David Richardson has a M.A. in History from CSU, Fresno and has taught history in community colleges for 30 years.
Just a few years ago, I was beginning to believe that I had reached a point in my life where I might be ready to slow down. After almost six decades on the planet, I had overcome the obstacles of my youth and after more than three decades, I had achieved a level of education, […]
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As a new academic year begins, one hero’s journey has ended. Recently as I checked my email, I was stunned and saddened to see that one of my longtime work colleagues had died in a tragic auto accident. I had worked with this person for the past twenty-three years, and while other colleagues and friends […]
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Editor’s Note: The following is a public comment sent by Professor David Richardson to the leadership of his community college system, the State Center Community College District in central California. It has been lightly edited for readability. Board of Trustees, College Presidents & Chancellor, Thank you for allowing me to offer a public comment on the […]
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In February 1988, as the world watched the Calgary Winter Olympics, the youngest child of a middle-class American family, whose father was a law enforcement officer and whose mother was a nurse, headed north to compete for the United States. Dan Jansen had taken up speed skating as a child, inspired by his older sister, […]
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In 1956, then-Senator John F. Kennedy was presumed to have written a short book of biographical essays which chronicled the stories of eight U.S. senators who at times of potential crisis in American government defied conventional wisdom and made unpopular but right decisions. In some cases, these decisions cost them their political careers. He won […]
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Editor’s Note: The following is the second in a series of satirical articles loosely inspired by C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters. To read Part I, click here. PART II: THE YEAR 2029 OC (Old Calendar) Prologue: In the year 2024, after Congress created the new states of Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin […]
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In February 1974, on the day of his last arrest by the Soviet government, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn released the text of what was to be his final essay written in his homeland for twenty years, “Live Not By Lies.” The next day, he was stripped of his citizenship, deported from the Soviet Union to West Germany, […]
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On the evening of April 26, 1777, John Adams sat down at his desk to write one of his innumerable letters to his wife, Abigail. By the time he wrote this letter, the initial euphoria of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence and the evacuation of the British troops from Boston the year prior […]
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Twenty years ago, when Hollywood still made movies to entertain and when the Academy Awards were based on talent and appeal instead of an “inclusion scorecard,” Jude Law starred in a compelling if not entirely historically accurate film called Enemy at the Gates. It followed a young Vasily Zaitsev during the Battle of Stalingrad as […]
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A Commitment to Academic Freedom for All! Almost a quarter of a century ago, I was hired as the first full-time, tenure-track history instructor at a small, rural campus in central California. At the time, I was told that our campus was in line to become the next independent community college in California. It took […]
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On July 18th, 2020, the New York Times Sunday Review published an opinion piece by Ms. Rebecca Martinson, a public school teacher from northwestern Washington, on how afraid she was that she might be asked to return to the classroom this fall as the COVID pandemic continued to ravage the country. She started her piece with […]
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If anyone had told me thirty years ago, when I was earning my master’s degree in history from California State University, Fresno, that someday, I would be starting an online petition to try and save the newly erected statue of Gandhi in the Fresno State Peace Garden, I would have thought they were crazy would […]
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