One of the accounts in Tony Horwitrz’s book, The Devil May Care, is about a sailor with connections to Seattle. Joshua Slocum (1844 – 1909) was born in Nova Scotia and left home at age sixteen to work on sailing ships. Through years of experience, he became a captain of cargo ships and ran a schooner between Seattle and San Francisco in 1869. He also was the captain on cargo ships running to Australia and the Philippines. In 1882 he…
Discrimination over race is nothing new for America. David Pietrusza describes the "Jim Crow" situation of the 1900’s in his book 1920 The Year of Six Presidents. As an illustration of the strong bias against blacks in the United States, he points out that in October of 1901 Teddy Roosevelt invited Booker T. Washington to the White House for a private dinner. The white South was enraged. The Memphis Scimitar fumed that the President had committed "the most damnable outrage…
Rabbi Lawrence Kushner, from Sudbury, Massachusetts, has written a number of books. One of them, Invisible Lines of Connection, is a collection of stories of observations of life events about connections between people and God. Some of his insights include the blackness of night while on a ship when one sees a light house light. He notes "Each lighthouse has its own distinctive pattern of flashes, a coded light-message which enables the approaching mariner to identify his location on the…
Roger Rosenblatt has written some sound advice in his piece "rules for aging," Here’s a summary of some of the rules he advocates: 1. It doesn’t matter. Whatever you think matters really doesn’t. 2. Yes, you did. If you have the slightest doubt whether you are responsible for a wrong – you are. Come to this conclusion early and act to correct it. 3. Nobody is thinking about you. I promise you, nobody is thinking about you. They are too…
In The Devil May Care Tony Horwitz describes fifty Americans, as he puts it, "and their quest for the unknown." One of the accounts involves George Catlin, 1796 – 1872, who entered law school in Connecticut and was admitted the bar the following year. But, within a few years he gave up the law and decided to become a painter. At first he specialized in miniatures, but seeing a delegation of American Native Indians in Philadelphia, he decided to make…
In his book, 1920 The Year of Six Presidents, David Pietrusza recounts the struggle to obtain the right of women to vote. He describes Alice Stokes Paul who dedicated herself to the cause, even picketing the White House in 1913. Marching on the way, some ten thousand suffragettes were set upon by thugs who slapped them, spit on them and knocked them down, tearing banners out of their hands. Over the next several years, Paul and thousands of other women…
The history of the labor movement in the United States is one of the most violent of any other industrialized nation. On the other hand, labor conditions were oppressive and cruel. The working person was at the mercy of the employer. The story is one of bravery and violence. This entry is much longer then normal, but is only a tiny summary of a long history. In the 1900’s a sixteen hour six day work week was common. Across the…
David Pietrusza has written 1920 – The year of The Six Presidents. His description of this interesting period of American history is very well written. Warren G. Harding is one of the historical figures he discusses. Harding was the 29th President from 1921 to 1923. He was a Republican Senator from Ohio. Even thought he appointed such distinguished people as Charles Evans Hughes, Andrew Mellon and Herbert Hoover to positions of importance his administration was so scandal ridden as to…
Kevin Boyle has written a history of the famous 1925 criminal trial in Detroit involving eleven blacks who were in a house surrounded by a mob of whites when someone inside fired a shot which killed a white man. The case was twice defended by Clarence Darrow. Boyle’s book Arc of Justice traces the history of widespread bigotry against the black race and the activities of the Klu Klux Klan in Northern cities. The shooting happened on September 29, 1925…
Like a true student of Frank Luntz & Karl Rove Vice President Cheney has a new mantra for continuing the failed Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld Iraq war policy. In a recent speech to American Troops he used "come home with honor." That’s right, "come home with honor." It combines strong words "home" and "honor" while implying any talk of leaving Iraq is dishonorable. Isn’t that clever? That’s how our second in command fashioned his rallying cry for the killing fields of…
