Month: January 2025

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Mourner in Chief

Gary Furr

An air tragedy in the night. All were lost.  The shockwaves rolled out from the Potomac to Kansas to Boston and even to Russia. Brilliant young skaters and their families and entourage, people going home, people living life. A fiery crash and suddenly life flips upside down. Now the press conferences and investigations, the courageous first responders, anguished families.  President Trump began his press conference in an expected way, with a moment of silence, then plunged into a weird and irrelevant riff of unfounded speculation, blaming and untruths.  Abraham Maslow wrote in 1966, “it is tempting, if the only tool … Continue reading Mourner in Chief

America, Citizenship, Culture, Ethics, Leadership, Politics, Story

Poor, Poor, Pitiful Me

Gary Furr

Jackie Gleason used to play a character called the Poor Soul. He walked with a slump and every step he took said, “I don’t deserve to be here.” I’ve been trying to figure out how a man who has the office of President and a cowering party that never calls him out can walk around like everyone is so mean to him. We’re running out of teacups for President Trump’s tempests. He does love them. The poor man. People seem to be so mean to him. Most recently, of course, it was a gentle admonition at the National Cathedral, when … Continue reading Poor, Poor, Pitiful Me

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Jimmy Carter’s Vision

Gary Furr

I had an earlier podcast about Jimmy Carter in February of 2023. He has woven in and out of my life for forty plus years. His funeral has been a powerful moment to stop and consider what life is about. That’s what funerals at their best can accomplish. We mark a passing, but also stop to mark our own journey to the same place. Maybe we slow down long enough to ask, “Am I living life as it is meant to be? ​In early 2009, I was asked to host Jimmy Carter’s visit to Birmingham for the New Baptist Covenant. He was … Continue reading Jimmy Carter’s Vision