Free Republic

OXFORD, Ala. — A beautiful gesture at an Alabama restaurant has gone viral. A man named Jamario Howard posted on Facebook that he and two of his friends went to eat at a restaurant in Oxford last week when he noticed a woman sitting alone. Jamario wrote, “My exact thoughts was, ‘Dang, I’d hate to have to eat alone.’” That’s when he decided to do something about it. Jamario said he walked up to the woman and asked if he could sit with her. She said, “Yes,” and as they started talking, he learned she lost her husband, and their...

President Donald Trump made a rare appearance at a church last Sunday. It’s a safe bet the sermon was not based on Proverbs 15:1—”A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” If it was, it didn’t appear to have much effect. Before and after church, the president engaged in a tweet storm that insulted several people, including the late Sen. John McCain. Trump accuses McCain of being complicit in the leak of the Steele dossier, a private intelligence report compiled by former MI6 officer Christopher Steele for the political research firm Fusion GPS, which, among...

ROSEVILLE/ST. CLAIR SHORES — “God must have sent Officer Bing to me.” Dolores Marotta has lived in her house in Roseville, just west of Interstate 94, since 1989. But when her husband died in 2015, she got behind on her taxes and has just recently come close to catching up on the payments to the city. She said she still owes $1,000. She has other worries, as well...... A house next door to hers was torn down by the city, but a tree stump was left and the roots are now going under the foundation of her home, cracking her...

t’s easy in California to find a home, hide behind fences, cocoon in one’s abode, and come out only to travel the freeways to work. Finding community in many neighborhoods is rare. People are unlikely to know the names of more than two or three families on their street. Laughing along with sitcoms and crying at disturbing news seems to be our most common way of connecting, but it isn’t very satisfying. I’m no different, having a distant relationship with most of my neighbors. I may wave, but I get my needs met for community at my church, through professional...

Anybody else sick of the constant bickering going on in the public forum? In 2016, we had a national election where we were at each other’s throats. We expected, based on history, things would calm down in 2017. They just got worse. My resolution for all of us in 2018: let’s take a deep breath and start to learn how to speak to each other again. There is plenty of blame to go around with our national media being a prime example. Where the main purpose of the media was to inform and educate us on the issues of the...

CHULA VISTA, Calif. – A sweet act of kindness was caught on camera, and a Chula Vista mother is hoping to find out who the boy is that left Halloween candy at her doorstep for others to take. Kim Manalo and her family left a bowl of candy out while she took her kids trick or treating on Halloween night. After coming home to an empty candy bowl, Kim immediately thought the worst. "Once we got around the block the bowl was empty. I wasn't too surprised but I was hoping it wasn't one kid or an adult," said Manalo....

"Love is kind" (1 Cor. 13:4). Kindness repays evil with good. Two men going opposite directions on a narrow mountain trail met each other head on. With a steep cliff on one side and sheer rock on the other, they were unable to pass. The harder they tried to squeeze past one another the more frustrated they became. The situation seemed hopeless until one of them, without saying a word, simply laid down on the trail, allowing the other man to walk over him. That illustrates kindness, which doesn't mind getting walked on if it benefits someone else. The Greek...

At the end of the day, most men just want a woman who’s nice. “Nice,” to a man, means being soft, gentle and kind. It means asking your husband how his day was and really listening. It means doing something nice for him with no expectation of getting something in return—you know, the way you did when you were dating. But wait a minute, you say. Don’t women want the same thing? A man who’s nice? Not exactly. Most women do want a man who’s kind, but that’s not the same as nice. Ask any guy you know, and he’ll...

Before Beth and Michael Clark came along, Rocky was just a feeble, elderly dog who may have otherwise never found a home to live out the rest of his days. Luckily, the couple laid eyes on him one day when dropping off donations at the Anne Arundel County Animal Shelter in Maryland.

The left-leaning news media are always Johnny-on-the-Spot to criticize Chick-fil-A because its owners happen to be pro-traditional marriage. But when it opens its heart (and its doors) in the wake of a national tragedy, they suddenly put their blinders on. On Sunday, following the bloody massacre at an Orlando nightclub that caters to gays, several nearby locations of the restaurant chain opened its doors to deliver sandwiches and drinks to police and EMTs at the crime scene, and to those donating blood. In case you think Chick-fil-A was profiting from a tragedy, think again. They accepted no payment for their...

Jamie-Lynne Knighten wants the world to know the legacy of Matthew Jackson, a man she barely knew. Their only encounter was brief, about five minutes in a grocery store on Nov. 10. But what happened in those moments, and the tragedy that followed, put the Carlsbad woman on a quest to honor the 28-year-old whose kindness left a deep impression. “It is beautiful and heartbreaking at the same time,” she said Wednesday. “We are trying to turn something sad into something really good.” The late evening trip to Trader Joe’s in Oceanside had been stressful for Knighten, her fussy 5-month-old...

A Chicago McDonald’s employee who closed the register during the dinner rush to help a disabled customer is being praised by the fast food chain.

Stern Love – A Meditation on a Moment When Jesus Was Unkind By: Msgr. Charles PopeThe Gospel for today’s Mass shocks most modern readers and perhaps a few ancient ones as well. It is the story of the Syrophoenician woman who begs Jesus to heal her daughter. But Jesus ignores and then rebuffs her. Our shock says perhaps more about our poor understanding of love than about Jesus’ terse response.For review, here is the well known passage:Jesus went to the district of Tyre.He entered a house and wanted no one to know about it,but he could not escape notice.Soon a woman whose daughter...

Debbie Davis was driving along a busy roadway in Kansas City when she saw something that made her slow down.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation, one of the largest secular groups in America, announced it is erecting 11 different billboards across Chicago this week with various messages. Some of the ads ask people to "think for (themselves)," while others argue that kindness "comes from altruism" and not from "seeking divine reward." "Research shows that atheists and other nonbelievers remain at the bottom of the totem pole when it comes to social acceptance. One reason for that is that even though at least 20% of the population today is nonreligious in the United States, many Americans have never knowingly met an...

A Tarrant, Alabama Police officer who became an Internet sensation after he decided not to arrest a grandmother he caught shoplifting eggs but to buy her some eggs instead, went a step further this week when he delivered two truckloads of food to her home to help her children. "The last time I saw my house this full, I was 12-years-old and staying with my grandmother," 47-year-old mother and grandmother Helen Johnson told al.com Wednesday after the food was delivered to her home. "I've been crying all day." Last Saturday, Officer William Stacy of the Tarrant Police Department was called...

Science says lasting relationships come down to—you guessed it -- KINDNESS and GENEROSITY. Every day in June, the most popular wedding month of the year, about 13,000 American couples will say “I do,” committing to a lifelong relationship that will be full of friendship, joy, and love that will carry them forward to their final days on this earth. Except, of course, it doesn’t work out that way for most people. The majority of marriages fail, either ending in divorce and separation or devolving into bitterness and dysfunction. Of all the people who get married, only three in ten remain...

People across the country are mourning the death of Corporal Nathan Cirillo today. Since his shooting death at the war memorial in Ottawa, there has been an outpouring of sympathy for his family and his comrades in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders reserve force. Barbara Winters shares that feeling. She is now a lawyer but she spent 17 years in the Naval Reserve. And she was one of those who came to the aid of Nathan Cirillo yesterday in the moments after he was attacked. In an emotional interview with As It Happens host Carol Off, she recalls her efforts...

It's customary to give a waiter a nice tip for good service. But one San Luis Obispo server was given the surprise of his life when a party he was serving gave him a $1,000 tip on an $800 check. He says it was a group of regulars who gave him the huge tip. He had just one table Saturday night, a party of 10. But that was more than enough.

Happiness is infectious. That's why we want to share the pure joy of Noah, a boy with Down syndrome as he opens a letter of acceptance to college. Noah Van Vooren of Little Chute, Wisconsin now has a chance to attend Edgewood College and it seems he could not be happier. What is most incredible is that when Noah was born he was not expected to walk according to his doctors. Noah reads his own letter, despite an offer from his dad to read the letter. Watch the video and share the joy. Stay happy and those around you will...