The Summer of Our Discontent

The Summer of Our Discontent By Siegrid Raible New York celebrated America’s 240th birthday on July 4, 2016 in spectacular fashion. New Yorkers of all stripes gathered together at the end of the day and were awed by Macy’s free fireworks display over the East River. The very next day and almost every day thereafter in the month of July the breaking news banners...

In Memory XVI Nice

In Memory XVI By Siegrid Raible Nice, France, Bastille Day, July 14, 2016 On a warm summer’s evening on the beach In this resort town on the French Riviera After a glorious display of fireworks A young man in a white delivery truck reigns death upon the onlookers Eighty four dead on the Promenade des Anglais Among the dead, ten children, our future – gone Two Hundred...

In Memory XV Black and Blue and In Pain

In Memory XV Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Tuesday, July 5, 2016 Falcon Heights, Missouri, Wednesday, July 6, 2016 Dallas, Texas, Thursday, July 7, 2016 Following America’s 240th Birthday Celebration on July 4th Seven dead and nine wounded in three days of gun violence Two deaths at the hands of two police officers Five deaths at the hands of one disturbed killer wielding a...

In Memory XIV The Holy Month of Ramadan

In Memory XIV In the Holy Month of Ramadan In the Week before the Celebration of Eid al-Fitr In the Year Two Thousand Sixteen In an airport in Istanbul, Turkey In a bakery in Dhaka, Bangladesh In Baghdad, Iraq, at public gatherings to break the Daily Fast In the Holy City of Medina, Saudi Arabia In the Holy Month of Ramadan Muslim on Muslim Violence Too many deaths Too many...

Peace – At What Price?

Peace – At What Price? By Siegrid Raible Recently I attended a Requiem Mass for the victims of the Orlando, Florida massacre.  As part of the litany, the call by the church’s leader, “into your hands, O Lord, we commend our brothers and sisters” was met with the response from the congregants “may angels surround them, and saints welcome them in...

In Memory XIII

In Memory XIII In the Face of Evil   June 10 and June 12, 2016 Orlando, Florida   Over the course of three days In two separate and unrelated incidents Two men shoot and kill fifty men and women And seriously injure fifty-three   On Friday, June 10th, twenty-two year old singer Christina Grimmie is Shot dead by a twenty-seven year old man unknown to her   In the face of evil...

Hiroshima and Nagasaki: 71 Years Later

Hiroshima and Nagasaki : 71 Years Later By Siegrid Raible It is almost 71 years since the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 and three days later, August 9th on Nagasaki. In an instant two cities were flattened and hundreds of thousands of men, women and children lost their lives as the result of explosions caused by chain reactions of...