Friday, December 23, 2022

pay phones

 

Do you remember the days when you could go into a phone booth, drop in a dime, and make a call? Believe it or not, phone booths still exist, although the day of the 10-cent phone call has now faded into history. Today, there are still 100,000 phone booths that are in operation in America – and they are still a profitable business. Pay phone providers reported $286 million in revenue in 2015 (the last year available), according to the most recent FCC report. They can still be profitable, particularly in places where there isn't cell phone or landline coverage, said Tom Keane, president of Pacific Tele management Services. Keane's company operates 20,000 pay phones around the country.

 

https://money.cnn.com/2018/03/19/news/companies/pay-phones/index.html

 


7 years later, there still ARE payphones that are in use, and they can be found at the link posted below.

https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1_YIGV2qY1JFH-Ve27LNMOzxfvn-kNnOe&ll=36.515818249459095%2C-98.10712209999994&z=5

Lately, there have been some variations on payphones that will surprise you.

First, in June of this year, a man named Mike Dank, and his partner Naveen Albert,  formed a company called PhilTel, - a phone collective that would convert old donated pay phones into free working phones using coinless circuit boards rewired to connect through the internet.

Some people are surprised he wants to bring back the retro phones, but Dank said he’s not alone in his enthusiasm. He points to a Google map site that tracks pay phones that have been reported to still be operating in the United States, and one that is devoted exclusively to the Philadelphia area.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/12/16/philadelphia-free-pay-phones-dank/

It was 1995 — four years after Dank was born — when the number of pay phones in the United States peaked at 2.6 million.

 By the end of 2016, there were less than 100,000 still in service, according to the Federal Communications Commission. New York City bid farewell to what some called the city’s last pay phone this past May, and there were only six pay phones said to be working in D.C. in 2021.

 Another variation on the traditional phone booth is one that is designed to be installed INSIDE offices. Many office environments have an open seating concept, which makes private conversations virtually impossible. The solution is Zenbooth.

 

The office telephone booth is an innovative concept developed by the company’s architectural designers seeking to solve the open-office, high-stress, low-productivity dilemma. Since its development, their revolutionary idea has provided quiet workspaces for countless employees in companies, large and small, better enabling them to more effectively achieve their companies’ goals. The self-contained units, ranging from one- to two-person phone booths, offer a less-expensive solution than hiring a contractor to renovate the office.


The units, which are crafted from high-quality materials, are quick to assemble, easy to move around the office and even easier to break down and transport during an office relocation. In short, the booths are a highly practical way to provide your employees with a fully-equipped workspace where they can close the door on workplace commotion and concentrate on getting things done.

 

https://zenbooth.net/blogs/zenbooth-blog/office-phone-booths-increasing-productivity-and-revenue

 

Although there are now more cell phones in this country that there are people, their convenience comes at a price, because you can now be tracked wherever you go, an fact that caused some serious legal issues for the people who were at the Capitol on January 6, since over 900 people have now been charged.

 

https://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2019/12/hold-phone.html

 Although it seems as though every kid in school today has their own phone, it's also true that a large number of them would not know how to use a "traditional" telephone:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHNEzndgiFI

Although I have absolutely no need for a pay phone, there actually is ONE in Arizona, but I would have to drive to Phoenix to use it.

 If you’re interested, I HAVE published some articles about the Christmas season, but since we will soon be RINGING in a New Year, I thought that you might like a story about phones. 






Sunday, December 11, 2022

God bless the Irish


 

One of the current best sellers of the hard cover non-fiction books being sold now is “Surrender”, by Bono – which I recently picked up at the library. It’s over 500 pages long, but it’s worth reading.

Bono was still in his teens when U2 was formed. Like many young bands, they had their struggles, compounded by the fact that Bono lost his mother when he was only 14. The band persisted, and today Bono’s net worth is $700 million, and he has “rubbed shoulders” with many of the most prominent people on the planet, in part because of his dedication to humanitarian clauses.

Born and raised in Dublin, he attended Mount Temple Comprehensive School where in 1976 he began dating his future wife, Alison Stewart, as well as forming, with schoolmates, the band that became U2. Bono soon established himself as a passionate front man for the band through his expressive vocal style and grandiose gestures and songwriting. His lyrics frequently include social and political themes, and religious imagery inspired by his Christian beliefs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bono

During U2's early years, Bono's lyrics contributed to the group's rebellious and spiritual tone. As the band matured, his lyrics became inspired more by personal experiences shared with the other members. As a member of U2, Bono has received 22 Grammy Awards and has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Aside from his music, Bono is an activist for social justice causes, both through U2 and as an individual. He is particularly active in campaigning for Africa, for which he co-founded DATA, EDUN, the ONE Campaign, and Product Red. In pursuit of these causes, he has participated in benefit concerts and lobbied politicians and heads of state for relief Bono has been honored for his philanthropic efforts.

 In 2005, Bono was named one of the Time Persons of the Year.

He was granted an honorary knighthood by Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom in 2007 for "his services to the music industry and for his humanitarian work", and was made a Commandeur of the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Order of Arts and Letters) in 2013. Bono has also attracted criticism for bypassing African businesses in his activist efforts and for tax avoidance in his personal finances.

The book expands on the origin of 40 songs, and how they came to be. What I found most interesting to far is the chapter about “the troubles”, which is titled “Sunday, bloody Sunday”. The event was the killing of 26 peaceful Irish demonstrators by British forces on January 30, 1972. With help from president Bill Clinton, a peace agreement was finally signed in May of 1998. John Hume and David Trimble (leaders of the Ulster Unionist Party and the Social Democratic Labour Party, respectively) won the Nobel Peace Prize.

 Long before St. Patrick drove the snakes out of Ireland in he 5th century, Ireland has been inhabited by humans, most prominently the Druids. Nearly 1000 years before Stonehenge was built in southern England, the druids built a burial site in Northern Ireland called New Grange. You can see a picture of it in the link below:

https://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2020/06/summer-solstice.html

 For many years, the Irish people struggled under British rule.

The Irish Potato Famine, also known as the Great Hunger, began in 1845 when a mold known as Phytophthora infestans (or P. infestans) caused a destructive plant disease that spread rapidly throughout Ireland. The infestation ruined up to one-half of the potato crop that year, and about three-quarters of the crop over the next seven years. Because the tenant farmers of Ireland—then ruled as a colony of Great Britain—relied heavily on the potato as a source of food, the infestation had a catastrophic impact on Ireland and its population. Before it ended in 1852, the Potato Famine resulted in the death of roughly one million Irish from starvation and related causes, with at least another million forced to leave their homeland as refugees.

With the ratification of the Act for the Union of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801, Ireland was effectively governed as a colony of Great Britain (until the Irish War of Independence ended in 1921). Together, the combined nations were known as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

Roughly 30 years after the potato famine ended, Ireland was stuck again by a deadly plague, which led to the deaths of most of the siblings of my maternal grandfather Martin Stenson, who was born in 1882.

Eventually, the Irish people revolted against British rule,

On Easter Sunday of 1916, Irish loyalists staged an armed insurrection. Ultimately, the British Army put down the rebellion, which cost 485 lives. Although unsuccessful, the rebels persisted, and the Irish Free State finally came into being in December of 1922, 4 months after the death of Michael Collins, who was a prominent figure in the opposition forces.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_Rising

The potato famine forced thousands of Irish people to leave their homeland. The very first person to go through Ellis Island was a 17-year-old Irish girl named Anne Moore, who had sailed from Southern Ireland with her two younger brothers.

From its opening in 1892 until its closure in 1954, 12 million people passed through Ellis Island. According to History, immigrants arriving in the northeastern U.S. grew to include Italians and Jews. The driving forces of this new wave of immigration were poverty in Italy and oppressions of Jews throughout eastern Europe and Russia. Other migrants were Slavs from present-day Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Poland. Even Turkish and Syrian migrants were heading west.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/who-was-the-first-person-to-immigrate-through-ellis-island/ar-AAVPNAq

Although many of the people of Irish descent now live in the majority of the states of the United States, most are on the East Coast. Although most people would assume that Boston is the most popular place for folks of Irish descent, the “most Irish city” is Ocean City, New Jersey. The state that has the highest percentage of Irish descendants is New Hampshire, not Massachusetts, but  Massachusetts IS  a close second, with 20% of the population being of Irish descent.

https://www.zippia.com/advice/most-irish-states-cities/

In 1971, my parents celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary by traveling to County Sligo, the birthplace of Martin Stenson. Although Sharon and I did not make if to Ireland in 1997, the year of our 25th anniversary, my sister and I and our kids made it there in 1999 after we inherited some money from my mother’s estate.

We stayed in a variety of bad and breakfast homes, and even managed to spend one amazing night in an Irish castle. We all had pints at the Guinness brewery, and we all kissed the Blarney stone. The girls all had a chance to ride some Irish horses, which was likely their favorite part of the trip.




Having spent a year in China, and living with a population in Tucson that is largely Hispanic, I’ve grown to truly appreciate people of different backgrounds, but my favorite ethnic group is the one where I have the strongest roots.

God bless the Irish.

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday, December 3, 2022

the inmates are taking over the asylum

 


Thomas Jefferson once said, “an educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people”.

There is unanimity among multiple studies attesting to an epidemic of ignorance among American citizens.  The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation found that 60% pf respondents did not know whom the United States fought in World War II, and only 24% knew why the colonists fought the British. A Xavier University study found that 85% of Americans did not know the meaning of the “rule of law” and 68% did not know how many justices sit on the Supreme Court.  The Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania found that only 26% of respondents could name the three branches of government, 37% could not name the rights guaranteed by the first amendment, and 53% thought illegal immigrants had no rights under the U.S. Constitution.

Thursday, December 1, 2022

Indian boarding schools

 



If you are familiar with the Longmire Netflix series titled “Longmire”, you may also be aware that the series is based on 17 novels that author Craig Johnson has released based on the adventures of sheriff Langmire.

 

I picked up his more recent book (“Hell and Back”) at the library recently. The tale is set in the town of Fort Pratt, Montana, which was the site of an Indian boarding school fire in 1896.

If you Google the town name, you’ll also pull up an article about the history of Indian boarding schools in America. Although you can read the entire July 2021 article in the link below, here’s a summary of a few key points:


******************************************************

The Native American children travelled on trains, thousands of miles from their homes, to Pennsylvania’s Carlisle Indian Industrial School in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Many had been forcibly taken from their parents and communities.

Once there, they had to hand over their belongings, put on uniforms, cut off their braids, adopt new names and abandon their languages and cultural practices.

Under teachers in charge of assimilation, the children studied English and memorized the U.S. presidents, reports the Daily Montanan. The rest of the time, they worked on the school grounds or on assignments in neighboring towns.

Some tried to run away. Some married. A few, like Olympic gold medalist Jim Thorpe, had renowned sports careers.

And some never came home, the victims of disease and poor health care, lost to their families. Last month, the Army began disinterring from a military cemetery the remains of 10 children who died between 1880 and 1910 while attending the Pennsylvania school, returning them to their relatives for burial.

The federal government conducted a large-scale drive during nearly a century to assimilate hundreds of thousands of Native American children by removing them from their families and sending them to faraway boarding schools—a painful chapter of U.S. history that Interior Secretary Deb Haaland has directed her agency to investigate.

Haaland, a former member of Congress from New Mexico, is the nation’s first Native American Cabinet secretary and an enrolled member of the Pueblo of Laguna.

Last month, Haaland ordered a federal Indian Boarding School Initiative to recover the histories of the institutions, where she says children endured routine injury and abuse. Native American leaders say the investigation represents a huge step toward acknowledging a devastating loss that has been overlooked by those outside their communities.

In her memo, Haaland said she wants the U.S. investigation to identify the children who attended and their tribal affiliations, along with a particular emphasis on finding records of cemeteries or burial sites connected with the schools that may contain unidentified human remains. Federally run off-reservation schools dotted the West and Midwest, from Arizona to Montana to Michigan to Wisconsin, according to a map created by Dickinson University for a digital resource center for the Carlisle school.

‘Kill the Indian, save the man’

Thousands of students from more than 140 Native American tribes attended the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in its 39 years in operation in southern Pennsylvania. Opened in 1879, it was the first government-run, off-reservation boarding school for Native Americans.

Its founder, Civil War veteran Lt. Col. Richard Henry Pratt, brought a militaristic approach to assimilating Native American children. Pratt said in a speech in 1892: “Kill the Indian in him, and save the man.” His model was to take children at a young age, far from their family, and eradicate their culture.

“One of the main goals was to disrupt the family bonds, the cultural bonds, the language bonds, that’s why you have so many of these schools in so many different places,” said Katrina Phillips, an assistant professor of American and Native American history at Macalester College and a member of the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe.

 

Pratt also saw the schools as a way to assert control over adults in tribes. In a letter he wrote in 1879 to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Pratt said he took the children of tribal leaders to the school because their parents “will be restrained by that fact and invited to seek for themselves a better state of civilization.”

Many more schools would follow the Carlisle model.

The federal government opened 25 federal off-reservation boarding schools. There were more than 300 other schools run by religious groups with support from the government. The schools operated from the late 1800s to the 1960s. The federal government still oversees four off-reservation boarding schools, but families now send their children by choice. The current schools include Native American language and cultural education.

By 1926, nearly 83 percent of Native American school-age children were in the system, according to the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition.

Mass graves in Canada

Halaand’s announcement came amidst two discoveries of mass graves near defunct boarding schools in Canada. She said she was “sick to my stomach” reading news reports about the newly found graves.

The Canadian schools were modeled on those in the United States, but the U.S. government is trailing behind Canada in its investigation. The Canadian government started a truth and reconciliation commission in 2008 to address the legacy of the boarding schools.

Haaland’s memorandum directs the Interior Department to collect historical records, consult with tribes, and deliver a report by next spring.

“Survivors of the traumas of boarding school policies carried their memories into adulthood as they became the aunts and uncles, parents, and grandparents to subsequent generations,” Haaland wrote in her memo. “The loss of those who did not return left an enduring need in their families for answers that, in many cases, were never provided.”

 https://www.ktvq.com/news/national-news/federal-investigation-seeks-to-uncover-painful-history-of-native-american-boarding-schools

Arizona had 47 Indian boarding schools, more than any other state. One of them was less than a mile from what is now Pueblo High school in Tucson, and it was torn down in the early 1960’s to re-emerge as a small shopping center.

 America has a long history of not being kind to the people who were the first inhabitants of the land now know as the United States.

 From 1776 until 1871, the United States signed nearly 400 treaties with Native American tribes, but many of them were violated. The most famous example is the treaty that protected the area surrounding Six Grandfathers Mountain in South Dakota. When gold was discovered in the Black Hills, the treaty was forgotten, and Six Grandfathers Mountain turned into Mount Rushmore.

https://www.acf.hhs.gov/ana/fact-sheet/american-indians-and-alaska-natives-treaties#:~:text=Nearly%20four%20hundred%20treaties%20were,treaties%20with%20the%20Indian%20tribes.

During the 1950’s, the most popular shows on television were westerns, and many of them were fights between cowboys and Indians.

During the 1973 Academy Awards Sacheen Littlefeather (who died earlier this year) represented Marlon Brando, who was declining the award to protest the depiction of Native Americans on television and in movies.

Native Americans did not get the right to vote in federal elections until 1924, but the right was not allowed in a handful states. In Arizona, that year was 1948, which means that when Ira Hayes climbed Mount Suribachi in 1945 with his fellow Marines, he was not allowed to vote in his home state of Arizona. Natives in New Mexico got the right to vote in the same year.





https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/elections/2022/11/04/how-native-people-fought-right-vote-arizona-elections/10652710002/

 

Now that a Native American is head of the Interior Department, it’s likely that some progress will be made to correct the sins of the past, and “Kemosabe” will take on a new meaning.

 

https://owd.tcnj.edu/~hofmann/kemosabe.htm

 

Saturday, November 26, 2022

critical race theory quiz

 

 

For some reason, there seems to be a lot of confusion about critical race theory. In order to help clear up some up that confusion, the 10-question quiz posted below should help you. All of the correct answers are posted at the end of the quiz. Some questions may have more than one answer.

 

ONE -  What IS critical race theory?

 

A - a popular topic on the FOX network

B - a popular talking point in political elections

C - a theoretical framework or paradigm that seeks to uncover the ways that institutional, structural, and systemic racism operate and manifest in peaople’s lives and in society

D - a compilation of rules created by NASCAR to make the sport more competitive

 

TWO  - What was the Indian removal Act?

 

A - an 1830 law that forced removal of Native Americans from Florida and other states to Oklahoma

B -  Legislation that changed the name of Cleveland’s professional baseball team to the Guardians    

C -  Legislation that made the Indian motorcycle brand less competitive than Harley-Davidson motorcycles

D -  Legislation that forced the removal of barbershop Indian statues

 

THREE -  What did Executive Order 9066 do?

A -   Forced relocation of Japanese Americans from their homes to internment camps in WWII.

B -   It was one of 9537 Executive Orders signed by FDR during his 4 terms in office

C -  Authorizing the Governor of the Panama Canal to Furnish Certain Transportation to Persons Engaged for Service on the Isthmus of Panama

D -  It was the 10th Executive Order signed in 1942

 

FOUR -  What was the purpose of the Chinese Exclusion Act?

 

A -  It prevented China becoming a member from being a member of the United Nations

B -  It limited the admission of Chinese nationals to the United States in order to preserve the “good order” of certain locations

C - It prevented the importation of vehicles made in China

D -  It excluded Mandarin from Google Translate

 

FIVE  -  What was the original name for Mount Rushmore?

 

A -  Rocky Top

B - The Six Grandfathers

C - Tȟuŋkášila Šákpe

D -  Big Rock Candy Mountain

 

SIX -    When was the first anti-lunching law passed in the United States?

 

A - 1918

B - 1998

C - 2021

D - 2022

 

SEVEN -  What was the cause of the Tulsa race riots?


A-  The “roaring 20’s prosperity did not result in prosperity to black Americans in Tulsa, and they rioted on May 31, 1921

B -  A Negro man allegedly raped a white elevator operator

C -  it never happened

D -  fans were prevented from attending Donald Trump’s rally on June 20, 2021.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/21/arts/television/watchmen-tulsa-race-riot.html

 

EIGHT -  Who were the Little Rock Nine?


A -  Nine Negro students who integrated Little Rock high school in 1957

B -  The starting lineup for the city’s semi-pro baseball team

C - An Arkansas musical choral group first started n 1940

D -  A stitch in time saved them

 

NINE -  Who was Emmett Till?





 A - 14-year-old Negro boy from Chicago was murdered in Money, Mississippi while vacationing with his cousins

B - A black northern boy who attempted to seduce a white woman

C -  A young man who is buried in the Oak Lawn cemetery in Chicago

D -  His mother was active in the Civil Rights era

 

TEN - Who was John Lewis?

 

A -  A leader in the civil rights movement. His middle initial was R.

B - A representative for Georgia’s Fifth district from 1986 to his death in 2021

C - A founder of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee

D - Former president of the United Mine Workers

 

 Here are the answers:


 1a – a popular topic on FOX – mentioned 1300 times between March and June of 2021

https://www.businessinsider.com/fox-news-critical-race-theory-mentions-thousand-study-2021-6

1b. Glenn Younkin used the topic to get elected, and banned it two hours after taking office

https://nypost.com/2022/01/15/virginia-gov-glenn-youngkin-bans-critical-race-theory-school-mask-rules/

1c. A theoretical framework or paradigm that seeks to uncover the ways that institutional, structural, and systemic racism operate and manifest in people’s lives and in society is Critical Race Theory (CRT) (Bonilla-Silva, 1997; Ladson-Billings, 1998; Solorzano and Yosso, 2000. If is a college level course, and is not taught in lower grade levels in America

https://www.open.edu/openlearn/education-development/race-and-ethnicity-hub/what-critical-race-theory

d. not true at all, but the 7th Generation car WAS designed to make the sport more competitive

2a – On March 28, 1830, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act, beginning the forced relocation of thousands of Native Americans in what became known as the Trail of Tears. Not all members of Congress supported the Indian Removal Act. Tennessee Rep. Davey Crockett was a vocal opponent, for instance. Native Americans opposed removal from their ancestral lands, resulting in a long series of battles with local white settlers. But the forced relocation proved popular with voters. It freed more than 25 million acres of fertilelucrative farmland to mostly white settlement in Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, and Arkansas.

https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/indian-removal-act

2b. the change was made because the former name was considered offensive

2c. no law was passed, but the company found itself unable to compete with Harley-Davidson and other brands. Indian Motorcycle (or Indian) is an American brand of motorcycles owned and produced by American automotive manufacturer Polaris Inc. . Originally produced from 1901 to 1953 in Springfield, Massachusetts, United States, Hendee Manufacturing Company initially produced the motorcycles, but the name was changed to the Indian Motocycle Company in 1923. In 2011, Polaris Industries purchased the Indian motorcycle marque and moved operations from North Carolina and merged them into their existing facilities in Minnesota and Iowa. Since August 2013, Polaris has designed, engineered, and manufactured multiple lines of motorcycles under the Indian Motorcycle brand that reflect Indian's traditional styling.

2d) no law like this was ever passed

 3a) During WWII, the United States  forcibly relocated and incarcerated at least 125,284 people of Japanese descent in 75 identified incarceration sites. Most lived on the Pacific Coast, in concentration camps in the western interior of the country. Approximately two-thirds of the inmates were United States citizens These actions were initiated by president Franklin D. Roosevelt via an executive order shortly after Imperial Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor.

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internment_of_Japanese_Americans

 3b) FDR signed more Executive Orders than any other president

3c) this was actually Executive Order 9064

3d) It was one of 42 Executive Orders signed in January of 1942, but it was not the 10th one signed.

 4a) Although China was not admitted to the United Nations until 1971, the delay was caused by a general distrust of the Chinese communist government.

https://www.thatsmags.com/beijing/post/14107/this-day-in-history-prc-admitted-into-the-un

4b) The Chinese Exclusion Act was approved on May 6, 1882. It was the first significant law restricting immigration into the United States.

In the spring of 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed by Congress and signed by President Chester A. Arthur. This act provided an absolute 10-year ban on Chinese laborers immigrating to the United States. For the first time, federal law proscribed entry of an ethnic

working group on the premise that it endangered the good order of certain localities. The law remained in force until 1965, and it was finally condemned by Congress in 2011.

https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/chinese-exclusion-act

4c) No such law exists, but the first Chinese-made vehicle imported to the United States did not occur until 2015

https://www.thatsmags.com/beijing/post/14107/this-day-in-history-prc-admitted-into-the-un

4d) Mandarin has always been an option on Google Translate

 

5a) It was actually a country song introduced on Christmas Day of 1967       

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_n9prNixjbg

5b) Originally known as The Six Grandfathers, it became Mount Rushmore after a visit by a New York lawyer named Charles Rushmore in 1885.

https://www.history.com/topics/us-presidents/mount-rushmore-1

https://blog.nativehope.org/six-grandfathers-before-it-was-known-as-mount-rushmore

5c) this was the Lakota language translation of The Six Grandfathers

5d) originally a song released in 1928, it is now a resort in the Ozarks of Missouri

 

6a) The first anti-lunching bill was the Dyer Anti-Lynching Law was introduced to Congress on April 1, 1918, but it did not become law

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynching_in_the_United_States

6b) 1998 was the last known lynching in America

6c) Although no one was lynched, gallows was erected on the grounds of the United States Capitol, and participants threatened to hand Mike Pence

6) President Joe Biden signed the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching bill on March 29, 2022

 7a) not true

7b) A black man allegedly raped a white female elevator operator, and white residences destroyed an affluent black community named Greenwood

7c) also not true

7d) there many empty seats in the rented venue, and some attendees contracted COVID. There was at least one death (Herman Cain) as a result of lax preventive measures

 

8a) This was actually true. President Eisenhower had to call in the National Guard to protect them

8b) Arkansas is home to TWO minor league baseball teams

8c) Arkansas is home to ten choral groups

https://www.singers.com/lists/choral-groups/arkansas/

8d) The expression ‘a stitch in time saves nine’ originates from 18th-century England. The original use of the phrase described prompt patching or sewing of small holes or tears in clothing or textile materials. Stitching it as soon as possible prevents the tear or hole from getting bigger, requiring more repair work in the future.

The phrase’s first use refers to saving nine stitches in a repair job. However, this proverbial saying went on to describe any situation where taking immediate action to remedy it results in fewer problems down the road.

 https://english-grammar-lessons.com/a-stitch-in-time-saves-nine-meaning/

9a. this is true

9b. Not true, but it was alleged at the trial of the two men who murdered Till

9c. the casket was originally buried in Oak Lawn cemetery, but is now at the National Museum of African American History and Culture museum in Washington D.C.

9d) Also true. The NAACP asked Mamie Till Bradley to tour the country relating the events of her son's life, death, and the trial of his murderers. It was one of the most successful fundraising campaigns the NAACP had ever conducted. Journalist Louis Lomax acknowledges Till's death to be the start of what he terms the "Negro revolt", and scholar Clenora Hudson-Weems characterizes Till as a "sacrificial lamb" for civil rights. NAACP operative Amzie Moore considers Till the start of the Civil Rights Movement, at the very least, in Mississippi.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmett_Till

 10a. A leader in the civil rights movement

10b. true

10c, also true

10d. Also true, but his middle initial was “L”

https://history.house.gov/People/Detail/16948

 

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_L._Lewis#:~:text=John%20Llewellyn%20Lewis%20was%20an%20American%20leader%20of,the%20CIO%20in%201941%2C%20Lewis%20took%20the%20United

         

 

Here’s the answers:

 

ONE - a, b, and c

TWO -  a

THREE -  a and b

FOUR - b

FIVE - b and c

SIX - d

SEVEN - b

EIGHT - a

NINE - all of them

TEN - a, b, and c


 Scoring:

 

1 or 2 – you own a MAGA hat, and you know what “Let’s go Brandon" really means

3 or 4 – you watch FOX “news” too much

5 or 6 – you are better than average

7 or 8 – when can you start teaching?

9 or 10 – have you considered working for a news network?