A few days ago I mentioned a comment used by Mark Twain, more than once I’m told, to convey a broad principle that perhaps the French are a people that cannot be trusted. My own study of history, including French…
A Letter from Cumberland Gap, Our Last Talk
I had expected a Quickening, but not before Christmas. This is from a Vietnam vet, Infantry platoon leader, college roommate one year, a fine prosecutor, then judge, and a good courthouse philosopher of Thomas Jefferson’s ilk: We will have to…
The Timeline of Freedom, How and Why
I want to tell this story as it was seen and heard the first time in a classroom filled with black mothers, and their babies in a nursery across the hall….in the 1990s. In 1996 I began teaching a…
“It is French”
First Part “Schtick”— from the Yiddish: A comic theme or gimmick, first introduced on stage by Mark Twain The story goes that Mark Twain had invested heavily into the publishing of Ulysses S Grant’s autobiography, but which had been victimized…
When JFK was a Superstar with American Youth on the Subject of “Freedom”
You need to pay attention to the lyrics of this song, for words like these have not been directed toward American youth for close to 60 years. The Vietnam War changed the message altogether. I was a senior in…