Author Archives: Philip E Jenks

My Lenten devotional reading this season has been Candice Millard’s Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine & the Murder of a President. It may be difficult for some to see the murder of President James A. Garfield … Continue reading →

Every time it rains it rains pennies from heaven. Don’t you know each cloud contains pennies from heaven? You’ll find your fortune’s fallin’ all over the town, Be sure that your umbrella is upside down. The number of pennies discarded … Continue reading →

  Port Chester, N.Y., January 12, 2016 – January 12 was a Friday in 1968. I had been looking forward to the day for months because the Air Force said that was the day I would return to the U.S. after a three-year tour … Continue reading →

Thanks to brother Paul Jenks and sister Colleen Jenks for this very special Christmas gift. The Weeds were my mother Mary’s great-grandparents. As I recall the family story, the elderly Mary Weed lived for a time with Mom’s parents on … Continue reading →

This fall some Princeton University students uncovered one of the worst kept secrets in American history: Woodrow Wilson, the 28th president of the United States, was a racist. If these students had grown up reading Howard Zinn or Richard Shenkman, this … Continue reading →

Treasury Secretary Jack Loo has announced a woman’s face will appear on U.S. paper currency in 2020 to commemorate the centennial of women’s suffrage. It’s about time. Now begins the debate about which woman should be on the money, and … Continue reading →

Reprinted from Senior Correspondent. By Philip E. Jenks “No human race is superior. No religious faith is inferior. All collective judgments are wrong. Only racists make them.” – Eliezer Wiesel. An ugly thread twists like a lethal snake through our … Continue reading →

By Philip E. Jenks July 28, 2015 – Harold Wilke stared thoughtfully into his coffee cup and swirled the dark liquid in a gentle arc. It was the 1980s, and we were sitting together at the head table of an … Continue reading →

Southern heritage has been on the hot seat recently. In South Carolina, politicians are forced to recognize the Confederate flag for what it is, an icon of white supremacy and racism. And in the literary world, fans of Harper Lee’s … Continue reading →