Tears

Activists' story was inspiring, but is anyone listening?Gregory Kane's column "Community activist struggles to save city" (Sept. 25) brought tears to my eyes.Tears of admiration for that brave and determined woman, Orisha Kammefa, and her determination to save her neighborhood and tears of frustration about the society that is ruining it.And a sense of despair about changing all that is wrong.In examining my own neighborhood for the past three years, I have concluded that there are four factors that are important for a stable, successful community: quality housing stock, location, a citizenry with respect for the environment and each other and a strong neighborhood association.

LAUGHTER and tears are a lot alike considering how different they are. Each represents an extreme human reaction. Tears express sadness; laughter -- pleasure or amusement.Tears are harder to fake or call up on command. A person can decide to smile or laugh to convey the idea that he or she is pleased or amused but, except for some good actors who can do it on command, tears come unbidden to our eyes.But the mechanics of tears are a mystery. Where do they come from, what evokes them and where do they go?

So it has come to this: "Touched By an Angel" vs. "Touched By a President."CBS counters the first TV interview with Monica Lewinsky, on ABC tonight at 9, with big-hair star-power of its own, a midweek "Touched by an Angel" repeat with guest stars Celine Dion and Wynonna.Lewinsky's two-hour interview with Barbara Walters, however, should top even "Party of Five" -- usually the place for melodramatic Wednesday-night tears -- in the emotion department.For all the impeachment battle's historical importance, and the wonderful characters that have populated it, the Lewinsky affair didn't necessarily play well on TV. The only pictures from the past four months have been from dull committee rooms and congressional chambers.

NAGANO, Japan -- Michelle Kwan kept crying softly. She cried when she finished her performance. She cried when she failed to win the gold. And she cried again in a news conference, wiping away the tears while trying to smile.Defeat hurt her. She gave a show that was nearly golden, skating with style and grace and all seven triple jumps properly placed. Yet she had to settle for the silver behind American teammate Tara Lipinski in the women's figure skating final at the Winter Olympics yesterday.

LATELY I HAVE been burning onions, on purpose. They smell good and they taste even better.It is a pretty simple procedure. I take an ordinary yellow onion and slice it in half, top to bottom. Then I put the onion halves over a medium-hot charcoal fire, and I leave them on the fire for 30 to 40 minutes.That is when they burn, or char. The edges of the onion turn a forbidding shade of black. But the color is deceptive. Rather than tasting dried out and bitter, the charred onions develop a surprising sweet flavor.

FORT WORTH, Texas -- A jury convicted former Naval Academy midshipman Diane Zamora of capital murder yesterday in the slaying of Adrianne Jones, a 16-year-old high school classmate with whom Zamora's boyfriend claimed he once had sex.Zamora, holding the hand of one of her three lawyers, showed little emotion when the verdict was read. Her wide, dark-brown eyes appeared confused and scared as she looked over her shoulder at her sobbing family and was led away by bailiffs. Her attorneys said they will appeal.

It was only moments after Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke announced that he was going to pack up and leave City Hall next year, and already Lawrence A. Bell III, City Council president and perhaps heir to the city's throne, was holding court under the television lights.Reporters were goading Bell, trying unsuccessfully to get him to say he would run."What's going on?" asked a maintenance worker stringing cables through the ceiling inches away from Bell and the TV crews."The mayor's leaving," his partner informed him."

In lace ankle socks and a flowered dress, 9-year-old Latevia Carroll brought a Baltimore County jury to tears yesterday as she described the man she calls Daddy "stomping my mother" in a pool of blood in her Middle River home in September.Testifying in the murder trial of Anthony R. Bell, Latevia described the scene of her mother's slaying in a clear, steady voice. But she broke down while noting that she called 911 when she was unable to rouse her mother -- prompting the judge to clear tearful jurors from the courtroom.

The coach, Dave Griffith, is a stern 43-year-old retired policeman who has survived 11 knee operations and one heart attack.The point guard, Kerry Miller, is an emotional junior who can be on the bench in tears one minute and dribbling through five players for a layup a few minutes later.The center, Jackie Edwards, is a gifted 6-foot-2 junior athlete who just might make it big at a major Division I college some day.The power forward, Kammi Cottrell, is a quiet 6-1 junior who sometimes makes the game look surprisingly easy.

WHEN I TOLD my 13-year-old son that I had purchased tickets for the family to see "The King and I," he said, "Why? Is it about me?"No, I said, patiently. This is about me.This is about my need to create family memories, about my belief in the transfer of our cultural heritage to the next generation, about my love of musical theater."Whatever," he said.That was all he said then. On the day of the performance, he had plenty to say."I'm not going. I have homework. I have baseball practice. I don't feel good."

Tears rimmed Joseph Hauser's eyes as he watched his daughter, Charlotte, disappear behind the gymnasium door. Fierce emotions rip at many parents as they drop their children off at college, but more than most, Hauser knew his daughter would not be the same person after a few months away from him. That's the reality for almost all candidates at the U.S. Naval Academy, which welcomed its newest class of 1,230 plebes Wednesday morning. "It's quite a reality check," said Hauser, a resident of Saratoga Springs, N.Y. "It's different than sending your child to a normal college, where you can see them whenever they allow you to. I'm sure she will be different when I see her again.

NCAA men's final 9 p.m. [chs. 13, 9] Regardless of how the Michigan State-North Carolina game plays out, you must be there for the end of the telecast, just to see "One Shining Moment." And if the brief glimpse of Greivis Vasquez doesn't move you to tears, then you just have no heart.

Boston College@Maryland women 7 p.m. [Comcast SportsNet-Plus] Everybody sing: Oh yes, it's Senior Night/And the feeling's right/Oh yes, it's Senior Night/Oh, what a night. Marissa Coleman (left) and Kristi Toliver are being honored, and the Terps hope the offense will flow as freely as the tears as they seek the top seed for the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament.

Maggie Babb describes the crying moments in her life so vividly that her prose is almost enough to bring you to, well, tears. "Usually the first tears begin to flow copiously, then my breathing becomes involved with a ragged breath," said the resident of Lineboro, in Carroll County, who was among several area residents asked to reflect upon sorrowful times. "When I am deeply upset, I cry silently, breath suspended, followed by a gasping inhalation. I usually cover my face with my hands in a desire to be alone with my intense feelings.

My assignment editor called to tell me that I had a new assignment: I needed to head to Towson to photograph members of the Maryland Army National Guard coming home from duty in Iraq. At the moment, I was in Columbia lying on the ground trying to get a gripping photo of a box turtle meeting a group of 6-year-olds. I had been told the troops would arrive at 12:30 p.m. At 11:50 a.m., I parked my car on a side street and began to eat lunch. I hadn't even gotten to those delicious hidden pickles in my chicken sandwich when I heard cheers erupting from up the street.

Crying is hot in politics now, and you're going to see a lot more of it on the campaign trail from now on. If the pop-psych theories are right and crying helped Hillary Rodham Clinton win the New Hampshire primary, you can bet the other candidates -- both Democrats and Republicans -- will start bawling at the drop of a hat, too. So what if the other candidates are guys? If I'm Barack Obama, I'm speed-dialing Oprah right now and begging to get back on her show so I can break down and cry. (If Barack could get Oprah to cry with him -- or even just dab her eyes with a Kleenex -- man, that would be a major coup.

For the first time in the history of crying, it actually helped a woman in the workplace. And Hillary Clinton wasn't even hiding in the ladies room. There she was in a New Hampshire coffee shop - and forever on a YouTube loop - voice cracking, eyes welling and clearly overcome by passion for her work and frustration that she might not be allowed to complete it. That was Monday. On Tuesday, she won the New Hampshire primary in a come-from-behind - no, come-back-from-the-dead - stunner of an upset, making fools of all the pollsters who had predicted her loss to Barack Obama by a double-digit margin.

Going into the New Hampshire primary, Sen. Hillary Clinton implored voters to keep a level head and not get carried away with a passing crush. Unable to match Sen. Barack Obama's inspiring oratory, she sniped, "You campaign in poetry, but you govern in prose." But after winning Tuesday, she was all gooey sentiment: "I felt like we all spoke from our hearts, and I'm so gratified you responded." Head, heart - what does it matter, as long as she wins? If it took a show of tears to elicit sympathy from New Hampshirites, Sister Frigidaire (as she was known in her youth)

ROCHESTER, N.H. -- By Wednesday, the headlines that had blared "Panic" and "On the Edge" were as infamous as "Dewey Defeats Truman." The advance stories written to explain Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's defeat had all been sacrificed to the delete button. The irrepressible Tim Russert, who had delivered her obit in ringing tones of certainty just a day earlier, sounded like a real estate agent digging through a ruined landscape for explanations: "Women, women, women." It was New Hampshire women who came to Hillary's rescue after the near-death experience of Iowa.

Watch this weekend's state championship football games at M&T Bank Stadium and you'll see tears of joy closely intertwined with tears of disappointment. You'll see how Maryland awards trophies to winners in four classifications. What you won't see - but which is undeniably true - is how the outcome on the field is being indelibly burned into the minds of those athletes for years (and perhaps decades) to come, whether it is the satisfaction of a dream finally fulfilled or the sting and regret of how it could have somehow been different.