The Trial Begins in Mwanza

“The Judge entered the court wearing a red robe and with a white wig on his head.” Major players, not already described, are examined at this point, especially Judge Harold Platt and the two assessors, one an American agriculture expert who has lived in Tanzania for six months, the other, a Tanzanian who has recently returned to Tanzania from graduate school in America as part of the famous Airlift to America, which was supported by the Kennedy family before Jack Kennedy became president and which was the vehicle by which Barack Obama’s father came to America for college. Defense attorneys Byron Georgiadis and Carroll Brewster have worked diligently before the trial to ensure that Dr. McHugh will be allowed to remain in court prior to his testimony.

Growing Pains

Leonard Bernstein conducting the inaugural concert of the Philharmonic Hall in Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in 1962 symbolized the national and international status he had achieved. Through his close relationship with the Kennedy family and his continued ties to the White House, combined with his unrivaled place in the world of the performing arts, Bernstein was a prime candidate to lead the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. To manage the ever expanding scope of his work, Bernstein’s company, Amberson Enterprises, professionalized and corporatized its operations under Schuyler Chapin. But the popular leaning of the recording industry was beginning to cause some issues even for the foremost leader of American classical music.

From social menace to unfulfilled promise: the evolution of policy and practice towards people with intellectual disabilities in the United States

This chapter uses the stories of three families, the ‘Kallikaks’, the Kennedys and the Fergusons, to narrate the key stages of the history of intellectual disability in the twentieth century. The so-called‘Kallikaks’ were used as part of the vicious eugenic libel against the intellectually disabled population that stoked the cruel mass institutionalization programmes of the early century. This section tells the story of Emma Wolverton, one of those on whose life stories the mythical Kallikaks were based and created to spread fear and drive segregational policy. The story of the famous Kennedy family shows the post-war journey of the intellectually disabled person from a hidden site of shame to the policy reforms of the community return. Finally, the story of the author’s own family shows some of the great post-reform liberating shifts towards a life of choice and inclusion that have taken place, and alerts us to the brooding threats that still lurk.

John F. Kennedy and the Irish Catholic Political Tradition

John F. Kennedy is remembered as the consummate American politician of his day, but he was also shaped by a distinct ethnic-religious tradition, that of Catholic Irish-Americans in the US. The often tragic history of Ireland is not easily reconciled with the power and glamour of the Kennedy family, but John Kennedy was closer to his immigrant roots than perhaps any other president. That heritage was often evident in his early political career and his rise to the White House. It was necessarily less obvious once he became president of a large and diverse nation. In the final months of his presidency, as he began to set a clearer direction for the nation both at home and abroad, he found time to visit Ireland. This seemingly sentimental journey had a more serious tone as well, as Kennedy recognized the origins of modern Irish nationalism.