Memorial Weekend 2024

Memorial Day traditionally kicks off the summer holidays in America. Boy scouts, veterans, and politicians parade from town halls to cemeteries to honor the nation's fallen soldiers and sailors, after which families gather for BBQs before heading home sated on burgers, beer, and hot dogs to sleep it off.. This mass departure usually creates epic massive traffic jams on the highways of the USA.

Unlike today in my youth Memorial Day was celebrated on May 30, which preceded my birthday by one day, so as a child I looked forward to the holiday with doubled anticipation.

As a Boy Scout in the early 1960s we marched into the town cemetery with veterans from the country's many wars, firefighters, police, and politicians. Words were said at the Civil War monument, usually nameless Union solder, rifle in hands facing South. After more words and a military color guard shot blanks into the air.

Somehow I imagined that some of the accompanying veterans had fought in the Civil War, except Albert Henry Woolson, the last surviving veteran of the War between the States, had passed in August 2, 1956, so maybe these ancient soldiers were the remnants of the Rough Riders from the Spanish American War.

Memorial Day was first held in Charleston, South Carolina, when colored townspeople had reburied the corpses of Union soldiers, who had succumbed to disease and starvation at a local rebel prison.

According to Professor David W. Blight's Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory, African Americans founded Decoration Day at the graveyard of 257 Union soldiers labeled "Martyrs of the Race Course."

The "First Decoration Day," as this event came to be recognized in some circles in the North, involved an estimated ten thousand people, most of them black former slaves. During April, twenty-eight black men from one of the local churches built a suitable enclosure for the burial ground at the Race Course. In some ten days, they constructed a fence ten feet high, enclosing the burial ground, and landscaped the graves into neat rows. The wooden fence was whitewashed and an archway was built over the gate to the enclosure. On the arch, painted in black letters, the workmen inscribed "Martyrs of the Race Course."

At nine o'clock in the morning on May 1, the procession to this special cemetery began as three thousand black schoolchildren (newly enrolled in freedmen's schools) marched around the Race Course, each with an armload of roses and singing "John Brown's Body." The children were followed by three hundred black women representing the Patriotic Association, a group organized to distribute clothing and other goods among the freed people. The women carried baskets of flowers, wreaths, and crosses to the burial ground. The Mutual Aid Society, a benevolent association of black men, next marched in cadence around the track and into the cemetery, followed by large crowds of white and black citizens.

All dropped their spring blossoms on the graves in a scene recorded by a newspaper correspondent: "when all had left, the holy mounds — the tops, the sides, and the spaces between them — were one mass of flowers, not a speck of earth could be seen; and as the breeze wafted the sweet perfumes from them, outside and beyond ... there were few eyes among those who knew the meaning of the ceremony that were not dim with tears of joy." While the adults marched around the graves, the children were gathered in a nearby grove, where they sang "America," "We'll Rally Around the Flag," and "The Star-Spangled Banner."

The official dedication ceremony was conducted by the ministers of all the black churches in Charleston. With prayer, the reading of biblical passages, and the singing of spirituals, black Charlestonians gave birth to an American tradition. In so doing, they declared the meaning of the war in the most public way possible — by their labor, their words, their songs, and their solemn parade of roses, lilacs, and marching feet on the old planters' Race Course.

After the dedication, the crowds gathered at the Race Course grandstand to hear some thirty speeches by Union officers, local black ministers, and abolitionist missionaries. Picnics ensued around the grounds, and in the afternoon, a full brigade of Union infantry, including Colored Troops, marched in double column around the martyrs' graves and held a drill on the infield of the Race Course. The war was over, and Memorial Day had been founded by African Americans in a ritual of remembrance and consecration.

Decoration Day became increasingly popular with the veterans of the Grand Army of the Republic, as the remains of their missing comrades were transported from where they had fallen in battle to their home states.

Today America saluted the hundreds of thousands of dead, who fought to free a slaved people.

They are not forgotten.

A Memorial Day Thought:
"Obviously what causes war is the desire for power, position, prestige, money; also the disease called nationalism, the worship of a flag; and the disease of organized religion, the worship of a dogma. All these are the causes of war; if you as an individual belong to any of the organized religions, if you are greedy for power, if you are envious, you are bound to produce a society which will result in destruction. So again it depends upon you and not on the leaders - not on so-called statesmen and all the rest of them. It depends upon you and me but we do not seem to realize that. If once we really felt the responsibility of our own actions, how quickly we could bring to an end all these wars, this appalling misery!"
-Krishnamurti

Shots In Anger

At 4:30am on Friday, April 12, 1861 Brigadier General Beauregard ordered the secessionist troops manning the artillery batteries of Charleston, South Carolina to open fire on Fort Sumter housing 127 federal troops of which 13 were musicians. Two hours lapse before the Yankee commander allowed Captain Abner Doubleday, the inventor of baseball, to return a salvo of solid ball. No rebel or union soldiers died during the 34 hours of bombardment, although one rebel was mortally wounded after the misfiring of a cannon and two union troops gave up their lives on the 47th shot of a 100-shot salute after the surrender of the beleaguered fort.

The nearly-bloodless fight ill-prepared the divided nation for the four years of slaughter to come. I asked everyone at work of today's importance. None of the employees at the diamond exchange had an answer. A good percentage of them are foreign-born. None of the native-born were aware of the date's significance. The New York Times, the Daily News, and New York Post wrote articles about the battle, but 2 weeks ago is ancient history in the city that never sleeps.

My father's side of the family fought in the Civil War. Hannibal Hamlin, distant relative, had been vice president under Lincoln. The first time I googled his name the first article to appear said that the Maine politician was reputed to be a negro, but then most white people at that time had negro blood in their veins after 200 years of slavery. They even paid painters to change their pigmentation in portraits to heighten their whiteness, but then the War Between the States was not about freeing the slaves, the casus bellum was 'states rights' according the the southerners of today and certainly more folks south of the Mason-Dixon Line recall the events of today than in the North.

To the victors go the glory of ignorance.

But in the Great State of Maine granite statues dot town squares. Immortal soldiers from the 10th Maine regiment, the 27th Maine, and Joshua Chamberlain's heroic 20th Maine face in one direction and that direction is South. My family hailed from Westbrook, Maine. The attic of my grandmother's house was a memorial to past wars. As a boy my older brother and I wore the uniforms of WWI and WWII. In my mind I remembered pulling on a blue coat of a Yankee. It was small. Almost the size of a young boy like myself. I telephoned my aunt to ask her, if she recollected a uniform dating back to the Civil War.

"You have such a special memory," she laughed from her living room in Marblehead. Her husband agreed with her recollection, but men at any age agree with a woman if they know what's good for them.

My older brother was my next call. His memory mirrored that of our aunt.

"What about seeing the last Union soldiers at a town parade on Memorial Day? About 1960?"

"Not a chance. The last surviving veteran was Albert Henry Woolson. He died in 1956."

"How do you know that?"

"Because my son told me that today."

His son was smart. He was graduating from U Penn. His field of studies was pre-med.

"And he also asked me to name the 9 battles in which over 20,000 troops died in the Civil War."

"That's easy; the 2nd Battle of Bull Run, Chancellorsville, the Wilderness, Gettysburg, Fredricksburg, Shiloh, Antietam, Stone River, Spotsylvania, and Chickamauga." I had read Bruce Catton's Civil War histories several times as a youth and adult.

I was right, although his wife thought that I read these names from a computer. She was wrong. The Civil War is in my blood.

In 2011 I drove south of the Potomac to visit Ms. Carolina. She was seriously ill. I wanted to see her before the turns of her travails worsened with the shortening of time. Her house was out on the Northern Neck of the Potomac. I headed down I-95 to route 3 and turned east. Fredricksburg was en route. I was drawn to St. Marye's Heights. The Union Army had been broken on this ground. The 20th Maine had huddled behind the dead. Spring was another few weeks away, but I stood next to the old cannons and mourned the dead.

Theirs and ours.

150 years is a long time. We are still enemies, yet still the same for the Union survived those four dreadful years and this country will be challenged by the present division sundering our connections, for at the end we are all Americans and nobody says it better than Maine's Joshua Chamberlain, who was present during the Surrender at Appomattox. He met with General Gordon of the CSA.

"I am from General Gordon. General Lee desires a cessation of hostilities until he can hear from General Grant as to the proposed surrender."

Chamberlain recounted the ceremony in his memoir and the moment when he ordered the 20th Maine to "carry arms" as a show of respect.

"Gordon, at the head of the marching column, outdoes us in courtesy. He was riding with downcast eyes and more than pensive look; but at this clatter of arms he raises his eyes and instantly catching the significance, wheels his horse with that superb grace of which he is master, drops the point of his sword to his stirrup, gives a command, at which the great Confederate ensign following him is dipped and his decimated brigades, as they reach our right, respond to the 'carry.' All the while on our part not a sound of trumpet or drum, not a cheer, nor a word nor motion of man, but awful stillness as if it were the passing of the dead."

Johnny, it's always good to put that gun down.

We are one nation.

150 years ago as much as today.

The Brave Men Of The North

Memorial Day traditionally kicks off the summer holidays in America. Boy scouts, veterans, and politicians parade to honor the nation's fallen soldiers and sailors, after which families gather for BBQs before heading home sated on burgers, beer, and hot dogs. This mass departure usually creates epic massive traffic jams on the highways of the USA.

In my youth Memorial Day was celebrated on May 30, which preceded my birthday by one day, so as a child I looked forward to the holiday with doubled anticipation.

As a Boy Scout in the early 60s we marched into the town cemetery with veterans from the country's many wars, firefighters, police, and politicians. A prayer was said at the Civil War monument and a military color guard shot blanks into the air.

Somehow I thought that some of the accompanying veterans had fought in the Civil War, except Albert Henry Woolson, the last surviving veteran of the War between the States, had already died in August 2, 1956, so these ancient soldiers had to have been the remnants of the Rough Riders from the Spanish American War.

Memorial Day was first held in Charleston, South Carolina, when black townspeople reburied the corpses of union soldiers who succumbed to disease and starvation at a rebel prison.

According to Professor David W. Blight's Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory, African Americans founded Decoration Day at the graveyard of 257 Union soldiers labeled "Martyrs of the Race Course."

The "First Decoration Day," as this event came to be recognized in some circles in the North, involved an estimated ten thousand people, most of them black former slaves. During April, twenty-eight black men from one of the local churches built a suitable enclosure for the burial ground at the Race Course. In some ten days, they constructed a fence ten feet high, enclosing the burial ground, and landscaped the graves into neat rows. The wooden fence was whitewashed and an archway was built over the gate to the enclosure. On the arch, painted in black letters, the workmen inscribed "Martyrs of the Race Course."

At nine o'clock in the morning on May 1, the procession to this special cemetery began as three thousand black schoolchildren (newly enrolled in freedmen's schools) marched around the Race Course, each with an armload of roses and singing "John Brown's Body." The children were followed by three hundred black women representing the Patriotic Association, a group organized to distribute clothing and other goods among the freed people. The women carried baskets of flowers, wreaths, and crosses to the burial ground. The Mutual Aid Society, a benevolent association of black men, next marched in cadence around the track and into the cemetery, followed by large crowds of white and black citizens.

All dropped their spring blossoms on the graves in a scene recorded by a newspaper correspondent: "when all had left, the holy mounds ? the tops, the sides, and the spaces between them ? were one mass of flowers, not a speck of earth could be seen; and as the breeze wafted the sweet perfumes from them, outside and beyond ... there were few eyes among those who knew the meaning of the ceremony that were not dim with tears of joy." While the adults marched around the graves, the children were gathered in a nearby grove, where they sang "America," "We'll Rally Around the Flag," and "The Star-Spangled Banner."

The official dedication ceremony was conducted by the ministers of all the black churches in Charleston. With prayer, the reading of biblical passages, and the singing of spirituals, black Charlestonians gave birth to an American tradition. In so doing, they declared the meaning of the war in the most public way possible by their labor, their words, their songs, and their solemn parade of roses, lilacs, and marching feet on the old planters' Race Course.

After the dedication, the crowds gathered at the Race Course grandstand to hear some thirty speeches by Union officers, local black ministers, and abolitionist missionaries. Picnics ensued around the grounds, and in the afternoon, a full brigade of Union infantry, including Colored Troops, marched in double column around the martyrs' graves and held a drill on the infield of the Race Course. The war was over, and Memorial Day had been founded by African Americans in a ritual of remembrance and consecration.

Decoration Day became increasingly popular with the veterans of the Grand Army of the Republic, as the remains of their missing comrades were transported from where they had fallen in battle to their home states.

Today I raise my glass to the hundreds of thousands of dead.

They are not forgotten.

A Memorial Day Thought: "Obviously what causes war is the desire for power, position, prestige, money; also the disease called nationalism, the worship of a flag; and the disease of organized religion, the worship of a dogma. All these are the causes of war; if you as an individual belong to any of the organized religions, if you are greedy for power, if you are envious, you are bound to produce a society which will result in destruction. So again it depends upon you and not on the leaders - not on so-called statesmen and all the rest of them. It depends upon you and me but we do not seem to realize that. If once we really felt the responsibility of our own actions, how quickly we could bring to an end all these wars, this appalling misery!"

-Krishnamurti

Memorial Day 2023

Memorial Day traditionally kicks off the summer holidays in America. Parades are held to honor the nation's soldiers and sailors, who have fallen in battle, after which families gather for BBQs before creating massive traffic jams on the highways of the USA. Memorial Day was celebrated on May 30, which preceded my birthday by one day, so as a child I looked forward to the holiday with doubled anticipation.

As a Boy Scout in the early 60s we marched into the town cemetery with veterans from the country's many wars, firefighters, police, and politicians. A prayer was said at the Civil War monument and a military color guard shoot blanks into the air.

Somehow I thought that some of the accompanying veterans had fought in the Civil War, but the last survivor of the War between the States had been Albert Henry Woolson, who died in August 2, 1956, so maybe these ancient soldiers were the last veterans standing from the Spanish American War.

Memorial Day was first held in Charleston South Carolina in 1866, when the newly freed laid flowers on the graves of dead Union soldiers. Decoration Day was popular with the veterans of the Grand Army of the Republic, as the remains of the dead were moved from where they fell to their home states.

Today I raise my glass to the hundreds of thousands of dead.

They are not forgotten.

A Memorial Day Thought:

"Obviously what causes war is the desire for power, position, prestige, money; also the disease called nationalism, the worship of a flag; and the disease of organized religion, the worship of a dogma. All these are the causes of war; if you as an individual belong to any of the organized religions, if you are greedy for power, if you are envious, you are bound to produce a society which will result in destruction. So again it depends upon you and not on the leaders - not on so-called statesmen and all the rest of them. It depends upon you and me but we do not seem to realize that. If once we really felt the responsibility of our own actions, how quickly we could bring to an end all these wars, this appalling misery!"
-Krishnamurti

The Madness Of The White Race

The first African slaves were transported from Africa to the New World in the late 1400s to serve on plantations under wretched conditions. The sugar crops ate up the Africans as fast as the Europeans could feed them to the Sugar Colonies. Tens of thousands provided free labor to earn wealth for the merchants of the Old world in order to fight the Religious Wars in Europe.

Vengeful uprisings in Brazil, Jamaica, and Gaspar Yanga's San Lorenzo de los Negros stuck fear throughout slave-holding lands. The White man ruthlessly suppressed any attempt to gain freedom without any hope of emancipation for the lost tribes of Africa for centuries.

The unthinkable occurred in 1863. The Union declared all men free. Black troops fought for the cause of liberty, however the Reconstruction failed, as the KKK terrorized the newly-freed slaves and re-instituted the old regime with the rise of Jom Crow.

Black freedmen and their families fled the south and settle in towns and cities offering freedom only to discover the lords of racism had followed them to the North. The Black section of Tulsa was burned to the round during the Uprising of 1919.

Protest marchers at Selma were beaten by Alabama State Troopers and attacked by dogs at the order their governor.

At the height of the Vietnam War US soldiers occupied Newark in 1965 with ordered to shoot to kill.

Attica.

Watts.

South Central.

And Kenosha, Wisconsin, where an eighteen year-old boy used deadly force to show his belief in White Power. Kyle Rittenhouse killed two people and gravely wounded another, claiming self-defense.

The teenaged murderer was found not guilty by a jury of his peers i.e. eleven whites and one black after blubbering out his innocence like Ned Beatty's character in DELIVERANCE. The dead are dead. Same as George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Freddie Gray, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin and scores of innocent men and women of color, whose only crime had been the color of their skin.

This is America.

The Home of the Unfree

But one day we will all be free.

And our dreams will come true.

How Far From Now

On November 8, 2016 I was sitting at the bar at the Barnacle in Marblehead. The TV was showing the election results. The initial reports looked good for Hillary Clinton, however CNN swiftly charted the collapse of democracy as old Democratic stronghold in the Midwest fell into Trump's electoral count. By dawn victory was declared by the reality TV star and America was firmly in the hands of the GOP, despite Bill Clinton's wife having spent over $700 million on her campaign, nearly $600 million on political hacks.

Trump's motto MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN had resonated with the voters from the religious right to the Hassidim community and white suburbs threatened by equality and fearful of the War on Terror.

I walked away from the Barnacle, thinking, "We are so fucked."

In the morning my beloved Aunt Sally and Uncle Russ admitted that they thought the same, although they were too polite to use bad language, but we walked up to Fort Sewell where the view only changed with the light.

In the following weeks I scoured the results in suspect congressional districts without finding a blaring example of fraud other than the traditional suppression of black voters throughout the USA.

Turkey day came and went without incident.

We knew nothing was right and nothing stayed right for the following four years.

Trump was evil.

My friends believed in their god/king. I stopped speaking to most of them.

Separation of children of illegal immigrants, travel bans against Muslims, pardons of white-collar criminals, praising Putin and the North Korean dictator, anti-marijuana policies, attempts to repeal health care, tax cuts for the rich, deregulation of environmental protection, the Trump Wall of Mexico, attacks on Yemen, condoning white supremacists and terror against African-Americans, threats against Iran, support for fundamentalist terror of Saudi Arabia, Covid rejection ad nauseum delighted the Trumpards.

But Trump wasn't really American.

To him BLM was evil.

Defund the police was evil.

Old motherfuckers like me remember history.

2017

Trump paid $750 in income tax.

He scared the Germans.

2019. He practiced pardons.

2020. He lost to Joe Biden by seven million votes, but declared the election results were changed by theft.

His followers believed his claims and his legal teams attack everyone without success.

He was a loser, yet called on his followers to reject the truth.

On January 6, 2021 they attacked the Capitol Building, where the Senate and Congress were completing the tally for the Electoral Congress.

Chaos.

Mayhem.

Death.

And still the GOP called for fraud investigation.

Fuck them and the pigs they rode.

Because Gettysburg proved one thing to these scum.

"Fredericksburg. Frederickburg."

One defeat does not mean victory.

ps Fuck 12.

The Last Gasp

The American Civil War was fought for four long years. Someone should have negotiated a truce to spare the slaughter of Gettysburg and all the battles in a lost cause, but The Southerners fought to the bloody end and on March 25, 1865 the Rebels launched a final offensive against the siege lines facing Petersburg. The assault carried Fort Stedman in the darkness before the dawn.

According to Wikipedia Brevet Brig. Gen. Napoleon B. McLaughlen, the officer responsible for the Fort Stedman sector, heard the sounds of the attack, dressed quickly and rode to Fort Haskell, just to the south of Battery XII, which he found to be ready to defend itself.

As he moved north, McLaughlen ordered Battery XII to open fire on Battery XI and ordered a reserve infantry regiment, the 59th Massachusetts, to counterattack, which they did with fixed bayonets, briefly re-capturing Battery XI. Assuming that he had sealed the only breach in the line, McLaughlen rode into Fort Stedman. He recalled, "I crossed the parapet and meeting some men coming over the curtains, whom in the darkness I supposed to be part of the picket, I established them inside the work, giving directions with regard to position and firing, all of which were instantly obeyed."

He suddenly realized that the men he was ordering were Confederates and they realized he was a Union general, capturing him. He was taken back across no man's land and surrendered his sword personally to Gordon.

Within four hours the early triumph turned to a ghastly defeat.

Last Saturday morning I walked on the battlefield.

The dead, maimed, and unwounded last buried elsewhere.

Grass covered the ground.

Not the blood of 4,000 men.

Several days later the Federals broke into Petersburg.

General Robert E. Lee telegraphed President Jefferson Davis to flee and then retreated west in hopes of escape.

There was none.

Only Appomattox.

Why? Aylan. Why?

Damascus has been continuous occupied for over five thousand years. The lands around Syria have supported innumerable civilizations throughout the millenia. After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire Greater Syria was mandated under French control and at the end of World War II France granted the ancient lands freedom. Most of its following history has been dominated by the ruling Assad family, however during the Arab Spring of 2011 huge crowds gathered in every major Syrian cities to protest the draconian rule of President Bashar al-Assad. Having witnessed the fall of Iraq's Saddam, the Alawite clan leader decided to respond to the masses' request for more freedom with violence and the crackdown soon evolved into a vicious civil war shattering national unity.

Bombardments, air strikes, assassinations, massacres, poison gas attacks, extremists, hardliners, starvation, murder, and despair have forced millions of Syrians to flee their native land for refuge in neighboring countries ill-equipped to provide comfort for the desperate refugees.

Left with few options these forlorn Syrians have fled their homeland in droves.

By air, by land, and by sea.

This week the shores of Greece harvested a tide of dead refugees.

One was a baby. He was three years old and his name was Aylan Kurdi, whose Kurdish family was fleeing the depredations of a brutal kaleidoscope of horror.

Left with nowhere else to go this boy found his place in the world on a beach.

This tragedy and the other tragedies of the world has to stop.

Silence is not an option.

War is not the answer.

Only peace.

Smiles shall be he reward as those shining from Aylan Al-Kurdi and his older brother, Ghalib.