Nine-Eleven

by Charlotte Parsons You passed me on the streetI rode the subway with youYou lived down the hall from meI admired your dog in the park one morningWe waited in line for a concertI ate with you in the cafesYou stood next to me at the barWe huddled under an awning during a downpourWe dashed across

Mike the Headless Chicken

Today in 1945 Lloyd Olsen preparing for dinner created Mike the Headless chicken. Farmer Olsen was planning to eat supper with his mother-in-law and was sent out to the yard by his wife to bring back a chicken. Olsen chose a five-and-a-half-month-old Wyandotte chicken named Mike. The axe removed the bulk of the head, but missed the jugular vein,

How I learned to stop worrying about Fox News hokum

Hi Orf, you look worried. I am worried about our status as a world power and protector of freedom. Why? Senator Lindsay Graham, of South Carolina, said “The biggest winner of the Biden defense budget is China.” Wonder what he meant by that. Everyone knows China has the biggest navy in the world, and they

Owning a gun means you are willing to kill

When I returned home in April, the first thing I read was that a teenager, Ralph Yarl, had been shot because he knocked on the wrong door. Next day I read about Kaylin Gillis, shot after she and her friends made a wrong turn in a driveway. A day later I awoke to read of

Nothing Gold Can Stay

BY ROBERT FROST Nature’s first green is gold,Her hardest hue to hold.Her early leaf’s a flower;But only so an hour.Then leaf subsides to leaf.So Eden sank to grief,So dawn goes down to day.Nothing gold can stay. Robert Frost was born today in 1874.

The War on Woke

Some of us oldsters think woke is the past tense of the verb wake. Language and life change. Today woke is an adjective derived from African American Vernacular English. It means awareness of racial prejudice and discrimination, as well as identity politics and social justice. Sometimes this is taught in programs in Diversity, Equity, and

Calon Lan

BY DANIEL JAMES I don’t ask for a luxurious life,world’s gold or its fine pearls,I ask for a happy heart,an honest heart, a pure heart. A pure heart full of goodnessIs fairer than the pretty lily,None but a pure heart can sing,Sing in the day and sing in the night. If I wished for worldly

Texas is an Anagram for Taxes

Dan Freeman, Occasional Columnist Published in the Galveston Daily News 3/3/23 Texas is expected raise over $340 billion this year. We have neither an income tax nor a state property tax, so how do we raise money? About $100 billion comes from federal programs, most of which supported Medicaid in Texas. The National Highway System

I light a candle of my concern about our government.

I do not feel guilty for the sins or errors of my forebears. Those were choices they made. I will not judge. However, I am deeply concerned that our present government is committing similar sins in banning DEI, which stands for diversity, equity and inclusion. DEI is to be prohibited among criteria for hiring and

February 11, 1990

BY WANDA COLEMAN—for Dennis Brutus This year the leaves turn red green blackfreedom colors each leafeach stitch of grass. I am amazedat my sweet harvest. The prison door has openedand a nation’s heart is released. I am fullhaving spent my greediness in a ritual of joy. from Hand Dance. Copyright © 1992 by Wanda Coleman.