Where were you when…?
Markers All you Baby Boomers out there will probably relate the most to this question. Perhaps that’s because we’ve lived through so many explosive events that created big headlines around the world. Historical markers—some good, some bad. Many were violent. All memorable events that shook my generation to the core and redefined our culture [...]
From an Idiom-Starved Author
Finding the Perfect Phrase: A Linguistic Hunger Games By the way, I love idioms.Seemingly nonsensical phrases that nonetheless convey colorful pictures that are easily understood worldwide. They have crept into our lexicon over centuries. Even today there are dozens of generic terms that have been adopted into the English language, suggesting that waves of idioms [...]
Part 2: Is the Bible Trustworthy?
A Bedouin shepherd left his flock behind one day in 1947 to find the one sheep that had strayed. A natural response of Middle Eastern shepherds for centuries. His search led him to the Qumran caves near the Dead Sea, where he stumbled upon the first of the scrolls that have become one of the [...]
The American Dream: Is It Dead?
My son, Matthew, and his wife, Cloudia, live in Monrovia, a suburb of Los Angeles in the San Gabriel Valley. We recently helped them move from a cramped, two-bedroom apartment in a not-so-great building to a sweet home comparable in square footage. With a small backyard, in a middle-class neighborhood. They love it, and [...]
The Shot That Launched The Tragedian’s Ride
With President Lincoln’s birthday approaching on Feb. 12, I can’t help but look ahead to the anniversary of another joyful day that turned terribly wrong. In fact, most of us will miss it. April 9, 1865, a slice of history that has been long forgotten. There were wild celebrations on the streets of Washington, [...]
Stories to Applaud
It’s Black History Month I assume we know the celebrated figures in Black history—Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Rosa Parks, and Martin Luther King, Jr., among them. But I’m learning there are so many other lesser-known Blacks with significant stories that must be told. As someone who loves American history, I must confess I’ve been [...]