(AP)—A holiday tradition dating back not centuries but decades has begun with the start of the seven days of Kwanzaa. Unlike Christmas and Hanukkah, Kwanzaa isn’t a religious holiday. Based on the year-end harvest festivals held in Africa for thousands of years, it’s observed worldwide starting Dec. 26 and ending Jan 1. by people of African descent. HOLIDAY TRADITION—Ruth Ndiagne Dorsey is shown with a Kwanzaa setting at her church, The Shrine of the Black Madonna, in Atlanta.
Evan Frazier recently announced he will leave the Hill House as executive director to join Highmark. We asked Pittsburghers what they thought, and here’s what you said. “He’s proven to be a leader and everyone has gained from his leadership. We are sorry to see him go. We wish him well in his new job opportunity.”Ken NesbitHighland ParkSite coordinator KEN NESBIT, WILL MOODY, DON McEACHERN
Dear Gwendolyn: I had an argument with my so-called mother-in-law about the fact that my father would always go out and catch a wild turkey. I told her wild turkeys taste better than store-bought. She insisted on telling her daughter to cook a store-bought turkey for Thanksgiving dinner. This is the problem: I grew up on a farm, but my father did not raise turkeys. Our crop consisted of hogs, cows, goats and chickens. My wife is a good woman but listens too much too often to that wicked mother of hers. Gwendolyn, I am tired of store-bought and thinking strongly of not being at the dinner table on Thanksgiving when grace is said. My dad passed away about 15 years ago and whether the turkey he always came home with was “wild” or “stolen,” the taste was good. What advice do you have?—Albert
(NNPA)—I’m deeply disturbed that after a decade of decline, the number of firearm deaths among children and youths has increased for the second year in a row. Our 2009 Protect Children, Not Guns report released in September reveals that almost nine children and teens die from gunfire every day—one child death every two hours and 45 minutes. The report, based on the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, states that 3,184 children and teens died from gunfire in 2006, a six percent increase over 2005, a total of 17,451 were victims of non-fatal firearms injuries, a seven percent increase from the previous year. When people from other industrialized democracies learn of America’s child gunshot death rates, they’re equally troubled.
NNPA—Dear Gwendolyn: I have been dating my boyfriend for five years. Each time I mention getting married, he changes the conversation. I must admit that I am growing tired of his seemingly “no interest” in marrying me. Last year at his family’s reunion gathering, his father told me that for the past two years he has been in love with me. He said, “I thought by now you would have married my son or the two of you would have broken the relationship.” I was rude with him at first, but now I am having second thoughts.
“Life comes at you fast”! On the week of this writing, I was involved in a car accident. It appeared to be a perfectly normal day. I put in a productive work day. After work I went to the gym. On my way home from the gym, I got within one block away from my house and it happened—CRASH! I was driving toward my house when the car in front of me abruptly stopped and made a left hand turn without using his turning signal. This forced me to come to an abrupt stop as I navigated my car to avoid hitting this car. I succeeded. Unfortunately, the reaction time of the truck behind me was not as swift as mine. He crashed into the back of my truck causing $6,200 in damages. The person who caused the accident by not using their turning signal and coming to an abrupt stop doesn’t know there was an accident. I imagine him at home drinking coffee with his wife telling her how great his day was. The good news is that there were no injuries.
WASHINGTON (AP)—The White House environmental adviser under fire for inflammatory statements made before he joined the administration resigned after what he called a “vicious smear campaign against me.” Van Jones “understood that he was going to get in the way” of President Barack Obama’s agenda, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Sunday. EMBATTLED ADVISER RESIGNS—Van Jones, an administration official specializing in environmentally friendly “green jobs,” is seen at the National Summit in Detroit, in this June 16 file photo.
The narrative currently being written by the new left posits that opposition to their attempts to reform health care is fueled by political impotence, crackpot extremism and racism. Alas, elected officials demonstrating contempt for the people they represent has sadly become the rule rather than the exception. Calling the American people Nazis and fools may make a more compelling story than the truth, but it will not alter the fact that Americans simply do not want the expensive, top-heavy government health care boondoggle currently being stuffed down their throats.
