Cell 2 Soul: The Humane Health Care Blog

Together, You Can Redeem the Soul of Our Nation

In his final days, dying of pancreatic cancer, Congressman John R. Lewis had some parting words for the American people. They offer hope in these turbulent times. On the odd chance that you missed them, here is the first paragraph and a link the NY Times has made available to all interested, and sentient, readers.

One of our readers, YT, pointed me to Morgan Freeman reading John Lewis' Last Words.  It's 5 minutes long and powerfully moving with words and images.

"While my time here has now come to an end, I want you to know that in the last days and hours of my life you inspired me. You filled me with hope about the next chapter of the great American story when you used your power to make a difference in our society. Millions of people motivated simply by human compassion laid down the burdens of division. Around the country and the world you set aside race, class, age, language and nationality to demand respect for human dignity."

Link to full essay.

Marion Pritchard (1920 - 2016)

Marion Pritchard, a gentile whose shock at watching Nazi soldiers storm a home for Jewish children in Amsterdam and load them into a truck for deportation inspired her to enter a clandestine world of rescuing Jews, died on Dec. 11, 2016 at her home in Washington, DC. She was 96.

Please read her moving NY Times obituary.  It's inspiring to be reminded of true heroism.  This woman's brave and quiet work is a candle in the dark.

She Stayed Human

In August 2014, 90 year-old Holocaust survivor, Hedy Epstein, wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with “Stay Human” was arrested while demonstrating in Ferguson, Missouri.

Her inspirational life story can be read in a moving NY Times obituary.

Let us all praise famous (wo)men.

Public Servants on Strike

 

Sunday, September 6, 2015, NY Times

 

FREIHEIT FAR ALLE MENSCHEN

Long-time Cell 2 Soul member and Berkshire County resident, Michael Symons, has written a moving essay recollecting his participation in the historic civil rights march of 1963.

Michael Symons: A Chance Meeting Among the Multitudes
The Berkshire Eagle, August 28, 2013
It was exactly 50 years ago today when I stood no more than a hundred feet from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as he delivered those unforgettable words from the steps of The Lincoln Memorial.
It was August, 1963 -- summer vacation -- when a teacher’s thoughts are furthest from the classroom and the minds he presumes to have touched.
I was working in an inter-generational, Jewish culture camp in upstate New York and, although removed from the outside world, we were very aware of the announced "March on Washington" scheduled for the 28th.

For Michael's full article: Download Symons

In the same issue of The Berkshire Eagle, Ani Nadler Grosser recollects the great civil rights march of 1963 in a moving letter: "Sneaking Out to Join in History."

I will pass along any comments to Michael or Ani.

Being There

In the summer of 1991, Bryan Lindsay was riding his bike on a Brooklyn street when he was hit by a van and almost killed.

He was seven years old at the time.

Rowan Allen was the paramedic on the scene, and recently the two men sat down at StoryCorps to remember that day.  LISTEN

Click here for more about Story Corps

A New York Story

We Found Our Son in the Subway by Peter Mercurio

Occasionally, a story appears in the paper that warms our hearts and educates us as well.  This essay, in the Townies section of the NY Times will make you smile and cry at the same time.  It begins...

"The story of how Danny and I were married last July in a Manhattan courtroom, with our son, Kevin, beside us, began 12 years earlier, in a dark, damp subway station.

Danny called me that day, frantic. “I found a baby!” he shouted. “I called 911, but I don’t think they believed me. No one’s coming. I don’t want to leave the baby alone. Get down here and flag down a police car or something.” By nature Danny is a remarkably calm person, so when I felt his heart pounding through the phone line, I knew I had to run."

Link to Townies article.