History
Let’s Be That Stuff
Where we were. What we saw. How we felt. Who we lost. None of these things will ever be forgotten, regardless of how much time passes, be it twenty, forty, or sixty more years, as is natural. But I do…
Whatever Greatness We Like to Imagine
There’s nothing terribly profound about the things I have to say below, nothing too deep or unfamiliar, but I’ve been thinking quite a lot this year about the way we talk of people, of groups, of all the things we…
The Spirit of July 4
When our people agreed to fight for independence, there were colonists who stood with the king and said no. But still, Jefferson wrote. When our people agreed to fight for independence, our barely existing Congress failed to cover the soldiers’…
Daunted by Homelessness
Fifty-three years ago this month, Robert Kennedy was assassinated at the Ambassador Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles. Over time, the hotel was torn down and replaced by a school and a park to remember Kennedy and his soaring, hopeful rhetoric.…
When You Think of Nixon
Watergate, right? Maybe the end of Vietnam? If you’re old enough to remember the Nixon era, from 1968-1974, or if you know your history, you might throw in a few other points of reference, like the creation of an Environmental…
Obama’s Years in LA
Nestled in the sprawling hills of Los Angeles is a lesser known fact of presidential history, that Mr. Obama once attended Occidental College—Oxy to everyone around here—from 1979 through 1981, before he transferred to Columbia. This is also one of…
Nixon Presidential Library
Visiting the Nixon Library, it’s hard not to wrestle with history, to groan a little bit when the place designed to honor a dishonored man gives him an occasional pass, a slight of word, here and there, to suggest he…
Trump Property in Beverly Hills
As anyone might imagine with Mr. Trump, whether he had become president or not, the reach of his property is vast, both in the United States and abroad. Melissa and I spent eight years living in Palm Beach Gardens and…
The Corruption of Prince Charming
Ronald Reagan is, by most accounts, the untouchable saint of recent American history. Anyone who lived during his time, including his opponents in Congress, would have called him a charming man. He had a remarkable way with people, honed by…
Boarding Air Force One
When you visit the Reagan Presidential Library, the penultimate exhibit, something that dwarfs every other exhibit at every other presidential library I’ve seen thus far, is Air Force One, packed in next to Marine One in the Simi Valley, near…
