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Issue 004 <previous< Issue 005 March 1996
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Letters to the Editor
A Blessing
May God bless you with discomfort Eulogy for Barbara Jordan
When Max Sherman called me to tell me that Barbara was dying and wanted me to speak at this service, I had been reading a story in that morning’s New York Times about the discovery of forty billion new galaxies deep in the inner sanctum of the universe. Forty billion new galaxies to go with the ten billion we already knew about. As I put the phone down, I thought: it will take an infinite cosmic vista to accommodate a soul this great. The universe has been getting ready for her. Now, at last, she has an amplifying system equal
to that voice. As we gather in her memory, I can imagine the cadences of her
eloquence echoing at the speed of light past orbiting planets and pulsars, past
black holes and white dwarfs and hundreds of millions of sun-like stars, until
the whole cosmic spectrum stretching out to the far fringes of space towards
the very origins of time resonates to her presence. The Baptist
Journey of Faith and Learning
I am a Baptist. My vocation is education. And my vocation has allowed me to bring together my life of learning and my life of faith. Neither journey has been without its troubles and its turmoil. Neither the life of faith nor the life of learning. In my journeys within education I have seen Baptist schools and secular universities up close. And I have been part of a Baptist university as it has struggled to shape its character. I have weighed in on the side of making Mercer a Baptist university. But the struggle is never-ending. My journey of faith has carried me through the
dead-heat of Baptist turmoil. I have mourned our losses and been preoccupied
with our defeats. But I see a new day coming. It’s OK to Hug Your Lawyer
The lady whose name had appeared on my appointment schedule stood as I entered the waiting room. She appeared to be about thirty-five, was well-dressed, and from the look on her face, was very distressed. That's a familiar look on the faces of people who need to see a lawyer. “I’m Hal Haralson,” I said. She offered her hand and replied, “My name is Mary Adams” (not her real name). We walked down the hall to my office and I invited her to sit down. “You were recommended to me by another lawyer.” She told me his name. It was not a name I recognized. “What
can I do for you?,” I asked.
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Ethical Issues for 2000 A.D. and Beyond
....This article will offer two things: Identification of the ethical issues to be faced at the turn of the century and some recommendations of helpful books for further study. I do not necessarily endorse everything written in these recommended sources, but I have found them to be insightful, helpful, and available. Various ethical issues are classified under seven general areas: Issues of
Is Racism a Western Idea? The contemporary mood of frustration and pessimism about race relations springs from the apparent failure of the civil rights movement to heal the historic division between whites and blacks in this country. In the 1950s and 1960s, supporters of civil rights argued that racism was based on ignorance, fear, and hate. The proposed solutions were education and integration. Scholars contended that as whites came into closer contact with blacks—as they studied and lived and worked alongside them—their long-standing prejudices and stereotypes would dissipate and ignorance would give way to enlightenment. Today’s liberal melancholy arises largely out of the recognition that enlightenment has failed.
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