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 Cerebrating the Constitution (intellectual discussion).

Commentators on last week’s NPR Washington Week in Review noted that Michele Bachman,Continue reading “CEREBRATING THE CONSTITUTION – JULY 4, 2011”

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 programs through the Senate over a thirty year period, 1948-1968. A few examplesContinue reading “HUBERT H. HUMPHREY’S 100TH BIRTHDAY ANNIVERSARY”

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. Bringing him to justice is mandatory for Serbia’s welcome into the European Union.  Mladavic’s motivation was to expel from Bosnia Muslim Bosnians and Croats and bring about unification of Bosnia.with Serbia. Motivation of revenge related to historical grievances against the Muslims.  My wife and I experienced the historical Muslim Turkish presence in the Balkans and south-eastern Europe at the Hotel Minaret ,Continue reading “RATKO MLADIC — GENOCIDE– SULEIMAN THE MAGNIFICENT”

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  the impact of  the Freedom Rides on the white population of Auburn and myself as well. Freedom Rider John Lewis (U.S. Congressman) states the Riders were deliberately violating segregation laws determined “that freedom come to the deep South –  (where segregationist whites were) blind to the reality of racism and afraid of change.”  President Kennedy spoke for freedom for the whole world but not the segregated South. Political concerns won’t tolerate integration. Question:  would  Freedom Riders lead Kennedy to protect Freedom Riders’ rights.  The violence that spring and summer ultimately lead Robert Kennedy (attorney general) to have the Interstate Commerce Commission order desegregation in all interstate commerce. Today many of the places where violence  happened are museums. Indicates to me the importance of taking a long-ranged view of reform and the redemptive nature of the American Reform Tradition.

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. . . Continue reading “New York Times – The New Republican Landscape”