In 1978, as a sophomore in college, I was assigned to read Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury and then write an essay for the English class. Fahrenheit 451 was written in 1953; it presents an American society where books have been personified and outlawed and "firemen" burn any that are found. The novel follows Guy Montag, a fireman who becomes disillusioned with his role of censoring literature and destroying knowledge, eventually quitting his job and committing himself to the preservation of literary and cultural writings. 

This month we celebrate Stonewall once again, the historic riots that gave birth in June 1968  to Gay Pride. The spark was lit by tired and rebellious drag queens. Today, Drag Queens are under fire once more thanks to the efforts initiated by our own HIT (Hitler in Training) Ron DeSantis.  

The current dangerous trend of trying to water down or erase history in the quest for “unbiased” and politically motivated reasons is covering our eyes from history as a whole — averting our attention from those lessons of the past that we must learn and remember lest we be doomed to repeat those same mistakes.

When Le Colonial opened its first restaurant in Chicago’s Gold Coast neighborhood in 1993, its unusual (for the time) combination of upscale Vietnamese fare became an instant sensation among Chicago socialites.