Shooting Blanks

It's been more than a week since the school shootings in Connecticut, and, until now, I have remained mostly silent on the matter.I saw enough of the initial coverage to know what had happened, and I've kept up with developments via articles online and in newspapers — so I feel pretty well versed in the basics of the case. I'm sure there are things I don't know, but I guess I know as much as anyone who is roughly 1,400 miles removed from the scene...

Read More

Daniel Inouye

During the Senate Watergate hearings in 1973, the attorneyfor H.R. Haldeman called Daniel Inouye "that little Jap."When I think of Sen. Daniel Inouye of Hawaii, who died yesterday at the age of 88, I think of his soft–spoken dignity during the 1973 Senate Watergate hearings.As Emma Brown observed in a Washington Post obituary, Inouye "rarely sought the media spotlight" in more than half a century of service in Congress. That seemed especially true...

Read More

Memories of a Mentor

It is my understanding that the word mentor has its roots in Greek mythology.It was the name of a contemporary and friend of Odysseus (also known as Ulysses) who befriended and advised Odysseus' son. Because of Mentor's relationship with the younger man, over the centuries his name has come to mean someone who shares what he has learned with a younger and less experienced comrade.Well, that's my understanding, anyway. I really have only a modest...

Read More