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Last week when one New Jersey school board voted unanimously to remove the names of all holidays from the calendar, the reasoning one board member shared was that “if we don’t have anything on the calendar, we don’t have to have anyone [with] hurt feelings…” Hence, in what’
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Growing up — and maybe I wouldn’t have called him this at the time — one of my best friends was a guy named Norm… … a retired Army veteran, a loyal employee as Manager of Blue and White Station No. 6, Norm had to be at work by 4 a.m.
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Better yet: what do you do with what’s hard? On Thursday the Randolph Board of Education in Morris County, New Jersey, a little more than an hour northwest of Manhattan, voted unanimously to remove all holidays from their academic calendar. A month ago the board made the decision to
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Watched a poignant video this week… (and no, I refer not to professional golfer John Rahm being told he had tested positive for COVID-19 even though asymptomatic but after leading the PGA’s Memorial tournament by 6 strokes at the end of the third day — which means he was
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It’s early June which means the NBA playoffs are in full swing. Please note: this post has zero to do with professional basketball. Allow us, however, to first provide some necessary context… In game two of the opening series between Philadelphia and Washington, a Philly fan dumped popcorn on
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Put aside the partisanship. Put aside any “because I like/dislike the current President” reasoning. Dismiss party loyalty. We need serious, thoughtful discussion. How much is too much money for the federal government to spend? No administration/Congress has reined in federal spending since Pres. Bill Clinton and House Speaker
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Is the pandemic over? Are we finally witnessing COVID’s imminent demise — at least in the US? As public and private safety guidelines begin to ease, the answer seems to depend upon who you ask (…noting some descriptions are a little more colorful than others... such as...)... “… The epidemic in
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A simple block of wood used to sit on the Oval Office desk, when Pres. John F. Kennedy was in office. Attached were the bronzed words from the Breton Fisherman’s Prayer, a poem by Winfred Ernest Garrison: “Oh God, thy sea is so great and my boat is so
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Perhaps, like you, my current rhythms of life and daily routine have recently been interrupted by bits and pieces of breaking news about the latest violence in Israel. I’ve been tempted to pay brief attention to headlines and press reports to have at least some sense of what’s
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Cultural overlaps are always fascinating to me. What are those things across diverse people groups that most people practice? What are the common values varied communities esteem? Where are those pockets and places in which people groups we typically distinguish most by their differences, actually — maybe unknowingly, intentionally or even
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When the Intramuralist began, I remember feeling weary at the way people spoke not only to each other but also about each other. Day one we asserted that “most people don’t know how to respect those with whom they disagree.” That was twelve and a half years ago. With
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I was cold. I was wet. Very wet. At one point I could no longer feel my fingers or toes. Even with protective gear, my right arm was drenched. The sideways rain found ways to penetrate seemingly all inclement weather attire. We had made the woefully strategic decision to dress