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Meet my friend, Fr. Vinny McKiernan, associate pastor at the Newman Center at Ohio State University. That’s him in the photo, with my wife, Deb.
I don’t know how he does it, but he seems to be incapable of fatigue. At age 86, Fr. Vinny recently celebrated the 60th anniversary of is ordination. Being a priest for 60 ...
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What a can the United States learn from Rwanda? It would seem, little. The U.S. is a large, industrialized nation, with nearly 325,000,000 people, a gross domestic product of $18 trillion, and an average life expectancy of 78 years. Rwanda is a tiny, developing country of only 11 million people, with a poor infrastructure and insufficient access to electricity, and an average life expectancy of 64.5 years.
More about what we can learn from Rwanda in a minute. First, let’s review ...
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Interested in making a difference in gun policy? Here’s your opportunity.
Join the Ohio Coalition for Common Sense, a state initiative started by former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords and her husband, Mark Kelly, a Navy Captain and former astronaut. The Coalition brings together a broad cross-section of state leaders—business, law enforcement, veterans, faith, medical and civic leaders—who support commonsense solutions to reduce gun violence. The Coalition is part of a national organization, ...
Continue Reading →Florida pediatricians had a good day in court last month when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit struck down on First Amendment grounds a statute that prohibited them from addressing gun safety with parents.
The battle over a pediatrician’s right to freely practice medicine and protect the safety of children was one that never should have occurred, but Florida legislators thought it necessary to protect gun rights when, in fact, gun rights were never threatened.
The legal conflict began ...
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Are there two justice systems in Ohio? Regrettably, yes. Because of tort reform, there’s one for businesses and doctors and another for those occasionally injured at the hands of either.
Before going any further, let me explain something important. The purpose of this post is not to be critical of businesses or doctors. The purpose is to illustrate disparities in the justice system.
The distinction between the systems was highlighted in an Ohio Supreme Court decision in December. The case concerned a ...
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I couldn’t get away from it. The same message came to me three times last weekend. Each message was simple—the importance and value of every human life. But strange, how difficult it is to recognize the value of each human life when we have to deal with people who differ from what we believe the norm should be. I’ll explain more in a minute, but first let’s look at the ...
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With the divisive discord that permeates the news and our conversations, I think about the dearth of liberals in our world. There are plenty of liberals, you might say. No, there are plenty of progressives. There’s a difference.
The term “liberal” has been perverted to refer to political progressives, when it actually means being broad-minded and tolerant of people with different views. You can be conservative and be liberal. Consider Columnist David Brooks.
Few people are able to maintain a strong ...
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Some months back, four-year old Bryson Mees-Hernandez (that’s him, to the left) found a gun in his grandmother’s house in Houston and shot and killed himself. Bryson acted like a typical youngster. He found something new and interesting and played with it. What his grandmother did—allow a firearm to lay unlocked out in the open—was inexcusable, but her behavior is excused in that we don’t mandate gun safety.
Bryson’s story is ...
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The mark of a man is his ability to admit his errors. Former governor of Alabama, George Wallace, after trying his best to prevent integration, publicly apologized for his bigotry. Donald Trump, who has displayed at least the same level of bigotry, doesn’t even know he should.
The photo you see is from the day Wallace stood in front of the doors of ...
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Donald Trump has been criticized for a variety of faults. He’s a bully, a bigot, a misogynist, mean spirited, dishonest, and self-centered. Stealing a line from columnist Paul Krugman, “On the other hand, he’s a terrible person.”
For all his faults, Trump has one redeeming quality. He selected as his personal physician a man who has a sense ...
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