Posts Tagged ‘Americana’

Society’s most important task is education. It is through education that we transmit to our children the knowledge and skills they need to function effectively in a modern economy, and the values and virtues they require to fulfill the responsibilities of family and citizenship in a free society. That’s why all that separates civilization from…

Around the time of Mother Teresa’s funeral, I bought one of her books, A Simple Plan (Ballantine, 1995). Having overdosed on her deeds, I just wanted to find out more about her thinking and her faith. Her lessons are both clear and simple: Faith, surrender, obedience and prayer gave her the strength to serve others. Once, when…

LAFAYETTE, Ind.– Last weekend, nearly 300 members of the Class of ’57 at Jefferson High School assembled in this central Indiana community, home of Purdue University, for their 40th class reunion. This was a great time to renew old friendships and recall lives together during youthful years that “oldies” DJs now call the “Nifty Fifties.”…

The environmental paparazzi are everywhere. Just like their photojournalist cousins, who use bicycles to stalk their celebrity prey, eco-paparazzi use everything from rubber dinghies to spikes in trees to get what they want from oil or timber industry prey. Eco-paparazzi are in your face at every turn, trying to outlaw backyard barbecues, pointing fingers at…

Labor Day means different things to different people. For some, Labor Day symbolizes the end of summer. A last fling at the beach or at the fishin’ hole. A parade down Main Street — at least in many Rust Belt cities and towns. Family reunions. A new school year for the kids. Those things all…

Race relations was in the headlines this past week — not because of a riot or hate crime or something negative, but for mostly positive and constructive reasons. First, last Tuesday, a Gallup Poll showed that the views of both black and white Americans are converging in many positive ways (despite real divisions that persist…

“The children of today are out of control. They talk back to their parents, slobber their food, and annoy their teachers.” Does this sound familiar, like your local school principal or a disgruntled grandmother? Actually, it is a quote from Socrates, the Greek philosopher, uttered sometime around 425 B.C. In fact, each generation of kids…

On Thursday, millions of Americans will join together across racial, political and denominational lines to observe the annual National Day of Prayer. Purpose: To pray for our nation and its leaders and to give thanks for the bounty, beauty and blessings of our country. Just as earlier Congresses established Thanksgiving Day as a day to…

Three years ago, while standing in line to pay for Christmas decorations at a local nursery, a book calledChristmas in My Heart: A Treasury of Old-Fashioned Christmas Stories caught my eye. The book was compiled and edited by Joe Wheeler, chair of the English Department at Maryland’s Columbia Union College. I have always liked stories –…

Thanksgiving time is here again. Thanksgiving is important because, along with Christmas, it’s a holiday when families come together. That’s important because family gatherings are a time when people tell stories, family stories, morality tales that give young people cues about right and wrong, and about struggles where there are winners and losers. Family stories…

MEXICO CITY — This is my first visit to Mexico since last December’s economic crisis, marked by the collapse of the peso. At first glance, everything seems the same: Traffic jams, smog, parks and plazas jammed with young people, and families celebrating the start of Easter week; young boys crowding public baseball fields and basketball…

The botched effort of the Clinton administration to intervene in the baseball strike is another example of the intrusive and overbearing culture of Washington — and another reason why this culture must be broken if America is to reach its full potential. In a late-inning move, the president dispatched former Labor Secretary William Usery to…

As we celebrate today the 25th anniversary of America’s success in landing men on the moon, it’s worth noting that 1994 is a year awash in milestone anniversaries. Last month, we celebrated the 50th anniversary of D-day (June 6, 1944), which stopped Hitler’s attempt to take over Europe. Two months ago, we celebrated the 40th…