|
 Blue Laws Into the Sunset
First Week (June 5 through June 11)
|
Wallenstein
|
Senator
Quayle |
On a lazy Sunday afternoon in the spring
of 1925, the Portsmouth Truckers baseball team took the field
against the Richmond Colts, only to be arrested after the first
inning for violating the state’s Sunday closing laws.
Virginia law prevented any commercial activity on Sunday that
was not related to charity or things of necessity. But, over
the years, exceptions were granted to more and more businesses
until the Virginia Supreme Court ruled in 1988 that the so-called
Blue Laws were unconstitutional. However, they remain on the
books until this July, when legislation abolishing them takes
effect. Senator Fred Quayle (CNU)
was the main sponsor of the repeal.
Historian Peter Wallenstein (VT)
says the end of Sunday closing laws is a good example of how
citizens can change the way they are controlled by government.
|
|
The Skyrocketing Cost of Oil
Second Week (June 12
through June 18)
|
Yetiv
|
 Salehi-Isfahani
|
The price of sweet light crude oil recently
hit a 24-year high, and this translates into the high gas prices
that everyone has been paying. With the price of regular gasoline
poised to cross $2 a gallon, many Americans want to know if
this is a temporary spike or a long overdue readjustment. Economist
Djavad Salehi-Isfahani (VT) explains
some of the factors behind the recent increases in oil and gas
prices. Also featured: How stable is our oil supply from the
Middle East, and what effect does the war on terrorism have
on the cost of oil? Steve Yetiv (ODU)
is the author of the forthcoming Explaining Foreign Policy:
U.S. Decision-Making and the Persian Gulf War.
|
The Religion of the Founding Fathers
Third Week (June 19through June 25)
|
Europeans who traveled to the thirteen
colonies brought countless strains of Christianity with them,
and freedom of the wild frontier allowed many new sects and
congregations to flourish. How did all of these beliefs co-exist,
and how did religious freedom come to be codified in the Constitution?
And how has the faith of our presidents affected the way our
country developed? David Holmes (W&M)
is the author of The Religion of the Founding Fathers
and also studies the phenomenon of muscular Christianity. Also
featured: A work crew has recently been busy demolishing
Montpelier, the stately mansion near Orange that was once the
home of America's fourth president. But the object is not to
destroy the mansion, but to restore it to the form James Madison
would have remembered it.
|
| The
Masters of Jazz
Fourth Week (June 26
through July 2)
|
Bill
Brown |
Jazz is the true American art form, an
amalgam of African American blues, ragtime, and marching band
music. When it emerged in New Orleans more than a hundred years
ago, jazz broke from the western tradition of writing music
down on paper before performing it. Performers like Jelly Roll
Morton, Louis Armstrong and John Coltrane blew out music in
their own styles. Bill Brown (CNU)
and Jeff Decker (UVA) are
performers and professors of music. Tune in for their delightful
demonstration of some of the signature techniques of the masters
of jazz. Also featured: Tammie Willis recently
received her master’s in music composition from Virginia
Commonwealth University, despite being profoundly deaf. Bill
Eldridge (VCU) is one of her instructors.
|
|
|
|
