Very sad news coming out of Arizona: the loss of nineteen firefighters as they fought valiantly against wildfires started by lightning. My Dad fought forest fires in Oregon in the mid-1930s when he was in the Civilian Conservation Corps, or CCC. He once worked nearly 24 hours straight on a fire line to contain a…
I’ve seen a lot of movies and documentaries about the Holocaust or with themes related to the Holocaust and totalitarianism. Of the films I’ve seen, these are the thirteen that stayed with me. Please note that these movies have adult themes; they may not be suitable for children or teens. American History X (1998): Searing…
Today’s title is from James Madison, architect of our Constitution. Madison famously wrote against the perils of forever war. In other words, he wrote about the perils we face today in our ongoing, seemingly unending, war on terror. Here is what Madison warned us about: Of all the enemies of true liberty, war is, perhaps,…
Also at Truthout.com As a history professor with a B.S. degree in mechanical engineering teaching at a technical college after 20 years’ service in the US Air Force, I’m sympathetic to education that connects to the world of doing, of making, of providing goods and services to consumers. Yet we must not allow education itself…
b. traven The five o’clock whistle is on the blink/ the whistle won’t blow and whad’ya think? I fondly recall these lyrics to a popular World War II song about factory workers unknowingly working overtime because the whistle didn’t blow to signal the end of their shift. This time the whistle did blow, thanks to…
Andrew Bacevich, a retired U.S. Army colonel and professor of international relations, writing in January 2009 as Barack Obama took office as president, made the following cogent observation about the need for true “change” in Washington: When it comes to national security, the standard navigational charts used to guide the ship of state are obsolete.…
We recently had the opportunity to interview Dr. Carlos Alzugaray, the former Cuban Ambassador to the E.U. and a long time Foreign Service officer. Changes are taking place in Cuba and there is strong evidence that sentiment in the US and Cuba is beginning to shift in favor of normalization of relations. Contrary Perspective was…
Richard Sahn I live in Central Pennsylvania, the heart of the gun culture in the state. Guns are considered a birthright, a God-given birthright no less. The Second Amendment, of course, is interpreted literally (the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed), meaning that the Founding Fathers intended that people should have…
b. traven On a trip to Berlin my son and I spent some of our time looking into the crannies that elude most visitors. In Europe I have researched how some countries memorialize (if at all) their resistance to fascist occupation during World War II. The French Resistance Museum is a disgrace! It’s poorly lit,…
A recent article at NBC News is unusual in that it highlights the awfulness of war even when the killing is “surgical” and done by drones. Brandon Bryant, a former drone operator for the Air Force, suffers from PTSD and feels that killing by drone caused him to lose respect for life, that he became…
The Contrary Perspective 