history

Dwight Eisenhower was a distant relative of mine by marriage. His brother, Roy, married Edna Shade who was related to the Eckhoff family. My mother’s mother was an Eckhoff. I have been collecting material about ‘Ike’ for about 40 years and finally published an article in a peer-reviewed journal, Kansas History, on his religious upbringing. My article was given the Edgar Langsdorf Award for superior writing, as determined by a panel of judges appointed by the Kansas Historical Foundation.

My library includes a book showing Israel from the air. Much of it looks indistinguishable from the Moon’s surface, causing me to wonder “why would anyone fight over such a worthless piece of land?” Of course, the Israelites have done wonders with the land, converting much of it into a verdant paradise. Israeli land near the water is quite fertile, but much of the rest is not.

I previously wrote a column documenting that, as a result of our technological developments, America has revolutionized the world. American inventions include the record player, telegraph, telephone, electric light bulb, television, tape recorder, motion-picture projector, electrification of the nation (before this time the only source of electricity was by large, inefficient, batteries), mass production assembly line, MRI (magnetic resonance imaging), most vaccines, to list a few of hundreds of examples.

The Ohio constitution amendment, which guaranteed women’s right to “make and carry out one's own reproductive decisions,” passed with a 57% majority. It was the seventh straight victory in statewide votes for supporters of free-abortion access nationally since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned constitutional protections. Specifically it says that every woman