Last week the Republican party embarrassed itself in a cynical display of infighting and discord. As the Republican congress fought within itself due to displeasure with the GOP health care bill, President...

Value lies in our characters, in who we are as people (hopefully “good eggs”) rather than in the laundry lists of success stories or images of infallibility we attempt to project.

Every November, Whitman College puts on one of its most widely-attended campus events—a not-so-real beauty pageant, known fondly as Mr. Whitman, in which eight senior men celebrate the completion of a three month-long fundraising drive for a charity chosen by a Whitman student. The eight contestants are judged on a combination of their fundraising successes and their performances in the formal, swimsuit and talent portions of the show. As with all beauty pageants, there must be a winner—and of course, as with all beauty pageants, there must be the grim, devastating consequences of losing—the pain associated with realizing that nobody ever remembers the runner-up.