Academic Rants

  Two recently published Op-Eds, “How Gun Violence Changed My Father, Ronald Reagan, and Our Family”, by Patti Davis July 5, 2022 New York Times and “Baseball should Honor Larry Doby, another pioneer in integrating the sport” by Dave Kaplan and Joseph Thomas Moore July 4, 2022 Chicago Sun Times seemingly have very little to do with each other but I would argue they are strongly connected. On this July 4th holiday the stories of the Heartland are speaking a bit louder than usual. I encourage you to read each article. They are well written and tell important stories about what makes America unique and special. On July 5, 1947, Larry Doby became the second African American to play in the major leagues, and the first to play in the American League. As a pinch-hitter he struck out. A day earlier, on the 4th of July, Doby, born in the segregated South Carolina and raised in New Jersey, played for the Newark Eagles in the segregated Negro Leagues hitting a home run at his last at-bat. Dob...

  Over the past year I have argued that American exceptionalism has been eroded and perhaps never existed. Daily, I have hoped that my writings would be proven false. I’ve wanted to be challenged on my views about the pandemic, class inequality, gun violence, police brutality, racism, climate awareness, elective politics, and most recently the Supreme Court. Yet, since 2015, I’ve been losing faith in America as the wrong things keep happening. Other historians keep suggesting that there is still time to make changes. They have written that the more progressive voices are wrong and that the center will hold. Their views are that this happens with every nation and within every century. America is simply getting ready for a course correction. They point to the Roaring 20s, decade before the Great Depression, and the Gilded Age to highlight similarities. In contrast, I believe that the center is cracking, that the more conservative historians are wrong and that the American experiment ...

In 1774 the American struggle with England became a war for independence. On July 4, 1775 the leadership of this revolution declared freedom from England but gave themselves a year later before making it official. The following year they signed the document celebrating America's birth.  1776 America was far from perfect. The war still had to be won and peace with England needed to be forged. It would take decades for things to become normalized. The original government, the Continental Congress, would be replaced as would be the Articles of Confederation, the governing principles.  The original states printed their own currencies and had their own treaties and there were arguments over state borders.  Even when the Constitution was established and the presidency was created, all of current concepts were not set and the process of electing a president and vice president were fuzzy at best.  Many current Americans were alive when Alaska and Hawaii became states in 1959...

  As I write Covid-19 continues its reign as the longest nightmare. Our national failure to take this crisis seriously, and to remain steadfast in addressing the broad consequences of the pandemic are now contributing to political and social unrest, as well as increasing supply shortages and growing inflation. Every major issue can be blamed on the pandemic - for example increased gun violence, increased urban violence, heightened discussions on school curriculums, the lack of infrastructure development, political stagnation, mental illness, the changing workforce, housing shortages, high rents, food shortages, altered economies, and an energy crisis. Largely due to disinformation campaigns and vaccination fears, the numbers of unvaccinated support the increasing numbers of Covid-19 mutations.  New strains of the virus are not following existing scientific principles, and newer mutations are proving more infectious. Covid-19 can easily become a common and deadly virus for year...

 Good Morning!   But is it good? Let's look at our world through a prism of sorts and try to make sense of how we truly feel. Living in America should be wonderful. But if you live in the New York metropolitan area, that sentiment is quickly swept away. We awaken to a negative world! The news is negative - you pick up the paper, flick on the radio, turn on the television. What do you learn about: inflation, war, panic, crime, domestic violence, hate crimes, murder, disease, homelessness, unemployment, and the list goes on! What is positive about the world that we live in? The news confirms nothing! Is there anything we can do to make things better? Your mind says no! With so much negativity surrounding us, there should also be positivity.  After all, this is what America is about. Where is the can-do spirit that made America great?  Remember, a positive outlook guides our history. So how do we see positivity? Is it as obvious as studying history? Or what about r...

 I think that one of the greatest fears of this era is the oversimplification of history and the greater simplification of events. We tend to oversimplify things in terms of explaining them in writing and in speech. And it is not as if we don't believe that people cannot understand what we mean, but rather that the simplification of thoughts, messages or ideas will convey similar concepts to a wider audience to gain a broader consensus than actually believed possible. For example, by saying that the 2020 election was "stolen" allows for any imaginary thought to have validity.  Similarly, to state "defund the police" creates an ocean of possibilities suggesting a state of lawlessness.  At the same time, the simplification of an idea such as the positioning of slavery as "the center" argument in the American experiment, which is used as the charge levied against the creators of the 1619 Project or calling a piece of legislation "Don't Say Gay,...

  Recent global affairs bring greater awareness to the instability of world peace. Daily the threat of another world war appears to grow.  For example, there are acts of chaos in virtually every major nation. There are demonstrations in authoritarian and democratic states, government crackdowns in numerous nations, economic crises associated with the pandemic and rising inflation, and the growing embers of war. Some of these challenges are ongoing. The Chinese government is quelling freedom movements in Hong Kong and religious freedom in the west. Protests in Iran have met fierce regime resistance. In more democratic settings, protestors have used social media to test the limits of free speech and freedom of assembly. Protests appear to pop-up in response to imagined or perceived threats.  The January 6th controversy has invigorated violence in the United States and it is seeking additional outlets. Cheered on by Fox News, North American truckers contesting COVID mask and...