Quote of the Day: “With the coming of spring, I am calm again.” – Gustav Mahler
Photo by: Aaron Burden
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quote of the Day page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
In a mountainous region of China, workers are less than 3 months away from opening a stunning new bridge that will become the world’s tallest.
Spanning the Huajiang Grand Canyon, the bridge bearing the same name will tower 2,051 feet above the level of the river below, some 947 feet higher than the famous Milau Viaduct in France, the highest bridge in Europe.
🌉The Huajiang Grand Canyon Bridge in #Guizhou is 95% complete and poised to become the world's tallest bridge! The installation of the bridge deck panels is expected to be completed by mid-March. #GuizhouBridges 👉https://t.co/G6V7PijXmj pic.twitter.com/glKU5OLIxO
— Guizhou, China (@iloveguizhou) March 6, 2025
But the Huajiang Canyon Bridge isn’t about breaking records. The southwestern Chinese province of Guizhou is riddled with karst rock mountains, and includes about half of the world’s 100 highest bridges. Here, these concrete and steel spans are a necessity of getting around rather than a demonstration of infrastructural excellence.
With a total length of 9,776 feet, (2,980 meters) and a main span of 4,658 feet (1,420) meters, it’s longer than the Golden Gate Bridge by both measurements, and has a similar towering nature as well.
As a key component of the Liuzhi-Anlong expressway, the bridge will cut travel time across the canyon from about 70 minutes to just 2. This improved connectivity is expected to boost local tourism by attracting more visitors to nearby sites such as the famous Huangguoshu Waterfall, said the local government website.
“Witnessing my work become something tangible—watching the bridge grow day by day and finally stand tall above the canyon—gives me a profound sense of achievement and pride,” said Li Zhao, chief engineer of the project.
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Made up of 93 individual steel trusses lowered into place by a giant, sophisticated, automated and GPS-guided cable car mounted above the span during construction, the whole structure weighs about 22,000 tons.
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One of the major challenges would be ensuring there was enough accuracy to lower the truss segments down into perfect alignment. Foreseeing this, the construction firm employed 3D scanning technology and ran virtual simulations in advance of truss placement to ensure they knew that what they were putting into place would fit.
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Sure enough, all of the placements were made without issue. Early renderings suggest that section of the bridge’s main span will host a 1,500-foot long enclosed pedestrian walkway complete with restaurant and bungee jump area, because why not?
Expected to open on June 30th, it will take the title of tallest bridge from, perhaps unsurprisingly, the Duge Bridge which crosses the same river just 120 miles from the Huajiang Canyon Bridge.
SHARE This Modern Marvel Of Engineering Across Dizzying Heights…
Stunning footage from the recent flood in Tennessee show a man’s property suspended as if via a force field amid brown floodwaters.
The seemingly impossible sight was down to the Humphrey brothers’ homemade levees, a tactic they have used before to ride out floods, and which they learned from their late father.
The farming community in Bogota was ravaged by floods last week on the back of a massive storm. The Obion River was up 9 feet in about as many hours, and kept rising until it reached just 5 feet shy of the record on April 8th.
While many will have lost everything, the house and garden of Justin and Tucker Humphrey, both farmers, were recently subject of a viral video shot from helicopter. There the property was, like an island amid a brown sea.
Using an excavator to dig the levees, it’s something the pair have done before, and which Tucker called “just doing what we have to do.”
The brothers learned how to do it from their father, and on the back of all the social media hype, said that he would have been proud.
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“He’d like seeing that,” Tucker told the Washington Post. “He’d know we were listening when we were kids.”
The comments section praised the men’s ingenuity and preparatory foresight, with one wishing God’s blessings on “a couple of Tennessee boys and their departed Dad for being smart enough, [and] stubborn enough.”
WATCH the striking video below…
SHARE This Brilliant At-Home Ingenuity With Your Friends…
Breathtaking footage of a colossal squid has been collected by an undersea camera in the waters deep under Antarctica.
Both the world’s largest cephalopod and largest invertebrate, a sighting of the colossal squid is one of the most sought after prizes in marine biology. Capable of growing 25 feet long (7 meters) and weighing 1,200 pounds, (500 kg) it’s simply the stuff of dreams (or nightmares).
“We’re finally seeing confirmed footage of this animal that some of us have been studying and dreaming about for decades,” said deep-sea biologist Kat Bolstad, from Auckland University of Technology, who despite not being involved with the research team that captured the footage, did help identify the animal.
The short, yet deliciously high-definition footage was gathered by a submersible called Subastian, operated by the nonprofit Schmidt Ocean Institute, on a research trip near South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.
Subastian was about 1,800 feet (600 meters) below sea level when the little one-foot-long (30 centimeter) squid drifted past its camera, highlighting the “beauty” of the animal, without the “monster hype” Bolstad told ABC News AU.
Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni is one of two “glass squid” species in the Antarctic. When these animals are just born, their eyes are on stalks outside their hoods, and since the one in the footage lacked these visible stalks, it’s likely to be a juvenile, rather than a baby. It has a substantial amount of growing to do.
Little if anything is known about the colossal squid. It’s believed they’re ambush predators, like most hunters in the lightless depths. They have the largest eyes in the animal kingdom—12 to 16 inches in diameter, or about the size of a volleyball, which is believed to give them best-in-class abilities to see through the murk, identify bioluminescent creatures, and detect sperm whales, their natural predators, from a distance.
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While this footage is the first that can be confirmed as a colossal squid, the Antarctic tourist boat Ocean Endeavour witnessed a glass squid swim by their deep-sea camera in early 2023. It was either a colossal squid or Galiteuthis glacialis, another large deep-sea species.
Dr. Bolstad told ABC that seeing the live footage of an honest-to-goodness colossal squid allowed her and her colleagues to reveal some interesting things about the species.
MORE AMAZING ANIMAL FOOTAGE: ‘Superpod’ of More Than 2,000 Dolphins Frolic off California Coast – (WATCH)
“The spots on the mantle [the tube-like body] tells us that it almost certainly can switch back and forth between being completely transparent… to being quite opaque.”
It may be quite some time before an adult is filmed in the wild, since Schmidt won’t return to Antarctica until 2028. With their volleyball-sized eyes, the animals can see submersible craft long before such craft see them, so detection methods, scientists believe, need to become less disruptive.
WATCH the footage below…
SHARE This Wonderful Sighting With Your Friends Who Love The Ocean…
From India comes the story of a remarkable man, and an even more remarkable tree.
Capable of producing more than 300 different varieties of mango, it is a world-renowned horticultural accomplishment that won its grower important civilian honors and international attention.
Kalimullah Khan from India’s town of Malihabad, Uttar Pradesh, has been cultivating mango varieties since the 1950s. Now aged 84, his son manages most of the orchard, and the old man mostly gets to enjoy the fruits of his labors, family, and of course to take all the credit for its creation.
That creation is something that seems totally impossible: a tree from which each branch grows a different variety of mango. India has more mango varieties than any other nation, thanks to centuries of human horticultural experimentation, and many of these have been grafted onto a single individual in a way that allowed them to keep growing on borrowed rootstock.
“There’s so much to say about my tree. It has been nurtured with immense love, and it holds a lifetime of memories,” Khan tells The Better India. “People should visit my orchard to see the tree and understand the variety of mangoes, each with its distinct qualities.”
A school dropout, Khan began experimenting with grafting in 1957. Finding the healthiest and most deeply-rooted tree in the family orchard, Khan then began grafting branches of other mango varieties onto it.
Grafting is often used in fruit cultivation, and involves attaching the branch taken from one tree onto the base of the trunk, or rootstock, of another. Over time, the branch fuses with the rootstock and begins to grow as normal. Selecting a mature and large Alphonso mango tree, Khan began a grafting process that has continued for decades until it was making world records. In one year, 350 different mango varieties were produced on that one tree.
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Safe to say such a mango machine needs practically round-the-clock maintenance, and Khan’s son Nazimullah is now largely in charge of ensuring its free from pests, that excess rainwater isn’t allowed to pool around the field, that extra water is added during dry periods, and that mangos are harvested when ready.
Some of the varieties grown on the tree are hybrids created by the Khan family, named after famous figures like the Sachin Tendulkar, a legendary cricketer. There’s also a mango named after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who presented Khan with the Padma Sri, the 4th highest civilian honor of the country.
Growers from as far afield as Dubai and Iran have visited to study the methods of the ‘Mango Man of India.’
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The tree itself is 125 years old, and Khan sees it as a living embodiment of his life’s work.
“People often call me a self-taught scientist, but in reality, it’s the trees who have been my teachers,” he adds. “I have spent my life with these trees, and when my time comes, I wish to be laid to rest beside them, as they have always been a part of me.”
SHARE This One Man’s Incredible Gift To India And The World…
Quote of the Day: “Confusion, when properly supported, isn’t an obstacle to learning but a catalyst for understanding.” – Aiden Chen
Photo by: Benjamin Davies
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quote of the Day page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
250 years ago, Paul Revere, who was 40 years old at the time, a respected craftsman and father of 16 children, rode with William Dawes and Samuel Prescott, galloping through the countryside of colonial Massachusetts to Lexington and Concord warning of the sudden movements of the British army. Contrary to myth, Revere did not shout, “the British are coming” (he himself was British). Instead, he spread the word by shouting, “The regulars are out.” READ more about this famous story… (1775)
A beloved Michigan bookstore recently received a helping hand from the community when a human chain formed to pass its entire inventory from the store’s old location to the new one.
One wonders how many times a neighbor asked another whether they had “read this one?” or what drivers must have thought passing by the main drag in Chelsea where the store is located.
Serendipity Books and its owner Michelle Tuplin had a problem: it was moving day, and 9,100 books needed to be packed up and sorted in the new location. She faced the prospect of closing down for several days at least—never a good thing on the tight margins of a bookstore.
Taking to social media and putting out a call for volunteers among her many followers and customers, Tuplin received an overwhelming response, as 300 people showed up to lend a hand.
That’s when Tuplin came up with a novel idea: a human chain, or rather, two.
“It was just a joyful experience,” Donna Zak, one of the volunteers, told NBC News. “We were passing the books and noticing and commenting to each other, ‘Oh, have you read this one? I really enjoyed this one!’”
Fortunately for everyone involved, the new space was just 350 feet from the old one, and in just 2 hours, the entire collection had been moved and stocked—in alphabetical order no less.
“Grateful doesn’t even begin to express how we are feeling,” Serendipity Books posted on Instagram. “Thank you thank you thank you, we love you Chelsea!”
“People really consider independent bookstores theirs,” Tuplin said Tuesday. “It’s really a part of the community, and they have ownership.”
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The new store is more than twice the size of the old one, and will be celebrating its official opening on April 26th, America’s “Independent Bookstore Day.”
MORE BOOKSTORE STORIES: James Patterson Gives $300,000 in Holiday Bonuses to 600 Bookstore Employees
A follower in the Instagram comments section suggested that the story of Michelle Tuplin and her “Book Brigade” deserved press coverage; we agree, but add that it may deserve more—someone should write a book about it.
SHARE This Darling Of A Community Coming Together For Books And Neighbors…
A 2-year-old reported missing in the Arizona high desert on Monday was found in part thanks to a local rancher’s dog: a big, fluffy Pyrenees named Buford.
Little Boden Allen wandered off his parents’ property in Seligman into mountain lion country at around 5:00 p.m. Monday evening. Yavapai County Search and Rescue conducted a 16-hour search long into Tuesday morning.
Ranger Scotty Dutton was surprised enough when he saw Buford wandering up a ranch track with little Boden in tow, but was even more surprised when the boy explained the ordeal he’d just gone through.
“I asked him, ‘did you walk all night long?’ and he said ‘no, I slept under a tree,'” Dutton told 12 News Arizona Dutton. “And I said, ‘well did my dog find you?’ And he goes, ‘yep’ and he said he followed the dog back to the house.”
He knew the child had been reported missing, and was “so grateful” to be able to find him, realizing only later that the boy had wandered for 7 miles before Buford found him.
Dutton added in between television interviews that tough desert terrain, multiple canyons and gorges, and dangerous wildlife lie between his house and Boden’s, an area about 100 miles south of the Grand Canyon.
Boden had wandered away while his mother was changing her other son’s diaper and his father was doing some work around the house.
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Search and Rescue utilized more than one helicopter in the hunt for Boden. At one point, the pilot noticed that there were two mountain lions following one of the search parties, highlighting the dangers the area could pose to a two-year-old.
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“There were about 1,000 ways for that to go really, really bad, and one good way, and luckily it turned out to be the good way,” Dutton said.
For Buford, whose total involvement was unclear, it probably seemed like just another day on the farm, only this time it led to a steak dinner.
WATCH the story below from NBC…
SHARE This Little Man’s Best Friend On Social Media To Celebrate His Good Work…
In Mexico City, a social movement organizing free dance parties is changing the way people in the city move by breaking down barriers.
At their events there’s no cover charge to get in, there are no drink minimums, and nothing is done by either the attendees or the organizers to confer or reinforce status symbols of any kind.
Everyone is there for a single purpose: to dance, freely, and without pressure.
Called the Nueva Red de Bailadores (New Network of Dancers), a recent Sunday afternoon on a pavilion in the city’s famous Bosque de Chapultepec urban park saw over 300 people attending its most recent event, which the network organizes in some different interesting public place once a month.
Described by the organizers speaking with AP as a “a community of philosophy and action,” the New Network started 9 years ago and quickly grew in size and scope. Utilizing social media to promote events and keep attendees in touch, and working alongside civic forces like the police and museums to secure space and sound equipment to keep the costs at zero, they have connected many disparate groups over their love of music and dancing.
At any given event, the music can be eclectic, and may feature a traditional Colombian “cumbia” alongside jazz tunes and hip hop from around the world.
Retirees in their 70s, children and their mothers, and gaggles of 20-somethings of various styles and cliques all gather together and dance without fear of judgment or the interest in applying it.
“I think it’s wonderful because it’s a free event,” said a 73-year-old retired high school assistant principal, who comes to the events with her husband. “We get together with people from all parts of society and we have fun without any trouble.”
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Younger attendees told AP that dancing has always been an activity that existed hand in hand with alcohol (and all the implications that come with it), but the New Network allowed them to create new relationships with dancing and with themselves.
SHARE This Great New Way To Boogie In The Mexican Capital…
GNN has reported on multiple occasions how artificial intelligence is being leveraged to detect signs of cancer.
Now, a team of high schoolers is using AI to help their community combat one of the deadlier forms: oral cancer.
Using a photo taken on a smartphone, the Oral Scan app detects signs of oral cancer at an 82% success rate. If the AI thinks it’s found evidence of a tumor, it can diagnose the stage with an even better, 87% success rate.
Not bad for a bunch of teenagers, and even though 82% is below what most medical ethicists believe should be the threshold for outsourcing tumor identification to a machine, it’s far better than the rate of 0%, which is what many in the team’s home state of Arkansas will experience.
52,000 Americans are diagnosed with oral cancer every year, and more than 12,000 died as a result, according to their research. Early detection of oral cancers can boost survival rates by 40%, but such cancers are detected early in only 30% of cases.
In dental deserts, these numbers are even worse. In Arkansas for example, 90% of the population didn’t visit a dentist last year, and according to one dental surgeon the team spoke with, whole counties in Arkansas don’t even have a dentist to visit.
“We learned that current diagnosis methods are expensive, intrusive, and often inaccurate, making early detection rare,” Veera Unnam, one of the team members, from Bentonville West High School.
Their response is Oral Scan, a free app in which each diagnosis will cost just 50 cents, and deliver a response in just 15 seconds.
The team designed the app to be usable in all countries on both Apple and Android IOS, and ensured it was easy and intuitive to use, showing their commitment not only to Arkansas, but the world at large.
AI FINDING CANCER:
Recently, Unnam and his two colleagues entered Oral Scan into the 15th annual Samsung Solve for Tomorrow competition, empowering public school students (grades 6-12) to drive positive change in their communities by applying STEM know-how to address real-world, pressing issues.
Each finalist school receives $50,000 in Samsung technology and supplies and will compete at the live Solve for Tomorrow Pitch Event in Washington, DC, on April 28th. Three National Winners will each earn $100,000 in prizes, and one will be named the Community Choice Winner.
Celebrating the 15th year of Solve For Tomorrow, Samsung has awarded more than $27 million in resources to nearly 4,000 public schools across the US to date, and the Oral Scan team will be hoping they’re among the recent winners. However, in advance of the announcement of the winner, Oral Scan is already getting national news headlines, and the team have been invited to speak at medical conferences to present their invention.
WATCH the students’ video pitch below…
SHARE These Enterprising Public Health Champions With Your Friends…
Quote of the Day: “Love is the power to see similarity in the dissimilar.” – Theodor W. Adorno
Photo by: Cpl. Paula M. Fitzgerald (CC license)
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quote of the Day page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
61 years ago today, Americans got their first glimpse of Ford’s new sporty car. The Mustang first appeared in showrooms at the 1964 World Fair in New York City for a retail price of $2,368 (equivalent to $23,263 in 2023). Because it was introduced four months before the usual start of the 1965 production year, it is affectionately known as the “Ford 1964-1/2. READ a bit about the famous car’s earliest designs… (1964)
Britain’s youngest Elvis impersonator has been invited to perform at Presley’s Graceland home in Memphis.
Talented Cooper Worthington has been a lifelong fan of the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll, and if the honor of singing at the King’s house wasn’t enough, it happens that he will take the stage on the day marking the 48th anniversary of Presley’s death.
12-year-old Cooper was described by his mom, Kelly Worthington, as a “typical pre-teen” who just happens to have a love for performing. His interest in Elvis was sparked by Freddie Mercury’s love of the same, and it was only after Cooper heard Mercury talk about Elvis in an old interview that he decided to see what his idol was fussing about.
If Cooper’s journey continues, there may come a point where that story ends with the phrase “and the rest, they say, is history.”
“We thought we would reach out to America because Cooper is the UK’s youngest working performing Elvis tribute at the moment,” said his mother Kelly Worthington.
Sending over a collection of videos and social media content, Elvis Presley Enterprises replied with a contract offer that will see the young man head to Graceland for two performing slots.
Cooper ‘could not believe it’ when he was told.
“We are both so excited,” said Worthington. “Cooper wanted to go to Memphis for years and I have been saving up and working as hard as I can to take us both there. It is going to be a once in a lifetime experience.”
“So far in his little life he has had loads of amazing opportunities so we do feel really lucky.”
The plan is to impersonate young 1950’s Elvis because of Cooper’s age.
“We have got the Pink Cadillac outfit, the gold blazer, the GI Blues outfit, the Jailhouse Rock outfit—I’ll let him choose,” said Worthington.
While the family has received criticism for letting his star shine too brightly at such a young age, Worthington argues that they couldn’t have stopped him if they had wanted to.
“He entered a school talent competition and won the whole show,” she remembered. “A couple of weeks ago he was asked to perform as Elvis as part of our local festival week and keeps getting invited to perform.”
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“He wants to go on Britain’s Got Talent. We haven’t pushed him at all, we couldn’t have stopped him—he just loves it so much and is [sic] his passion. He knows all of Elvis’ songs now and has perfected the dance moves. He’s also grown hair his long enough to quiff it himself naturally.”
“He has even found an old American hair gel that Elvis used to use. He now just wants to be famous. His eyes light up when he is on stage.”
Cooper also spoke to Britain’s SWNS media outlet, and very much backed up what his mother described.
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“I love Elvis’ singing the best,” he said. “My favorite song is Jailhouse Rock and my dream is to perform in Las Vegas and have my own show.”
“I got into performing by watching performers on telly and YouTube and live shows and wanted to do it myself. My dad wants me to be a rugby player like him, but I love performing like my mom.”
WATCH him do his stuff below (and maybe give him a like and a follow on YouTube)…
SHARE This Shining Star Heading To Graceland With Your Friends…
Security camera footage from the San Diego Zoo recently showed how its elephant herd formed a protective circle around its young after they were surprised by a recent earthquake.
Originating about 3 miles south of Julian, Southern California, the magnitude 5.2 tremblor, gave the region down to Tijuana a good shaking.
At the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, a herd of three female elephants and their two calves were startled by the quake, and footage of them organizing to protect their young has made headlines.
Known to pachydermologists as an “alert circle,” the female adults quickly encircled their young back-to-back, tusks and trunks outward. It’s how the animals defend their young on the savanna, where predators’ only hope of poaching elephants depends on separating them from their youngsters.
Elephants have the ability to feel sound through their feet, so an earthquake is presumably more frightening for them than us. Many elephant strongholds such as Zambia, Botswana, and South Africa are prone to both intense and benign earthquakes.
“The herd, consisting of Ndlula, Umngani, Khosi, and youngsters Zuli and Mkhaya, went back to normal after about 4 minutes, though they did stay close to one another,” Emily Senninger, a spokeswoman for the San Diego Zoo, told GNN.
WATCH them make the ‘Alert Circle’ below…
SHARE This Perfect View Of A Fascinating Elephant Behavior…
It takes bravery to be a police officer, but for someone with a fear of heights, it’s probably safe to assume most of the work will be done with feet on solid ground.
For one acrophobic Philadelphia officer however, preventing disaster meant going above and beyond the call of duty, literally.
Officer Eric Robbins was on patrol December 10th, among the two-storey houses on N. 64th Street, when he got a call from neighbors saying someone’s child was out and walking on the pitched-roof of a nearby house.
The child didn’t seem fazed about the 20-30 foot drop awaiting him. Robbins could feel it though, even from the ground floor, as he has a self-professed fear of heights.
“I just knew I had to get him off that roof,” Robbins told ABC 6. Gaining entry to the house, released body cam footage shows him charging up the stairs to the second floor, climbing out of the window and grabbing the child.
Arriving at the window, he realized his presence might spook the wayward boy into falling off the roof, so Robbins snuck into position to grab him, saying “I don’t even think he knew I was there.”
Though unwilling to talk to the police at the time, the family, who were completely shocked, thanked Officer Robbins for his dedication “to protecting and serving with such compassion.”
MORE POLICE RESCUES: Macgyver-Minded Officer Saves Toddler from Bottom of 10-ft Hole with Makeshift Catchpole –WATCH
For his part, Robbins realized his acrophobia would have to wait.
“Instantly overcoming my fear of heights and getting him off the roof… it hit home because it could have been my kid and I would want someone to do the same,” he said.
WATCH the body cam footage below…
SHARE This Officer’s Personal Bravery When No One Was Around To Witness It…
A mom and dad in Tennessee has been called “angels on Earth” by filling their four walls with children who have complex medical conditions.
Caleb and Ruchala Bone were just at a district court to seal the adoption of their fourth child, Isabella, who like their biological son Griffin, was born with a heart condition and has spent much of her early life in a hospital.
It was Griffin’s early travails that made the couple decide that the big family they always wanted would be filled with kids like Griffin that needed that extra degree of care and had no one around to give it to them.
Griffin needed open-heart surgery at just 3 months old, and the family spent a lot of time in and out of Vanderbilt children’s hospital where they learned how many kids in the foster system have complex medical issues.
Whether through a belief in a god or simply at the urging of their own moral compass, they decided to do something about it, and in 2022, adopted a little boy named Maurice who needed a kidney transplant. In a report filmed by News Channel 5, little Maurice can be seen happy and healthy, and tramping about the corridors of the court with his new siblings.
The Bones have now either fostered or adopted four children with complicated medical situations, reports Forrest Saunders for Channel 5, many of whom through a foster program called Youth Villages, whose director Suzanne Jones called the couple “angels on Earth.”
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“They are just the best kinds of people,” she said. “Foster parents have to go through training at the hospital, so sometimes that can be daunting. They have to go through the full medical training to know how to care for their medically needy child.”
Isabella, for example, came to the couple at just 5-months-old, having already received open-heart surgery. The ongoing medical care is taken care of through the state’s TennCare program, and the Bones are eligible for a foster parent stipend and other assistance as well.
SIMILAR FOSTER HEROES: 88-year-old ‘Proud’ Foster Mom Retires After Raising Over 40 Children
“I don’t know if we’d say we feel chosen or we’re the right people,” Ruchala told Channel 5, “but we said yes,”
To watch a video of the story, visit News Channel 5’s website here.
SHARE This Inspiring Husband And Wife Giving Neglected Children A Loving Home…
Quote of the Day: “Set your course by the stars, not by the lights of every passing ship.” – Gen. Omar Bradley
Photo by: Johannes Plenio
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quote of the Day page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
107 years ago today, Xuan Hua, also known by the dharma name An Tzu, was born. Xuan Hua founded The Dharma Realm Buddhist Association, and the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas in Ukiah, California, bringing Chan Buddhism and the fully ordained monastic order to the West. He also founded the Dharma Realm Buddhist University at CTTB, and the Buddhist Text Translation Society which works to translate Buddhist scriptures from Chinese into English, Vietnamese, Spanish, and many other languages. READ about his long efforts in the West… (1918)
Screaming protestors surrounded the building as federal marshals escorted a brave six-year-old girl on her way to making history. In first grade.
It was November of 1960 when Ruby Bridges became the first black student to integrate William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans.
After many white parents chose to withdraw their children from school, the principal kept everyone else far away from her. In fact, Ruby ended up being the only pupil in her class during the entire first year.
The circumstances might have been impossible to bear if not for her teacher, Barbara Henry. The woman’s kindness made such a difference that Ruby has stayed in touch with her for more than six decades—and she just published a public tribute.
A love letter of sorts, the children’s book is entitled Ruby Bridges: A Talk With My Teacher. It explores the tremendous impact that Ms. Henry made in just one year—and also shares the story of the pair’s reunion several years later.
“We often say, both of us,” Bridges told the TODAY show, “…that despite all the hate that was going on outside, inside that room it was filled with love.”
Ms. Henry, a Boston native, made a commitment to Ruby even though other teachers were resigning from their jobs in protest—or flat-out refusing to work with a black child.
She brought positivity into that first grade classroom, even as protestors raged outside.
“I would not have gotten through that if it had not been for my teacher,” Bridges recalled in the TODAY video (below).
“She filled my day with things to do. She made school fun. I enjoyed learning. Even though the crowd was outside yelling, she would go and close the window, and she’d say, ‘We’re going to have music today,’ just to drown out everything.”
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Second grade became much worse because Ms. Henry was no longer her teacher. Yet, Bridges persevered.
Ruby eventually graduated, worked as a travel agent, and had four kids of her own. She started the Ruby Bridges Foundation, which promotes “the values of tolerance, respect, and appreciation of all differences.”
She’s now 70 and still doing her best to make the world a better place.
But no matter how long she lives, she’ll never forget the kindness displayed by her first grade teacher. The lady who was a constant source of love and compassion while the world wailed outside.
GIFT IDEA FOR TEACHER OR STUDENT: New Day-to-Day Journal Features 365 Inspiring Quotes From Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood
“I think that each and every one of us, we probably remember one teacher that made an impact in our lives,” Bridges told TODAY. “And she was the one for me.”
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