test all of the checks and balances that our Founders built into our constitutional form of government, but I think they will remain intact. Our system allows the pendulum to swing from one side of the political system to the other, as it has many times in our history, but it always returns to center and remains on track. Thre