Heart & Soul Conversation # 26……Baseball-More Than A Game

April 20

“The historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., has remarked that we suffer today from “too much pluribus and not enough unum.” Few things survive in these cynical days to remind us of the Union from which so many of our personal and collective blessings flow, and it is hard not to wonder, in an age when the present moment consumes and overshadows all else — our bright past and our dim unknown future — what finally does endure? What encodes and stores the genetic material of our civilization — passing down to the next generation the best of us, what we hope will mutate into betterness for our children and our posterity? Baseball provides one answer. Nothing in our daily life offers more of the comfort of continuity, the generational connection of belonging to a vast and complicated American family, the powerful sense of home, the freedom from time’s constraints, and the great gift of accumulated memory than does our National Pastime.”—Ken Burns

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Christina M. Abt is an accomplished author, newspaper columnist and radio broadcaster with four books to her credit:

1,) Chicken Wing Wisdom: Western New York Stories of Family, Life and Food Shared Around the Table—a regional best-seller.
2.) Crown Hill, A Novel of Love, Life and The Afterlife: Christina’s first work of historical fiction that continues to earn five-star Amazon reviews.
3.)Heart & Soul, The Best Years of My Op-Ed Life: A collection of essays chronicling Christina’s long-running newspaper and NPR Affiliate/WBFO Radio commentary career.
4.) Beauty & Grace: a work of historical fiction earning five star reviews on Amazon and praise from readers across America. B&G Presentations have included the South Dakota Women’s Prison Book Club and the South Dakota Festival of Books as well as The Cell Theater in Manhattan.
5.) Money or Love, is her newest book, a novel about internet dating from the far
side of 40, which will publish in June.

Christina is a bred and born Buffalo Gal, the proud mother of two
and the blessed Nana of one perfect grandson and one darling granddaughter.

Check out Christina’s website

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New video captures ICE in ‘drive-by’ mace attack on peaceful people on sidewalk



Dozens of protesters in Phoenix, Arizona were hit in a drive-by mace attack Monday night by an apparent Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, Phoenix New Times editor Zach Buchanan reported.

“I've been sent video from the end of the ICE raid at the Zipps on 32nd and Shea,” Buchanan wrote in a social media post on X, alongside video of the incident.

“It shows protesters – on the sidewalk, impeding no one – getting drive-by maced by an ICE agent from a truck as it rolls away down the road. Hard to see how such tactics are justifiable.”

In the video, around two dozen demonstrators can be seen protesting ICE on a sidewalk near a sports grill just outside of Phoenix’s downtown area as apparent ICE vehicles drive by. As a silver truck bearing sirens passes by, an individual in the front passenger seat can be seen spraying protesters with what appears to be mace as the vehicle passes by.

“Oh my god, oh my god,” a voice can be heard shouting moments after the protesters were sprayed.

One protester appeared injured by the drive-by mace attack, with others rushing to their aid and one offering them an article of clothing to wipe their face.

The sports grill where the incident took place just outside of – Zipps Sports Grill – was the target of a criminal investigation carried out by the Department of Homeland Security and several partner agencies, Fox News reported, with DHS being granted 15 search warrants for the eatery.