There are places that athat are written into your bones. For me, that place is Papillion, Nebraska. It is the place where I was born, and raised. The place where I learned what it meant to belong to a community. Even if I didn’t yet have the words to explain it. And, by the grace … Read more
On Jan Hus Day, the Czech Republic remembers a priest burned for heresy. But was Jan Hus truly a heretic, or did he simply uncover the wound too early?
For the first few years of my life, I did not know what the Fourth of July was really about. I did not know about the signing of the Declaration of Independence or the year 1776. The long and complicated story of America, with all its glory and all its wounds, all its promise and … Read more
This is the first of three reflections I hope to offer in honor of this three-day holiday weekend in the United States, and also in honor of the 250th birthday of the United States of America. On July 4, 2026, our country marks 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence, a milestone … Read more
There is something deeply sacred about walking through a cemetery on Memorial Day. Nothing is rushed or distracted.There is no scrolling through headlines, advertisements, or noise. Just rows of stones beneath an open sky. The American flags flutter softly beside military markers. Fresh flowers rest against granite worn smooth by rain, wind, and generations of … Read more
There are moments in history that seem almost too improbable to be real. Young men working beneath the smokestacks and stockyards of South Omaha, Czech immigrants who had crossed an ocean seeking peace and stability, boarded trains eastward toward Stamford, Connecticut, not for factory work or ordinary opportunity, but to prepare themselves for war on … Read more
There are moments in history when ordinary men become something larger than themselves. Not because they sought glory, riches, or conquest, but because they carried within them the hope of a people not yet free. Such was the story of the Czechoslovak Legion. Before there was a nation called Czechoslovakia, there were Czech and Slovak … Read more
There is something deeply moving about the idea of men leaving safety, steady work, and family life in America to fight for a country that did not even officially exist yet. Not for land they owned, or wealth. or even for citizenship. But for memory. For language and songs sung at kitchen tables and the … Read more
There are moments in family history that seem small at first glance, ordinary little happenings tucked into the folds of daily life, but years later you realize they reveal an entire world that no longer exists. My Grandpa Svagera’s first days at school in Plattsmouth, Nebraska, were one of those moments. Not long ago, I … Read more
S velikou láskou dědečkovi a tetičce The dance that overflowed the heart. There are some relationships in families that seem almost providential. Not accidental or merely biological, but deeply woven together by memory, history, sacrifice, and love. That was the relationship between my Grandpa Svagera and his youngest sister, Millie. Grandpa was the oldest sibling. … Read more
