Paul Kengor stories, Page 7
Paul Kengor: Christmas 1979 a tough time
Christmas 1979 marked a sobering time for America. Here in the Pittsburgh region, fortunately, we were enjoying a unique reign as City of Champions, with the Pirates winning the World Series and the Steelers in the process of a second back-to-back Super Bowl coup. These were badly needed respites for...
Paul Kengor: Bad things happen in Cleveland
“I’m telling you!” yelled Myron Cope in the voice of, well, only Myron Cope. “Something bad always happens in Cleveland!” I was sitting in my car in Shadyside, waiting to pick up my wife from her aerobics class, listening to the legendary Myron on WTAE-AM. The subject was the Steelers...
Paul Kengor: What Thanksgiving Day is about — 100 years ago, and today
Thanksgiving Day 100 years ago was truly a blessed occasion. President Woodrow Wilson’s Thanksgiving proclamation was significant because America and the world had enjoyed their first full year of peace since 1914. World War I had been a particularly vicious war, described by philosopher Sidney Hook as no less than...
Paul Kengor: Our vanishing World War II veterans
On Tuesday I picked up my kids from church youth group. “Dad, we had an amazing experience,” said my oldest daughter. “We went to a nursing home. We met two people who were almost 100 years old. They lived through World War II!” It was a nice experience for them....
Paul Kengor: Remembering Tree of Life
“Pray for us, I will call you later.” We received that text message from our 16-year-old daughter at 10:16 a.m. on Saturday morning, Oct. 27, 2018, as my wife and I drove toward the Strip District. My wife called immediately. “Are you OK? Were you in an accident?” In a...
Paul Kengor: Dignity of children with Down syndrome
My family just visited Chocolate World at Hershey Park — the “sweetest place on earth.” We hit it every two or three years when traveling through. For those unfamiliar, Chocolate World is the heart of the Hershey experience. It’s a giant candyland, a chocolate paradise. The primary attraction is a...
Paul Kengor: Divine plan of John Paul II — and Reagan
Fifty years ago, Sept. 20, 1969, a Polish cardinal unknown to Americans and people in our region quietly slipped into historic St. Stanislaw Kostka Church in Pittsburgh’s Strip District. The kneeler where Cardinal Karol Wojtyla paused to pray is now marked at that church. It commemorates not just a Polish...
Paul Kengor: Why you should care about what’s going on in Hong Kong
What’s happening right now in Hong Kong is potentially very significant, albeit difficult to understand. First, the background: On July 1, 1997, Hong Kong reverted from British colonial rule to Chinese control. Britain preferred to grant full independence, but the Chinese demanded Hong Kong back. Even then, communist China promised...
Paul Kengor: Vietnam vet Joe Harrilla more than a number
Joseph G. Harrilla grew up in Sandy Lake, Pa., in the 1950s. His hero was GI Joe. He watched movies like “The Sands of Iwo Jima.” When Vietnam came, Joe wanted to get there as quickly as possible. His first image upon arrival were naked dead bodies of Vietnamese. He...
Paul Kengor: Give the devil his due
Our nation yet again finds itself in a dreadful news cycle of sickening tragedy — namely, mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio. The tragedy is exacerbated by politicians and pundits playing the blame game. This time, in August 2019, we have various sources blaming President Trump, as...
Paul Kengor: Observations on busyness & obliviousness
I sit in my car in a Starbucks parking lot. It’s a new Starbucks, a large lot, drive- thru. I wait while my daughter takes a music lesson down the road. The scene at the drive-thru strikes me. I’m dumbstruck by cars whizzing in at 30 mph with 40 yards to...
Paul Kengor: When even knitting becomes political
“I went to a quilt guild meeting today and discovered that even quilting has been politicized.” That’s an email I received from a friend last October. “It’s purely political,” she continued. “The state quilt guild was touting a traveling quilt show called ‘Threads of Resistance.’ I’ll let you guess what...
Paul Kengor: Religious symbols & the Ruth Bader Ginsburg standard
I wrote a few weeks ago about one of the major Supreme Court decisions due up in the current term — the Bladensburg cross case, in which secularists demanded the tearing down of a large cross that serves as the centerpiece of a veterans’ memorial in Bladensburg, Md., erected in...
Paul Kengor: Recalling Poland’s quest for freedom
The media loves anniversaries. As someone who writes on history, I appreciate that. But it’s funny, and often frustrating, which anniversaries get missed. The world marked important anniversaries over the past week and a half. There was the 30th anniversary of Tiananmen Square, where hundreds if not thousands of Chinese...
Paul Kengor: Remembering World War II’s Bailey brothers
Several years ago, for Memorial Day 2013, I wrote in this space about the five Bailey brothers of World War II. This year, I’m probably writing about them for the last time. Yes, there were no less than five Baileys who served in the war. That fact is known to...
Paul Kengor: Supreme Court’s cross case & religious freedom
One of the major Supreme Court decisions we’ll soon hear about is the Bladensburg cross case. This is the case where secularists are demanding the removal of a large cross that serves as the centerpiece of a veterans’ memorial in Bladensburg, Md. The “Peace Cross” was erected in 1925 by...
Paul Kengor: Dr. Thomas Starzl and the burden of genius
Last week, I joined a packed auditorium in Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Science Center for the debut of a fascinating new documentary, “Burden of Genius.” The subject is Dr. Thomas Starzl, pioneer of organ transplantation, who pursued that revolution in medicine at Presbyterian University Hospital and Children’s Hospital, which were connected together...
Paul Kengor: Frustrated feminists confront gender orthodoxy
Picture an elderly British man opening his newspaper and sharing this story with his wife: “A 52-year-old woman is guilty of raping two other women at a facility in West Yorkshire. Claiming to be suffering from erectile dysfunction, she assaulted the two women.” The gentleman scratches his head and says...
Paul Kengor: Democrats vs. democratic socialists
“President Trump has proved himself adroit at creating villains to serve as his political foils,” states The New York Times. “In his State of the Union address, he introduced a new one: socialists. … Mr. Trump chose to introduce the socialist menace in perhaps the highest-profile setting available.” “Yet,” sniffs...
Paul Kengor: Join the Twitter mob!
“You’ve got to get on Twitter!” a former student told me recently. “It’s where everything is happening.” Well, I’m not on Twitter. I do, however, have a Twitter account. I don’t know what it is, where it is or how to access it. I want nothing to do with it....
