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A place of kindness, respect and love

I saw a sculpture of Ruby Bridges, the six-year-old who was the first Black to integrate an elementary school in the South, at the Dallas Arboretum. The bronze sculpture is part of the Great Contributors Collection now being displayed at the arboretum, and the collection includes eight new works by Gary Lee Price. On his […]

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How are the women treated?

The best of you are those who are best to the women,” the Prophet Muhammad said. I found this quote in Manal Al-Sharif’s book Daring to Drive. –Joy

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The small gesture

Nina Totenberg explains her friendship with Ruth Bader Ginsburg in her book Dinners with Ruth. Friendship is about supporting and helping, Tontenberg says. “It is not always about the grand gesture, but rather the small one. It is about extending the invitation, making space at the table, picking up the phone and also remembering….It can […]

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Be kind to a teenage girl

The statistics are alarming. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, almost three in five teenage girls reported feeling so persistently sad or hopeless almost every day for at least two weeks in a row during the previous year that they stopped regular activities. Say something kind to a teenage girl today. Ask […]

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Kind, but strong

Jacinda Adern, New Zealand’s youngest ever prime minister, is resigining. After 5-1/2 years as the country’s leader, she concluded, ” “I hope I leave New Zealanders with a belief that you can be kind, but strong, emphatic, but decisive, optimistic, but focused.”

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Make a connection

When Brittney Griner was heading back to the United States after being a prisoner in Russia for 10 months, she boarded a U.S. government plane with Roger Carstens, the special presidential envoy for hostage affairs. “I want to talk,” Griner told Carstens, according to an article in the December 12, 2022, issue of the Dallas […]

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Be kind and considerate

Why do people act the way they do? Sometimes the way people act seems complex and confusing. “You have no idea what has happened to that person you just passed on the sidewalk….Extraordinary things happen to people,” says Elizabeth Strout, one of my favorite authors. I heard Elizabeth Strout speak at Arts & Letters Live […]

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So-called Christians

This is the letter to the editor that I submitted to The Dallas Morning News. It was printed on Wednesday, September 9, 2022, with only a few minor changes: The headline on an article on the front page of the September 2, 2022, issue of your newspaper declared: “Christians sue over HIV drugs.” I am […]

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Weeds are flowers too?!

I have some friends who have political opinions I don’t agree with, friends who can be a bit disagreeable, sometimes a bit cranky or unkind. They aren’t perfect. And, they may not be wonderful. However, once I got to know them and understand their circumstances, I realized that they are interesting, complicated people. They are […]

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Pain and hate

Why do people cling to their hateful ideas? James Baldwin once explained, “I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.”

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