WHAT WOULD MARTIN THINK? Martin Luther King Day Northern Iraq 2004 Attending a celebration service recognizing the birth and accomplishments of Dr. King is not altogether unusual on a day set aside as a holiday in memory of the man and his impact on the future fabric of our nation. What makes this year’s attendance unusual is that I’m in Iraq. I’m deployed to the northern-most airfield in Free Iraq. As a member of a medical unit assigned to Freedom Air Base, ...continued...

18 years later In February 2011 an Ecuadorian judge ordered Chevron to pay some $17 billion in fines and punitive damages over the environmental contamination in Ecuador. Water is the source of life. Without clean water we can't survive. (Emergildo Criollo, leader of the Cofan people, Ecuador) Chevron, not surprisingly, said it would appeal the ruling, calling it “illegitimate and unenforceable.” Eighteen years before, when the suit was first filed in a New York court, Chevron fought to have the jurisdiction moved to Ecuador because the ...continued...

One of my chief delights in the warm months is watching the hummingbirds that flock to our feeder. They cluster around the feeder, competing for the nectar it provides, swapping out places at the feeding stations. They're always pretty competitive, even if there are only two at the feeder at the time. I wonder that they don't get hurt as they dive down at each other. The competitiveness rivals that of ten year old boys on the playground, only the hummers are in a fight for life-sustaining resources instead of the top of the climbing bars. Sometimes I count as many as ten or fifte ...continued...

ThTony was born in march 2015. He was about 2 months pre, and very tiny. Kelly had to have an emergancy C section. Theres a posability that while she was in the water, some of it got into her heart. She suffered some kind of heart attack, both her and tony survied. Tony gerw over this past year fast and big, the doctor said if he grew anymore they would have to make a new baby grow chart. So far he is a good boy, he is happy, allways smiles. Kelly is having her own issues but starting to get the medical help she needs. Val is still val. Nothing new on that frount. ...continued...

I love the bumper sticker that reads “Put something exciting between your legs.” In 1961 I bought a 1942 Harley for fifty dollars. I had to do it in secret because my father said I could only have a motorcycle over his dead body. One morning my father was having coffee at the local drug store with Mr. Wood, who had a son, Billy, who was a classmate of mine. “Frank,” he says, “my son wants to buy a motorcycle. I told him that no father in his right mind would ever let his son get something as dangerous as a motorcycle. Then he tells me, your son has one, so it must ...continued...

Hello, everyone, I am not a writer at all but its something i have been thinking about doing since i was 12 years old. i Have a story i want to tell. I dont want to tell it to make money or get famous. Its a story i want to tell everyone who is or have went through stuff an cant seem to get through it. to let people know everything happens for a reason something good always comes from something bad. The story i want to tell is about my life from the age of ten till the age of 20. From me being molested to me getting married. I think i could get to a lot of people. I want to do something good f ...continued...

One summer we (Bill & Jim with us littler one's carrying the nails) built a addition to the barn, it was 3 stories high with 3 different floors. We thought it was quite sturdy but one day Pop went up to the top, he jumped up and down a few times and said it wasn't sturdy enough and had to be torn down, which we (they) did. One day we (I'm sure it was the older kids) took one- of Pop's cigarette packs and went out to the barn to smoke it. The neighbor lady saw all the smoke coming from the barn and she came out with a pail of water to put out the ...continued...

North Pole ...continued...

Start Writing! THE BRIDGE TO CARACAS http://thebridgetocaracas.com <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 6.0px 0.0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: ...continued...

I do believe I am an open-minded person and it is very important to me to understand and respect all different kinds of cultures. I think providing equal services to all clients and patients is important, because due to their race, culture, language barrier, gender, sexuality, etc... all of that is important to understand and take into account- but not to discriminate. It would be misconduct to treat a patient differently due to those factors. For example, for question 18. Some symbols—a positive nod of the head, a pointing finger, a “thumbs-up” sign—are u ...continued...

Chapter One Matt Dalton held his breath. The doctor removed his glasses, and tapped them against the document in his hands, his blank face conveying nothing of the opinion he was about to render. “Mr. Dalton, based on this report, I’d say there’s about a ninety-nine-percent chance this boy is your son.” Matt’s pulse raced. It’s what he expected, but the doctor’s words of confirmation made it real. Holy Christ, he had a son. He was a father. Nothing so profoundly life-changing had ever happened to him, and it took his breath away. He s ...continued...

The Walk "Dad, can you wait for me to take your walk?" My seven year-old son was looking up at me expectantly. His eyebrows were arched over his brown eyes and his close cropped hair was sticking up in three different directions. "Can ya, Dad? Just fifteen minutes." I looked away from my e-mail and smiled at Eric. "Sure, but hurry up and get ...continued...

When he was in his early eighties, my father taught me about the possible depths of his love. I knew my parents had a fine relationship but I never realized how much my father adored my mother. There was little hint of his admiration and passion in their visible every day relationship. Only after my mother sank into Alzheimer’s did my grief-worn father reveal his immeasurable love. Oh he didn’t talk about his feelings: he was, after all, a WWII veteran and a man raised to stoically endure for the sake of his family. But he showed me his devotion every day. Lesson I: “Is ...continued...

As a child, I lived in a poor neighborhood but I always wanted to help others even when I was unable to help myself. I grew up with an innate desire to one day to be able to help others to be all they could be in society. In the course of my teen years I made some mistakes that later I counts as blessings. I became a teenage mother who dropped out of school and married. My marriage was not successful so I got a divorce. I wind up working in textiles to support my children. One thing remained constant over the course of my life was the fact I never lost the desire to help others. To fast for ...continued...

~~A BOOKWORM AT GIRL SCOUT CAMP In the 1950’s my family moved from a little Missouri town to the small town in Indiana where my father grew up. We lived with our grandparents for a few months while my father started a new job and we found a house to rent. My little brother and sister, ages six and five respectively, roamed my grandparents’ big back yard and the neighborhood, but I asked if I might read the old books I saw in the parlor bookcases. My grandmother, usually so strict about us not touching her possessions, gave me permission. I read from books that far exceeded my s ...continued...