Gettysburg's Grip

In a few weeks, an estimated 4 million visitors are expected to descend upon the picturesque southern Pennsylvania town of Gettysburg, which has a population of less than 8,000. They’re coming by the millions to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Battle of...

Obama's Legacy? Scandal

The Obama scandals started piling up on top of each other in the last few days. The civil servants who testified on Benghazi were heartbreaking. Then the IRS admitted a punitive agenda against tax exemptions for groups with “tea party” in the name or...

The Southern Drawl on Film

“There are things you can get away with in this world, and things you can’t.” The voice is Matthew McConaughey’s, and days after seeing him in “Mud,” I can close my eyes and hear him still — a simple line echoing with the mysteries...
Mother Love

Mother Love

My daughter was born on Mother’s Day, 23 years ago. It was the happiest day of my life — matched only, almost three years later, by the birth of my son. I had never felt such love before. Hooray for Hallmark. Years passed. My own mother died. My daughter went...

Civil Rights' 50th

ATLANTA — Key events in 1963, from protests in Alabama to Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, galvanized the civil rights movement that eventually toppled Jim Crow laws in the South. The 50th anniversary of those events is a great...