Word: uncommoner
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...historical illiteracy. I believe that our Making of America series is an antidote to historical illiteracy, which David describes as a great danger to our democracy. Being an American is not based on a common ancestry, a common religion, even a common culture--it's based on accepting an uncommon set of ideas. And if we don't understand those ideas, we don't value them; and if we don't value them, we don't protect them. A nation can never be ignorant and free, said Thomas Jefferson, our third Making of America cover subject...
...Palestinians are quick to point out that they are not plagued by the ethnic and religious hatreds that are imploding Iraq. They stop shooting long enough to attend each other's marriages, and it's not uncommon for families to have men belonging to rival militias. In one Gaza family, three brothers belong to Fatah, one to Hamas and another to the extremist Islamic Jihad. Says one brother Shahaaf, from Abbas's presidential guard. "This civil war stuff is an exaggeration. Even as a Fatah member, I know that there are corrupt leaders in our party who must be removed...
...surprisingly, a complex character. He believed that bin Laden might have made a mistake in attacking America. This was not an uncommon sentiment among senior officials in the organization. It is, in fact, periodically a point of internal debate, according to sigint - signals intelligence - picked up in this period. Bin Laden's initial calculation was that either America wouldn't respond to the attacks or that its response would mean the U.S. Army would soon be sinking in an Afghan quagmire. That, of course, did not occur. U.S. forces - despite the mishap of letting bin Laden, al-Zawahiri and most...
...victims in iron lungs and paralyzed a President. This Pulitzer prizewinning history goes behind the scenes of the scientific street fight that raged as rival laboratories raced to create a safe, effective polio vaccine. Victory went to Jonas Salk, a brilliant, flawed man but one who had an uncommon ability to empathize with the suffering of others--as a colleague put it, to "see beyond the microscope...
...today’s world, Lehrer says it is uncommon to have the kind of shared experiences that unite people...