Category: character
-
Do something!
Catherine Burks-Brooks was 21 in 1961 when she joined a group of Black and white activists riding a bus through the segregated South. At 11, the Black girl had refused to step out of the way to let white pedestrians pass on the sidewalk. As a teenager, she once threw “Colored” sign off a city…
-
Politics and conscience
Lincoln’s motives were moral as well as political—a reminder that our finest presidents are those committed to bringing a flawed nation closer to the light, a mission that requires an understanding that politics divorced from conscience is fatal to the American experiment in liberty under law. That’s what Jon Meacham concludes in his book And…
-
Independent thinker?
No many of us are independent thinkers, concludes Bret Stephens in The New York Times. “There are very few people who don’t see themselves as independent thinkers. There are even fewer people who are. Most people just want to belong, and the most essential elements of belonging are agreeing and conforming.”
-
Let there be light
“I do not despair this country….The fiat of the Almighty—“let there be light”—has not yet spent its force,” Frederick Douglas once said. I found this quote in Jon Meacham’s book And There Was Light—Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle. Lincoln’s story has meaning for us today. –Joy
-
Reasonable?
Jane Austen writes: “How quick come the reasons for approving what we like!” Jane Austen is a wise woman. I am going to read Persuasion again. –Joy
-
Defining your worth
“I do know one thing about me: I don’t measure myself by others’ expectations or let others define my worth,” says Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
-
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…
-
Trust and fear
In the early 1970s, surveys showed that about half of the people in this country believed most people were trustworthy. By 2020, the number had fallen to less than one-third. And, many people who don’t trust others fear them. However, fear has to be justified by the circumstances, says Geoffrey Corn, chair of criminal law…
-
Daring to drive
It was 2011 when Manal Al-Sharif dared to drive. A woman driving wasn’t illegal in Saudi Arabia. One scholar Al Albani even suggested that in Muhammad’s time women could ride a donkey; so, why not drive a car? However, women driving was considered by many to be an assault on the country’s patriarchal culture. They…
-
Endurance
My friend Sally, a retired nurse practitioner, examined my sprained ankle today. She predicts it may take three months for it to heal. Yikes! I am impatient. However, I have no broken bones. And, my problem is minor. My problem is minor compared to the problems faced by the people in Ukraine, Turkey and Syria,…