Earlier this month, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) announced they would be adding two new names to buildings on campus. They chose two trailblazers at the school. Hortense McClinton was the first Black professor at UNC. Henry Owl, a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI), was the first American Indian student to attend the university.

There have been good and bad days for the Cherokee press this year. While our Tribal Council and Executive Office have verbally supported the idea of transparency in government, everyone seems to have a different definition of the word “transparent”.

“God wastes nothing,” Pastor Melton made clear, “Not one of your tears. Not one breath. Not even one hair, as each one is numbered.”

A small group of people have been diligently at work in an attempt to engage community input for a tribal constitution.

“Go back to Isaiah, yes, and we see this is the Day. We see what happens on Day One of the first year, Year Two and then in Year Three, we see it is where we will reap what has been sown by us.

“If a person is having problems loving their enemies, something’s not right.  When one gets cut off in traffic, one doesn’t have to like that, but neither should they act a fool.  Is it possible not to be like that?  If one is rooted in the right place the fruit will work itself out.  How can that happen?  Look at one’s neighbor and say, he doesn’t always get it right, but he’s getting better and better. 

I spent 27 years of my life with dogs. I mean, I had dogs before, and a couple of cats, but the dogs and cats before adulthood, and my pets were really my mother’s responsibility along with me. I wasn’t primary caretaker then. I was as dependent for my life as the pets were. Mom let me say that they were my pets, but the reality was that they were her pets.

As time keeps on progressing, we are to become ever more faithful and ‘sure-footed’ having read all our instructions given in His Word for our best understanding of what’s expected of each person in each “household of faith”.