journalism blog

It’s been two and half years since the initial reconnection was made. My brother mentioned that a childhood friend, who lived across the street from us, had asked about me in a Facebook group. When I joined the group, I received a friend request from my cousin Regina, who was also part of the group.

  It started with a unexpected invitation to Ireland, and a seventeen year old letter. My brother-in-law was renting a cottage in Adare, and asked Maureen and I to come and spend a week. We had been to Ireland back in 2000 on a tour. My mother’s cousin Joe and his wife Mary were living

When you travel by ship, you move into a new community. But there are two segments to the population, those on vacation and those who are working. They can take you around the world from the Midwest to Manila. The majority of the crew was from the Philippines and Southeast Asia. Ryan, a bartender from

Alaska is about man and nature living in harmony. In the 1970s, when the country started to understand the importance of protecting and saving the environment, the Alaskan commercial fisherman and the government joined together to save the salmon for themselves and future generations. Our last stop in Ketchikan is “The Salmon Capital of the

The vastness is what you notice first. We started up the Inside Passage from Vancouver, British Columbia at 7pm. The ocean was still. The wind was bracing. The sky was streaked with clouds against that sky blue that only nature can achieve. It’s hard to tell how far away the mountains are in the distance.

“The second day of July, 1776-will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America…It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other from this time forward forever more.” John Adams wrote this in a letter

It was sad to see the messy ending of Scott Pelley’s six year run as Anchor and Managing Editor of the CBS Evening News last week. Pelley went out with class and dignity thanking the people of CBS News for all their hard work, and saying he knows it will continue. Pelley will devote his

It was a speech all Americans should hear. I first read about it in a column in the New York Times by Op-Ed writer Frank Bruni. It was given last week by New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu. He was explaining the removal of four monuments honoring the President of the Confederacy Jefferson Davis, Confederate Generals

“If ever a time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in Government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin.” These are the words of Founding Father Samuel Adams. While spoken over 200 years ago, they echo the truth of today. How did we get

My wife and I were recently were looking for something different to watch on television. She suggested a movie on the Bronte Sisters. I’m embarrassed to admit that I didn’t know very much about them. I knew they had written some classic literature, but I wasn’t sure who wrote what. But I’m always interested in learning