Recent presidential candidates from both political parties can take advice from former presidents Grover Cleveland and Thomas Jefferson as to how to respond to alleged sexual indiscretions. “Tell the truth,” they would say, “but silence may ultimately prove disastrous.” The election of 1884 pitted Democrat Grover Cleveland against Republican James G. Baine. The campaign turned [...]
By Bod Diamond.... Inspired by the immortal words of Thomas Jefferson in his Declaration of Independence that “All men are created equal,” Toussaint Louverture, Haiti’s founding father, began a slave insurrection against France in 1791 that was to last for 13 years. Toussaint asked President John Adams for aid for the same liberty that had [...]
By Bod Diamond.... Bob Diamond The presidential candidate pleaded for “greater civility in political discourse by both the media and the political parties.” Those were not the words of Herman Cain concerning recent allegations, but were said by Andrew Jackson, during the poisonous, scurrilous presidential campaign in 1828. According to presidential historian William A. DeGregorio, [...]
Two outstanding historical authors raised similar issues involving the Jews with a devastating conclusion - Jews were blamed for the Protestant Revolution. Max I Dimont (The Jews in America) questioned, “How had the Jews – who fathered Moses, Isaiah and Maimonides – end up in the ghettos of Europe?” Worldwide best-selling author William L. Shirer [...]
By Bob Diamond.... According to the American Jewish Historical Society, Judaism is foundational to the history of Mormonism. Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism in 1830, proclaimed that his followers were direct descendants of the ancient Hebrews, with the tenth Article of Faith of Mormonism proclaiming. “We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and [...]
By Bob Diamond.... Although the Nazis had murdered six million Jews and burned their books, schools and synagogues, the suffering of Europe’s displaced Jews did not end with the Allied victory in 1945. Hundreds of thousands of Jews, homeless and unwelcome in their native countries, lived under poor conditions in displaced persons camps (DP) operated [...]
By Bob Diamond.... With one outstanding exception, presidential candidate Michele Bachmann was wrong in her statement that our Founding Fathers did everything they could to end slavery. The revolutionary generation, with all of their extraordinary talent, could “neither solve nor face the issue of slavery.” They not only wrote slavery into our Constitution, but they [...]
By Bob Diamond.... In 1946, I went to Newark’s Laurel Gardens to see heavily favored Bronx middleweight contender Joey La Motta fight Freddy Flores, a 3 to 1 underdog from Puerto Rico. Joey’s brother, middleweight contender Jake “Raging Bull,’ was not scheduled to appear on the card that night but that didn’t stop him from [...]
By Bob Diamond.... Woodrow Wilson, rated one of our greatest presidents, was a man of inner conflict. Son of a Presbyterian minister, Wilson used the presidency to preach Christian concepts of morality. There was another side to Wilson that was not so virtuous. Married in 1885, Wilson and his beloved wife Ellen had three daughters. [...]
By Bob Diamond.... Bob Diamond My good friend Joey La Motta recently told me a heretofore unrevealed true story involving his brother Jake “Raging Bull” La Motta, one of the world’s greatest middleweight fighters in the 1940-50 era. The fight on May 4, 1950 in Syracuse, New York was intended as an easy tune up [...]
By Bob Diamond.... Presidential biographer John E. Ferling wrote that George Washington engaged in a “rather shadowy love affair with another woman during his marriage to Martha.” Washington revealed an intimate part of his personality in correspondence, “When once the woman has tempted us and we have tasted the forbidden fruit, there is no such [...]
By Bob Diamond.... Thomas Jefferson was insanely jealous of the successful oratorical skills in court by his fellow Virginia attorney Patrick Henry. Jefferson had spent years preparing for the practice of law under Virginia’s outstanding attorney George Wythe, whereas Henry became a lawyer without any legal training or preparation. It is questionable if Henry ever [...]
By Bob Diamond.... I shocked my “First Ladies” history class years ago at FIU, Elders Institute in response to the question as to my personal favorite First Lady? “Grace Coolidge,” I answered, “wife of Calvin Coolidge. She lit up the room with the sunshine of her personality.” Raised in Vermont, Grace, after graduating from college, [...]
