Concession Speech

I came across this quote just recently-one that I have heard numerous times in the past-and I thought it worth posting here. On November 5, 1952 Adlai Stevenson conceded defeat to Dwight Eisenhower in the presidential race that year. Stevenson recalled a story that was popular in his native Illinois that came from Abraham Lincoln. When Lincoln was asked how he felt after losing an election his response was "...he felt like the little boy who had stubbed his toe in the dark. He said that he was too old to cry, but it hurt too much to laugh".

(Source: Lend Me Your Ears: Great Speeches in History edited by William Safire. W.W. Norton and Company 1992. Page 805).

Jim Crow America

Another example of racial segregation that I came across while reading an article by William Styron who wrote "Confession of Nat Turner" was one I had not heard of before. On ferryboats, white passengers took the starboard side of the boat while black passengers took the portside.

(Source: I did not record the source other than to know it was from American Heritage magazine).

The CIA and William Colby

A son of the former CIA director has made a movie about his father's life entitled "The Man Nobody Knew: In Search of My Father, CIA Spymaster William Colby". It seems the film is generating some family feuding, but that's another issue. Of interest to the history teacher would be the knowledge that it was Colby who released inside information about the agency to the public. This was referred to as revealing the "family jewels" and dealt with "...agency's assassination attempts, drug testing on unwitting humans and eavesdropping on war protesters". This article notes that it was the disclosure of this information that "...saved the CIA from destruction when members of Congress were eager for its death" (why that is the case, I don't understand). The film claims that it was Colby that ran the Phoenix Program during the Vietnam War that resulted in the deaths of thousands of Viet Cong agents in South Vietnam; causing this program to be called an assassination program. Ironically, even his death was thought by many to be an assassination. However, the film says his death was a suicide; he drowned while canoeing off the eastern shore of Maryland 15 years ago. Because of his release of the "family jewels", many in the agency hated him.

(Source: "Portrayal of Spymaster Father Divides his Family" by Ian Shapira of The Washington Post. In The Virginian Pilot on 11/24/11).

Racism in the US

It always amazes me of the extent to which some in our society have gone to segregate the races. In an article about the Civil War in the local paper, I read of the following example. In 1913 when the 50th anniversary of the battle of Gettysburg was honored, former Union and Confederate soldiers came together on the old battlefield. Even thou Black soldiers fought there they were not allowed to attend the ceremony.

(Source: The Virginian Pilot on 11/27/11).

Historical Mysteries

I came across this info in a 1990 American Heritage magazine about unanswered questions from our history, and I think some of it is worth posting here. First, in the antebellum south were slaves owned by the planters or the bankers? Univ of Texas prof William Goetzmann thinks the bankers did and this "fact" would mean manumission would be controlled by them. The bankers he notes are Brown and Baring Brothers. Second, Edwin Stanton-Lincoln's War Sec't-denied him an escort protection on the night of his assassination. Stanton said the man had additional duties to perform that night but in fact had none. Stanton may also have told General Grant not to accompany Lincoln to Ford's Theater that night. This from a Columbia Univ retired dean Jacques Barzun. Third, a Stanford Prof-George Fredrickson-believes Lincoln had not made up his mind about the future of the freed slave population at the time of his death. He thinks Lincoln may have been a "moderate white supremacist". The decision seems to have been granting "universal manhood suffrage" or deportation to Africa.

Fourth, R. Reagan might have had a hand in the Challenger disaster by pushing a request that the launch take place at the time of his State of the Union address in Jan 1986. This by Charles O'Neill "historian and author". Fifth, Kenneth Galbraith of Harvard Univ wonders why the Reagan admin is not considered the "most corrupt in our history" rather than Harding's admin. He notes the S & L scandal, the "revolving larceny from the Pentagon" and Wedtech (?) for this view.

(Source: "Mysteries of American History" by the editors of American Heritage magazine in the Dec 1990 edition).

Health Care and Obama

The US Supreme Court has decided to review the Affordable Care Act and rule this June. This is the case we know of as "Obamacare" and includes a requirement for everyone to buy insurance by 2014. Low income individuals will receive a subsidy to help pay for the insurance. A fine will be levied on those who do not get insurance. This law also provides for a family to keep a child on their policy until the age of 26 and it bans insurance companies from "denying coverage to children because of preexisting conditions". Under the present system 50 million Americans are w/o health insurance but their care is paid for by "hospitals, doctors, and insurance companies, thereby increasing rates for all" (I was of the opinion that Medicaid paid these bills). Those opposed to the law say that it is unconstitutional for the gov't to require Americans to buy a product. The most recent lower court ruling was the DC Court of Appeals which upheld the law. More on this later.

(Source: " To the Supremes: High court take up Obama health law". Editorial in The Record on 11/15/11).

Update: A summary of court cases regarding the above health law follow. First, the Eastern District of Michigan upheld the health care law and the 6th Court of Appeals also upheld it. Two of the three judges on the Court of Appeals were appointed by a republican. Second, a district court in DC and the DC Circuit Court of Appeals also upheld the law. Two of the three judges on the Circuit Court were GOP appointed. Third, the Western District of Virginia and the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals both upheld the law. Both courts were democratic appointments. Fourth, the Eastern District of Virginia did not uphold the law but the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals did uphold it. District court GOP appointed and the 4th Circuit was democratic appointees. Fifth, the Northern District of Florida and the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals both did not uphold the law. The lower court was GOP appointed and the Circuit Court was democratic appointments. This last Circuit Court is the only one I found that did not uphold the law. I would assume that is why the issue is now in the Supreme Courts docket.

(Source: New York Times on line on 11/13/11).

Juvenile Rights

This past June the US Supreme Court ruled that the Miranda Warning should be considered when the police question a juvenile for suspicion of criminal activity. The case is J.D.B. v. North Carolina and was a 5 to 4 decision with Kennedy, Ginsburg, Breyer, Kagan and Sotomayor for the majority. The 13 year old was questioned by a police investigator, a police officer and a assistant principal of the school the student attended. The principal advised the youth to "do the right thing". The questioning took place in a closed but not locked area. The boy confessed to the burglaries. The article does not provide much more information other than to note previous cases dealing with juveniles. In 2005 the high court ruled in Roper v. Simmons that the death penalty for a juvenile was unconstitutional. In 2010 they ruled in Graham v. Florida that life without parole for a juvenile was also unconstitutional.

(Source: "Supreme Court gives juveniles protection in police interrogations" by John Kelly in Youth Today dated June 16, 2011. Found on www.youthtoday.org.view_article.cfm?article_id=4846).

Civil War and Post-traumatic stress disorder

This source indicates that the incidence of mental illness increased dramatically after the Civil War. There were 40 state and federal "asylums" for the mentally ill in 1860 and by 1880 there were 140. "Sadly, two-thirds of the patients stored in those massive warehouses were Civil War veterans". Most people had no idea of the "grim personal nightmares that would haunt the war's veterans, their families and society for years after". Most of these vets were ignored or forgotten by society in the years following the war. There are graves behind many of these old asylums-marked only by numbers without names-where the veterans were buried. Many of the patients in the asylums up to 1900 were veterans suffering from what today we know as "post-traumatic stress disorder.

(Source: "Whose graves are These? The quiet crisis of mentally ill Civil War veterans" by Allen Cornwell. In The Civil War Historian May/June 2006).

Election of 1864

An issue in the close presidential election of 1864 may have been the candidate George McClellan picked as his vice-president, as least for those in uniform. George H. Pendleton was a "Copperhead" and one who opposed the war and a plank of the Democratic party was known as the "failure plank" that "offered a cessation of hostilities and a convention of States, with a view to peace on the basis of reunion". This plank was seen "as insulting to the soldiers" and many then voted for Lincoln even thou McClellan was very popular with the troops.

(Source: "An Inmate of this Famous Hotel: Civil War letters of Captain Timothy W. Kelly" by Elaine Kelly Pease-a relative of Cap. Kelly. In The Civil War Historian May/June 2006).

Civil War

A question of interest to me centers on the issue of how much of the CSA was actually occupied by federal troops for most of the war. I know that the sea islands off Georgia were in Union hands from the start and Cape Hatteras, NC and the island itself were also controlled by federal troops. The area west to Edenton,NC was also in Union hands; which was about 20 miles or so. I will have to find the source for this for an update. I have recently read that even thou the confederate iron-clad Virginia was launched from the Norfolk VA area as of May of 1862 that area also was under Union control.

(Source: "Bell of the CSS Virginia: the life and death of the first Confederate ironclad" by Philip D. Gordy, a Michigan born doctor with an interest in the Civil War. In The Civil War Historian May/June 2006).

Nat Turner

In 1967 William Styron won a Pulitzer Prize for his novel The Confessions of Nat Turner and at the time he was hailed by the black community and historians for his work. Some time later opinion about his novel changed and he was widely and harshly criticized for "errors" he made regarding Turner and the black response to slavery in general. This even thou the book was a novel thus a work of fiction. In the article I note here Styron speaks in his own defense. This article-written 20 years ago-implies the debate has passed into history. Styron notes there was only one primary document about Turner from which to gain information; that was a 7000 word account by Turner's court-appointed lawyer-Thomas R. Gray. That document was entitled "Confessions of Nat Turner".

Regarding the critics it would seem that the issues in dispute were Turner's "madman" mentality and his killing of a white woman he had known; the only death linked directly to Turner. Another issue was whether he had a wife-Turner gives him one-that many historians believe he did not have. Many black critics also note that a white man could not possibly know the black slave experience.

A rebuttal to Styron came with Ten Black Writes Respond which was critical. Historian Eugene D. Genovese-"preminent historian of American slavery" defended Styron and disputed Ten Black Writes...

The bottom line is Styron's book came to be treated with hostility and went un-read by the black community. It would also seem that no one really knows what Nat Turner was like because there is little primary source material on him.

This source also mentions that before the Turner revolt many in the South were considering abolishing slavery.

(Source: "Nat Turner Revisited" by William Styron. American Heritage October 1992)

Herman Cain and "9-9-9" Plan

This post is based on an article in The Record on the tax plan noted above. The article says the plan is in no way "simple" as Mr Cain claims. In the first phase of the plan income tax rates for individuals and corporations would be reduced to 25 %, it would "allow for favorable rate" on overseas profits for corporations, and end the capital gains tax. In the second phase, the "9-9-9" part comes in. Abolish the payroll tax, establish 3 new tax rates; one of which would be 9 % on income w/ no personal exemptions, standard deduction, mortgage deduction, earned income tax credit or child credit. Establish a 9 % federal sales tax in which companies would pay and corporate income tax that would be like a "value-added tax". In the third phase the new income tax and value-added tax would be thrown out and a "fair tax" of 9 % established. This source says that at that time a 30 % retail sales tax would be created (I have read or heard nothing of this idea and don't know if this is a federal, state or both tax). This source says the system would be too complicated and would not work as Cain says it would. (Is the source or Cain correct? I don't know). This obviously needs more research.

(Source: "Cain's '9-9-9' plan Does it add up? by Ramesh Ponnuru who writes for Bloomberg News and is a senior editor of the National Review. In The Record on 10/23/11).

"West Point Code"

Early in the Civil War many West Point trained Union officers followed the "West Point Code" which held that Confederate property and even slaves were to be protected from looting and destruction. George B. McClellan and Don Carlos Buell were two officers who followed this code even to the point of court-martialing a subordinate officer for his conducting of a "hard war" policy. That officer was a Russian born American named John Basil Turchin (his American name shortened from the Russian). Turchin held the rank of General and was considered an excellent officer who may have saved the day for Union forces as Chickamauga. He was found guilty in the court martial-held before the battle of Chickamauga-and dismissed from the service only to be returned to the field by friends in high places in Washington and those who wanted to follow a more brutal treatment of the South. This source notes that after the issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation the "necessity of a 'destructive war' " became the policy (I am not sure why it was necessary). This information comes from a review of a book on Turchin by Stephen Chicoine who appears to come from Connecticut. The title is below.

(Source: "John Basil Turchin and the Fight to Free the Slaves" by Stephen Chicone. Reviewed by Greg Romaneck in the Civil War Historian from May/June 2006).

Bush II's Iraq War

I came across this article in a back copy of Extra: the Magazine of FAIR from Feb 2008 in which they report of the cost in Iraqi lives lost by our war there. They base their estimate of civilian dead on a John Hopkins School of Public Health study that was published in Lancet-a British medical journal on 10/21/06. That study estimates that as of July 2006, "665,000 Iraqis had been killed". "An extrapolation of the John Hopkins estimate of violent deaths done by Just Foreign Policy on 9/18/07 currently stands at over 1.1 million". Another study by the British polling firm Opinion Research Business from 9/07 also estimates that "over a million Iraqis have now been killed". This source claims that other US media are ignoring these study and the AP has reported that Americans think the death toll is "less than 10,000. A headline for this article was "the US press buries the evidence". (I have no way of knowing if the John Hopkins report is accurate, nor do I have any of knowing if the AP estimate is accurate).

(Source: "A Million Iraqi Dead?" by Patrick McElwee. Extra: The Magazine of FAIR. February 2008).

Andrew Jackson and Cahokia

I thought this quote from National Geographic was interesting. "Andrew Jackson's Indian Removal Act of 1830....was premised on the idea that Indians were nomadic savages who couldn't make good use of land anyway". Thus the knowledge that Indian civilizations developed the Cahokia Mound building society in the region of the south east of the US would have dispelled Jackson's theory. Cahokia is the center of what anthropologists call the Mississippian Culture that were a "collection of agricultural communities in the American Midwest and Southeast that started around A.D. 1000 and peaked around the 13th century".

(Source: "America's Lost City" by Glenn Hodges. National Geographic January 2011.

US Supreme Court

The court will decide-this year I suspect-whether the government/police can attach a GPS tracking devise on a suspects car without a warrant. This is the U.S. v. Jones 2011 case. The court ruled in 1983 that the police did not need a warrant to "attach a 'bird dog' to a suspects vehicle" (I don't know what a "bird dog" is. More research will be needed). That case was U.S. v. Knotts. In 2001 the court ruled on the issue of the police use of "thermal imaging technology" in Kyllo v. U.S. I will need to do more research, but I believe the court ruled that search to be an unreasonable search, thus unconstitutional.

(Source: Internet search on FindLaw.com on this date)

Update. The SC will hear the GPS case this November; the Virginian Pilot newspaper from Virginia Beach, VA states their belief that the search in this case was illegal. In the Jones case the police believed Jones was a drug dealer, they sought and were issued a search warrant that allowed them to place the GPS on his private vehicle, but they failed to act on the warrant within the 10 days the warrant specified making the warrant "invalid". It appears from this source that the issue is the warrantless nature of the search and not the GPS device itself. The police may have been correct in their actions if they had gotten a valid warrant-at least according to this newspaper.

(Source: "GPS and the Constitution" editorial in The Virginian Pilot on 9/28/11).

Student Speech Rights

Two cases out of Pennsylvania create first amendment rights for students when using cyberspace. In J.S. v. Blue Mountain School District an 8th grade student "created a fake profile" of her principal and posted it on MySpace. She used her parents computer. She accused the principal of having sex in his office, hitting on students and parents of being a "sex addict". She used obscene language and put down GLBT persons. She also ridiculed his wife and son. When confronted the student wrote an apology to the principal and his family but was suspended for 10 days afterwards. At that point she and her parents sued saying her right to free speech was violated. The Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in the students favor by a vote of 8 to 6. In the second case-Layshock v. Hermitage School District-a senior posted a "parody profile" of his principal on MySpace that accused the principal of being a drunk, smoking pot, using illegal drugs and shoplifting. He used "vulgar language" and made anti gay comments. He used his grandmother's computer. When confronted he apologized and his parents "grounded him and took away his computer access". The school suspended him and transferred him to an "alternative" high school. He sued and also won by a vote of 14 to 0. The court-Third Circuit Court of Appeals-argued that the actions of the students in these cases did not "cause a substantial disruption of the school" and they were punished for off-school grounds actions. If the cyberspace messages urged a student walk out of threatened "harm to employees or fellow students" then the students actions could have been punished. The issue might go to the Supreme Court.

(Source: "Mauled on MySpace" by Michael D. Simpson of the NEA Office of General Counsel. NEA Today from Summer 2011).

US Race Relations

Ralph Bunche was the US representative to the United Nations, a Noble Prize recipient and a black man. While at the UN in the late 1940's he had to meet "...foreign diplomats in the non-air conditioned basement cafeteria of the South Interior building, because other restaurants would not admit him". (Another example of the reality of a racially segregated society that existed during my life time).

(Source: "Memories form the front lines of the segregation battle in the District" by John Kelly of The Washington Post from 10/11/11).

Julius Rosenwald was the CEO of Sears Roebuck & Co in the early decades of the 20th century. He funded the construction of "more than 5300 schools in 15 states between 1913 and 1932" that were meant for African-American students. He worked with Booker T. Washington. Today in North Carolina 22 of these "Rosenwald Schools" are listed on the National Register of Historic Places and another 41 are up for consideration. Rosenwald's fund was combined with "county money and contributions from local black families" and in North Carolina 787 schools were built; the most of any state. I visited one of those schools in Coinjock, NC that is hoping for money to restore it. That school was in operation until 1950. (As we know, this was the time of "separate but equal" facilities-schools-for black and white citizens. The school in Coinjock does not compare with the elementary schools I attended in Cresskill, which is still in operation).

(Source: "Historic N.C. school gets second chance at life, new use" by Jeff Hampton of The Virginian Pilot on 10/11/11).

Immigration

We know immigrants faced all kinds of problems trying to get to the US including the difficulty of the trans-Atlantic voyage. What I did not know was that some of those emmigrating were not transported to the US but were dropped off at a point well short of their hoped for destination. In this source the emmigrants were Russians leaving around 1914 who were left off in the United Kingdom around Cardiff and were told that someone would come for them. The ship captain took money for the trip to the US and did not give them any of their money back. If this really happened I have no way of knowing.

(Source: Fall of Giants by Ken Follette. A novel written in 2010. Page 178)

Trial of Mary Surratt

The movie Conspirator by Robert Redford with Robin Wright playing Mary Surratt presents a picture that is not often seen in most American History textbooks. As we know, Mary Surratt was tried and executed for her part in the conspiracy to kill Lincoln. This source suggests that her guilt was in doubt but what was not in doubt was the fairness-or lack thereof-of her trial. She was tried by a military commission made up of military officers who found her guilty but a majority of them voted for life in prison and not execution. It seems that Secretary of War Edwin Stanton overturned that decision. Her lawyer, Frederick Aiken-a wounded Union captain, took her case to a civilian judge in DC and was granted a writ of habeau corpus that said she should be delivered to a civilian court for re-trial. President Andrew Johnson overturned that writ and the execution followed. He acted under the Habeas Corpus Suspension Act of 1863. (We have always heard about Lincoln's denial of habeas corpus rights to northern civilians during the war, but never anything about A. Johnson's use of the practice). The movie notes that Mary Surratt's son-John Jr-was captured and tried two years later by a civilian court and he was found not guilty. The US Supreme Court ruled military trials in areas where civilian courts are still functioning to be unconstitutional; the ex Parte Mulligan case of 1866. Mary Surratt's chief defender quit the law and became an editor of the Washington Post.

The others executed with her were David Herold, Lewis Powell (aka Lewis Payne) and George Atzerodt)

(Source: Movie, Conspirator by Robert Redford 2011)

Flight 93 and 911

It was reported on Sept 10th that the US Air Force and National Guard were prepared to shoot down United Airlines Flight 93 as it was heading toward Washington DC-most likely the White House. What they were not prepared to do was to down the airliner the conventional way; with "live ammunition". The DC Air National Guard was prepared to fly two F-16 jets into the airliner in a "kamikaze" mission. Incredible (my term) as it may seem the Air National Guard had no planes ready with weapons (that would be needed to protect the capitol if under attack). One of the two pilots ordered to fly the suicide mission was the only female pilot in the Guard unit. Her name was Lt. Heather "Lucky" Penney; now a Major but not flying combat jets anymore. (I would hope she also lost the "Lucky"). Then again lucky for her, and the other pilot, that the passengers on Flight 93 caused the plane to crash on their own. It seems part of the explanation was that "...attacks were unfolding, in that innocent age, faster than they could arm war planes". This source says, "she was a rookie in the autumn of 2001, the first female F-16 pilot ever at the 121st Fighter Squadron of the DC Air National Guard". The second pilot was Col. Marc Sasserville who says he was prepared to hit the cockpit of the airliner while Penney was to crash into the tail. They were hoping they would have time to eject just prior to the hit.

(Source: "She was ready to die to bring down Flight 93" by Steve Hendrix of the Washington Post. In The Virginian Pilot. Sept 10, 2011).

Election of 1860

Most of us have probably taught that the civil war resulted from the election of Abraham Lincoln as the Republican Party candidate in 1860. That party was "committed to abolition" and the South felt they "had no choice but to secede" if the GOP won. I recently came across an American Heritage article that paints a different picture. The election of Lincoln was made possible by the decision of the Democratic Party-meeting in Charleston, SC.-to decline to nominate anyone for president in 1860. The most logical choice for the democrats was Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois. He had support in the South and as the election results have shown, had support in the North. His candidacy would have also picked up support from border states. The author of this source does not say directly, but the implication is that if a democrat won the election of 1860 there would not have been a reason for the South to leave the Union (or there would not have an excuse for doing so). As we know the democrats left their convention without a clear candidate and Douglas ran as the northern Democratic candidate, John Breckinridge ran as the southern Democratic candidate and to add to the confusion, John Bell ran as the Constitutional Union party candidate. This scenario was created by William Yancy of Alabama who was known as the "the Prince of the FireEaters" who were set on creating a climate for secession. They got what they wanted (and I would think they regretted it after 1865). (Could the Civil War been averted, or would it have occurred a few years later?)

(Source: "How we got Lincoln" by Peter Andrews. American Heritage magazine November 1988)

Darwin or Creation

The 1987 US Supreme Court decision of Edwards v. Aguillard is important here. It "ruled that the teaching of creation science in science classes in public schools was unconstitutional and unaceptable". From that point "creation science" became "intelligent design" (which I believe was also ruled unconstitutional in a 2005 case, but I don't have the case before me). Those who favor the "creation science" approach are now using a clause in the Texas Department of Education guidelines for science books that reads the "strengths and weaknesses" of Darwin's theory should now be taught.

(Source: The Washington Spectator, January 1, 2008. "Is Darwin losing the battle with God?" by Lou Dubose).

Fort Sumter/Civil War

I am sure we have all heard that there were no Union deaths when the Confederate forces bombarded Fort Sumter in April of 1861. However-Rick Hatcher historian-claims that "...two Union soldiers died of wounds suffered when a salute was fired during the surrender ceremony". (I thought a salute was fired into the air; were the Union soldiers flying overhead at the time?). I don't know who Rick Hatcher is or what he has written; I will need to do some research. (Source: "Civil War remembrance begins with a cannonade" by The AP. In The Record on 4/12/11).

Update: Rick Hatcher is the National Park Service Historian for Fort Sumter re Google search.

"Moonshine"

The making of alcohol illegally-that is w/o a permit-is known as "moonshine". It was made big-time in the days of Prohibition and still is in existence in North Carolina. It is illegal today if it is made w/o paying tax on it. In NC the production and sale of the alcohol is regulated by the North Carolina Alcohol Law Enforcement agents (that's ALE; maybe someone in NC has a sense of humor). In 2010 ALE agents were still seizing large quanitities of non-taxed alcohol.

Moonshine dates back to the Civil War and at some point became entwined with stock car racing and NASCAR, even to the point where the NASCAR Hall of Fame has an exhibit "honoring" a moonshine still. A member of that Hall of Fame-Junior Johnson-developed his driving skills in western NC smuggling "white lightning". North Carolina is known as the "Moonshine Capital of the World". "Moonshine is a rich part of NC cultural roots-blues, bluegrass and country music, barbecue, folk art and crafts have all intertwined with moonshine".

This summer there will be a "Shinefest" held in Madison, NC being sponsored by the Southern Culture Society (Its web site is http://www.southernculturesociety.org/).

(Source: "Moonshine's Local Heritage" in The North Carolina Farm Bureau news on March/April 2011).

Death Penalty in Texas

John Grisham has written a book dealing with this topic called "The Confession" and he takes a decidedly anti death penalty view. He notes that in Texas those opposed to the death penalty are called "abolitionists". This can be found in chapter 38 of the book along with a list of anti death penalty groups. Execution Watch, Students Against the Death Penalty and Death Penalty Focus all check out to be real (at least according to Google). I find it interesting that a state that was a former member of the Southern Confederacy would use the term "abolitionist", knowing how that term is viewed with considerable disdain in the old south. I googled the term "abolitionist" and death penalty and came up with a group called The Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement. This group was founded in 1994 and created its own name.

(Source: The Confession by John Grisham and texasdeathpenalty.com).

Triangle Shirtwaist Co Fire

Today is 100 years since the factory fire in NYC that claimed the lives of 146 people-mostly young women-working in what we know as a "sweatshop". The workers were on the 9th floor of the building and the city fire department lacked ladders high enough to reach. There was a fire escape but it did not reach the ground and collapsed after a few people got out. As we know one set of doors were locked from the outside-to keep workers from "making off with leftover scraps of cloth". There were elevators that made a number of runs to the 9th floor but became inoperable after the cables "stopped working". Some people jumped down the elevator shafts. There were no sprinklers. Most of the young women were Jewish and Italian and at least one was only 14. The owners of the factory were Max Blanck and Isaac Harris who had previously opposed a workers strike in the garment industry and "hired thugs to beat up their seamstresses when they picketed the plant". The ownere were charged with manslaughter "but acquitted in the absence of any laws that set workplace safety standards".

The political bosses-Tammany Hall-got behind a movement for change fearing that the Socialist Party in NYC would gain members by political inaction. Charlie Murphy was the Tammany boss, Al Smith was the Assembly Speaker and Robert Wagner was the state Senate president. Francis Perkins was on the street that day and saw workers jumping to their deaths from the building. "Over time...legislation..." was passed to correct some of the problems.

The business community then was opposed to any legislation to correct the problems. They said "the revolution had arrived", that "it would lead to the wiping out of industry in this state" and that the "best government is the least possible government". "Such complaints, of course, are with us still...mine operators after fatal explosions...bankers after they've crashed the economy...energy moguls after their rig explodes or their plant leaks radiation".

(Source: "A fire that still burns bright" by Harold Meyerson of the Washington Post. In The Virginian Pilot on 3/24/11).

Radiation Issues

The Fukushima, Japan nuclear accident has again raised questions about the use of this source of energy. Some info from the paper today. Radiation from the explosion is expected to reach the west coast of the US-California-by weeks end. Can we assume it will reach Hawaii sooner? I don't know; maybe the wind currents will take it elsewhere. The Chernobyl explosion in 1986 "spread (radiation) around the globe and reached the West Coast of the US in 10 days, its levels measurable but minuscule". The Diablo Canyon plant in California is near earthquake fault lines. The Indian Point plant is 35 miles north of NYC and "near a fault line". The Perry plant east of Cleveland is "within 40 miles of two faults". This industry is regulated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission NRC. (As you might guess, I am not a fan of nuclear power).

(Source: Info taken from The Virginian Pilot on 3/17/11).

Update 3/19/11. The risks from radiation are not always easy to determine. Levels of radiation are measured in "millisieverts per hour"; a check x-ray is 0.15 millisieverts p/h. A high dose is over 500 millisieverts p/h and "can raise the risk of leukemia, breast, bladder, colon, liver, lung, esophageal, ovarian and stomach cancers and "the blood cancer multiple myeloma". A debate centers around the number of deaths caused by the Chernobyl accident. This source notes that there have been 6000 tyroid cancer deaths in the 25 years since 1986. "The US EPA says no amount of radiation is absolutely safe above the 3 to 6 millisieverts a year that most of us get from normal living". (I wonder if that sentence is correct)

(Source: "Risks aren't always clear in exposure to radiation" the AP. In The Virginian Pilot on 3/19/11).

Education 2011

I came across an excerpt from the Brown v. Board of Education ruling that we should all remember when budget cutting is in the air. It follows. "Today, education is perhaps the most important function of state and local governments. Compulsory school attendance laws and the great expenditures for education both demonstrate our recognition of the importance of education to our democratic society. It is required in the performance of our most basic public responsibilities, even service in the armed forces. It is the very foundation of good citizenship. Today it is a principal instrument in awakening the child to cultural values, in preparing him for later professional training, and in helping him to adjust normally to his environment".

(Source: A Renegade History of the United States by Thaddeus Russell. Free Press edition. Page 314).

Gitmo and Obama

Pres Obama has issued an executive order that will "create a formal system of indefinite detention" at the US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. It would appear that the admin tried to open a facility in the US to conduct trials, but a bipartisan congress blocked him. Some of the detainees could be held for life w/o a trial. There are presently 48 of the remaining 172 detainees that the Obama order pretains to. It is noted that "the group could not be prosecuted in military commissions or in federal court because evidentiary problems would hamper a trial". The admin believes the "rules of war" allow for this treatment and some US courts have agreed; however they say "some detainees should be released for a lack of evidence against them". There is, what appears to be, a legal procedure for the trials that involves written review of their case, a gov't rep appointed to act as advocate, right to appear before a board, call witnessess and into evidence. One attorney who represented past detainees says the system is no different than the one Bush II created. The admin has decided "...not to release any Yemenis, even those cleared for repatriation". GOP congressman, Peter King, says that the Obama program is a "vindication" of the Bush II program. It seems the first to be tried is Al-Nashiri, for the Cole bombing, even thou an official of the military commission "...had dismissed the charges against him". He will be difficult to try due to the fact that he was waterboarded, tortured, and threatened with death by a power drill.

(Source: "Obama restarts Guantanamo trials" by staff and wire reports in The Virginian Pilot on 3/8/11)

Presidential Debt Commission

A number of senators-democrats and republicans-have taken up the recommendations of the Debt Commission and are pushing for President Obama to sign on. Mark Warner (D-Va) and Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga) have teamed with democrats Dick Durbin (one of the most liberal senators) and Kent Conrad and republicans Tom Coburn and Mike Crapo; they are refered to as the "Gang of Six". The national debt is $ 14 trillion and we are presently borrowing 40 % of every dollar spent. They want to reduce the debt by $ 4 trillion over 10 years. The commission's recommendations they are supporting are as follows. Lower tax rates while doing away with $ 1 trillion in tax breaks for individuals and corporations. Raise the age for social security retirement and increase the payroll tax on high earners. Raise the gas tax and cut spending on all programs including defense. Presently 16 republicans and 15 democrats have signed on. Warner says that the US is in for "financial Armagedon" if we don't get the deficit under control. He also notes the Chinese have been our biggest creditor and if we don't make changes, they will dictate them.

(Source: "Soaring US debt needs fix now, senators say" by Bill Bartel of The Virginian Pilot on 3/8/11).

Green Book

Traveling in the 1950's-before the Civil Rights Act-African Americans would use a guide called The Green Book to direct them to businesses that would provide them services without discrimination. This would make travel with their families less humilitating and less likely to result in conflict. In 1936 Victor H. Green of NYC published the travel guide that would indicate "lodging and gas stations to tailor shops and doctors offices across the nation" where African Americans would be welcome.

The Negro Travelers Green Book was the official name. One of the places noted was Robbins, Illinois being "owned and operated by Negroes". A professor at Dickenson College-Cotton Seiler-refered to the book as a guide to "driving while black".

(Source: "Travel guide helped African Americans navigate tricky times" by Emma Lacey-Bordeaux and Wayne Drash. Article found on cnn.com/2011/US/02/24/green.black.history/index.html?hpt=C1 on 2/25/11)

Nathan Bedford Forrest

General Forrest was considered by some to be an excellent soldier; he fought for the south in the Civil War-or the War Between the States as some would say. He was also responsible for the massacre of black Union soldiers at Fort Pillow, Tennessess in 1864. Forrest later became the organizer of the Ku Klux Klan. Forrest is now making news again; he is being considered by Mississippi for a "specialty license plate". The Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) think this is a good idea, some history professors in Mississippi do not. The south is conducting a 150th anniversary of the Civil War from now till 2015. The plate is due to be issued in 2014.

(Source: "Miss. licence plate series may honor Klan leader" by The AP. In The Record on2/11/11).

Hitler song

I game across this bit of history while watching the movie "John Rabe" recently. Rabe was a German industrialist working in China in 1937; at the time the Japanese army attacked and destroyed much of that city. Rabe spearheaded an effort by foreign nationals there to save 200,000 Chinese civilians from certain death at the hands of the Japanese. He was able to do this-to some degree-because Germany and Japan were allies and Japanese military officials did not want to treat him too harshly. The obvious irony here is that Rabe-a German under Hitler-who may not have been a devoted Nazi, helped save innocent civilians from genicide.

On a lighter note the movie noted a anti-Hitler song written in 1939 who's basic lyrics were;

"Hitler has only one ball,

Goering has two but very small,

Himmler is somewhat sim'lar,

But poor Goebbels has no balls at all".

The lyrics are set to the "Colonel Bogie March".

If you google the song's first line you will find other verses to the song under Wikipedia.org. I am not sure how you might or should use this in a public school classroom, but I include it anyway.

(Source: John Rabe, a movie and Wikipedia.org under the song title. Researched on this date).

The "N" word

A letter to the editor of USA Today states that we all should know that the use of this word "supports racism and segregation" and there is "no place in respectful society" for it. The author also notes that the word was also used by "the English to emphasize that Irish Catholics were subhuman and by Americans who said that Southern Europeans who had darker complexions were subhuman". I have never read of this in any other forum; is it true?

(Source: "N-word has no place in respectful society" by George Chapman of Salt Lake City. In the USA Today newspaper on 1/18/11).

US Constitution

Recently I've seen a number of postings of the US Constitution that I found interesting. The first was in The Virginian Pilot newspaper from Virginia Beach, VA after the new Tea Party congressmembers read the document into the record. The paper posted the body of the document without the Amendments. The second posting was in a Revolutionary Era historic site in Charleston, SC where again only the body of the document was posted; sans Amendments. I commented to myself at the posting and a lady sitting nearby commented that the Amendments were really not part of the document because of the time difference between the Constitution and the adding of the Bill of Rights a few years later. Is there some larger significance here? Do many people not consider the Amendments part of the Constitution? Is there some overall opposition to the Amendments? Did the reading in Congress recently include the Amendments?

(Source: on the posting of the Constitution; The Virginian Pilot on 1/10/11)

American History texts

The recent publication of an American History text for use in Virginia public schools has been determined to be inaccurate. The book claimed that there were Black Confederate military units fighting for the south in the Civil War. A photo accompanying the article was photo-edited to show a Confederate officer in charge of a unit of black soldiers who were in reality a unit of Louisiana militia enlisted by the Union forces in occupation of New Orleans. After this incident became public historians reviewed the text and found "more errors, including inaccurate dates and spelling and punctuation errors". The book was printed by Five Ponds Press and was entitled Virginia; Past and Present and Our America to 1865. The publisher has promised to replace the books without cost; they also said they would "replace page 122 in the 2011 edition of the textbook". (Unclear as to what they are doing to correct the error). The book publisher stated that they "...tailored our textbooks to meet the needs of the Virginia Standards of Learning...". (Maybe the issue here is not the publisher but the state's need for its version of history).

(Source: "Publisher says it will replace error-pocked texts for free" by Elisabeth Hulette of The Virginian Pilot on 1/12/11).

Watergate 1972

I came across and interesting comment about this historic event in a work of non-fiction about crime in Ireland in the 1880's. It was in regard to an official-government-investigation, or lack thereof, of a murder of a family of five. It was in a footnote (or are they called end-notes now?) and it read as follows. "Rather similiar to President Nixon's announcement on August 29, 1972 that he had already directed a staff member to carry out 'a complete investigation of all the leads which might involve any present members of the White House staff' in the Watergate affair. The 'investigator' he named, himself subsequently jailed, admitted later that he learned of his supposed Inquiry on television" The end-note says the source was Hearings of Senate Select Committee-June 25, 1973.

(Source: Maamtrasna: The Murders and the Mystery by Jarlath Waldron. Page 324. Date 1992).

Police Search

The California Supreme Court ruled recently that "the police in the state can search the contents of an arrested person's cell phone" without a warrant. In this instance the police witnessed a drug deal in a car driven by the plaintiff. He was arrested and a car search found 6 pills of Ecstasy. At the police station his cell phone was taken and an officer noticed text message "6 4 80" indicating a Ecstasy sale. Suspect then admitted to selling the drug. The court ruled that any data stored on the phone "...photos, address book, Web browsing history, data stored in apps (including social media apps), voice mail messages, search history, chat logs and more" can be accessed.

This source does not say for sure but it appears if the phone is locked and the suspect will not unlock it, a court warrant might be needed to access the phone's information. The Ohio state supreme court, in December 2009, made a similiar ruling and wanted the US Supreme Court to review it. They did not. Now they might.

(Source: CNN.com. on 1/5/11 "cnn.com/2011/TECH/mobile/01/05/search.warrant").

Cornelius Dupreee

Another case of false imprisonment; this one in Texas. Dupree was released recently on the basis of DNA evidence that proves he did not commit a rape and robbery in 1979. He spent 30 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. That is the record in Texas. In Florida James Bain spent 35 years "wrongly imprisoned" and in Tennessee Lawrence McKinney spent over 31 years. These men were represented by the Innocence Project and co-director Barry Scheck; he also part of the defense team for OJ Simpson. Texas has compensation laws that pay the wrongly convicted. Dupree will get $ 80,000 for each year he was imprisoned and a "life time annuity" that could all be worth $ 2.4 million in a lump-sum payment that is not subject to federal income tax (I wonder if Texas will tax it). Dupree could have been released in 2004 if he would have admitted he was a sex offender; he wouldn't.

(Source: "Newly free man had chances to make parole" by Jeff Carlton of The AP. In The Record on 1/5/11)

Update: Dupree, Bain and McKinney are all black men: what does this tell us about our justice system?

Whiskey v. Fat

This source notes that the increased use of whiskey in early America was due to "a great abundance of corn, especially in the agriculturally rich Ohio Valley". It was easier to convert corn into whiskey than grain and easier to transport. This author compares that to the present when he says; "this economic situation resembles today's problem with obesity: agricultural overproduction, caused by deregulation during the Reagan era, forced manufacturers to find ways of more efficiently getting farm products, especially corn in the form of high-fructose sweeteners and feed for livestock, into the American diet".

(Source: "Gods Good Creature and Cold Water Armies: American drinking from Plymouth to Appmattox" Part Two. By Matthew Dikkari. Civil War Historian March/Ap 2007)

Elections

The GOP won 60 seats in the House of Representatives this past election. That is not a record according to the USA Today newspaper. In 1922 the GOP gained 75 seats in the House. In 1938 the Democrats gained 71 seats in the House. Other elections with nearly the 60 seat victory margin are 1910 with the GOP winning 57, the 1914 election with Democrats winning 59 and the 1994 election with Democrats winning 54.

(Source: USA Today 11/4/10)

2010

The key events of the past year-according to The Record-are as follows.

1. Gulf Oil Disaster.

2. Health Care Overhaul.

3. US Elections.

4. US Economy.

5. Haiti Earthquake.

6. Tea Party Movement.

7. Chile Mine Rescue.

8. Iraq.

9. Wikileaks.

10 Afghanistan.

These results come from a poll conducted by The Associated Press of US editors and news directors. They are listed in the order of their significance. There were 180 ballots collected and the Gulf Oil Disaster received 54 first place votes.

(Source: "The Year of the Spill", by David Crary of the AP. In The Record on 1/1/11).