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JANUARY 12, 2011
CELEBRATING
MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. DAY FULBRIGHT SCHOLARS SEEK MUTUAL UNDERSTANDING
24 DRESSES FIRST LADIES GOWNS
AMERICAN PATRIOT FULBRIGHT SCHOLARS SEEK MUTUAL UNDERSTANDING
4 8 24 DRESSES FIRST LADIES GOWNS
6 MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. DAY
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AMERICA’S FUN FOODS
CHINESE CUISINE EXCLUSIVE DISCOUNT REMINDER
AMERICAN PATRIOT SUBSCRIBERS
THE LEGACY OF GEORGE WASHINGTON CARVER
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14 QUOTE OF THE WEEK
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15 THIS WEEK IN AMERICAN HISTORY
FULBRIGHT SCHOLARS SEEK MUTUAL UNDERSTANDING 4 AMERICAN PATRIOT
Seventeen hundred Fulbright Scholars have been newly minted for 2011. The Fulbright program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government, and is designed to increase mutual understanding between Americans and the people of other countries. Over the years, nearly 300,000 students, scholars, teachers, artists, and scientists have participated. The program was established in legislation introduced by the late U.S. Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas in 1945 and signed into law by President Harry Truman in 1946. Senator Fulbright’s idea — born in the postwar rubble of World War II — was that a cross-cultural exchange ideas and information among young people of merit would lead to peace, understanding and progress. Winners of the Fulbright Scholarship are selected on the basis of academic or professional achievement, and demonstrated leadership potential in their fields. The primary source of funding for the Fulbright program is an annual appropriation made by Congress to the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Participating governments and host institutions, corporations and foundations also provide direct and indirect support. The Program operates in over 155 countries worldwide. Fulbright alumni have achieved distinction in government, science, the arts, business, philanthropy, education, and athletics. Forty Fulbright alumni from 11 countries have been awarded the Nobel Prize, and 75 alumni have received Pulitzer Prizes. Famous Fulbright scholars include economist Joseph Stieglitz, composer Philip Glass, actor John Lithgow and opera singer Renee Fleming.
The Fulbright program is best known in this country for its grants for U.S. students — graduating seniors, graduate students, young professionals and artists — to study abroad for one academic year. But it also includes grants for foreign graduate students, young professionals and artists from abroad to conduct research and study in America. This year, students from Germany top the list. There are, in addition, specific grant programs for teachers, professionals, expert consultants, and mid-careerists. Fulbright recipients are among more than 40,000 individuals participating in State Department exchange programs each year. For more than 60 years, the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs has funded and supported programs that seek to promote mutual understanding and respect between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. The Fulbright U.S. Student Program is administered by the Institute of International Education.
CLICK HERE FOR A LIST OF U.S. SCHOOLS AND INSTITUTIONS THAT PRODUCED THE MOST 2010 FULBRIGHT SCHOLARS
AMERICAN PATRIOT 5
U.S. HOLIDAYS
MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. DAY 6 AMERICAN PATRIOT
This relatively recent holiday is one of only four United States Federal Holidays to commemorate an individual. Observed on the third Monday of January each year, it honors Reverend King who, almost needless to say, was the chief spokesperson for the civil rights movement and non-violent activism to achieve it. King was assassinated in 1968, which bound him forever in the minds of Americans with the similar deaths of John and Robert Kennedy. This year’s celebration takes place January 17. Last year, the holiday took on a special meaning as President-elect Barack Obama spent his preInaugural evening as a volunteer at a youth homeless shelter as part of his 2009 Martin Luther King Day observance. The campaign for a federal holiday in King’s honor began soon after his assassination. The positive reasons for the holiday were obvious. Two arguments by opponents — that a paid holiday for federal employees would be too expensive and that a holiday to honor a private citizen would be contrary to longstanding tradition — slowed the process. But public and corporate sentiment supported the move and six million signatures were collected on a petition to Congress, said to be the largest petition in favor of an issue in American history, in support of the law. Ronald Reagan signed the holiday into law in 1983 in a White House Rose Garden ceremony, and it was first observed in 1986. The bill established the Martin Luther King, Jr. Federal Holiday Commission to oversee observance of the holiday, and Coretta Scott King — the widow of the honoree — was made a member
of this commission for life by President George Bush, the elder. The holiday is widely observed with a day off for schools, businesses and nonprofits, educational lesson plans are built around King’s teachings and the history of the civil rights movement in the United States, and it is celebrated by many individuals and groups as a day of service.
CLICK HERE TO HEAR MARTIN LUTHER KING’S SIGNATURE ‘I HAVE A DREAM’ SPEECH
AMERICAN PATRIOT 7
HOW TO
LIVE UNITED: JOIN HANDS. OPEN YOUR HEART. LEND YOUR MUSCLE.
FIND YOUR VOICE. GIVE 10%. GIVE 100%.
GIVE 110%. GIVE AN HOUR. GIVE A SATURDAY. THINK OF WE BEFORE ME. REACH OUT A HAND TO ONE AND
INFLUENCE THE CONDITION OF ALL.
GIVE. ADVOCATE. VOLUNTEER.
LIVE UNITED
™
Want to make a difference? Help create opportunities for everyone in your community. United Way is creating real, lasting change where you live, by focusing on the building blocks of a better life– education, income and health. That’s what it means to Live United. For more, visit LIVEUNITED.ORG.
24 DRESSES FIRST LADIES GOWNS
8 AMERICAN PATRIOT
The one-shoulder, white chiffon gown first lady Michelle Obama wore to the inaugural balls is now on display at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History. In so doing, Mrs. Obama followed tradition by donated the gown to the first ladies collection. Designed by James Wu of New York, the beaded dress was a star attraction at 10 inaugural balls held to celebrate President Barack Obama's swearing-in. dresses and more than 100 other objects. These include portraits, White House china, personal possessions and related objects. For nearly a century, the First Ladies Collection has been one of the most popular attractions at the Smithsonian Institution. Among the other gowns that can be seen are those worn by Grace Coolidge, Jackie Kennedy, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Helen Taft.
MICHELLE OBAMA AND JAMES WU IN THE NEW SMITHSONIAN GALLERY PHOTOGRAPH: HUGH TALMAN, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
The gown appears in a new gallery recently added to the museum’s “First Ladies at the Smithsonian” exhibition. This new gallery includes 11 gowns worn by first ladies from Mamie Eisenhower to Michelle Obama. Combined with the original gallery, the First Ladies exhibition now features a total of 24
To bring the exhibit up to modern times, the new gallery focuses sharply on the First Lady's contribution to the presidency and American society, to the public interest and media coverage of the first ladies’ “debut” during inaugurations, and includes contemporary accounts of first impressions of each woman and the role she might play in the White House. Also included are watercolor sketches of 14 gowns from the collection. CLICK HERE TO SEE AN ONLINE EXHIBIT OF THE GOWNS
AMERICAN PATRIOT 9
AMERICA’S FUN FOODS
CHINESE-AMERICAN CUISINE
10 AMERICAN PATRIOT
Like many immigrant groups, the Chinese faithfulness to their cuisine was key to maintaining cultural identity in the New World. The Chinese cooking tradition is one of the world's oldest and most nuanced, its roots varied by province but consistent in its adaption to the American taste. As with the songs, speech, dress and traditions, cuisine too becomes meshed with the greater American culture. What many Americans do not know is just how far back in history Chinese-American cuisine can be traced. The hybrid cuisine can be traced as early as the 1870's — predating the hotdog and hamburger by ten years, and the national boom of fast food chop suey restaurants took place a full three decades before McDonald’s started franchising. When the Chinese first came to America, were compelled by circumstances into kitchen work. As the Chinese spread out from west to east, the spread of Chop Suey — a derivation of “shap sui” or “odds and ends” — followed. It was the inventiveness of Chinese chefs, forced to cook in their style but with American ingredients and for American tastes, that led to the combination of bean sprouts, chicken gizzards, liver, beef tripe, dried fish, pork, chicken, onions, celery, bamboo shoots, and essentially whatever else was available. While chefs were cooking for the rail workers in the Midwest, curious bohemians in New York were discovering the dish. Adventure-seeking poets and writers would travel to lower Manhattan to sample exotic Chinese dishes, and wrote enthusiastically about them. Before long, the East was peppered with Chop Suey houses. By the 1920's, Chop Suey was among the nation's most popular dishes.
In the following decades, this simple dish would cede to the more diverse menu choices seen today. The restaurant trade remains a bulwark of economic opportunity for Chinese newcomers. On the whole, the cuisine known to Americans as “Chinese” has evolved to barely resemble traditional Chinese cooking. Vegetables in particular are utilized quite differently; in the ChineseAmerican style, vegetables are essentially garnish rather than the central ingredient. Meat is marinated, spiced, and fried to maximize speed and cross-utilization in several dishes, unlike the slowcook method of the Chinese. Some dishes are relatively new. General Tso’s Chicken was invented in the 1970s in New York. Egg Rolls are quite old, but the American take is a recent creation. Egg Foo Young arose in the mid-20th century and then become extinct. Culturally, Chinese-American cuisine has had a marked impact on American culture. The origins of the modern take out restaurant can be traced to chop suey shacks as much as to burger stands. The industry streamlined cooking processes and pioneered home delivery. Many Americans today celebrate holidays with Chinese food. BASIC PREPARATION FOR COOKING CHINESE
AMERICAN PATRIOT 11
THE LEGACY OF
GEORGE WASHINGTON CARVER 12 AMERICAN PATRIOT
An American agricultural scientist, George Washington Carver helped revolutionize agriculture in the South through the development of new products derived from peanuts, sweet potatoes, and soybeans. Born during the Civil War as a slave, he lived until World War II, he help free Southern agriculture from the single-crop tyranny of cotton. Carver was the son of a slave woman owned by
mercial possibilities of the peanut and sweet
Moses Carver. Frail and sick, the orphaned child
potato through a clever program of laboratory
remained in his former master’s home after the
research at Tuskegee. Over his lifetime, he de-
Civil War and was nursed back to health. He
veloped 300 derivative products from peanuts
left at the age of 12 to seek an education, de-
and more than 100 from sweet potatoes. By
veloped a deep interest in plants, and got a
1940, the peanut was the second cash crop,
fragmentary education while wandering and
after cotton, in the South, and among the top
doing odd jobs. In his late 20s, he finally earned
six nationwide.
a high school education, and ultimately college and graduate degrees from Iowa State University.
Late in his career, he received many honors, including visits from Calvin Coolidge, Franklin
Carver joined Tuskegee Normal and Industrial
Roosevelt, Henry Ford and Mohandas K. Gandhi.
Institute in 1896 to direct the agriculture de-
He also donated his life savings to create the
partment. The school was headed by noted black
Carver Research Foundation at Tuskegee for
educator Booker T. Washington. At Tuskegee,
continuing research in agriculture. Despite these
Carver devoted his time to research projects
achievements, he was often criticized by African
aimed at helping Southern agriculture diversify.
American groups for being too conciliatory to
At this time, Southern agriculture was in serious
the harsh racial policies of the South and by
trouble because of the single-crop domination
scientists for being more of a chemist and cook
of cotton, which was vulnerable to disease and
than a true scientific mind. Most historians
was exhausting the soil.
generally emphasize how his inventions and insights helped millions of people.
Carver urged Southern farmers to plant peanuts and soybeans, which restore nitrogen to the
CLICK HERE TO SEE A PHOTO ALBUM OF CARVER’S LIFE
soil while providing protein to the poor of the region. Carver then set about enlarging the com-
AMERICAN PATRIOT 13
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals. — MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
14 AMERICAN PATRIOT
THIS WEEK IN
AMERICAN HISTORY
1908. Grand Canyon was declared a national monument this week in 1908. Teddy Roosevelt was the prime mover behind the proclamation. A vigilant preservationist and nature lover, President Teddy Roosevelt pioneered America’s modern vision of national land conservation. In 2011, Americans think of the Grand Canyon as one of our national treasures, but for much of the nineteenth-century, the Grand Canyon was exposed to mining activity and other land destruction. In 1903, then-President Roosevelt visited the site and was moved by the experience; in a speech he made while looking over the Grand Canyon, he said: “Leave it as it is. You cannot improve on it. The ages have been at work on it, and man can only mar it.”
AMERICAN PATRIOT 15
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