Straight From The Hart

  I’m sure most of us who read the Lebanon newspaper on a daily basis are appalled at the number of drug stops, domestic abuse, and break-ins that take place in Lebanon every day. I often wonder how our law enforcement men and women keep a straight face at the stupid statements made by the people they encounter during these incidents. We sometimes have to laugh, wondering how dumb these people think our officers are. But we become very serious when we think of so many drug and alcohol impaired drivers being out on the roads and highways at the same time we are transporting our loved ones back and forth over those same roads. And we must never forget that every one of those traffic stops, domestic disturbance calls and other 911 calls puts those officers at tremendous risk of serious injury or the loss of their own lives, even when the situation appears to be routine and mundane. Such was the case on December 9, 1991 when Deputy Sheriff Leslie Roark went to the home of James R. Joh...

  In the early morning hours of June 17, the USS Fitzgerald collided with a heavily laden Philippine cargo vessel about 56 miles off the coast of Japan. Most of the crew were asleep in the berths below. The Fitzgerald took a direct hit below the water line. The cargo ship’s bow punctured the steel armor of the destroyer, opening a hole in the quarters where more than 100 sailors were sleeping. Fire Controlman 1st Class Gary Leo Rehm, Jr. immediately went into action. Although he was safe where he was, he began going down to the sleeping berths and rescuing his shipmates, helping them to get to safety. There wasn’t a lot of time as the ship began taking on water, and the crew was finally faced with making the difficult decision to close the hatch. Rehm was sealed in with six other sailors. They all perished in that watery grave. Rehm's family was told by the Navy that his efforts saved at least 20 sailors, according to WBNS-10TV in Columbus, Ohio. “He entered a flooded berth...

Remember back in the late eighties when everybody was looking for Waldo?  The little guy with the red and white striped shirt and the big black rimmed glasses was always hiding somewhere, and children, teens and even adults would buy puzzles and pictures and look on the back of cereal boxes among what appeared to be hundreds of people to find the elusive Waldo. Well, now we have the 2014 - 2015 version but it’s not Waldo we are looking for, it is President Obama. People all over the world were looking for him last Sunday in the crowd of millions which gathered in Paris for a unity rally.  We all thought he would be in the first row of marchers, along with  French President François Hollande, British Prime Minister David Cameron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel ,Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Even Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt wa...

  Ecclesiastes 6 Remember him—before the silver cord is severed, and the golden bowl is broken; before the pitcher is shattered at the spring, and the wheel broken at the well, and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. Just as the baby in the womb is connected to the mother by the umbilical cord, so we are tethered to this world by the silver cord Solomon writes about above. Just as the baby struggles in the womb to break free of its constraints because there is no more room to grow or move, so we struggle through our death pangs to move out of this world to a much bigger and brighter place, a place where true happiness awaits us, a place where we will know as we are known. Eye has not seen nor ear heard all the wonders God has prepared for us. “For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” I Cor 13 Heaven will be a place of...

 For The Love Of Words I love words. All words. But some are especially beautiful to me for various reasons. You will notice I use them more often than others. Ephemera is one. Nuances is another. My very favorite is nostalgia, and I love the story about how it came to be. Nostalgia is a one of my favorite words, rich with meaning. I love the way the syllables roll off the tongue when I speak it, and the way it looks when I type it, and its origins from the Greek language - “nostos” meaning homecoming and “algos” meaning pain or ache. It was sometime in the 17th century that a medical student noticed that Swiss mercenaries displayed strange symptoms when they were away from home in battle. In those days it was considered a medical condition and they called it nostalgia. Nostalgia is a longing for the past, so much so that you almost ache - the pleasurable memories of the good times long ago combined with the pain of knowing it will never be like that again. It is a wistful desire ...

 LEARNERS People who love to learn don’t depend only on classrooms or professors. They seek answers for every question, their minds are always clouded with ‘how’ and ‘why’. They have innate desire to please their inner curiosity and dig deeper until their thirst for answer quenches. What would you call such a person? What would be a suitable expression or word for a person who has passion for searching, researching, learning new things and acquiring immense knowledge. Someone who questions everything, consistently look for answers and in turn learn with deep understanding.  Autodidact According to Oxford Dictionary it means “A self taught person.” Formed out of English word Auto (self) and Greek word didact (teach). In other terms, someone who has acquired knowledge or learned a subject without seeking help from a teacher or formal education institution.  Philomath According to Merriam-Webster it means “A lover of learning: scholar” especially a student of mathematics. ...

  I have been told that I have an epistemophilic personaltiy.  In case you don’t have a dictionary close by, that means I love to learn, that I have an excessive thirst and reverence for knowledge, that I always have an impulse to inquire.  In other words, I am curious, but I like being called an epistemophile better! I feed this curiosity by reading news stories from reliable publications on the internet and of course watching television news.  I can see some of you rolling your eyes, so I will tell you I really do watch news channels other than Fox.  I like to keep my disgust fresh. However, I’m beginning to notice that the more I learn from these sources, the more questions I have. For example, why is Peter Strzok still on the government payroll?   Sure, he has been demoted to the Human Resources department of the FBI, but wait a minute.  That means he recruits, screens, interviews, and places workers in addition to  handling  tasks relate...