Today, in 2022, we honor Martin Luther King Jr. Today in 1968 he is still alive and unaware of the future to come. Also today in 1968 the city that will be the scene of shocking silence on the night of his death is equally unaware of the future to come. I've written a short book about six leaders who lived their lives on the night that King lost his. These six people share three things--they are … [Read more...]
Learning From The 1918 Influenza Pandemic: Day 77
May 27, 2020 by
San Francisco family, before and after the siren A siren has a sound all its own. It fills, pierces, and overwhelms all at once. The sound enters your ears and holds in place beside your brain. Open your mouth and it will enter there, too. Your nose is next. Hear it? A siren cannot be escaped until the sound starts its steady winding-down. Less. Fading. Stopped. Silent. Now … [Read more...]
Learning From The 1918 Influenza Pandemic: Day 38
April 19, 2020 by
On Day 38, October 15, 1918, the heat turns up. Inside the pot, steam rises, water boils, and something turns over and over. At the town of Verdun on the banks of the Meuse River, a group of boys-boiled-men follows Captain Harry Truman back into combat. They've been away from the fighting Germans for a bit. Their enemy for some days was the sickness, influenza, that is killing as many as the … [Read more...]
Filling Shoes
November 7, 2019 by
A storm of sorts ripped through my town a couple of weeks ago. Not your typical storm, it was calm and quiet. It was off the radar, too, with no TV meteorologists waving their arms in front of moving colors. But I still call it a storm and I think you should know it struck. You see, this storm was death and in a 24-hour span death stole some of the future of my town. I'd wager that never in my … [Read more...]
