Information Resource Center (IRC) Berlin

February 2007

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“The United States and the European Union – The Transatlantic Relationship”

The United States and Europe share a long and intertwined history. The two main pillars of the modern transatlantic relationship — NATO and the European Union (EU) — were created in the aftermath of World War II to deter the Soviet threat and to promote prosperity, security, and stability in Europe. The U.S. Congress and successive U.S. administrations have strongly supported both organizations as means to foster democratic states, reliable military allies, and strong trading partners.

Building the Transatlantic Partnership – Milestones

In the light of Germany’s EU presidency, the U.S. Embassy has created a website to highlight the ongoing cooperation on the shared priorities of the United States and the European Union. Included on the website is a list of milestones that illustrate the history of the transatlantic partnership the two partners. You will find the second part of our series on milestones in this month’s newsletter.

July 4, 1962

On July 4, 1962, President Kennedy spoke at Independence Hall in Philadelphia. He called for a ‘Declaration of Interdependence’ between Europe and America, adding that the United States anticipated the day when Europe would develop sufficiently to engage in a true partnership of equals.

Incoming 110th Congress Reflects American Diversity

Now that the 109th Congress has adjourned, Americans and their elected representatives have been looking ahead to the 110th Congress, which convened on January 4, 2007. It is a Congress that reflects America’s diversity, closing not only the gender gap -- with the highest number of women elected to Congress in history -- but also the ethnic gap.

The complexion of the 110th Congress glows with a rich demographic mix that includes naturalized, first- or second-generation Americans of Asian and Latin American origins. Americans with a distinctive ethnic base played a significant part in the 2006 elections not only as candidates, but as supporters of candidates who represent their interests. As immigrants make American society and culture their own, they also develop political muscle. The elections were taken seriously by many Arab, Hispanic, South Asian and East Asian Americans who organized, volunteering their time for campaigns.

African American History Month

Each February, Black History Month honors the struggles and triumphs of millions of American citizens over the most devastating obstacles -- slavery, prejudice, poverty – as well as their contributions to the nation’s cultural and political life.

2007 marks the 81st annual celebration since Carter G. Woodson, a noted scholar and historian, instituted Negro History Week in 1926. He chose the second week of February to coincide with the birthdays of President Abraham Lincoln and the abolitionist Frederick Douglass. The celebration was expanded to a month in 1976, the nation’s bicentennial.

Teaching Literature

“Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury is a prolific writer, who published more than 500 short stories, poems, novels, and plays in the past 50 years, in a field of literature, often called science or futuristic fiction, that seeks to extend man's present into what may or may not be his future. His work has appeared in almost all major U.S. magazines, from the Saturday Evening Post to Playboy, and from the New Republic to Harper's.

The novella Fahrenheit 451 is, along with The Martian Chronicles, Bradbury's most famous work. In this story, "firemen" are those who set forbidden books aflame, rather than those who put out fires.

Holiday of the Month: Presidents’ Day

Americans long have honored George Washington, commander of the United States armies in the War of Independence, first President of the United States and "first in the hearts of his countrymen."

It has been said that the American people themselves forced Congress to establish the Washington's Birthday holiday. 19th century Americans commonly celebrated a holiday on February 22, the day of Washington's birth under the Gregorian calendar adopted by Britain and its colonies in 1752. Apparently motivated by chronic employee absenteeism on that date, Congress in 1879 declared Washington's Birthday a legal public holiday.