We are a nation of strangers. Welcoming the stranger when we’ve needed them to farm our fields, lay our railroads, or build our skyscrapers has always been part of our country’s philosophy. On Monday many of us will again be waving flags, grilling burgers and hotdogs, and watching fireworks to celebrate our independence. In the 1600 and 1700s European countries, especially England launched hundreds of ships full of immigrants who eventually established what became the […]
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It Takes a Village
It takes a village to raise each new generation. Last Monday was the 78th Anniversary of “D-Day,” aka “Operation Overload.” On June 6, 1944, a village of 150,000 troops, 195,000 sailors, and 23,000 airmen put down their collective feet to say, “NO MORE!” to the violence, tyranny, and carnage created by a madman. Can’t We All Just Get Along? This question is a paraphrase of what Rodney King asked in 1992 when riots spread destruction, death, […]
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Who Sits at the Table?
June 3, 2022 An important factor in healing some of the deep divides we’re experiencing in society today, is to examine who sits at the table. Who do we invite to provide information about issues? Who do we invite to participate in making decisions about the best course of action? If we only invite those who look, think, and act as we do, we leave out large swaths of society. Addressing who sits at the […]
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Graduation Musings
For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven. (Ecclesiastes 3:1) I’m in Graduation Musings mode this week. May 14, 2022 two family young adults, plus the fiancé of one of them, will flip tassels from one side to the other. That brings to an end a steady stretch of family members in school dating back to 1999 when the oldest of this generation started kindergarten. The break from classes […]
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Sidney Poitier & Black History Month
Sidney Poitier always comes to mind when I think about Black History month. Thinking about him reminds me an incident I experienced a year or so after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita decimated the Gulf Coast Region. I and two other disaster response workers, both Black men, were walking along the famous Bourbon Street area of NOLA. We were in town to assess needs and address the unrelenting challenges wrought by the hurricanes. One companion was […]
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