Lachlan Forrow

Senior Fellow, Harvard Medical School Center for Bioethics; President Emeritus, The Albert Schweitzer Fellowship

[Lachlan Forrow @LachlanForrow]

This is both terrifying and very helpfully-clarifying. Those "conditions" will sooner or later inevitably arise. IF the "adversary" has nuclear weapons, they will use them. So our ONLY hope for surviving the nuclear weapons era is abolishing those weapons.

[United States Strategic Command @US_STRATCOM]

#USSTRATCOM Posture Statement Preview: The spectrum of conflict today is neither linear nor predictable. We must account for the possibility of conflict leading to conditions which could very rapidly drive an adversary to consider nuclear use as their least bad option.

[Lachlan Forrow @LachlanForrow]

See also this earlier Ebola Prevention video Firdaus created during the West Africa outbreak, w vocals by 5-time Grammy awardee Angelique Kidjo: https://t.co/Ia7wOxY4Vr

[Lachlan Forrow @LachlanForrow]

Nahid: AMEN. And we can also help grieving family members channel their Love into effective _prevention_, as Firdaus Kharas's new video "Do Not Let My Death From Ebola Take You Too" (in 7 African languages), available to use/distribute for free, shows: https://t.co/XkC70Bu7fa

[Lachlan Forrow @LachlanForrow]

Nahid: AMEN. And we can also help grieving family members channel their Love into effective _prevention_, as Firdaus Kharas's new video "Do Not Let My Death From Ebola Take You Too" (in 7 African languages), available to use/distribute for free, shows: https://t.co/XkC70Bu7fa

[Dr. Nahid Bhadelia @BhadeliaMD]

I went back 3 times after this deployment and then worked in Uganda at the border of DRC for a few years because…. Because what I wrote then still rings true now and always.

[Lachlan Forrow @LachlanForrow]

@boazbaraktcs PS: In decades of grading, no one _ever_ got an A+ from me, and almost no one ever got an A. "A-" meant/means "superb", while making it clear that even better was a possibility.

[Lachlan Forrow @LachlanForrow]

@boazbaraktcs Love the grading. The best science teacher I ever had -- Peter French for 9th grade bio -- told us before assigning our final paper that he had _never_ given an A+. That _motivated_ me and others, I wrote a 40-page typed paper I'm still deeply proud of, and did _not_ get an A+.

[Lachlan Forrow @LachlanForrow]

3/3

[Lachlan Forrow @LachlanForrow]

1/3 Rebecca's new book is a major contribution to the vibrantly-ongoing Bach Fugue that started in 1776, her Variation on the initial Theme of "The Greatest Sentence" just substituting "Nature" for "Creator" and "Mattering" for "Happiness".

[Steven Pinker @sapinker]

Walter Isaacson discusses his book with the greatest title ever written about ‘The Greatest Sentence Ever Written.' I agree with his judgment: my eyes well up every time I read the sentence (particularly in context, where it appears as a climax after a moderate preamble. The following clause isn't bad either). https://t.co/27Q1LZe1dw

[Lachlan Forrow @LachlanForrow]

2/3 Her book calls on each of us, in this 250th anniversary year of 1776, to add to our own personal "Mattering Maps" a commitment to making our own distinct contributions to "a more perfect Union", proving that our nation's founders chose the right motto: "E Pluribus Unum"

[Lachlan Forrow @LachlanForrow]

Rebecca's work is a major contribution to a vibrantly-ongoing Bach Fugue, a creative Variation on the core Theme that began with what Walter Isaacson's newest book calls "The Greatest Sentence Ever Written", just substituting "Nature" for "Creator" and "Mattering" for "Happiness"

[Lachlan Forrow @LachlanForrow]

1/2 If you want to join in contributing to the work Rebecca's book provides each of us with a "Mattering Map" for how/why to pursue, please join her Substack -- subscribe to The Mattering Map https://t.co/rRfGeEeWy6

[Lachlan Forrow @LachlanForrow]

4/4 The rich diversity of the distinctive "mattering maps" we each bring to our individual lives gives us all reason to unite in mutual respect, proving that E Pluribus Unum was the right founding motto of the U.S. @sapinker @davideagleman @bizbookpr @michaelshermer

[Lachlan Forrow @LachlanForrow]

1/4 Perfect to start 250th anniv of 1776; the gist: "This Truth is Self-Evident: ALL human beings are created Equal, endowed by our _Nature_ w the longing to _Matter_, and thus endowed w the right to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness", each in our own distinctive ways.

[Steven Pinker @sapinker]

Coming out in less than two weeks; preorder here: https://t.co/zkPIRGYkj5

[Lachlan Forrow @LachlanForrow]

3/4 This is the outline of her argument, supported with rich descriptions of how it has applied in real human beings, from William James to a young man today finding his "mattering" in a group of violent neo-Nazis (spoiler: he is now a friend of Rebecca's)

[Lachlan Forrow @LachlanForrow]

@boazbaraktcs Boaz—great points, esp the last. For 3 of our 4 children, with all due respect to the academic rigor of their classes, the most valuable thing in high school was 3-season distance running, a paradigm for learning the importance, rewards, and satisfaction of sustained hard work

[Lachlan Forrow @LachlanForrow]

5/5 Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel taught us all what having "Freedom", and being a citizen of a "free society", _requires_ of us. (His own understanding of civic responsibilities compelled him, among many other acts of principle and courage, to join MLK and others in Selma.)

[Lachlan Forrow @LachlanForrow]

1/5 But only _after_ a fair trial and a verdict rendered by an impartial "jury of his peers". [I had replied to Jeff, but am now re-posting more widely since this is _so_ fundamentally-important.]

[Jeffrey Flier @jflier]

Devastating depiction of January 6. Found myself chanting "lock him up" in the family room.

[Lachlan Forrow @LachlanForrow]

4/5 The highest office in this country is -- and must always be -- the office of “citizen”. On Nov 5 our votes for the highest _elected_ office in our country must be cast as an _American_, not as a member of any party/faction. Save that for all the “down-ballot” voting.

[Lachlan Forrow @LachlanForrow]

@jflier Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, whose faith-rooted understanding of citizen responsibilities compelled him, among many other acts of principle and courage, to join MLK and others in Selma, taught us all what true "Freedom", and being a citizen of a "free society", _requires_ of us.

[Lachlan Forrow @LachlanForrow]

@jflier 3/4. BUT: Every citizen of this country is now a member of the _ultimate_ "jury of his peers", each of us personally responsible on Nov 5 _both_ for issuing our own "verdict", and for convincing our fellow jury members to join us in showing we are a nation of laws, not men.