{"id":5915,"date":"2016-02-23T06:06:40","date_gmt":"2016-02-23T11:06:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=5915"},"modified":"2016-02-23T06:06:40","modified_gmt":"2016-02-23T11:06:40","slug":"best-recent-stories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=5915","title":{"rendered":"best recent stories"},"content":{"rendered":"

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With the plethora of polarizing stories in Washington these days (and with the Intramuralist taking a few extra days to invest in intentional respite),<\/em> I found the following to be the more encouraging reports of the week. While aspects of each sometimes serve cause for annoyance for some \u2014 missing the bigger picture, I believe \u2014 the reality is that the bottom line of each brief story has something to do with great joy, empathy, and hope.<\/p>\n

From NBC News this weekend\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cThis 106-year-old admitted she never thought she’d live to visit the White House \u2014 and then gave the president and first lady a surprise of their own.<\/em>
\nVirginia McLaurin danced her way across the room as she met Barack and Michelle Obama as part of Black History Month.<\/em>
\n\u2018Slow down now, don’t go too quick!\u2019 joked the president, clearly taken aback at the diminutive centenarian’s energy. The first lady told her: \u2018I want to be like you when I grow up.\u2019<\/em>
\nMcLaurin was born in 1909 in South Carolina and moved to Washington, D.C., in 1941, according to a community Facebook page set up for her. She told the Obamas: \u2018I thought I would never live to get in the White House… I am so happy \u2014 a black president.\u2019<\/em>
\nThe video of the meeting received almost 11 million views on the White House’s Facebook page in the first six hours after it was uploaded late Sunday.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

From ABC News\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cJohn Kasich ended his town hall at Clemson University in South Carolina this afternoon with a hug from a young man who told the Republican presidential candidate he gave him hope amid his personal despair.<\/em>
\nDuring a question-and-answer session, 21-year-old Brett Smith told the Ohio governor he had driven up from Georgia to see him. A man close to him had recently killed himself, his parents had divorced and his father had lost his job, Smith said.<\/em>
\nAmid a dark time in his life, Smith said, Kasich gave him hope.<\/em>
\n\u2018I found hope,\u2019 he said, standing before around 200 attendees. \u2018I found it in the Lord and in my friends, and now I found it in my presidential candidate that I support, and I\u2019d really appreciate one of those hugs you\u2019ve been talking about.\u2019<\/em>
\nKasich obliged, coming down from the stage and embracing the young man, a senior at the University of Georgia, as he choked up and blinked away tears.<\/em>
\n\u2018The Lord will give you strength, I promise you, if you ask him,\u2019 Kasich said in Smith’s ear.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

And finally, from the homily delivered by Rev. Paul Scalia, the son of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, at the funeral Mass for his father on Saturday\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026In the past week, many have recounted what Dad did for\u00a0them. But here today, we recount what God did for Dad, how he blessed him\u2026<\/em>
\nGod blessed Dad,\u00a0as is well known, with a love for his country. He knew well what a close-run thing the\u00a0founding of our nation was. And he saw in that founding, as did the founders themselves, a blessing,\u00a0a blessing quickly lost when faith is banned form the public square, or when we refuse to bring it there. So he understood that there is no conflict between loving God and loving one’s country,\u00a0between one’s faith and one’s public service. Dad understood that the deeper he went in his Catholic faith, the better a\u00a0citizen and public servant he became. God blessed him with the desire to be the\u00a0country’s good servant because<\/strong> he was God’s first\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s to great joy, empathy, and hope. May those aspects never annoy us. May we never miss the bigger picture.<\/p>\n

Respectfully\u2026
\nAR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                            With the plethora of polarizing stories in Washington these days (and with the Intramuralist taking a few extra days to invest in intentional respite), I found the following to be the more encouraging reports of the week. While aspects of each … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “best recent stories”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[564,565,563],"class_list":["post-5915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-event","tag-brett-smith","tag-paul-scalia","tag-virginia-mclaurin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5915"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5915\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5922,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5915\/revisions\/5922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}