Category: History & Culture
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Afghanistan is not Vietnam, but …
There have been many compelling comparisons of Afghanistan with Vietnam over these past couple heart-wrenching days as the world has watched the capitulation of the Afghani government to the Taliban. First, let’s deal with the differences between Vietnam and Afghanistan. The origin of the conflicts and the histories and cultures of the countries offer many…
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Know Your History: Octavius Catto
I’ll admit. I was not familiar with the story of Octavius Catto – black activist after the Civil War – until I came across his story in an unexpected place: MLB historian John Thorn’s terrific book Baseball in the Garden of Eden: The Secret History of the Early Game. Catto was very much a renaissance…
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Presidential Politics in My Hometown
In 1960, my father attended a political stump speech from a Democratic presidential candidate named John F. Kennedy. You may of heard of him. It was in the middle of the intense campaign season as Kennedy vied for the White House against Republican Richard Nixon. The speech was in Butler, Pennsylvania, a small city of…
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Know Your History: World’s First Commercial Oil Well
In 1859 in Titusville, Pennsylvania, Edwin Drake struck oil, captured it, and established the first commercial oil well in the world. Drake’s well. Here it is in August of 2020: Western Pennsylvania became the oil capital of the world for the next decade. The oil rush was on. Scores of wells dotted the aptly named…
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Thank George Washington for Thanksgiving.
It wasn’t the pilgrims that gave us our modern understanding of Thanksgiving. Nor was it Lincoln’s Thanksgiving declaration during the Civil War. It was our first president, George Washington, who proclaimed, from New York City on October 3, 1789 our first Thanksgiving – a day set aside to thank God for the blessings of the…
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Thirty Years from Tienanmen Square
June 4, 2019 marks the thirty year anniversary of a dark day in Chinese history – what is known in the west as The Tienanmen Square Massacre. I remember this day very well. I had just graduated from college a month before. I had just gotten married a week after college graduation. We were in…
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I Agree with Cuomo !?!
As a New York state resident, I don’t often utter the words “I agree with Governor Cuomo.” But I do this weekend. Cuomo blasted New York city politicians, including the socialist troubadour and media-darling Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (I still believe THIS should be real) for causing Amazon to pull out of the intended construction of a new…
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My Musings about the Mid-Term Election on LoneUmbrella.com
One of my former students runs a terrific site called Lone Umbrella, where he does top-notch, fact-based political analysis. I sure wish I could take credit for his brilliance! But alas, he’s just that good. He asked me to be a guest contributor on his site and I had the privilege of writing up my…
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Supreme Court Confirmations – By the Numbers!
In a topsy-turvy two weeks of high political drama, the US Senate is on the brink of voting on the appointment of Brett Kavanaugh to the high court. If he does survive the FBI background check currently underway, and he is confirmed, it will be by the slimmest of margins. Perhaps even one vote. If…
Author Mark W Sasse 