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War & Peace

Watching the Cubs from Bahgdad

Here is what Memorial Day means to me today: it means remembering the connections we have to those who are elsewhere, remembering that the small things we enjoy here at home exist in a larger system of past and present service, sacrifice and justice.

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August, 1945

Sixty-three years ago this week, the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The enormity of the event, the inhuman scale of both this power and its consequences, is nearly impossible to communicate. How can one understand the power of a thousand suns unleashed upon whole cities? It became one of the defining stories for generations […]

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Teach Your Children Well

How, in narrative terms, would you explain the Iraq war? On the assumption that you didn?t want to say either that, ?Iraq is only one front in World War IV, the global struggle against Islamofascism? or ?we went to war so the President could get back at the guy who tried to kill his dad, make money for his buddies in the oil business, and protect Israel.?

Suggestions?

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The Heart of Father’s Day

Fathers are parents as well; we deal with those who are tender, and weak, and unprepared. Our strength is employed to their good and enjoyed in their company. That is the true heart of a father. It is a context of relationship changes everything.

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A Thanksgiving Tale from Alice’s Restaurant

There were people singing this song together who, politically, had nothing in common and probably wouldn’t have talked to each other…. It’s just the story of a little guy against a big world. It’s not so much an anti-war song as a song against stupidity…

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