Your ability to summarize hundreds of years of our history, in engaging and understandable language, without losing the string, and in just enough words, is not only amazing but a gift to us and to history. Thank you for sharing it!
Your ability to summarize hundreds of years of our history, in engaging and understandable language, without losing the string, and in just enough words, is not only amazing but a gift to us and to history. Thank you for sharing it!
Patti, thank you, you have said it well. We gave many subscriptions of Letters as holiday gifts. It is our hope for America that we read first thing 5 and often 6 days a week. I encourage all to SHARE. Thank you Dr. H. C. Richardson!
Absolutely, and I have to discipline myself to move on at some point. Oft times I get so involved with the fabulous comments and opinions of all of Heather’s Cafe! So many brilliant people here sharing so much knowledge!
I feel like I am a member of a very incredible body of people here. I am honored to be here!
I am amazed by the range of diverse comments that are sparked by Heather’s nightly crafting of daily incidents into a far broader historical context. It’s almost like a history PhD oral exam at which outsiders are permitted to kibitz. I have learned a lot as I struggle to recall what I tried to teach my students over decades.
Perhaps the most important lesson in American history is the constitutional system of checks and balances in which the Executive, Congress, and Supreme Court were crafted to check one another. When, as often happens, this gets out of kilter, nasty things occur. Trump as president and now the Stench Court. Will this teeter board ever be in balance again?
Hi Fern, I fear, were the joint Republican/ Federalist Society’s project to weaken the Federal government by granting increasingly greater powers to the States to succeed, that the devastation left in its wake would be unbearable. Still, relying on memory, a subscriber on today’s thread stated something to the effect that the more we understand the more effective we can be.
This group organizes and analyzes massive amounts of data from many sources in order to rate on a reliable relative scale the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) ratings of virtually every publicly traded and many private organizations as well. You can enter the name of any company or their trading symbol here to see their ratings and learn more about the details of those ratings as well.
"As You Sow is the nation’s non-profit leader in shareholder advocacy. Founded in 1992, we harness shareholder power to create lasting change by protecting human rights, reducing toxic waste, and aligning investments with values."
The Shareholder Action Guide: Unleash Your Hidden Powers to Hold Corporations Accountable.
One way to get these ideas out is for each of us to write a letter to the editor of our local or regional paper and summarize what HCR says. I share on FB and twitter almost daily.
I love the idea of Heather's Cafe. I had a local make a rather stupid comment on the last letter and I informed her about Dr. Richardson and the posters here. This is a person who does gritty hard work with the unhoused and I admire that, but if she stubs her toe at home, it's because she is in Salem. In answer to me, I got the usual potpourri of what's wrong with society.
I am with you, Cynthia. I often feel overwhelmed by all the news available but want to read all sides to ensure broad perspectives and factual information. HCR pulls the most important pieces with focus and the extra added history lesson, how fortunate we all are, and honored as you say.
I often tell friends who say "I cannot read the news anymore, I get too depressed". I tell them if you read nothing else, read HCR. Thanks HCR.
I lost patience sometime ago with simple reporting. Out of context, those "breaking news" stories don't tell you much, so I'm looking for commentary that puts the facts in useful context. HCR is a great resource, as is Now & Then, the podcast she does with Joanne Freeman. I value Lucian Truscott's Substack because he's a great writer and journalist who's been around the block a few times and has a good grasp of military matters. Since I'm especially interested in the legal and constitutional perspective on current events, I follow Dahlia Lithwick, Preet Bharara and Joyce Vance (on Cafe Insider), and #SistersInLaw. There's plenty more out there, but the combination of accurate reporting + intelligent commentary is unbeatable.
Agree, Susanna and thanks for all this great information. Familiar with all the names, but didn't know about Cafe Inside and just learned of SistersInLaw thank you!
Ta-Nehisi Coates Between the World and Me changed way of thinking, such a beautiful letter to his son. What an honor for you to have worked with this incredible author/person.
I keep running into others who were lucky enough to be part of the Horde -- mainly because none of us can stop talking about how great it was. I don't think TNC ever trademarked the phrase "Talk to me like I'm stupid" but every time I use it I think of him.
I don’t think whoever it was that taught us American history in my HS had anything like the understanding of our history that Heather has probably forgotten, much less informs the letters that she share’s with us. I truly believe that this community is participating in an advanced level history course at one of our finest universities. I feel honored to be in this community, in addition to our professor I am awed by the brilliance exhibited by so many of you.
Regina62, not sure you were asleep at the wheel. History in Texas in the 1960s was a potpourri of "Lincoln Freed the Slaves," "The Alamo was a Great Victory for Davy Crockett" and "The Texas Rangers are Law-Abiding and Awesome Citizens." There were days when I was probably snoozing in class, but we had to read the text books...and those were so whitewashed they didn't even mention Latinx history--in TEXAS! Some days it feels like HCR is rewriting history and then it hits me: for the first time in my life I'm hearing history as it REALLY was.
My sister and I were discussing the recent book burning fervor and even though we both graduated from the same high school what we were taught was dependent upon which teacher we had. She had been taught about the Holocaust and it's deeper resonances to this day and I do not even remember the Holocaust being mentioned and I was a history lover even then.
I assumed that too, but I don’t believe they really taught much… which when you consider the depth of knowledge necessary for every presidential term, it’s so much?!
Of course, Heather Cox Richardson has at least one PhD in the subject of which she speaks, and she does an excellent job telling her students and the rest of us about it!
Your ability to summarize hundreds of years of our history, in engaging and understandable language, without losing the string, and in just enough words, is not only amazing but a gift to us and to history. Thank you for sharing it!
Patti, thank you, you have said it well. We gave many subscriptions of Letters as holiday gifts. It is our hope for America that we read first thing 5 and often 6 days a week. I encourage all to SHARE. Thank you Dr. H. C. Richardson!
It’s how I start my day.
Absolutely, and I have to discipline myself to move on at some point. Oft times I get so involved with the fabulous comments and opinions of all of Heather’s Cafe! So many brilliant people here sharing so much knowledge!
I feel like I am a member of a very incredible body of people here. I am honored to be here!
I am amazed by the range of diverse comments that are sparked by Heather’s nightly crafting of daily incidents into a far broader historical context. It’s almost like a history PhD oral exam at which outsiders are permitted to kibitz. I have learned a lot as I struggle to recall what I tried to teach my students over decades.
Perhaps the most important lesson in American history is the constitutional system of checks and balances in which the Executive, Congress, and Supreme Court were crafted to check one another. When, as often happens, this gets out of kilter, nasty things occur. Trump as president and now the Stench Court. Will this teeter board ever be in balance again?
That is the question, Can the 'United' States of America be the democracy we and the entire world need?
Hi Fern, I fear, were the joint Republican/ Federalist Society’s project to weaken the Federal government by granting increasingly greater powers to the States to succeed, that the devastation left in its wake would be unbearable. Still, relying on memory, a subscriber on today’s thread stated something to the effect that the more we understand the more effective we can be.
Money talks, and as complicated as this issue is, we need to pay more attention, including to our pensions and IRA mutual funds.
My latest wake up call was about Autocracy Inc. by Anne Applebaum, as reminded by Leigh McGowan AKA Politics Girl, in case anyone missed it:
https://twitter.com/anneapplebaum/status/1460215744743067648?s=20
https://twitter.com/IAmPoliticsGirl/status/1483590198130720770?s=20
Some resourceful members of this forum offer the following:
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Hub
https://www.csrhub.com/
This group organizes and analyzes massive amounts of data from many sources in order to rate on a reliable relative scale the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) ratings of virtually every publicly traded and many private organizations as well. You can enter the name of any company or their trading symbol here to see their ratings and learn more about the details of those ratings as well.
As You Sow:
https://www.asyousow.org/
"As You Sow is the nation’s non-profit leader in shareholder advocacy. Founded in 1992, we harness shareholder power to create lasting change by protecting human rights, reducing toxic waste, and aligning investments with values."
The Shareholder Action Guide: Unleash Your Hidden Powers to Hold Corporations Accountable.
Andrew Behar, CEO of As You Sow.
https://shareholderactionguide.org/
You mean "kibitz", not "kibbutz". A kibbutz is a type of communal settlement in Israel.
Spot on. I stayed on a kibbutz in 1954. Happy memories!
One way to get these ideas out is for each of us to write a letter to the editor of our local or regional paper and summarize what HCR says. I share on FB and twitter almost daily.
My paper only takes 150 words. I have been thinking of how to get solid points communicated in 150 words!
Good challenge!
FYI you can check out a group of HCR Substackers who've formed to turn good talk into good action, as you do:
heathersherd@gmail.com
Yea!
I like Heather's Cafe! I feel so fortunate to be here!
I love the idea of Heather's Cafe. I had a local make a rather stupid comment on the last letter and I informed her about Dr. Richardson and the posters here. This is a person who does gritty hard work with the unhoused and I admire that, but if she stubs her toe at home, it's because she is in Salem. In answer to me, I got the usual potpourri of what's wrong with society.
I have been late leaving for work because I get so engrossed.
I am with you, Cynthia. I often feel overwhelmed by all the news available but want to read all sides to ensure broad perspectives and factual information. HCR pulls the most important pieces with focus and the extra added history lesson, how fortunate we all are, and honored as you say.
I often tell friends who say "I cannot read the news anymore, I get too depressed". I tell them if you read nothing else, read HCR. Thanks HCR.
I lost patience sometime ago with simple reporting. Out of context, those "breaking news" stories don't tell you much, so I'm looking for commentary that puts the facts in useful context. HCR is a great resource, as is Now & Then, the podcast she does with Joanne Freeman. I value Lucian Truscott's Substack because he's a great writer and journalist who's been around the block a few times and has a good grasp of military matters. Since I'm especially interested in the legal and constitutional perspective on current events, I follow Dahlia Lithwick, Preet Bharara and Joyce Vance (on Cafe Insider), and #SistersInLaw. There's plenty more out there, but the combination of accurate reporting + intelligent commentary is unbeatable.
Adding Robert Hubbell's Substack to the list for intelligent commentary with a positive eye and links to action (He also reads LFAA):
https://roberthubbell.substack.com/
Agree, Susanna and thanks for all this great information. Familiar with all the names, but didn't know about Cafe Inside and just learned of SistersInLaw thank you!
Same here. The last time I felt this way was when I was a bit player in Ta-Nehisi Coates's "Horde" at the Atlantic.
Ta-Nehisi Coates Between the World and Me changed way of thinking, such a beautiful letter to his son. What an honor for you to have worked with this incredible author/person.
I keep running into others who were lucky enough to be part of the Horde -- mainly because none of us can stop talking about how great it was. I don't think TNC ever trademarked the phrase "Talk to me like I'm stupid" but every time I use it I think of him.
what? I don't understand!! please tell me more... I adore him and am trying to read everything he has written...
It's long gone -- it dwindled as Coates was devoting more and more time to writing the essays that have made him such a major player, like the one on reparations, and I think had vanished for good by 2015. But it's very fondly remembered by those who participated. Here are two online appreciations of it: https://www.theatlantic.com/notes/2015/09/horde/407902/ and https://longreads.com/2015/02/04/its-yours-a-short-history-of-the-horde/.
Amen!
Yes, yes, yes! My most trusted NEWS source. Gratitude!
News and history we were never taught
The way I like to start mine. I am a bit late today!
Great idea.
I so agree! I'm sure I was asleep at the wheel when this was covered in American History class. HCR makes it so interesting. So grateful for her.
I don’t think whoever it was that taught us American history in my HS had anything like the understanding of our history that Heather has probably forgotten, much less informs the letters that she share’s with us. I truly believe that this community is participating in an advanced level history course at one of our finest universities. I feel honored to be in this community, in addition to our professor I am awed by the brilliance exhibited by so many of you.
"anything like the understanding" yes, nor cared as passionately as HCR does.
Yes!
Regina62, not sure you were asleep at the wheel. History in Texas in the 1960s was a potpourri of "Lincoln Freed the Slaves," "The Alamo was a Great Victory for Davy Crockett" and "The Texas Rangers are Law-Abiding and Awesome Citizens." There were days when I was probably snoozing in class, but we had to read the text books...and those were so whitewashed they didn't even mention Latinx history--in TEXAS! Some days it feels like HCR is rewriting history and then it hits me: for the first time in my life I'm hearing history as it REALLY was.
I remember the events were taught, but never the context that tied everything together. Now it all makes sense!
Yes. We were taught bullet points and dates with little extra explanation.
Exactly.
Taught The who, where and when but never the how and why
Exactly! And you always came away with the feeling that the bad stuff that happened ‘back-then’ but would never happen again…
My sister and I were discussing the recent book burning fervor and even though we both graduated from the same high school what we were taught was dependent upon which teacher we had. She had been taught about the Holocaust and it's deeper resonances to this day and I do not even remember the Holocaust being mentioned and I was a history lover even then.
Whoa?!
I assumed that too, but I don’t believe they really taught much… which when you consider the depth of knowledge necessary for every presidential term, it’s so much?!
+1
Of course, Heather Cox Richardson has at least one PhD in the subject of which she speaks, and she does an excellent job telling her students and the rest of us about it!