The last two blogs reported on infuriating political shenanigans. Today, for counterbalance, I am linking to two essays that portray the best in wo/mankind – I actually searched hard to find something up-lifting….

The first is about a poet, a single person who shifted the fate of Jews in Norway with a poem accusing his fellow citizens of neglect of their Christian values. Jews were constitutionally banned from Norway in 1814, jailed and expelled if discovered. It took until 1851 – and truly revolutionary commitment by the poet Hegeland – to have the ban lifted and Jews granted religious rights and citizenship just as Christians.

The Poem That Ended Norway’s Constitutional Ban on Jews

The second essay is a deeply interesting exploration of how traditional Black colleges in the South granted refuge to those fleeing the Nazis.

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/5/21/1659766/-Fleeing-from-swastikas-in-Germany-they-found-refuge-at-HBCUs-in-the-Jim-Crow-south

And since the week’s photographs are devoted to stone, today’s images are from Jewish graves and KZ Buchenwald.