One of the features of the Tampa Bay Times that I never skip is “This Week In History.” In these times of uber upheaval, it helps to be able to reflect on how we, as this unique experiment in a constitutional, democratic republic, got here. The route, we are reminded, has been circuitous, ironic, triumphant and tragic. To wit:
* Sunday, June 7 (1942). America’s victory in the Battle of Midway was the turning point in the Pacific War. America was making a global difference for the better. Those were the days.
* Monday, June 8 (1864). Abraham Lincoln was nominated for another term during the National Union (Republican) Party’s convention. A National Union, anyone?
* Tuesday, June 9 (1954). During the Senate Army-McCarthy hearings, Army special counsel Joseph Welch berated Sen. Joseph McCarthy by rhetorically asking: “Have you no sense of decency, sir?” But imagine, having to ask that–on a daily basis–of a U.S. president?
* Wednesday, June 10 (1692). The first execution resulting from the Salem Witch Trials took place in Massachusetts. Yes, we’re better than that. “Witch hunts” don’t seem so threatening.
* Wednesday, June 10 (1963). President John F. Kennedy signs the Equal Pay Act, aimed at eliminating wage disparities based on gender. We’re not there yet–more than a half-century later.
* Thursday, June 11 (2009). The WHO declared the first global (swine) flu pandemic in 41 years. What goes around… .
* Friday, June 12 (1963). Civil rights leader Medgar Evers was murdered in Mississippi. Would that it had become a turning point in addressing violence directed at black Americans.
* Friday, June 12 (1987). In Berlin, President Ronald Reagan exhorted Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall.” Now we have a president exhorting America to build walls.
* Friday, June 12 (2016). The slaughter of 49 people by an American-born Muslim at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando. No, we haven’t changed much except increasing xenophobia.
* Saturday, June 13 (1967). President Lyndon B. Johnson nominated Solicitor-General Thurgood Marshall to become the first black justice on the Supreme Court. Another reminder of what you won’t get with a Federalist Society-pandering president who answers to his white nationalist base.