March 2010
March 18th, 2010
Written by Mary Castillo in Common Ties That Bind with 0 Comments
It is axiomatic that whatever nags or plagues the majority community, often weakens and is far worse in the African-American community.
Unfortunately, like the disparate morbidity and mortality statistics of many other diseases and health conditions among white and black Americans, HIV/AIDS follows this pattern.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports that African-Americans represent...
March 17th, 2010
Written by Janice S. Ellis... in Education, the Great Equalizer with 0 Comments
Lamenting the dysfunctional state of many of our nation’s public schools has been a perennial refrain for decades. However, to fix what is wrong will require courageous decisions implemented by communities across the country, despite strong resistance.
Fortunately, some public schools are producing students who demonstrate high academic achievement, and can compete not only with peers here in...
March 17th, 2010
Written by Christine Orcha... in Feature Stories with 0 Comments
Growing up in an affluent suburb of New York City, I knew I was a mutt – a mix of cultures encompassing countries in Europe and the Near East. However, some of my strongest memories are of my relatives’ pride in their Irish heritage: Their strong work ethic, large families and deep faith. My mother would tell stories about how she and her seven brothers and sisters lived in a cold-water flat...
March 16th, 2010
Written by Jane Mersky Leder in Stereotypes & Labels with 0 Comments
I stood in the school washroom waiting for my new friend, Betsy, to finish primping. We would become fast friends, each of us anxious to put down roots in a new junior high school in a new city.
“Well,” I said, “can you sleep over this weekend?” I had asked her plenty of times before, and she always had other plans.
“I don’t think so because—”
I interrupted her before she could finish. “I don’t...
March 15th, 2010
Written by Randy Mason in Travels' Tapestry with 0 Comments
Regional cuisine is a fascinating phenomenon. If you start seeing signs that advertise runzas, then you must be in southeastern Nebraska. These baked, blue-collar sandwiches, sometimes called bierocks, are pastry pockets filled with ground meat, cabbage and onions. Whatever the name, they came from Germany and Eastern Europe–parts of the Austro-Hungarian region where many of Nebraska’s early...