GOOD ANSWER

"GUERNICA'...CLICK FOR THE FULL SIZE IMAGE...

I have been watching a series on PBS called 'The Power of Art". It is very well hosted by a British fellow named Simon Schamas. He is very informative on the History of Art and Artists and each episode has been devoted to a single Artist. I have learned that to fully appreciate the Painting, it helps to know about the Artist and the circumstances surrounding its creation. At least it does foer me.

His very dry sense of humor has brought me to laugh aloud even while watching a show about Art.

I like that a lot.

One of the first ones that I saw was on Pablo Picasso. I have never cared for Picasso, but have a better appreciation for Pablo Picasso the Artist having watched the show.

What I want to tell you though is what I learned about Pablo Picasso the Man.

It seems his most famous Painting, called "Guernica" is a Mural depicting the 1937 Nazi bombing of a Bosque village in Spain. It is a Giant Mural done in Oil.

In 1941 the Gestapo raided Picasso's apartmernt in Paris. During the ransacking of the studio, a postcard size reproduction of the famous painting was found. A Nazi officer waved it threateningly under Pablo's nose demanding the Artist to tell him...

"Who did this?WHO...DID...THIS?"

I can imagine a certain Artistic serenity in the air as Picasso proudly, calmly answers....

"You did"

Good answer.

A man that eloquent deserves my admiration.

It makes my chest swell up and I find that I am sitting a little straighter as I type this.

From Mr. Schamas:

"This is not a series about things that hang on walls; it is not about decor or prettiness," Schama says. "It is a series about the force, the need, the passion of art -- the power of art."

Speaking of Art, allow me to direct you to Gewels and her well crafted post today.

THAT SAVED A WRETCH LIKE ME

Something I learned from doing yesterdays post;
The author of the gospel Song 'Amazing Grace" had been the Captain of a Slave Boat..
And another thing:
California recognized Juneteenth as a holiday in 2000.
What I would love to hear:
Arnold Schartzenegger, the "Governator" of California, saying in his thick accent "Emancipation Proclamation". I would also like to hear him say 'Hydrogen Hum-Vee".

The question was raised as to why it took so long for the slaves in Texas to find out about the Proclamation. There are three theories:
There is the story of a messenger who was murdered on his way to Texas with the news of freedom. Another, is that the news was deliberately withheld by the enslavers to maintain the labor force on the plantations. And still another, is that federal troops actually waited for the slave owners to reap the benefits of one last cotton harvest before going to Texas to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation.

I would bet they are all true.

And here is an observation:
The following line appears throughout the Internet regarding Juneteenth.
"Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States."
Can someone please tell me what would be another Holiday commemorating the ending of Slavery in the United States? Did I miss one?

It should be noted that Slavery was not really banned in the United States until December 6, 1865 with the ratification of the 13 Amendment to the Constitution.
Mississippi did not Ratify this Amendment until 1995!

This is still not the post I wanted to do about the Emancipation Proclamation. It was a very interesting and controversial document and did much for the country without really having freed a single slave.

JUNETEENTH

This is not the Post I intended to write concerning Emancipation...but its a start!

In 1984, in the mid part of the month of June, the XMrsBulletholes and I were on our way to Toledo Bend Lake for a camping trip. We kept passing groups of Black folks on the side of the road. Their mood seemed quite festive and it was like a 100 mile long picnic on the side of the road.
She asked me :
'What are all these black folks doing all up and down this road? Is it some kind of party?"
I looked over to her and grinned and said
"I guess they are just being Black!"
It was about then that I realized that it was "Juneteenth"...the 19th of June and a holiday in Texas for many years. I believe it is now observed in 14 States as well.

After the battle of Antietam in September of 1862, Lincoln announced his Emancipation Proclamation which was to free the Slaves. It took effect on January 1st of 1863. Lee surrendered at Appomattox in April of 1865.

On June 19, 1865, the Union General Gordon Granger rode into Galveston, Texas, to announce to the inhabitants of the Civil Wars end two months earlier, and the Emancipation Proclamation from 2 and a half years earlier. It was news to the slaves in Galveston and throughout the State.

"The people of Texas are informed that in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and free laborer."

"...Employer and free laborer." For a people that have been enslaved for 400 years, could there be any words more powerful than this?

Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States.

"MY FEAR IS MY CONCERN"

t.e.lawrencePhotograph of Auda Abu Tayeh

Tonight on PBS they will be showing "Lawrence of Arabia: The Battle for the Arab World" which I think should be very interesting.

Everything I know about Lawrence comes from the Movie 'Lawrence of Arabia" starring Peter O'Toole, Alec Guiness Omar Shariff and Anthony Quinn who all but steals the show playing a Howeitat warlord named Auda Abu Tayeh...

"Many considered Auda the real hero of the Arab revolt. Lawrence described him as the "greatest fighting man in northern Arabia". Auda could trace his roots back through many generations of great desert Howeitat warriors of the Arabian peninsula. He epitomized everything noble, powerful and proud about the Bedouin...."

From the PBS Homepage

The events of the Arab Revolt against the Turks take place during WWI and I have to believe that they shaped whatever it is thats going on there now.

If this is not interesting enough for you, then T.E. Lawrence certainly must be.

After World War I begins, Lawrence becomes an intelligence officer in the British Army. His mission is to gather information about an Arab Revolt planned against Turkish rulers. In return for a promise guaranteeing their independence, the Arabs join the war on the British side. But a secret agreement between the British and French will renege on the promise and shatter the dream. Torn by conflicting loyalties, Lawrence continues to assist the Arabs, becoming more deeply entrenched in their fight. Against all odds, he leads them in a daring attack on the Turkish port of Aqaba. It takes the Turks utterly by surprise and is a stunning success. The victory is a turning point for Lawrence, the Arabs, and the British.

From the introduction of Lawrences' historical account "The Seven pillars of Wisdom"

"Some Englishmen, of whom Kitchener was chief, believed that a rebellion of Arabs against Turks would enable England, while fighting Germany, simultaneously to defeat Turkey. Their knowledge of the nature and power and country of the Arabic-speaking peoples made them think that the issue of such a rebellion would be happy: and indicated its character and method. So they allowed it to begin... "

I suppose these "Arabic-speaking peoples" have seen it all before...

MOM, APPLE PIE AND PEACE

"Cause out on the edge of darkness,
there rides a peace train
Oh peace train take this country,
come take me home again"
C.STEVENS

When I was in the 5th Grade, me and my buddies were all playing 'Pile-on" in the back yard...you know where you just make a big pile of kids and as you get squirted out the bottom you take a running start and pile back on?
Anyway, my Mom came to the back porch with her Watermelon Apron on and a wooden spoon in her hand and hollered
"Stephen Bulletholes!!!"
Well, when she used my full name I knew there was trouble.
'Are you boys fighting back there?
"Yes Ma'am"
"Well ya'll stop that right now, you hear me"
"Yes Ma'am"

We stopped right away.

Annelisa is promoting a blog for peace thing and so here is my plan, based on this childhood memory:

We get all the Mothers to just go get their boys, wherever they may be and tell them not to fight.
Tell 'em to just stop "piling on".

THE PLAN

Bring 'em home and fix 'em something to eat. A bowl of Soup and some Apple pie.
There may be some Mothers out their fighting right now, but they got mothers somewhere that are not fighting, and those mothers ashould go get their girls, and even if they don't I still think there are enough Mothers in the world to just go get all these children of the world and keep them from hurting each other.
It would have worked anytime.
In Athens or Carthage.
At Sterling or Bunker Hill.
If Attila's mother had gone and gotten her boy, just think how many lives would have been saved.

Even Alexanders Ashes have a Momma somewhere.

George Patton had a Mother..."Through a Glass, Darkly"

If all those boys mothers had shown up at Gettysburg, that war would not have gone on another two years.
Along the trenches and the Siegfried line in the years of 1916-1918 we needed all the mothers just to go get their boys and make em come home.
63 Years ago today, we would not have had to storm that beach at Normandy if more mothers had gone and got their boys during the previous 5 years and kept them from listening to that Mr.. Adolph Hitler.

In Korea, at Pork Chop Hill, there should have been mothers that could have made them stop fighting.

There is no doubt in my mind that Mothers helped, and helped a lot, to get all those boys home from Vietnam. Whole families got involved in that.

Somewhere, right now there are men planning an attack, or building a bomb, or trying to buy a Rocket launcher; but if their mothers would show up in an apron with a wooden spoon and call out their full name, I bet a lot of them would be real ashamed and stop what they were doing.
Some where right now, there is a soldier ready to spend his last round of Ammunition and die for his Country. If his mother could just jump down into that foxhole with him, or behind that defilading wall, I bet she could talk him out of it.

This all may sound a little too simple and I'm sure you may be thinking it would not work...
Its got as good a chance, if not better, as increasing the troops by another 10,000 this month, and 20,000 next year, and so on and so on....
Have you ever put out a fire by pilin' on more wood?

MISS CANTRELL

It was great being back in Texas except for the Michigan accent I brought with me. having been born a Texan, it is particularly unsavory to be called a “Yankee Kid”.
The second thing I found out about Texas was that the kids down here were physically about a year ahead of the kids in Detroit. I would no longer be the starting Pitcher or Wide Receiver. And the entire mindset was different. In Detroit for Little League Baseball they gave you a Jersey; in Texas, you got a pro-style uniform, were told to go get cleats, given a playbook covering running and batting signs, and the 12 year old pitchers down here had “good stuff”, meaning an arsenal of fast balls, curve balls, knuckleballs, and sliders and the Coaches were teaching them how and when to use them. I had one pitch and the Coach called it the "Boogerball".I did hang in there at Second base.

In the Seventh grade I played Trombone and Football. I was in Boy Scouts and my best friends were in the same Patrol as me.
The girl across the street was named Jeri and she was what you would call “Mousy” with tawny hair, long and straight and her ears kind of peeked through at the sides and I thought that was foxy. I was in love with her and every time I heard the Archies sing “Sugar Sugar” I thought about her.

My really best friend was Kandi; she was a Tomboy and we spent hours roaming the fields by our house, shooting at Birds with bows and arrows.Her big brother was the star quarterback for the High School and Kandi wished they would let her play football too.
I am pretty sure Kandi could whup just about any of my friends. I knew she could whup me.

My history teacher was named Miss Cantrell and she looked like Peggy Lipton from the “Mod Squad” or maybe Nancy Sinatra and her ears stuck out of her hair just like Jeri’s. She was young and cool and if she weren't a teacher I would imagine that she would be a Hippy except that she dressed real nice and her hair was always brushed...she was Golden.
She was a Yankee; she said she was from Ohio. Thats where Johnny Appleseed was from.
She hung Posters of Musicians I had not heard of before...Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and there was a Band called the Doors I think I had heard of them before and she had a Donovan poster; I knew Donovan from the song he sang about Atlantis. She had another poster for a place in California called Monterrey and she said she had gone there. She also had a Woodstock Poster and everyone knew about Woodstock. I thought that guy Jimi was at Woodstock.

Of course there was one of the ubiquitous ‘Peace Signs” there on her wall and another one that said ‘War is not Healthy for Children and other Living Things...”
She was “Cool” and we all knew it and many was the boy with her on his mind as he fell asleep at night. She was Stardust.
One day Miss Cantrell showed me how to wear my Pullover Wool Cap. I typically wore it like a feedbag, down over my forehead, covering my ears in a fairly shapeless manner. When you take it off, your hair sticks out everywhere from the static electricity. Well, not my hair, because I had a Crew cut.
“Let me show you how to wear that hat” she said.
She rolled the bottom up about halfway, and set it back on my head, where it stylishly allowed my ears and forehead greater visibility and kept me from having to tilt my head back and use the lower eyelid as a Horizon.
“There” she said “That looks Cool!”
“Thanks Miss Cantrell” and I pretty nearly fainted from be in such proximity to her. I wondered how much cooler I must look.

When I got home that afternoon, my Mother took one look at me, crossed her arms and asked
“What happened to your hat?”
‘Miss Cantrell showed me how to wear it so it looks cool.”
She looked down at me with that Mom Face, pursed her lips a little and too sweetly asked
“Does Miss Cantrell have any little boys of her own that need to keep their ears and head warm?”
“No Ma’am, I don’t imagine that she does. She's too cool to be a Mom.”
“Um-Hmm...Well, you tell Miss Cantrell that this is the way little boys wear their hats to keep warm and when she has a little boy she will want him to wear it like this” as she took my hat and unrolled the bottom all the way back down and lovingly snuggled it back down over my ears and forehead, giving me a little pat.
I tilt my head back so I can see and say “OK Mom”

I suppose that was early spring of 1970. That’s the time of year that it gets really cold down here.
A few months later Miss Cantrell was so upset she couldn't teach her class for that day.
It wasn’t about my hat.

THE HORROR

"I never thought that in my life time, I would see two wars of the same nature."
old lady

OLD LADY,who has been missin' for a while, commenting on a post from more than a week ago as she catches up. I appreciate howw far back she went looking at my posts and has used 17 words to say what I failed to.in several posts.
My title from this post comes from Colonel Walter Kurtz in Apocolypse Now

PEOPLE DIE VERY MUCH

In his 1942 painting Cherokee Trail of Tears, Robert Lindneux depicts the forced journey of the Cherokees in 1838 to present-day Oklahoma.

"Long time we travel on way to new land. People feel bad when they leave Old Nation. Women cry and make sad wails, Children cry and many men cry...but they say nothing and just put heads down and keep on go towards West. Many days pass and people die very much."

a woman survivor, 1839


I saw a History Detective Episode a while back where they tracked down someone’s ancestor that had been on the Trail of tears. It seems that the ancestor was not a Cherokee, but one of the Wagon masters that had contracted to help move the Indians who had been effectively screwed out of their land.
I don’t know that much about the ‘Trail of Tears” and believe it or not, my other historical Posts have been done more or less off the top of my head, with research being done to verify quotations I used.
For my new friend ‘Anonymous” who is home schooling 2 girls, I found this ‘Teachers Aid” that seems to be as directed towards the “how to’s” concerning a research project as much as it is about the “Trail of Tears”.

I've done pretty good with a 5th Grade Education and a good Christian raisin', but I am no researcher. Yet.

What I learned
I had thought the removal of the Cherokee from lands in the Southeastern United States was based on gold being discovered there. Gold was only one part of the equation. The removal of the Cherokees was also product of the demand for land during the growth of Cotton Agriculture (fueling Slavery in the land of Freedom) in the Southeast, and the racial prejudice that many white southerners harbored towards but did not limit to American Indians.

From the ‘New Georgia Encyclopedia”
“In the late 1780s U.S. officials began to urge the Cherokees to abandon hunting and their traditional ways of life and to instead learn how to live, worship, and farm like Christian American yeomen. Many Cherokees embraced this "civilization program." The Cherokees established a court system, formally abandoned the law of blood revenge, and adopted a republican government. A Cherokee man named Sequoyah created the Cherokee syllabary, which enabled the Cherokees to read, write, record their laws, and publish newspapers in their own language.” (the last paragraph in the Sequoyah link is very telling)

It is my understanding that the literacy rates in some Cherokee communities surpassed that of the white settlers encroaching on their land. Most Cherokee Communities were publishing newspapers. If ever there was a group of people willing to embrace a new lifestyle even while in the clutches of an Imminent Domain “ issue, I give you the Cherokee

General Andrew Jackson called for the United States to end what he called the "absurdity" of negotiating with the Indian tribes as sovereign nations. Thomas Jefferson wanted to move all Indians West of the Mississippi and the Louisiana purchase was a big step towards doing that. When the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Cherokee nation to keep their land, it was Jefferson who said ‘Let them try to enforce that ruling”.

The bottom line of all this is that some 15,000- 16,000 (estimated)Indians were forced off their lands and made to walk 1000 miles to lands unknown, some in the middle of Winter while boats for transport were frozen fast in rivers, and others through the brutally scorching sun and humidity of Gulf States.

An estimated 5,000 Cherokee died during this forced march that is now known as the "Trail of Tears”

For many years previous, treaties were made and broken, almost exclusively by the White man and always to the benefit of the White man. It is the under handed nature of the way this was done that I find unsavory.
Racial prejudice was nothing new to our Founding Fathers and it is still a huge global issue.
The idea that a cultures Art and the way they worship should be eradicated is a policy against which we are involved against the Taliban. It was also "Part and Parcel" our policy and practice against the Native Americans.

The term ‘Imminent domain” would be a whole research subject itself. I wonder if there is a way to inflict Imminent domain that is not underhanded.

Another Chapter in this story is that of Cheif Joseph and the Nez Perce, who had their own sort of Trail of Tears 50 years later and 2000 miles to the West.

A wound to the heart.

I never taught my people to trust Americans.
I have told them the truth - that the Americans are great liars.
I have never dealt with the Americans. Why should I?
The land belonged to my people.

sitting bull, 1883

THE RED ROAD ENSEMBLE

EARTH DAY

I know almost as much about the native Americans as I do the Civil War- that is to say- quite a lot. Here are two songs from Robbie Robertson and the Red Road Ensemble "Songs for the Native American" ...I like this Album very much.

I like the Native Americans extreme reverence for the Earth and admire the idyllic way the Tribes lived on the land.

The first tune concerns the Ghostdance , where the tribes believed that they could summon their ancestors to help them to fight against the White Men. The Ghostdance would give them enough Warriors to restore the land and bring back the Buffalo that the whites had wastefully slaughtered. Sitting Bull was killed while under arrest and his band was subsequently massacred at Wounded Knee, South Dakota for trying to dance up their ancestors.

GHOSTDANCE

Crow has brought the message

To the children of the sun

For the return of the buffalo

And for a better day to come

You can kill my body

You can damn my soul

For not believing in your god

And some world down below

(chorus)

You don't stand a chance against my prayers

You don't stand a chance against my love

They outlawed the Ghost Dance

But we shall live again, we shall live again

My sister above

She has red paint

She died at Wounded Knee

Like a latter day saint

You got the big drum in the distance

Blackbird in the sky

That's the sound that you hear

When the buffalo cry

You don't stand a chance against my prayers
You don't stand a chance against my love
They outlawed the Ghost Dance
But we shall live again, we shall live again

Crazy Horse was a mystic

He knew the secret of the trance

And Sitting Bull the great apostle

Of the Ghost Dance

Come on Comanche

Come on Blackfoot

Come on Shoshone

Come on Cheyenne

We shall live again

Come on Arapaho

Come on Cherokee

Come on Paiute

Come on Sioux

We shall live again

IT IS A GOOD DAY TO DIE

The general rode for sixteen days

The horses were thirsty and tired

On the trail of a renegade chief

One he'd come to admire

The soldiers hid behind the hills

That surrounded the village

And he rode down to warn the chief

They'd come to conquer and pillage

Lay down your arms

Lay down your spear

The chief's eyes were sad

But showed no sign of fear

IT IS A GOOD DAY TO DIE

RAISE YOUR VOICES AND BE THANKFUL

IT IS A GOOD DAY TO DIE

He spoke of the days before the white man came

With his guns and whisky

He told of a time a long time ago

Before what you call history

The general couldn't believe his words

Nor the look on his face

But he knew these people would rather die

Then have to live in this disgrace

What law have I broken

What wrong have I done

That makes you want to bury me

on this trail of blood

IT IS A GOOD DAY TO DIE
RAISE YOUR VOICES AND BE THANKFUL
IT IS A GOOD DAY TO DIE

We cared for the land and the land cared for us

And that's the way it's always been

Never asked for more never asked too much

And now you tell me this is the end

IT IS A GOOD DAY TO DIE
RAISE YOUR VOICES AND BE THANKFUL
IT IS A GOOD DAY TO DIE

I laid down my weapon

Laid down my bow

Now you want to drive me out

With no place left to go

and he turned to his people and said dry your eyes

We've been blessed and we are thankful

Raise your voices to the sky

It is a good day to die

"It is a good day to die" are the words Sitting Bull used to implore his warriors to fight at a place called Little Bighorn by the Whites, or the Greasy Grass by the Sioux. He had seen the battle unfold in a vision months before. Follow this link for a very good and accurate description of the Events that led up to Custers Last Stand.
The only soldier that was left without his body being desecrated was a Trumpeter who had spent his last moments trying to defend himself with his trumpet.
The Sioux respected him for the courage he showed.
An Sioux woman recollected they had pushed sewing needles through Custers ears so that his hearing would improve. The year before he had been warned , and ashes dumped on his boot, not to fight the Sioux or he would surely die.

This song seems to have some elements of the Nez Perce and the 1100 mile escape/retreat they made just hoping to get to Canada and live in peace. They came up 40 miles short and were sent to a Reservation in northeastern Oklahoma.
It is said that somewhere in the tribal graveyard, there are the bones of Merriwethers Lewis' grandson.

SABAH EL KHAIR

What Every Soldier Should Know

To yield to force is an act of necessity, not of will;
it is at best an act of prudence.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau

If you hear gunfire on a Thursday afternoon,
it could be for a wedding, or it could be for you.
Always enter a home with your right foot;
the left is for cemeteries and unclean places.
"O-guf! Tera armeek" is rarely useful.
It means Stop! Or I’ll shoot.
Sabah el khair is effective.
It means Good Morning.
Inshallah means Allah be willing.
Listen well when it is spoken.
You will hear the RPG coming for you.
Not so the roadside bomb.
There are bombs under the overpasses
,in trashpiles, in bricks, in cars.
There are shopping carts with clothes soaked
in foogas, a sticky gel of homemade napalm.
Parachute bombs and artillery shells
sewn into the carcasses of dead farm animals.
Graffiti sprayed onto the overpasses:
I will kell you, American.
Men wearing vests rigged with explosives
walk up, raise their arms and say Inshallah.
There are men who earn eighty dollars
to attack you, five thousand to kill.
Small children who will play with you,
old men with their talk, women who offer chai—
and any one of them may dance over your body tomorrow

Brian Turner, an american soldier


The NEA initiative Operation Homecoming brought distinguished writers – including Tobias Wolff, Tom Clancy, Jeff Shaara, Marilyn Nelson, Bobbie Ann Mason, and Mark Bowden — to conduct writing workshops at 25 domestic and overseas military installations from April 2004 through July 2005.
Operation Homecoming also offered an open call for writing submissions to troops who have served since 9/11, along with their spouses and families. That call resulted in more than 10,000 pages of submissions and produced an anthology of the works. Andrew Carroll edited the anthology, OPERATION HOMECOMING: Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Home Front in the Words of U.S. Troops and Their Families.

CAUSALITY OF WAR

WE ARE DARFUR
David had a post a while back concerning Darfur and the Genocide that is going on there. As I recall, David had asked his friends to write about this real time atrocity. I know little about Darfur, but if you have not noticed I have lately been studying War.

What I have learned so far is that when men resort to guns, reason has been suspended. I don't know how you bring reason back into the equation, but clearly this is the challenge.
In Americas Civil War, the answer was more guns, and quickly too, because huge armies were engaged. The dissolution of the Union was unthinkable and Slavery had been sleeping underneath the table since the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the writing of the Constitution.
Germany had to be decimated. Germany had to be executed. I think there is a real distinction between WW11 and the wars we have inflicted since.
Korea.Vietman. Bosnia. Nicaraugua.
Somalia and Rwanda. My nephew Dave was in Somalia.
What were the answers there? Was America a good influence?
When shall we know when all that is left is a "Military Solution"?

I depend on the Frontline programs for objective coverage and analysis of the issues facing this country.
Sunday night Frontline began an 11 part series called “America at a Crossroads”. As always it has surpassed my expectations.

“America at a Crossroads is a major public television event premiering on PBS in April 2007 that explores the challenges confronting the post-9/11 world — including the war on terrorism; the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan; the experience of American troops serving abroad; the struggle for balance within the Muslim world; and global perspectives on America’s role overseas.
Aimed at creating a national dialogue surrounding the crucial issues explored in the series, an extensive media and outreach campaign in more than 25 communities accompanies the series. The campaign features screening events with the filmmakers and their subjects in discussions with United States military personnel, leading policy experts, leaders of the Islamic community, scholars from across the country as well as members of the public. Integrated Web and educational initiatives further extend the campaign.”

Part Four featured the writings of the soldiers that have been in Iraq and Afghanistan. I enjoyed that very much.
Last night they had Richard Perle as a host for ‘The Case for War: In Defense of Freedom”. My impression was that in stating his case he damned his position.

In typical Frontline fashion they are presenting all positions relevant to the issues. Their goal is to inform and explore.
If you have not been able to see any of the programs take a look at the website devoted to their project.
Tonighes Episode’s are “Europe’s 9/11” and “The Muslim Americans”

From part 1 “Jihad: The men and Ideas behind Al QeadaQuestion" and their on-line discussion group:

#1 Discuss the differences between the historical religious meaning of jihad and Osama bin Laden’s interpretation of this term. What can the United States and its allies do to help counter bin Laden’s use of the term to recruit young men to jihad?

I like the word "counter".

LIVING WITH WAR

I just finished a few posts about the rough man from Illinois...our Greatest President. in contrast to Lincoln, this is how George Bush expresses himself:
"Mission Accomplished" ( that one really gets me)
"Bring 'em on" (he can't mean it)
"Brownie, you are doin' a helluva job" (while new Orleans drowned)
"Let 'em eat jellybeans"
"The solution to Iraq -- an Iraq that can govern itself, sustain itself and defend itself -- is more than a military mission. Precisely the reason why I sent more troops into Baghdad." --George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., April 3, 2007

"we had to bomb the village in order to save it"
General Curtis LeMay,vietnam era
I would really like to be able to write some kind of angry, mad, and biting words about the "Battle for Peace" the country is involved in right nw but I will defer to Neil Young (and a cast of I do not know how many) on a huge site I found today because Neil is really good at it, and he has a new album out.
There is even poetry on this site from the PBS Special that has been running for 3 days now, written by SOLDIERS who have suited up and walked the streets of Bagdad.

"after the garden" by neil young
"I asked a man on the street what he thought about the war in IRAQ.
He said "Won't need no shadow man runnin' the government. Won't need no stinkin' war."
He looked at me, checking me out.
"Won't need no haircut! Won't need no shoe shine after the garden is gone! What will people say after the garden is gone? What will people do after the garden?"
He just kept lookin' at me like I was crazy askin' about the war. He had bigger things on his mind. He looked like he was a hippie at one time. I don't really know what it was about him that made me think that, but he sure had an intense way about him. He wasn't finished with me. He had been walking away but he turned and looked right at me.
"Won't need no strongman walkin' through the night to live a weak man's day!"
What the hell was he talking about?
"Won't need no purple haze. Won't need no sunshine after the garden is gone!"
That was it. He was definitely a hippie who had taken acid in the 60s. I pondered this. Did this mean he knew more or less than I did? Was his opinion tainted by taking drugs in the 60s? Had he been an environmentalist before it was cool?
I remembered George Bush senior saying that Al Gore was crazy. Something about "chicken little."
Look at them now, Al Gore is right and Bush was and still is wrong on global warming. Al Gore was worried about saving the planet and Bush was worried about saving cash.
I was getting pissed.
The man on the street just stood there looking at me going through my thought process.
"What will people know after the garden is gone?" he asked. "What will people do after the garden?"

A CONFEDERATE FIVE

“I see the president almost every day. We’ve got so we exchange bows, and very cordially too. I see very plainly his dark brown face with its deep cut lines, the eyes always with a latent sadness in the expression. None of the Artists pictures have caught the deep but subtle and indirect expression of this mans face. One of the great Portrait painters of two or three centuries ago is needed.
walt whitman


Five days after Robert E Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia, ending the 4 years of bloodshed in which 620,000 Americans died fighting each other, President Lincoln was assassinated.
The irony of this is horrific considering the “hard nightmare” Lincoln had lived through.
He was the greatest President the country has known.
Just seven weeks earlier in his Inaugural Address, he spoke of the future. The end of the War was in sight. I love the kindness that is embedded in these words:

“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”

Lincoln died at 7:22 A.M. April 15, 1865.
He left, among others, 4 Brothers-in-Law who had all fought for the Confederacy.
In his pockets, there was a pocketknife, several coins, 9 Newspaper clippings.
And a Confederate Five Dollar Bill.




"Before the Civil War, when you spoke of the United States you would say "the United States ARE"...that is the way we saw ourselves, a collection of separate states...after the war, you would say "the United States IS"...
the war made "us " an "is"."
shelby foote, historian

A HARD NIGHTMARE

PART TWO
"I have just this moment heard from the front. There is nothing yet of a movement, but the Troops are continually on the alert, expecting something. To think we are to have here soon what I have seen so many times...
trains and boatloads of pale and wounded young men again; for that is certainly what we shall have. I see all the signs."
walt whitman, 1864

"War is all Hell"
tecumseh sherman

"Kill 'em. Kill 'em all"
stonewall jackson

"A Black Man has no rights a White Man is bound to honor"
Roger B. Taney, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court 1859

"I feel I have been living a hard nightmare"
abraham lincoln, 1865

The first major battle of the War was fought at Bull Run Virginia in July of 1861. Confederate forces under General Beauregard commandeered the farmhouse of Wilmer McLean. Headquarters were set up in his front parlor and a hospital in his barn. after the battle, McLean moved his family 100 miles to the West to escape the ravages and dangers of the War.
During the Battle Union forces did well early. Crowds of onlookers from Washington came to cheer their troops. But around midday the Confederate General Jackson held a stone wall that he became famouus for. At the same time, the Union General McDowell was making a huge blunder with his artillery; the tide of battle turned.
Emboldened by the arrival of reinforcements and by the first use of the "Rebel Yell", the Confederates charged forth in the late afternoon. The Union line melted away. Retreat quickly transformed into mindless rout as the Northern troops rushed head-long back to Washington, discarding much of their equipment along the way.
From a personal account by a Union private:
Our artillery and baggage wagons became fouled with each other, completely blocking the bridge, while the bomb shells bursting on the bridge made it "rather unhealthy" to be around. As I crossed on my hands and knees, Capt. Smith who was crossing by my side at the same time was struck by a round shot and completely cut in two. After I crossed I started up the hill as fast as my legs could carry and passed through Centreville and continued on to Fairfax where we arrived about 10 o'clock halting about 15 minutes, then kept on to Washington where we arrived about 2 o'clock Monday noon more dead than alive, having been on our feet 36 hours without a mouthful to eat, and traveled a distance of 60 miles without twenty minutes halt.

The Nation was horrified at the 5000 casualties. They did not know that 1 year later the battle would be fought again, over the same ground, with 5 times that number of casualties; 25,000!

April 9th, 1865
General Lee sent two members of his staff into Appomattox Courthouse to find a place suitable for meeting with General Grant for the purpose of discussion of the terms of surrender. The first civilian they came to was Wilmer McLean. The very same Wilmer McLean who had moved from Bull Run almost 4 years earlier to escape the conflict. The meeting and terms of surrender were drawn up in his front parlor.
Is that ironic or what?

DUST-COVER'D MEN

PART ONE
Walt Whitman worked in Federal hospitals during the Civil War caring for the 2000 wounded and dying men per week that were being delivered until it overwhelmed him.

An Army Corps on the March
"With its cloud of skirmishers in advance,
With now the sound of a single shot snapping like a whip,
and now an irregular volley,
The swarming ranks press on and on, the dense brigades press on,
Gliterring dimly, toiling under the sun --- the dust-cover'd men,
In columns rise and fall to the undulations of the ground,
With artillery interspers'd --- the wheels rumble, the horses sweat,
As the army corps advances."
walt whitman



The Civil War began at 4:30 in the morning on April 12 1861. Confederate batteries opened fire on Fort Sumter, a man-made island in Charleston Harbor. Commanding the Confederate attack was Brigadier General Gustav Pierre Toutant Beauregard (whew), a West Point graduate who had done so well in his Artillery classes he had been invited to stay on as an Assistant by his Instructor, Major Robert Anderson.
Ironically, it was the very same Major Robert Anderson who was now commanding Federal Batteries inside the fired upon Fort Sumter.
Thirty-Eight hours later, having been under a constant barrage of Artillery fire, Anderson displayed a white flag of surrender. The only casualty had been to a Confederate horse. It was a bloodless begining to the Country's bloodiest War.

The signal to fire the first volleys had been given by a Civilian, , who had preached secession for years.
"Of course" he said "I was delighted to perform the service"
Four years later, upon hearing Lee had surrendered, he would drape himself in a Confederate flag and blow his brains out.
Southerners are very funny about that War.


From the Ken Burns Documentary 'The Civil War":
"The Civil War was fought in 10,000 places, from Valverde, New Mexico, and Tullahoma, Tennessee, to St. Albans, Vermont, and Fernandina on the Florida coast. More than 3 million Americans fought in it, and over 600,000 men, 2 percent of the population, died in it.

American homes became headquarters, American churches and schoolhouses sheltered the dying, and huge foraging armies swept across American farms and burned American towns. Americans slaughtered one another wholesale, right here in America in their own cornfields and peach orchards, along familiar roads and by waters with old American names. (Winchester Va. changed hands 72 times)

In two days at Shiloh (April 6, 1862), on the banks of the Tennessee River, more American men fell than in all the previous American wars combined. (24,000)
At Cold Harbor, some 7,000 Americans fell in twenty minutes.
Men who had never strayed twenty miles from their own front doors now found themselves soldiers in great armies, fighting epic battles hundreds of miles from home.

Between 1861 and 1865, Americans made war on each other and killed each other in great numbers — if only to become the kind of country that could no longer conceive of how that was possible. What began as a bitter dispute over Union and States' Rights, ended as a struggle over the meaning of freedom in America. At Gettysburg in 1863, Abraham Lincoln said perhaps more than he knew. The war was about a "new birth of freedom.""

Greatest use of television I have ever seen.

In Hebrew, Shiloh means "Place of Peace"
On April 12 1861, 1 out of every 7 Americans was owned by another American.
(4,000,000 of 32,000,000)

POOR PLUTO

A sad little Lizard told me on his Mothers side he had been a Brontosaurus.

Pluto was discovered on this date, March 13, 1930. Pluto used to be a Planet.

Now Pluto is a Dwarf Planet.
All Hail, Pluto!

I'M WITH THE BAND

There is a sign at the front of the room that says"Try not to miss any notes".

Its been a while since I have had occasion to write about The Water Baby and her efforts in band. Last week I was able to attend the UIL Competition Warm-ups and I want to tell you what they do that I consider to be one of the most difficult things in the world to do well. Hell, to do at all.
I think I would rather take a beating.
Its called "Sight-Reading"; the Band is given a piece of sheet music that they have never seen before and they play it through for the Judges- one time and one time only- and they are Judged according to how well they do.
You may ask "how do we know they have never seen the music before' and the answer is that the Music is specially written by Composers just for these events.
The only aid that is given comes from their Director. While the Students have their sheet turned upside -down on the stand, the Director has 7 minutes in which he is able to offer his comments on the piece, which by the way, he has never before seen either.
It is very impressive as he rattles off the time signature, changes in tempo, Key changes and other details:
"Trombones, note that you go from Adagio to Carpacio (isn't that an Italian Hors d'ourve?) then rise to Flagrante' in the third measure; Flutes , at the Coda you will come in on the second bar, not the first; Drums the rhythm changes from "one two THREE" to "one TWO three" after the 23rd measure. Trumpets, pay particular attention to the 1/4 and 1/8 rests in bars 8 through 12."

And so he goes for 7 minutes and the Students as I have described last fall, are in total concentration for their instructions.
Then, they are allowed 4 "Warm-up" notes before turning the sheet over. The Director taps out "1-2-3" and off they go, sight-reading Musical script they have never heard or seen before.

This is the equivalent of a Culinary Competition where a Chef is given a Basket with 20 items in it and expected to plan and prepare a 4-course Meal in the next hour.
Actually, I think it has to be tougher. To play the proper notes at the right pitch and timbre and time, of a melody heretofore unbeknown to you, and in sync with the other 100 or more members of the Band...well, you have to know your stuff.
The sign at the front of the room? You must try to play the notes, even though you be unsure of them. These young men and women play right through their mistakes.
Time waits for no one.
I love 'em.

Yet another of life's lessons.

We were treated to a concert by a Junior High Band. The piece they played was "Shenandoah" which is an outstanding piece of Music as well as Americana. It has endured hundreds of arrangements over the years, attesting to its spot as a classic and is even covered by Richard Thompson on his "1000 Years of Popular Music" album.
They played with so much emotion and the song itself is so beautiful that I, for one, sobbed quietly to myself.

I was graciously alluded to as a "History Buff" by Mother of Invention on her brilliant post (that I fairly nearly mangled by talking of 18,000 souls slaughtered, wounded and and dying on a Civil War battlefield) concerning the Northern lights and her memories of an unusually spectacular display when she was a youngster. Over the next month I may impart some historical facts that I find fascinating beyond belief, but for now I will leave you with another of my favorite prayers, delivered by James Stewart in the movie "Shenandoah" which was set during the Civil War in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia;

"Lord, we cleared this land. We plowed it,sowed it, harvested it. We cooked the harvest. It wouldn't be here and we wouldn't be eating it if we hadn't done it all ourselves. We worked dog-bone hard for every crumb and morsel, but we thank you just the same for the food we are about to eat, amen."