This week's items of note: the Optimist; the Bible and children; North Korean dissidents; geologic history in the American west; despair and mental health; world cup soccer; America's appeal; due process.

Optimist, 24 June. Uplifting stories. The elderly greeter at WW II memorial in Washington, D.C., is none other than former senator, Robert Dole (R,KS), who many credit with getting this memorial built. His friends say that greeting fellow WW II vets is his "last duty." A much noted passing: conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer died Thursday, 21 June. The event was noted by readers and colleagues, left and right. Many occasional, casual readers probably learned for the fist time that Krauthammer was both a licensed psychiatrist and paraplegic (a long-ago swimming/diving accident). College students for hire, but not as movers (you've probably seen those trucks). These are "grand kids" for hire. A way to provide comfort for an older person and, many times, give that person's caregiver a break. And other heart-warming stories.

Sessions on Romans 13. Columnist Michael Gerson pulls no punches in commenting on the Attorney General's use of this verse: "The Bible, like a gun, is a dangerous thing in the hands of a bigot."  Gerson notes, "Segregationists and autocrats throughout Western history have claimed that Romans 13 covers oppressive or unjust laws. But the centerpiece commitment of Christian social ethics is not order; it is justice." Sessions, a Methodist, has found his Church's evangelical leaders calling him out. 
     Former Homeland Security head (2013-2017), Jeh Johnson, recounts, 

My wife and I spent Mother’s Day in 2014 at a U.S. Border Patrol center in McAllen, Tex. The facility had been built for single adults, but it looked like a crude day-care center flooded with children. In the midst of that flood, my eyes were drawn to one little girl sitting alone at a desk and being processed by a Border Patrol agent. I was struck by her long, black hair, which was beautiful despite the hot and dirty journey from Central America she just had completed. I asked her, 'Why did you come here?”'She replied: 'I’m looking for my mother in the United States.' She began to cry, the translator began to cry, and I began to cry.

     Former First Lady, Laura Bush, also voiced her concerns and doubts. Even the current First Lady, Melania Trump, was less than totally supportive. Of course, this is all the fault of the Democrats' non-existent law which left the DHS no choice but to separate family members. Oddly, even members of congress seeking to visit detention centers have been turned away.
     A recent cartoon in the Denver Post shows several Native Americans watching the Mayflower; one "brave" asks the "chief" if they are going to separate the children from the adults. The chief replies, "No, they're not animals." Toles' recent Washington Post cartoon show the rebranding at the "Trump Maximum Security Hotel America," where separate cages are available for children.

North Korean dissidents. Noted former anti-Soviet dissident and political prisoner, Nathan Sharansky, writes that the US, having now engaged with the DPRK should begin to support the regime's dissidents. It can not but help in what he characterizes as a "fear society, where the are the regime's stalwarts, the dissidents, and between the "double thinkers" who realize their situation but are too fearful to speak out.
     Of course, to supporting the dissidents might anger the DPRK and jeopardize President Trump's vaunted ability to "do a deal," and must not happen.

Nevada petroglyphs.  If the rocks could talk, what a tale they would tell. For example, what lies in the future for the American West. Interestingly, the art on the rocks is talking. "A carbon-bearing mineral formed every time Lake Lahontan rose and inundated the rock art, leaving a patina that could be dated." Mother nature was documenting the ebb and flow of the water for posterity.
     Walking the playa of a vanished village, the writer "...listened for [the ancients], but heard only my steps across playa dust. For all we do, we vanish this easily, opening a space at the end of one age to send our children into the beginning of the next."

Life expectancy in the middle. Olga Khazan's Atlantic article looks at the "[t]he decline in life expectancy and health among less-educated white Americans [that] is often attributed to 'deaths of despair'... [and] the mental-health changes in this study were evident in all the age groups in the survey, not just people in their 50s or 60s."

Moscow, the Cup, et. al. America's soccer fans could only watch and root for their favorite "other" team, e.g. in our house the Swedes. Though the Chinese women's team has had success, Chinese fans of the men's team were similarly disappointed (yet again). However, the world's most powerful soccer coach, President Xi Jinping, has great plans for the future. "Good luck, coach."
     One Swedish footballer (of Assyrian parentage) and his family were targeted in online media "...for giving away the free-kick that led to Germany’s 95th-minute winner in Sochi on Saturday." At the team's next-day practice session, the coach read a statement condemning racist comments on public media; the player in question read a statement saying that an acceptable limit (for criticism) had been crossed. Then the team's statement "...finished with everyone in the squad and staff joining [Jimmy] Durmaz in saying 'F--- racism...”
     The 12 World Cup soccer venues are in 11 Russian cities which are not close to each other. Steve Goff's "soccer insider" perspective in the Washington Post recounts his expectations and those of the fans with whom he talked. Initial thoughts: "The thought of working and living in Moscow for almost six weeks conjured thoughts of being tossed back in time or dropped onto a set of “The Americans.” Gray and unfriendly....Barren food shelves and shadowy figures. The joy and passion of the World Cup doused by Russian gloom."

     He was very pleasantly surprised at what he found in Moscow (and will report from St. Petersburg later.) There were, of course, surmountable problems: expenses, difficult language, Cyrillic alphabet, signage. One writer opined that the Cup's MVP may turn out to be "Google Translate."

America's appeal. From President Trump on immigration, "We don't want to be overrun..." or words to that effect. To use another phrase he has reportedly uttered, he might consider: if the US was a "s---hole" country not so many people would want to come here. In today's troubled world, you may not be able to have it both ways: be wealthy, yet unattractive. You are either an attractive magnet or not! It does not take much to attract someone coming from a country where the daily average earnings are a mere pittance of America's. The Puritans came for a very uneconomic reason and the Irish did not come because they hated the Emerald Isle. It is also a safe bet that the president's forefathers did not think America was a "s---hole,' else they would have stayed put or emigrated elsewhere.

Bill of Rights. President Trump tweeted that illegal, invading immigrants should be immediately deported, no judges or court proceedings. Throw out the Bill of Rights? Maybe the same "swift justice" can/should apply to Paul Manafort and his ilk? Just say'n...." Goose -- gander, pot -- kettle?

Thank you for reading. Enjoy this first full week of summer.