Dignity

HE'S LOST a step or two in the two years since he led us to the outskirts of the Promised Land. That and his huge salary added up to a one-way ticket east for the man we knew as Dikembe. But Dikembe Mutombo's uncommon grace and dignity made him stand out above the NBA crowd even more than his unbent, seven-foot frame does. He was a quiet and consistent warrior who played more and better minutes at his advanced age than younger, quicker teammates. We'll miss him. So, we fear, will our Sixers.

I'D LIKE TO thank the Daily News for its "Holy Thursday Mass draws protest" article (April 9). It covered the protest with the dignity that it deserved. On April 8, I handed out materials to priests that illustrated the importance of changing the all-male hierarchy of the Catholic Church during Cardinal Justin Rigali's homily. I did this at the time of the service called the "liturgy of the Word. " There is no more important time to speak the truth. I did it in the cathedral since that is what Jesus did. Jesus spoke the truth in the Temple.

JIM JOHNSON: 1941-2009

Once again, President Reagan's chief of staff Donald T. Regan has shown us that he lives and moves in circles very different from those in which most Americans live, circles in which the ladies have few thoughts beyond those expressed by their leading men. Perhaps among the women of Mr. Regan's acquaintance there is a choice between high fashion and armaments, between diamonds and human rights. Among most American women, however, there is no choice - we treasure what we have more than what we may never possess.

The speaker at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing graduation this month was Greg Mortenson, coauthor of "Three Cups of Tea" and author of "Stones Into Schools: Promoting Peace With Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan. " Azize [Hussain] was the first girl to graduate from high school in an area of over 4,000 people [on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border]. . . . When Azize went to elementary school, the boys threw stones at her because they said girls can't go to school.

Edward I. Savitz had to be at death's door before he got his bail lowered. As late as yesterday, the district attorney's office was insisting that bail for the accused sex offender be kept at $3.2 million, despite the fact that the AIDS-stricken Savitz can no longer even get out of bed. "They want to impose a tax on him," charged defense lawyer Barnaby Wittels, who asked Common Pleas Judge Legrome D. Davis yesterday to let Savitz sign his...

Mary Peck isn't comfortable with all the attention that suddenly has swaddled her, so this will be short. But the thing is, in this instance the living and the dead both deserve the attention they are getting. The former is Mary Peck, a low-key North Philadelphia resident. For seven years, Ms. Peck has kept alive the memory of the latter, an unidentified, 41-pound boy between the age of 4 and 6, whose beaten body was stuffed into a duffel bag, discarded and then found in May 1994 in Old City.

George Carter quietly asked the small crowd to bow their heads in prayer. "Thank you, Lord, for this dinner, for waking us up and bringing us here for this little celebration," said Carter, the girls' basketball coach at Chester High School. "Bless Mr. DeJarnette in a special way. You know what he's doing, Lord. He's providing for the children of this city. " Willie DeJarnette then led the group in prayer. "Lord, thank Thee for this opportunity, and for all the young people here," he said in a raspy voice.

Pope John Paul II went to Hollywood yesterday, asking a glitzy gathering of entertainment-industry and news-media leaders not to place so much emphasis on greed, vengeance or casual sex because "your smallest decisions can have global impact. " Mixing tough words with velvety compliments, the Pope told the image- and opinion-makers that since "hundreds of millions of people see your films and television programs, listen to your voices, sing your songs and reflect your opinions . . . your work can be a force for great good or great evil.

Amid such breakout hits as Here Comes Honey Boo Boo and the most enlightening (in a Neanderthal kind of way) Pete Rose: Hits and Mrs. comes TLC's new reality show, Best Funeral Ever . Brace yourselves. The accommodating staff at Golden Gate Funeral Home in Dallas says it will do anything to honor a family's request for a funeral. "You may be in a casket, but it can still be faaan-tas-tic," intones the show's DJ, I mean, narrator, doing his best Barry White impersonation.

Crystal Crampton knows why she is trying to restore the gravesites in the once-abandoned Bucktoe Cemetery in far southern Chester County. "Everyone needs a headstone or a grave marker," Crampton said last week, "something that says that they had mattered in this world. " All the more so during the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, fought by some of the African Americans buried there. Only seven legible headstones stand there now, and only two identify the deceased as members of what was known as Colored Infantry.

NEW YORK - Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton appealed Monday to Muslims to show "dignity" and not resort to violence as they protest an anti-Islam film produced in the United States. Speaking at her husband's Clinton Global Initiative before meeting the presidents of Afghanistan, Egypt, Libya, and Pakistan on the sidelines of the annual U.N. General Assembly, Clinton said the United States would always champion the rights to peaceful protest and free expression even if it deplored the content of the speech.

LONDON - A European court ruled Monday that radical Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri can be extradited to the United States to face terrorism charges, including allegedly trying to set up an al Qaeda training camp in rural Oregon. The decision ends a long-running legal battle and means that al-Masri, considered one of Britain's most notorious extremists, could be deported within weeks, along with four other terrorism suspects in Britain. Authorities in the U.S. have for years asked for Al-Masri and the others to be handed over, but the process had been delayed because the men raised human-rights objections.

WHEN HE WAS young and dumb, Joe Bell made bad choices that resulted in a lifetime sentence, but not how you might think. The high-school dropout from West Philly took a car for a joyride at 17, got caught, got probation, then did it again. Dumb. He served time, got out and then a few years later was convicted of burglary. He served time, got out and then was jailed for burglary again . Dumb. He's been a guest of the state for 10 of his 46 years and is now free. He's lived almost half a century, and he's got little to show for it aside from an apartment he may soon lose, and a 3-year-old son he vows never to lose.

This letter on pornography and business ethics - written by two public intellectuals, one a Christian, the other a Muslim - was sent to hotel industry executives last month and then released publicly at www.thePublicDiscourse.com . Robert P. George is McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University Shaykh Hamza Yusuf is cofounder and a member of the faculty of Zaytuna College in California We write to...

At the monthly breakfast meetings of Dining for Dignity, the food is tasty but the subject matter is unappetizing. Human trafficking. Exploitation of women and girls. Online prostitution across the globe and around the corner. "It's happening through your iPad, it's happening through your iPhone," says Kelly Master, leader of the nonprofit group. "Is it happening in America? You bet. " The Collingswood mother of five, a self-described abuse survivor and devout Christian, founded Dining for Dignity in 2011.

THE LONG, robed arm of the Supreme Court has overreached again, this time into a man's underpants. Last week, the court ruled against a New Jersey man who had been strip-searched, after a traffic stop revealed that he had an unpaid fine - a fine that he had, in fact, paid. Albert Florence was a passenger in a car driven by his pregnant wife. The police stopped the car, and a check revealed that Florence had an outstanding civil fine. Despite the fact that he had a receipt for the payment in the car's glove compartment, Florence was taken to jail and strip-searched.

PORTLAND, ORE. - An Oregon nursing assistant spent eight days in jail after being found guilty of taking disturbing photos of elderly or disabled patients and posting them to her Facebook wall. A jury convicted Nai Mai Chao, 26, of invasion of personal privacy late last month. She was accused of taking graphic photos of patients using bed pans and posting them on Facebook. - Associated Press

Clusters of spiky yucca leaves sprout among the tombstones at Mount Peace Cemetery in Lawnside, where maintenance problems seem as ubiquitous as the perennial graveyard plant. "We try to keep it up, and we're going to keep it up," says trustee Mary Ann Wardlow, who also is mayor of the historically African American borough. A public meeting to organize efforts to collect debris, trim vegetation, and otherwise spruce up the landmark cemetery on the White Horse Pike is set for 7 o'clock Tuesday night at Borough Hall.