History
As we stare into the abyss of an unknown political future, let’s take a moment and appreciate what we have.
I was born during the administration of Dwight D. Eisenhower, arguably the last good Republican President. That year segregation suffered its very first push back. Lynching in the South was still common place. Hate for large groups of citizens like African-Americans, Native-Americans, Latinos and Jews, just to name a few, was so built into American life, that for most white people it was usually taken for granted.
- Written by: Doug Matthews
- Category: History
Billy Pilgrim's Bunkmate
The professor seemed bursting with quirks: ramrod erect though middle-low in height, thinning hair, full suit, top rim glasses, a nasal yet precise voice, the epitome of a square to any clutch of students. He introduced himself to the 
class—as he introduced himself in all of his classes—with the personal revelation of being a P.O.W. during World War 2. He explained further being billeted in a former meatpacking complex in Dresden, Germany called Schlachthaus fünf, or Slaughterhouse Five, made famous by fellow prisoner and novelist Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. So it goes.
- Written by: Doug Matthews
- Category: History
A black and white Polaroid taken by my grandfather commemorates one of several pilgrimages we took by bus back to his birthplace in north-central Georgia. The scattered village where he was born is a remnant of what was once the family plantation. The sound of U.S 441 rumbles nearby.
This was over fifty years ago, and memory is an imperfect monochrome. I was an annoying child eager to ham for the noisy, black-bellowed Model 95 Land Camera, a contraption as sophisticated to me as a Gemini orbiter, and as ever present as his pipe and fedora.
- Written by: Curtis W. Long
- Category: History
In the private Berlin study of the Rabbi for the largest Jewish Temple in Germany, late-evening tea is being served.
In five years’ time, this country will be the centerpiece of the first of two great wars. These dual conflagrations will be separated by a generation, and they will have a single human connection that will result in an impact upon the world with a severity that cannot even be imagined in the serenity of this 1909 vesperal scene.
- Written by: William Hunn
- Category: History
My earliest and most vivid memories of elementary school were when we would gather together in a single classroom and watch a rocket take off with a man aboard. I grew up with the Mercury Seven Astronauts, the Gemini program and eventually the Apollo Missions that culminated on July 20 1969 when Neil Armstrong stepped off a ladder onto the moon.
- Written by: Curtis W. Long
- Category: History
(Elie Wiesel has died. He survived a Nazi concentration camp, and ever since spread the Jewish mantra, “Never Again!” He added, “Never remain silent in the face of oppression.”
- Written by: Curtis W. Long
- Category: History
Helen Fabela Chavez, the widow and activist-partner of farmworkers champion Cesar Chavez, was laid to rest last week.
Once again we find ourselves in the midst of a tragedy carried out by use of firearms. The true shame of this horror is that it surprised no one, except those in the crosshairs. For most Americans it now seems inevitable that there will be other such massacres. We as a nation have to reconsider the insanity that can be unleashed by one person or a small group, when armed with modern weaponry. That conversation must begin with a proper understanding of The Second Amendment: “A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed”
August 22, 1964 - Martha and The Vandellas debuted at No. 68 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart with their single, "Dancing In The Street." I was only 10 at the time.
Bed-Stuy was still a "mixed" neighborhood back then. Originally mostly Hasidic, there were still many of their families... The first time I ever saw a tattoo from "the camps" was one day when the landlord came by to collect the rent and when I asked what the numbers were for, my mother shushed me and apologized, embarrassed... He lived upstairs, his son Moshe was my best friend and we always played together in the hallways. I remember their entire family along with the others would move out in to the backyard, to a little hut they built every year. When I asked my mom why, she said "Passover" as if that somehow explained it.
- Written by: Curtis W. Long
- Category: History
In 1942, while innocent San Diego citizens and legal residents of Japanese ancestry were being held under guard at Santa Anita’s stinking horse stables, in Orange County. Del Webb (who later built Arizona’s “Sun City”) was busy constructing, “Camp Poston,” the largest in area of the ten WWII, U.S. Japanese concentration facilities. This construction was taking place in then-Yuma County (now, “La Paz”), in the State of Arizona – on a freakin’ American Indian Reservation!!! The horrified Indian Council, incredulous at the double-jeopardy insensitivity of “The Great White Father,” would have nothing to do with the infernal plan. Naturally, they were overruled by the military and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Thus, those now-marginalized, once-possessors of all the lands, were required to remain mute, as their residual residence was profaned by yet another, race-based, inhumane assault upon mankind!!!
Read more: NATIVE AMERICANS FORCED TO HOST WWII INTERNMENT CAMPS!!!
