Dignity

Under a printed head scarf and the warm sun, Candice Abdal-Rahim served hundreds of strangers food and drink that she could not sample until sundown. She was observing the Muslim holy month of Ramadan by fasting and performing an act of charity at the annual Day of Dignity, a national effort organized by Islamic Relief and the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Serving others "makes the day go quicker," said Abdal-Rahim, a city schools administrator. This was the fifth year the Day of Dignity, marked in 22 cities over 10 different weekends, was observed in Baltimore.

Baltimore Archbishop William E. Lori came to Annapolis Thursday with a simple message: Repeal of the death penalty is a matter of human dignity. In an interview with The Sun before his appearance before the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee's hearing on Gov. Martin O'Malley's repeal bill, Lori said that essential dignity extend even to "human persons who do terrible things. " "Our position is there's a better way -- that life without parole is more reasonable if there's any possibility of reform and rehabilitation," he said at the Maryland Catholic Conference's office in Annapolis.

Although a charter member of the Atlantic Coast Conference with 60 years of tradition, Maryland did not respond to a couple of phone calls from the ACC commissioner before approving the move to the Big Ten. This courtesy was owed to the commissioner and does not speak well for Maryland. An institution of our standing should not have been dictated to by the Big Ten Conference. We kowtowed to their terms by not receiving input from all those affected by this change - the students, faculty, student athletes, alumni and former athletes.

You have to wonder what kind of fun Vatican mystery writer Dan Brown would have with the startling resignation of Pope Benedict XVI. As would be the case when any well-known CEO suddenly steps down "for health reasons," we are immediately suspicious. Was he, like the last pope to step down voluntarily more than 700 years ago, simply the wrong man for the job? A shy and aging scholar overwhelmed by the demands of guiding the church through the scandals of sex abuse and money laundering, who was happier in the library than on the balcony at St. Peter's?

LAS VEGAS -- The horrible moment lives on, as it will for the rest of his days, in the mind of Evander Holyfield."I thought it must be a nightmare, that if I woke up, it would just go away," he once said of that moment in the summer of 1984, when he was kicked out of the Olympic Games in Los Angeles.In a semifinal bout of the light-heavyweight division, Holyfield was administering a beating to New Zealander Kevin Barry when, during an exchange, the Yugoslav referee, Bligorije Novicic, yelled, "Stop!"

MY WIFE Lydia died last June. She had been fighting cancer off and on for 10 years.During that time, Lydia fought bravely to keep living through various complex treatments and their aftermath. As her condition worsened, her last hope was for a bone marrow transplant. She badgered her doctors to "keep the faith."Finally the doctors told her that there was nothing more they could do. A transplant was no longer possible, and she should expect death soon.Since she was quite uncomfortable, she told her doctors that she was ready to die. She had already lived a full year beyond anyone's expectation.

I WAS BORN with a muscular-dystrophy-related disease, and your Labor Day telethons have always turned my stomach. I actually appeared on one in the late 1960s, as the Muscular Dystrophy Association poster-child for the New York metropolitan area. t as a child: Despite your undoubtedly honorable intentions, you are sadly misinformed about disabilities. Moreover, you are misleading the able-bodied population while offending the rest of us.You and your organization have done much good, and I myself have benefited from your financial resources.

Founded on belief in the inherent dignity of everyone, Dignity Players begins its fifth season at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Annapolis continuing its mission of presenting plays that focus on social justice. This season's opening production of Arab-American playwright Yussef El Guidi's Back of the Throat illustrates the effects of the U.S. Patriot Act on Arab-American citizens. In this dark, sometimes comic drama examining post 9/11 attitudes toward Muslims, protagonist Arab-American writer Khaled is visited by two initially friendly but puzzling government officials, who become menacingly probing and later abusive toward an astonished Khaled, who discovers that he is the focus of a government inquiry into his alleged terrorist ties.

Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde, opening at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Annapolis next week, reminds us how social injustice destroyed the most celebrated playwright of his era. Dignity Players, whose mission is to shed light on social issues and promote individual self-worth, confronts homophobia in its production of Moises Kaufman's play. In 2004, Sue Struve, Bryan Barrett and Mickey Handwerger founded the all-volunteer theater component of the church's Arts in the Woods program.

MARIETTA, Ga. -- As his colleagues in Washington debated President Clinton's fate, House Speaker Newt Gingrich played host yesterday to a farewell town hall meeting in his district that combined effusive tributes for Gingrich with seething denunciations of Clinton.At both his forum at Walton High School and at a news conference, Gingrich maintained his distance from the details of the impeachment process, which he has bequeathed to his successor, Rep. Bob Livingston, and to Rep. Henry Hyde, chairman of the Judiciary Committee.

Although a charter member of the Atlantic Coast Conference with 60 years of tradition, Maryland did not respond to a couple of phone calls from the ACC commissioner before approving the move to the Big Ten. This courtesy was owed to the commissioner and does not speak well for Maryland. An institution of our standing should not have been dictated to by the Big Ten Conference. We kowtowed to their terms by not receiving input from all those affected by this change - the students, faculty, student athletes, alumni and former athletes.

I am a practicing Catholic who supports and will vote for Question 6 and Marriage Equality in Maryland. It is my Catholic faith and understanding of Catholic social teaching that demands it. Catholic social teaching says the person is not only sacred but also social. Marriage is social. Catholic social teaching calls for dignity and says that in a healthy community every person has a fundamental right to the things required for human decency. Forbidding civil marriage to a particular group takes away that dignity for the couple and their children.

Dignity Players caps its 2011 season with Del Shores' 1996 comedy "Sordid Lives," about a dysfunctional Texas family that could compete in sleaze and shock with most reality TV show stars — and beat them all in laughs. In his program statement, Dignity's artistic director, Mickey Lund, reminds us that the company's message of tolerance, love and acceptance is evident here, although "its delivery is much more light-hearted and fun than you may be accustomed to at Dignity Players.

The Transportation Security Administration could scarcely have bought itself worse publicity than the recent revelation that a 95-year-old wheelchair user, a late-stage cancer patient, received a security pat-down and was ordered to remove her adult diaper by TSA agents in Florida. The thought that this poor woman who is so unlikely to pose a serious threat to anyone would face such indignity is painful just to think about. She was, according to her daughter who filed a complaint with federal authorities last week, simply trying to get from Florida to Michigan in order to spend her final days with relatives.

I am thankful that Sen. John McCain has remained steadfast in his belief that torture is wrong, as reported in the Leonard Pitts' column ("Benefits of torture come at too high a price," May 22). I appreciate also that Mr. Pitts highlighted Senator McCain's emphasis that a discussion on the use of torture hinges on whether the end justifies the means, misses the point entirely. Though the senator indicated that the abuse of prisoners sometimes produces good intelligence but that the information provided to stop torture is often misleading, he also said the following: "All of these arguments have the force of right, but they are beside the most important point.

Dignity Players starts 2011 in its tradition of producing minimalist-style plays that contain a strong spiritual and social message. The theme of Dignity's sixth season is "Masked," to indicate the exploration of the many layers of human experience hidden beneath the masks we all wear. The opener of Donald Margulies' 1992 play "Sight Unseen" sets the stage well with its evolving characters looking inward, struggling with their identities and relationships against a subtext of modern art. Margulies' characters are not particularly likable, but they are enigmatic and honest enough to hold our interest.

I am a practicing Catholic who supports and will vote for Question 6 and Marriage Equality in Maryland. It is my Catholic faith and understanding of Catholic social teaching that demands it. Catholic social teaching says the person is not only sacred but also social. Marriage is social. Catholic social teaching calls for dignity and says that in a healthy community every person has a fundamental right to the things required for human decency. Forbidding civil marriage to a particular group takes away that dignity for the couple and their children.

I am thankful that Sen. John McCain has remained steadfast in his belief that torture is wrong, as reported in the Leonard Pitts' column ("Benefits of torture come at too high a price," May 22). I appreciate also that Mr. Pitts highlighted Senator McCain's emphasis that a discussion on the use of torture hinges on whether the end justifies the means, misses the point entirely. Though the senator indicated that the abuse of prisoners sometimes produces good intelligence but that the information provided to stop torture is often misleading, he also said the following: "All of these arguments have the force of right, but they are beside the most important point.

Today is the 25th anniversary of the nation's commemoration of Rev. Martin Luther King's birthday as a national holiday. At a time when an act of violence has focused the nation's attention on the rancorous nature of political discourse, we remember the most famous oration of a man who brought change through peace. This is the text of the "I have a dream" speech, delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington on Aug. 28, 1963. I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Favre's toughness Dom Amore Hartford Courant This is one debate in which there is no shame in finishing second. But we have to pick one, and for sheer toughness I have to go with the NFL quarterback. To play 162 baseball games over roughly 180 days is very difficult, and few players do it today, even for one season. It's grueling, and even if one is lucky enough to avoid injuries, the fatigue is a formidable obstacle. It's also unnecessary for a baseball player to play every game, the primary reason it's not done much these days.