Welcome to Truman’s Conscience American History
Blogmanac. As a public school teacher
that has taught World & American history for the past 14 years I have been
an off and on again custodian of this small humble effort to share my all
consuming love for the historical arc of the United States. I am forever drawn to its promise and call
for every citizen to contribute to the American community to further the ideals
called for in it’s Declaration of Independence and Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg
Address. This coming academic year I
will be starting my 15th year and that drive to consume myself in passing
of that love to my students will take on a fresh effort as it does every year
with the promise of young minds open to
learning just what the promise of the United States of America is historically,
politically, social, and economically.
The most admired American historical figure for me is the brother
of our 35th President, Senator Robert F. Kennedy. I was a 13 year old high school student the year
he was assassinated. I remember to this
day how the news affected my mother as she awakened me shortly after midnight
of June 5th, 1968. She was visibly
upset and crying telling me to go watch the news coverage of the assassination attempt
as it was a point in our history I should never forget. She talked to me later that morning about the
loss she felt after the loss first of his brother, John F. Kennedy in 1963 and
now Senator Robert Kennedy who she felt was so full of promise and hope. My father, who was away on an overseas cruise
in the navy, related to me the very same feelings of disappointment and a
feeling that our country was so much less without him. My father passed on his sense of love for his
country and the promise its arc of history gave us.
I read a speech by RFK in my college years where he once
talked of that promise and the light our nation’s ideals, though woefully
unrealized, offered to not only its citizens but to the rest of the world as
well. He felt it was his duty to be one
of the many custodians to that promise and light our country offered and gave
his life for that belief. My blog of
American History is a reflection of that custodian ship, though a small and humble
one. This is an invitation to join me as
we explore where we have been, our mistakes, and the things we have done right
to further what Jefferson called for to guarantee every citizen no matter what
their station in life an, “….unalienable right to life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness.” Come join in us.
American History Blogmanac will be here.
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