In this country, land of the free, the Supreme Court just heard arguments over whether grandparents have rights to see their grandchildren.Those in favor say a child needs a grandparent's love. Nothing, they say, is more important than family.In this same country, land of the free, lawyers claim that a 6-year-old boy is better off away from his father than with him. They say that returning Elian Gonzalez to Cuba, where his father lives, would be bad for the boy. Some things, they say, are more important than family.I ask the obvious question:Which is it?
LAS VEGAS -- I have found the future. I am walking through it, carrying a plastic shopping bag.I am at the Consumers Electronics Show, the first major trade show of the millennium. It is "cutting edge." It is "hot, hot, hot." It is every cell phone, computer chip, video, stereo and Internet device you can imagine.I am lost."What is that?" I ask the person with a name tag that reads "Personal Relations/Consultant."
MINNEAPOLIS -- Welcome to the 2000s, Lions fans, where you'll find your playoff hopes in a rather unusual location: stuck in a Dixie cup, surrounded by ice.Thumbs-down.Whatever chance the Lions had in the postseason has, once again, been clunked by a hard hat. There was pain. There was ice. And there was quarterback Charlie Batch, swell guy, turned into Charlie Batch, swelling guy.Didn't we go through this last century?
The first thing Darryl Towns did, after he was shot, was stagger toward his mother's bedroom. She wasn't home. He knew that. But bleeding from the chest, the life oozing out of him, he retreated to the safest place he could think of: Mama's room.He had always been his mother's son. How many times, as a little boy, had he tiptoed down this same short hallway, curled up at the foot of her bed, and watched TV with the volume low until she woke up?
Mitch Albom writes about running an orphanage in impoverished Port-au-Prince, Haiti, his kids, their hardships, laughs and challenges, and the life lessons he’s learned there every day.
