Posts By: occh4@comcast.net

Society of Exclusion

America used to be the place where people came to be included in the greatest country in the world. Where if you worked hard, you would be absorbed into the great melting pot. You could find success and happiness. Now, we know history tells us we weren’t so inclusive all the time. We can start with

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The Vote That Changed History

Presidential elections can change history and the direction of the country for years.  We are in the middle of one of the most contentious and divisive campaigns in our history. But history also tells us about another presidential election that most people don’t know about. It changed the country. It changed the lives of millions for generations. In 1876,

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Music City

It’s a city that sings. It sings about love, loss, hope, and even drinking. It even seems to sing about its history. Sitting on the banks of the Cumberland River, my wife and I spent a weekend in one of America’s great cities. Nashville will make you tap your feet, enjoy rich southern food, discover

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Gallery of Losers

As he plows through the primaries piling up delegates, Donald Trump has the Republican party in an absolute panic. Not only about the election this year, but the very future of their party. This guy could divide the party so badly between radical conservatives and the rational “establishment” members of the party, that the Republican party as we

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Turnpike

  It’s a world that travels at 80 miles per hour. The speed limit signs may say 65 miles per hour, but you will feel like you’re standing still if you follow the rules. I’ve been driving the New Jersey Turnpike for over 35 years to visit family in northern New Jersey and Connecticut. Over the last

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Eloquence

Shouting, name calling, insults about the size of sex organs, threats of physical violence, and ridicule are what we hear coming out of the mouths of the men who want to be president. The most memorable quote from this year’s presidential campaign is Donald Trump reacting to a protestor at one of his rallies by telling the crowd,

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Storytellers

The most important tool a journalist has is their brain. How we think about the world we cover determines whose work will make a difference in people lives. We have to know something about everything. That takes drive and curiosity. We have to be skeptical and question everything. Why are things happening? Objective and fair decisions

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Mickey and Me

It will be 40 years since the Opening Day that will stand out above all others forever. Yes, that’s me standing with Mickey Mantle in Yankee Stadium in 1966. Like thousands of New York kids growing up in the fifties and sixties, Mickey was our idol. He wasn’t just a New York hero, he was

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The Last Birthday

There are three significant birthdays in everyone’s life. I won’t count our first one, which is a big deal to our parents. But none of us can remember it, so we can’t have any reaction. The first life changing one, of course, is our eighteenth. We are legally considered adults. We can vote. Most of us have

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The Future Past

We’ve all seen the surveys of high school and college students who don’t know anything about current events or history. There was a survey done of students at Texas Tech University in 2014 called Politically Challenged. Most of the students didn’t know who the vice president was, or who won the Civil War, or what country we fought

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