Category Archives: history

If you can keep it…

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One of the quotes often ascribed to Ben Franklin tells of him responding to a question asked about what type of government there would be for the United States. Franklin responds that it’s a democracy, if we can keep it. This weekend we rightly celebrate our country’s birth announcement. But in doing this, so many forget the terrible price that was paid “to keep it” well beyond the surrender at Yorktown and the Treaty of Paris.

On July 3, 1863 Confederate forces inside the besieged city of Vicksburg, Mississippi sued for peace and laid down their arms. Earlier in the afternoon, on a field in Pennsylvania, the flower of Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia shattered themselves against the Union center at Gettysburg; all but guaranteeing the eventual southern defeat. These twin victories, announced to the world on July 4th, 1863, ensured that the visionary experiment in democracy laid down in 1776 would endure even the bloody nightmare of civil war.

We owe much to the founders who gave us our republic, but so too do we owe a debt of gratitude to the men of 1863, who fought and died to preserve what their grandfathers and great grandfathers and built. As it was in 1776 and in 1863, so it is now – This Union, this republic, must be preserved against any, domestic or foreign, who rise against it.

They all look alike… usually

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When you spend enough time on the road, most hotel rooms have a tendency to blend together to the point where it’s hard to tell a Marriott, from a Hilton, from a Holiday Inn. For the average road warrior, the only part of a hotel you really notice is whatever it is that isn’t working in the room you happen to be in that week. Occasionally, though, a hotel really stands out… and not in that “Eww… there’s a hairball in the tub and a dead mouse under desk” kind of way.

Being first and foremost a lover of history some hotels simply have better stories than others. The best of those are usually reserved for the grand old hotels in the downtown of major cities. Some of these places are past their prime, but some of them have endured as symbols of elegance from on generation to another. It’s been my good fortune to spend the last two nights in one of the latter.

The Hilton Fort Worth was built in the 1920s as the Hotel Texas. Built at a time when cattle drives still ran through the heart of downtown and Fort Worth was in the process of became a center of the Texas oil boom – with money comes political influence… and where there’s influence, there are politicians looking to earn or cash in on favors. On November 21, 1963 President Kennedy arrived in Fort Worth as part of a five-city swing through Texas. The presidential party booked out two floor of the Hotel Texas, with the grandest suite looking out over downtown Fort Worth and Main Street.

On the morning of November 22nd, the president addressed a crowd that had gathered in the early morning rain before delivering formal remarks in the hotel’s ballroom. Following this breakfast speech, the Kennedy motorcade departed the Texas, following an agenda that would carry the president to a scheduled speech in Dallas at noon. Kennedy never made that speech, of course, and the Texas became inextricably linked with one of the darkest moments in American history.

I’ve enjoyed the opportunity to spend the last two nights at the Fort Worth Hilton, though I can’t help but think of it a the Texas, and I am deeply grateful to the kind staff who allowed me to visit the Kennedy Suite and have a few brief moments of communion with real American history. There was something about it being a hotel room, albeit a ridiculously well appointed hotel room, that reminded me that despite the pomp and ceremony, presidents aren’t anointed; they’re elevated from the people and will return to the people at the end of their term as they have in unbroken succession since the beginning.

I had a moment today. I don’t get those very often any more… and I kind of wish I did.

Slightly used…

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NASA is putting two space shuttles up for sale at the low, low price of $28.8 million each. I mean, come on, that’s a steal at twice the price. It’s a friggin’ space shuttle after all. And yeah, I know it’s technically not for sale to individuals, but between the bunch of us, surely we can find some state or local government that wouldn’t mind picking it up for us… Sort of like the guy who bought beer for you before you were 21. All we’d actually be paying for was the shipping and handling of getting the thing from Houston to our destination of choice. It’s so much better than a Shamwow or even that crap that Billy Mays use to peddle in the small hours of the morning. So if anyone out there has a really big garage or wants to make a donation, get in touch! Discovery is already spoken for, but Atlantis and Endeavour are still available. Act now to take advantage of this special offer before supplies run out!

Watching the world wake up…

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Tell most people younger than me that there were once two Germanys and two Berlins and they’ll look at you like you’ve suddenly sprouted a third arm in the center of your chest. They don’t remember a world where a great city was divided by concrete barricades and when all of Europe was divided by an iron curtain; or when two superpowers stood toe-to-toe and tried to spend one another into oblivion through proxy wars and an arms race. And then we watched that world that we had all grown up with dissolve before our eyes on cable television.

If a man is extraordinarily lucky, he gets to live through that kind of change once in his lifetime. In twenty years there’s been nothing to compare those days against. A hundred years from now when the first relatively objective histories of the last half of the 20th century are being written, they will tell the story of leaders like Walesa, Thatcher, Reagan, John Paul II and Gorbachev. They’ll tell stories of round the clock airlifts to ensure the freedom of a city cut off from the rest of the world. They’ll tell stories of every day heroics by those who sought freedom on both sides of the wall. And finally they’ll tell stories about the day that wall was torn down.

Twenty years ago today, all the world watched and wondered as the unthinkable happened, as history suddenly shifted on its axis, as the rising tide of freedom washed over the concrete battlements of an empire in retreat. I can’t imagine when I’d rather be than right here, right now.

200…

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It’s the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin which makes it about 150 years since he published On The Origin of Species. According to a poll published today only something like 39% of Americans believe in the kind of evolution outlined by our English friend. That’s 39%. Are you serious? It boggles the mind that 61% of those polled either disagree or don’t know what they believe. By the way, it’s a question about what you *believe* how can you possibly not know the answer?Where ever it was that this 61% of the American public was educated, they should demand a refund or at least a repeat of Intro to Biology, as they have been badly misserved by the educational system.

I weep for the future of the Republic.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Pondering History…

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Most people thing of history as a static truth; that X event happened on Y date. The reality, of course, is that history is fluid and full of interpretation. Like the proverbial stone in a river, the rough edges are worn away with time and a more whole picture of the subject emerges over time. When you are in the stream of history, it’s nearly impossible to approach a subject with real objectivity. With that being said, I’ve spent my time this morning wondering how history will treat George W. Bush. With the rancor and raw hatred of many of his critics, it’s nearly impossible to think that history won’t treat him better than his contemporaries have. Will history paint him as the happy warrior, hell bent on spread democracy or as an imperial and secretive president the likes of which has only been seen in one other administration?

I suspect that history will take something of a middle course. The presidency of George W. Bush has all the hallmarks of a classic tragedy. It was an administration full of possibility that failed to live up to that possibility. It was a portrait of the danger of governance by ideologs. And it was a remarkable tribute to the capacity of the American people to come together in the face of withering adversity and of how a leader could fritter away that goodwill. George W. Bush will remain something of a question mark in many ways. Say what you will, he staked out a clear ideological position on many issues and then stuck with them through thick or thin. On the keystone issue of government intervention in the free market, however, he turned those stated beliefs on their head to lead the largest government intervention since the 1930s. Enigma much?

Fifty or a hundred years from now, we’ll have a much fuller picture of the man who we elected king these last eight years. For now, we’ve had the fortune to live in interesting times. Would you really want it any other way?

Musings on the 4th…

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It’s hard to come up with a new 4th of July blog that doesn’t repeat the same things I have said year after year. I’m not going to go on about the laurels due the giants of the American founding and I’m not going to rail against the useless hippy bastards that want desperately to think the world is a place of sunshine and puppy dogs rather than the dangerous place it is. All I can really say is that today is the Independence Day, the High Holiday for those of us who pray at the altar of republicanism (that’s a small ‘r’ in case you missed it).

Even I’m not arrogant enough to proclaim that the United States infallible in our actions, but I will argue vehemently that we have done the best we could with the world we inherited from the failing empires of Western Europe. In good times and in bad times, I remain unashamed to say before you and before the world that I love my country. For me it has been a land of opportunity that has given far more than I had any right to hope for while demanding so little in return. I know I’m biased, but I don’t shrink from saying that taking all things as a whole, my country is the greatest on earth, not necessarily because of the global reach of our military or our role in global trade, but because of the nearly unlimited opportunities available to this son of a cop and a teacher. I couldn’t possibly ask for more than the chances I’ve been given… and for those yet to come.

Columbus Day…

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You know what? Chris Columbus wasn’t perfect. He did some bad things. He also had the courage to climb aboard a hundred foot wooden ship and sail 2500 miles into an ocean that was more or less uncharted. Looking for a trade route to the Indies, he landed in the Americas and opened two continents to further exploration and began the largest age of migration in all of human history.

I’ve watched a number of reports this morning condemning Columbus as a genocidal maniac and all I can do is shake my head in frustration. I will never understand why educated people insist on applying 21st century morality to 15th century actions. Of course if we “discovered” an unknown continent tomorrow, we wouldn’t approach it the same way that Columbus did in the 1490s. We wouldn’t approach it the same way the Great Powers of Europe approached Africa in the 19th century, either. We would approach it using our best judgment based on 21st century understanding of peoples and our “improved” sense of morality. And 500 years from now, we would probably be criticized for our actions because they were not how those “future” observers would handle the situation.

Columbus is roundly criticized because he “didn’t even know he was in America.” Of course he didn’t know he was in America (aside from the continents actually not being called America at that point). Up until that point, perhaps a relative handful of Europeans had ever set foot on the continent and most of those did so in the extreme north. There were no accurate maps, no global positioning systems, and actually no way to even accurately establish longitude. And still, for God and glory, Columbus captained three fragile ships to a new world.

I won’t become an apologist for history. The history is what it is. Actions were not all good, nor all bad. They simply are what was done at the time. While Columbus legacy is clearly “mixed,” I have no qualms about celebrating him as an iconic figure in our history.

Right back where we started from…

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I’ve always had a bit of a soft spot for Fort Lee. When I was desperate to leave teaching and sloshing my way towards high-functioning alcoholism, Ft. Lee was my first step towards redemption. It was the place that restored my faith in my own abilities. Coming back to this place is a little like coming home to mama. It is one of those little pieces of geography that gives me a warm fuzzy. I am a firm believer that there are certain places, geographic locations that have a huge impact on who we become as people. I’m not going so far as arguing that geography makes the man (although there are some interesting theories floating around), just that it has an influence.

I’m sitting here 1000 yards from where Grant broke the rebel line at Petersburg in the last great battle of our Civil Way. After Petersburg, the worst of the conflict was over, though peace would come only after the fall of Richmond and the long march to Appomattox. After Petersburg, normal was still a long way off. There remained the struggle of national Reconstruction and decades of Jim Crowe. The Republic had endured the dark threat of disunion and although Gettysburg is remembered as the battle that turned the tide, it was Petersburg that finally broke the back of the rebellion. This is where the process of restoring faith in the Union began in earnest.

In so many ways, Petersburg did the same thing for me. There’s something about the symmetry that I like.

The Glorious Fourth…

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We live in troubled times. Love of country is seen as the exclusive province of the closed-minded and Patriots are derided as jingoistic bombasts. The good that America has done and continues to do in the world is swept under the rug in favor of discussions on where our steps have faltered. The long list of our national accomplishments are pushed aside and only our mistakes are held up to the light of public scrutiny.

Two hundred thirty one years ago, 55 patriots, working under conditions of secrecy and in contravention of the instructions that had brought them together, voted for independence from Great Britain. Those colonials, mistreated and abused by the king’s government, launched the world’s greatest experiment in representative democracy. We fought a great civil war to determine if such a nation could endure. In the century just passed, we fought two world wars to ensure that this legacy of freedom did not perish and a long cold war that pitted America against the forces of an evil empire. Now, America’s bravest sons and daughters stand post in places with names like Kabul and Tikrit, just as their predecessors held the line in the la Drang Valley, at the Chosin Reservoir, in the snows of Bastogne, and the muddy trenches of the Marne.

Today is Independence Day and I remain committed to the proposition that our country, warts and all, remains the last, best hope of earth; that, as it was at the beginning, it is a shining city upon a hill.