Thirteen-year-old Anne Frank, hiding from the Nazis with her family in an attic in Amsterdam, wrote, “In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart.” When I first read her words, I remember being filled with admiration for this young girl — for her courage, her ability to find joy in life as her world grew smaller and her future more bleak.

As we listened  to the president’s plan to take over Greenland – to wrest it from Denmark and annex it to the United States – we started wondering if perhaps the president thinks Greenland is actually green. We thought maybe he believes this massive arctic ice cube is the perfect spot for a new golf course or three. Is he envisioning an entire greenway from coast to coast, catering to the elite golfers of the world?

Who can forget the popular advertising slogan, “You’ve come a long way, baby?” The phrase was the 1968 genius creation of a man, advertising whiz Pat Martin, who was tasked with marketing the first cigarette developed exclusively for women. The ads featured tall models in pants suits seemingly emboldened by the new Virginia Slims…

A recent trip to Berlin included a historical tour of the city. Since Germany has an impressive and extensive record of reckoning with its past, the tour not surprisingly covered the underground memorial to the 1933 book burning in Bebelplatz, a beautiful and notable center of cultural activity. On May 10, 1933, members of the Nazi German Student Union organized burnings throughout the country of important works of world literature they deemed dangerous. Works by Thomas Mann, Erich Kästner, Stefan Zweig, Heinrich Heine, Karl Marx, Albert Einstein, and Kurt Tucholsky were among those destroyed in Berlin. Many of the authors were Jewish, and for that reason alone, their books were considered unworthy. In fact, Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda Joseph Goebbels pronounced that day in Bebelplatz that “the era of extreme Jewish intellectualism is now at an end.”

February is Black History Month. Its roots are in Negro History Week, first sponsored in 1926 by the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH), an organization founded by Harvard-trained historian Carter G. Woodson and the prominent minister Jesse E. Moorland to research and promote achievements by Black Americans and other people of African descent.

This week, we celebrated Martin Luther King Day. Some of us listened to his famous “I Have a Dream” speech; maybe we did an act of community service in his honor; or perhaps we did some shopping at the ubiquitous online sales dedicated to his name.

Those of us of a certain age often ask or are asked, “Where were you when Kennedy was assassinated in 1963?” For those younger, the question is, “Where were you when the Challenger exploded in 1986?” And, for those still younger, “Where were you when the planes hit the World Trade Center in 2001?”

Forgive this letter for speaking from one voice instead of four, but I grabbed the mic this week! With the year rapidly coming to an end, I felt moved to tell the story of the American Dream in 1921 and 2021.

What will your Thanksgiving look like? Will you be getting together with family and friends for a festive meal that includes lots of orange-colored side dishes filled with sweet potatoes, squash, pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves? Will you be accommodating gluten free, vegetarian, and lactose intolerant guests in your menu planning? Will your excitement at getting together again after last year’s Zoom holiday be diminished by some anxiety about potential political disagreements among family members?

This week, we are focusing on reproductive rights, so clearly under attack right now while headspinning misinformation is being circulated about the place of abortion in our history and in the collective health of women.

What’s the difference between socialism and communism? We hear the terms conflated frequently in political discourse. What is a socialist democracy? Is the United States truly a democracy or a republic? Can it be both?

The Senate filibuster — and whether it serves to advance or stymie democracy — is a hot topic of debate these days. Where you land in the argument frequently, but not always, coincides with your political party. Still, the issues and ramifications deserve reflection and consideration.

June marks LGBTQ Pride Month as well as Juneteenth, both celebrations of events and people notably absent from the history books of our 1960s and 1970s school years. Instead, we learned, by the omissions, that gay people did not live in our worlds and certainly did not contribute to our society in meaningful ways; and that the important people and achievements in history were all accomplished by white people, particularly men whose families came from northern Europe.

If passed, the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, now before Congress, will combat the insidious voter suppression laws that are surging in many states and districts in our country, preventing citizens, particularly those of color and living in neighborhoods of poverty, from participating in the electoral process guaranteed by the US Constitution.

When President Biden delivered his first address to a joint session of Congress last Wednesday night, he talked passionately about the importance of expanding educational opportunity by providing free preschool and postsecondary schooling. He pointed to research showing that two years of preschool and post-high school training expands a child’s lifelong learning and earning achievements…

Josephine Baker was born Freda Josephine McDonald on June 3, 1906, in St. Louis, Missouri. She never knew her father. Her family was impoverished and when she was eight years old, Josephine began working as a live-in domestic maid for white families. By age twelve...

James Armistead Lafayette's story would make a great movie. Born into slavery in New Kent, Virginia around 1760, James received permission from his master, William Armistead, who helped to supply the Continental Army, to enlist with General Marquis de Lafayette's French Allied units. James, a native Virginian, became a spy, posing as a runaway slave. He was hired by the British, and he worked in camps where generals and the British Commander-in-Chief, Lord Cornwallis, were located, giving James access to crucial information on strategy and troop movements.