I got some very nice cards, especially those that were hand made, from the heart. I got a candy bar when I really needed it.
This woman got a kidney from a former student. How could you top that?
In Elwood, Indiana, former student Angie Collins saved Darren Paquin’s life. What did he teach her, besides English?
Leave a Comment » | 
Education, Education quality, Good Deeds, Health care, Heroes, Teaching | Tagged: Education, Good Deeds, health, Teachers Appreciation Week, Teaching | 
Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Living through the Watergate scandals and the Constitutional crises they produced — and spending part of that time in Washington, D.C., working for the Senate — I got a wonderful view of how constitutional government works, why it is important that good people step up to make it work, and a glimpse of what happens when good people lay back and let the hooligans run amock.
Over the last three months it occurs to me that we may be living in a similar time, when great but latent threats to our Constitution and the rule of law may be halted or rolled back by one John Dean-like character who will stand up before a group of elected officials, swear to tell the truth, and then, in fact, tell the whole truth.
Teachers, are you taking advantages of these lessons in civics that come into our newspapers every day?
We live in interesting times, exciting times — we live in educational times.
You should be clipping news stories on these events, and you should be using them in your classrooms today, and saving them for the fall elections, for the January inauguration, for the new Congress . . . and for your future classes.
What other opportunities for great civics lessons come to our doorsteps every day?
Leave a Comment » | Accuracy, Checks and Balances, Government, Heroes, Journalism, Justice, Law, Leadership, Lessons of history, Scandals, U.S. Constitution, U.S. House of Representatives, Watergate scandal | Tagged: Checks and Balances, civics, Constitution, Current Events, Government, Newspapers, Politics, Teaching, U.S. Congress | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
He’s on the cover of Texas Monthly looking like the oldest piece of shoe leather south of the Red River (see photo at right — by Platon). He was featured in the Dallas Morning News last week for “Red Headed Stranger,” the album that broke the country music mold and made him the monument to iconoclasm that he is. And there’s a new book on his life from Joe Nick Patoski: Willie: An epic life. 
I’ll wager he’s on the road today, ready to make music.
Willie Nelson turns 75 today.
You oughtta check out:
1 Comment | Biography, Heroes, History, Music, Texas | Tagged: Entertainment, History, Music, Texas, Willie Nelson | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Odds are high that readers of any blog are too young to remember. Heck, I’d forgotten about it until Matthew Tabor reminded me.
April 25, 1976: Rick Monday, center fielder for the Chicago Cubs, saved the U.S. flag.
Get the story from Tabor’s blog. He offers credits to HotAir.com.
Major League Baseball was kind enough to preserve the story, which you may watch below.
Resources:
14 Comments | Citizenship, Flag etiquette, Good Deeds, Heroes, History, History images, History video sources, Patriotism, Video and film | Tagged: Baseball, Flag Burning, History, Patriotism, Rick Monday, US Flag | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Wow.
I believe this is an excerpt from a NOVA tribute to Feynman, which has never been available commercially so far as I have found. Anybody know how to get a copy of the video?
Among other things, the piece included comments from some of Feynman’s closest friends, and it detailed their fascination with a tiny republic then inside of the Soviet Union, Tannu Tuva, which Feynman had determined to be the most obscure and difficult nation on Earth to travel to — and so, of course, he wanted to go. The place is known today as Tuva.
No denying the man his orange juice.
1 Comment | Heroes, History, History images, Life, Physics, Point of personal privilege, Science | Tagged: Feynman, History, Media, Physics, Science, Tuva | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
I learned today that Robert Jastrow died last month. Jastrow was the founder and director of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), which he headed until 1981. After leaving GISS he taught at Dartmouth and the Marshall Institute in Washington, D.C., and he headed the retrofit of the 100-inch telescope at the Mt. Wilson Observatory.
Jastrow captured a lot of young minds with his book, Red Giants and White Dwarfs, which put a lot of cosmology into everyday English.
But as a careful scientist dedicated to explaining complex things in simple terms, he often was misunderstood, or seen as cranky and reactionary. To his death he remained skeptical that human action could change climate. And his few paragraphs attempting to reconcile rapidly-advancing science with religious thought are often abused by creationists to claim Jastrow as one of them, and not a scientist who supports evolution (his writings are rather clear on his support of the theory of evolution and the science behind it; most creationists don’t bother to read all of the book).
Jastrow was an alumnus of Camp Rising Sun, a project of the Louis August Jonas Foundation, in upstate New York. And while a lot of us affiliated with the foundation are cautious about pre-selection bias, we’d like to think that the unique experiences developing leadership that the campers get in some small way contributed to Jastrow’s leadership in space exploration.
GISS Director James Hansen’s eulogy is below the fold.
Resources:
1 Comment | Astronomy, Heroes, Science | Tagged: Astronomy, Heroes, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
I was one of Bae’s kids, too.
Sad note from the Hinckley Institute of Politics (note the funeral is today, for those in Salt Lake City):
The former, present, and future interns, staff, faculty, and family of the Hinckley Institute of Politics mourn the passing of former Hinckley Institute Assistant Director, Bae B. Gardner. I first walked in the door of the Hinckley Institute in the fall of 1988. It immediately felt like a second home and the main reason was Bae. I am proudly one of “Bae’s kids.” Unless you share that distinction, it is impossible to fully convey the loss we feel today with Bae’s passing. Bae was not just an administrator to her “kids.” She was a mother, friend, cheerleader, mentor, and confidant. Indeed, she supported and sustained me from that first day as an inquiring student through the present as the Hinckley Institute’s director. Bae had the unique talent of making students feel that they had unlimited potential and the tireless ability to provide them with life-changing opportunities. The Hinckley Institute and I will forever be grateful for the legacy she established and the love she exhibited during her incredible years of service at the Hinckley Institute.
Kirk L. Jowers
Director, Hinckley Institute of PoliticsViewing and Funeral Service
Saturday, February 23rd
Viewing: 11:00 am. Service: 1:00 pm.Foothill LDS 7th Ward Chapel
2215 E. Roosevelt Avenue
Salt Lake City, Utah 84108In lieu of flowers, the Gardner family has suggested that donations may be made to the Bae B. Gardner Internship in Public Policy scholarship fund administered by the Hinckley Institute of Politics. Donations can be made online or by calling the University of Utah Development Office at 801.581.6825. Donations can also be mailed to the Hinckley Institute at 260 S. Central Campus Dr. Rm. 253. Salt Lake City, UT 84112. For more information call the Hinckley Institute of Politics at 801.581.8501.
I had applied for an internship with the National Wildlife Federation. Bae thought I had a chance at a different internship, so she copied the form and sent it to the Secretary of the Senate. I lost the NWF internship on a .01 gradepoint difference. I got the internship at the Senate, and it changed my life.
Of course, I was on the road debating when the word came through that they wanted me in Washington. Bae called me late at night at home, minutes before my acceptance would have been overdue. Four days later I was working in the Capitol. Whenever I meet with other Hinckley Interns, I learn she did more for everyone else.
My first real office was a few feet from the Senate Chamber, with a view down the mall to the Washington Monument, and a chandalier 8 feet across. I got floor privileges to the Senate, and with Mike Mansfield’s name on my ID card, I had access to the White House and almost any other government building in town.
That sort of education is priceless. Thanks to Bae Gardner.
Bae should be remembered as a hero for education, a champion for college kids, and one who played a role in more good public policy decisions than few others in history, by promoting good kids to good experience that they applied later in public service.
I wish the service were streamed on the web somewhere. I’ll bet it’ll be something to see and hear.
3 Comments | Heroes, Personal, Politics | Tagged: Heroes, Higher education, Personal, Politics | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Frederick Douglass didn’t know what day he was born — having been born a slave — so he picked a day, February 14. Timothy Sandefur at Freespace notes a new book on the way about Douglass, and a few other details.
Douglass is to me the very model of an ideological reformer. He lived his beliefs 100 percent (even marrying a white woman in 1884; can you imagine?) and he, in his own words, agitated, agitated, agitated. But he was respectful, decorous, dignified, rebellious, and intelligent. He was eloquent and smart, but he knew the necessity of violence in some circumstances. And although he understood the need for occasional compromise, he compromised in the right way, never letting go of the ultimate vision and never letting his enemies forget that he knew why they were wrong, and that he would not rest until they were set right. Even then, his focus was not on defeating his opponents, but at getting to the right result. “The man who has thoroughly embraced the principles of justice, love and liberty,” he wrote, “like the true preacher of Christianity, is less anxious to reproach the world of its sins, than to win it to repentance. His great work on earth is to exemplify, and to illustrate, and to engraft those principles on the living and practical understandings of all men within the reach of his influence…. It is to snatch from the bosom of nature the latent facts of each individual man’s experience and with a steady hand to hold them up fresh and glowing, enforcing with all his power their acknowledgment and practical adoption.” That accurately describes Douglass’s own conduct in his life. He was a man of principles and a man of action.
Gotta note that for the calendar next year.
Years ago, the first significant piece I ever read on Douglass claimed that he was in the White House often enough to know his way around, and on more than one occasion was mistaken for President Lincoln by visitors unfamiliar with either man. It’s difficult to know how accurate such a claim could be, and I’ve not found it noted anywhere in the last decade or so. For my U.S. history class skeptics, however, I got a lucite cube that allowed two photos to be displayed, and displayed Douglass on one side and Lincoln on the other. Looking quickly, students often mistook which one was on display. I suppose such identity confusion is possible.
Douglass’s story is great inspiration, and a testament to the value of education. Every school kid should know it.
Resources:
Tip of the old scrub brush to Ed Brayton at Dispatches from the Culture Wars.
1 Comment | Abraham Lincoln, Biography, Civil Rights, Civil War, Heroes, History | Tagged: Civil Rights, Civil War, Frederick Douglass, Heroes, History, Slavery | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
A personal note: My cousin, Marilyn Christian Smith Gearing, died last night after fighting lymphoma. She was about 74.
Marilyn was the daughter of my father’s sister, Marion. Her father, Roland Christian, was a minister in the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, who traveled a lot. We saw him and my father’s sister about once a year, when they’d pass through our town. Other than that, we had little contact with my father’s family, and my cousins. (Isn’t that a great name for a preacher, by the way?)
So when I got to know Marilyn when I was an adult (and she about 20 years older than I), she was a constant bundle of surprises. We knew she was a nurse. Found out she was dean of nursing at Loma Linda University. Learned in one visit that she was a pilot once, the better to carry out public health missions for the State of Virginia.
Marilyn retired, and traveled. Taking up where her father left off, she’d drop in on my parents, unexpectedly, every year or so. In my father’s last two years, he was greatly pleased when she and her husband would drop in to sing at his bedside.
No, I didn’t take my own advice and debrief her fully on her life. Our history sources are leaving us. Call one of yours, today: Thank them for their contributions, and write down what you learn.
Some of Marilyn’s exploits were picked up in Loma Linda Nursing in 2003 — it’s in .pdf form, starting on page 16, with the cover photo.
Her husband, Walt, said there is a memorial service scheduled for February 16, 3:00 pm. at the University Church Chapel at 11125 Campus Street in Loma Linda, California.
More:
2 Comments | Family, Heroes, Personal, Point of personal privilege | Tagged: Family, Heroes, Public health | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Rereading the Gettysburg Address and the Cooper Union speech of Lincoln, I wondered for a few moments whether there are others with similar gifts for words who might be on film or tape. It got me thinking about the vast gulf between religion on the one hand, and faith and justice on the other hand.
Then I got a notice of a link from this post about Barbara Jordan, at Firedoglake.
It’s a nice collection of links, a Barbara Jordan tribute all bundled up ready to unwrap. Sometimes truth does go marching on.
Who since Jordan?
(Thanks to Phoenix Woman at Firedoglake for the post, and for the link here.)
The Cooper Union speech of Lincoln was 148 years ago, on February 27.
4 Comments | Abraham Lincoln, Accuracy, DBQ sources, Famous quotes, Fly your flag today, Freedom - Political, Great Speeches, Heroes, Historic documents, History, History audio sources, History video sources, Justice, Reason, Religion | Tagged: Barbara Jordan, Black history, Great Speeches, Heroes, Justice, Religion | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Raymond Jacobs died February 5 — he is thought to be the last surviving U.S. soldier pictured in the photos of the flag-raisings on Iwo Jima in 1945.
In the photo at right, Ray Jacobs is the radioman looking up; Associated Press photo
Raymond Jacobs died of natural causes at the age of 82 last week, his daughter told the Associated Press
Jacobs said he was present at the first flag raising, captured by a photographer for Leatherneck magazine. A later flag-raising, to put up a larger flag, was photographed by Joe Rosenthal, who won a Pulitzer Prize for the photo.
He is said to have returned to his unit by the time a more famous Associated Press photograph of a second flag-raising was taken later the same day.
Jacobs later fought in the Korean conflict in 1951 before retiring as a sergeant. He went on to work as a reporter, anchor and news director in local television in Oakland.
Eyewitnesses to the two World Wars dwindle in numbers. Historians and friends should be certain to capture their stories before they are gone.
Japan renamed the island Iwo To, its name prior to the war.
7 Comments | Famous Battles, Flag ceremony, Flag etiquette, Heroes, History, History images, Journalism, World War II | Tagged: Heroes, Iwo Jima, Media, Raymond Jacobs, US Flag, World War II | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Dr. Bumsted at Biocultural Science and Management alerted me to the Seattle Times’ special section on fighting malaria. The extensive set of articles ran in the newspaper on Friday, February 1, 2008. You can order a copy of the special reports in a separate section here.
Child suffering from malaria. Seattle Times, February 1, 2008
Seattle’s news organizations look at malaria in large part because malaria is a target of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The package features outstanding photography of malaria-affected Tanzania and Zambia, good interviews, in-depth reporting, good writing, and multi-media presentations that might be suitable for classroom work. The multi-media pieces could be used as examples of what students should be doing with PowerPoint projects.
The Seattle Times’ work on the fight against malaria is a tour-de-force masterpiece of what a newspaper can do to promote the public good. The newspaper demonstrates the heights writers can aspire to. Good on ’em, as Molly Ivins would say.
I have not found a single mention of experts calling for more DDT, as the junk-science purveyors do. There are several attempts to urge DDT by readers in the Q&A session, but the expert malaria fighters are careful with their facts — it’s a real education. Read the articles. The research and the work against malaria pushed by the Gates Foundation is exactly the research and work that DDT-happy advocates frustrate with their political screeds.
Which group does more to save Africans, those who fight malaria as described in The Seattle Times, or those who rail at environmentalists and call for more DDT?
2 Comments | Africa, Citizenship, Health care, Heroes, Malaria, Newspapers, Public education, Public health, Research, Science | Tagged: Africa, DDT, Gates Foundation, health, Malaria, Public health | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
A reporter named Richard Pyle — no relation, he notes — writing for the Associated Press reports that a photograph of Ernie Pyle has surfaced, showing him dead, after he was hit by a Japanese machine gun bullet while reporting on U.S. troops, on the island of Ie Shima, on April 18, 1945.
Photos here, at the Dallas Morning News site. Story here.
Especially in black and white, the photo is not so macabre as to shock. Pyle looks peaceful, asleep, as Richard Pyle wrote. The value is historical. It’s a reminder that reporters, too, put themselves in harm’s way, to inform Americans about the world, providing the information our democratic republic needs to function well.
Remember to vote in your state’s primary elections this year. Deserve their heroism.
Earlier notes on Ernie Pyle:
Leave a Comment » | Heroes, History, History images, Journalism, Newspapers, World War II | Tagged: Ernie Pyle, Heroes, History, History images, Journalism, Media, Newspapers, World War II | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Is Joseph Romito a Boy Scout? Can we give him a medal?
3 Comments | Capturing history, Ethics, Heroes, Historic documents, Libraries | Tagged: Heroes, Historic documents, History, Justice, Libraries | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
On January 28, 1968, Commander Lloyd Bucher and the crew of the U.S.S. Pueblo were confronted by several armed swift boats from North Korea, and after an exchange of gunfire that resulted in the death of one of the Pueblo crew, the North Koreans took the boat and crew captive.
1968 was a dramatic and mostly bad year for the U.S. The 11-month saga of the crew in captivity often gets lost from accounts of the year.
Among other reasons I track these events, the crewman pulled a series of hoaxes on their North Korean captors that, I believe, helped lead to their release.
4 Comments | 1968, Cold War, Heroes, History, Hoaxes, Korea | Tagged: 1968, foreign affairs, History, Korea, USS Pueblo | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
You are currently browsing the archives for the Heroes category.
Ed Darrell on Texas's Colorado River
Come on in, the water's fine. Come often: Cleanliness is next to godliness.
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 