• No winnable wars

On May 26 we celebrated the lives of American soldiers who lost theirs in a war that should never have been; a war that has divided our nation, and taken the lives of more than 4,500 U.S. servicemen, more than 200,000 Iraqis, and displaced more than 2,000,000.

We cannot know how many homes will be broken, how many families will be destroyed, how many young, gifted, and promising men and women will return to us with broken spirits and will seek peace in taking their own lives, an estimated 18 every week already are dying at their own hands.

Unfortunately, there are some things that we do know; (1) the rich are profiting from it; (2) the middle class are paying for it; (3) the poor are suffering because of it; and (4) the innocent are dying in it.

It is my fervent hope that at some point in my lifetime, I will live in an America whose leaders understand that there are no more winnable wars. Surrender is not in anybody’s vocabulary. Even the flea that cannot hurt an elephant, by crawling into his ear, can make the elephant hurt himself.

The only winnable war is the one that is never fought.

Minister Floyd Rose, President Valdosta-Lowndes County Chapter

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

• Jordan fought to battle cancer

Hamilton Jordan was the most dedicated cancer fighter I have ever known. He battled royally against his own cancer and on behalf of the whole nation.

He had a perfect blend of idealism and pragmatism — convinced that we could defeat the demon, but with the most logical and practical steps with realistic strategies and tactics. Jordan worked both at the policy level to improve cancer care for the nation, and at the individual level as he counseled hundreds of newly diagnosed patients, sharing his inspirational book “No Such Thing as a Bad Day” and encouraging people to take charge of their own care.