History

Maureen Dowd of NYT Condemns Vatican’s New Rules on Abuse

The NY Times’ Maureen Dowd continues to challenge the moral authority of the Vatican on the issue of sexual abuse of children by Catholic clergy. In her latest column, she condemns the self-righteousness of the Vatican leadership that she sees on display in the recent statement on Church policy about sexual assault. She has written several columns on…

Read More »

Home from Chicago

Because the period of US history that interests me the most extends from the Civil War through the start of the 20th Century, Chicago was a natural destination for a site-seeing vacation. From the 1871 fire that destroyed a four mile long swath of the city to the 1893 world’s…

Read More »

‘Maine Heron’

Here’s a poem from my days in Maine that was first published in 1991 in a small literary magazine in Troy, Maine, called “Potato Eyes.”—PM . Maine Heron A blue heron waits an hour, Shows patient power In a one-man soup line, Disregards time In favor of a single mind— The…

Read More »