Most of us have heard the story about the little boy who was tossing back into the sea starfish he found stranded on the beach. A man asked him what he was doing. He replied that he was saving the poor stranded starfish. “But,” said the man, “there must be thousands if not tens of thousands of starfish lying on this beach.
George Washington, unlike Adams, Jefferson, Franklin, and Hamilton, was not a learned man. He was not an intellectual. Nor was he a powerful speaker like Patrick Henry. What he was, above all, was a leader—he was a man people would follow. He was not chosen by his fellow members of the Continental Congress to be commander-in-chief because he was a great military leader.
Books have been written about race mixture in Latin America. After the Spanish conquest, Europeans established a caste system that ensured that “whites” would remain firmly in control of power. Vestiges of that system still remain today.
Even whites were categorized. A Spaniard born in Spain had higher status than a Spaniard born of Spanish parents in the New World.
Some years ago a man in Santa Ana, California burned himself to death to protest civil actions being taken against him. The act accomplished nothing; the civil actions continued. Nathan Hale made the following heroic words prior to his death; “I regret that I have but one life to give for my country.” Nevertheless the revolution against England still had to be fought on the battlefield.
One Sunday I pulled into the church parking lot and got a ticket. As I stepped out of my pickup, a small boy walked up and handed me a yellow slip of paper inscribed with a hand written message that said simply, “Parking Ticket.”
“Oh, great!” I exclaimed. “What is this gonna cost me—forty bucks?” The boy looked me straight in the eye and said firmly, “No.
Somehow I’ve always been connected with cows. My father married a dairyman’s daughter. Dad was born and raised in Mexico. Mom was a child of the Rocky Mountains in the good ole U.S.A. Dad had planned to make a life in Mexico. Her mother had other ideas: “You’re not taking my daughter to that forsaken country to live!” she declared.
So, they settled in the States and Dad’s father-in-law set him up in the dairy business.
As graduation approached, a high school senior wrote on the whiteboard, “11 days until graduation!!” Someone drew a line through “graduation” and changed the sentence to read, “11 days until freedom!!” In one U.S. History course a study packet was prepared and handed out to the students. It was designed to help students prepare to pass the state required “End of Course” exam.
All the stress from COVID-19 can test our faith. I want to assure you this virus did not catch God by surprise.
Faith…that is a big word that encompasses a lot of definitions. What is it?
Faith is a feeling of belief and something that allows us, as people, to get through difficulties life presents.
If I were still a high school principal, I would have a word of advice for this year’s graduates. The following event comes to mind:
As I walked down the hall toward my office, I spotted a woman and her daughter puzzling over a map of the 3,200-student school. “Can I help you find something?” I inquired.
Memorial Day has been established as a federal holiday to remember those of our fallen service members—valiant men and women who gave what Abraham Lincoln called “the last full measure of devotion” to a cause greater than self. It is only fitting that we pause to remember them and the sacrifices they made so we can enjoy the blessings of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
My brother Jay R has devoted much of his long professional career testing weapons systems for the U ...
