America Today

Shortly after dawn, on the running track at the neighborhood college, I was sure I would be able to get away from it.The walkers and runners there would have their minds on more important things. Health. Fitness. In some cases, plain old survival.No one there would bring up the question that was inescapable everywhere else.Wrong.Behind me, and catching up fast, was a tall man in a red T-shirt. When he reached my side, he asked the question."What's the matter with the Orioles?" he said.To tell the truth, I wouldn't mind being asked what's wrong with the Orioles if only I knew the answer.

Are we capable of restoring American values and ending the governmental logjam created by Democrats and Republicans alike? Do we have the moxie and patriotism necessary to address the increasing challenges facing America today? The sequester struggle again suggests we can't - at least under current circumstances. But maybe, with a new political party, we can. Thomas Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum's new book, "That Used to Be Us," describes America's regression since the Cold War ended and outlines our critical challenges posed by globalization, the information technology revolution, out-of-control debt, rising energy consumption and climate change.

Text of homily by Pope John Paul II at Camden Yards:"Oh, that today you would hear his voice: harden not your hearts."(Psalms 95:7-8)Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,Each day, the church begins the liturgy of the hours with the Psalm which we have just prayed together: "Come, let us sing joyfully to the Lord!" In that call, ringing down the centuries and echoing across the face of the globe, the Psalmist summons the people of God to sing the praises of the Lord and to bear great witness to the marvelous things God has done for us.Maryland's roleThe Psalmist's call to hear the Lord's voice has particular significance for us as we celebrate this Mass in Baltimore.

KYOTO, Japan -- Preparing for its 1,200th anniversary, this ancient capital of Japan is trying to burnish its mystique as the repository of old customs and past splendor. But it has to contend with a national inclination to reconstruct everything in a modern way.And, for those who care about the old stuff, it may be too late."Nowhere else will you find such cultural stock," says Tomoyuki Tanabe, Kyoto's mayor.Indeed the Japanese, who tend to be precise about such matters, note that Kyoto, Japan's seventh-largest city and ancient capital, has 10 percent of the country's population but 15 percent of its officially certified "Important Cultural Properties" and 20 percent of the ultra-rare, also officially certified, "National Treasures."

Sunday night, many Americans watched the Academy Awards; celebrating Hollywood's finest, analyzing red carpet entrances, and critiquing stars' fashion choices. For a few hours we are offered a glimpse into a world of glitter and wealth foreign to most Americans. For many people, the Oscars offer a welcome distraction from the impending sequestration, the bitter partisan political atmosphere, the economic downturn, and the myriad crises playing out around the world. The Oscars acknowledge the year's top film professionals, from actors and directors, to cinematographers and editors.

"Moral paralysis" is a term that has been used to describe the inaction of France, England and other European democracies in the 1930s, as they watched Adolf Hitler build up the military forces that he later used to attack them. It is a term that may be painfully relevant to our own times. Back in the 1930s, the governments of the democratic countries knew what Hitler was doing - and they knew that they had enough military superiority at that point to stop his military buildup in its tracks.

In America, a man can shoot and kill a blameless kid, and a jury of his peers will let him walk.This is what we've become.A kid who did nothing wrong is shot dead. The jury says his killer is innocent.You know the story. A Japanese exchange student visiting Baton Rouge, La., is looking for a Halloween party. He's lost. He rings on a doorbell, and the woman who answers immediately thinks she is being threatened by the 16-year-old kid, whose most threatening act is to be dressed in a John Travolta costume.

A flurry of faxes, a few strokes of the pen in a Manhattan law office and the swift electronic shift of hundreds of millions of dollars yesterday ended the 99-year life of Bethlehem Steel Corp., an industrial giant emblematic of American economic power for much of the 20th century. At Sparrows Point in Baltimore County, in Burns Harbor, Ind., and in four other Bethlehem plants across the country, handfuls of survivors surrounded by banks of high-tech, automated steel-manufacturing equipment mourned the company's demise.

All over America, Boomers are climbing back into their pj's.In 1968, when Rex Reed published a collection of celebrity interviews called "Do You Sleep in the Nude?" it was still a marginally racy question to ask a stranger -- but when the stranger was under 30, the answer was often yes. In 1978, when Jill Clayburgh got out of bed in her T-shirt in "An Unmarried Woman," millions of women in the audience identified immediately. Like them, she was young, attractive, with-it, and didn't own a nightgown.

For an original, inexpensive theater experience, consider Saturday's minimarathon of stage readings. Three full-length plays will be read at the Fell's Point Corner Theatre. After the readings, the writers will take questions. The readings are part of a series sponsored by the Baltimore Playwrights Festival. The only requirement for submitting a play: The writer must have some connection to Maryland. Here is a preview of the works that will be read. Patricia Montley - a free-lance writer living in Lutherville, - adds a twist to the classic Greek comedy by Aristophanes in her Adaptation of Lysistrata.