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History: The Importance of More than Just a Backward Glance
One good thing about history, is that we can look back at it. And in looking back we can reflect, analyze and learn. Its distance from us, its safe proximity in memory and on the page, as opposed to our immediate moment, affords us a calmer head and a more objective eye; a group discussion, even, amongst experts. Who cannot spot the warning signs now? It is so obvious. Why were we taken by surprise? In looking back at historically catastrophic events, or the inverse, that of successful endeavors, we must stop and take time to stay turned around, view that particular and significant spot on the historical axis for a long…
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Mahatma Gandhi Killed
On January 30, 1948 Gandhi was assasinated by Nathura Vinayak Godse. The assassin was a 36 year old Hindu of the Mahratta tribes in Poona. The tribes were known for possessing a core group of some who opposed Gandhi’s teachings. Three shots sounded out in the Biria House gardens. The gardens were sacred, the place where Gandhi, as he was that evening, gave a daily prayer meeting message.Within 25 minutes of being shot his heart stopped forever. In his 78 years of life he had become India’s “Mahatma” (Great Teacher) known as a peacemaker espousing a nonviolent lifestyle and belief sytem even in the face of oppression by those advocating violence. India, which had a population…
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Panama Canal Workers
Fall 2007, Vol. 39, No. 3 Looking for an Ancestor in the Panama Canal Zone, 1904–1914 By Robert Ellis The Panama Canal, ca. 1900–1914. The canal was 10 miles wide and about 50 miles long. (106-RC-129) In 10 years, between 1904 and 1914, the United States mounted and completed one of the most massive construction projects in history—the building of the Panama Canal. To create this ribbon of water between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, the Isthmus Canal Commission excavated 232 million cubic feet of soil. Manpower was the key to success. It wasn’t long before the area that became known as the Panama Canal Zone—10 miles wide and about 50…
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I Have a Dream
Martin Luther King’s Speech: ‘I Have a Dream’ – The Full Text By The Rev. MARTIN LUTHER KING Jr. Aug. 28, 1963— abcnews.go.com The Full Text of the Famous Speech by America’s Greatest Civil Rights Icon I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation. Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a…
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The Eve of a Public Holiday Honoring Martin Luther King Jr.
Patti Smith, in her award winning book Just Kids, wrote on page 66 “That spring, only days before Palm Sunday, Martin Luther King was gunned down at the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis.” I read that sentence, just now, and remembered that tomorrow will be Martin Luther King Day. The coincidence struck me as sufficient enough, that I should stop reading and instead write about why we honor this man so many years after his execution on April 4, 1968 ; he was only 39 years old when he died. There are many reasons why we honor this heroic African American. I will choose one instance as an example of his heroism and influence.…