The first stamp to picture Native Americans was issued in 1893, almost 69 years after then Secretary of War John Calhoun created the Bureau of Indian Affairs on March 11, 1824. Initially part of the War Department, BIA has been part of the Interior Department since 1849. So there’s a kind of notable irony in […]

“Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you,” may be the one of the most famous lines in American history. These are the words, of course, that Alexander Graham Bell supposedly said on the first time he successfully used his newly invented telephone on March 10, 1876. Thinking about the call and Bell –

Last fall, after Judge Am Amy Coney Barrett promised to “apply the law as it is written” and leave policy decisions to the other branches of government, Stephen Budiansky wrote a letter that was published in the New York Times. “If that’s all judges need to do, we’d have no need for judges.” Budiansky, author

What, exactly, are we remembering when we “Remember the Alamo.” I used to know the answer to that seemingly simple question. We remembered a heroic stand by a vastly outnumbered group of men, all of them white, who fought for freedom against Mexican oppressors. The men who died in that fight were a “Hall of

The third wave of the great 1918-1919 influenza pandemic peaked early in March of 1919. Although the third wave wasn’t as deadly as the apocalyptic second wave in mid 1918, it was much deadlier than the first wave, and hit particularly hard in several major cities, including Los Angeles, New York, Memphis, Nashville, San Francisco

As we approach the one-year anniversary of the COVID lockdown, I’ve been recalling moments and events from last February and early March, a time knew about COVID but didn’t yet know just how much it was going to upend my life, the lives of everyone I know, and the lives of everyone else. Tonight, I’ve

I remember seeing a headline about a break-in at a place called Watergate and wondering what that was about. It was June 1972; I was 15 years old; and I had taken a job selling newspapers room to room in Overlook Hospital in Summit. I was probably looking at the New York Times, which was

Although I’m 63 and not yet eligible for the COVID vaccine, I’ve been watching as people I know have started getting the vaccine. The roll-out, of course, hasn’t been handled well and even if it were, the demand is much greater than the current supply. So, like many others, I am waiting and hoping, not

Like many people interested in urban and environmental issues, I have long been interested been interested in Oregon’s long history of progressive populism. And like many people who have looked up to Oregon’s lead in those areas, I’ve been puzzled and concerned by the fact that the state also has been – and continues to