Tears

IN CASE I haven't done so yet, I want to thank all the letter-writers who wrote such wonderful heart-warming things about my op-ed ("A meditation on life and death," Sept. 27). I didn't expect such an overpowering feeling of love from people I do not even know personally - it made me cry. But they were tears of gladness. Thank all of you for caring, you made my day. Ed Galing Hatboro

Enough grieving. Our hearts go out to the victims of 9/11, but after today, let?s put away our sorrow. We?ve had a year of it. We?ve had our fill. Tears and looking back won?t help us look forward, can?t help us remain vigilant. Since 9/11/01, our war on terrorism has accomplished much. There is one less terrorist-coddling totalitarian regime in the world. We have proven to ourselves and to the rest of the world how resilient we are. We may not be the Greatest Generation ? but over the last year, we?ve been great enough.

WHY CAN'T the United States be more like Rwanda? Or Turkey? Or Bangladesh? Those are just three of the many, many countries that have broken through the women-as-president/prime-minister ceiling. Somehow, it's hard to imagine those countries, which also include England, Ireland, Germany, among others, torturing themselves with the kind of ponderous thumb-sucking and plain old heebie-jeebies this country exhibits over the idea of a woman being elected president. And even harder to imagine those countries exhibiting the same kind of gleefully infantile reaction to a woman candidate showing - gasp - a pure human emotion than the pile-on following a Hillary Clinton meeting in New Hampshire.

IDON'T KNOW who is responsible for that Sept. 11 editorial ("A Farewell to Tears"), but may I make a suggestion for that person - send it to one of the families of the victims of the World Trade Center, or the Pentagon or Flight 93. Because I think that they will agree that we should just stop crying over losing lives that were innocent. And you know what, America has moved on and we have become stronger and we have moved on and these cold calculating killers have not stopped us from moving on but . . . we can never stop crying, the sadness is too overwhelming.

The real shock for the accused killer of a pregnant woman came at the end of his preliminary hearing yesterday. "I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but your brother was shot to death the other day," lawyer Joel S. Moldovsky told his client, Shawn Sharp, 19, of Chew Avenue near Chelten. "Somebody has to tell you," said the attorney at the bar of Municipal Judge Lydia Y. Kirkland's courtroom. Sharp broke down in tears and began shaking. He had to be helped from the courtroom by sheriff's deputies.

As word of Barbaro's death spread yesterday, many in the region fell to tears or silence. In the end, their prayers had not been enough. Nor were the lighted candles, the countless get-well cards, the bags of feed, the carrots sent by children enamored of a powerful racehorse who fought first to win, then to survive. At the New Bolton Center for Large Animals in Kennett Square, tears streamed down the face of Patty Morgera, who was diagnosed with breast cancer days before Barbaro won the Kentucky Derby last May. "He's been my inspiration," the Downingtown woman said.

Tears welled up in John Franco's eyes. Pitching in the World Series was a lot easier than telling his 10-year-old son his daddy's baseball career might be over. "The saddest thing was when I came home last night," the New York Mets captain said yesterday during a news conference to discuss his elbow injury. Fighting off tears, the 41-year-old reliever bowed his head for nearly half a minute, wincing, trying to regain his composure before facing the cameras again. "My son," he continued, "said to me, 'Is it my fault because I played catch the day before?

In this age of programmed drums and keyboards, it's reassuring to hear dance music performed by a 10-piece live ensemble. Tears for Fears, the English group that took five years off between its last two albums, built a fine set of music Sunday night at Mann Music Center, drawing from its three albums and a large menu of styles - most noticeably jazz, with a generous side helping of gospel. Though the title track from the latest album, The Seeds of Love, continues in the dance-pop vein of the group's early hits ("Shout," "Everybody Wants to Rule the World")

Crying, long considered to be a removal of one's emotional clothes, has never been extended an absorbent welcome mat in the work place. The busy have no time for tears, said Byron. Shakespeare decried teardrops as "foolish rheum" and "eye-offending brine. " But there are indications that the taboo is being diluted. In the hit movie "Broadcast News," Holly Hunter portrays an ace television producer who is completely in control when deadlines are descending but liquefies when the pressure lifts.

The weather forecast across the nation isn't very promising. A hail of bullets showered across the plains in a quiet suburb, where once we thought it to be a safe haven. But this high school, just outside Denver, was anything but safe. Unfolding at Columbine High School was a drama that unfortunately is becoming a replay of season after season of bad weather. You expect it, and it just keeps getting worse. "I don't get it," a student with fear in her face, spoke out, as tears flowed.

Thursday night saw both the season finale of Fox's American Idol and the final episode of the long-running NBC comedy The Office. One was sedate; the other was a tearjerker. Candice Glover was crowned the 12th winner of Idol . The 23-year-old from St. Helena Island, S.C., may have cinched the win with her final competitive performance, a stirring reprise of Ben E. King's "I (Who Have Nothing). " Glover's win over Texas country singer Kree Harrison was one of the most subdued in the history of the Fox series.

PHOENIX - Jurors deciding the fate of convicted murderer Jodi Arias were brought to tears Thursday, visibly shaken by dramatic statements from the victim's family members as they described how their lives were ripped apart by the killing. Travis Alexander's younger brother Steven told the panel he was hospitalized for ulcers, lost sleep and separated from his wife. He paused to choke back tears and regain his composure as he recounted the phone call he got from his sister the day his brother's body was found.

SURE, HINDSIGHT is 20/20 (which is also what Roy Halladay's ERA would have been after a couple more starts), but we really could have done without Hunter Pence ripping three extra-base hits, including two homers, in the Giants' recent series against the Phillies in San Francisco. Look, we know that the business of baseball, more than anything, made the trades of rightfielder Pence and centerfielder Shane Victorino pretty much the only plays Ruben Amaro Jr. had as last season's trade deadline was approaching . . . and the Phillies' sixth consecutive playoff berth wasn't.

TAWANDA "WAWA" Jones would always joke that the drill team she founded, the Camden Sophisticated Sisters (CSS), was ready to make its Hollywood debut. On Tuesday, that aspirational joke became reality when the CSS girls taught the celebs how it was done on ABC's "Dancing with the Stars. " The eight ladies from South Jersey performed a stunning number to Beyonce 's "Get Me Bodied. " To see a video of their performance, go to ph.ly/CamdenDWTS. Jones still can't believe her troupe made it to prime time.

CLEVELAND - Cliff Lee arrived for the first time as a visiting player in the city where he forged one of the best lefthanded arms in the game. He gazed at an empty Progressive Field, a building he had not seen in four years, since the Indians dealt him to Philadelphia, and shrugged. "I was expecting it to be different," Lee said, "but it looks a lot the same. " That drum in the left-field bleachers was still there. A man pounded it and pounded it Wednesday night during the early innings of a 6-0 Phillies defeat.

It turns out umpire Brian O'Nora didn't just swallow his chaw during the first inning of the Phils-Mets game Friday. MLB announced Monday that he is recovering from an intestinal tear that forced him to make a sudden exit. There was no timetable for his return. The 50-year-old had been feeling ill before the game in New York. He was the plate ump and quickly left the field during the bottom of the first, hurrying through the Mets dugout. The game was delayed nine minutes and resumed with three men in blue.

KARNAMAYA MONGAR was turned away from two abortion clinics in Virginia and one in Washington, D.C., because she was too far along in her pregnancy, before being referred to Dr. Kermit Gosnell, the woman's tearful daughter testified Tuesday morning. The decision by Mongar, 41, to undergo a November 2009 abortion at Gosnell's West Philadelphia clinic ultimately led to her death from a drug overdose and to Gosnell being charged with her murder. Yashoda Gurung, aided by an interpreter, spoke softly and at times used tissue to wipe tears as she spoke of the two-day abortion procedure that ended with her mother's death.

KERMIT GOSNELL, the former West Philadelphia abortion doctor, spent the second day of his capital murder trial Tuesday watching a former employee and a patient dissolve into tears while testifying about their bloodcurdling experiences at his now-closed "House of Horrors" clinic. Adrienne Moton, 35, who spent four years working for Gosnell, administering drugs and performing ultrasounds despite having only a high-school diploma, testified that she, Gosnell and other employees cut the spinal cords of dozens of babies - some still moving and seemingly alive.

A tearful girl who ran away from a crossing guard outside the Helen L. Beeler Elementary School on Friday morning turned up safe after seven Evesham Township police cars were deployed to the school. Police said the crossing guard asked what was troubling the girl but received no answer before the child disappeared from view. The woman then called 911. The girl, 7, was accounted for within 90 minutes of the 8:35 a.m. emergency call. But the seven-vehicle response and intensive search of the neighborhood sparked "a high volume" of calls from residents and parents worried about what was going on at Beeler.

DEAR ABBY: While cleaning out my attic yesterday, I found a letter that my daughter wrote to you a few years ago when she was 13. She was responding to a poem that had appeared in your column, "Legacy of an Adopted Child. " She was going through a very trying time and was being bullied because she was adopted and looked very different from her parents. My daughter is grown now and is a delightful, successful young woman. That poem helped her greatly. Can you reprint it for others?