I can’t believe Denzel Washington hasn’t played one particular early civil rights hero in a movie yet. I also can’t believe how few people know about this unknown hero’s incredible accomplishments — achievements that paved the way for Martin Luther King Jr. and others to dismantle Jim Crow, the South’s legalized system of racial injustice. […]

Right after graduating from high school, my father enlisted in the Army. He had no idea they would be sending him to the other end of the world, a place where there were six months of darkness and six months of midnight sun. Teddy Flowers — an 18-year-old Philly boy with an obsession for scrapple […]

He was the loveliest of men, everyone’s notion of the ideal grandfather, father or beloved uncle, and people always said of his appearance that this kindly generous and elegant man “could have been Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.’s twin brother.” His name was Mr. Bracher, and no one ever called him anything else. Gentle and soft-spoken, he’d […]

The recent passing of former President Jimmy Carter, combined with the upcoming inauguration of President Donald Trump, compels me to contrast their life journeys as Christians. The issue is relevant. Carter was a devout Christian evangelical when he was elected in 1976 and remained so until his death. Trump claimed the Bible was his second […]

In less than a week, Joe Biden will no longer be president. After five decades in elective office, Biden will go home, unappreciated and undervalued. It’s happened before. Competence, balance and good judgment are qualities rarely rewarded by the American political system, and even less so since the launch of Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign. One-term […]

Dog stories, and in particular, sad dog stories, are nothing new, but when a friend called to tell me of this one, I realized this story had a unique tenor. This is a tale of how both a new dog and new owner had to grieve together, to get through a wrenching separation. They still […]