News & Articles
Cross Purposes
President Trump used his Thanksgiving Address to announce that he intends to halt all immigration from poor countries. This decision is his response to the shooting in Washington DC of two National Guard soldiers by an Afghan national who’d previously worked for the CIA. So it seems that millions of poor people around the world…
Permission to Rest
The turkey or ham with all the fixings has been enjoyed, the pots and pans washed and put away. If relatives or friends came over for the holiday, perhaps they’ve returned home, or maybe they’ll stay for a few more days. If football is important, those games have been watched on TV or will be…
A News Story to Remember
I’m sure I couldn’t take a steady diet of a newspaper like The New York Times, but I benefit as a citizen by reading the Sunday version every week. As a political junkie, I can follow stories from all over the world, and now, with strange sights in the sky, even stories from out of…
See No Evil, Read No Evil
At the start of my teaching career back in the seventies, I also served as the chaplain in a church-related college. Those were memorable years when students would stop by my office to discuss problems, and not all of those problems were spiritual. I vividly remember one conversation with a student, as she came…
Alfred Nobel’s Prize
My wife and I share Swedish ancestry, so we knew from the time we were young that the Nobel Peace Prize is named after a famous 19th century Swedish inventor. While people might assume that we would be proud of that fact, the truth is more complicated. Alfred Nobel was a highly successful businessman, but…
Let It Rain, Let It Rain
Last week, I was looking for something to read before bedtime and by happenstance I pulled from the bookshelf A Fine Smirr of Rain, written by my friend Bill Bridges. When Bill passed away suddenly a little over a year ago, I lost a close friend and a writing mentor. Bill was a journalist, first…