Nowhere are nurses more valued and needed than in war zones. From Dorothea Dix to Clara Barton to Florence Nightingale, these women bravely entered the most intense arenas of tragedy and human suffering armed with courage, compassion, and medical skill sets that resulted in patients and witnesses describing them as “ministering angels.” Their noble souls fought for an end to unhygienic conditions that killed more soldiers by disease than combat. They demanded dignity for their patients, and they struggled to ease the suffering of those affected by the jaws of war.  Their legacy continues today. Building on the foundation of hundreds of years of medical advancement, nurses are contributing to saving more lives on and around the battlefield than ever recorded in history. They are masters of trauma treatment and preventative medicine.

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I'm standing in sand. The sun is blazing over Fort Bliss, Texas. Ten miles south, just beyond the US border with Mexico, drug cartels are murdering people by the hundreds. Open source reports put the number of dead at more than 1000 since January. The sand is so hot that I can feel the heat through the soles of my boots.

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When you first meet Shelly Dutch, you’d better be wearing a good pair of shoes. If she’s not counseling clients in an individual, family or group session, she’s probably moving. Tom Farley, who heads The Chris Farley Foundation, describes her as “one of the most dynamic people in teen counseling in Madison, if not the whole state of Wisconsin.” One of her staff members, Cory Divine, states that Dutch is “a powerhouse of energy and conviction.”

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I live in Wisconsin. The state that even made Vince Lombardi think twice. In “When Pride Still Mattered,” David Maraniss wrote about the Lombardi family’s response to the Wisconsin winter as they rounded Chicago and headed north toward Green Bay: “…[Lombardi's son] looked out in disbelief…at snowdrifts higher than car level lining both sides of the road. I had no idea snow got that big and tall. We were up and talking and then it got real silent in the car.”

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“If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant; if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.” -Anne Bradstreet

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Anyone who has been to a Milwaukee Brewers home game since the mid-1990's can tell you that one of the highlights of the trip to County Stadium or Miller Park was the Sausage Race.

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They are some of the most vivid memories of my childhood. We carried piles of chopped wood into the house, stacking it next to the fireplace. My father mashed newspaper and leaned kindling on it, shifting the logs into the flames until the entire room glowed and warmed. Stockings dangled on the mantle. Snow tumbled from the clouds in droves. The pines grew santa beards and moaned under the weight of the ice.

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