May 24, 1856 - This is the date of the Pottawatomie Massacre. Folks interested in the John Brown I’m always tooting a horn for…and his impact…can start with Pottawatomie Massacre to get a general early hit on it all. Please note that W.E.B. Du Bois has a Brown bio out in a (New York: Modern Library, 2001) paperback…which goes deeper and better…without taxing the brain too much. It also benefits from atmospheric coloring…and doesn’t suffer from the deficiencies found in other Brown bios. Eric Foner agrees with me on this. And David Roediger, the Kendrick Babcock Professor of History at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign provides a glorious introduction, among other contributions.

Oh yes, this is the day in ‘64 when…at only 21…I was told that I’d be teaching college kids the following semester…who I was *currently* having lunch with daily. Dramatic Art and Speech at Rutgers University-Newark. It was a verrrrrrrrrrrry *impressive* day as Barry Goldwater, while running for the U.S. presidency, suggested that our military forces use the atomic bomb in Vietnam… *to defoliate and destroy*. His “out” was that he was simply passing along info that “competent military commanders” had laid on him. It didn’t quiet the ensuing storm.

And same day, same year…a controversial decision by a soccer referee sparked a monumental riot between Argentina’s fans and Peru’s fans…leaving more than 100 dead…500 injured, 300 very seriously maimed. And I liked the call.

Ah, civilization!

Late Flash: Just found out that it’s not only Dylan’s birthday… but that for his 30th birthday in ‘71… he visited the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem.

Ah, civilization!