In 1970, Russian writer and activist Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn received the Nobel Prize in Literature. Stripped of his freedom, he had spent eight years in prisons and forced labor camps in the former Soviet Union. He was awarded the Nobel Prize because he had made the world aware of the dehumanizing and repressive measures of the communist state.

Sumptuously robed, the Magi pay homage to the barely clad Jesus “ who … became poor although he was rich, so that, by his poverty, [we] might become rich” (2 Cor 8:9).

Led by the bright light of a star, they have found their way through science to “ the true Light who enlightens everyone” (Jn 1:9). And now they make their act of faith.

On Sept. 6, 1620, one hundred and two pilgrims sailed on the Mayflower from Plymouth, England. They were seeking freedom to worship God according to their conscience and not according to the dictates of the state. After an arduous journey, they dropped anchor in the New World on Nov. 21, 1620. They had intended to go to Virginia but found themselves in present day New England. There they first set foot at Plymouth Rock.

In March 2017, Kevin Shaw, a student at Pierce College in Los Angeles, filed a lawsuit against the community college. The college administrators had stopped him from passing out copies of the U.S. Constitution in Spanish. They argued that he had not sought permission from them and that he was doing this outside the school’s free speech zone, a designated area the size of three parking spaces. Shaw argued that his civil right to free speech had been violated.

In The Golden Girls, Dorothy Zbornak fires off one caustic remark after another to the naïve Rose from St. Olaf, to Southern Belle Blanche, and to her feisty mom Sophia, a match for her sharp tongue. In The Big Bang Theory, Sheldon Cooper constantly puts down his friends with his scientific retorts. And, womanizer Charlie Harper from Two and a Half Men comes in for a tie for sarcasm with sharp-tongued Max Black from 2 Broke Girls. From these characters comes an unrelenting barrage of sarcasm.

Robert E. Lee and Abraham Lincoln both fought bravely on opposite sides of the Civil War. Both were convinced that they were doing what was right. Yet, no matter who won the war, slavery was evil before the war just as it was after the war. Hitler worked passionately for the evil cause that he espoused, just as Gandhi exerted his energies for the goals that he judged morally good. Kermit Gosnell, the Philadelphia abortionist convicted of delivering babies and then killing them, steadfastly pursued his goals while Mother Teresa worked with untiring zeal to save the lives of the destitute and abandoned.

From the beginning of the 21st century, the English language has been undergoing radical surgery. Words once acceptable have been cut from common usage and branded as a cancer infecting society with sexist attitudes. Today, it is better to ask for a server in a restaurant and not for a waiter or waitress. These last two nouns might offend a person who identifies as neither. Better to say flight attendant and not steward or stewardess. First-year student, not freshman. Chairperson, not chairman. Firefighter, not fireman. Spokesperson, not spokesman. The list could go on.

With the end of silent movies in the early 1920s, Hollywood bounded into the glitz and glamour of the Golden Age of Movies. Names such as Clark Gable, Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Tyrone Power and Judy Garland still conjure images of beauty and brilliant acting. These and many others rose to stardom in Los Angeles, the City of the Angels. However, in so many instances, their ascent to fame left behind a trail of sordid scandals in the city of those less than angels. While the public viewing their movies were felt constrained by a puritanical morality, many of these actors and actresses were freely indulging in a hedonistic pursuit of pleasure.

The Aug. 3rd mass shooting at a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas, took the lives of 22 people and left 24 others injured. The very next day, a gunman fired on people enjoying themselves in the Oregon Historic District of Dayton, Ohio. He killed nine people and injured 27 others. In light of the mass shooting at the July 28th California Gilroy Garlic Festival, the May 31st Virginia Beach shooting, and the April 29th shooting at the University of North Carolina, the almost instantaneous succession of the El Paso and Dayton shootings has caused many Americans to question whether our country is getting more and more violent. And rightly so!

On Aug. 7, almost immediately after U.S. immigration authorities conducted a surprise raid on undocumented workers in several Mississippi factories, the image of a tearful Magdalena Gomez Gregorio was flashed before our eyes. This 11-year-old girl stood before the media, the nation and the world, sobbing and crying. She had been separated from her parents. The scene was broadcasted by a local television station and then picked up nationally.