Memorial Day and forgotten stories
What you need to know about Claude 4 & tips for how to read scientific studies skeptically (Issue #339)
Some histories of Memorial Day in the U.S. are rooted in an 1868 proclamation, but the annual holiday can be traced back even further to 1865, when a crowd of 10,000 (most of whom were formerly enslaved Black citizens) gathered in Charleston, South Carolina, to honor fallen Union soldiers who fought for their freedom.
“America’s first memorial day became a celebration of Black liberty and patriotism, but racism blocked an opportunity for the nation to commemorate,” writes . She goes on to describe the totality of this narrative erasure from history — the cemetery where that first gathering took place is no longer there, replaced by a park honoring a Confederate general.
Another oft-forgotten story from U.S. military history: Did you know some families in other countries choose to adopt the graves of U.S. soldiers who died on international soil? Filmmaker interviewed a Dutch family who did just that for a 23-year-old WWII soldier from Michigan who died in a German village, just six months before victory was declared in Europe.
The practice of adopting these graves lets families on both sides put aside nationalism to honor their unified fight against hatred and oppression. O’Brien remarks: “Both families talked about gratitude, reverence and kindness. They also spoke about love for him, the soldier — and his sacrifice — and for each other. We didn’t talk about war or the bloody WW2 endgame that played out just a few miles away. Love and kindness ruled.”
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➡️ What else we’re reading today
- The AI tool Claude just released a new version; here’s a useful guide to all the updates in Claude 4, including new extended thinking (ie, using web search to help answer questions) and coding tools. ()
- If you’re trying to evaluate whether that scientific study you just read about is worth trusting, here are 10 simple questions to ask that can help you determine whether it’s credible — starting with “how large was the sample size?” ()
- Confessions of a Sweatshop Inspector is an incredible first-person account from a human rights inspector about visiting clothing factories in Taiwan and China in the late 1990s, which ends with the writer coming to a grim conclusion: “Hiring an industry-friendly ‘independent’ inspection company is the most cost-effective way for the manufacturers to maintain their profits while claiming to care about the people on whose sweat their profits depend.” ()
💪 Your daily dose of practical wisdom on conquering imposter syndrome
“Recognize that you don’t have to be the world’s expert to be helpful to others.” —
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