Happy 99th Birthday, Jimmy Carter. I knew you when.
Peanut farmer James Earl “Jimmy” Carter, Jr., our 39th commander in chief often mocked as president but revered as ex-president, entered hospice in February and I began writing this in…
Read MoreFind Hope, Harmony, and Goodwill in “Hidden Maryland”
Couldn’t we all use a little Hope, Harmony, and Goodwill? Lord knows, these are trying times. Times of war, global warming… and who knows what lurks in the future to…
Read MoreGenerations: Past, Present, and Future
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about generations. My thoughts are prompted in part by much ado about President Biden, who is 80, and not enough ado about DJT, who…
Read MoreShields Green: He Went with the Old Man
“I think I’ll go with the old man.” With these words, on Aug. 21, 1859, Shields Green sealed his fate. The “old man” was John Brown, and Green was a…
Read MoreHarriet Newby’s “One Bright Hope”
“I want you to buy me as soon as possible, for if you do not get me some body else will,” Harriet, an enslaved house servant, wrote on this day…
Read MoreWash Post Aug. 9, 1974: Nixon Resigns; Larry Broadmoore Carries On
It was on this day 49 years ago — nearly half a century — that the front page of the Washington Post carried a simple large-font two-word banner headline: “Nixon…
Read MoreIs a picture still worth 1,000 words? Newspapers say no.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Or at least they used to say that. Now, however, many publishers seem to think that – though they are not…
Read MoreR.I.P. Winfield M. Kelly, Jr., AKA Mr. Prince George’s
For many years, Winfield M. Kelly, Jr. was a newsmaker, a homegrown success story in then majority-white blue collar Prince George’s County, Md. abutting the District of Columbia. He was…
Read MoreOn D-Day +1. ICYMI, my WP story from the 50th anniversary in 1994
D-Day 75 Years Later In 1994, I had the honor and privilege of telling the story of the D-Day landing through the voices of veterans, then mostly in their seventies.…
Read MoreBobby Kennedy’s death, when hope turned to despair
It has been 55 years to the day since Bobby (referred to more formally as Robert F.) Kennedy died, the victim of an assassin’s bullet. The anniversary brings back personal…
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