We Are History
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Greetings 2012-2013 Students

After a long summer and a much-needed rest by many of us, we are back to work at Bentonville High School.  I want to welcome my new students in AP United States History and IB History of the Americas.  I look forward to working with you all this year.  We will be getting down to the business of history very quickly.  In fact, IB seniors should already be finished with their summer work.  Your Extended Essays should also be at the point of turning in a rough draft to your faculty advisor.

As this is a presidential election year, I expect many of you are going to be curious about the progress of the campaign.  I encourage you to pay close attention to what is happening as we approach the election.  You may be called upon to speak or write about some aspect of this election cycle.  Please understand that it is not my intent to indoctrinate my students with a political position.  It is for that reason that I will maintain the role of a facilitator in our discussions.

Preparing for our exams this year is always job number one.  Get ready for a fast-paced year.

Back From Normandy

Pointe-du-Hoc is one place in Normandy that is well-preserved from the time of the Second World War. Enormous craters remain from the aerial and naval bombardment that took place prior to the Allied landings. In the photo at center-right is the iconic point of ground that the Rangers saw upon their landing and scaling of these cliffs.

I had an opportunity to visit Normandy once again during the first week of July.  While it rained nearly every day, especially at Pointe-du-Hoc, I still appreciated the sights.  Upon my first visit to the Normandy coast in 2004, I was much more in awe of the place and therefore did not take in the more subtle features.  I have always loved the beautiful countryside.  Now I can better understand how the lay of the land influenced the tactics and strategies utilized by both the attackers and defenders of this place.  Some areas leant themselves to tank warfare and movement while others were dependent upon the infantry to protect or seize ground.  The Norman hedgerows certainly provided an ideal defensive environment for the Germans.  Still, the Allies were able to overcome the forces arrayed before them, eventually breaking out from the beach head and sweeping east toward Germany.  Nearly a year passed with much more brutal fighting before Germany capitulated.

My concern is that what happened here and elsewhere in the Second World War is becoming less relevant to today’s youth.  I am a huge advocate of historical travel.  I have led tours to Europe since 2004.  Few return from such a tour without a better appreciation of what happened there.  Experience teaches me that the American Cemetery in Normandy has the greatest impact.  There is a strong visual experience for those who visit.

Visitors who walk through the American Cemetery are rarely left un-moved by the sight of more than 9,000 graves on this plain above the English Channel.

Walking in the places of History helps one to feel more connected to that history.  Simply reading about the invasion of the continent and breaching the Atlantic Wall will have a varied effect upon students.  Seeing the beaches, feeling the sea spray, and leaving tracks in the wet sand or mud of a former battlefield reinforce what is read in a tangible way.  It is my desire and plan to continue to take students on tours of sites such as Normandy.  I do hope that in some way I can preserve the memory of those who fought there, striving to eliminate the grip of Fascism on the world.

Fear of Our Direction

We are closing in on the year 2011 and I hope that this will mean a new beginning for the U.S. Government. Now that the 2010 election cycle is over, it is my hope that the political posturing will subside and our politicians will get down to business. During the last two months, it seems that the lame duck congress has been hell-bent on passing legislation, often in cases where there should be a great deal more discussion before cramming it through.

A case in point is the START treaty. Without getting into the fine points of the treaty, we need to realize that this is an agreement on nuclear weapons. The U.S. has a lot to lose in terms of security if we are hand-cuffed by this deal with the Russians. Trust but verify is certainly what Ronald Reagan called for back in the Cold War. But since then, Russia (no longer the USSR) has certainly fallen on military hard times, with ships and submarines rusting away, and nuclear capabilities falling behind. A Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty plays into the hands of Russia more than the U.S. The treaty’s details could not have been adequately discussed, nor could they have been sufficiently revealed to the public. It is certainly good political theater for Congress to cram this treaty through for the President’s signature by claiming that it is vital to our security. It may be, but is it so vital that it must be rushed through in the waning weeks of a lame duck congress? Whatever POLITICAL gain that may be won by signing this treaty is shallow if we forsake real discussion of a nuclear arms deal.
This new year could either be a continuation of destructive political posturing or the beginning of a more sober treatment of major issues. Both parties need to stay focused on the greater good and the survival of our nation. The playing field abroad has changed dramatically over the last decade. I fear for the direction of our nation if the sole motivation is political gain. I am not so naive as to believe that politics has not played a role in the critical decisions of past administrations, but it is certainly amplified in the present one. The political shift toward the Republicans has pushed the President and the lame-duck Democrats to shoot for last minute gains before a change in the House. Time will tell if this eagerness for victory has cost the American people their lives.

Obama the new FDR?

President Obama and the Democratic Party might want to be careful about any comparisons to Franklin Delano Roosevelt. FDR is certainly one of our greatest presidents. After all, he faced crises on the domestic and global fronts that no other POTUS has faced. His legacy is as solid as that of Washington or Lincoln, great men who faced severe challenges as well. But FDR did not end the Great Depression as American mythology would have us believe. The vast array of programs that made up the New Deal sought to tackle the economic downturn (understatement) that began shortly after the inauguration of President Hoover. The explosion (understatement again!) of government programs and intervention under FDR and his agreeable Congress never eliminated the Depression. Americans were going to elect anyone but Hoover in 1932, and all the Democrats had to do was run on a vague populist platform that promised change.

Sound familiar? While George W. Bush was not running in the 2008 election, the Democratic Party treated the election as if he was, shrewdly tying Republican candidates for just about any office with W. Senator Obama also promised change with a strongly populist platform. He avoided mentioning any specifics about his program. He didn’t need to. The momentum was clearly in his favor. But like FDR, once in office, he had to act. Both of these presidents enjoyed the support of Congress. This was not because of a tremendous groundswell of bipartisanship. It was due to political control. There was certainly a core group of Republicans that were concerned about the growth of government. The programs surly came flying in although with good intentions. After all, millions of Americans were suffering and the U.S. had a staggering 25% unemployment rate. But despite the tremendous growth of regulatory agencies and job-creating bureaus, the unemployment rate never dropped below 15%. And to emphasize the reliance upon deficit spending, when FDR and Congress attempted to pare back some of the New Deal programs, the economy took another nose dive. War production brought on “full employment.” The New Deal was really life support rather than resuscitation.

What is the point here? The Keynesian approach of spending our way out of economic problems was troublesome for FDR. He was concerned with the rising national debt! But the populist approach was keeping Democrats in office. This made it much easier to reach for greater heights. FDR suffered from a degree of hubris. Is that what our current president is succumbing to? Congress under Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are willing to give him a leg up to reach for the heights. The point we need to consider is whether “healthcare reform” is a power grab similar to the genesis of the welfare state under FDR. Who will ever have the guts to take entitlements away from the people who the Democrats have convinced are the victims of greedy corporate America? Talk about a sacred cow! But Obama, Pelosi, and Reid do not have a world war to do the REAL work of eliminating the economic crisis. If Democrats want to play the FDR way, they had better consider the cost. Americans will eventually see that this is an administration that is using the faltering economy to push through their higher agenda. That agenda is going to cost trillions of dollars and it has to come from somewhere. We Americans are not big on taxation. We are likely to see the greatest spike in taxation that has ever taken place in the U.S.A. That is, of course, if there are not significant cuts in programs. The modern progressive Democrats have made little effort to hide the intended source of that tax revenue. It will come from the rich. That sounds great to lower middle class and working class Americans. But the definition of rich is dynamic. How low will the standard for “rich” have to drop in order to secure the revenue to pay for the ambitious programs on the burner. Populist appeals and class warfare always work in an economic climate such as exists today. If prosperity returns, you can count on a strong backlash to expanding the government trough.