For more than thirty years I taught in a public school environment. The closest we ever got to prayer was “a moment of silence.” Oh, I could answer a question relating to religion – from a factual standpoint. For example, I could discuss what peoples practice Islam. I could talk about the causes and results of the Crusades. But I could never lead children in a prayer, at least not during a school day. But it wasn’t always that way. I began my formal education at Saint James Catholic School in Savannah, Georgia. There was a crucifix in every room. There were prayers in the morning, prayers before meals, and church services for special occasions. One of our subjects was religion. We discussed God as our creator. We studied the Ten Commandments as a guiding influence on behavior. We learned [...]

The land glowed misty green, golden in some lights. A unique blend of climate, terrain, and culture led many of the young people there to become poets and singers. Some composed for profit, most just experienced life in poetic terms. But in the 1840s and for a number of years thereafter, Ireland became like a mother whose breasts had gone dry. A terrible famine took hold and led many people in Ireland to look in another direction – west to America. I don’t have a great deal of direct information about my great-great-great-grandfather, John Michael Doyle. I know he arrived in Ohio from Wexford, Ireland in the middle 1800s, near the time of the Civil War. During that most terrible war, he drummed his way through Georgia with General Sherman and later settled in the beautiful town of Savannah – [...]