I voted in the midterm elections yesterday. I’m not going to tell you what candidates I supported. Rather, I’m writing to tell you how it felt to vote. This is the twenty-first time I’ve voted in a presidential or midterm election, but this one felt different. In the midst of the most virulent political animosity …
The “Tower of Voices” is a Shanksville, Pennsylvania, monument housing forty wind chimes. According to the US National Park Service, the “intent is to create a set of 40 tones that can signify through consonance the serenity and nobility of the site while also through dissonance recalling the event that consecrated the site.” “The event …
The year was 1826, and America’s fiftieth Independence Day was approaching. Roger Chew Weightman, the mayor of Washington, planned a great celebration. He invited the three surviving signers of the Declaration of Independence—Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Charles Carroll of Maryland—as well as former presidents James Madison and James Monroe. None could attend, due to …
I was privileged to visit Gettysburg a few years ago on a tour led by a West Point military historian. As he described the bloodiest three days in our nation’s history, I was awed by the courage of those who fought on both sides of this tragic conflict. Such courage was manifested on the same …
Anthony Bourdain is dead at sixty-one years of age. CNN made the announcement a short time ago, calling him “a gifted storyteller and writer who took CNN viewers around the world.” The network added, “His love of great adventure, new friends, fine food and drink and the remarkable stories of the world made him a …
On June 21, 2006, in the Nuristan Province of Afghanistan, Staff Sergeant Jared Monti’s sixteen-man patrol came under fire. One of his men was wounded and fell over a ridge into what the soldiers described as a “death zone.” Despite an intense firefight, he tried three times to save the soldier. On his third try, …
“I could not be more proud of the police officer and the way he responded to the situation. With shots ringing out through the hallways of the school, he charged toward the suspect and confronted him head-on. Because of his heroic action, countless lives were saved.” This is how Steve Howell Jr., police chief of …
“We started out the first mile together, now we’ll walk the last mile together.” That’s how a couple who divorced 50 years ago explained their decision to get married again. Harold Holland and Lillian Barnes fell in love as teenagers. They married and had five children together but divorced in 1968. They married other people, …
“My gladiator laid down his shield and gained his wings at 2:30.” This is how Alfie Evans’s father described the death of his twenty-three-month-old son early Saturday morning. Alfie suffered from a degenerative neurological condition. His doctors in Great Britain said he was in a “semi-vegetative state” with almost no brain function. His parents, Tom …
It’s been three weeks since Billy Graham died. In this time, there have been hundreds if not thousands of retrospectives published on “America’s Pastor.” The most interesting one I have seen is an interview with Nancy Gibbs, one of America’s most perceptive journalists and former editor-in-chief of Time magazine. After reading her comments on the …
