By LORETTA FULTON Julie Pompa knew how fortunate she was. Her house is on the outer edge of the main path of a tornado that swept through the west side of Abilene on May 18. She got some roof damage and is living with her mother for the time being, along with her children. It could have been much worse,
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By DANNY MINTON You stand quietly and read name after name. Names of people you don’t know. Names of people you’ve never met. Mostly kids. It’s difficult to read the names without tears welling up in your eyes. You are standing before The Wall, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Each name represents a sacrifice of a young life in pursuit of
Read moreIDLE AMERICAN Commentary by Dr. Don Newbury Surely it was a slow news day on both coasts recently. In Rhode Island, they unrolled fireman-grade water hoses to wash egg from the faces of school board members, and in California, a small, “highest-scale” coffee spot sold out of a new magical coffee brew despite its introductory price of $75 PER CUP. Left-coast
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By LORETTA FULTON The jar containing soil from the site where Grover C. Everett was murdered in Abilene in 1922 might as well have held his ashes for the sacred way it was treated by a group of McMurry University students who recently took the glass vessel to a museum in Alabama. “That jar got carried like it was precious cargo,”
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By LORETTA FULTON The Jumano Indians were honored with a resolution from the Texas Legislature May 15 that was proposed by Bishop Michael Pfeifer, former bishop of the Catholic Diocese of San Angelo. Pfeifer, who lives in San Antonio, has long been an admirer or the Jumano people and Sor Maria de Jesus of Agreda, also known as Lady in
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HARDIN-SIMMONS UNIVERSITY NEWS RELEASE A team comprised of 20 Hardin-Simmons University physician assistant students, nine non-medical staff, and 10 medical professionals recently returned from a mission trip in the Dominican Republic. HSU began preparing for the student-led mission trip as early as Fall 2018, with meetings held each month to communicate what the Dominican Republic community would need. Each student
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By DANNY MINTON I was traveling down one of the commercial streets in Abilene one day and saw the sign, “Clean Dirt.” That struck me odd since I learned years ago that dirt was “dirty.” I was told to wash the dirt off my hands before I ate. I washed the dirt out of my hair, and my mom cleaned
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By LORETTA FULTON Members of First Christian Church gathered May 5 in a circle around the sanctuary, held hands,and sang, “We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord.” It is that spirit that will take the congregation on a new journey as plans come together to relocate from the downtown corner that has been home since
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By DANNY MINTON The date was sometime in January 1966 when I lay in bed, alone in a hospital room at Baylor medical center, encased in a body cast that engulfed the upper half of my body. I had been in the hospital over a month after breaking a vertebra in my neck. It didn’t hurt when it happened, and
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Spirit Of Abilene 