In 1940 a black woman in Nashville, Tennessee gave birth prematurely to a baby girl, whom she and her husband named Wilma. The little girl seemed destined to a very hard and disappointing life, for everything was stacked against her. She was the...
I had been teaching at a local private school in Grosse Pointe, Michigan when one of the senior girls approached me. “Mr. Wittmer, can I ask you a question? How much does a gallon of milk cost?” I was a little surprised and I knew the young lady...
I love homemade apple pie, especially when the apples inside of it are all cooked up real soft, like in chunky applesauce. That, by far, is my most favorite food on earth. If you put a dinner plate in front of me and next to that a big slice of...
In India, the country has a female president and men revere female goddesses. But India is no haven for women. Exactly the opposite! According to current estimates, Indian men outnumber women by nearly 40 million. The startling gap is the result of...
Something odd has been going on in public discourse. More and more commentators are ignoring important and in some cases rather obvious distinctions. As a result, they pursue lines of thought that defy common sense and cause confusion, injury to...
The readings for the First Sunday of Lent go back nearly one thousand, seven hundred years. In the Fourth Century, the first Sunday of Lent was also the First Sunday of the Liturgical Year, so it is no surprise that they used these particular...
An elderly couple, Lucille and Bernie, were my next-door neighbors for over twenty-five years. They were practicing Catholics who attended Mass each week until Lucille’s ailments severely limited her ability to walk and to take care of herself...
I started out years ago giving a talk to a group of senior citizens. The point of the talk was to remind them to review their financial situation and to beware of the many “good deals” that target them as a group. Maybe it is time to run through...
