American Moonshot: John F. Kennedy and the Great Space Race By Douglas Brinkley HarperCollins, New York City, 2019, 528pp. A review by Nancy Spannaus Aug. 3, 2019–“Many Americans make the mistake of assuming that space research has no value here on earth. Nothing could be further from the truth.” […]
By Nancy Spannaus July 20, 2019–“Here men from the planet earth first set foot upon the Moon, July 1969, A.D. We came in peace for all mankind.” This is the message of the plaque which Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin left on the Moon 50 years ago […]
By Bonnie James By the Light of the Silvery Moon: A Century of Lunar Photographs National Gallery of Art July 14, 2019-January 5, 2020 July 15, 2019–The National Gallery of Art is offering a small, but fascinating exhibition titled, “By the Light of the Silvery Moon: A Century of Lunar […]
![ST-C30-2-62 17 Aug 1962Trip to Western States, Pierre, South DakotaPlease Credit "Cecil Stoughton. White House Photographs. John F Kennedy Presidential Museum and Library, Boston"[scratches across negative horizonatally]](https://i1.wp.com/americansystemnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/JFK-At-Oahe-Dam-In-Pierre-South-Dakota-August-17-1962-05.jpg?resize=200%2C150&ssl=1)
JFK’s Conservation Policy versus Today’s Environmentalism features Kennedy’s 1963 speech in Hanford, Washington.
By Nancy Spannaus Nov. 22, 2018—The coincidence of this year’s Thanksgiving holiday with the 55th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy has provoked me to write this post. Kennedy’s assassination was a horrific turning point in our nation’s history, the opening shot in a series of assassinations […]
By Nancy Spannaus May 25, 2018—On this day in 1961, four months after he was inaugurated, President John F. Kennedy gave the United States its most far-reaching and consequential mission ever. “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing […]
By Angela Vullo March 4, 2018–When parents and grandparents are attending nonstop funerals for their children and grandchildren, something in our society has gone awry. As Shakespeare put it, “The time is out of joint.” It reflects some major dislocation in our country, and it’s time we got to […]
A Book Review Bobby Kennedy, A Raging Spirit Chris Matthews Simon & Schuster, 2017, 352 pp. by Angela Vullo Jan. 29, 2018—My purpose in this review, like that of author Matthews, is to address the question of Robert F. Kennedy’s true identity in American politics. I believe that Matthews, proceeding […]
by Angela Vullo January 7, 2018–Just as the U.S. Congress was preparing to vote on the controversial tax reform, UN Special Rapporteur Philip Alston released a damning report on poverty in the United States, on December 15, 2017. Alston, the United Nations special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, […]
By Nancy Spannaus Jan.11, 2021—Today marks the release of an invaluable video documenting the record of Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton’s opposition to slavery. Under the title “The Evidence for Hamilton against Slavery,” independent researcher Marianne Als beautifully synthesizes text, imagery, and music to support her argument that not only is […]
By Angela Vullo December 17, 2020–As Christmas 2020 approaches, images of the same time period in 1932 come to mind: unemployment lines, swamped food banks, eviction notices, and more. The images are only overshadowed by the staggering number of deaths and other effects of the current deadly pandemic. While the […]
“A Time of Sorrow and Shame”
By Nancy Spannaus June 4, 2020—Tomorrow will be the anniversary of the June 5, 1968 assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, the third in a series of murders which decapitated the most promising political leadership of the United States. One by one, they fell: President John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, […]