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Bottle of Wine

Sally was driving home from one of her business trips in Northern Arizona when she saw an elderly Navajo woman walking on the side of the road. As the trip was a long and quiet one, she stopped the car and asked the Navajo woman if she would like a ride. With a silent nod of thanks, the woman got into the car.

Resuming the journey, Sally tried in vain to make a bit of small talk with the Navajo woman. The old woman just sat silently, looking intently at everything she saw, studying every little detail, until she noticed a brown bag on the seat next to Sally.

'What in bag?' asked the old woman. Sally looked down at the brown bag and said, 'It's a bottle of wine. I got it for my husband.'

The Navajo woman was silent for another moment or two. Then speaking with the quiet wisdom of an elder, she said, 'Good trade.'

1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising begins

Shortly after the German occupation of Poland began, the Nazis forced the city’s Jewish citizens into a “ghetto” surrounded by barbwire and armed SS guards. The Warsaw ghetto occupied an area of less than two square miles but soon held almost 500,000 Jews in deplorable conditions. Disease and starvation killed thousands every month, and beginning in July 1942, 6,000 Jews per day were transferred to the Treblinka concentration camp. Although the Nazis assured the remaining Jews that their relatives and friends were being sent to work camps, word soon reached the ghetto that deportation to the camp meant extermination. An underground resistance group was established in the ghetto–the Jewish Combat Organization (ZOB)–and limited arms were acquired at great cost.

On April 19, Nazi leader Heinrich Himmler announced that the ghetto was to be emptied of its residents in honor of Hitler’s birthday the following day, and more than 1,000 S.S. soldiers entered the confines with tanks and heavy artillery. Although many of the ghetto’s remaining 60,000 Jewish dwellers attempted to hide themselves in secret bunkers, more than 1,000 ZOB members met the Germans with gunfire and homemade bombs. Suffering moderate casualties, the Germans initially withdrew but soon returned, and on April 24 launched an all-out attack against the Warsaw Jews.

Thousands were slaughtered as the Germans systematically progressed down the ghettos, blowing up the buildings one by one. The ZOB took to the sewers to continue the fight, but on May 8 their command bunker fell to the Germans and their resistant leaders committed suicide. By May 16, the ghetto was firmly under Nazi control, and mass deportation of the last Warsaw Jews to Treblinka began. During the uprising, some 300 German soldiers were killed, and thousands of Warsaw Jews were massacred. Virtually all those who survived the Uprising to reach Treblinka were dead by the end of the war.

Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law. —Romans 13:8

He paid a debt and I owe one. Thank God I don't owe the debt for my sin, but I owe others the same love, respect and grace with which God has treated me!

April 19th

1979 

• Challen Sievers, born in Downers Grove, Illinois, rhythmic gymnast 1996 Olympics

1975 

• Temoc Suarez, born in Greenwood, South Carolina, soccer forward, 1996 Olympics gold

1968 

• Ashley Judd, born in Granada Hills, California, actress

1965 

• Suge Knight, American Music Producer

1953 

• Rod Morgenstein, born in New York, drummer, member of '80's heavy metal band Wing, Dixie Dregs, educator, served as professor of percussion, Berklee College of Music

1944 

• Bernard Worrell, U.S. keyboardist, Funkadelic-Cosmic Slop

1932 

• Andrea Mead Lawrence, Rutland Vt, alpine slalom skier, 2 Gold Medals 1952 Olympics

1929 

• Edward Crook, born in Detroit, Michigan, middleweight boxer 1960 Olympics gold

1912 

• Glen T. Seaborg, U.S. chemist, AEC, plutonium, Nobel 1951

1905 

• John S "Jimmy" Thach, U.S. pilot/admiral, WW II

1821 

• Mortimer Dormer Leggett, Major General Union volunteers

1721 

• Roger Sherman, signer, Articles of Association, the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution