It seems like the battle over "cultural property" has become a circus act, much like life in general these days.  As one who has always had a serious interest in the past, and all that goes with that, it seems adversarial to me when someone says that I don't have a right to enjoy the past in the same way that someone with academic credentials does.  I earned a Masters Degree in a field related to the past, have written more than a dozen books and hundreds of articles about the past, have received numerous awards from prestigious organizations for the work that I have done in that field and eve ..read more

Media in our day and age has a profound effect on the mood of our country and the path taken by citizens and legislators as well.  In recent years, some have questioned whether the Media has not become too active as an agent of specific points of view rather than a medium for dissemination of facts and events.  In the process of doing research for a local historical project, I came across a short but delightful comment in the Shelbina Democrat, the news medium for Shelby County Missouri in the 19th century.  In a gratious sense of fairness, the newspaper lauded a competitor, the Troy Free Pres ..read more