History

152 posts

Mundane Miracles: Mirrors

Snow_White_Mirror_1In one of my least understood passages in Khalil Gibran’s The Prophet, he talks about how “Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror. But you are the eternity and you are the mirror.” Yeah, I’ve got nothing. Instead, let’s focus on how this invention helps you to take selfies for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Myspace, Google+, Crasstalk, and if you’re Chinese, Sina Weibo.

Since waiting around for water to still was tedious, humanity decided that it needed something more tangible to carry around for some self-loving. Continue reading →

The Secret Life of Los Angeles

The backbone, and infrastructure of cities is often disguised from those of us who live within them. Sometimes it’s infrastructure that the city or big business wants to hide from the public, or at least disguise. Other times, it is infrastructure or places that time has simply passed by. It might just be that simply the act of passing by something every day, we no longer notice it. Or because it’s always been there, we never question its presence. Continue reading →

Allan J. Eastman, Aged 19

VietnamMarch 29th is Vietnam Veterans Day.  It marks the day the last American combat troops were finally withdrawn from Vietnam, forty years ago.

Well, not all of them. 1600 troops are still officially missing in Vietnam.

I grew up with Vietnam hanging over my family. My grandmother was a Gold Star Mother, which is what the government calls you when you’ve lost a child in war. She never rode in the Veterans Day parades on that sad float with all the other mothers in Belmont, Massachusetts (not Mitt Romney’s side of town) who had lost their sons. But Uncle Allan’s name is etched in granite in the town square.  Continue reading →

Port Chicago Naval Magazine: A Civil Rights Tour

download-1Port Chicago is one of those places that you pass by often on your way to work but never stop to think about. After living in the San Francisco Bay Area for almost two decades, I decided to visit it for the first time last week. It is the site of a World War II munitions explosion that killed 320 people, mostly black sailors. The aftermath caused America to examine its racism and helped integrate the military.

Continue reading →

New York City: The Crack Years

996747416_a95e0d9ac3_bI got to thinking about the heavy crack days. New York’s, not mine. Crack was like a tidal wave crashing across the city. I lived uptown, in the 120s. You know how, when you walk in the country at a certain time of year, you hear the leaves crunching beneath every step? It was like that in my neighborhood. Not leaves, though, crack vials.

I would get the train at the valley of 125th Street most mornings, at the only elevated stop on the original Manhattan IRT lines, thanks to the island’s sudden dip in altitude between Morningside Heights and Hamilton Heights. I was usually the only person not jumping the turnstile. Continue reading →