Because today is the 75th anniversary of the day that the United Nations officially came into being, it's a good time to reflect on what the UN stood for when it was founded, what it stands for today, and what it, broadly defined, might be in the future. The UN's first 10 stamps, which were …
Topic: Contemporary Issues
Discussing the pandemic, 2020 politics, and other recent happenings
In 1993, when it grappled with fundamental questions the state's educational finance system, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court used language from the state's more than 200-year old constitution as the basis for a groundbreaking decision that forced the state to give much more aid to its poorest cities and towns. That clause was written by …
Officially, I voted for the first time, in 1976. Unofficially, I had been voting for years. My mother used to bring me with her when she voted in the gymnasium at the Lincoln Elementary School in Summit, where I grew up. I have vivid memories of the mechanical voting machines and the curtains that surrounded them. …
As Election Day approaches, it is increasingly hard think or write about stamps that don't somehow connect with tomorrow's watershed vote. Consequently, I've been on the lookout for stamps that, in some way, connect with my current emotional mix of anxiety, excitement, bewilderment, resoluteness, and many other things. Today, that process brings me to 4- and …
"Never was there, perhaps, more hollowness at heart than at present, and here in the United States." Although Walt Whitman wrote those words almost 150 years ago, they are resonant tonight as I sit watching early election returns making it clear that the election is likely to be closer than I hoped. As I watch …
"Georgia," as Ray Charles sings in a classic recording, today, had been on my mind "the whole day through." So, perhaps, it shouldn't come as a surprise that the somewhat random process that generates #stampoftheday candidates today produced a 4-cent stamp honoring one of the state's most important and influential politicians in the mid 20th century. …
In my 50s, I started playing goalie in the wonderfully named "Over-the-Hill Soccer League," Over the years, I relearned some important lessons not only about sports but also about life. Those timely lessons are underscored by today's #stampoftheday, a 4-cent stamp, issued on November 6, 1961, the 100th birthday of James Naismith, who invented the …
Bliss. For the moment, I am in a state of bliss. Indeed, I even feel a bit like Francis Scott Key, who saw that "the rocket's red glare...gave proof through the night that our flag was still there." So it seems quite appropriate that today's #stampoftheday, which really was issued on November 7, 1948, not only honors the …
An all-but-forgotten hardball political maneuver designed to keep Republicans in power in Washington is behind-the-image story of today's #stampoftheday. Although these actions are quite salient today, they aren't recent. Rather, they date back to the late 1800s, when five of what are now the nation's least populated states were admitted to the union. That decision, …