As my long-suffering wife will attest, I am somewhat psychotic when it comes to the season of Lent. To me it’s the very heart of the church year. It gives Christians a chance to evaluate what is important in their lives and what isn’t. It is an ancient season dating from the earliest years of ...
“I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue!” I remember very well, when in the summer of 1964, Barry Goldwater made the statement above in accepting the Republican nomination for President. ...
In early December my sister Gracie and I spent a day at the Whitney Plantation as guests of the ACLU of Louisiana. I’d visited before but Gracie had not. If you aren’t familiar with the plantation – about an hour’s drive up the Mississippi from New Orleans – it tells the story of slavery vividly ...
Kim Potter, the former police officer from Brooklyn Center, MN, was sentenced on Friday to two years in prison for her accidental killing of Daunte Wright after he was stopped last year for having an expired license tag and an illegal air freshener. Potter will be eligible for parole in 16 months. The ...
My editor, Fitz McAden, takes exception to my occasional potshots at the leader of the Democratic Party, Joe Biden. Fitz is a Democrat though not as liberal as I. He is a close observer of politics and sees himself as a pragmatist. He is correct when he says it’s the worst time for ...
Last July I took Big Oil to task in a blog entitled Marathon Men, arguing that companies like Marathon Oil are hastening the demise of our planet. Here’s an excerpt: Marathon makes money by extracting, refining and selling fossil fuel. The greater its sales, the more our climate deteriorates. We all know ...
In the winter of 1957, my parents went on a vacation to Haiti. Why Haiti? According to my mother, she’d wanted to go to Africa but the responsibility of raising five young children made such a long trip inadvisable. So she decided on Haiti since it was as much like Africa as she ...
Barring a miracle, we’ll still be battling the Covid-19 pandemic as 2021 rolls into 2022 — after two years, 4.6 million-plus deaths worldwide and untold societal and economic upheaval. The continuing scourge is enough reason for the anxiety that I and many other people feel, but not the only reason. There are other causes, ...
In Memoriam As some of you already know, my mother, Anne Springs Close, died on Aug. 20 after nearly 96 years of a very active life. She was in full possession of her mental acuity. However, her body was unable to withstand the violence of a fallen tree limb that trapped her and my ...
According to the most powerful man in the Senate, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, $11 per hour is as high a minimum wage as his state needs. Therefore, he says, he’s willing to kill the $15 minimum wage proposal included in the Covid Stimulus bill now before the Senate. Manchin, a Democrat, can make ...
