A chat with Leslie Eastman about 2020 and other stories

A chat with Leslie Eastman about 2020 and other stories 09/17 by Silvio Canto Jr | Politics:

Guest: Leslie Eastman, contributor to Legal Insurrection.......We will discuss the latest on the CoronaVirus, California fires and the latest from the political world and other stories...click to listen:

Thursday’s video: Alternatives to public education?

 

Thursday’s video:

Alternatives to public education?

Click to watch: pic.twitter.com/1Wc46LLcuw

— Silvio Canto, Jr. (@SCantojr) September 17, 2020

One more reason that home schooling is growing

Over time, I have spoken to several parents who teach their kids at home.  Over and over, I hear two primary reasons for their decision.  First, we can’t afford a private school.  Second, we  want to make sure that our kids get a round education,especially history.

Yesterday, I learned this:   

Almost two-thirds of young American adults do not know that 6 million Jews were killed during the Holocaust, and more than one in 10 believe Jews caused the Holocaust, a new survey has found, revealing shocking levels of ignorance about the greatest crime of the 20th century.

According to the study of millennial and Gen Z adults aged between 18 and 39, almost half (48%) could not name a single concentration camp or ghetto established during the second world war.

Almost a quarter of respondents (23%) said they believed the Holocaust was a myth, or had been exaggerated, or they weren’t sure. One in eight (12%) said they had definitely not heard, or didn’t think they had heard, about the Holocaust.

How did this happen?  I guess that this is what they’ve been taught in schools.  What else could it be?

It wasn’t always this way.  Once upon a time, we taught students about World War II and how U.S. forces liberated concentration camps.  

What are they teaching now?  I don’t know, but many young people between 18 and 39 have no clue about the Holocaust.

I guess that the 2020 election matters even more than I thought!

P.S.  You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.

It’s a good thing that more and more Cuban ‘Pedro Pan’ children are telling their stories

It’s an amazing story and it involved Cuban children from 5 to 18 years old. From 1960 to 1962, parents took their children to the airport, put them on plane, and waved goodbye. 

We now call it “Operation Pedro Pan” and the numbers were staggering, according to Operation Pedro Pan Group, Inc:

“From December 1960 to October 1962, more than fourteen thousand Cuban youths arrived alone in the United States.

What is now known as Operation Pedro Pan was the largest recorded exodus of Unaccompanied minors in the Western Hemisphere. The exodus of the Cuban children was virtually unknown for over 30 years.

Msgr. Bryan O. Walsh who is considered the Father of our Exodus states that the name had only appeared in print in March of '62 and in a Reader’s Digest article in 1988.”

Over time, “los Pedro Pans,” as they are affectionately known in the Cuban American community, were integrated into US life. In most cases, they became successful citizens of the US.

Over the last few years, many of these “Pedro Pan” have decided to write down their stories.  It probably started with Carlos Eire’s “Waiting for snow in Havana” and followed by a series of books, such as one called “Cuba adios” by Lorenzo Martinez. My friend Victor Triay also wrote about it. 

These books serve important objectives:

1. they remind us of our parents and their sacrifices;
2. they show the incredible generosity of Americans all over who helped these youngsters settle in new towns and cities very far from the tropical winds of Cuba;
3. they provide reading material to the young Cuban Americans born in the US.  Many of them are in high school or college and could use these books to get closer to their Cuban grandparents; and,
4. they will allow future historians, in a hopefully free Cuba, get the background information about the Cuban immigration of the 1960's and 1970's. I’m not sure how much Cubans in the island know “the exile story,” especially the sacrifice of a coming to a new land.  

I’m thrilled that more and more Cubans are telling their stories. It’s amazing how similar and different they are.

P.S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.