Showing posts with label courage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label courage. Show all posts

Monday, October 14, 2013

Christoforo Colombo Part 2: H.G. Wells

That's correct. Herbert George Wells, the "Father of Science Fiction"
The Outline of History Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind was first published in 1920. (This is the revised edition of 1961. Both sub-titles are correct.) Reviews were mixed, but it sold well!

From the Introduction, "The Story and Aim of the Outline of History":

"How had these things come about?"
In the next paragraph Wells continues, 
Men and women tried to recall the narrow history teaching of their brief schooldays and found an uninspiring and partially forgotten list of national kings or presidents. They tried to read about these matters, and found an endless wilderness of books. They had been taught history, they found, in nationalist blinkers, ignoring every country but their own, and now they were turned out into a blaze. It was extraordinarily difficult for them to determine the relative values of the matters under discussion. Multitudes of people ... were seeking more or less consciously to "get the hang" of world affairs as a whole. They were, in fact, improvising "Outlines of History" in their minds for their own use.
According the experts at Wikipedia, Wells develops several themes in the 1000+ page history. I'll enjoy picking this crappy old book up from time to time.

Turning now to 1492, I did not know that only one of the ships, the Santa Maria, "was decked; the other two were open boats." Holy cow.

About Columbus, Wells writes:
The story of that momentous voyage of two months and nine days must be read in detail to be appreciated. 
He then provides some detail, largely leaves out the part about Columbus being a terrible governor, and being sent back to Spain in chains-- "We cannot tell of his experiences of governor..."-- and reminds us that "... Columbus died ignorant of the fact that he head discovered a new continent."

Jumping ahead 521 years and two days... .

Today we celebrate the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus and 87 other men, some of whom spent more than 70 days on little open boats heading west across an ocean full of sea monsters. And we celebrate some hunter dude who was lost in a California park for 18 days and had to eat lizards to survive. I'm glad he's safe & sound but that I even heard about this on a national news station is pathetic, don't you think?

Christoforo Colombo Part 1: #9

No. It's not an obsession. It's a mission.
Michael H. Hart's The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History has good ole' Christopher Columbus as the ninth most influential person in history behind Muhammad, Isaac Newton, Jesus Christ, Budda, Confucius, St. Paul, Ts'ai Lun, and Johann Gutenberg. 

The 100 was published in 1978 by Hart Publishing Company. The book and its author was and are controversial for a number of reasons, not the least of which are the ranking of Muhammad higher than Christ, and the author's view that the United States should be "partitioned" into three nations. 

Setting those issues aside, here's what Hart says about Columbus:
It is obvious that Columbus's first trip had a revolutionary impact upon European history, and an even greater effect of the Americas. The one date that every schoolchild knows is 1492. Still, there are several possible objections to ranking Columbus so high on the list.
(Is it still true that every schoolchild knows the significance of 1492?)

Objection The First: "Columbus was not the first European to discover the New World." Lief Ericson (among others, I'll add) had long before. Hart counters that Ericson was historically unimportant. News of his discovery was not widespread but "within a few years of [Columbus's] return ... many additional expeditions to the New World were made and conquest and colonization of the new territories began."

Objection The Second: Someone was bound to discover America someday, what's so great about Columbus? Hart argues true enough but 1) "subsequent developments" in the New World would have taken a different trajectory had the Americas been discovered by, for example, the French and 2) Columbus actually "did discover America."

Objection The Third: Every educated European already knew the Earth was round-- Aristotle said so. Hart gets around this objection by asserting that may well be, but Columbus didn't show the Earth was round, he discover America and no 15th century Europeans-- and certainly not Aristotle-- "had any knowledge of the existence of the American continents."

Hart's concluding remarks about Columbus:
Columbus's character was not entirely admirable. He was exceptionally avaricious; in fact, one important reason that Columbus encountered difficulties in persuading Isabella to finance him was that he drove an extremely greedy bargain. Also, though it may not be fair to judge him by today's ethical standards, he treated the Indians with shocking cruelty. This is not, however, a list of the noblest characters in history, but rather of the most influential ones, and by that criterion Columbus deserves a place near the top of the list.

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

The Blame Lies Not with Brave Men

1944

Ever.
Ernie Pyle was an American journalist and war correspondent. A quick perusal of Brave Men confirms that he wrote from the perspective of the common soldier.

A few snippets from Chapter 35, "A Last Word":
This final chapter is being written in the latter part of August, 1944; it is being written under an apple tree in a lovely green orchard in the interior of France. It could well be that eht European war will be over and done with by the time you read this book. Or it might not be. But the end is inevitable.

It will seem odd when, at some given hour, the shooting stops and everything suddenly changes again. ... odd not to listen with animal-like alertness for the meaning of every distant sound; odd to have your spirit released from the perpetual weight that is compounded of fear and death and dirt and noise and anguish.

The end of war will be a gigantic relief, but it cannot be a matter of hilarity for most of us. Somehow it would seem sacrilegious to sing and dance when the great day comes-- there are so many who can never sign and dance again.

[snip]

Thousands of our men will be returning to you after Europe. They have been gone a long time and they have seen and done and felt things you cannot know. They will have to be changed. They will have to learn how to adjust themselves to peace. Last night we had a violent electrical storm around our countryside. The storm was half over before we realized the the flashes and the crashings around us were not artillery but plain old-fashioned thunder and lightening. It will be odd to hear only thunder again. You must remember that such little things as that are in our souls, and it will take time.
[my emphasis]

Pyle himself was among the brave men who died during WWII. He was shot by a Japanese snipper and died instantly. He was one of few civilians to be awarded the Purple Heart.

405,400 American men died during WWII. Let that sink in.

Many more brave men, of course returned home after Europe, the Pacific, Korea, Viet Nam, Iraq and Afghanistan. 

~~
To be sure, you've now read or heard about the manner in which a bunch of infirm old men were treated when they attempted to visit a war memorial yesterday. And of course you're seeing the same old blame game play out this morning.

And to be candid, Mr. Big Food and I had fun watching this story unfold. Seriously? But the more I thought about it, the less inclined I was to laugh. We are supposed to be the land of the free and home of the brave. Where was just one brave soul willing to announce that he or she was not going to be putting a road block up at a war memorial?

So you know who I'm blaming for this shameful treatment of brave men? 

I'm blaming the cowardly men and women of the National Parks Service. Those men and women-- in uniform no less!-- who drove the trucks with the barricades stacked in the bed, who unfolded them and set them up. 

I'm blaming those cowardly men and women who just followed along, whose conscience didn't compel them to say, "This is stupid. This is wrong. I will not participate."

I am blaming those cowardly men women who are not worthy of the sacrifices brave men make.

Cowards


[Updates photos of the cowards here.]


Saturday, June 22, 2013

300: Is That All?

If you've been following along, you may have noticed that I've been thinking a bit about those guys who, "with a firm reliance on divine Providence" mutually pledged to each other their Lives, their Fortunes, and their sacred Honor. I even asked, "Who were these guys?"  And so, you can imagine my delight when I learned that today in 1776 John Witherspoon was elected to represent New Jersey in the Continental Congress. (1)

And you can imagine my further delight to learn that Witherspoon, a Scotsman, arrived in the Colonies in August 1768 with his family and 300 crappy old books for the New Jersey College Library! (2) 

Witherspoon was a Presbyterian clergyman and President of New Jersey College-- later to be called Princeton. He had ten children, five of whom died in early childhood. (2) His three sons all fought in the Revolution. One was killed at the battle of Germantown. (1, 3)

Witherspoon was the only active clergyman to sign the Declaration of Independence. (3, 4)

From Bennett, I learn that Witherspoon said
There is not a single instance in history in which civil liberty was lost, and religious liberty preserved entire.
It's taken from the final paragraph of a sermon Witherspoon preached in May, 1776. (5)
If your cause is just, you may look with confidence to the Lord, and intreat him to plead it as his own. You are all my witnesses, that this is the first time of my introducing any political subject into the pulpit. At this season, however, it is not only lawful but necessary, and I willingly embrace the opportunity of declaring my opinion without any hesitation, that the cause in which America is now in arms, is the cause of justice, of liberty, and of human nature. So far as we have hitherto proceeded, I am satisfied that the confederacy of the colonies has not been the effect of pride, resentment, or sedition, but of a deep and general conviction that our civil and religious liberties, and consequently in a great measure the temporal and eternal happiness of us and our posterity, depended on the issue. The knowledge of God and his truths have from the beginning of the world been chiefly, if not entirely confined to those parts of the earth where some degree of liberty and political justice were to be seen, and great were the difficulties with which they had to struggle, from the imperfection of human society, and the unjust decisions of unsurped authority. There is not a single instance in history, in which civil liberty was lost, and religious liberty preserved entire. If therefore we yield up our temporal property, we at the same time deliver the conscience into bondage.
[my emphases]

More on "minutemen and ministers" here.

References below the fold

Thursday, April 5, 2012

One of Rocky's kind is a Hero!

I saw a link to this story as we were waiting in a waiting room in Memphis. (Aside #1: I am so tired of going to Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee, but we did find two shortcuts! Aside #2: Family, all is well. Just routine.)
A gunman, posing as a FedEx deliveryman, wearing a uniform, rang the bell and said he had a package, but then pushed his way into the apartment.

“He barged in. My first reaction after seeing the gun is push him out, so I pushed him to the door. Like I said, he fell like wedged right by the door. I slammed him inside the door and he was stuck and tried to get out now because he was getting crushed,” Becker [the "victim"] said.

His girlfriend has been holding the dog and let go.



[Snip]


“Now Kilo [the pitt bull] came out to protect me. Grrr, he tried to come through the door at the guy, his head was out. Grrr, then I heard the guy, three gunshots,” Becker said.

One of the shots hit the dog in the head.

“It did ricochet off the skull and went straight down and exited at the neck,” Dr. Panarello [the vet] said.

The vet staff put a superhero insignia on this bandage.
[None of the grammatical errors above are mine. I just copied and pasted.]

I hope Rocky is never faced with a situation like this. But if he is, I am certain he'll be courageous, he is on his way to becoming an excellent dog, after all-- and I hope he'll be as lucky as Kilo, who is recovering nicely.