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The second decade of the twentieth century launched a time of phenomenal change in the United States. World War I had shattered the idealism of the younger generation, and they fled what they deemed was the confinement of the small towns and agriculture to embrace the fast-paced decadence and instant success fantasies awaiting them in the metropolitan areas. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby portrays…

Hispanic people have been in the region which is now United States since 1565 when they landed in the area we know as St. Augustine, Florida. This is the oldest continually inhabited American city. In the southwest of the United States in 1610, the Spanish conqueror Don Pedro de Peralto settled in the present location of Santa Fe, New Mexico which is the oldest capital…

  A pomp is a lavish display of quintessential beauty and magnificence during an occurrence of pageantry that is usually viewed by many. When we graduated from high school and/or college or university, we probably processed to the grand music of Pomp and Circumstance (the first of five marches by Sir Edward Elgar for the coronation of King Edward VII of the United Kingdom). We…

We sing this song when the new year comes, but most of us know only a few of its lyrics. The title we know, but we might sing with more gusto if we could translate it into English. Today the song is sung around the globe with the coming of the new year. Nations sing it in their own languages with joy, excitement, and anticipation…

Kwanzaa is a cultural holiday that begins on the day after Christmas, December 26th and ends on January 1st. It was created in 1966 by Dr. Maulona Karenga, a professor at California State University, Long Beach, to undergird pride and unity among African American communities and families in the United States (Please see the Reflections for links to the details of this cultural holiday). This…

Lord, you have shown us favor by giving us children who are a gift and a responsibility. Whether they are birthed, adopted, assigned to us, live in the neighborhood, or sit in the classroom, they are a gift to be acknowledged, nurtured, taught, and inspired by us as adults. Psalm 127:3: “…children are a reward from the Lord.” Lord, help us as adults to remember…

In July,1776, the Continental Congress passed the Declaration of Independence which declared the political separation of the 13 North American colonies from Great Britain. The document announced the freedom of this nation to govern itself. On June 19, 1865, enslaved African Americans in Galveston, Texas, learned  two months after the Civil War that they had been freed 2.5 years earlier in 1863, when President Lincoln…

In 1812, Britain was interfering with United States’ trade, kidnapping its military personnel to serve in the British navy and hindering westward expansion on land in this country. The United States, thirty-six years after the Revolutionary War in 1776, declared war on Britain. The young country was determined to maintain her previously hard-won freedom from the British Empire. In August 1812, British troops invaded Washington,…