July 4, 2019

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They keep it under glass that seals out any air getting to it. And when it's not on display, it's kept underground in a vault - actually a bomb proof vault. It's the most important document in the history of the United States. Yep, the Declaration of Independence.

The men who signed it on that hot July 4th in Philadelphia knew it was very important, but I wonder if they could have possibly conceived what a sacred piece of paper it would become to the nation that it birthed. Here were subjects of the English king, daring to declare their independence from their king. It changed their lives forever. It changed the world forever. And once a year, every Fourth of July, America stops to remember that Independence Day.

June 27, 2019

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My friend Ted was a high school football player - actually he was the starting center. But the game he remembers most is the one he didn't play in. All season, the second string center, Billy, hadn't played much. Well, actually he hadn't played very well. Until the day that Billy came to the coach and said, "Coach, I know you haven't felt I was good enough to start all season, but I want to ask you to start me this one game. Please. It means a lot, and I'm just asking for a chance." The coach agreed and Billy amazed not only his coach, but his teammates and his hometown fans. He played incredible game. No one had ever seen anything close to this kind of performance or ability from him. Needless to say, immediately after the game, the coach said, "Billy, what in the world happened? I didn't know you had it in you!" Billy's explanation was something the coach and my friend would never forget. He said, "My dad died last night, Coach. And he was blind, but not now. Tonight was the first time my father could see me play!"

June 25, 2019

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Our daughter-in-law got our then-baby granddaughter off to a great start - every day. In fact, if you're in any way related to one of Snow White's seven dwarfs (Grumpy, in particular) or even negative old Eeyore in Winnie the Pooh, this baby girl could have helped you. Each morning her mother would sit our little darling in her lap and say, "Honey, 'This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.'" After which she raised the baby's hands above her head and shook them as Mama said, "Ya-a-a-ay!" It was so cute. But what about that day when this little girl was throwing up about every fifteen minutes? That actually happened once when they were visiting us. It was so sad to watch it. I mean she had this troubled look on this little face, followed by a fountain of gross stuff erupting from her little mouth. Mom said, "Honey, even this day is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it." And before Mom could grab baby's hands, this time she raised one hand all by herself as Mommy said, "Ya-a-a-ay!"

June 19, 2019

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Shades of the '60s: angry, discontented young people, occupying public places, trying to call attention to their cause. We've seen that before and we're seeing it a lot these days.

The '60s demonstrations were about a war, and they turned more violent. Then there were the 2011 crowds. They were occupying high-profile public areas like Wall Street, for example, around the world, with a different cause - they were claiming their protest was about jobs, and corporate greed, concentrated wealth, economic injustice.

May 27, 2019

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When World War II began, almost every American's life changed, including my dad's. He couldn't fight because of a medical problem, and he was working at that time in a plant that had been making some kind of industrial product. And suddenly almost overnight it was converted into a defense plant. They stopped making whatever little things they had been making, and they started to make airplane parts. Well, it was obvious what was happening. It was a war, and that plant had to be used to help win the war. During that time, not that I remember it personally (let me make that clear), people made sacrifices of gasoline, and food, and rubber tires, and money. Why? Well, because you know that everything is needed to fight the war. It was then and it still is.

April 18, 2019

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I was more of a Superman and Batman fan. I never really got into Spider-Man. But when the blockbuster Spider-Man movie came out, the first one, a lot of people did get into Spider-Man. And you know what? There have been a couple more movies since then, they've got more than a couple now. I'm still not tremendously interested in this web-spinning, skyscraper-climbing, crime-fighting guy in the spider suit, but I am interested in something he said in the first movie about him. Peter Parker, yeah you probably know this as the bookish teenager who gets bitten by a radioactive spider one day. (You never know when that's going to happen to you.) And he begins to discover that he has suddenly developed some amazing spiderish capabilities. (All right, look, I'm reporting the story, I didn't write it. Okay?) Now, it dawns on him that he can't just use these abilities for himself. He has to use them to make a difference. Here's the great line. Here's what he says. I like it: "For me, living an ordinary life is no longer an option." Oh, that's good!

April 11, 2019

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I have to admit that my wife and I were a little naïve sometimes in the months right after we were married. It was obvious the day this fast-talking vacuum cleaner salesman showed up at our apartment door. He showed us this high-powered machine that did everything but the laundry. He lured us with impressive demonstrations, he offered us an easy payment plan, and a deal (of course) that we had to act on immediately. Well, Mr. Newlywed here eagerly signed on the line. "All right! Hey, I am the proud owner of a high-tech vacuum cleaner! About five times more vacuum cleaner than our apartment could possibly need!" By the next day, I wanted out, but guess what? I couldn't back out then. In my enthusiasm, I had simply left out the most important ingredient in the decision.

April 4, 2019

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I don't have much time for TV, and when I do, I don't usually watch gymnastics. But some time ago they were showing a sports feature about gymnastics on a plane flight. As usual, I had too much to do to get the headset that carries the audio, but I did occasionally glance up at the video part. It was a gymnastics meet between the U.S. and Russia. You can probably guess who I was rooting for. Now, I couldn't hear any commentary, but I saw some impressive performances by these young athletes. I also saw an occasional replay. But every time they did a replay, it seems like all they showed was the gymnast's mistakes; anything she was marked down for, and they kept replaying it. They had executed some great moves, but no, we don't go over those - just their mistakes.

April 3, 2019

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It was the strangest picnic in American history I think. It was July 1861, on a hill in Northern Virginia, overlooking a stream called Bull Run. The Southern states had seceded from the Union, they'd attacked a Union fort in April, and now what the North called "the rebel army" was headed for Washington, D.C. Most people in the capitol thought the Union Army was going to mop up these Southern forces in a matter of weeks, and they wanted to see it happen as the Northern troops moved to engage the Confederates at Bull Run. They came from church in their Sunday best, the ladies and gentlemen of Washington arriving at the hill overlooking Bull Run in their carriages. They laid out their tablecloths, commenced their picnic, and started passing the fried chicken. Down below, the men in blue and the men in gray mingled their blood in the waters of Bull Run.

March 28, 2019

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A runaway train: that's how they billed the upcoming story on the evening news, and I stayed tuned. They weren't exaggerating. Somehow a freight train (this actually happened in Ohio a few years ago) started rolling down the tracks with no one on board. It kept rolling for many miles across the Ohio countryside, sometimes at speeds of nearly 60 MPH. It was pretty amazing to see the footage of a railroad intersection, lights blinking, gates down, cars stopped, and here is a train just rolling through without anyone at the controls. Well, using a combination of ingenuity and heroism, they finally managed to get a couple of men aboard who were able to stop it. And that's a very good thing!