George Zadigian - Compelled to Move Forward

June 13, 2022July 22, 2022

FREEDOM AND THE GREATER GOOD

Beyond a plague upon life, if Covid has been anything it’s been a most serious teacher. It’s taught us that life is fragile and can be fleeting. It’s taught us to cherish time with family and friends. It’s taught us to pay closer attention to protecting our health. It’s taught us that effectively governing a diverse and polarized population is a really difficult thing. It’s taught us how important social time is to our children, as well as all of us. It’s taught us how a tiny virus can bring a huge and powerful country to its knees. And it’s taught us that beneath our beliefs about freedom lies a growing, dark underbelly, where individual freedoms can be elevated far above the common good.

April 4, 2022April 23, 2022

THIS IS THE PRICE!

As our hearts break for the people of Ukraine, it is imperative that we wrap our heads around the fact that this is the price of supporting a president who stridently promoted “America First”. This is the price of supporting a president that cast doubt on American’s commitment to NATO and weakened its deterrent strength. This is the price of supporting a president and his enablers who divided us here at home and made us weak in the eyes of adversaries. This is the price of supporting a president that invited Russian interference in our elections and choose to support Putin’s account of that election over the findings of our own CIA. This is the price of letting a president get away with holding military aid to Ukraine hostage to getting political dirt on an election rival. And this is the price of supporting a president that aligned himself with aggressive authoritarians and actively promoted selfishness and self-interest here at home and before the United Nations.

February 21, 2022March 5, 2022

Inflation and Who’s to Blame?

As a conservative, particularly fiscally, and a student of economics for more decades than I’d like to count, witnessing the economic mistakes made by our federal government over the last 20 years, and the hardships they have wrought upon us, has been downright painful. Given the surge in inflation the last few months and our tendency to want to blame somebody, perhaps it would be helpful to take a step back and consider what caused the recent spike before locking onto who’s to blame.

January 28, 2022January 28, 2022

What Patriotism Means To Me

While most of us have strong feelings about patriotism, its exact meaning seems nebulous and elusive. Perhaps that is why many of us practice patriotism so differently. Some exercise what may be the pinnacle of patriotism by enlisting in our military and putting themselves in harm’s way to defend our country. For most of us though, simply standing respectfully at the playing of our national anthem is our clearest expression of patriotism. Given the growing speed and strength of rebuke toward anyone who doesn’t conform to traditional patriotic practices and the way a number of politicians have used less traditional ways of practicing patriotism to advance their own political ambitions, perhaps it would be of some value to take a step back to reflect on the meaning of patriotism.

October 24, 2021December 11, 2021

DUPLICITY AND ITS DESTRUCTIVE CONSEQUENCES

While visiting Yale with my son 15 years ago, our tour guide said something that has challenged me since. Near the end of the tour, I inquired about on-campus church services. Our tour guide half-jokingly replied, “Oh yea, if you’re one of those hate-mongering Christians, we have several church services here on campus”. While our tour guide tried to take back his words, churning inside my brain was the question: “How could such an extraordinarily intelligent, perceptive and otherwise gracious young man, call Christians “hate-mongering”? “Hate-mongering!” It didn’t take more than a moment to recall news a few days earlier of Christians protesting outside the funeral of a fallen soldier returned from the war in Iraq. Against the backdrop of a grieving family was a small group of protesters, oblivious not only to their own callousness, but the far-reaching consequences of their hypocrisy. Hypocrisy and its consequences have always been with us, but far more troubling lately is the scope of disinformation and duplicity spewing from the mouths of political “leaders”. Few things are more dangerous and destructive than lies masquerading as truth, and the wholesaling of incongruent beliefs by shrewd and powerful people.

August 14, 2021September 23, 2021

HOW CAN EACH OF US DO OUR PART?

Given that global warming and catastrophic climate events now overshadow every part of our nation, and at an accelerating frequency and intensity, it is a relief to see we are finally being led to address this unfolding crisis. A few may be inclined to say “so what?”, but I’m hopeful most of us care deeply about those currently suffering from the devastating effects of climate change, as well as leaving our children and grandchildren a world that’s not an environmental and economic disaster.

July 17, 2021November 20, 2021

THE TIME HAS COME TO ADJUST THE BASIS FOR TAXES

Given the accelerating momentum of climate change and its devastating effects, perhaps the time has come to incentify addressing this crisis through a tax increase on fuel consumption married to a decrease in income taxes. Given that taxes not only fund the government but are often used to influence behavior, should we continue to tax work and career advancement, which I believe we want to incentify, while leaving taxation of a product that is destroying our environment artificially low?

June 1, 2021August 26, 2021

RECONSTRUCTING CAPITALISM IN AMERICA

Given that income and wealth inequality in America has reached record highs, only 52% of Americans view capitalism positively, and the fact that the Federal Reserve had to rescue us from economic collapse twice in just the last 13 years, I submit that capitalism in America has morphed into a system that no longer serves us well and must be restructured. While America’s brand of capitalism has enabled our growth into an economic and technological behemoth, it has also left us far from the egalitarian society our founding fathers wished for us and encouraged an accumulation of debt and a concentration of business that have left us far from secure. Given our current relative stability, we are ripe, right now, to begin restructuring in ways that enhance freedom, build dignity, advance competitiveness and improve the stability of our economy.

May 17, 2021May 19, 2021

HAVE WE FORGOTTEN THE IMPORTANCE OF INVESTING?

As an Armenian, engrained within me is a culture centered on a dedication to family, faith and future generations. Given that Armenians have been a tiny population for centuries, the importance of self-sacrifice for future generations has always been an essential element of our lives and survival as a people. When that dedication to future generations and pride in what our grandparents built and gave us, meets much of current public policy and business aggression focused on the short-term, it is easy to be disappointed in how we’ve allowed the importance of investing to drift away from us.

March 5, 2021April 29, 2021

WHERE DO CONSERVATIVES GO FROM HERE?

Given the disaster of the last four years and an unfolding fratricide within the Republican Party, many fellow conservatives are probably wondering: Where do we go from here? The conduct of Trump and his enablers have produced incalculable damage to America and every aspect of American life, and pervasive political loses. While we have time before the next election cycle, daily we have a choice of what to believe and whom to support. These choices are not just political questions but reflect deeper questions of our moral identity and who we want to be.