August 29, 2011 The Tet Offensive in 1968 was a turning point for a nation at war in Vietnam and Southeast Asia. For most Americans the “Vietnam War” began in 1965. For most, too, it was something that took place in Vietnam, not really including Laos and Cambodia. A longer view of the history of IndochinaContinue reading “AMERICA’S INVOLVEMENT IN VIETNAM IN THE CONTEXT OF VIETNAMESE HISTORY”
Category Archives: Political & Historical
HELP WANTED – MAIDS OF HONOR and “KILLERS of the DREAM”
August 21, 2011 Yesterday a bumper sticker caught my attention which read: ” no one is free where others are oppressed”. This is particularly relevant regarding the current reviews of the four star movie “Help” based upon Kathryn Stockett’s best selling novel of 2009.
CEREBRATING THE CONSTITUTION – JULY 4, 2011
The 1987 bicentennial year of the adoption of the Constitution my wife and I while on sabbatical at the University of Wisconsin attended a seminar titled: Cerebrating the Constitution. Each week a nationally renowned scholar addressed a topic regarding the history of or important questions regarding the Constitution. This past week the news media have involved significantly in CerebratingContinue reading “CEREBRATING THE CONSTITUTION – JULY 4, 2011”
HUBERT H. HUMPHREY’S 100TH BIRTHDAY ANNIVERSARY
On Humphrey’s 100th birthday anniversary last Friday (5-27) our cooperative showed a new documentary, “The Art of the Possible” dealing with his political career. Bill Moyers remarked in the documentary: “while we may not remember Hubert Humphrey’s name his fingerprints are all over the America of today”. Humphrey shepherded New Deal, Fair Deal, and Great Society programsContinue reading “HUBERT H. HUMPHREY’S 100TH BIRTHDAY ANNIVERSARY”
RATKO MLADIC — GENOCIDE– SULEIMAN THE MAGNIFICENT
Thursday (May 26) Serbian security forces apprehended Ratko Mladic accused of war crimes and genocide. Trial at a war crimes tribunal in the Hague likely to follow. Mladic was a general in the Bosnia Serb army during the Bosnian War (1992-1995) and led the siege of Serajevo and the genocidal execution of 8000 men and boys (1995) in Srebrenica. BringingContinue reading “RATKO MLADIC — GENOCIDE– SULEIMAN THE MAGNIFICENT”
Can’t Let Violence Overcome Non-Violence
May 18, 2011 Last evening my wife and I watched the American Experience TV production of the Freedom Riders. Living in Auburn, Alabama at the time and reviewing the violent events at nearby Anniston, Birmingham, and Montgomery fifty years later is very evocative for me. My retrospective Shaped By History p. 4-5 included in this website describes theContinue reading “Can’t Let Violence Overcome Non-Violence”
New York Times – The New Republican Landscape
April 18,2011 Today’s TIMES editorial: THE NEW REPUBLICAN LANDSCAPE “it is possible to see the full landscape of destruction that their policies would cause . . . . The Party is fully engaged in a project to dismantle the foundations of the New Deal and the Great Society. . .
True Grit
Took in at Riverview Theater last night True Grit – 10 Academy nominations. Must try to muster “true grit” for blogging as administrator daughter Anastasia insists. Enjoyed the movie – a lot of western themes part of mythology regarding the American West – guns blazing with rugged individualism displayed, amidst lonesome vistas. Western reality, as I recallContinue reading “True Grit”
The Bartling Scholarship 