Upcoming Presentation: Unsung Heroes Women

Massapequa Public Library

Wednesday, March 10th, 2021

7 - 8 PM

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Argument For Diversity

Article published in NEA Today magazine entitled Why We Need More Diverse Books.  I especially agree with the section where the author discusses the concept that students need more windows into other peoples experiences and mirrors of validation. I wrote a similar article entitle How to Broaden Students Sense of History.  

Apache Trails of Tears

The story of the Cherokee Trail of Tears is very well documented.  Under the guise of the Treaty of New Echota with Presidential support, thousands of Cherokees were removed from their territory east of the Mississippi River between 1835-1838.  The death toll is estimated at 10 thousand.  Fifty years later, the development of Carlisle Schools  (1879-1918) across the country worked actively to erase Native Americans' culture.  The Bureau followed the principle of "Kill the Indian, Save the Man."  Other lesser known, bur similar events followed this pattern including the Apache Trail of Tears and the Occupation of Alcatraz. American society is still coming to terms with it's brutal past. I found a great article written in the Washington Post entitled "Native American sports mascots turned real people into flimsy props good riddance to them all." Some critics claim it is part of a cancel culture.  I disagree,  I strongly believe it is a country wrestling with its past transgressions.  The Cleveland logo does not honor Native American Indians.  It erodes and reduces humanity to something trivial.  

Merrill's Marauders: James Richardson

In September of 2020 the U.S. Government finally got around to recognizing an elite unit that were assigned the unimaginable task of capturing an airfield in Japanese-occupied Burma during World War II.  The 530th Unit, known as Merrill's Marauders trekked 1,000 miles behind enemy lines.  While traveling across Burma the unit endured many hardships.  First, the soldiers fought a determined Japanese enemy.  Second, the long journey led them through miles of jungles and over the rigid Himalayan foothills.  And last the unit was riddled with dysentery, fever and malaria. The combination of war, sickness, unique terrain, and lack of supplies made for a hellish combat.  The success of the Burma campaign was achieved on May 17th 1944, but it came with an enormous death toll.  Among the 3,000 U.S. soldiers deployed for this special operations mission only two hundred survived.  One of the last surviving members of the World War II jungle fighting unit known as Merrill's Marauders just died at the age of 99.