Oklahomans may be surprised to learn the state shares a dark past with Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany. Eugenics, the wonder science of the early 1900s, hailed by academics worldwide as a means to improve a race by sterilizing those who possessed serious heredity defects, was also embraced by Gov. Alfalfa Bill Murray. This book, "In Reckless Hands: Skinner v. Oklahoma and the Near-Triumph of American Eugenics” (W.W. Norton, $24.95) by Victoria F. Nourse, examines how a scientific theory about nature was transformed into the basis of social policy ordained by the power of the state of Oklahoma.
The case's backdrop began in 1927 when the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a forced sterilization of a feebleminded girl in the case of Buck v. Bell. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote, "Three generations of imbeciles [were] enough.” The law deferred to the state of Virginia's right to regulate health and safety........
‘Reckless Hands' looks at state's history with eugenics (Oklahoma)
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Thread by wagglebee.
BIRMINGHAM -- Freedom. That's the main thrust of the campaign Jack Kevorkian says he is pushing in his bid to unseat incumbent U.S. Rep. Joe Knollenberg, R-Bloomfield Hills. Kevorkian held a community roundtable Friday night at the Birmingham Community House on Bates Street. Kevorkian, who is running as an independent, faces Knollenberg and Democrat Gary Peters in the November election.
Famous for his legal battles involving assisted suicide, Kevorkian spoke to a small group of people, quoting Thomas Jefferson, Bernard Shaw and Benjamin Franklin.
"I'm not doing this for personal gain, I'm here to educate and inform the public," he said, likening the electorate to sheep who have been denied their rights....
Kevorkian campaigns on 'freedom' platform
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