Charles van Heck's Woodhull Journal

history

  • The Interior Wound and National Values

    There is an interview with Eddie S. Glaude Jr. that I keep thinking about. The interview, conducted by Geoff Bennett, aired on 15 June on PBS News Hour. Glaude is the author of the book America, U.S.A.: How Race Shadows… Continue reading

  • June 6: Dwight Eisenhower and Luke Morrison

    This essay is dedicated to the memory of the men of the 801st TD, including my uncle, Albert Nelson Bunt, and the 99th Infantry. Continue reading

  • The Last Full Measure: Decoration Day

    They gaze at us across time. Let their gaze be met by ours. Let us allow our voices to whisper their names in the spring air. Let us pause to ask who they were as individual persons. Are we no… Continue reading

  • The Origins of Memorial Day

    The men, women, and children who arrived at the race track came with shovels and picks. They came to pay tribute to the dead soldiers by giving them proper burials. The names of the dead were unknown to those who… Continue reading

  • The Conversion of Freedom

    Freedom. To be free. What do we mean when we say, “I am a free woman,” or “I am a free man?” On what foundation does our freedom rest? The availability of and the choices we make when purchasing commodities? … Continue reading

  • The Hat Trick and the Crisis We Still Face

    I was obligated to tell a broader story. I needed a cast of characters to tell Emma’s tale and to demonstrate the complexity of the historical period of national division mirrored in contemporary American society. Continue reading

  • Wiser Thursday and Random Thoughts

    I am a person of habits. These routines undergo modification to accommodate others, and, reluctantly, are made with a begrudged concession to age and health. These patterns of behavior are most evident on Fridays. This week, however, my Thursday was… Continue reading

  • Canada, an Off-Islander’s Perspective

    “Home,” as the saying goes, “is where the heart is.” Tony Bennet may have left his heart in San Francisco, but pieces of my heart have been left in various places. I have lived in eight states, meeting a wide… Continue reading

  • A World Without Rules

    A friend commented the other day that he noticed I was shifting my attention. “You’re posting poetry. Are you writing more poems?” Actually, yes. I took a hiatus from poetry to write two novels, travel, paint, garden, and begin the… Continue reading

  • 11 November, Part Three: The Reverberating Gunshot

    “’Some damned foolish thing in the Balkans,” Bismarck predicted would ignite the next war. The assassination of the Austrian heir apparent, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, by Serbian nationalists on June 28, 1914, satisfied his condition.’” So wrote Barbara W. Tuchman in… Continue reading