Columns

 Laboratories for human development. One way to describe our education system in America. Many of our schools — public, private and charter — are in trouble. Not only are they struggling to pay the bills in a world of escalating costs for capital construction and maintenance as well as the cost of payroll, they are facing enormous obstacles from the students themselves. Schools need help from much more than teachers and students, they also need families, politicians and taxpayers to be a part of the team.

When New Jersey governor Chris Christie ordered flags in the state to fly at half-staff Saturday to honor the late singer Whitney Houston, he drew quite a bit of criticism from residents.

China, for better or worse, is a serious country. The United States had better start acting like one.

I got a glimpse of the future Wednesday in the vast ballroom of a Washington hotel where hundreds of august dignitaries — and some journalists as well — gathered at a luncheon in honor of Vice President Xi Jinping, who is widely expected to become China’s top leader after a year-long transition.

When I was young, I felt like a captive locomotive. Time didn’t move fast enough for me. I couldn’t satiate my young appetite for the world that waited beyond my rural landscape. Today, time moves far too fast. There is just enough time in a day for regret of what I haven’t accomplished. Time eludes all reason— especially when it comes to a death.