Insight

In Case You Weren't In Church On Sunday

Can anyone say "overkill"? Responding with the words "bless you" when hearing a sneeze is not what our forefathers had in mind when they agreed upon separation of church and state. This Tennessee classroom has obviously gone overboard in giving a child in-school detention for instinctively using those words when a classmate sneezed. Now; if she seriously believed the archaic German/Christian superstition that one's soul disappears into the mists via the sneeze whenever this happens, and had reiterated that failing to say "bless you" could lead to eternal damnation, there may have been a slight violation; but this did not happen. Perhaps along with "overkill", she should say "gesundheit" next time.

Insight

Writing That Transcends Time And Space

I've known rivers:
I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins.
My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

I bathed in the Euphrates when the dawns were young.
I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.
I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.
I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln
went down to New Orleans, and I've seen it's muddy
bosom turn all golden in the sunset.

I've known rivers:
Ancient, dusky rivers.
My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

Langston Hughes, February 1, 1902- May 22, 1967

Goodbye, Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela was not merely a politician, he was a statesman. He did not claim to be unafraid at all times, yet when he was afraid, he went ahead and did the right thing, anyway. When there was a price to be paid for doing what he knew needed to be done, he did not change his mind. He was unwilling to sell out those who looked up to him, and unwilling to sell his soul. Goodbye, Nelson Mandela. You will always be remembered for promoting peace, and you will be missed by many.

Maybe enough of us to make a difference in this world can learn from Nelson Mandela.