Love, Life and Puppy Dog Tales

Often time life presents opportunities for us to laugh and Friday night was no exception..... We walked into a restaurant, gave our name to the hostess and sat down. There was a woman and her child of about 3 or 4 standing next to the lobster tank. The child was STANDING on the bench, whining something to the mother. The child was looking at the lobsters and wanting to hold one... The mother was trying to tell her they weren't creatures you could hold, but the child was getting louder and more persistent. Then an employee enabled this child by coming along and actually scooping one up and bringing it over to the mother and child. While the room of people waiting for their meal watched, the mother explained very matter of factly to the child that she could not hold the lobster, she could only pet it. The employee turned the lobster over and said "you can pet it's belly". The little girl reached out and petted the belly of the lobster - ONCE - and pulled away. As...

There is a civil rights movement going on. In a country where the declaration of independence says that all men are created equal, there is, once again, a civil rights movement going on. Years ago, women didn't have the right to vote. People fought, people got hurt, people died. After many years of struggle, women gained the right to vote. Years ago, black people had no rights. People fought, people got hurt and people died. After many years of struggle, black people gained their civil rights. Or some of them. And they had to fight again for more, like marrying the person that they loved, regardless of 'color.' Now people are deciding, almost square acre by square acre, across this country, my civil rights. It seems as though the question of my civil rights has come up a lot in the last year. I find it interesting that all the other people in the nation have a say in my basic civil rights. One might think that in a nation where civil rights struggles have o...