Articles by Steven Gilchrist

Boston, MA. - At the Massachusetts State House there is a plaque dedicated to Jeremiah O'Brien an American naval officer. O'Brien (1744 - 1818) was born in Kittery, a province of Massachusetts Bay Colony. O'Brien was a Captain for the colonists in the first naval conflict during the American Revolution. He was also the first regularly commissioned naval officer and commander of the Revolutionary Navy of Massachusetts. Jeremiah O'Brien plaque - Massachusetts State House

For the past several decades in the United States, wages for average American workers have stagnated. However, while the wages for average workers have flatlined; compensation for American executives have significantly increased over the past several decades.  Currently, the federal minimum wage in the United States is $7.25 per hour. At $14 per hour, the state of California has the highest minimum wage of any state in the U.S. In California, the $14/hr. rate pertains to only large employers. At $15/hr. only Washington, D.C. has a higher minimum wage than California.  According to U.S. News & World Report, in 2021, 25 states will see a minimum wage increase. According to research from the Economic Policy Institute, the rapid rise in CEO wages in the United States has caused increased economic inequality. The significant increase in CEO salaries started in the 1970s. In the 1960s and 1970s the ratio of CEO pay compared to that of a typical worker was 20- or 30-to-1. In rec...

PROVIDENCE, RI. -  Lo cated along the Providence River next to Dyer Street, the Rhode Island Beirut Memorial pays tribute to the United States Marines from the state of Rhode Island who died in the Lebanon & Grenada conflicts in 1983. United States Marines were part of a group of 241 Marines, sailors, and soldiers who died after a bombing at the Marine Corps barracks in Beirut, Lebanon. The Marines were in Beirut on a peacekeeping mission during the Lebanese Civil War. The Beirut bombing on October 23, 1983, was the single deadliest day for the U.S. Marine Corps since the D-Day invasion of Iwo Jima in 1945 during World War II. The Beirut bombing was also the deadliest day for Rhode Island service members since the Civil War. The memorial includes a plaque with the names of ten Marines from Rhode Island who died in service to their country. A quote on the memorial reads: "In memory of these Rhode Island Marines who sacrificed their lives in Lebanon and Grenada."  Provi...

Boston, MA. - From July 1, 1943 - December 31, 1948, the United States Cadet Nurse Corps (CNC) was a program that existed to alleviate the nursing shortage that was occurring in the United States created by World War II. The establishment of the CNC was authorized by the U.S. Congress on June 15, 1943 and the signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.  Of the 179,294 student nurses that enrolled in the program nationwide, 124,065 graduated from participating nursing schools. At the Massachusetts State House in Boston, there is a commemorative plaque which pays tribute to the U.S. CNC. This plaque was dedicated on July 1, 2020 by the Friends of the U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps WWII.  More than 9,000 women from Massachusetts trained and served in the CNC program.   A February 6, 1945 quote from U.S. Surgeon General Thomas Parran, Jr. appears on the plaque. The quote reads: "We cannot measure what the loss to the country would have been if civilian nursing services collap...

The federal government does not currently have accurate records on how many civilians are killed by police officers annually in the U.S. However, since 2015, The Washington Post has been tracking police shootings of civilians nationwide. Also, the advocacy group Mapping Police Violence maintains a database of police killings of civilians. According to Mapping Police Violence, from 2013 – 2020, 98.3% of police killings of civilians have not resulted in officers being charged with a crime. The state of California has one of the highest rates of police-civilian shootings in the country. In 2018, lawmakers in California worked to create legislation to make police misconduct records available to the public and to require police departments to release body camera footage. In addition to being the most populous state in the U.S., California has more police shootings than any other state. On average, there are about 100 to 200 civilians in California who are killed by police every year. In...

The United Nations has described ongoing social unrest in Burma (also known as Myanmar) involving the Rohingya community as a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing.” The Rohingya Muslims represent the largest percentage of Muslims in Burma. In August 2017 the Burmese army attacked several Rohingya Muslims, the majority of whom live in the Rakhine state. The coordinated attacks against Rohingya civilians caused over 740,000 people to leave the southeast Asian country into Bangladesh as refugees. Contrary to the reports by the United Nations pertaining to violence against the Rohingya, Burmese officials deny targeting civilians. Burmese officials have countered these claims by saying that the Burmese military has been targeting their efforts to fight against the Rohingya militant group known as the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA). The Rohingya refugees started fleeing to Bangladesh on August 25, 2017 after ARSA militants launched attacks against more than 30 police posts. The S...

Portland, ME. – At 78 acres the Eastern Promenade is the largest developed park in Portland, Maine. The Promenade was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and John Olmsted. The Promenade includes a community garden, a multi-use trail, and scenic views of the Casco Bay. Another feature of the Eastern Promenade is a memorial dedicated to Corporal Jacob Cousins. Cousins, who was an Army soldier, died on October 14, 1918 less than a month before the conclusion of World War I. During World War I, approximately 250,000 Jewish soldiers served in the United States military. 3,500 of the Jewish soldiers who served died in the war. Jacob Cousins bronze plaque - Portland, ME. The boulder memorial dedicated to Cousins includes a bronze plaque which reads: “This boulder erected by the Jacob Cousins Post No. 99 Portland, Maine of the Jewish War Veterans of the United States to the memory of Corporal Jacob Cousins Company C who was killed in action at Meuse-Argonne, France on October 14, 1918. He w...