I wouldn't be surprised if this act of arson was precisely that. After all, why else hit this tiny museum exhibit?

A home where President George W. Bush lived as a young boy with his parents in Odessa, Texas, and that is now part of a presidential museum there was damaged on Thursday by a fire that investigators blamed on arson.

"I can tell you it has been determined that it was intentionally set, but I cannot discuss anything about evidence or possible suspects because this is an ongoing criminal investigation," said city of Odessa spokeswoman Andrea Goodson.

Museum administrator Lettie England said no motive for the blaze had been determined and there was no reason at this point to believe it was a political act. She said there were no notes or messages left at the scene.

England said in a telephone interview from the west Texas city that the arsonist spread some kind of flammable liquid on the door and front windows and set the fire.

Now I'll be honest -- I don't necessarily see this old house as particularly significant in any historical sense. Indeed, I'm at a loss as to why anyone would find this to be a building worth preserving, given that the seven months of the toddlerhood of the current President is probably not particularly significant, nor is that particular time frame really important to the lives of his parents. But regardless, torching the place cannot be defended.

Now the police have not assigned a motive for the blaze, which is classified as arson. But I really can't think of a more likely reason for the attack, because there would surely be easier targets for someone to hit.

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When I was 14 or 15, I had the opportunity to see the King Tut exhibit at the Field Museum in Chicago. I remember standing about three feet from the case, just staring, with a sense of awe and wonder as I gazed at an artifact that was more than 200 time my age. To this day, I shudder as I think back upon that experience and my nearness to such a significant piece of human history.

And tonight, I find myself reveling in a similar experience -- yet one that is in some ways even more profound. You see, only a sheet of polycarbonate glass stood between my hand and this wonder today.

Yes, that is one of the most significant fossil finds in human history Lucy (known also as Dinkenesh in Ethiopia). She is currently on exhibit here in Houston until late April. I remember reading about the discovery of this fossil in the newspaper back when I was in sixth grade or so, and being amazed by the discover. I could not have imagined the opportunity to actually see this early hominid fossil up close. Call me a history geek if you want, but I found myself near to tears as I gazed down on this collection of fossilized bones and considered their significance.

Let me offer two videos of note related to this topic.

The first is about the exhibit here in Houston.

The second is about the discovery of Lucy and her significance to the stucddy of human evolution.

I encourage you to see this exhibit if you are near to Houston in the next few months -- and if it comes to a city near you while it is in this country, make a point of seeing it. It also is quite informative about the history of Ethiopia up to the modern day, and has many interesting cultural artifacts.

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A Republic not a Monarchy.

There is a Christmas story at the birth of this country that very few Americans know. It involves a single act by George Washington -- his refusal to take absolute power -- that affirms our own deepest beliefs about self-government, and still has profound meaning in today's world. To appreciate its significance, however, we must revisit a dark period at the end of America's eight-year struggle for independence.

The story begins with Gen. Washington's arrival in Annapolis, Md., on Dec. 19, 1783. The country was finally at peace -- just a few weeks earlier the last British army on American soil had sailed out of New York harbor. But the previous eight months had been a time of terrible turmoil and anguish for Gen. Washington, outwardly always so composed. His army had been discharged and sent home, unpaid, by a bankrupt Congress -- without a victory parade or even a statement of thanks for their years of sacrifices and sufferings.

George Washington could have seized power.

His officers and men would have supported him.

The powers of Europe would have certainly reacted favorably.

And we might well live today with some royal family or other ruling over us, with not the notion of "a republican form of government" nothing but a pipe=dream of a few political scientists and philosophers.

Instead, Washington committed an act of moral and political heroism that ultimately lead to the creation of the nation we know today. Read about it here.

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While we are talking about Pearl Harbor on this sixty-sixth anniversary of the Japanese attack on the Pacific Fleet, I'd like to repost this piece from last year, one that has special significance to me.

Today is the sixty-fifth anniversary of the sneak attack on Pearl harbor by the Japanese. Today's New York Times carries a special section dealing with the recovery from the attack -- with pictures and articles censored and locked away during the war, with a special focus on the civilian shipyard workers brought to Pearl to aid in the recovery.

In the months after Dec. 7, a sleepy shipyard went into hyperdrive, pulling off unprecedented feats of engineering that The Times’s Robert Trumbull described in a series that is excerpted on today’s Op-Ed page. The Japanese had crippled the fleet but left the Navy base’s immense oil storage tanks untouched, making it possible to ramp up the shipyard for 24-hour duty. The Navy and the civilians made it up as they went along: The U.S.S. Oklahoma, flipped with its belly exposed, was righted by a fantastical arrangement of cables and winches out of “Gulliver’s Travels.”

In May 27, 1942, the carrier Yorktown, severely damaged in the Battle of the Coral Sea, pulled into port and was immediately swarmed upon by more than 1,400 workers. She sailed out again on the 30th, fit to fight in the Battle of Midway.

The local labor force was supplemented by a flood of thousands of workers, mostly bachelor men, shipped in from the states. Their lives centered around the shipyard and Civilian Housing Area III, population 12,000 at its peak and suddenly Hawaii’s third-largest city after Honolulu and Hilo. It had its own train station, bus fleet, police department, baseball fields, boxing arenas, theater, post office, stadium and football tournament, the Poi Bowl. And it had a newspaper, The Pearl Harbor Banner, filled with small-town news items (“Five Hundred Pairs of Shoes Salvaged Here,” “Fresh Vegetables Now Assured”), photos, sports scores and updates from the front.

One of those civilians was Fred Bagley, My maternal grandfather, who was recruited in Providence, Rhode Island, to help bring the Pacific Fleet back to fighting strength. This special section therefore has a special meaning to me, thirty-seven years after a heart attack took him away from me. I never got to hear the stories that I know he had to share, so I will count this as a chance to learn a little more about him and what he did during the war.

I encourage readers to take the time to read about the work of thousands of men whose efforts were so important to the war, but whose work is often overlooked as we rightly honor those who fought and died.

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How did Pearl Harbor impact the lives of those in Hawaii. I've often wondered, but have never looked at the question in depth. I appreciate this article today for doing exactly that.

Children carried gas masks to the playground. Military officers commanded civilian courts under martial law. Residents feared that enemy troops would parachute into the mountains and then swarm the beaches.

This year's 66th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor offers reminders of how the assault upended the lives of Hawaii's civilians, in addition to the severe damage inflicted on the military.

"It was scary," said Joan Martin Rodby, who had to carry a gas mask everywhere as a 10-year-old -- even as she sat for her fifth-grade class portrait in 1942. "It was more or less living in constant fear they were always going to come back."

Annual remembrances of the Dec. 7, 1941, attack often evoke images of burning ships in Pearl Harbor and exploding planes at Hickam Field. This year's observance will be no different. But the plight of civilians who survived the attack has attracted more attention because of deepening interest in the home front during World War II.

"Maybe the unsung heroes that we should remember and look at are the civilians that endured the attack on Pearl Harbor and the years after it," said Daniel Martinez, chief historian at the USS Arizona Memorial.

At this great distance from the events of December 7, 1941, we face the reality that those who lived the events of that day are dying. It is important that we hold on to these memories, so that future generations know the full impact of the attack that dragged an unwilling nation into war. Thank you to the Washington Post, and reporter Audrey McAvoy, for enabling us to hold on to that history.

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