Stuart Muszynski

"If I was King of the United States, I would make it so that there was no popularity -- everyone would be equal. I am somebody." - Tyler, a teenager who committed suicide, from the movie Bully.

Anyone who sees the movie Bully has to be touched to the core...

Dear Mr. President and Mr. Romney,

Both of you have kicked off your campaigns in the Swing State, Ohio, so I know you are aware that how Ohioans feel reflects the feelings of many throughout the nation. I am writing as one Ohioan, but I believe that I reflect a...

I was talking to several entertainment, sports and celebrity managers in Los Angeles this week and they lamented the loss of decorum in America today. The last time I looked up "decorum" in the dictionary, its definition -- "Behavior in keeping with good taste and propriety" -- strikingly contrasted with...

With all the drama and outrage about the tragic death of Trayvon Martin, we need to ask ourselves this question: Why do we stereotype minorities? Especially when we take pride in being a great "melting pot," what is it in the American DNA that pre-disposes us to bigotry?

When I...

Passover -- the ancient Hebrew exodus from Egypt -- has been a rallying cry for freedom for thousands of years. In our own country, even though the Declaration of Independence proclaimed "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" as "unalienable rights," it was the the Passover story about slaves who...

Alleged mass murderer U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales once said that he and his fellow soldiers demonstrated "the real difference between being an American as opposed to being a bad guy." Of course, no American would dispute the claim that American service men and women are among...

In the wake of Rush Limbaugh's offensive branding of a Georgetown University law student as "a slut" and "a whore" because she advocated for government funding of contraception (and advertisers' response in pulling their ads from his show), we all should be asking advertisers not just to be responsive but...

Since the Columbine school shooting of 1999, there is an angst that I've had with the coming of each new school year and each new programming year for Project Love, the non-profit organization I co-founded eighteen years ago in Cleveland to empower teens to build positive school cultures through kindness,...

Last week's heated exchange between Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum raised a fundamental question about America, our culture and working for the greater good. When Santorum was questioned about why he voted for "No Child Left Behind," he acknowledged that he voted "against the principles I believed in" and that...

There's a lot of debate today about what America's priorities ought to be, and in the midst of the debate we hear lots of shouting and accusations. Rick Santorum accuses President Obama of having "some phony theology." Mitt Romney accuses Santorum of being a "big government,...

USA Today, the paper, reflects the current bitter irony of USA, the country. At the top of each editorial page is founder Al Neuharth's vision: "USA Today hopes to serve as a forum for better understanding and unity to help make the USA truly one nation." Ironic, because on the...

On February 2nd, more than 50,000 Americans will embark on an annual pilgrimage in search of the holy grail of weather forecasting -- Punxsutawney Phil, the groundhog who predicts when spring will come. Most of us know about Punxsutawney Phil from the movie Groundhog Day, starring Bill Murray, who plays...

In one of the recent South Carolina Republican presidential debates, Newt Gingrich railed against government intervention and in defense of conservative principles and personal responsibility. He said, "I believe every American of every background has been endowed by their creator with the right to pursue happiness. And if that makes...

In the recent Republican debates as well as across the airwaves, in blogs and in print, questions have been raised about Mitt Romney's record of job creation, job elimination and the rightful balance between both. Some conservatives have debated the wisdom behind Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry and Rick Santorum questioning...

In 1987, I took a self-improvement course called Lifestream that changed my life, simply by enabling me to shift my thinking from negative to positive. In one of the exercises, the facilitator asked us to think about all the negativity in our lives. It was amazing. Just by focusing on...

It's the time of year when holiday cheer is palpable. It's also the time of year when we resolve to be better, thinner, happier, smarter, wealthier. I'm going to be nicer, not just around the holidays, but all year long.

During the holidays, there's no dearth of goodness in America....

Several years ago, I was flying from New York to Boston with a conservative Republican friend. While on our way to the coach section, we encountered the famed Harvard economist John Kenneth Galbraith, who was seated in first class. "Professor Galbraith," my friend exclaimed, "how Republican of you to sit...

Those who say that media and our political leaders are out of touch with the "real" America have a point. Take the recent ABC News analysis of the last Republican presidential debate. After asking, "Who threw the first punch?" and "Who drew blood?" Karen Travis commented, "It's unlikely that Romney...

There's room to debate the role of pledges in politics today. One thing that's not debatable is that there are a lot of them -- from the debt-ceiling pledge and the cap, cut and balance pledge to pledges to repeal the estate tax, to support abortion rights and more. In...

"Have you been half asleep and have you heard voices? I've heard them calling my name. Is this the sweet sound that called the young sailors? The voice might be one and the same. I've heard it too many times to ignore it. It's something I'm supposed to be. Some...