Sunday’s Quote: Regrettably unsung

c/o Chin Musik

Earlier today, all Major League baseball players wore #42 in commemoration of Jackie Robinson “breaking the color barrier.” Yet each piece I came across failed to mention Branch Rickey — the man who made Robinson’s barrier-shattering event possible.

A rather insignificant ball player who lasted 10 seasons with the St. Louis Browns (now Baltimore Orioles) and the New York Highlanders (now Yankees) despite a flimsy .239 career batting average, Wesley Branch Rickey made his name as an executive. Though best known for signing Robinson through no coercion but his own conscience, Rickey is also responsible for drafting the first Hispanic player (Roberto Clemente) and standardizing the minor league farm system which, for decades, was notoriously unfavorable to its players.

The majority of fans today may not know about Branch Rickey. Judging from the way his memory has been handled, others might say that his contributions to the game are mere footnotes. Jackie Robinson himself would have disagreed.

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“I realized how much our relationship had deepened after I left baseball. It was that later relationship that made me feel almost as if I had lost my own father. Branch Rickey, especially after I was no longer in the sports spotlight, treated me like a son.”
~ from I Never Had it Made: An Autobiography of Jackie Robinson by Jackie Robinson and Alfred Duckett

A word from Churchill

I began reading “Citizens of London” by Lynne Olson recently. Thus far the story about the Americans — centering primarily on Edward R. Murrow, Averell Harriman and John Gilbert Winant — who stood with Churchill’s Britain during “it’s darkest, finest hour” has proven a good read. Hence I found the pic below both notable, and personally applicable, as well.

Iconic Shot: Wellington College

© Richard Peat

Located on a 400 acre estate in southeast England, not far from Windsor Castle, is Wellington College, a selective co-educational public school in the same G-20 vein as Eton College, Phillips Academy and Harvard-Westlake.

The school is also a national monument to Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley (1769-1852), the Duke of Wellington. A Christian and Tory Conservative, the Irish-born commander of the Seventh Coalition defeated Napoléon Bonaparte at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. The triumph ended the Napoleonic Wars and ushered the era of Pax Britannica during which the British Empire enjoyed uncontested European hegemony while the continent itself enjoyed near-constant peace for 100 years.

Sunday’s Quote: Judging from where we came

c/o Metro UK

Note: I’m a Europhile and an unapologetic WASP, both of which are akin to my heritage and identity. So the following is of great personal interest to me.

A graduate of the prestigious Eton College (a world renowned English public school) and the similarly esteemed Trinity College at the University of Cambridge, Dr. Kwasi Kwarteng is a Member of Parliament (MP) representing the Spelthorne constituency for the Conservative Party in the British House of Commons. He is also the child of parents who were subjects of the British Empire, first in their native Ghana and later as immigrants to England. Accordingly Kwarteng’s new book, Ghosts of Empire, offers a distinct perspective about the oft-aspersed British Empire that one may not expect.

As an alternative to the predictable, almost requisite condemnation of the largest empire the world has ever known, Kwarteng instead assesses the kingdom somewhat more magnanimously by weighing both the Empire’s progressive influence with its impulsive callousness. The truth, as one review explained, is that the Empire “was the product, not of a grand idea, but of often chaotic individual improvisation,” the result of unconventional governors and attachés who nevertheless operated the royal enterprise with an unparalleled level of success that was more than one-sided.

Kwarteng’s perspective, once the historical norm, is now disparaged by those who view the Empire as a collection of oppressive White Europeans that merely exploited people from other parts of the world who were, in essence, their exact opposite. Not so unexpectedly, this has also become a gradually prevalent interpretation of our own United States.

To be sure, the very concept of our domestic exceptionalism first referenced in Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America some 175 years ago is being supplanted by post-nationalist intellectuals among the left who, at their core, are abhorred — whether they admit it or not — by the very principles that developed America into a social and economic model coveted by billions. As it turns out, we elected a philosophical spawn of these left-wing ideologues to lead our nation just a few years ago, the consequences of which have been questionable at best.

A piece in The Wall Street Journal tied it all together a couple of days ago.

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“In his recent State of the Union speech, President Obama said: ‘Anyone who tells you that America is in decline or that our influence has waned doesn’t know what they’re talking about.’ It was hardly a Churchillian rejoinder, but then it was a very demotic speech, and he is wrong. By almost any criteria, the American influence in the world has indeed waned since the Eisenhower administration, but it still has a good head start on the British Empire, which was antidemocratic, protectionist, slow to innovate and largely ruled over by the sportsmen of its only two great universities. America, by contrast, is — when it is true to itself — a proselytizing democracy, free-market and innovational, which has more than a dozen of the world’s top 20 universities.

“Where the British Empire does indeed hold a message for modern America is in the area of self-belief. Many of the British Empire’s worst legacies stemmed from a collapse in confidence among the British elite in the values and principles that had made Britain the largest empire in the history of mankind. Anyone who thinks that just such a spasm of self-doubt among America’s elite isn’t a problem in modern America doesn’t know what he is talking about.”
~ from “Now That The Sun Has Set” by Andrew Roberts, from his review of Kwarteng’s Ghosts of Empire in The Wall Street Journal; February 10, 2012

I am SO buying this

A sizable book about the greatest year in Memphis area rasslin’ history was just released. Stories about Jerry Lawler’s feuds with AWA champ Nick Bockwinkel and NWA champ Ric Flair – along with Lawler’s legendary battle, as it were, with Andy Kaufman – are meticulously illustrated over 434 pages. Anecdotes about numerous fan favorites such as Austin Idol, “Handsome” Jimmy Valiant, “Superstar” Bill Dundee, and perhaps the most underrated tag team ever, The Fabulous Ones are also included.

You may not understand why any of this matters. If you weren’t there, I wouldn’t expect you to.

From disheartened to righteously fortified

About two years ago, not long after his infamous bow to Emperor Akihito, a Japanese reporter asked President Obama if the U.S. was right for the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.

That's an interesting (read: loaded) question. Let’s review.

In an attack that was intended to intimidate the U.S. Pacific Fleet from interfering with military actions the Empire was planning against Europe, and ultimately the United States, Japanese aircraft carriers launched over 350 fighters, bombers and torpedo planes on the morning of December 7, 1941 in an assault on the Hawaiian island of Oahu that was nothing short of devastating.

In all, the Japanese smashed, wrecked and demolished three cruisers, three destroyers and 188 aircraft. All eight battleships docked at Pearl Harbor were also damaged, half of which were sunk. Six of the eight, however, were raised (when necessary), repaired and returned to service during the War.  Yet the greatest cost was paid in blood, as 1,282 Americans were wounded and 2,402 of our finest were killed.

Instead of ducking the aggressor, we knuckled up. FDR informed the Allied powers that America was officially all-in. The Stars and Stripes jumped into the fire, kicked more than our share of Axis ass (at no small cost by any measure) and led the drive to bring this worldwide struggle to an end nearly four brutal years later, sending Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and Imperial Japan to the guillotine.

I don’t exactly recall how Obama responded to the reporter. I’m sure our President – who’s developed a reputation for apologizing on behalf of the nation he represents – offered an answer that was both nice and diplomatic. But for those who feel such questions and apologies have become redundant, it seems the American response to the events that occurred 70 years ago today require no justification at all.


Picture credit: The battleship U.S.S. West Virginia is engulfed in flames after the surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor 70 years ago today; c/o The National Archives via AFP/Getty Images and USA Today

Everlastingly indebted

Norse explorer Leif Ericson (a.k.a. Leiv Eiriksson) landed in the Americas at the turn of the 11th century. Christopher Columbus arrived 519 years ago. The Pilgrims dropped anchor in Jamestown 115 years later. Their descendants, and the other Europeans who followed, were the harbingers of what would become the greatest of all nations.

Praising such individuals has, in recent years, become politically incorrect. Yet they are why we are here, and their example is why the United States became a repository for liberties that billions around the world will never have the opportunity to embrace. That much is factually correct. Thus I will always be grateful for those who laid the foundation upon which I now stand.

Picture credit: "Freedom from Want," from the March 6, 1943 issue of The Saturday Evening Post; © Norman Rockwell, via his Four Freedoms series

Happy birthday... to me

I entered the world 35 years ago today.  So to commemorate this marvelous occasion, here's a pic from way back during the poor ol' days when I lived in the Raleigh neighborhood of Memphis, Tennessee.

I was a cute kid.  Still am.

In observance of Memorial Day

"Thank you" doesn't really say enough...

Original source unknown

Did You Know (or Care): A bit more about the South

c/o Beauvoir

Kevin Levin of Civil War Memory is an example of one who scorns the individual who is perceived to cling to an unsubstantiated illusion that legitimizes certain perspectives which may not fit well within the box of the more easily accepted mainstream.  Indeed he has rejected the following story as a neo-Confederate fantasy solely intended to challenge the public image of Southerners' universal disdain for those of African descent.  So for those who think that we blindly hate everyone, here's an interesting piece I recently caught from History.com --

"Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his wife Varina fostered a slave child during the war.  On February 16, 1864, the Southern diarist Mary Boykin Chesnut wrote in her journal that, while visiting the Confederate executive mansion in Richmond, she saw a 'little negro Mrs. Davis rescued yesterday from his brutal negro guardian.  The child is an orphan.  He was dressed up in Little Joe's [one of the Davises' sons'] clothes and happy as a lord.'  The mulatto boy's name was Jim Limber, and he and young Billy Davis became friends.

"In her memoirs, Varina Davis said her husband 'went to the Mayor's office and had [Jim's] free papers registered to insure Jim against getting into the power of the oppressor again.'  When federal forces caught the fleeing Davises in May 1865, they gave the boy to an old family friend, Union General Rufus Saxton.  'He quietly went,' Varina Davis wrote, 'but as soon as he found he was going to leave us he fought like a little tiger and was thus engaged the last we saw of him.'"

Original source: The Seven-Day Scholar: The Civil War by Dennis Gaffney and Peter Gaffney

Iconic Shot(s): Justice is served

Authorized by Vice Admiral William H. McRaven, a former SEAL and commander of the Pentagon's Joint Special Operations Command, and in conjunction with the Central Intelligence Agency via direct order of President Obama, an indeterminate number of elite soldiers from the U.S. Naval Special Warfare Development Group – formerly SEAL Team Six – dropped into Abbottabad, Pakistan yesterday and bestowed a particular brand of justice that Osama bin Laden has deserved for well over a decade.

Obviously the maneuver was a remarkable success.  Our warriors suffered no casualties, bin Laden's lifeless body has already been disposed at sea, and America's role as de facto international police force, for better or worse, has never been more fortified.  Of course the War on Terrorism is far from over, but for the moment our world is a better place now that the Saudi-born founder of Al-Qaeda is burning in Hell.

Spirits among my fellow Americans haven't beeen this uplifted and unified in quite some time.  The following pictures from the UK's Daily Mail, per the Associated Press, speak volumes.

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On This Day in History

1543 – Outnumbered by nearly two-to-one, Ethiopian and Portuguese troops defeated the Adal Sultanate of the Ottoman Empire at the Battle of Wayna Daga in northern Ethiopia.  It was the final battle of the 14-year Ethiopian-Adal War, in which a potential Islamic conquest was quelled.  Some historians trace the present and longstanding hostility between Somalia and Ethiopia to this war.

1848 – Featuring a bunch of bad ideas regarding how capitalist societies would be replaced by socialism, and then eventually communism, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published the The Communist Manifesto.

1862 – The Battle of Valverde was fought near Fort Craig in the New Mexico Territory (present-day central New Mexico) between Confederate units from Texas and Arizona, and U.S. Army regulars and Union militia from northern New Mexico.  The South won.

1878 – The first telephone book was issued in New Haven, Connecticut.

1885 – The Washington Monument was dedicated in commemoration of our first President.  It remains both the world's tallest stone structure and the world's tallest obelisk, standing just over 555 feet.

1947 – Edwin Land demonstrates the Polaroid Land Camera, the first "instant camera," to a meeting of the Optical Society of America in New York City.

1948 – The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) is founded by William France, Sr.

1952 – The British government, per Winston Churchill, abolished identity cards throughout the United Kingdom to "set the people free."  Remember that when the issue of a nation identity card is brought up by our government.

1953 – Francis Crick and James D. Watson co-discovered the structure of DNA, for which they both received the Nobel Prize nine years later.

1958 – Designed by British artist Gerald Holtom, the Peace Symbol [pictured] was commissioned by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, in protest against the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment.

1962 – David Foster Wallace was born in Ithaca, New York.  Once called "one of the most influential and innovative writers of the last 20 years," Wallace was best known for his '96 novel Infinite Jest, which TIME magazine included in its "All-Time 100 Greatest Novels" list (from 1923-2006).  Having suffered from severe depression, he ended his own life in 2008.

1965 – Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little forty years earlier in Omaha, Nebraska) was assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City by members of the Nation of Islam.  The movie about his life remains Spike Lee's magnum opus.

1979 – The bubbly and vivacious Jennifer Love Hewitt was born in Waco, Texas.  I think she's wonderful.

On This Day in History

1703 – In what is now Tokyo, Japan, 46 of the legendary Forty-seven Ronin committed ritual suicide (seppuku) as part of the samurai honor code (bushidō) for avenging their master's death.

1789 – George Washington was elected the first President of the United States.

1844 – Discovered by German Biblical scholar Constantin Tischendor, the Codex Sinaiticus -- ancient portions of both the Old and New Testaments -- was uncovered at St. Catherine's Monastery in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.

1861 – Delegates from South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana convened in Montgomery, Alabama to form the Confederate States of America.

1902 – Charles Lindbergh was born in Detroit, Michigan.  Having initially risen to prominence with his solo non-stop flight from Roosevelt Field in New York's Long Island to Le Bourget Field in Paris, France (May 20-21, 1927; nearly 3,600 miles), Lindbergh was named TIME magazine's first Man of the Year.  Later in life he also became a prize-winning author, explorer, environmentalist and inventor.  Few have ever accomplished so much in a lifetime.

1906 – Dietrich Bonhoeffer [pictured] was born in Breslau, Germany (present-day Wrocław, Poland).  A master theologian of the Evangelical Lutheran faith, Bonhoeffer became critical of the Church's general insensitivity to the needs of secular society as he witnessed social upheaval, a decline of traditional values and international financial crisis -- much like the events of today.

Opposed to circumventing Christ in "religiosity," Bonhoeffer's time at Abyssinian Baptist Church in the Harlem borough of New York City (where he taught Sunday School) inspired a world view that would ultimately lead him to establish the Confessing Church, which became one of the few opposing voices to the Nazification in Germany.  It also led to Bonhoeffer's two-year incarceration and eventual martyrdom at the Flossenbürg concentration camp, less than a month before the Nazi regime collapsed.

In short, his influence and the example he set by speaking and standing for Truth cannot be overstated.

1945 – "The Big Three" -- Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin -- open The Yalta Conference at the Livadia Palace in Crimea (present-day southern Ukraine) to discuss Europe's postwar reorganization.

2004 – Mark Zuckerberg launched "Thefacebook," the forerunner to Facebook, from his dorm room at Harvard University.  Seven years later, Facebook.com boasts of 600 million users and only trails Google as the world's most visited website.

Sunday's Quote: Why they fought

Almost unquestionably, the Civil War is the most divisive historical topic in our nation's history.  Adding to the mix, The Washington Post recently published a piece by author and University of Vermont professor James W. Loewen that addressed five perceived myths encompassing this bygone era.

Scholarly at the outset of his assessment, Loewen concluded that White supremacy, commingled with a desire to expand slavery beyond the continental border, provided the driving motivation for the South's secession.  In fairness, perhaps, he added that "Northerners' fear of freed slaves moving north then caused Republicans to lose the Midwest in the congressional elections of November 1862."

Although I'm probably just a "neo-Confederate" hayseed simpleton locked into the mythology and lore of the romanticized Old South, I must say that I've mulled over perceptions such as Loewen's more times than I can count since the mid-90's.  And despite all that I've been commanded to believe, I keep arriving at the same questions:

Why would such a sizable uprising of mostly underprivileged, non-slave-holding Southerners -- a fledgling upstart of a nation -- form a citizen-soldiery to battle against their brethren of the North in the interest of maintaining a slavery establishment that, according to the U.S. census of 1860, was perpetuated by a mere 6% of the Southern populace?  Further, why would these Confederates who knowingly faced impossible odds even consider firing a single shot in the name of White supremacy when, according to Loewen himself, such a mindset (however debatable) was largely shared among their northern counterparts?

Here's a quick history review...

During the second session of the 36th Congress, the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed a resolution on February 11, 1861 that guaranteed noninterference with slavery in any State.  Undeterred by the eight slave States that remained in the Union, representatives of the new Confederacy (comprised of only seven States at this point) established a provisional Congress and formalized a new Constitution.  They had also chosen Jefferson Davis -- a West Point graduate and former U.S. Army Colonel, Senator and Secretary of War -- as their first provisional president.

Because the resolution failed to draw the seceded States back into the Union, the Crittenden-Johnson Resolution was passed by both houses of Congress on July 25, some three months after those dastardly Southerners took Fort Sumter, stating that war was being waged to "defend and maintain the supremacy of the Constitution and to preserve the Union."  Any document regarding a desire to do away with slavery would not be produced until Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, some 20 months after the War began.

For nearly half my life, I have known what rich and politically influential men of the time have said.  But I also wanted to know about the common man who loaded and fired his musket on the field of battle.  I considered those who were under no delusion about the grievous hardship that awaited them all.  And from this, I was forced to consider if it was possible -- if it was even conceivable -- that these ordinary people from a century-and-a-half ago were driven to fight, suffer and die for reasons other than maintaining human servitude and racial domination.

Consider Judah Benjamin.  Prior to his service in the Confederate Cabinet as Secretary of State, Secretary of War and Attorney General, Benjamin was only the second Jewish U.S. Senator in American history and the first Jew considered for nomination to the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. (an offer he declined twice).

Also consider Ambrosio José Gonzales, a Confederate Colonel and native of Cuba who served as chief of artillery and figured prominently in the South's coastal defense.

And let us not forget Stand Watie (a.k.a., Standhope Oowatie).  The Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, he was also a Brigadier General in the Confederate Army who led the Indian cavalry of the Army of the Trans-Mississippi, CSA.

Did such men fight for the causes of slavery and White supremacy?

Some of Loewen's points are accurate.  Those who wished to keep their slaves absolutely existed and held considerable clout.  But are Loewen's conclusions comprehensive in scope, or is this merely another case of the Southland being hit with the inclusive liability of an institution that has prospered continuously throughout our planet for nearly 4,000 years while everyone else, past and present, are given a pass?

The malignancies and complications of this time in history are undeniable.  But what if I were bold enough to define anyone by only the most negative aspects of their culture?  I doubt that would be very well received.  Hence, I never tell anyone why they have to love the former Confederate nation.  I only tell them why they don't have to hate it.  There's a difference.

"The South will rise again!" is unappealing rhetoric to most, including yours truly.  Yet the act of comparing the unashamed Southerner to Hitler and the Nazis ("Godwin's Law," Reductio ad Hitlerum) invariably makes its way into the conversation, usually when the debate has nowhere else to go.  But more interesting still is how America can always depend on those kooky Confederate flag wavers to be first in line for a fight to defend Old Glory.  Define that however you like, but the unyielding commitment demonstrated time and time again by the sons of the South stems from the reasoning behind why George Washington was placed at the center of the Great Seal of the Confederacy. 

Today we mock the notions of smaller government and States Rights, and we act as if the 10th Amendment doesn't even exist.  At present, we have an uncontrollable national government which, by most accounts, becomes more intrusive with each passing year.  And this is notable because, like it or not, that behemoth was born with Lee's surrender at Appomattox.

Instead of listening to the agenda-driven demagogues of the present, it is better to witness the words spoken by those who experienced the unpleasantness of the time firsthand.  Their viewpoints are not politically correct by our current standard.  But they are indeed correct, and it does matter:

"The Union was formed by the voluntary agreement of the States; and these, in uniting together, have not forfeited their Nationality, nor have they been reduced to the condition of one and the same people.  If one of the States chose to withdraw its name from the contract, it would be difficult to disprove its right of doing so."
-- from "Democracy in America" (two volumes, published in 1835 & 1840) by Alexis de Tocqueville

"Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to abolish the existing government and form a new one that suits them better. ... Any portion of such people, that can, may revolutionize and make their own of so much of the territory as they inhabit."

-- Abraham Lincoln, Congressional Records; January 12, 1848

"The Union is a Union of States founded upon Compact.  How is it to be supposed that when different parties enter into a compact for certain purposes either can disregard one provision of it and expect others to observe the rest?  If the Northern States willfully and deliberately refuse to carry out their part of the Constitution, the South would be no longer bound to keep the compact."
-- from Senator Daniel Webster's (D-Massachusetts) Capon Springs Speech; June 28, 1851

"Wealth has fled from the South, and settled in the regions north of the Potomac, and this in the midst of the fact that the south, in four staples alone, in cotton, tobacco, rice and indigo had exported produce since the Revolution, to the value of eight hundred million dollars, and the North had exported comparatively nothing. ... Such an export would indicate unparalleled wealth; but what was the fact?  In place of wealth, a universal pressure for money was felt; not enough for current expenses... and the frugal habits of the people pushed to the verge of universal self-denial for the preservation of their family estates. ... Under this legislation the exports of the South have been made the basis of the federal revenue. ... Virginia, the two Carolinas and Georgia may be said to defray three fourths of the annual expense of supporting the federal government; and of this great sum annually furnished by them, nothing, or next to nothing, is returned to them in the shape of government expenditure.

"That expenditure flows in an opposite direction; it flows northwardly, in one uniform, uninterrupted and perennial stream; it takes the course of trade and of exchange; and this is the reason why wealth disappears from the South and rises up in the North.  Federal legislation does all this; it does it by the simple process of eternally taking away from the South, and returning nothing to it."
-- from a lengthy and perfectly stated offering by Senator Thomas Hart Benton (D-Missouri) in 1851

"A legitimate union of states depends for its continuance on the free consent and will of the Sovereign people of each state, and when that consent and will is withdrawn on either part, their union is gone.  Any state forced to remain in a union by military force can never be a co-equal member of the American union and can be viewed only as a 'subject providence'."
-- from The Daily Union of Bangor, Maine; November 13, 1860

"If we of the North were called upon to endure one half as much as the Southern people and soldiers do, we would abandon the cause and let the Southern Confederacy be established. ... A nation preserved with liberty trampled underfoot is much worse than a nation in fragments but with the spirit of liberty still alive.  Southerners persistently claim that their rebellion is for the purpose of preserving this form of government."
-- Private John H. Haley, 17th Maine Regiment, United States Army

"With all my devotion to the Union and the feeling of loyalty and duty of an American citizen, I have not been able to make up my mind to raise my hand against my relatives, my children and my home."
-- Colonel Robert Edward Lee, United States Army.  Lee was President Lincoln's personal choice to lead the charge against the Southern uprising.

"I am fighting to preserve the integrity of the Union and the power of the government -- on no other issue.  To gain that end we cannot afford to mix up the Negro question.  It must be incidental and subsidiary.  The President is perfectly honest and is really sound on the [N-word] question."
-- Major General George B. McClellan, Army of the Potomac, United States Army

"Surrender means that the history of this heroic struggle will be written by the enemy; that our youth will be trained by Northern school teachers; will learn from Northern school books their version of the War; will be impressed by all the influences of history and education to regard our gallant dead as traitors and our maimed veterans as fit subjects for derision."
-- Major General Patrick Cleburne, Army of Tennessee, Confederate States Army

"So the case stands, and under all the passion of the parties and the cries of the battle lie the two chief moving causes of the struggle.  Union means so many millions a year lost to the South; secession means the loss of the same millions to the North.  The love of money is the root of this as of many, many other evils ... the quarrel between North and South is, as it stands, solely a fiscal quarrel."
-- Charles Dickens, author of numerous all-time classics, as editor of the British periodical All the Year Round in 1862

"All these cries of having 'abolished slavery', of having 'saved the country', of having 'preserved the Union,' of establishing a 'government of consent' and of 'maintaining the national honor' are all gross, shameless, transparent cheats -- so transparent they they ought to deceive no one."
-- Lysander Spooner, philosopher and Massachusetts abolitionist

"Concerning CSA President Jefferson Davis: He was imprisoned after the war (and) was never brought to trial.  The North didn't dare give him a trial, knowing that a trial would establish that secession was not unconstitutional, that there had been no 'rebellion' and the South had got a raw deal -- but he refused to ask the United States for a 'pardon', demanding that the government either offer him a pardon, give him a trial or admit that he had been unjustly dealt with.  He died, 'unpardoned' by a government that was leery of giving him a public hearing."
-- from "The Civil War" (1953) by James Street 

"The American people, North and South, went into the (Civil) War as citizens of their respective states.  They came out as subjects ... and what they thus lost, they never got back."
-- H.L. Mencken, one of the more notable commentators of the 20th century, and ironically, a noted detractor of the South

On This Day in History: Patriots, et al.

1755 – Alexander Hamilton, once the Commanding General of the United States Army and a Founding Father of our nation, was born in Charlestown, Nevis, British West Indies.

1794 – Chosen by George Washington to serve as the first United States Marshal for the State of Georgia, Scottish-born Robert Forsyth became the first Marshal in American history killed in the line of duty.

1843 – Francis Scott Key, the author of our national anthem -- "The Star-Spangled Banner" -- died in his native Maryland.  An novice poet, Key became inspired to write a prose describing his observation of the British bombardment of Fort McHenry during the Battle of Baltimore in September 1814.  "The Defence of Fort McHenry" was published a week later in the Patriot, by which he urged the adoption of "In God is our Trust" as the national motto in the fourth stanza.  Signed into law by President Eisenhower, "In God We Trust" became our national motto nearly a century and a half later in 1956.  Notably, F.S. Key also served as a Vice President of the American Bible Society for 25 years until his death.

1861 – Following South Carolina, Mississippi and Florida, Alabama seceded from the United States to become the fourth member of the Southern Confederacy.  Three more States -- Georgia, Louisiana and Texas -- followed just prior to the first shots fired at Fort Sumter.  The last four States -- Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee and North Carolina -- were not prompted to join until Abraham Lincoln called for Southern civilians to join the Federal cause.

1879 – The Anglo-Zulu War began with the British invasion of the Zulu Kingdom in southern Africa.  The English achieved victory in just under six months.

1935 – Already the first woman to fly solo non-stop across the Atlantic, Amelia Earhart (pictured) became the first person to successfully fly solo from Hawaii to California.

1949 – Los Angeles, California experiences its first recorded snowfall.

1964 – U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Luther Leonidas Terry publishes a landmark report saying that "smoking may be hazardous to health."  The worldwide anti-smoking efforts inspired by the report continue to this day.

1990 – Over 300,000 people marched in favor of Lithuanian independence from the USSR, which led to the Act of the Re-Establishment of the State of Lithuania on March 11.  The Soviet Union eventually dissolved over a two-year period, and the United Nations formally recognized Lithuania on September 17, 1991.

1998 – Religion of Peace: The Sidi-Hamed massacre occurs in Algeria on the last day of Ramadan.  According to the BBC, "An estimated fifty gunmen poured in, attacking children and adults alike; they bombed a cafe where films were being watched and a mosque in nearby Haouche Sahraoui, killing those who fled, and stormed houses to slaughter those within.  According to official figures, 103 were killed and seventy injured."  It was the second of five such Islamic-led massacres to have occurred in Algeria during the year.

Sunday's Quote: God

One of the great Conservatives of all-time perhaps said it best:

"Skepticism about life and nature is most often expressed by those who take it for granted that belief is an indulgence of the superstitious — indeed their opiate, to quote a historical cosmologist most profoundly dead.  Granted, that to look up at the stars comes close to compelling disbelief — how can such a chance arrangement be other than an elaboration — near infinite — of natural impulses?  Yes, on the other hand, who is to say that the arrangement of the stars is more easily traceable to nature, than to nature's molder?  What is the greater miracle: the raising of the dead man in Lazarus, or the mere existence of the man who died and of the witnesses who swore to his revival?"

-- from "How Is It Possible To Believe In God?" by William F. Buckley, Jr., founder of National Review, author of over 50 books, including God and Man at Yale, and possibly the foremost Conservative in American history.

And for good measure...

America's never had a perfect President, nor has any nation or municipality in history enjoyed a leader devoid of imperfections.  Yet there's something about Ronald Reagan that puts a smile on my face.  Inspired by a picture I recently came across of William F. Buckley (quoted above) at The White House with our 40th President, the following are part of a collection housed at the University of Texas:

Ronald & Nancy Reagan aboard a boat in California, August 1964 [archive catalog identifier H43-11]

Ronald Reagan celebrating is election for California Governor at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles, CA; November 8, 1966 [H99]

President Reagan at Rancho Del Cielo in Santa Barbara, CA; August 13, 1981 [C3525-20]

President Reagan speaking at a rally for Senator David Durenberger in Minneapolis, Minnesota; February 8, 1982 [C6287-7]

President Reagan meeting with fellow Conservative icon British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher at 10 Downing Street in London; June 9, 1982 [C8575-32A]

President Reagan at Ashford Castle in Ireland; June 2, 1984 [C22240-34]

President Reagan poses at the White House; October 3, 1984 [C24744-22]

President Reagan salutes as he boards Marine One on his last day as our nation's leader; January 20, 1989 [C51664-20A]

Iconic Shot: The 1956 Tennessee Volunteers

Ending the year ranked #2 in the nation behind an Oklahoma Sooner team in the midst of what would become a record 47-game winning streak (from '53-'57), the '56 Vols won the Southeastern Conference championship and finished with a 10-1 record.

Featuring a native son at tailback, Johnny Majors (#45) finished second in voting for the Heisman Trophy behind Notre Dame's Paul Hornung.  It marks the only time in the award's 75-year history that a player from a losing team has won the coveted award (the Fighting Irish went 2-8).  Over 50 years have passed, and many among the Volunteer faithful remain less than pleased about the snub.

And another for good measure...

A two-time Southeastern Conference MVP as a player, Johnny Majors led the Pittsburgh Panthers to a national championship as head coach in 1976.  He returned to his alma mater the following year, ultimately compiling a .645 winning percentage en route to three SEC titles and victories in seven bowl games.

This picture from 1982 (source unknown) is from the Vols' 35-28 victory in Knoxville over Paul "Bear" Bryant and the Alabama Crimson Tide.  It was the first win for Majors in six tries against the legendary Bryant, who retired at season's end and died the following January.

Southern Defenders Series: John C. Breckinridge

Considering the Southern theme that develops from time to time, I have come to realize that the best way to view the South is to possess and better understanding of her defenders.  Hence a new feature of summaries about the Southland's finest has come to fruition:

Born into a prominent Kentucky family, John C. Breckinridge graduated from Centre College in 1839 and attended Princeton soon thereafter, earning admission to the bar in 1840.

Upon serving with the 3rd Kentucky Volunteers during the Mexican-American War, Breckinridge made his way to Capital Hill in 1851 and undertook two terms as representative of Kentucky's 8th congressional district.  Having declined an ambassadorship to Spain, he eventually served as Vice President alongside President Franklin Pierce.  At age 36, John Cabell Breckinridge was, and remains, the youngest Vice President in American history.

He took a seat in the Senate at the outset of Abraham Lincoln's first term, but his nine-month stint abruptly ended when he was expelled for vocally supporting the South's secession, as had 10 other Senators before him.  Subsequently landing a commission in the Confederate Army, Breckinridge broke with his State when the Kentucky Legislature initially voted to remain with the Union.

As commander of the 1st Kentucky Brigade -- nicknamed the Orphan Brigade because of the men who felt abandoned by the government of their home State -- Major General Breckinridge led his troops valiantly throughout the Western Theater, beginning with the Battle of Shiloh (near Savannah, about an hour from Memphis) where he was wounded in action.

After the War, Major General Breckinridge personally oversaw the preservation of both the government and military archives of the Confederate States.  And by doing so, he ensured that a full account of the Southern war endeavor would be preserved for future generations.  In fact, all that I've just written was made possible by the efforts of John C. Breckinridge: American Representative, Senator, Vice President, and Confederate General.

Sunday's Quote: Defending the (seemingly) indefensible

Yesterday I came across an individual (online) who chose to rail against the placement of the Confederate flag on the grounds of the State capital in Columbia, South Carolina.  Here's my response:

"When someone can adequately explain why such an appreciable uprising of mostly underprivileged, non-slave-holding Southerners would even consider battling against their brethren of the logistically superior North to maintain a slavery establishment perpetuated by the wealthiest 6% of the Confederate populace (according to the U.S. Census of 1860), then, and only then, are you able to convince any thinking individual about the malignancy of the Southern Cause.

"Those who fly the Confederate banner to demonstrate a hatred of anyone do not require a symbolism to exhibit their disdain.  If the Confederacy had never existed, they would still hate.  And let's be especially real about this -- heavy racial issues persist to this day in New York City, Boston, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Detroit, stretching all the way to Los Angeles and many points in between.

"Because all arguments against the flag eventually make their way back to a matter of slavery, let us not overlook the fact that human servitude is a phenomenon that has existed on practically every corner of the planet for nearly 4,000 years.  In fact Free the Slaves, a human rights lobby group in Washington, D.C., claim as many as 27 million slaves exist in the world right now.  Yet it's the South that is hit with the inclusive liability of all racial matters while practically all others, past and present, are given a collective pass.

"Eliminate the Confederate flag, and you accomplish nothing.  Absolutely nothing.  Convince yourself otherwise if you like, but your energy is better served in other capacities.  God bless."

-- Me, just yesterday responding to the impassioned plea of an anti-Confederate activist.  I have opted to identify neither the person, nor the website, as my innocuous rebuttal was removed just hours after it was posted.  Presumably he accepts comments from like-minded individuals only.

Soldiers of Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 6th Regiment, 2nd Marine Division during Operation Moshtarak somewhere in the Helmand Province of southern Afghanistan.

Those who forget the past... (you know the rest)

In 1984, German historian and professor Alexander Demandt published a collection of 210 theories ("Der Fall Roms") regarding the collapse of the Roman Empire.  Other ideas have entered the unending debate since, but many of Demandt's estimations undoubtedly mirror America's present state of affairs.  They include --

Absence of character, apathy, bankruptcy, bastardization, bureaucracy, centralization, childlessness, communism, complacency, corruption, cosmopolitanism, cultural neurosis, decline of the cities, deforestation, degeneration of the intellect, demoralization, despotism, egoism, epidemics, escapism, exploitation, gluttony, hedonism, heresy, homosexuality, inflation, intellectualism, irrationality, mystery religions, pacifism, polytheism, prostitution, rationalism, rhetoric, sensuality, shamelessness, social and cultural leveling, socialism, vain gloriousness and vulgarization.

While reviewing Are We Rome? by Vanity Fair editor-at-large Cullen Murphy, NPR's Linda Kulman drew an ominous, yet undeniable comparison between the United States and Rome when she referenced "...the dangerous blurring of public and private responsibilities, paired with an inflated sense of power that can blind us to what's happening beyond our borders."  Kulman ended on a more sanguine note: "Where Rome was all about self-satisfaction, America prides itself on self-improvement.  It's this optimistic quality ... that may make it possible for us to reinvent ourselves instead of going the way of the ancient empire."

Let us hope that her assessment is accurate.