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Author Archives: Bennett Minton
The Oregon Trail in 63 photos
To complement the narratives I posted here over the fall, I selected 63 shots from my drive east from Portland to Independence, Missouri, sometimes more and other times less following the Oregon Trail, in reverse. The Trail, which branched into … Continue reading
Three presidents and forks in the road: two steps forward and . . . .
On a sunny afternoon in November, I walked up to the Lincoln Memorial and felt a lump rise in my throat, as it has on this transcontinental trek in other places that represent human triumph and suffering: South Pass in … Continue reading
Posted in Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Jackson, slavery, Thirteenth Amendment, Thomas Jefferson, Uncategorized
Tagged Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Jackson, Andrew Jackson's Hermitage, Jefferson Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Lincoln Second Inaugural Address, Monticello, slavery, Springfield Race Riot, The 1619 Project, Thomas Jefferson
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Pilgrimage to Montgomery
In Charlottesville, I happened by a bright blue plaque on what was until recently Jackson Park, named for Stonewall Jackson. Also until recently, the park featured an equestrian statue of Jackson, installed 100 years ago, after Paul Goodloe McIntire deeded … Continue reading
Lexington vignette
The campuses of Washington & Lee University and Virginia Military Institute abut each other. W&L looks like a classical college: Roman Revival architecture, painted red brick, white columns. Stately. The main road through W&L runs north past the Colonnade, its … Continue reading
Eastward Ho—to Independence
The second half of my Oregon Trail journey, west to east, began at Riverton, Wyoming, on the Mississippi side of the Continental Divide, where the Rendezvous of 1838 took place. The Rendezvous was an annual convention in the wilderness for … Continue reading
Posted in Manifest Destiny, Oregon Trail, Uncategorized
Tagged Brigham Young, Brown v Board, Devil's Gate, Guernsey Ruts, Homestead Act, Oregon Trail
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At South Pass on the Oregon Trail
I had imagined this day as the climax of my Oregon Trail-in-reverse, the one on which I would cross the Continental Divide at South Pass, the 20-mile-wide flat in the Wyoming Rockies that trapper Robert Stuart “discovered” in 1812 and … Continue reading
Posted in Manifest Destiny, Oregon Trail, Uncategorized
Tagged Jim Bridger, Oregon Trail, South Pass, Treaty of Fort Bridger
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The Oregon Trail, updated
As a history student and native of the South, I’ve spent most of my life immersed in our Peculiar region, the soil in which the blood of Black and White was mixed. The foundation of American capitalism was slavery, and … Continue reading
Posted in Manifest Destiny, Oregon Trail, Uncategorized
Tagged Oregon Black exclusion law, Oregon Trail
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Lobbyists parachute into Portland to protect federal tax break
Text of my letter published in the August 30 Tax Notes Federal, a policy journal that covers Congress. (I was a congressional correspondent and later news editor in the 1990s.) Portland, Oregon, is a continent away from the backroom deals … Continue reading
After watering our parched gardens, we offered an accounting
Dear Tax Fairness Oregon Supporters: We have been remiss in our correspondence with you. As our steering committee spent the legislative session plowing through bills and testifying on 41 of them (some more than once), we didn’t set aside time … Continue reading
Posted in Oregon taxes, taxes, Uncategorized
Tagged mortgage interest deduction, Tax Fairness Oregon, taxes, timber taxes
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Penance for a former influence peddler
The national news is depressing, with one party—and its Supreme Court majority—determined to prevent voters it doesn’t like (and doesn’t want) from participating in democracy. So I bang my head against the wall (on Zoom) in Salem, my state capital, … Continue reading
Posted in Tax, Uncategorized
Tagged CARES Act, COVID response, Oregon Legislature
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Transformational Citizenship 