Academic Rants

It has been a long and terrible week in America. A week where daily prayer can only help. It is fitting, if not ironic, that this terrible week ends on Pentecost Sunday. Perhaps the lessons of Pentecost may offer a message to the people of America. Americans have not spoken in one unifying voice for a long time. They have not shared the same or similar views. There has been a good deal of contention. This week has taught us freedom, my freedom or your freedom, may infringe upon the rights of others to live or to enjoy the pleasures of life. During this week, for white America, Ahmad Aubrey, Amy Cooper, Christian Cooper, and George Floyd became household names. For black America, they became symbols of all that is wrong with this nation. America has demonstrated to the world that its people are violent, insensitive, and indifferent to the needs of their fellow citizens. We have put forth a pompous, self-centered national personality that encourages others to fear and loath us ...

When I began writing this entry 44 states had begun to “open up the economy.” Then over 1.3 million Americans have been infected and 84,500 Americans have lost their lives to COVID 19. Statistically, less than 3% of the nation’s population has been tested. It is estimated that 160,000 people will die by the beginning of September. The good news is that 2/3 of those infected seem to fully recover. The bad news is that the United States has 1/3 of the total number of those infected and has suffered the largest number of fatalities. Two weeks later, every state has begun to open up. About 105,000 Americans have died and 1.81 million Americans have been infected. The United States still leads the world in the number of those infected and dying from the virus. And, less than 5% of the nation's population has been tested.  Strangely, the Republicans and the president seem uncomfortable with the portrayal of these facts. Rather than working with the reality of the situation, they have...

Weeks ago, I easily accepted the early University of Washington estimates of 200,000 to 2 million American citizens dying from COVID 19. While I hope that we don't see such numbers the lower figure is easily attainable. Less than 1% of the nation has been tested and we are already discussing reducing restrictions and having people return to work and sending children back to school. Nationally, the numbers of infected people has not decreased. It has only spread from state to state-in essence changing geographical locations. I realize that Americans are uncomfortable staying at home. Too many people are out of work and people need money. At the same time, it is obvious that abruptly sending people back to work will only increase the potential for greater rates of infection. With more than 738,000 infected, 38,000 dead and 65,000 recovered in less than eight weeks, it is easy to imagine hundreds of thousands dead. No major virus has lasted less than a year.  My points of reference ...

A long month into the COVID 19 crisis has revealed the best and worst of America and Americans. Currently the United States has more COVID infections (500,000+) and deaths (21,000+) than any other nation on earth. And, while the actual rate of infections and deaths are now questionable, infection and death are still daily events. The pandemic has proven that our nation and our leaders were not prepared for something that was developing news as early as December 2019. Our intelligence community warned the senior administration in December. Further briefings continued throughout January 2020, expanding the scope of participants and the details of the impact of the virus. By late January, the novel coronavirus was a subject on the nightly news. As a historian, I know that we have a great deal of information on mass illnesses, epidemics and pandemics. The United States has encountered multiple viruses in its history from its founding to the present. George Washington encountered smallpo...

Observations from the Battlefield The imagery of the American Dream has never been a constant. America's aspirations are simply a vast collective of wishes for future generations by those confronted by problems that seem difficult to solve. Although we never admitted it, America was never perfect. And our notion of the dream was always a work in progress matching our hopes for our nation. As Americans we dreamed of exploring our universe. However, outside of our childhood imaginations, we never dreamed of living on other planets for fun. It was always because something on earth forced us to seek refuge elsewhere. The same is true on earth. Our parents and grandparents hoped to escape poverty, crime and other social ills by moving their children and grandchildren to safer places but equally environments where they could earn higher wages and live better lives. Suburbia became our dream as a refuge from the cities. Rarely did we ever hear about people demanding change wher...

The National Water Crisis: The Newark Version of the Story The majority of the nation’s water system was built during the 19 th century. Its construction is based on using heavy piping to move water usually flowing with gravity from aqueducts to urban centers. The oldest of these systems are located in the northeastern and midwestern cities that arose before the Civil War. At this time water was transported in iron or lead pipes. Pipes were as wide as 48 inches in diameter. Water had to be pumped from the ground up to the streets. Indoor plumbing and flushing toilets were rare, they were modern conveniences reserved for the rich. Years later, when indoor plumbing reached the common man, its greatest achievement was the conveyance of water upward into high-rise structures. Again, water traveled through metal pipes. At the close of the century water for drinking, showering and sewage traveled through either iron, lead or copper pipes. By the mid-twentieth century, the first...

The Next Challenge More than any other nation, Americans continue to love their cars! In contrast to some construction trends, Americans are not fond of public transportation. This is true even in the northeastern states where such transportation systems are centuries old.  Not only do Americans not like mass transit, they have constructed dysfunctional networks which they continually try to improve by adding costly new technologies. The flashpoint is always a fight between the time savings and convenience of the automobile and the energy efficiency of a multiple people carrier. As we continue to realize the dangers posed by fossil fuels, our willingness to make changes should accelerate. Instead, we are fighting harder to keep driving. Transportation advocates are engaged in a movement to encourage more people to abandon their cars as a first option. It is a national challenge to improve mass transit by making it more affordable, more reliable, more nimble, and faster from ...