Peace and Justice
"Best Medicine for Veterans: Prevention"
The Baltimore Sun, Nov 11, 2011
Veterans Day, and once again I'm shouting in my head: You people want to honor veterans? How about we dump the patriotic tinsel and give them something they can use — like all the effort it's going to take to heal their wounds for years to come.
click here to read more
"A Monument to Memory"
The Baltimore Sun, May 30, 2010
I am ambivalent about Memorial Day. On the one hand, it offends me that, for most Americans, Memorial Day has become just another holiday weekend--a getaway to the beach, the opening of the pool, a sale at the garden center. I once served as an Army nurse, in a stateside hospital to which wounded soldiers were evactuated regularly. So for me, the "memorial" part of the weekend always overshadows the "holiday" part.
click here to read more
"Winter Soldiers"
Common Dreams News Center, Sep 2, 2008
The Baltimore Sun, March 19, 2008
From testimony of Jason Hurd of the Army's 278th Regimental Combat Team: One day, Iraqi police got into an exchange of gunfire with some unknown individuals ... [and] some of the stray rounds ... hit the shield of one of our Hummers. The gunner atop that Hummer decided to open fire with his 50-caliber machine gun into that building. We fired indiscriminately and unnecessarily at this building. We never got a body count, we never got a casualty count afterward. ... Things like that happen every day in Iraq. We react out of fear, fear for our lives.
click here to read more
"Sweet and Becoming"
Raving Dove Literary Journal, Oct 2006
Walking early this morning, I make my usual loop through the Baltimore County Courthouse grounds. I pass the fountain with its wrought iron fence, and arrive at the old green cannon with its perfect pyramid of cannonballs. I know that old cannon well. Once, when I was a child, my father surprised me by hoisting me up onto the barrel. Over the years, I have brought my children to the courthouse to watch the parades on the Fourth. They, too, have clambered around the cannon and smacked their hands against the cool surface of those fourteen cannonballs. My children are grown now; they are old enough to serve in the armed forces.
click here to read more
"Charity"
American Journal Of Nursing, November 2007
Recently, on the phone with a friend, I mentioned my 40th nursing school reunion. We joked about how old I'm getting, and I agreed-- especially looking back on how naive I was as a new RN. Then we addressed the task at hand, our work for Bread For The World, "a nationwide Christian movement that seeks justice for the world's hungry people," as its Web site says.
ckick here to read more