Ray E. Boomhower

The Bygone Era of Supreme Court Support for Voting Rights Sixty years after upholding the Voting Rights Act, the Court has dismantled most of it.

Tomorrow marks the 61st anniversary of Bloody Sunday in Selma, Alabama. It also marks the 60th anniversary of the Supreme Court first upholding the Voting Rights Act.

We have gotten so, so far away from a Court that cares about democracy.

New from me at @brennancenter.org:

PJ Harvey - This Is Love YouTube video by PJHarveyVEVO

Even in the summer, even in the spring
You can never get too much of a wonderful thing
youtu.be/STxXS5lLunE?...

The Country Contributor: How Juliet Strauss Worked to Save Turkey Run State Park Historical profile of journalist and environmentalist Juliet Strauss from Rockville, Indiana, who was a leader in saving the lands that would become Turkey Run State Park in Parke County.

For #WomensHistoryMonth, here's a Hoosier writing legend and a person responsible for helping save Turkey Run so it could become one of Indiana's first state parks.
www.ipm.org/show/journey...

Wes Montgomery - Round Midnight YouTube video by jazzytaka

“There's nothing wrong with having one way of doing it, but I think it's a bad habit. I believe in range.”
Wes Montgomery, born on this day in 1923
youtu.be/MOm17yw__6U

“Writing something is almost as hard as making a table. With both you are working with reality, a material just as hard as wood. Both are full of tricks and techniques. Basically very little magic and a lot of hard work involved."
Gabriel García Márquez, born on this day in 1927

"In a mood of faith and hope my work goes on. A ream of fresh paper lies on my desk waiting for the next book. I am a writer and I take up my pen to write."
Pearl S. Buck, who died on this day in 1973

"I write in order to find out what I truly know and how I really feel about certain things. Writing requires me to go much deeper into my thoughts and memories than conversation does. Writing provides the solitude necessary to reflect on being in this world."
Leslie Marmon Silko, born OTD in 1948

Winston Churchill - Iron Curtain Speech (The Sinews of Peace) - 5 March 1946 YouTube video by Roman Styran

"From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the Continent."
Winston Churchill, "Iron Curtain" speech made on this day in 1946
youtu.be/DZBqqzxXQg4?...

Bluto's Big Speech - Animal House (9/10) Movie CLIP (1978) HD YouTube video by Movieclips

"Over, did you say over? Nothing is over til we decide it is!"
John Belushi, who died on this day in 1982
youtu.be/q7vtWB4owdE

On this day in 2021 I got my first shot of the Covid-19 vaccine. Is there anything more Hoosier than getting your shot at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway?

“I never truckled. I never took off the hat to Fashion and held it out for pennies. I told them the truth. They liked it or they didn't like it. What had that to do with me? I told them the truth.”
Frank Norris, born on this day in 1870

The Lady in the Hat: Mattie Coney and Citizens Forum - Indiana Historical Society Since leaving office at the end of his second term, former president Dwight D. Eisenhower had been living in retirement at a farm in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Although busy in 1967 with the publicatio...

"The Declaration of Independence promises the pursuit of happiness. You got to work for it.”
#WomensHistoryMonth2026
indianahistory.org/blog/the-lad...

Wallace Terry, the Vietnam War, and "Bloods" Wallace H. Terry Jr., who served as deputy bureau chief for Time magazine in Saigon, had amassed an impressive record as a journalist. Hired...

“The war was destroying the bright promises for social and economic change in the black community. I was losing a great story on the homefront to a greater story on the battlefront.”
rayboomhower.blogspot.com/2024/05/wall...

A Day in the Life: Malcolm W. Browne in Vietnam The small-caliber bullet ripped through the thin, aluminum skin of the Piasecki H21 troop-carrying helicopter just two feet from where Malc...

“I learned to cope with the ugliest events of our times. I can walk across a battlefield where men are dead and wounded and not fall apart. I can do this by concentrating on the mechanics of news covering. I have the nightmares afterwards.”
rayboomhower.blogspot.com/2024/01/a-da...

Today is the 138th anniversary of the birth in Voss, Norway of famed Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne.

magazine.nd.edu/stories/grid...

“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
Theodore Roosevelt

REM, Perfect Circle live 1989 - beautiful song YouTube video by angrylambie

Try to win and suit your needs
Speak out sometimes but try to win
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WQn...

“A writer is liked if he is loyal to the system. But it is the writer’s duty in a sense to be disloyal. . . . He can speak up in many ways; the best way is to write a book.”
Alan Sillitoe, born on this day in 1928

"If I had my life to live over, I would do it all again, but this time I would be nastier."
Jeanette Rankin of Montana took her seat as the first woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives on this day in 1917

Robert L. Sherrod and the Two Flags on Iwo Jima Located just 700 miles south of Tokyo, Iwo Jima (“Sulphur Island”) posed a threat to American B-29 Superfortress bombers on their way to m...

“We found a water pipe, tied the flag to it and put it up. Then all hell broke loose below. Troops cheered, ships blew horns and whistles, and some men openly wept. It was a sight to behold . . . something a man doesn’t forget.”
rayboomhower.blogspot.com/2019/09/robe...

“It is difficult
to get the news from poems
yet men die miserably every day
for lack
of what is found there.”
William Carlos Williams

“No political party can long pursue advantage at the expense of public honor or by rude and indecent methods without protest and fatal disaffection in its own body.”
Benjamin Harrison, inaugurated as the 23rd president on this day in 1889

“I'll write whatever I damn please, whenever I damn please and as I damn please and it'll be good if the authentic spirit of change is on it.”
William Carlos Williams, who died on this day in 1963

Heading off next week to do some research about this man and his book.

Wallace Terry on covering the Vietnam War YouTube video by PBS NewsHour Extra Classroom Video Collection

"You're taking a descent into hell when you enter war. . . . There's no clean way to fight a war."
Wallace Terry, Vietnam War correspondent
www.youtube.com/watch?v=un5q...

Reporting from Shangri-La: Richard Tregaskis and the Doolittle Raiders International News Service correspondent Richard Tregaskis had been eager to test his courage in combat when he was sent by the wire servic...

Did you know? For his first assignment as a war correspondent, Richard Tregaskis accompanied the task force that launched the Doolittle Raid against Japan. One problem. It took a year for him to be allowed to write about the mission.
rayboomhower.blogspot.com/2022/04/repo...

“You hardly ever need to state your feelings. The point is to feel and keep the eyes open. Then what you feel is expressed, is mimed back at you by the scene. A room, a landscape.”
James Merrill, born on this day in 1926

John Bartlow Martin: A Writing Life During the 1940s and 1950s one name, John Bartlow Martin , dominated the pages of the “big slicks,” mass-circulation magazines, especially t...

"I never end a day written out, with nothing more to say; instead I stop at quitting time by the clock and type out a quarter or half page of notes about what exactly is coming next; thus in the morning I can readily take up where I left off."
rayboomhower.blogspot.com/2024/05/john...

"The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words."
Philip K. Dick, who died on this day in 1982