Browsing: Society

A Brief History On January 20, 2011, the United States Justice Department issued 16 indictments against Northeast American Mafia families resulting in 127 charged defendants and more than 110 arrests.  Thinking of the most ruthless and untamed American outlaws it somehow easy to transpose their influence onto a classic picture of what it is called the American Dream. Maybe because these men where the triumphant image of succeeding against all odds. Planting their influence on cultural aspects of Manhattan and Brooklyn, Detroit, Philadelphia, Chicago and New Orleans to this day. Digging Deeper Prohibition and the Upward Movement of the American…

A Brief History On January 22, 1917, President of the United States Woodrow Wilson called upon the warring European nations to end the Great War (World War I) in a “peace without victory.”  At this stage of the war, the major combatant nations had invested so many lives and so much national treasure that to quit without victory was political suicide for the leaders.  Wilson, with the US still neutral at that point, was clearly wasting his breath.  Wilson’s plea is just one of many times someone made an effort at peace despite having virtually no chance at actually gaining…

A Brief History On January 21, 1997, an historic event took place when the sitting Speaker of the US House of representatives, Newton Leroy “Newt” Gingrich of Georgia, was reprimanded by his peers by a vote of 395 to 28 for “ethics violations.”  Gingrich was the first Speaker ever censured by the House, a shameful blot on the record of just one more shady politician!  A phony and a hypocrite, it is hard to believe Newt Gingrich was once only 2 heartbeats away from being President! Digging Deeper Born in Pennsylvania, Newt’s parents (mother age 16 and father age 19…

A Brief History On January 20, 1920, a new organization devoted to the freedoms guaranteed to all Americans by the Constitution of the United States (and its amendments) was formed from the National Civil Liberties Bureau, an organization formed in 1917 to protect the Freedom of Speech, mainly by those Americans opposed to the US joining in World War I.  With the motto, “Because Freedom Can’t Protect Itself” the ACLU is a premier civil rights organization active all over the United States, supporting the rights of a wide variety of Americans in a wide variety of causes. Digging Deeper Among…

A Brief History On January 19, 2018, Texans celebrate Confederate Heroes Day, while in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, and Mississippi Robert E. Lee Day is celebrated.  In 2017 the United States was torn by protests and counter protests, notably leading to violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, over the subject of removing Confederate statues and monuments from public areas.  Previously, campaigns to remove Confederate flags from public places resulted in South Carolina becoming the last state to stop flying the “Stars and Bars” over its capital (2015).  Americans seem torn between honoring their ancestors and erasing every trace of what is deemed…