It is not my intention to take sides one way or the other on the decision of the grand jury relating to the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, by Darren Wilson, a police officer.  My purpose here is to clear up some misunderstandings and incorrect information.

The national news media have, for the most part, portrayed Ferguson as a small town located in the distant suburbs of St. Louis.  Traveling by surface roads, Ferguson is about 1.5 miles from the City of St. Louis. 

St. Louis County is a large county: 524 square miles, consisting of ninety municipalities and ten unincorporated census-designated areas, with a total population of 1,001,500 people.  The City of St. Louis is a county in itself and, therefore, is not included in St. Louis County.  The City of Ferguson is one of the larger municipalities in St. Louis County, consisting of 6.2 square miles with a population of slightly over 21,000 people.

There has been much criticism of the county prosecutor’s decision to announce the results of the grand jury at night.  The New York Times (11/26/14, p. A24) described it as a “reckless” decision because “darkness placed the law enforcement agencies at a serious disadvantage as they tried to control the angry crowds . . .”  Read more…

On August 27, 2014, Andy Thomason, news reporter for The Chronicle of Higher Education wrote: “You are getting older. You are older now than you were at the moment this page first loaded. And now you’re even older, and you can’t stem the tide of time.” What he wrote, of course, is correct. From the minute we are born, we continue every second of our lives to get older. Over time, this can become somewhat disconcerting. I suggest that there is, however, something we can do to make each stage of our lives more rewarding. 

As human beings, male and female, young and old, we never seem satisfied with where we are in life.  For example: Read more…

Staff members at a local Starbucks I frequent for hot chocolate learned that my wife and I recently celebrated our sixtieth wedding anniversary.  They are all relatively young, and sixty years seems like a long time to them.  So they asked me to write about some of the things a couple has to do in order to make it together for that long. 

In this day and age when so many married couples find they are not a match for each other and call it quits, it is not surprising that today’s younger adults find sixty years of marriage to be very unusual.  When my wife and I were married, celebrating a fiftieth anniversary was hailed as the “golden” anniversary that everyone was in awe of.  The fiftieth anniversary is still very special.  But today many marriages bypass the golden anniversary, as well as the sixtieth, and it is not unheard of for people to celebrate seventy-five years together, or even longer.  So there are many others who are more qualified than I to write about what it takes to make a marriage work.  But I will share my thoughts about making a marriage a lasting relationship. Read more…

While at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, a series of twelve large posters that extended for about thirty feet caught my attention.  The twelveposters were all under one heading: “12 Habits of Highly Healthy People.”  Note: not just healthy people, but “highly” healthy people.  I spent some time in thinking about each of the twelve habits.  Some were not surprising–others were, at least for me.  Space does not permit my going into each in great detail, but here are some highlights. 

Habit 1: Physical Activity.  We’ve all heard from numerous sources that physical activity is good for people, but here are a few important details: finding a physical activity that you like (enjoy) and committing to doing it, every day, for about thirty minutes.  It may be as simple as just taking a walk.  Logging daily results will help keep you on track.  Read more…