Obligation and Opportunity
The other evening, just past six o’clock, I sat as usual in our living room. I was watching a CBC interview with one of our most experienced and respected military veterans, Romeo Dallaire. He’s a retired lieutenant general and has the emotional scars that accompany his honored but painful years serving as Commander of a UN peacekeeping unit in Rwanda in 1993 (Click on the blog's bold title to read the whole.)
Two Issues As I See Them
There were days years ago when, as a daily Globe and Mail columnist, so many issues called for attention I now and then dealt briefly with two, sometimes three, in a single column. A couple of readers have recalled those days and so, from time to time, I’ll do so again. Today, an obvious issue is the forthcoming election. (click on the blog's bold title to read the whole.)
What brought society to this?
An ancient proverb from the oriental world comes back to me as I think of Ashley-Madison, the Canadian based agency that, so it claims, discreetly provides sexual partners for married people. (Click on the blog's main title to read the whole.)
An Issue to be Careful About
It’s well over fifty years since as a student at Mount Allison, I often took to Friday evening dances, a nice and pretty young woman from Trinidad, her name being Anna. She was studying education. Upon graduation, Anna went home, taught school and in due course became a senior person in Trinidad’s educational department. (Click on the blog's bold title to read the whole.)
It’s Not a Minor Matter…..
These are challenging times for those who take institutional religion seriously or even mildly seriously. The problems are many. They include certain beliefs and practices that are, in today’s culture, seen as eccentric or worse. In fact some are. This came back to me when -- after hearing and reading of many such incidents in recent months -- I read a news item about the experience of a former Halifax woman, Christine Flynn. (She first told what happened to a CBC radio reporter.) She was buckled in aboard the Canadian airline Porter in Newark, New Jersey, ready for takeoff. (Click on the blog's bold title to read the whole.)