When the school bus crunched to a stop against the guardrail — tilted precariously, filled with smoke but miraculously safe on a fractured island of concrete — the panicked children began screaming. Some were hurt, all were terrified. They wanted what any of us would want in such a situation — ... Continue reading
Uncomfortable with evil
"I know that there's a tendency to think that everybody can get counseling or can have a bowl of tomato soup and everything is going to be all right," she said. "But I think that evil exists, and I think that he was a mean person." — VT poetry professor Nikki Giovanni, on her former student Cho ... Continue reading
On resurrection and rabbits
James Killeen was a man about to die. Like most people facing death, he wanted to live. He was a member of a small religious sect that believed God was about to work a miracle in response to their faith. And so, when James died in his bed, his wife and the other believers gathered around his body ... Continue reading