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Tag Archives: identity
What We Have Lost: Our Stories Make Us One
“Thanksgiving lessons jettison pilgrim hats, welcome truth” This headline from the Associated Press exploded inside my skull when I saw it three days ago, and in the dust that settled, I read an important lesson about what has been lost as … Continue reading
Posted in culture, current events, divisiveness, education, freedom, history, language, literature, narrative, politics, story
Tagged culture, education, history, identity, language, literature, narrative, story
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Measuring Life in Semesters: I Am a Teacher
During what was probably the most important ten-plus years of my life, I was a member of a tiny parish in the Episcopal Church. Actually, it was so small that it was officially a mission, dependent upon the diocese for … Continue reading
Posted in critical thinking, education, writing
Tagged critical thinking, education, identity, meaning, student, teacher, writing
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Fatty, Fatty, Two by Four
A fat child For the illumination of those who didn’t bear the sting of the taunt that inspired my title, let me quote: Fatty, fatty, two by four, Couldn’t get through the bathroom door, So she did it on the … Continue reading
Yellow Fleas
The end of Reconstruction in 1877 gave birth to the Solid South. In both Presidential and state politics, the South retained its essentially single-party identity until the passage of the Civil Right Act in 1964. During that time, Southerners would … Continue reading
Posted in current events, education, free speech, history, language, news, politics, sexual harassment
Tagged discrimination, education, First Amendment, free speech, history, identity, politics, religion
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Reconsidering the American Consensus–and Rehabilitating the 1950s
The Mering thesis and the roots of consensus history At the University of Arizona in the mid-1970s, John V. Mering inculcated his disciples with a devotion to the consensus historiography whose bedrock was The American Political Tradition: And the Men Who Made It … Continue reading
Posted in books, critical thinking, current events, education, history, politics
Tagged education, history, identity, mentor, Orwell, politics
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Something Old
I still have the tattered Golden Book of Nursery Tales (1948) and Mother Goose Book of Nursery Rhymes (1953) presented to me at birth. At a time in my life when preserving the past evidently mattered less to me, I removed the … Continue reading
Posted in cemetery, education, history, language, memories, photography, World War I
Tagged cemetery, discrimination, history, identity, language, memories, photography, World War I
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Erasing History: The 2017 Version
“In February 1948, the Communist leader Klement Gottwald stepped out on to the balcony of a Baroque palace in Prague to harangue hundreds of thousands of citizens massed in Old Town Square. That was the great turning point in the … Continue reading
Posted in education, history, language, literature, politics
Tagged Communism, education, First Amendment, history, identity, Kundera, Liu Xiaobo, Orwell, politics, truth
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Metatext: Memories in the Margins
Two weeks ago, on March 18, I saw The Sense of an Ending on the second day of its run at the Cameo Art House Theater in Fayetteville. In 2011–specifically, “Thanksgiving 2011, Lake Mattamuskeet” according to my notation on the flyleaf–I read … Continue reading
Posted in books, friendship, history, language, memories, movies
Tagged coming of age, connection, friendship, history, identity, language, memory
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Choices, Choices: The Quandaries and the Quagmire of Identity Politics
My 56-mile commute to and from work has spawned the bad habit of scrolling through my emails at stoplights. A few days ago, I made a mental note to return to an article whose provocative title I noted only briefly; it … Continue reading
The Many Gifts of Music
Preferring the feel and the smell and the fillable margins of real books, I had never listened to an audio book until I received one as a Christmas gift from a dear friend seeking to relieve the tedium I experience on … Continue reading