“Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” These words by poet Emma Lazarus are engraved on a plaque on the inner wall of the Statue of Liberty’s […]

How often do we think about the original thirteen states that declared their independence from Great Britain?  Are our children familiar with young men like Jabez Fitch and Joseph Hodgkins? Or little John Greenwood, who was 16 years old and Israel Trask, who was 10? “They were boys marching with the Revolutionary troops as fifers […]

“All politics is local.” Former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Tip O’Neill did not coin that phrase, but he was well-known for using it to describe the work of the House. As one source puts it, “Ultimately, constituents and voters are concerned most about issues that affect their personal lives and home […]

One day, when our son was in the fourth grade at Wallace Elementary School, he finished an assignment early. Instead of requiring her students to sit quietly at their desks with nothing to do, the teacher provided activities to engage their interests. Recognizing his curiosity about design, she handed our son a book about the […]

Overlooking Virginia’s Blue Ridge mountains, Thomas Jefferson’s grave is located downhill from his beloved home, Monticello. Jefferson was the second governor of Virginia, a member of the Continental Congress, the first Secretary of State, our second vice-president, and the third president. And yet, these accomplishments are not listed on his grave marker. Instead, his monument […]