Angelina and My Mom

Movie star Angelina Jolie’s recent announcement that she has undergone a double mastectomy, a considered effort to try to avert breast cancer for which she has revealed her personal genetic propensity–it evokes memories of my mother and her health...

Decoration Day

That’s what I remember Memorial Day being called when I was a youngster–Decoration Day–at least in my family. My dad would take me with him to where his parents were buried in the Pleasant Hill Baptist Church Cemetery, outside Thompsonville, in...

Sexual Orientation

Journeyman professional basketball player, 34-year-old Jason Collins, recently received his proverbial “fifteen minutes of fame” when he revealed in a Sports Illustrated article that he is gay. So . . . ? What does anyone’s sexual orientation have to...

Mothers Day

I’ve known this young woman, who is now a senior in high school, since I visited her and her mother in the hospital the day she was born. She and her family are dear people in my life. She’s given me permission to publish this essay which won her a trip to...

This and That

WHO’S GENEROUS?  The wealthiest Americans–those in the top 20 percent–give 1.3 percent of their income to charity; those in the bottom 20 percent give 3.2 percent of their income, even though many of them can’t itemize their contributions as a...