Binding the Nation’s Wounds
One week before this day, April 14, in 1865, Robert Lincoln brought a photograph of Confederate General Robert E. Lee over to his father, President Abraham Lincoln, as he ate breakfast. The President gazed at the old warrior's image and said, "It is a good face...the face of a noble, noble, man. I am [...]
President Benjamin Harrison and Prayer
(Disclaimer: Karen and I pray regularly. I respect all who profess religious affiliations other than my Christian faith, as well as those who are agnostic or atheist.) Do you pray? And what does that have to do with our long deceased president? Today, March 12, marks the 117th anniversary of his death, and I’d [...]
America’s Songs
On this day, Feb. 2, in 1831, a 23-year-old seminarian named Samuel Francis Smith first heard the tune used for the British national anthem. Delighted with the music, he was moved to write new lyrics to the same melody. “My Country Tis of Thee” was first performed on July 4 that year, and went [...]
America Needs to Listen to More Music
Don’t you agree? Music is magic for the soul. It can root you in the here and now, and it can catapult you over the canyons of time to special moments in your past. Music is a medicine that can bind our wounds. Earlier this week I received and shared a FB post that [...]
Are Any of Us Asking?
I was 10 years old, and I still remember watching his speech on our B&W television set. On this day, Jan. 20, 1961, the youngest man ever elected president delivered his Inaugural Address. JFK stirred the hearts of young and old alike that day with words of patriotism, self-sacrifice, and a warning to America’s [...]
The Legacy of Leadership
History buffs. Movie lovers. Go see Darkest Hour, one of the great movies of 2017. A tour de force by Gary Oldman as Sir Winston Churchill. The history of it all enchanted me, swept me away to a time not so long before my own birth. Two hours of wonderful cinema about Churchill’s courageous [...]
