Coach Bill / Dad, Entrepreneur Special Educator, American Political Scientist, Writer, Musician.

How important is the presence and absence of (1) open discussion of ideas to humanity,   and how pivotal is the presence and absence of (2) the written word, and the (3) ability to physically (digitally) distribute such ideas to impact local, national, and global events? On page 88, of ‘Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History (1995),’ Michel-Rolph Trouillot, paraphrases, Louis Sala-Molins “claim” ‘that slavery was the ultimate test of the Enlightenment.’ Whereas Trouillot goes one step further and sais that “the Haitian Revolution was the ultimate test to the universalist pretensions of both the French and American revolutions. And they both failed. In 1791, there is no public debate on the record, in France, in England, or in the United states on the right of black slaves to achieve self-determination, and the right to do so by way of armed resistance.” In such a manner does Michel-Rolph Trouillot place before the reader the possibility that the American Revo...

My grandmother, who lived for 100 years, had Parkinson's. Throughout my childhood she would send handwritten letters to my sisters and I from California telling us about what she was up to, what Blue the black cat was into or how we were going to meet soon. Her letters were long and she had solid handwriting. Though we visited California yearly,  letters from 'the Golden State' were like magic to me, especially letters from my grandmother. She took the time to write these since I was a little boy. As I entered adulthood the shake in her hands had increased considerably so much that the letters were hard to read and had become illegible after that. Phone calls became more popular. She was cognitively intact for the most part. Though we were far apart from each other, I would visit her on my own every year. Besides my Dad, she was my only other live connection to my Dad's side of the family. This created a great connection between us. The letters from the pas...