Alternative names for the Washington Redskins: The Washington Monuments, The Washington Foreskins, The Washington Politicos, The Washington News Junkies, the Washington Political Science Majors, The Washington Lobbyists, The Washington Lawyers, The Washington Beltways, The Washington Potomacs, The Washington Cherry Blossoms, The Washington Pandas, The Washington Commuters, The Washington Colonials, The Washington Tourists

Patrick Kilmurry lived next door to where I grew up in Woodbridge, NJ. He named the white house in which he and his wife Rose lived "Château-Thierry" after a battle in which he, under General "Blackjack" Pershing, fought--one of the first actions by the US during what what was then called "The Great War," "the war to end all wars," but now know as World War I.

The centennial of World War I will be next year--but you would hardly know it. There doesn't seen to be much planned and, as yet, there is no World War I Memorial in Washington. We have memorials to the Vietnam, Korean and Second World War on the a National Mall.

We are in the midst of the bicentennial of The War of 1812, and aside from a few happenings at nearby Fort McHenry, this also has gone by pretty much unnoticed.

I recall no commemorations for the Mexican-American War, which, in spite of whatever moral misgivings we might have about it, was of enormous significance; the conflict was arguably the most important since the revolution, adding to the US territory equivalent to the combined size of Italy, France and Spain.

Most of us -- not just the Civil War buffs -- can name at least a half dozen Civil War battles and generals and sing any number of songs from that conflict--but the Mexican War is largely forgotten and gets little more than a few paragraphs in our High School history text books. The Spanish American War also gets short shrift

Pat used to let me wear his dough boy, Smokey the Bear style campaign hat and tell me about "Over There." The sign "Château-Thierry" isn't on the house anymore. I'd like to see a more formal commemoration down here in Washington. I think Patrick Kilmurry would have liked that.

If you speak to God, you are religious. But if God speaks back, are you schizophrenic?

I expect many different replies to this question. Some will be flip or snide. Some people will say that God speaks to them in study of Scripture, in prayer, in loving or in nature or in working with others. Some will say there is no God or that there is a God, but He/She doesn't speak to us and any notion of God speaking to us is imagination at best or mental illness at worst.

None of these answers are what I am looking for. People often say that God tells them to do something or God wants them to be in a certain place. If by saying that, they mean to relate that they have a strong intuition that this accords with the Divine will, well and good. Say that. Again, that isn't what I am speaking about.

There are people, and not just on the religious right, who believe God talks directly to them. Question: can you be certain? If God speaks directly to you, that is prophecy. The Biblical penalty for false prophesy is death by stoning.

Claiming that God speaks to you is a serious business. It is very different from a deeply spiritual, even mystical experience in which one senses the Divine. Those experiences can happen, usually when you least expect it, but when they do, they are ineffable -- impossible to put into words in any way which might be communicated to others.

Does God speak to you? How?

God didn't finish the world: it is still without form and void. We can be partners in the ongoing process of creation.

The DNC should make Abraham Lincoln an honorary member of the Democratic Party posthumously.

It isn't a far fetched idea. George Washington was posthumously made General of the Armies of the United States in 1976 and Robert E. Lee's US citizenship was restored in 1975.

We can not know to which party he would have affiliated had he been alive today. Republicans are justifiably proud that he was an early leader of their party, but Abraham Lincoln belongs to us all.