An Easter Lily For Dreams Deferred

My son and daughter-in-law brought me an Easter Lily. It is my very favorite flower, and this one is particularly beautiful. They surprise me with one every year, and even when they come into the house, and say, “Close your eyes…”, it never occurs to me until I open my eyes that my gorgeous lily […]

Si, Se Puede

Today is Cesar Chavez Day, a state holiday, if you live in California, Colorado, or Texas. It is Cesar Chavez’ birthday, and he would have been 87 years old. His dedication, as a nonviolent civil rights activist, to the lives and labors of farm workers changed forever their working and living conditions. Wages, housing, toilet facilities in the […]

Mahalo Steve McGarrett

On September 20, 1968, the television show I had been most eagerly waiting for premiered on CBS. Hawaii Five-0. I will never forget the awe-inspiring ocean wave in the opening sequence, brief shots of Hawaiian scenery, pretty people running on the beach, and hula dancing; all the main cast introduced in zoom-in close ups, with […]

Reach High, Reach Far

We all were in the kitchen making Margherita pizza, one of the family favorites, and as trains of thought meandered this way and that, discussions pinging off each mile post along the way, someone mentioned the unlimited career choices available to the youth of today. We agreed there is no doubt the children in this […]

Brave Dave And The Draft Card

Forty-eight years ago yesterday, on October 15, 1965, twenty-four year old pacifist member of the Catholic Worker Movement, David J. Miller, stood on a sound truck near the Armed Forces Induction Center on Whitehall Street in Manhattan, and burned his draft card. He was arrested three days later, convicted of knowingly destroying and knowingly mutilating […]