Life-Giving Water

For those of you who may have (unintentionally) missed it, Meridian Magazine has picked up my blog post on

“Winston Churchill, Brigham Young, and Dithering”

In my piece, while I say that I very much enjoyed the film Darkest Hour and very highly recommend it, I cited an article that was quite critical of one aspect of its portrayal of Winston Churchill.

Since then, I’ve read two much more positive responses from writers whose judgment I respect:

Victor Davis Hanson, “Civilization’s ‘Darkest Hour’ Hits the Silver Screen”

Rich Lowry, “Winston Churchill: The Man Who Saved Civilization”

The second piece cites the prominent American/Hungarian historian of the Second World War John Lukacs, but curiously fails to mention that Lukacs, now 93 years of age, in fact served as a consultant on Darkest Hour.  (He’s listed in the credits at the end of the film.)

In any event, I strongly recommend that you see Darkest Hour.

***

Susan Steinhaus, a friend from high school days in California, called to my attention a Facebook item from WaterAid, one of the organizations that the Church has assisted with its charity vending machines.  The item refers to that partnership (and that brilliant idea) and asks for contributions.  It appears that donations will be matched through 31 December.

I only wish that I were in a position to give more to such worthy causes.

I remember, many years ago, when a very close and very bright friend of mine — who would go on, by the way, to win a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford and then to earn both a medical degree and a Stanford law degree — told me that he was doing his BYU honors thesis on diarrhea.  I guess I made some wisecrack at the subject.  But I shouldn’t have; my response merely revealed my ignorance.  He immediately clued me in on how very serious a subject diarrhea is for the survival of children in many Third World countries.  And, of course, one of the major factors in the situation is the lack of clean drinking water.

For the record, let me mention one more time — and probably, as a whole, for the last time in 2017 — the causes that I’ve been pushing this year, and to which you can now add WaterAid:

Operation Underground Railroad

Liahona Children’s Foundation

The Interpreter Foundation

And, of course, I include in this list the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, including not merely tithing and fast offerings but also LDS Humanitarian Services — which guarantees that every cent, peso, or centime of your donation goes directly to those in need, without any overhead expenses.  (Those are covered by the Church.)

Finally, if you still haven’t done it and if you ever purchase anything through Amazon.com or ever expect to do so, please, please, please sign up for AmazonSmile — which costs you absolutely nothing but which will direct a small stream of the purchase price of any items that you buy through Amazon to a charity that you designate.  This is, really, a no-brainer.  And it’s easy to do.  There is no downside to you whatever.  Start the New Year right!