Everyone has issues. There have always been and will always be issues. It’s just that modern society in particular manipulates us to perpetually dwell on them and especially on the “unpleasant things of life.” It’s the simplest and surest way to “divide and conquer”– keep hurt and hate alive.

“O, God, refresh and gladden my spirit, purify my heart, illumine my powers; I lay all my affairs in Thy hands,” begins a popular Baha’i prayer. “I will no longer be sorrowful and grieved, I will be a happy and joyful being…I will no longer by full of anxiety nor will I let troubles harass me. I will not dwell on the unpleasant things of life…” Continue reading Issues, Attitudes and Subsequent Actions →

In January 2020, I glimpsed at a possible American future, and it was ominous.

The winter months of 2020-2021 saw the so-called Second Amendment sanctuary movement sweep across the country. Then, in January, this movement came to Montgomery County, Virginia, and I witnessed it up-close and uncomfortably. They had come to try and persuade the County Board of Supervisors to vote and declare the County a Second Amendment sanctuary. Continue reading Misguided Patriots with Guns →

On September 14, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF) celebrated the great life and legacy of trailblazing lawyer and judge Constance Baker Motley on what would have been her 100th birthday. She argued some of our nation’s most important court cases to end racial segregation in public schools and accommodations along with a small band of brilliant and visionary lawyers led by Charles Houston including Thurgood Marshall, Jack Greenberg, and James Nabrit, Jr. Their work resulted in the landmark 1954 Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education. Continue reading Happy 100th Birthday to the Great Constance Baker Motley! →

Life is a constant struggle, not only against the forces around us but greater still, against the forces within us. The biggest deterrent to spiritual and subsequent societal progress derives from the smallest word, the human “ego.” Through such self-destructive instrument all of the attributes and actions which tend to separate us from other human beings become obscure and indistinguishable. Too often severe tests are necessary to burn away the hard covering of egotism from the mirror of the heart that the revitalizing Sun of Truth and reality may shine through. Continue reading Learning to properly use God’s greatest gift to man →

George Wein, the ultimate music promoter, died Monday. He lived a long and productive life—95 years–leaving the music world much better off because he lived.

Modern jazz was born in the early 1940s in a movement led by Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie.

But it took George Wein to bring jazz to the multitudes. An innovative and untiring organizer, Wein probably presented more musicians to more people than anyone else in history. Continue reading George Wein – Jazz Impresario →