Women in the US Navy – July 30, 1942

                               Recruiting posters, 1940s. On this day – July 30, 1942 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a bill creating a women’s auxiliary agency in the US Navy known as Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service – WAVES. Mildred McAfee, President of Wellesley College in Massachusetts, was sworn in as…

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Medicare Signed into Law ~ July 30, 1965

President Lyndon Johnson signing the Medicare amendment. Former President Harry S. Truman and his wife Bess are on the far right. Truman recieved the first Medicare card. On this day July 30, 1965 President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Medicare bill into law. Congress created Medicare under Title XVIII of…

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Folk Festival Notes

We were lucky about the weather, given the unsettled skies all weekend. Twenty-six years later, the event feels more like a street festival than a music and dance festival, which is fine. The audience is determining what the experience will be. Food from around the world, sidewalk entertainers, storefront buzz,…

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2012 Lowell Folk Festival

The 2012 Lowell Folk Festival ended several hours ago and I want to record my observations before they fade. My vantage point was different this year. I had volunteered to staff the Elizabeth Warren information table in the Free Speech area in front of Lowell City Hall. I was there…

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Meanderings by Jim Peters

Frequent contributor Jim Peters shares this essay: I was watching television this evening, the news on ABC to be exact, and Michael Bloomberg, the Mayor of the City of New York was featured for a new program in the city. Bloomberg has, apparently, dictated that new mothers be given a…

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Leymah Gbowee Carries Olympic Flag in Opening Ceremony: Nobel Peace Prize Recipient and 2011 UMass Lowell Greeley Peace Scholar

From the NYTimes: Meanwhile, back at the stadium, the Olympic flag was carried along the track by eight humanitarians, including Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general, and Leymah Gbowee, who shared the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize. Once they made a half-circuit of the stadium, they met a frail-looking Muhammad…

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