History Matters
“We’ve seen a force that would shatter our nation rather than share it, would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy. And this effort very nearly succeeded. But while democracy can be periodically delayed, it can never be permanently defeated.
In this truth, in this faith, we trust. For while we have our eyes on the future, history has its eyes on us.” – Amanda Gorman
We are all patriots: Thomas Jefferson and the Election of 1800
To My Fellow Patriots Whether you are a Democrat or Republican, Progressive or Centrist or Conservative, love Trump or hate Trump or don't care about Trump one way or the other, male or female or something else, whether you are Catholic or Protestant, Evangelical or...
Unbearable Loss
20 year old Quentin Roosevelt, youngest son of Theodore Roosevelt, is the only child of a US President ever to die in war. Theodore Roosevelt was intensely critical of Woodrow Wilson’s attempt to keep the US out of World War I and always enthusiastic about the use of...
WP: On Christmas Eve in 1944, the snow turned red with blood
On Christmas Eve in 1944, the snow turned red with blood On Christmas Eve 1944, in the besieged Belgian town of Bastogne, a U.S. Army doctor named John T. Prior was about to write a letter for a dying officer in the makeshift hospital next door. It was a lousy...
BBC: German WWI wreck discovered off Falklands
German WWI wreck discovered off Falklands The wreck of a World War One German armoured cruiser has been located off the Falkland Islands, where it was sunk by the British navy 105 years ago. SMS Scharnhorst was the flagship of German Vice-Admiral Maximilian...
Military Times: Montford Point Marines
Between 1942 and 1949, approximately 20,000 African-American men completed recruit training and became known as the "Montford Point Marines." Despite the challenges presented to those Montford Point Marines, their valor and performance at Peleliu, Iwo Jima, the Chosen...
Forgotten Past; Doomed Future
David Greenberg has published an op-ed in Politico (link below) arguing that we ought not compare Trump's impeachment to that of any of the other Presidents who have faced impeachment. He rightly points out that the context of all of the other instances is different...
WP: The nuclear submarine Thresher was said to be America’s best. Then tragedy struck.
Never knew the full story of this. On a personal note, the escorts ship USS Skylark (ASR-20) was of the same class as the USS Sunbird (ASR-15) that I would serve on nearly 20 years later. In the photo, the Skylark is on the left and the Sunbird on the right. ...
NYT: World War II and the Ingredients of Slaughter
This 80th anniversary of World War II is an opportunity to reconsider how the world reached that dark defile, in which some 70 million people died. An opportunity, too, to remember the words of the American judge Learned Hand, on how free and civilized people can come...
MLK: All Labor has Dignity
The two most dynamic movements that reshaped the nation during the past three decades are the labor and civil rights movements. Our combined strength is potentially enormous. We have not used a fraction of it for our own good or for the needs of society as a whole. If...
The right poem for the wrong time: WH Auden’s September 1, 1939
Sept. 1, 1939 marks the beginning of World War II in Europe. That was 80 years ago today. I sit in one of the dives On Fifty-second Street Uncertain and afraid As the clever hopes expire Of a low dishonest decade: September 1, 1939 on History Matters The right...