To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here A few days before Christmas 1989, things looked precarious for authoritarian Communist leaders. The Berlin Wall had fallen. The Soviet Union was on the ropes. Revolutions were toppling Eastern European governments. Nikolae Ceausescu, who had ruled Romania by means of sheer brutality since 1965, was determined to be the exception. He… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Americans have long cherished what has been described as a “special relationship” with Great Britain. Our relationship with France? That’s a bit more complicated. It’s true that France was in our corner from the start, serving as our principal military ally during our Revolution. In 1876, to mark the 100th anniversary of… Read more »
On July 14, 1789, a Parisian street mob stormed the Bastille, a state prison that symbolized the oppressive regime of King Louis XVI. Today is Bastille Day, the French version of America’s Fourth of July. It commemorates the beginning of the French Revolution. The French ardently admired what the American colonists had accomplished in their revolt against Great Britain the previous decade. … Read more »
