I believe we are in a time of reckoning, both with our past and present. It’s long overdue. With much attention focused on 1619 — an anniversary to be marked but not celebrated – there seems to be a new focus on the foundational arrival of the first enslaved Africans on our shores. With the […]
Another World’s Fair: Just What America Needs–or Does It?
Could a World’s Fair put a smiley face on America? For much of our history, world’s fairs have done just that. During times of triumph – and especially of trial – these garish events have papered over our imperfections and even in the darkest of times have offered a sunny picture of the present and […]
The First TV President
I liked Ike. Ike liked TV. Not FOX News. But network news programs and musical shows. Or so TV Guide magazine for Feb. 12, 1955 tells us. “The President is Watching, Too,” the headline says. “TV Wins Generous Share of ‘First Family’s’ Leisure,” says the subhead. Leisure? Executive Time? He didn’t tweet. He didn’t rant. […]
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. Years later, in July 2009., Sandy and I visited Omaha Beach — now a public family vacation spot — and the American cemetery, with its countless rows of crosses […]
“Hazards Arising from Shortness of Life”
Back in 1975, I wrote a story for the Washington Post about a petition for legal fees filed by a lawyer for three Indian tribes with the U.S. Indian Claims Commission. In requesting rapid payment of $3.5 million, the attorney noted that the case had dragged on not only for decades but for generations. Many […]
Sharing a story from the past relevant to the present
Dear Reader, Some good news and a challenge: February was an amazingly busy month for FIVE FOR FREEDOM. I was honored to share the story of “The African American Soldiers in John Brown’s Army” on seven occasions, in venues from Northwest DC to Rockville to Manassas to Oberlin, Ohio, where I spoke from the pulpit […]
MLK Jr. Day, Black History Month and FIVE FOR FREEDOM
This weekend, we recall Martin Luther King, Jr. with a federal holiday signed into law in 1983, first observed three years later and, after some resistance, observed by all 50 states since 2000. It is celebrated this year on Jan. 21, six days after his actual birthday. But before the U.S. government recognized King with […]
Thanksgiving: Pearl Harbor, 1941, and 77 Years On – ICYMI
I first published this post two years ago, for Thanksgiving — less than three weeks before the 75th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, marking Dec. 7, 1941, forever, FDR proclaimed in asking Congress for a declaration of war against Japan, as “a date which will live in infamy.” The blog ran shortly after […]
Pittsburgh: Never Again? Just Words
It happened less than three weeks ago. But, despite another gun rampage in California, apocalyptic wildfires, midterm results and recounts — the tsunami of “breaking news” that has pushed it off the front pages and the cable news shows — the murder of 11 Jews in Pittsburgh is still very much a current event. There is […]
Forget about capital mayhem; it’s autumn in New York
WOODSTOCK, N.Y. – Life without cable news can be very therapeutic. Of course, we love the three Chris’s, Rachel and Lawrence, but a few nights without them, even in the worst of times, is not the end of the world. It is not, literally, climate change. But it does cool us down if not also […]