Category Archives: History

During Pride month, Sesame Street introduced a new gay couple and their daughter as recurring characters on the show. USA TODAY

Sesame Streetis making history with the firstmarried same-sexcoupleto berecurring characters on the longtime favorite children's series.

The show debuted an episodeThursdaytitled "Family Day," featuringmarried couple Frank, played by Alex Weisman, and Daveplayed by Chris Costa. They also have a daughter named Mia, who is played by Olivia Perez.

This is not the first time the show has included same sex parents, according to a Sesame Workshop spokesperson. A recent "letter of the day" segment, F is for Family, included a boy with two mothers, and alive-action "Elmos World" video in last years Fathers Day episode featureda boy with two fathers and avoiceover narration that said You might have a stepdad, or even two dads.

But, aSesame Workshop spokesperson saysthis is the firstmarried same-sex couple who will appear onSesame Streetagain in the future.

In the episode, the characters preparefor a neighborhood partyand try to hide Granny Bird to surpriseBig Bird.

But, Nina, a bike store owner on Sesame Street, saysher brother Dave is on his way with his family, and introducesthem when they arrive.

"Okay, everybody, everybody,I want you to meet my brother Dave and his husband Frank, and mysobrina Mia," Nina saysin the episode.

"Sesame Street" returns with its 51st season launching on HBO Max Nov. 12. See the famous faces that have made their way to the friendly neighborhood that is home to beloved puppets such as Elmo, Ernie, Bert, Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, Rosita, Cookie Monster, Grover and Abby Cadabby.(Photo: Sesame Workshop)

'Speak up!':Sesame Street to tackle racism in TV special 'The Power of We'

Big Bird exclusive:Big Bird talks new Sesame Street podcast 'Foley & Friends,' life in lockdown and birdseed banana bread

Alan Muraoka, whodirected the episode andplays the owner of Hooper's Store on the show,expressed his excitement in a Facebook poston Thursday.

"I am so honored and humbled to have co-directed this important and milestone episode. Love is love, and we are so happy to add this special family to our Sesame family," Muraoka wrote.

Naomi Moland, afaculty member at the School of International Service at American University who wrote an op-edin 2019 for USA TODAY on bringing human LGBTQ characters to the show, says the episode was "very groundbreaking."

"From my own experience, I am in a same-sex marriage and I have a two-year old. And so for me, it is really important for him to see that this is normal, that there are other families that look like ours that have either two moms or two dads," Moland said.

"I also think it is extremely important for all children to see this because when they encounter families like mine, they see that this is normal and there are different types of families."

Moland says she liked how the episode incorporatedthe family in a subtle way, which would be effective for children in having deep organic conversations with their parents about how there are different kinds of families out there whoshould also be respected.

"I think that television producers and multicultural educators more broadly haveto strike a very delicate balance between focusing on differences and focusing on similarities," Moland said. "This was done in a very subtle way where they just said 'This is my brother, this is his husband, this is their daughter.' "

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'Love is love': Sesame Street features first married same-sex couple to have recurring spots on show - USA TODAY

DRUNK How We Sipped, Danced, and Stumbled Our Way to Civilization By Edward Slingerland

Frederick the Great of Prussia had a problem: His soldiers were drinking coffee instead of beer. This must be prevented, he wrote in a 1777 tirade on the disgusting new fad sweeping the kingdom. Why would any commander want a bunch of guys with guns quaffing liquid neurotoxins instead of wholesome brews rarely associated with brawling, karaoke and regrettable tattoos (to say nothing of liver damage and hangovers)? Caffeinated armies might sound more dependable than their tipsy counterparts but the king recognized that beer was a uniquely powerful bonding agent, and key to morale.

He was not the first to intuit its practical applications. For thousands of years cultures around the world have implicitly understood that the sober, rational, calculating individual mind is a barrier to social trust, Edward Slingerland writes in Drunk: How We Sipped, Danced, and Stumbled Our Way to Civilization, an effervescent new study thats equal parts anthropology, psychology and evolutionary biology. Drawing on recent experiments, Neolithic burials, eclectic myths and global literature, Slingerland teases out the evolutionary advantages and enduring benefits of getting blitzed. Its a rowdy banquet of a book in which the ancient Roman historian Tacitus, Lord Byron, Timothy Leary, George Washington, the Chinese poet Tao Yuanming and many others toast the merits of drowning Apollonian reason in Dionysian abandon. We visit wine-soaked temple orgies in ancient Egypt, the chicha-brewing capital of the Inca Empire, Fijian villages, Irish pubs and the official whiskey room at a Google campus, knocking back bits of evidence from Burning Man and Beowulf along the way.

Although Slingerland, a professor of philosophy at the University of British Columbia, extols the pleasures of drinking in moderation and occasionally in excess for their own hedonic sake, the functional upsides of intoxication are his primary concern. Drinking not only allows wary, self-interested individuals to drop their guard and collaborate, he writes, it also facilitates the creativity and playfulness our species needs to innovate and survive. A negroni will essentially wipe out the prefrontal cortex, the site of pragmatic, grown-up thinking. Zap the same region with a transcranial magnet and youll get the same results: happier, less inhibited, more childlike adults. Given that transcranial magnets are expensive, not very portable and typically not welcome at parties, alcohol remains a handy, low-tech tool to get good will and fresh ideas flowing.

For our ancestors, inebriation was especially essential, a robust and elegant response to the challenges of getting a selfish, suspicious, narrowly goal-oriented primate to loosen up and connect with strangers. This is why hunter-gatherers likely began producing beer and wine before bread. Brewing vats and drinking vessels at a 12,000-year-old site in what is now eastern Turkey suggest that people were gathering in groups, fermenting grain or grapes, playing music and then getting truly hammered before wed even figured out agriculture. Then, when humans did begin to settle down, sow crops and domesticate livestock, it was alcohol that allowed them to do so in increasingly large numbers, giving rise to towns and cities. It is no accident that, in the brutal competition of cultural groups from which civilizations emerged, it is the drinkers, smokers and trippers who emerged triumphant, Slingerland writes: Human society would not exist without ample lubrication.

Slingerland is adamant that chemically induced communion is just as valuable (and perhaps particularly necessary) in modern times, but he does address alcohols more obvious medical and economic costs, the devastating effects of addiction and the subtle, pernicious ways in which drinking can alienate and exclude outsiders. Some readers might find the treatment cursory given the gravity of these issues, but Slingerland simply argues that they have been well documented, whereas serious scholarly work on the value of intoxication is surprisingly scant. As a result, poor alcohol stands defenseless against doctors and government policymakers who paint it as pure vice. Slingerland takes up the cause with all the chivalry of a knight-errant, and his infectious passion makes this book a romp as well as a refreshingly erudite rejoinder to the prevailing wisdom.

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A History of Getting Hammered, and Why Some of Us Should Keep Doing It - The New York Times

Already the best pitcher in MLB over the past few seasons, two-time Cy Young Award winner Jacob deGrom has taken his game to another level in 2021.

Armed with a 100 mph fastball and a devastating slider, the New York Mets' ace is primed to make a run at Hall of Famer Bob Gibson's seemingly unbreakable modern single-season ERA record of 1.12 -- set 53 years ago in 1968 -- with a campaign that could rank among the best baseball has ever seen.

Will the 33-year-old right-hander break Gibson's hallowed mark? Will he stay healthy enough to pitch a full season? Will he drive in more runs at the plate than he allows on the mound? Will he help pitch a hapless Mets offense into the playoffs? Will he ultimately be the rare pitcher to take home an MVP Award?

DeGrom pitched five innings of the first game of a doubleheader on Monday, giving up one hit, walking two and striking out six -- and giving up zero runs -- in a 4-2 win over the Atlanta Braves. He has had 30 scoreless innings in a row.

We'll have you covered with everything from his record pace to his best performances.

DeGrom through 12 starts: 0.50

Gibson through 12 starts: 1.52

So far this season, deGrom isn't just on Gibson's record pace -- he's eclipsing it. Here's how deGrom's 2021 numbers compare to the same point in the Cardinals ace's legendary 1968 campaign.

deGromGibsonStarts1212ERA0.501.52WHIP0.510.88Opp BA.113.181Opp OPS.353.480Five amazing deGrom stats

1. He is the only pitcher in MLB history with more RBIs (five) at the plate than earned runs allowed (four) in a 10-start span within a single season, according to ESPN Stats & Information research.

2 Related

2. DeGrom allowed 0.53 walks plus hits per inning pitched in his first 10 starts of this season. According to the Elias Sports Bureau research, that's the lowest WHIP by any pitcher over any 10-start span in modern MLB history.

3. According to Baseball-Reference data, deGrom's ERA+ (100 is league average) is at an unfathomable 777. No player since 1947 has finished a season with a higher mark than Trevor Bauer's 292 in 2020, and Pedro Martinez's 291 in 2000 is the highest for a 162-game season in that span.

4. DeGrom is now the only pitcher to allow one or no runs in 12 consecutive starts, surpassing Gibson's streak of 11 such starts.

5. DeGrom is striking out 14.6 batters per nine innings pitched, more than any other qualified starter this season and on pace to eclipse Shane Bieber's all-time mark of 14.198 from last season.

1. April 23 vs. Washington Nationals

9 innings, 2 hits, 0 earned runs, 0 walks, 15 strikeouts. Game score: 98.

Quote that says it all: "You're going to be replaying that game at the end of 2021 in one of those greatest games of 2021," said Mets teammate Brandon Nimmo. "He has to be from a different planet because he just does things that seem out of this world."

2. April 10 vs. Miami Marlins

8 innings, 5 hits, 1 earned run, 0 walks, 14 strikeouts. Game score: 82

Quote that says it all: "Unfortunately, we've been through this before," Nimmo said as the Mets' history of trouble giving deGrom enough run support continued. "It's never easy."

At an age when many pitchers are starting to slow down, Jacob deGrom's velocity and production are on the upswing. Here's why he could be baseball's next king of longevity.

Jeff Passan

3. June 5 at San Diego Padres

7 innings, 3 hits, 0 earned runs, 1 walk, 11 strikeouts. Game score: 81

Quote that says it all: "It's impressive, I have never seen anything like it," Mets manager Luis Rojas on deGrom's spectacular season. "You know you are watching something special."

4. June 11 vs. San Diego Padres

6 innings, 1 hit, 0 earned runs, 0 walks, 10 strikeouts. Game score: 80

Quote that says it all: "M-V-P, M-V-P" -- Mets fans at Citi Field as deGrom mowed down the Padres for a second straight outing.

5. May 31 at Arizona Diamondbacks

6 innings, 2 hits, 0 earned runs, 0 walks, 8 strikeouts. Game score: 76.

Quote that says it all: "I feel like I could have kept going tonight, but discussing [with the coaching staff], we wanted to be smart with it," deGrom said of leaving after 70 pitches in his second start back from a short IL stint.

DeGrom is scheduled to make his final start of the month on June 26 against the Philadelphia Phillies. The MLB record for best ERA through the end of June is 0.78 by Dutch Leonard in 1914.

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Jacob deGrom GOAT tracker - Where Mets ace's season stands among the best in MLB history - ESPN

For the past three years, David and his son, Adelso, have communicated only by phone. Adelso is just one of about 5,500 children who was taken from a parent, as a result of the Trump administrations family separation policy. Theyre among more than 1,000 families who have been waiting for the Biden administration to follow through on a promise to reunify them. Now there is a new sense of hope as the Biden government starts to reunite a handful of families. But David and Adelsos story split between Guatemala and Florida offers a firsthand look at the continuing psychological effects of separation and how the delay in reuniting families has in some cases encouraged people to make a desperate trek back to the U.S. David and his son spoke with us on condition that we not use their full names and conceal their identities. Since he was jailed and deported, David has kept a low profile in the countryside, evading the gangs he says extorted the trucking business he worked for and threatened his family before they fled to the U.S. David was deported to Guatemala after serving 30 days in a U.S. prison for the crime of illegal reentry. Neither David, his wife or their other children have seen Adelso since. We can make America, once again, the leading force for good in the world. Days after he took office, President Joe Biden signed an executive order to reunify families separated under the Trump administration. The re-establishment of the interagency task force and the reunification of families. This week, as migrant apprehensions approached the highest level in 20 years, the Department of Homeland Security announced that it would bring four mothers to the U.S. to reunite with their children. The U.S. will reunify another 35 or so families in the coming weeks as part of a pilot project, which David and Adelso might be a part of. But this is just a start, and the process for reunifying all families could take months, and even years. In Davids town of several thousand people, I found three other parents who were forcibly separated from their children under zero tolerance. Melvin Jacinto and his 14-year-old son tried to enter the U.S. to look for work that would pay for, among other things, his daughters hip surgery. Melvin and his wife Martas son, Rosendo, now lives with a relative in Minneapolis. They, too, rely on video calls to stay connected. The reality is that work is really scarce here. Melvin takes what jobs he can find, but the family relies on money sent from Rosendo, their teenage son, whos now working in the U.S. We visited the homes of two other fathers who were separated from their kids at the border and were told theyd already made the return trip to reunite with them. She allowed me to speak with her husband on her phone. He said he reunited with his son in Fort Lauderdale, and was staying in a house with other migrants. We heard of other parents as well, deported to Guatemala and Honduras, whod already made the perilous journey to reunite with their children. According to immigration lawyers, about 1,000 separated kids have yet to see their parents again. Theyve had to grow up fast, placed in the care of foster families or relatives. For the last three years, Adelso has been living with his aunt, Teresa Quinez, in Boca Raton, Fla. Hes been attending school, and plays soccer in his spare time, but he still struggles with the trauma of what happened in Guatemala and at the border. Unlike some of the separated kids, Adelso does have support. Yes, definitely, I would go there in the morning, too Yeah His aunt Teresa came to the U.S. as an unaccompanied minor, and later became a legal resident. She stepped in to give Adelso the care she didnt have when she came to the U.S. as a teenager. I can say that I understand his pain, not being with mom and dad. Living with someone familiar, somehow still, its not the same. Once a month, Adelso talks with a child psychologist at Florida State Universitys Center for Child Stress and Health. The service is paid through a government settlement for families separated under the zero tolerance policy. Adelso is one of several children affected by zero tolerance that Natalia Falcon now works with in South Florida. Ive been working with Adelso and his family for a little bit over six months. We see a lot of sleeping issues. You know, they cant sleep, they cant fall asleep or the nightmares, right. We have to look at nightmares very delicately. Those recurring memories, flashbacks of that traumatic event as one of the main symptoms of P.T.S.D. Studies show that childhood trauma, left unaddressed, can negatively affect health and relationships long into adulthood. I dont want him to get depressed, taking him to that place, like, Oh, I just want to be alone. Thats why I try to bring him out and do things with him. After being separated from his dad, Adelso spent two months in a New York shelter with other separated kids before Teresa finally won his release. I still remember seeing him coming out of the airport. His little face, like its heartbreaking, and sometimes I see him now, he has grown so much in this, in this time that he came here, he has become so mature and thats hard to see too because its like life pushing you to be that mature. You are not enjoying your being a child. For now, Adelso and David continue to work with their lawyers and hope to be part of the first wave of reunions. As for David, he told us that he can only wait so long, and that he has also considered paying a smuggler to cross back into the U.S. and claim asylum again.

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Explore 100 Years of Immigration History With The Times Archive - The New York Times

Following months of research and county-level victories, eight history projects from Orange County were named champions in their respective categories at this years National History Day California competition and now theyre headed to the NHD National Contest in Maryland.

In all, 59 middle and high school students will represent California at the national National History Day showdown in June, and more than a quarter of them 15, to be exact will come from Orange County campuses.

Six of this years top projects were created by nine students from Sierra Vista Middle and University High schools in the Irvine Unified School District. One winning group submission came from four students enrolled at Santiago Elementary School, a K-8 in Santa Ana Unified, and another came from a duo at Samueli Academy in Santa Ana.

About 600,000 young historians participate annually in National History Day events at the local, state and national levels. Working as individuals or in teams, students in grades 4 through 12 produce exhibits, documentaries, papers, performances and websites based on a given theme.

This years focus is Communication in History: The Key to Understanding.

The 2021 National History Day-Orange County competition was held virtually, as was the state-level edition, which drew 1,169 students from 224 schools. More than 133 historians, educators and other professionals evaluated the submissions, and the awards were announced on YouTube on May 8.

Along with OCs eight advancing champions, nine projects earned medals and six received special awards presented by event sponsors. A full list of honorees can be found at http://www.nhdca.org.

And here are the champions and special award winners from Orange County:

Individual Exhibit

Communicating the Language of the Unheard: The Watts Rebellion of 1965Sol ChoiUniversity High School, Irvine Unified School DistrictTeachers: Jane Huson, Ann Campbell

Rachel Carsons Silent Spring: The Key to Modern Environmentalism and Popular Science CommunicationGrace JinUniversity High School, Irvine Unified School DistrictTeachers: Jane Huson, Ann Campbell

Group Website

You Are the Problem: Communicating the Needs of People with Disabilities through the 504 Sit-InSofia Sevilla, Nataly LopezSamueli Academy, a charter school in Santa AnaTeachers: Devin Beliveau

Individual Documentary

Seeing through His Lens: Lewis Hine, Exposing Child ExploitationHannah ChoSierra Vista Middle School, Irvine Unified School DistrictTeachers: Jonathan Millers, Lianne Linck

Individual Exhibit

We Shall Overcome: Communication During the Civil Rights MovementRiya GuptaSierra Vista Middle School, Irvine Unified School DistrictTeachers: Jonathan Millers, Lianne Linck

Group Exhibit

The March on Washington: Utilizing Media to Communicate a MessageSophie Lee, Kaylyn Chen, Caleigh NystromSierra Vista Middle School, Irvine Unified School DistrictTeachers: Jonathan Millers, Lianne Linck

Group Performance

The Rodney King Riots: Understanding the Importance of Communication in Difficult SituationsAva Bliaya, Jazzelle Castillo, Genesis Mendez, Brooklyn PalacioSantiago Elementary School, Santa Ana Unified School DistrictTeachers: Erik Peterson, Andres Arroyo

Group Website

Hangul: Communication for the Common PeopleAnna Cho, Erin HwangSierra Vista Middle School, Irvine Unified School DistrictTeachers: Jonathan Millers, Lianne Linck

Bessie Reed McDonald Award for Womens HistoryFriends of NHD-CAStarved for Change: Hunger Strikers Communicate the Need for Womens Suffrage in Edwardian EnglandMegan VahdatSage Hill School, a private school Newport Coast

California Council for the Promotion of HistoryStamp Out Smog: Prioritizing Air Pollution ControlKatie KimOrange County School of the Arts, a charter school in Santa Ana

Conference of California Historical Societies (CCHS)Stamp Out Smog: Prioritizing Air Pollution ControlKatie KimOrange County School of the Arts, a charter school in Santa Ana

Elizabeth Avery Award for Social JusticeFriends of NHD-CANina Simone: Using Music to Communicate the Black Racial Injustices of AmericaIvana SiuSierra Vista Middle School, Irvine Unified School District

Medicine in HistoryFriends of NHD-CAThe 1964 Surgeon Generals Report: Communicating the Hazards of Smoking to the PublicAlyssa TangUniversity High School, Irvine Unified School District

William E. Geary Award for Military HistoryLaw Office of Steven M. OlsonCommunication in History: How One Word of Defiance Turned the Tide of World War IISpiro SunUniversity High School, Irvine Unified School District

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Eight National History Day projects from Orange County are headed to the national finals - OCDE Newsroom

Good morning.

The California landscape has been shaped by intentional fires for millenniums. What European settlers in the 19th century took as a natural habitat was the result of what fire experts say was the deliberate burning of millions of acres of forests and chaparral every year by Native tribes.

Now, after four years of particularly destructive fires, there is broad consensus among experts and government officials that California should embrace Indigenous traditions and the notion that good fire is crucial to preventing the destructive power of megafires.

But a prescribed burn last week in Modoc County, in the far northeastern corner of the state, underlines the difficulties of using fire as a forest management tool.

Youre talking about dozens of people and thousands of hours of planning, said Ken Sandusky, the public affairs officer for the Modoc National Forest. You have objectors time, and litigation time. You could get into the tens of thousands of hours to get to the point where you are running chain saws and putting fire on the ground.

Before contact with Europeans, California tribes not only had thousands of years of burning tradition to guide them, but they also were free of the lawyers, paperwork, environmental impact assessments, and thicket of national and state regulations that forest managers face today.

Sandusky said the burn in Modoc last week, which covered 29 acres in the national forest, was possible only because of a decade of preparation that has allowed for several hundred acres to be burned a year. The controlled burn was done to protect the most vulnerable trees and clear out the fuels that create a more volatile fire.

Prescribed burning across the state has been curtailed this year by the dry conditions that make fires more dangerous to manage and control. Fire experts pointed to the Palisades Fire in western Los Angeles in recent days as a measure of the drought-stricken California landscape.

We used to burn into June fairly often when I first got to the Modoc, said Mandi Shoaf, a fuels specialist in the Modoc National Forest who has worked in the area for more than a decade. Now we are lucky to get a window late April, early May before fire season really kicks off.

Prescribed burns are often preceded by the mechanical removal of trees and brush. The wood is sold as boards or chips, helping to recover the cost of the operation. In Modoc, forest management helps preserve older Ponderosa pines, some of which are older than 200 years. The burning also promotes new growth, which serves as food for local elk and other wildlife.

Don Hankins, a fire expert who is working with California tribes to revive Indigenous burning practices, said caution and preparation were key to successful burns. The Cerro Grande Fire, a prescribed burn in New Mexico two decades ago that raged out of control and destroyed more than 200 homes, was a scarring experience for fire experts.

But Hankins and other experts argue that liability questions and bureaucracy have made prescribed burning too cumbersome in California.

We overcomplicate things, he said.

Compiled by Jonathan Wolfe

Riverside County disagrees with the states mask rules and wants to lift restrictions in most settings sooner than the rest of the state, The Press-Enterprise reports.

A new poll found that two out of three Californians support allowing some businesses to verify the vaccination status of customers, The Sacramento Bee reports.

Citizen, a neighborhood crime and safety app, falsely accused a man of starting a Los Angeles wildfire and set off a manhunt for the wrong person.

When it comes to drought preparedness in the state, CalMatters found a mixed bag: Wells are still being over pumped, but urban residents have been better about not wasting water.

In some areas of the state, drought conditions are so bad that farmers are choosing not to plant crops this season, Bloomberg reports.

The rapper T.I. and his wife, Tameka Harris, are under investigation by the L.A.P.D. after multiple women accused the couple of drugging and sexually assaulting them.

As the planet warms, ecologists in the National Park Service are adjusting their core mission of absolute conservation and are instead deciding what to safeguard and what to let slip away.

The Guardian examined the deadly toll of Californias ghost guns, homemade weapons that are untraceable and coveted in many vulnerable communities.

A state regulator is reviewing whether Tesla violated regulations by falsely promising that its car-driving technology was full self-driving, Reuters reports.

The Mercury News looked at the most popular baby names in the state. At the top of the list: Olivia for girls and Noah for boys.

California Today goes live at 6:30 a.m. Pacific time weekdays. Tell us what you want to see: CAtoday@nytimes.com. Were you forwarded this email? Sign up for California Today here and read every edition online here.

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The Meaning and History of a Controlled Burn - The New York Times

On Wednesday, the House voted to create a commission to look into the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Thirty-five Republicans joined Democrats to pass it, but they did so over the objections of the House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, who opposed the bill. The Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, joined him in opposition.

The Republican leadership in Congress seems to be engaged in a coordinated effort to reduce and minimize the attack on the U.S. Capitol, or even erase it all together.

One reason used to oppose the commission is that it would be redundant of work already being done by the Justice Department and Congress itself.

But another, used by McCarthy, was specifically to muddy the water by widening the inquiry to include investigations into anti-fascists and Black Lives Matter. It was a clear attempt to establish an equivalency, to reduce the historic nature of the insurrection while simultaneously elevating issues with other groups.

They want to flatten all of this into a single mass of things that happened during the pandemic, none better or worse than the other, things happening on the ideological left as well as the right.

But, these things are not equal at all. They know this. But, this is how propaganda is born and history is buried. It is shockingly easy to do and has been often done.

We are just weeks away from the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Massacre, when in 1921, white citizens of that city aided by the National Guard, it should be noted destroyed the Greenwood section of that city, a prosperous, self-sufficient community known as Black Wall Street, killing as many at 300 people and leaving 8,000 others homeless.

One of the most remarkable things about that massacre was the concerted effort by the city to erase it from history, and just how effective that campaign was.

Now, to be sure, that massacre happened before the time of television, the internet, social media and cellphones. But, there were images, not to mention the scores of families who lost loved ones. There were graves.

As The New York Times has reported:

After the massacre, officials set about erasing it from the citys historical record. Victims were buried in unmarked graves. Police records vanished. The inflammatory Tulsa Tribune articles were cut out before the newspapers were transferred to microfilm.

The Times continued, City officials cleansed the history books so thoroughly that when Nancy Feldman, a lawyer from Illinois, started teaching her students at the University of Tulsa about the massacre in the late 1940s, they didnt believe her.

We sometimes underestimate human impulses and human nature when we simply assume that the memory of a thing, a horrible thing, will last forever.

Often the perpetrators of the offense desperately want to let the stigma fade, and the victim hesitates to pass on the pain of it to children and family. Everyone awaits the healing power of time, like the jagged rock thrown into the river that eventually becomes smooth stone.

That happened in Tulsa. The first full history of the massacre was not written until 1982 when Scott Ellsworth wrote Death in a Promised Land, and a commission to fully study what happened in Tulsa wasnt established until 1997. Its report was issued in 2001.

We have a tendency to drift away from the fullness of history even when the truth isnt actively suppressed. Think about things like how horrible Christopher Columbus actually was, or the massacres of native people and all the broken treaties that helped grow the geography of this country, or how many of the pioneers of gay rights were trans people and drag queens.

We are horrible transmitters of the truth. We are also horrible receptors. It is like the game you played as a child when something was whispered from child to child, and what the last child hears bears no resemblance to what the first child said.

Even when we record things, in writing, or by photography or even video, something gets lost in the transfer: the severity, the solemnity, the impact.

This is why memorials and monuments are important in society, to aid collective memory and reflection. This is also why monuments are often used as tools of propaganda, because they have helped create false narratives that alter collective memory. Many Confederate monuments were erected precisely for this purpose.

So, when I see Republicans trying to alter our perception of the insurrection, I do not take that lightly. There is nothing silly or trivial about it. Memory is malleable. This tactic may now fail on 50 and work on five, but years from now it may be the inverse ratio.

We absorb the stories we are told, too often without circumspection, imbuing them with the authority of the tell. So, when authorities tell a lie or diminish something, many people will accept it as told.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. Wed like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And heres our email: letters@nytimes.com.

Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook and Twitter (@NYTopinion), and Instagram.

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Opinion | History Can Be Erased. It Often Has Been. - The New York Times

June 2015: LeBron and Steph meet in the Finals for the first time, but with Kevin Love out for the series and Kyrie Irving injuring his knee in Game 1, some hinted that Stephs first championship needed an asterisk.

ESPN Reporter Brian Windhorst: The Cavs had bristled watching the Warriors celebrate, feeling there was an unfairness they couldnt do anything about. [Return of the King: LeBron James, the Cleveland Cavaliers, and the Greatest Comeback in NBA History]

James: We ran out of talent. There was a lot of talent sitting in suits. Ive been watching basketball for a long time, Im a historian of the game. I dont know any other team thats gotten to the Finals without two All-Stars. [USA Today]

Windhorst: Jamess implication was that theyd faced extreme, in his mind historic, obstacles. The Warriors had been fully healthy throughout the season and the playoffs. Not only had they played the injury-riddled Cavs, but some of their other opponents had had significant injuries as well. [Return of the King]

Curry: I apologize for us being healthy. I apologize for us playing who was in front of us. I apologize for all the accolades we received as a team and individually. Im very, truly sorry, and well rectify that situation this year. [ESPN]

December 2015: LeBron had just signed a lifetime contract with Nike, but Stephs signature shoe was boomingMorgan Stanley projected that it would surpass LeBrons shoe sales for the year, although it ultimately came up short.

Reporter, talking to LeBron postgame: Under Armour just released a commercial

James: Who?

Reporter: Under Armour.

James: Who is that? I dont know what youre talking about.

January 2016: Steph and the Warriors return to Cleveland for the first time since celebrating their championship. Cheers!

Curry: "Obviously, walking in the locker room, it'll be good memories. Hopefully, it still smells a little bit like champagne."

NBA Reporter Chris Haynes: Sources are telling Cleveland.com that members of the Cavaliers have taken exception to the quote and viewed it as disrespectful.

When LeBron James finished up his media address after shootaround this morning, he walked away asking reporters why no one asked him about Curry's comments. He said he had an answer for it. [Cleveland.com]

Curry:

May 2016: Steph becomes the first unanimous winner of the MVP award in 2015-16 (LeBron fell one vote shy of the same achievement in 2013). Its Stephs second MVP in a row, and the second straight year LeBron finishes in third. LeBron, not for the last time, muses on the criteria for selection; Steph muses on criticism from Hall of Famers that he looks up to.

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The History of LeBron James and Stephen Currys Rivalrous Friendship - GQ

Aletha Maybank:

There's just a tremendous still lack of diversity, of having Black physicians and Latinx physicians, as well as Native American physicians, who have been completely excluded still from the medical profession.

We're the ones, as AMA, who commissioned Abraham Flexner. We valued this model of significant scientific rigor and really evaluated schools across the country in the early 1900s and said, if you didn't have that, if you didn't have those types of resources, we didn't think you were a good enough school to stay open, basically.

And so that impacted, as you can imagine, many Black med schools that aren't going to be resourced. And so five were recommended to shut down. And, in addition, the part that really I think really speaks to the impact at that time, AMA was also excluding Black physicians.

And so, back then, in order to get licensed to hospitals, you actually had to be a member of theMD-IN medical society within your local community, which was an AMA, or American Medical Association, affiliate. So, if you couldn't gain membership to an AMA medical affiliate, you couldn't gain a license to work at the local hospital.

So, now you have Black physicians who also can't find hospitals to work at, which impacts in our communities. We have to take a look at that entirety of the history and its impacts.

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Examining the AMA's racist history and its overdue reckoning - PBS NewsHour

The United States has vetoed dozens of United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions critical of Israel, including at least 53 since 1972, according to UN data.

With the latest escalation of violence between Israel and the Palestinians now in its tenth day, the US has stuck to that playbook. On Monday, Washington blocked a joint statement calling for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas the USs third such veto reportedly within a week.

The USs unequivocal support of Israel has seen it thwart resolutions condemning violence against protesters, illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank built since 1967 and even calls for an investigation into the 1990 killing of seven Palestinian workers by a former Israeli soldier.

Critics say Washingtons blanket support of Israel encourages a disproportionate use of force against Palestinians, including Israels current bombardment of the besieged Gaza Strip, which has killed at least 219 Palestinians, including 63 children.

Here is a list of some of the major vetoes cast by the US over the years:

Palestinians in Gaza began protesting at the Israeli border fence in March 2018, calling for the right of return to ancestral homes from which their families were expelled in 1948 during what Palestinians call the Nakbah, or the creation of the state of Israel. The UN estimates 750,000 Palestinians were expelled that year.

Palestinians faced sniper fire from Israeli forces during the year-long protests, which killed at least 266 people and injured roughly 30,000 more, according to Gazas health ministry.

A Palestinian protester hurls stones at Israeli troops during a protest at the Gaza Strips border with Israel during weekly Palestinian demonstrations along the Gaza Strips frontier with Israel on September 28, 2018 [File: Khalil Hamra/AP Photo]On June 1, 2018, the UNSC drafted a resolution (PDF) expressing grave concern at the escalation of violence and tensions since the protests began and deep alarm at the loss of civilian lives and the high number of casualties among Palestinian civilians, particularly in the Gaza Strip, including casualties among children, caused by the Israeli forces.

The US vetoed the resolution (PDF), with then-US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley saying it presented a grossly one-sided view of what has taken place in Gaza in recent weeks.

Haley blamed Hamas for the violence.

East Jerusalem is meant to be the capital of a future Palestinian state, as outlined in international agreements. But the area has been occupied by Israel since 1967, when Israeli forces defeated forces from Jordan which controlled East Jerusalem and the West Bank at the time Egypt, Syria and allied Palestinians, to occupy all of historic Palestine.

The status of occupied East Jerusalem was meant to be determined through peace negotiations. International law, including UNSC resolutions, state that East Jerusalem is not to be considered Israeli territory.

Palestinians evacuate a wounded man during clashes with Israeli security forces in front of the Dome of the Rock at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalems Old City on May 10, 2021 [File: Mahmoud Illean/AP Photo]But former President Donald Trump recognised Jerusalem as Israels capital in December 2017.

A draft resolution (PDF) from December 18, 2017, wrote that any decisions and actions which purport to have altered, the character, status or demographic composition of the Holy City of Jerusalem have no legal effect, are null and void and must be rescinded in compliance with relevant resolutions of the Security Council.

In vetoing the resolution, Haley said (PDF) the US had the courage and honesty to recognize a fundamental reality. Jerusalem has been the political, cultural and spiritual homeland of the Jewish people for thousands of years.

The Second Intifada, or Palestinian uprising, ignited on September 28, 2000, when then-Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon, accompanied by heavily armed forces, entered the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem.

The provocative act sparked long-simmering frustrations over the failed promises of the Oslo Accords to end Israels occupation of Palestinian lands.

The Oslo Accords were signed by then-Palestinian Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1993.

But the occupation continued into 2000, with Israeli settlements increasing and Palestinian sovereignty nowhere in sight.

In December 2001, a slew of suicide bombings led Israel to retaliate by destroying much of Arafats Ramallah headquarters, essentially forcing him into house arrest. The Second Intifada, a period of intensified Israeli-Palestinian tension, began in late September 2000 [File: Abbas Momani/AFP via Getty Images]In contrast to the First Intifada in the late 1980s and early 1990s that was largely peaceful, the Second Intifada was very violent, with Palestinian armed groups attacking Israeli forces and a sharp increase in suicide attacks against Israeli civilian centres.

The death toll stood at over 3,000 Palestinians and close to 1,000 Israelis, along with 45 foreigners, according to a BBC tally.

A draft UNSC resolution (PDF) from December 2001 expressed grave concern at the continuation of the tragic and violent events that have taken place since September 2000, condemned attacks against civilians and called for peace talks to resume.

When vetoing the resolution, then-US Ambassador to the UN John Negroponte said the draft resolution before us fails to address the dynamic at work in the region. Instead, its purpose is to isolate politically one of the parties.

The US has vetoed at least four UNSC resolutions condemning Israels settlements on Palestinian land, which are considered illegal under international law.

There are between 600,000 and 750,000 Israeli settlers in at least 250 settlements (130 official, 120 unofficial) in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

These settlements have exploded under the rule of hawkish Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who began his current term in 2005. They have long been considered a major roadblock to achieving a Palestinian state.

US vetoes of resolutions condemning Israels settlements date back to at least 1983. The most recent was in 2011 (PDF), when a draft resolution aimed to reaffirm all Israeli settlement activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, are illegal and constitute a major obstacle to the achievement of peace on the basis of the two-State solution.

Then-US Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice said Washington agreed that settlement activity is illegal, but we think it unwise for this Council to attempt to resolve the core issues that divide Israelis and Palestinians. Therefore, regrettably, we have opposed this draft resolution.

Rice served under former President Barack Obama, who caused diplomatic controversyin 2016, months before he left office to be succeeded by Trump, when he instructed the US to abstain from vetoing a similar UNSC resolution against settlement activity.

US President Joe Biden, who served as Obamas vice president, is known for his support of Israel. But he is facing pressure from progressive Democrats and others to take a greater role in supporting Palestinian rights.

Biden publicly voiced support for a ceasefire on Monday, a demand posed in a letter signed by 25 Democratic lawmakers. But he has also stuck with Washingtons long-established policy of failing to acknowledge the deeply asymmetric nature of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by expressing his unwavering support for Israel and its right to defend itself.

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A history of the US blocking UN resolutions against Israel - Al Jazeera English