Ahhhhhh… the cool mountain air, a calm… ripple… of water peacefully moving over the lake. Oh… it’s you! While on summer break, I thought I’d offer a few links to commentaries that garnered the most attention by readers over the past seven months. First place, with the most views thus far, was my three-part series from April, Trust and Confidence,...

Yes, Virginia, good news does exist. Sumeja Tulic reported to the website Gothamist.com: “[A] few minutes before the train arrived, a man in his late 50s/early 60s fell on the subway tracks. Without hesitation, 3 men jumped on the subway track and pulled him out. The man was unconscious and bleeding.” “Ms. Tulic,” The New York Times reports (June 14),...

Maj. John Baldwin (Ret.) is a good friend, former vascular surgeon who served in Vietnam and frequent reader of this site. He submitted the following story to me about former classmate and Vietnam POW Maj. Glenn Wilson. It begins with finding a bracelet. When the Gator Harbor dredge operators pumping out Stevenson Creek near Tampa, Florida back in the spring...

Good news about Dennis Haines… finally! Last week, I wrote about Vietnam Vet. Dennis Haines’s difficulty in getting a medication approved by the V.A. for treatment for Hepatitis C – an infectious disease that he contracted after he had unintentionally received tainted blood while being treated by the 24th Evacuation Hospital in Long Binh. One week ago, I had contacted...

Last month, I wrote that SP4 Dennis Haines (Ret.) was one of approximately 174,000 Viet Nam vets who had contracted Hepatitis C through tainted blood. However, due to the extreme cost of the drug, Sofosbuvir, only about 15 percent have been treated thus far. After having been hit by two AK-47 rounds to the right side of his head in...

Elaine Harmon was a WASP, one of the Women’s Air Force Service Pilots, a distinguished group of women who, while not technically considered part of the military, nevertheless served in variety of vital roles during World War II. In a story from The New York Times (Feb. 28), “Like those active-duty military members, the WASPs wore uniforms, carried weapons, had...

Last Friday, on a New York subway, a simple act of compassion was captured on a phone which has been viewed by millions. A young man is seen literally taking the shirt off his back and helping a shirtless and shivering homeless man. Joey Resto is the 23-year-old man on the left. Interviewed by a Fox News affiliate in New...

“A hero has two basic qualities: a selfless devotion to what’s right, whether that’s his duty or not, and the courage of his convictions.”  – Dale Dye, Marine Captain (Ret.) In 2012, while fighting in Afghanistan, Army Captain Florent Groberg demonstrated the kind of selfless devotion to duty Dye speaks of when he knowingly rushed a suicide bomber who was...

On his recent visit to the United States, Pope Francis talked about several Americans who had an impact on Catholics in general and the Church, in particular. One of them was journalist Dorothy Day, a name not readily familiar to most. Former Washington Post columnist and current Peace Studies teacher, Colman McCarthy, offered a fuller background on Day and the...

Why is it that so many good stories – the ones where some impending tragedy is prevented – rarely make broadcast news? I could be sitting here writing about another school shooting if not for the intervention of some alert students who didn’t hesitate to act. This story began with an email from friend and former San Francisco vascular surgeon...