I count on at least one thing that most Americans generally agree with: talking politics over the holidays is fraught with difficulties. On the one hand, it lifts the spirit to see,…
Two recent books and a movie about the Underground Railroad are bathed in historical fact. The enslaved ran away. They were helped by many others. Their journey was difficult. In each of…
An enduring manifestation of the Civil Rights Movement is that secondary school American history instruction has increasingly included the contributions made by minorities and women. Recent students of history have been reminded…
In the Norse sagas, Erik the Red is portrayed as establishing the first European settlement on an island geographically associated with North America. He called it Greenland because “men would be more…
The U.S. Department of Justice is planning to resume the execution of death row inmates for the first time since 2003. Many of the states have been at it since then—Texas has…
I was surprised to discover that my local library’s two copies of Kurt Vonnegut’s 1969 Slaughterhouse-Five were checked out and that I would have to wait my turn at it. I then…
Expressing his overwhelming faith in the civic responsibilities of the American people and commenting upon the political mess we are all in, U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut recently proclaimed, “They’re not…
A phalanx of yellow buses poured black students to the curb and across the street. The white boy waited for the Crosstown 31. His mother told him that the ancient yet ornate…
The licensing process for educators requires a semester of student-teaching overseen by a master teacher who welcomes the teacher-wannabe into the classroom for some real instruction with real students. The process includes…
I am really grateful for the guys that collect my trash every week and that the sanitation department tells them what to do with all that stuff after they pick it up.…