Straight From The Hart

  I first met Annie back in February 2004 after Milan told me to let him know what I wanted for for Valentine’s Day and he promised would get it for me no matter what it was. He has often joked that he should have have put some conditions on that. But he didn’t, and so I headed straight to the Humane Society animal shelter. It had been two long years since we had put our beloved Maine Coon cat to sleep, a big pile of what appeared to be nothing but fur, but had a huge heart hidden inside. We had named him Ollie in honor of Col. Oliver North who was our news hero at the time. I entered the cat compound at the Humane Society. There were only two cats inside, a brown tabby who ran to the other side of the pen away from me, and a little black and white girl who came running over to me and when I picked her up, she snuggled her head under my chin and began to purr. It was love at first sight. She was new there and they had not given her a name so I called her Annie. She was alway...

  George Mason (1725-1792) had several claims to fame during his lifetime and yet today very few Americans know anything about him, even though he was one of the men who shaped the concept and destiny of America to determine a workable frame of government that is now a model for citizen-guided rule throughout the world. For one thing, he was one of three Constitutional delegates who refused to sign the new Constitution after working on it all summer. Mason held what was then considered a radical opinion - that a republic had to begin with the formal legally binding commitment that individuals had inalienable rights that were superior to any government. He felt the Constitution created a federal government which might be too powerful because it did not contain a bill of rights. His second objection was that it did not end the slave trade. Mason is considered by some as one of the most outspoken founders in denouncing slavery as evil, but he also owned the second largest number o...

  The etymology of the word “prejudice” teaches us a great lesson. It does not have to do with race or color or gender, or profession or education, or any other physical or mental attribute. It simply means to pre-judge without knowing, and all our prejudices come about because we have pre-judged someone. We don’t like them because we don’t know anything about them. I have learned several things about relationships over my eight decades of life - it is entirely possible to have a deep friendship with someone even when you don’t agree with them on a lot of things. Back in the day when two men living together were just room mates and nothing else, one of my favorite TV shows was “The Odd Couple”. Tony Randall and Jack Klugman epitomized the idea that two people could get along in the same house even when they were as different as night and day. Many marriages, including my own, are living proof that opposites attract. My husband is softspoken, quiet, reserved and very priva...