Granted

This weekend two million students who attend land-grant universities returned from Thanksgiving break. A few short days later will mark the end of Native American Heritage month.

I suspect that most of these students, like I once was until recently, are oblivious to the connection.

A few years ago, I was granted the opportunity and honor to give the commencement address at my alma mater, Penn State University. …


Histories

“Who lives, who dies, who tells your story?”  This lyric from the final song in Hamilton, captures not only an important question about our history but also about our present.

There are different versions of our histories – within our families, our institutions, our country and our world.

In many ways, it is less important to reconcile our complicated personal and national histories than it is to at least spend some time examining them.