Odd connections: Franklin, Rand, and a great kid

January 17, 2007

Ben Franklin, portrait for Time, by Michael J. Deas

Ben Franklin on the cover of Time

Ben Franklin’s birthday is January 17. He was born in 1706.

The drama department at Pleasant Grove (Utah) High School put on Ayn Rand’s play, “The Night of January 16th” when I was an underclassman there. It’s an interesting play — a murder mystery played out in a courtroom, with a jury drawn from the evening’s audience. The play’s ending differs almost every night, with a different jury coming to slightly different conclusions. Suggested posters for the play asked, “Where were you the night of January 16th?”

Ayn Rand, Ayn Rand Institute

Ayn Rand

Years later that question came back to me as I rushed my wife to the maternity room at Charlton Methodist Hospital with contractions coming in quick succession, with a few minutes left in January 16th. The question made a good mnemonic to remember the date of the birth of our second child. Only later did I recall that the day is also Ben Franklin’s birthday — Ben being an object of some study and significant space on my personal library shelf. Read the rest of this entry »

7 Comments | Ben Franklin, Family, History, Personal | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

National Separation of Church and State Day

January 16, 2007

Today, January 16, is the anniversary of Virginia’s enacting the Statute for Religious Freedom, in 1786. It deserves an international celebration.

After working with George Mason and the kid, James Madison, to craft Viriginia’s Bill of Rights in 1776, Thomas Jefferson was dispatched as a delegate to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. Being assigned to Philadelphia was a bother to Jefferson — the real action, he thought, was in Virginia, where a new form of government was being crafted, where Virginians were working to determine what was the best government to assure the most freedom for free peoples. Jefferson was called on to draft what became the Declaration of Independence, a task and accomplishment he later grew to appreciate. Still, he wanted to go back to Virginia, and soon.

Jefferson portrait, Monticello imageWhen Jefferson got back to Virginia, he spent much of his time doing exactly what he thought was the good stuff: Crafting a good government for a good nation, Virginia. Among other things he served as governor, and he wrote about 150 model laws for the good government he so earnestly hoped to see. In 1779, he wrote a law to cement the religious freedom James Madison had persuaded Mason and Jefferson to include in the Virginia Bill of Rights. But the law languished in a busy legislature still working to win the right to make that government work, in a war with Britain. Jefferson wrote about his successes and failures, as a record for others (see Notes on the State of Virginia).

By 1785, Jefferson had been called to the post-war ambassadorship of the confederation of thirteen colonies to France. When Patrick Henry rose in the legislature in Williamsburg to proposed that Virginia rethink its disestablishment of religion, to at last consider paying clergy for teaching kids, Jefferson sat unaware on the other side of the Atlantic. James Madison saw the full import of Henry’s proposal, though. While noting that a country like Virginia should desire education for its youth and morality as part of the instruction, such an action as Henry proposed was tantamount to picking a religion — shouldn’t the people have a chance to weigh in on the issue? Madison proposed to put the issue over to the next session of the legislature, in 1786, and the Virginia Assembly approved Madison’s proposal. Read the rest of this entry »

4 Comments | Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence, First Amendment, George Washington, History, James Madison, Politics, Religious Freedom, Thomas Jefferson | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

46th History Carnival

January 14, 2007

Apollo 11?

In a Google image search for “history,” the photo above is the first item found. NASA photo.

Investigations of a Dog hosts the 46th History Carnival. It includes links to very interesting stories of the Cold War in Korea and Gerald Ford, the Civil War, other American and European history, and of course, a note of Millard Fillmore’s birth anniversary on January 7 (he was 207).

Much history we don’t want to repeat — so go learn it.

Leave a Comment » | History, History blogs | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Applying the lessons of Vietnam in Afghanistan and Iraq, part 1

January 12, 2007

In pedagogy, the indicator that a lesson has been learned manifests in changes in actions, not in a high score on a paper test.

Did the United States really learn the lessons of Vietnam?  Can we even say, with assurance, what those lessons are?

Lesson 1:  Support of a corrupt government often leads to disaster.  One  of the continuing problems of U.S. policy in Vietnam was that the South Vietnam governments were usually corrupt.  Citizens knew that.  A people rarely loves a corrupt government, unless the corruption inures to the benefit of the people — a degree of graft may be tolerated, for example, if the garbage is picked up on time and the streets are cleared after snow storms.  People quickly lose patience with corruption that does not benefit them, however, and South Vietnam’s government simply could not get basic services to work well.

One might have hoped the U.S. learned the lesson, especially when Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Indiana, recommended to President Ronald Reagan that the U.S. not pledge military support for Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos, because of the corruption in the Marcos government.  As a result, the Philippines today has a democratic government, not one that works with great efficiency (which may be a hallmark of true democracy), but a government that the people understand is elected by them.  Similarly, governments of Eastern Bloc nations under communism frequently were corrupt.  The swift changes that occurred after Poland’s defection from communism and the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the collapse of the Soviet Union, led to massive change.  Where the new governments are not corrupt (Poland, the Czech Republic, Germany) or even just less corrupt, popular support is stronger and national recovery is a genuine hope, if not reality.

Of course, the U.S. was burned by this policy in Iran.  When Jimmy Carter’s administration refused to back the increasingly corrupt and unpopular government of the Shah of Iran, revolutionaries found other reasons to lash out at the U.S.  A wise person may contemplate that at least the U.S. has not been involved in a continuing war in Iran since the 1980s.

But the lesson stands.  One would think that the U.S. would make great effort to assure non-corrupt government in Iraq and Afghanistan, and make the strongest possible effort to make clean government manifest to the local population and the world at large. One might be unsure that is happening today.

In Vietnam, communist forces were trained along the model that Mao Zedong had used in China against the Japanese, and then against the Nationalist army:  Train in military methods, and emphasize the political aspects of the war, too.  Mao’s army had songs they were required to memorize that emphasized high moral conduct of the soldier, with verses that encouraged full payment to anyone from whom anything was taken, such as food or shelter.  Such actions would encourage civilians to support the army, Mao correctly hypothesized.  Ho Chi Minh’s forces did not practice the rules perfectly, but, for example, they were successful often in pointing out that the destruction of cropland was not their doing, but was instead the result of U.S. war efforts.  Vietnamese citizens may not have strongly supported Ho’s forces, but neither did they support the Army of the Republic of South Vietnam.  When the reason for the fighting is unclear, fighting often cannot be successful.  Corruption in a government makes reasons to support that government suspect, fogging the reasons to fight for it.

Cleaning up corruption in Iraq’s government should be a very high priority of U.S. policy. 

[This is the first of a series of posts on the Lessons of Vietnam.]

3 Comments | History, Iraq, Leadership, Lessons of Vietnam, Vietnam | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Song for the Alaska flag

January 12, 2007

Still looking for a comprehensive — and accurate — list of states that have official pledges. The search is occasionally illuminating (as are all genuine quests for knowledge).

For example, I knew Alaska’s flag was designed by a student, Benny Benson. I had not realized that it was adopted in the Coolidge administration, though, and not much closer to statehood in 1959.

More, Alaska has a song to its flag. I suspect the song is sung less often than Texas’s pledge is made (well, Texas requires school kids to say the pledge every day). But it’s a bit more poetic, isn’t it?

Alaska flag, Wikimedia, by Dave Johnson

Alaska’s song to the flag is below the fold. A link to an MP3 recording of the song is available here. Read the rest of this entry »

18 Comments | Flag etiquette, History, Music education, Patriotism, Pledge to the flag | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

State flag pledges: Alabama, too

January 11, 2007

Ralph Luker at Cliopatria (at History News Network) adds Alabama to the list of states with an official pledge to the state flag.

Alabama’s another one, Ed: “Flag of Alabama I salute thee. To thee I pledge my allegiance, my service, and my life.” And then I wash my mouth out with soap.

Yeah, that one’s a bit over the top, rather the shark-jumper of state flag pledges.

How many more are there? Alabama state flag

3 Comments | Flag etiquette, History, History blogs, Patriotism | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Happy birthday, Millard Fillmore!

January 7, 2007

Millard Fillmore was born on January 7, 1800.

Fillmore was:

  • The 13th President of the United States
  • The first Chancellor of the university at Buffalo now known as the University at Buffalo, the State University of New York
  • The “handsomest man I ever met” according to Queen Victoria
  • Namesake of one of the earliest capitals of Utah, Fillmore, in Millard County
  • Almost definitely NOT the person responsible for putting plumbing in the White House, especially for the first plumbed bathtub.

Happy birthday, Mr. Fillmore! We hardly know ye, still!

(Prof. Parker at Another History Blog worked to dog down the quote attributed to Fillmore that I mentioned Friday:  “May God save the country, for it is evident that the people will not.”  He could not confirm the quote, but at least as good and probably better, he offers a free history database.  Go see.)

5 Comments | Accuracy, History, History blogs, Hoaxes, Millard Fillmore | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

“Honor the Texas Flag” especially when retiring it

January 7, 2007

Texas is a whole ‘nother place.

Flag etiquette is a concern of mine — no, not an obsession, despite the number of recent posts — and I try to stay alert to news on that front. Hangin’ with Scout leaders today I heard another one: Texas has a law that specifies how a soiled or tattered Texas flag should be retired.

U.S. flags should be retired in a respectful fashion, according to the non-binding U.S. flag code. Texas leaves a lot less up to the imagination or to chance. The law calls for a sober ceremony, but just in case you wonder, it also provides a suggested script for the ceremony, ending with the Texas Pledge. So far as I know, Texas is the only state that has a pledge of allegiance for the state flag, separate from the national Pledge of Allegiance (if you know of others, please tell!).

Image from State Office of Risk Management

The state law, in all its glory is below the fold (at least, that portion dealing with the Texas flag retirement ceremony). Read the rest of this entry »

12 Comments | Flag etiquette, History, Patriotism, Texas | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Blue Origin brings space exploration back to Texas

January 5, 2007

Texas plateTexas’ regular license plate features a Space Shuttle, some stars and a crescent Moon, but a lot of Texas 8th graders are foggy on just why. I hope kids living near Houston have a better idea, since the Houston Johnson Space Center is in their area. To most kids under the age of 20 in Texas, space exploration is not a part of Texas history. I had one student in class ask why it was that in the movie version of the Apollo 13 story, the astronauts said “Houston, we have a problem.”

The drive to get a private spacecraft into commercial use has at least one company using Texas as a base. Space exploration may once again become a current event item in Texas social studies classes.

Jeff Bezos’ company, Blue Origin, tested their space craft in November, and the tardy news is bustling around the internet — and present in print and broadcast media, too. That the story is so hot on the internet should be a cue to mass media that it’s time to start paying attention.

The company’s test site is in Culberson County, in far west Texas — far away from the giant media markets in San Antonio, Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth. El Paso is the closest major market, and it’s in a different time zone from the rest of the state.

This space exploration group reverses NASA’s Houston-to-Cape Canaveral style of operations — Blue Origin is headquartered in Kent, Washington, closer to Bezos’ Amazon roots.

Blue Origin is hiring engineers, by the way.

Watch that space.

Goddard in flight

Tip of the old scrub brush to Futuresheet.

3 Comments | Current History, Geography - Physical, History, Science, Space exploration, Texas | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Ordered the cake yet? Millard Fillmore’s 207th birthday coming up

January 5, 2007

Just a reminder that Millard Fillmore’s 207th birthday anniversary is Sunday, January 7, 2007.

How do you plan to celebrate?

Image from NY State Library

Did he really say that? “May God save the country, for it is evident that the people will not.” (attributed to Fillmore)

Update, January 6, 2007: Elektratig tried to source the quote, but cannot — posts that the line does not sound like Fillmore. At the end of the day, January 5, neither the New York State Library nor the good people at the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society could confirm the quote. We may have to add this line to the list of Bathtub debunkings; but there are many sources yet to check.

Image: State Library of New York

13 Comments | Good Quotes, History, Millard Fillmore, Public education | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Ford tells Nixon: ‘Take these guys’

January 4, 2007

President Ford, National Archives photo

[I hear from teachers who want lesson plans dealing with Gerald Ford. Here’s one I came across from the National Archives.]

Vice President Spiro Agnew was forced to resign in late 1973 in lieu of being prosecuted for bribery. The 25th Amendment allows a president to nominate a new vice president in the event of a vacancy. It was passed after the assassination of President Kennedy, when heart-attack victim Lyondon Johnson held office for over a year with no vice president, but it had never been used. With more than two years to go on his second term, Nixon was encouraged to fill the office.

Eventually Nixon picked Gerald Ford, putting Ford in line to become the first U.S. president to hold the office without ever having been elected to either the presidency or vice presidency, though that was unknown in the fall of 1973. What Nixon needed was someone who could pass the “advice and consent” test of the U.S. Senate. He got a letter from the Republican leader in the House, Gerald Ford, a long-time Michigan congressman, who named several others.

Whose names did Ford suggest to Nixon?

That letter is the focus of a lesson plan suitable for high school U.S. history or government classes, which comes with images of the letter and suggested activities from the National Archives.

The National Archives has lesson plans for all eras of U.S. history.

1 Comment | 25th Amendment, Gerald Ford, History, Lesson plans, Presidents, U.S. Constitution, U.S. Senate, Watergate scandal | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Russian creationists miss Stalin’s views in biology

January 3, 2007

The good news is that Russian high school biology textbooks talk about Darwin, at long last, after the 74-year rule of the Communists decimated the corps of teachers who taught Darwinian evolution, partly because Darwin was ‘too bourgeois.’

The bad news is that Russian creationists, with what appears to be the support of the Russian Orthodox Church, are suing to bring back the old Stalinist views that Darwin was wrong. The case is loaded with irony, not the least that Theodosius Dobzhansky, the famous biologist who noted that biology is only clear under the light of evolution theory, was devoutly Russian Orthodox.

This case appears to have gone on for some time, but details are only now coming to these shores. The Baltimore Sun had a story on the case today. And, as if one would not guess, it appears the case is brought by a public relations company — perhaps the Moscow branch of the Swift Boat Veterans?

Tip of the scrub brush to Panda’s Thumb, where there is guaranteed to be more discussion of the issue.

Leave a Comment » | Bogus history, Cold War, Creationism, Darwin, Evolution, History, Religious Freedom, Science and faith, Voodoo history | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Rep. Ellison and the Islamic roots of American law

January 3, 2007

U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., delivered a lesson to critics today on the value of knowing history.

First, Los Angeles conservative radio host Dennis Prager embarrassed himself by calling on Ellison to use a Christian Bible to put his left hand on while being sworn in as a Member of Congress, the first Moslem to be a Member. Ellison pointed out that in the swearing-in ceremony, no book is used, and noted that other religious texts have been used by people of other faiths during the photo session afterward, when members re-enact the swearing in with the Speaker of the House. Prager compounded his history sins by refusing to back down. Ellison correctly stood his ground.

Then Virginia’s U.S. Rep. Virgil Goode pushed it farther, warning that unless we control immigration, Ellison will be the beachhead for a Moslem take-over of Congress. Ellison, defending the Bill of Rights, stood his ground and refused to get into a name-calling discussion.

Then Roy Moore of Alabama, who was rejected by voters for governor after having made a spectacle of himself and the Alabama Supreme Court over his efforts to install his own religious shrine in the Supreme Court Building, called for Ellison to be denied his seat. Ellison coolly ignored Moore, defending the First Amendment instead.

Now Ellison has acted, and his action comprises a neat, clean and witty rebuttal to the critics.

Read the rest of this entry »

4 Comments | First Amendment, History, Leadership, Politics, Religious Freedom, Thomas Jefferson, U.S. Constitution | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

D. James Kennedy suffers heart attack

January 2, 2007

Browsing at Positive Liberty today I first saw the news that the Rev. D. James Kennedy suffered a heart attack, and is hospitalized. Kennedy is the head of Coral Ridge Ministries in Florida, and a leader of the history revisionist movement to rewrite especially textbooks to argue that the U.S. should have a religiously-based government.

It appears the news didn’t get out quickly. The Miami Herald had a story just today, though Kennedy’s heart attack was last Thursday. Jonathan Rowe urges a speedy recovery, so Kennedy can continue to provide material for that blog. I think there’s enough material for this blog without Kennedy, but I wish him a complete recovery anyway.

2 Comments | America's founding, Bad Quotes, Creationism, History, History Revisionism, Hoaxes, Intelligent Design, Science and faith, Voodoo history | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Washington’s Valley Forge vision that never was

January 2, 2007

At Boston 1775, J. L. Bell discusses what is known about the accuracy of reports that Gen. George Washington had a vision of an angel while the Continental Army camped at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. I cannot improve on Mr. Bell’s telling of the story, so go read it there.

7 Comments | 1776, Accuracy, America's founding, Bogus history, George Washington, History, History blogs, History Revisionism, Hoaxes | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

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