Student Rights NJ

In the NJ case of C.H. v. Bridgeton Board of Education the US District Court in Camden upheld a student's right to "silent protest". In this case a student wished to show her oppostion to abortion. She planned to wear an armband that read "life" and to distribute literature to other students. She sought "official permission" prior to her protest and provided a copy of the literature she wanted to hand out. In October of 2009 the school informed her that her request was denied. She sought the help of the ACLU of NJ and took her case to court where she won. The court ruled that this was not the school establishing religious belief but a student and "not a person vested with the authority of government" who wished to exercise her First Amendment right to free speech. References were made to the original student rights case of Tinker v. Des Moines.

(Source: "ACLU-NJ fights for activists rigtht to wear beliefs about abortion on her sleeve". The American Civil Liberties Union of NJ, 2nd quarter of 2010).

Carnegie Libraries

Almost every American History text book has given coverage to the fact that Andrew Carnegie-in his later life-built major libraries, but what I didn't know was the extent of that library building campaign. While reading a book about a library cat in Iowa I came across this information. The "libraries were of the classical style with three stained-glass windows in the entrance hall, two with flowers and one with the word 'library'...a large central desk, surrounded by drawers of cards. The side rooms were small and cloistered, with bookshelves to the ceiling". Most public buildings of this era were segregated by sex, not so the Carnegie libraries. This sourse also notes that these libraries were some of the first to allow a patron to take a book off the shelf rather than request it from the librarian. These buildings were thought of as plain only because they were compared to the large ones built in NYC and Chicago. These libraries had high ceilings with large windows and a "half-underground bottom floor" for children; this at a time when most thought children should at home.

I googled the topic and found that Carnegie provided $ 10,000 grant to towns for the building, and 2509 were built between 1883 and 1929. There were 1689 in the US, 660 in Britain and Ireland, 125 in Canada and even one in Fiji. On the site I found there were lists of libraries by state; in NJ there was one built in Englewood.

(Source: Dewey: The Small Town Cat Who Touched the World. By Vicki Myron with Bret Witter. 2008. Page 117

Federalism

It seems it is time for American History teachers to think about spending more time explaining the concept of "federalism" to their classes. At the Richmond, Virginia Tea Party convention held this past week the Attorney General of Virginia-Ken Cuccinelli-made the point at a panel discussion on the Constitution. Cuccinelli has been mentioned as a possible vice president for the republican party in 2012.

As we know the concept of federalism is about the power-sharing between the federal government and the state governments. This combined with those who call themselves "tenthers" seems to suggest that the supremacy of federal law over state law is an active question again, regardless of the outcome of the Civil War in 1865.

(Source: "At tea party rally, Cuccinelli shines among GOP stars" by Bill Bartel of The Virginia Pilot on 10/10/10).

Guatemala 1940's

The US gov't has issued an apology for a medical study it conducted on "soldiers, prisoners, and mental patients with syphilis and other sexally transmitted diseases" from 1946 to 1948. John C. Cutler a doctor with the Public Health Service and fellow doctors picked inmates in Guatemala jails because that was one country that allowed prisoners to have sex. First prostitutes "with the disease" were used and then the prisoners were directly inoculated. The study also used soldiers and men and women "in Guatemala's national mental health hospital". The study was intended to study the effectiveness of penicilin and to study how STD's were spread. Cutler was also involved in the Tuskegee Institute syphilis experiments in this country in the 1950's. In that case hundreds of African American men with late stage syphilis "were left untreated to enable study of the disease". This information was found by a Wellesley College professor who was investigating the Tuskegee incident. President Obama and Sec't of State Hillary Clinton have both apologized to the Guatemalan government.

(Source: "US apologizes to Guatemala for '40s study" by Rob Stein of The Washington Post. In The Virginia Pilot on 10/02/10)