Archive by Author

Good-bye summer

It’s almost autumn. I hope you have had a summer like the one Ray Bradbury describes in his book Dandelion Wine. A summer “where flowers were suns and fiery spots of sky strewn through the woodland. Birds flickered like skipping stones across the vast inverted pond of heaven.” I hope you’ve had a summer with […]

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Tolerance

“The highest result of education is tolerance,” Helen Keller once said.

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What we do today

One in three women across the country cannot get abortion care in their state, according to Planned Parenthood. “The rights we have over the next 20 years will be determined by what we do today,” says Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood. “This is the fight we must have.”

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Do good

Abraham Lincoln tried to do good. It’s a good idea! “When I do good, I feel good,” Lincoln once said. “When I do bad, I feel bad. That’s my religion.” I wish everyone would follow Lincoln’s example. I wish everyone felt bad when he/she did bad?! –Joy

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Banning books

Why are books banned? “To foment anxiety and anger with the goal of suppressing free expression in public education,” concludes PEN America, a nonprofit that works to defend and celebrate free expression. “The freedom to read, learn and think continues to be undermined for students.” I read about “restricted reading” in the fall 2023 issue […]

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No sightseeing for women

Women can no longer visit one of Afghanistan’s most popular national parks. The Vice and Virtue Ministry alleges that women have not been wearing their hijabs the proper way when they are in the park. “Going sightseeing is not a must for women,” explained Mohammad Khalid Hanafi, the minister of Vice and Virtue, in an […]

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A true friend

Who is a true friend? A very good friend—a true friend—sent me a card with this wonderful quote. “A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg even though she/he knows that you are slightly cracked,” Bernard Meltzer once said. –Joy

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Hard work

The people of Crete used a dye to create a royal purple cloth until the Roman emperors decreed that only they could wear that color. They made the purple dye from sea snails, writes Elizabeth Wayland Barber in her book Women’s Work—The First 20,000 Years. Making the dye was hard work, Barber stresses. “Each little […]

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Women should be quiet

Women, of course, often have not enjoyed anything close to equality, reports Elizabeth Wayland Barber in her book Women’s Work—The First 20,000 Years. Socrates, Barber writes, once asked an Athenian gentleman named Isomachos if he had trained his 14-year-old bride. Yes, the gentleman replied, because the girl was of “good breeding,” and she had spent […]

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Egyptian women

Egyptian women were weavers and grinders of grain. However, a few women were listed as overseers and “sealers” of storehouses, writes Elizabeth Wayland Barber in her book Women’s Work—The First 20,000 Years. One woman was a gardener. Women also worked as housekeepers, nurses, hairdressers, cosmeticians and just plain servants. A few women were “priestesses of […]

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