As one media outlet after another conducts end-of-the-year reviews of the events of 2010-and images of extremists carrying loaded firearms to presidential speeches and children being terrorized by gunfire flash across my television screen-I am struck anew by the prescient words of Oscar Hammerstein in the 1945 musical “South Pacific”: You’ve got to be taught …
Continue reading "You’ve Got to Be Taught"
On November 29, at the close of a seemingly normal school day at Marinette High School in Wisconsin, 15 year-old Sam Hengel walked up to the front of his class, pulled out a semiautomatic handgun, and shot a hole in the room s film projector. Hengel then held his teacher and 23 students hostage for …
Continue reading "The Shot Ignored Around the World"
By now, many of you have undoubtedly heard about the Restoring Honor Rally that will be conducted by Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, and the National Rifle Association on August 28 at the Lincoln Memorial. The date and location are significant. It was on August 28, 1963, that Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his famous …
Continue reading "A Day to Remember"
As I paused yesterday to celebrate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I recalled his own words spelling out how he would like to be remembered. In a 1968 sermon at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Dr. King said: Every now and then I guess we all think realistically about that day when …
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As we prepare to say hello to a second decade of this new century, I am mindful of the wisdom of the ancient prayer we have come to know as “The Lord’s Prayer.” The prayer has been adapted by many cultures over the centuries. I am particularly taken by one rendition that comes out of …
Continue reading "Seek the Path of Love"
In Joshua Ferris national bestseller, Then We Came to the End, he details the foibles and tedium of modern office life through the story of a group of Chicago advertising employees attempting to find meaning and continued employment during the dot-com bust. The novel was a National Book Award finalist and deemed One of …
Continue reading "Stress in the Workplace"
Over my many years in the gun control movement, I have been privileged to work with, for, and against many interesting people. One of the most interesting is a man named Bob Ricker who, sadly, was taken from us on Friday after a bout with cancer. As a promising young lawyer, Ricker was hired in …
Continue reading "A Profile in Courage"
As we prepare this week to share a Thanksgiving meal with family and/or friends, I offer this Litany by Eugene Pickett, former President of the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations, to remind us of some of the things for which we can be grateful: We Give Thanks This Day We give thanks this day. For …
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I am constantly amazed at how easy it is to overlook the obvious until somehow the facts connect to our own experiences. Eleven days ago, as I was recovering in the hospital from back surgery, I heard the news of the Fort Hood massacre. Naturally, most of the news coverage focused on the number of …
Continue reading "A Familiar Tragedy"
Recently, I got hold of a fundraising letter that Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) sent out on behalf of a new group calling itself the National Association for Gun Rights (NAGR). To give you a perspective on their ideology, NAGR Executive Director Dudley Brown calls the Brady Law (which requires federally licensed firearm dealers to conduct …
Continue reading "Meet the Boogeyman"