Remembering the martyrdom of Paul Carlson fifty years later

A year and two days after
our young President was killed,
a sniper’s bullet found the rebel’s aim.
A missionary doctor
loved in Congo and at home
left a legacy while gaining tragic fame.

Paul Carlson died trying
to escape and climb a wall.
He came so close to finding freedom’s gate.
But this young, brave physician
paid a martyr’s sum instead
while succumbing to the violence of hate.

That dark day in November
back in 1964
life became a time we never will forget.
A world defined by terror
and the death of innocence
still reminds us of sin’s never-ending debt.

And now fifty long years later
what played out in Stanleyviile
is a script that’s followed far too frequently.
Terror’s drama owns the headlines
as aid workers lose their heads
while we pray to God for justice endlessly.

Lord, have mercy! End the violence!
Don’t neglect the orphan’s cry.
Hear the prayer of victims paralyzed by fear.
Grace the grieving with assurance
that Your Kingdom will yet come
and that You will wipe away each anguished tear.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Carlson

Here’s hoping the new Congress can make vows of unity

Now that Congress has a reddish tinge
and isn’t quite as blue,
Republicans at last have cause to gloat.
But gloating isn’t what we need.
It is time for things to change.
Our nation voiced their wishes with their vote.

Perhaps we’d best remember that
not all that long ago
the leaders of our country made amends.
While Tip O’Neill and Reagan
disagreed much of the time,
they found a way to function as good friends.

Consider how at weddings
when we’re ushered how we’re asked
which side we’d like to sit on, groom or bride.
Yes, an aisle separates us,
but when all is said and done
what divides the guests is really not that wide.

Can’t both parties learn a lesson
from this wedding metaphor?
While there’s reason to draw lines from which we’ve come,
a marriage of two people
takes in stride their different strokes
as they promise to find ways to live as one.

Remembering Tom Magliozzi

The Click of “Click and Clack” is gone.
Tom Magliozzi has passed on.
His cackling laugh and car advice
are but a memory.

Tom and his younger sibling Ray
brought color to a realm of gray.
The mundane world of car repair
became a sheer delight.

These NPR mechanics knew
that talking cars is fun when you
share stories, jokes and trivia
along with fix-it facts.

The Tappet Brothers were like kin
and every weekend we’d check in.
Like next door neighbors, Tom and Ray
were there to help us out.

We hoped both guys would always stay,
but then last week Tom moved away.
Quite sadly Clack has lost his Click
and we have lost a friend.

How the Kansas City Royals live what they believe

The Cinderella Royals
laced their cleats of glass and danced
in a ball game they’d sat out for thirty years.
And the Kansas City loyals
let their team know of their love
as they dressed them for the dance with non-stop cheers.

It’s a Royal celebration
for a team that proved they ‘could’
like that little engine chugging up the hill.
They believed they could achieve it
and then proved that their beliefs
weren’t just pipe dreams but the truth by how they played.

And that’s not just true in baseball.
It’s observable in life.
The faith we voice must be much more than words.
Beliefs espoused don’t matter
lest we practice what we preach
and provide the proof for what our fans have heard.