ROGER MONROE

We had another successful Christmas community sing this year at the Riverfront Museum. More than 200 people raised their voices under the direction of the talented Lee Wenger with wife Denise Adams at the grand piano and son Christopher on guitar. That was almost double the audience’s size last year when we resurrected the community event.

Special thanks to award-winning southern gospel artist Cathy Reynolds, who wowed everyone when she sang, “He Knew,” a beautiful song she wrote and produced for her holiday CD, “Christmas.”

The songfest was made possible by museum CEO and President John Morris and long-time supporter Ray LaHood.

Thanks to everyone who attended.

AND THE WINNER IS: Each year during the Christmas holidays there’s a battle between the commercial and non-commercial radio stations for listeners seeking holiday music. Again this year, my vote goes to WCIC-FM. Its playlist included both secular and non-secular songs and artists. WSWT-FM, while promoting itself as the “official” Christmas music station (whatever that means), avoided traditional carols like a skin disease. They did play a loud and irritating version of a Christmas carol by the Trans-Siberian orchestra. We saw them years ago when they were at the Civic Center and I think that’s when I started losing my hearing. WCIC wins also because it seemed that WSWT played five to six minutes of commercials every five to six minutes.

Every time I turned my car radio to WCIC it was always a female announcer playing the music and every 10 minutes she had to tell listeners her name. Back in my day, just about every announcer was a male with a deep and resonant voice, like a Walter Thurman. That has changed — as it should — but I would like to hear WCIC add some male voices who don’t feel the need to say so frequently, “Hi, I’m Bob.” (The above remarks are written with “tongue in cheek.”)

WHAT HAS HAPPENED IN AMERICA? The celebration of the birth of Christ this year was marred by stories of hatred for the people of the Jewish faith. The disgusting comments and lack of respect for Jewish students by university presidents at Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and Massachusetts Institute of Technology before a Congressional committee were repugnant. If what was said and unsaid about any other people, the national media would’ve been on them like hot grease.

During my tenure with the U.S. Army in Germany, I visited the concentration camp in Dachau. It was an experience I’ll never forget.

I stood in the room where men, women and children were gassed. I saw the ovens used to burn Jews. I walked the grounds where prisoners walked when they were not being beaten and starved. I viewed pictures of the dead and near dead in large trenches dug by other prisoners who probably wondered if they would be next.

There were other photos, ghastly ones of bodies stacked on top of each other. I remember when I stood and prayed, “God! Never again.” Years later, the late Art Holtz, Galesburg native and former NFL football official, told me he had also visited Dachau just days after U.S. forces liberated the death camp at the end of World War II. We both hoped we would never see such hatred again.

Sadly, Jewish people, from college students to shop and restaurant owners are being openly persecuted today because of what is happening in the Middle East.

The war between Israel and Hamas has become divisive in this country and in the world. Not for me. Terror is terror. Hatred is hatred. I’m proud to say as a Christian, I support Israel.

It bothers me that the United States is trying to tell Israeli leaders how to wage war against terrorists who want to destroy them. Don’t bomb this, don’t bomb that, they say. Just bomb this way. We ended the Holocaust by bombing the crap out of Germany. We ended the war against the Japanese by dropping two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Those military decisions saved the lives of thousands of American and Allied troops. In the process, thousands of enemy soldiers and civilian lives were lost. So today, America has become a more moral nation? We’re going to tell Israel how to fight terrorism?

WELCOME BACK COACH! With the end of the Bradley women’s basketball game vs. South Dakota on Dec. 20, the team welcomed back head coach Kate Popevic-Goss. Coach “Pop” had been serving a 10-game suspension that many observers felt, on and off campus, was far too harsh by Director of Athletics Chris Reynolds.

What the coach said to her players to merit the suspension has never been revealed. The penalty served no benefit to anyone except the complaining player(s). It gave Bradley basketball another black eye in a sport seeing declining attendance in Peoria. As a big fan both as a student and an adult, I recall soldout games at Robertson Memorial Field House watching nationally ranked basketball teams.

Now, only a memory.

“Pop” has a real challenge. The first-year coach has to watch not only what she says, but how she says it. She can’t offend any of the players when they do something wrong, fearful they’ll cry “foul” to university administrators. I’m sure some of the players who support the coach are angry at the complaining players as well. The players who voiced their objections will probably leave Bradley at the end of the season and move on. So, too, should we all and wish the team and its coach good luck for the rest of this season.

QUOTE OF THE MONTH: “The longer I live, the more beautiful life becomes.” — Frank Lloyd Wright