Author Archive

The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons Barron’s own blog. Since the evacuation of the HMS Birkenhead in 1852, “women and children first” has been the code of conduct to protect the most helpless among us from impending disaster. Today we look to them not only to…

The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. Every day, as I either skirt around or clunk into and out of potholes, I’m reminded of our crumbling infrastructure and of the lame political promises of the Trump administration to fix our roads, bridges, airports, water and…

The entry below is being cross-posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. The images will last forever, I am certain. The bustling narrow streets of the Old Quarter area of Hanoi,  the water puppet show dating back to the 10th century,  the 11th century Temple of Literature honoring scholars and men…

The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. Ronald S. Haeberle//Time Life Pictures/Getty Images) So many places drew us away from the breathtaking landscape, the mouth-watering cuisine, and inviting art galleries and toward the American experience in Vietnam. Toward places familiar from books and contemporaneous television…

The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. Every time I have written about gun violence and mass shootings, one reader or another (you know who you are) will charge me with being a bleeding heart liberal.  So, let’s take the emotion out of the equation. …

The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. Today half the 94 million Vietnamese are under 29 years old. They were not alive during what they call the American War. For the younger generation, that’s ancient history. They are focused on the future. But, for a…

The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. Coming from Boston, you’d think we’d be used to crazy traffic and pedestrian behavior.  Boston is an Eden compared to Vietnamese cities, where the intensity of the traffic takes your breath away. Most people ride motor bikes (due…

The entry below is being cross -posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. Thirty years ago, I stood with my husband on the banks of the Mekong River in Thailand, where that country comes together with Burma to the west and Laos to the east, and knew that we had to…