While on my shopping adventure to find big holiday bargains (and of course my cute new shoes), I found the time to be generous and charitable.  I gave some pocket change to the bell ringers, and I also gave a donation to war veterans.  They were a couple of cute older men that reminded me of my grandpa, sitting at a table in the mall, collecting donations for the needy.  I took a few minutes to stay and talk to the men, who were the nicest of nice… I wanted to take them home with me!  Anyway, cuz you all know about my love of our American history, I gabbed with the gentlemen for a while before moving on cuz I thought I might’ve been talking their ears right off.  Before I left them, they reminded me to fly my American Flag at half staff on December 7th in remembrance of Pearl Harbor.  I smiled and said, “yes, sir!”

View from USS Arizona Memorial

Those cute older gents I talked to in the mall were alive in 1941 and remember the December 7th Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.  It’s fair to say that most of us today have to read about it in history books, or see TV shows about it on The History Channel.  Regardless of how just much knowledge some people may have about that day, it’s a pretty good guess that most would recognize the Pearl Harbor Memorial if they saw it.  First of all, it’s in Hawaii, so if you ever went to Hawaii for a vacation, you probably, almost certainly, had visited the Memorial site of the USS Arizona, and it’s truly an unforgettable place.  When I was just a little bitty my family went on vacation to Honolulu and visited the site.  And even as young as I was at the time, I knew I was somewhere important.  I can remember the beautiful bridge and viewing areas from my memory, but I had to get a little older before I could comprehend and truly understand the place I had been, that events that unraveled this place where I planted my very little feet, is where the United States’ involvement in World War II began.  Here’s just a couple quick and interesting facts about this important site:

USS Arizona

On December 7, 1941, Japan launched a surprise attack on the United States.  The intention of unexpected strike by the Japanese, which came in three waves, was to cripple the U.S. Pacific Fleet. The objectives were to prevent the United States from interfering with Japan’s plan to conquer the Dutch East Indies, and also to strike a blow at American morale. At the end of the fighting, 18 of the 99 ships in the U.S. Pacific fleet were damaged or destroyed, and nearly 3,700 American soldiers and civilians were injured or killed.  The attack on Pearl Harbor is the reference point to the most famous of wartime quotes, as President Roosevelt declared December 7th as “a date which will live in infamy.”

Following more than a year of operations to salvage war ships sunken at Pearl Harbor, it was decided that two ships could not be moved. The USS Arizona and USS Utah sustained too much damage and were left at the bottom of the Harbor.  Desire grew in the mid-1940’s to establish for a Memorial at the site of the The USS Arizona Memorial, but it was not until 1950 that official recognition was reached: Admiral Arthur Radford, Commander in Chief, Pacific, ordered that a flag staff be erected over the sunken battleship. On the ninth anniversary of the attack, a commemorative plaque was placed at the base of the flag staff.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who helped achieve Allied victory in Europe during World War II, approved the creation of the national Memorial in 1958. Its construction was completed in 1961 with private donations and public funds appropriated by Congress and was dedicated in 1962.  In 1980 The National Park Service opened the USS Arizona Memorial Visitor Center, associated with the Memorial, where guests can read historical information about the attack, and catch a boat to access to the Memorial which sits above the USS Arizona.  The sunken remains of the battleship were declared a National Historic Landmark on 5 May 1989.

Pearl Harbor USS Arizona Memorial

The USS Arizona Memorial consists of a beautiful, stark white bridge in the middle of the Harbor.  The bridge is 184 feet long, and spans the sunken hull of the battleship without touching it.  It’s aesthetically beautiful design is not without meaning: the bridge has two peaks at each end connected by a sag in the center of the structure. The design represents the height of American pride before the war, the sudden depression of a nation after the attack and the rise of American power to new heights after the war.  While I say it’s aesthetically beautiful, some people didn’t always think so.  Some people criticized the bridge’s design when it was built, saying it resembled a “squashed milk carton.”  To those people I say, “pthh!”

Tears of the Arizona

The main part of the USS Arizona Memorial is The Central Assembly Room.  It features seven large open windows on either wall and ceiling, to commemorate the date of the attack. The total number of windows is 21, symbolically representing a 21 gun salute, or 21 Marines standing at eternal parade rest over the tomb of the fallen. To this day, oil can still be seen rising from the wreckage to the surface of the water. The oil seeping is sometimes referred to as “the tears of the Arizona,” or “black tears.” The floor of the Memorial features an opening which overlooks the sunken decks of the USS Arizona.  It is from this opening that visitors come to pay their respects by tossing flowers in honor of the fallen sailors.

USS Arizona Interior

The area below the Memorial is the resting place of 1,102 of 1,177 sailors who served and lost their lives on the USS Arizona during the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor by Japanese imperial forces, and the names of the dead carved in marble on the Memorial’s walls.  More than a million people visit the USS Arizona Memorial each year.  And here ends the lesson.

I will remember this holiday season for a long time, probably forever.  The two wonderful gentlemen I met at the mall last week were as sweet as could be, and they helped me to remember that this time of year is not just a time for rosy cheeks and twinkling lights and holly wreaths, but it’s also about kindness, generosity, reflection and remembrance.  On December 7th, make sure you raise your American Flag to half staff, and take some time to honor the fallen heroes at Pearl Harbor.  And, sometime in your future, you have to make a trip to Honolulu, and the USS Arizona Memorial.  I know I will.  Maybe we’ll see each other there.

Happy Holidays, my lovelies.  I hope you get everything you ever wanted!

Lexi!

Emotion is a word I use a lot when talking about movies, because all the senses are stimulated when watching a good movie with a good story. And timing is no mistake, usually, when we see movies at the theatre, or on TV. Christmas movies will (normally) be shown around… you guessed it… Christmas, and other holiday movies shown near their respective calendrical tribute. War movies… now there’s a really big genre. Not just movies about wars, but movies about Military branches, or having something to do with US history, military history, or inner workings of armed forces… now that’s a list that can go on for days and days. I saw a couple movies on TV recently, and I realized that seeing them at this time of year was not necessarily a random accident. These military stories are being shown to coincide with Veteran’s Day, which is coming up in just a little over a week (November 11). I’ve only seen a few of these military movies in the last week or so, it’s not like seeing A Christmas Story for 24 straight hours on Christmas or anything, but the few I saw were very influential on me. And, if you haven’t figured it out by now, I’m gonna tell you why… here we go…

The Laste Caste

The first film I saw about a week ago was The Last Castle with Robert Redford. This isn’t a war movie or anything inspired by a real life event. In actuality it shows a side of the armed forces you don’t often see or think about, as the story takes place in a military prison. Okay, major downer. I know, right… where am I going with this… I was all pumping you up about great war movies and now i’m talking about jail! I’m not gonna rehash the whole plot, but I did want to tell you about a part of the movie that deals with our American Flag. A pretty big part of the movie’s plot involves the flag. Long story short: the warden of the jail has an American Flag in a decorative case, and the flag is stolen by a prisoner (Robert Redford!!!) who’s intention is to fly it upside down in the exercise yard. As you are full aware, I am a stickler for the rules, so I must tell you that you should never do that, because flying our colors upside down has particular meaning, and that is as a signal of distress. It’s in the US Flag Code:

“The flag should never be displayed with the union [blue and white star field] down, except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property.”

So, it’s not that doing it would be wrong, because there may be a time that calls for the American Flag to be flown upside down, but it would see viewed as disrespectful and most inappropriate for any other reason. Anyway, because I talk often about history, and many times about our colors, I thought this movie was an interesting one to tell you about. Now, I didn’t give the whole thing away. In fact I hardly told you anything about it. So, if you’re curious, I can confidently endorse this movie as entertaining, and recommend you see it.

Saving Private Ryan

Okay, this next movie was very, VERY moving for me. I cried lots and lots, and then I started thinking lots and lots, and I was like, wait a minute, I feel like heard this one before. So… I watched Saving Private Ryan with Tom Hanks and Matt Damon. Tom Hanks, by the way, I also a HUUUUUGE history buff, and he’s responsible for the Band of Brothers miniseries. That’s another war genre story. Not gonna talk about it now, but you should see that, too! The movie is set around the June 6, 1944 Normandy Invasion by Allied Forces during World War II, and there is no mistaking the emotions felt by viewers that this movie intended to summon. The film opens with an old man and his family who are visiting the grave site of a soldier. The cemetery in the film is an actual site and is rather significant to memorials. I’ll tell you more about it in a few minutes. Anyway, from here, the story flashes back to June 6, 1944: Omaha Beach. Gunfire and explosions surround us as Allied Forces are landing on troop carriers from the sea. For the first 20 minutes it looks as if we’re watching actual war documentary footage of a raging, bloody battle that immediately sets the tone and mood for the remainder of the film. As the story develops, we learn that three brothers fighting in WWII have all died within days of each other, and their mother is about to be visited by the Army to receive the news. What’s more, their is a fourth brother, Private James Ryan, who is serving in Normandy, and supposedly MIA. The Army springs in to action and dispatches a company, led by Tom Hanks’ character (Captain Miller) with orders to find Private Ryan (Matt Damon) and deliver him safely. This is a most emotional film, and while it is a work of fiction set against historical events, there are hints of truth to the plot. There were several instances of brothers losing their lives in active duty while in the service of their county. Saving Private Ryan is said to loosely parallel the story of the The Niland Brothers. The Niland’s were four American brothers from Tonawanda, NY (a suburb between Buffalo and Niagara Falls), who all served during WWII. Of the four, two survived the war, but there was time it was believed that only had survived. It was later discovered that a second surviving Niland brother was held captive in a Japanese POW cam in Burma.

USS The Sullivans

You may find this immensely ironic, but there is in fact another equally dynamic parallel to Saving Private Ryan. The irony is that it also has ties to the Buffalo, NY region. In Buffalo, at the foot of the Erie Canal Harbor, is a small Naval Park, complete with a museum of ships, military vehicles, and a veterans memorial honoring soldiers from the region. The significance to Saving Private Ryan is one of the sea vessels in the museum; a destroyer class Navy ship named, The Sullivans. The USS The Sullivans was named in honor of the five brothers who lost their lives when their ship, the USS Juneau, was sunk by a Japanese submarine during the Battle of Guadalcanal on 13 November 1942. Unlike Saving Private Ryan, or the real-life story of the Niland brothers, none of the Sullivan brothers survived. This was the greatest military loss by any one American family during WWII. One summer, once upon a time, My family took a vacation up north to see Niagara Falls. We had to pass through Buffalo, NY, and while driving on the highway I could see the ships in the water. I begged my dad to stop the car so we could see the Naval Park. As part of a tour, me and my family walked on-board the USS The Sullivans, and heard the amazing, and tragic, story of the Sullivan brothers.

The Navy had a policy of separating siblings, but this was not strictly enforced. Because the Sullivan’s were not drafted, but instead voluntarily enlisted for service in the Navy, the five brothers from Iowa stipulated that they serve together, and all five were assigned to the USS Juneau. Nine months after their assignment to the USS Juneau, it was sunk by the Japanese during the Battle of Guadalcanal. We learned during our tour that Destroyers are named for naval heroes and leaders, and that the name of this ship, “The Sullivans,” had historically caused confusion cause the Navy doesn’t use the “the” in front of ship names. In this particular instance “the” is part of the ship’s name, signifying more than person. The USS The Sullivans that we toured in the Buffalo Naval Park was put in to service in 1944 toward the end of WWII, and was decommissioned in 1965. However, the name of the ship and the memory of the Sullivan brothers lives on… in 1997 the Navy commissioned a new destroyer, DDG-68, and named her USS The Sullivans. To wrap up the story on the Sullivan brothers, the United States War Department sprung in to action with the future intent to prevent any family from suffering a similar catastrophic loss by enacting the Sole Survivor Policy: a set of regulations designed to protect members of a family if they have already lost family members in military service. While I said “wrap up,” there’s a whole lot more you could know about the Sullivan’s, including a museum wing in Waterloo, Iowa dedicated to the fallen heroes. If you’re interested in this gripping story, just do a Google search! You’ll find all kinds of info.

View of the Cemetery from Memorial

Earlier, when I was getting in to the plot about Saving Private Ryan, I mentioned a military cemetery. The cemetery in the opening scene of the movie is The Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial, and it is a WWII cemetery honoring American soldiers who died in while serving in Europe. What’s important about this site is that it was the first American WWII cemetery established on European soil. Remembered at The Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial are 9,387 American soldiers, and over 300 unknown. While many are buried here, the bodies of 1,557 Americans who served and lost their lives could not be located. The names of those who could not be returned are inscribed on the walls of a semicircular garden memorial.

I think it is most important that, while we prepare to observe Veterans Day this November 11th, when we take a moment to reflect on all of the men and women, both of whom are here today, and especially those no longer with us. For those who fought for our freedom and way of life, we take a moment to recognize those soldiers who are memorialized abroad, while with us in our hearts and spirits, are not with us on our home soil, the land for which they fought. It is this exact reason I delved in to the “Private Ryan” story, and capped it here with The Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial. What’s more, while this memorial was the first American cemetery in Europe, it is not the only cemetery and memorial on foreign soil. Take some time to remember these courageous men and women in the coming days. Also, take a moment to reflect on our memorials here at home, both our highly visible national memorials in Washington, D.C., and those on the local level that you may have in your hometown.

Until next time,
Lexi

Gadsden Flag

Ah, the irony. This past weekend the NFL took the show on the road to play a game in London between the New England Patriots and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. While the game was being played it made me remember my last blog about the Boston Tea Party, the players involved in that event, and how the teams and the venue of this past weekend’s game made almost parallel connections to 1773: the people of Boston (New England Patriots), the British (British people live in London), and the crew of the tea vessels (or those swabby Buccaneers). Yeah, it’s a stretch, but kind of funny in an ironic way.

So anyway, last week I told you about the real Boston Tea Party. I had thought about it because of another bumper sticker I saw, though the sticker didn’t have anything to do with Boston per say. The sticker represented the Gadsden Flag with it’s signature saying “Don’t Tread On Me” and it’s bright yellow signature color. The Gadsden flag has been seen flying proudly at a lot of the recent Tea Party protests because of it’s historical significance in American History. This sticker though, was referencing coordinated protest events happening around the country that have used the term “Tea Party” to promote themselves. It’s a coordinated effort of people who have used mostly the internet and social networking in order to pool resources and execute their events around the country.

I don’t pretend to be any kind of political expert, but I do fancy myself an observer of many worldly events. I also like out of this world stuff, too, but that doesn’t mean I’m a rocket scientist. So, before we get in to anything, just lemme tell ya that I’m only blogging today about “stuff,” and not politics or agenda. That said, here is what today’s Tea Party Protests are all about…

We’ve all heard about stimulus packages, tax increases, and debt. People around the country who are against all of these things are part of a grassroots group who are against the U.S. government’s recovery plan, and they gather to speak out against what they’re calling “wasteful government spending and unnecessary government growth.” The correlation between the phrase “Tea Party” comes down to their message that the American people have been ‘T’axed ‘E’nough ‘A’lready, or ‘TEA’ for short.

So far, three nationally organized Tea Party protest events have been held in the United States this year: April 15, 2009 was the first which was organized to accompany the deadline to file federal income returns. Another event was held during the weekend of the Fourth of July, and another on September 12, 2009. Details vary, but anywhere from nearly 270,000 to half a million protesters organized on tax day to protest their cause in about 200 cities. Other statistics say that protests were held in as many as 750 cities. Regardless or the actual numbers, it’s impressive to me that this effort to organize was done entirely over the internet through websites and social networking pages like Twitter, and Facebook.

Many issues by the attendees of the events have been raised during the various protests, but their message boils down to one goal which is to “reject government spending as a way out of the recession.” It’s not really a Democrat or Republican thing, either, because it’s been noted that Tea Party protesters have voiced their disappointment with both President Obama’s and President George W. Bush’s spending plans

Responses to the Tea Party protest are mixed, I guess it depends on which side of the issue they’re taking. Even the media presents things differently, so I would say that you have to be mindful and objective with regard to how you get your news. Just remember that whichever your side or view, we all stand together under the same flag, and with our feet firmly planted on the same soil that is the most wonderful place on Earth, The United States of America.

Anyway, back to why I was being kind of a space cadet: earlier this week I was taking a drive to the costume shop to pick up some supplies for my Halloween party this year. While stopped at a traffic signal I noticed a bumper sticker on the minivan stopped in front of me; the sticker said something like, Which way is it to the Tea Party? I have to admit that, right away, I didn’t know what it meant. The first thing that popped in to my head was, “it was in, like, Boston… Duh!” But after a little while I remembered that there’s been all kinds of political ballyhoo about taxes and all that good stuff that lots of people like to huff about… I recalled reading about organized protests, and that the groups are using a “tea party” slogan for the cause. Catchy I suppose, after all, the real Boston Tea Party had everything to do with taxes and representation.

If you know me, or if you at least read my little blog once in a while, you know that I looooove my US of A, and I’m a big history buff. So today’s chit chat (thanks to the catchy bumper sticker that caught my eye while I was having a “duh” moment) is all about the authentic Boston Tea Party of 1773.

Illustration of a Tea Plant

In the 1700’s, tea was the hot thing to drink. When I say ‘hot,’ I mean that it was the stylish beverage. And, well, it was also hot. Talk about your confusing homonyms! Anyway, everybody was loving their tea. Because taxes were so high smuggling was a worry to lawmakers, so Great Britain took a special step in making sure the colonies received their shipments of tea only from England. That way England could tax the supplier, then tax their buyers, and make a quick profit. Through a series of ‘deals’ with other exporting countries, tea was sold to Great Britain and, in turn, Great Britain sold that tea themselves to the colonies.

This little tax twist made the colonists none too happy, and here’s why: the British colonists argued it unconstitutional to be taxed because, according to the British Constitution, they couldn’t be taxed without consent from their elected people. It was Taxation Without Representation. In their case this referred to the representatives who they’d elected in the colonies. Since it was the British Parliament who slapped the taxes on the imports, and the colonists were not involved in electing members of British Parliament, the colonists said they shouldn’t be taxed by Great Britain. Their cries fell on deaf ears, and the taxes rained down anyway.

Taxes began to get heavy with the Townshend Revenue Act of 1767 (which levied tax and duty on lots of imported goods, not just tea). It was followed by protests and boycotts from the colonies. In 1770 Parliament lifted the Townshend Act (but kept the tea duty in place). Later in 1773 the Tea Act was introduced where England’s supplier, the East India Company, could cut out the middle-man (Great Britain in this instance) and sell tea directly to the colonies. This would now actually make tea cheaper for American colonists, but it was also right about this time when colonists just about had it up to here with the Brits. It came down to the ever long grievance of Taxation Without Representation.

The Destruction of Tea at Boston Harbor

Now, here’s where the Boston Harbor gets turned in to the biggest cup of Lipton Brisk y’all ever did see. In every colony except Massachusetts, protestors were able to force the tea consignees (the guys who took the tea from importing ships) to give in or to return the shipments to England without paying tax. It wasn’t going that way in Boston, however. When the Dartmouth, a ship carrying tea, arrived in the Boston Harbor in late November, 1773, Samuel Adams called a meeting to pass a resolution urging the captain of the ship to go back without paying the duty, and Massachusetts Governor (and British Loyalist) Thomas Hutchinson refused to let that happen. Two of Hutchinson’s sons were consignees working the shipment and saw to make a commission profit on the cargo. Meanwhile, two more ships carrying tea arrived in Boston Harbor.

Dumping the tea overboard

On December 16, the last day of the Dartmouth’s deadline to unload its cargo and head back to England, Governor Hutchinson still refused to allow the Dartmouth (and the other ships) to leave. That night a group of men disguised as Mohawk Indians boarded the ships and dumped all the tea into the water. The Boston Tea Party was one of the many precursors that led to the American Revolutionary War. The event served to rally support for revolutionaries who would eventually prove successful in their fight for independence.

That, in an abridged nutshell, was the Boston Tea Party of 1773. As I stated a little bit ago, I love the United States of America, my country and sweet land of liberty, and I’m also a history buff. On the flipside of the coin, I don’t really like to get all huffy puffy political. I don’t think everything about government should deal in absolutes. Some sides are right about some things, and other sides have good points, too. You have to take the good, and then work with the not so good to make it better. But all’s I gotta say is that the current organized Tea Party protests happening around the country are not the same as what we know from historical events, so don’t get confused if you glance over a story in the newspaper.

I don’t know about you but I’ve had enough tea for today. It’s all a bunch of sour grapes. You know how the old saying goes… when life serves you lemons, make lemonade. I like that. Maybe I’ll put up stand at the end of my block. I promise not to tax you too much. LOL!

Tune in next week when I’ll be touching on the Tea Party signifigance going on right now in our current times.
Lexi

Breast Cancer Awareness Month

We’re nearing the midway point of October and, if you haven’t noticed by now, the planet is draped in pink. October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and pink is the color worn by everyone who shows his or her support to rally for a cure. Breast cancer is one of the leading causes of death in women, and working toward finding a cure could save the lives of an estimated 190,000 women (and men) each year. Yes, I said men! While breast cancer is a disease that more commonly targets women, it does not discriminate by gender, and about one percent of men are at risk as well.

Showing your support to find a cure for breast cancer is simple, and you can take a cue from Hollywood stars, major sports stars, and probably any one of a number of people driving near you with a pink ribbon magnet stuck to their car! The first step is to get the facts. Breast cancer is the number-one cancer found in women, and the second leading cause of cancer-related death in women (after lung cancer). About one in 13 women will suffer from breast cancer during their lives, and the fight against breast cancer begins with awareness. The more knowledge one can have about the disease, and the more done to check for early warning signs, the better chance for survival and overall wellness. The next step is to become educated about the risk factors of breast cancer. Anything and everything should be scrutinized, including age, personal and familial health histories, diet, and fitness. The following step is mammogram screening, and finally, if necessary, treatment options.

Medical advances in recent years in research, prevention, and the treatments of breast cancer have revolutionized the fight to save lives. We know so much more today than we ever before, including the revelation that researchers and doctors now recognize that breast cancer is in fact several diseases, and that the treatment of breast cancer is different for each person. Breakthroughs in surgical procedures have also become less traumatic on patients, and recovery time has also improved.

So, now I bet you’re asking yourself how you can help? Here’s how: wear pink! If a big NFL linebacker can look good in pink, you can, too! Making a donation to organizations like Susan G. Komen for the Cure, or to any number of area hospitals or organizations is a great first step to get involved. Every dollar raised by these groups goes straight to research for a cure. After that, show off your support with pink. The universal symbol that you are supporting the cause is by wearing a pink ribbon. There are all kinds, too. There are magnets for cars in the shape of pink ribbons, lapel pins, and well of course, a ribbon! I’ll be wearing pink every day I can, if not in my wardrobe, then at least a pink ribbon lapel pin to symbolize I am in support for a cure. And I actually keep a pink ribbon magnet on my car year round… while October is breast cancer awareness month, breast cancer doesn’t wait around. Showing your support day in and day out will help the cause by injecting awareness throughout the community. Everyone needs to know about how they can get involved to find a cure.

I hope what I’ve shared today has inspired you to become involved. Of course, while I gave out a lot of information, there is a lot more that you need to know to be fully informed. To get more educated, get on the Internet and start reading. To get you started I’ve included a few informative website links:

http://www.breastcancer.org

http://nbcam.org/index.cfm

http://ww5.komen.org/

Thanks for reading about this very, very important issue. And remember, while October is awareness month, your support is needed every day.

Take care, Lexi

Christopher Columbus

Ahoy, mateys! I can’t begin to tell you how fast this year has been moving for me. Every day seems to have gone by at a blinding pace since the start of the New Year. It seems like only yesterday that I was finding the cutest sandals for the beach, preparing my wardrobe for the summer season. Summer is now behind us (where did it go?!) and there’s only a few months left to go in 2009. Goodness gracious! But before we get to the party streamers and midnight kisses of New Year’s Eve, we’ve got to batten down the hatches and swab the decks on October 12 to observe Columbus Day.

In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue. Talk about time passing by in a blur; Columbus was charting maps and getting seasick over 517 years ago on his trip to “The New World.” Here’s the quick skinny on our pal, Chris: he was an Italian sailor and also believed to be the first European to sail the Atlantic and land on the American continent. I think that information should be fairly elementary to us by now, especially as we all learned it in elementary school!

While we all know the 1492 ocean blue part, some of the history behind Columbus that you might not remember is that he was a career sailor, tradesman, and explorer. He sailed to many places for the Portuguese (because he relocated to Portugal from Italy in his mid-20’s). He’d traveled to England, Ireland, and the Azores, Cape Verde, and Madeira islands off the coast of Africa. Through his travels he met sailors who believed islands existed to the west of areas already charted. In 1484, he had asked King John II of Portugal to back his voyage west, but had no luck and the King told him to take a flying leap. And that wasn’t the only time that those in power told Columbus to take a long walk off a short plank. They thought he was crazy and didn’t want to financially back his trips. Finally, In January of 1492, Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain supported Columbus. And the rest is, dare I say… history.

Here we are now, 517 years after Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue, and we hear his name every year. Well, not all 517 years. The first recorded celebration that commemorated Columbus’s discovery of America took place on October 12, 1792, in New York City. It was the 300th anniversary of Columbus’ landing in the New World. So for those first 300 years, the name Christopher Columbus was probably one of those obscure types of names that you only heard if you were a scholar of the day, a big shot in the sailing community, or something like that. Another 100 years would go by before, in 1892, President Benjamin Harrison asked people to participate in the 400th anniversary of Columbus’ voyage. Now, here’s a tidbit that even I didn’t remember… It was during this 400th anniversary event that the Pledge of Allegiance was recited publicly for the first time. In closing with the history of our observances, in 1937 President Roosevelt proclaimed October 12 as “Columbus Day,” and, in 1971, President Nixon declared the second Monday of October a national holiday.

While observing Columbus Day and studying his travels is a way that all of us can learn about the Age of Exploration, the story of Columbus himself does not exist without increasing amounts of controversy and conjecture. This is something for a whole other blog that would go on for days but, in short, there’s the whole issue of “discovery” that some would argue (rather successfully) that The New World was already inhabited. It’s a fact that the once sunny-skies-way in which we learned about Columbus is now party cloudy with a chance of skepticism.

I can’t say too much about it, but really, history is continually being amended. We learn new things about past events almost daily and history needs to be retold to include the new facts. While the real Columbus may have not been the image of a dashing hero that some of us learned about once upon a time in school, there is something to be said for having your name remembered 517 years after you did something. I can only hope that, 517 years from now, that my name could become synonymous with something grand. Perhaps even something, Presidential?

Till we meet again,
Lexi

The Constitution of the United States

Recently I took a trip to Washington D.C. and I visited the sites in that grand, All American tourist tradition. I was a regular Clark Griswold, minus the slapstick foolishness. While Clark and I differ on an IQ level, what we do share is unbridled enthusiasm to see the sites of our country. I made no effort to hide my excitement when I experienced the monuments and museums. My favorite place was the National Archives. Inside the Archives is a grand room called the Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom where, on permanent display (that mean forever and ever and ever), The Declaration of Independence, The Constitution of the United States, and the Bill of Rights can be seen. I spent the better part of an hour gazing, in awe, at the original documents inside their airtight, bulletproof casings.

You know, The Constitution of the United States is an amazing document. I don’t think you need to hear that from little old me, but it’s true. Did you know that over one hundred countries have used it as a model for their own Constitution? And did you also know that as times have changed, advanced, modernized, and grown, the basic ideas and principles of the Constitution have remained virtually unchanged, and unchallenged as well? All that is true. Could you just imagine being one of the founding fathers who put the Constitution together? Do you think that any one of them though that, 222 years later, it would be virtually the same document that they wrote? It’s hard to believe that anything could remain unchanged for that long a period. Let’s do a little time traveling…

On September 17, 1787, the delegates to the Constitutional Convention met for a final time. Only one item of business that day was to sign the Constitution of the United States of America, which starts out just like this:

“We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessing of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, to ordain and establish the Constitution of the United States of America.”

After it’s signing, Congress sent copies of the Constitution to the state legislatures for ratification. By June 21, 1788, nine states (the minimum number of states required) approved the Constitution.

Today we celebrate the Constitution every day by waking up within the borders of the United States of America, by raising our American Flags, by living free, and by having the rights granted to us within. All that aside, we do celebrate the Constitution another way, and that is by observing Constitution Day (or Citizenship Day). Every September 17th is an American federal observance that recognizes the ratification of the United States Constitution and those who have become U.S. citizens. September 17th was chosen because that was the day the U.S. Constitutional Convention signed the Constitution in 1787.

When I was little, my dad always watched a show called “Cheers” on television. On the show there was a character named Cliff who was always full of information he wanted to share with the rest of the group. He would lead in to all of his charming footnotes by saying, “you know, it’s a little known fact that….”. Cliff’s little known facts were likely “little-known” because they, in fact, had no factual truth to them. Poor Cliff was chock full of useless knowledge. I thought of that just now because, while touring Washington D.C. and visiting the National Archives, I learned a few things about the Constitution that I thought were interesting little facts. So, I thought I’d share a few tidbits of knowledge I learned with you in classic Cliff Claven flavor. Here goes… You know, it’s a little known fact that:

• The U.S. Constitution was prepared in secret, behind locked doors that were guarded by sentries. The document consists of 4,543 words (including the signatures). Including the 27 amendments, the Constitutioncontains 7,591.
• Two of America’s “founding fathers” didn’t sign the Constitution. At the time of the Constitutional Convention John Adams and Thomas Jefferson (U.S. Presidents #2 and #3 respectively) were overseas, representing the United States in France and Great Britain.
• In 1791, amid concerns that the original Constitution lacked a description of individual rights, Americans added a list of rights to the Constitution. The first ten amendments became known as The Bill of Rights.
• George Washington originally created national “Thanksgiving Day” as a way of “giving thanks” for the Constitution. And you thought it was about turkey and football!
• When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, The Constitution was moved to Fort Knox for safekeeping.
• Vermont ratified the Constitution on January 10, 1791, even though it had not yet become a state.
• The word “democracy” does not appear once in the Constitution.
• The term “others” is used in the Constitution to categorize ethnic minorities.
• Four of the signers of the Constitution were born in Ireland.

And there you have it… Lexi’s Little Known Constitutional Facts. I have to close this up now… I have a lot of planning to do for Constitution Day, but I want to power up the flux capacitor and travel back in time once more. This time, we’re going back to hear a quote from George Washington, who spoke these words upon submitting the Constitution for consideration by the Continental Congress:

“It is at all times difficult to draw with precision the line between those rights which must be surrendered, and those which may be preserved; and, on the present occasion, the difficulty was increased by a difference among the several States as to their situation, extent, habits, and particular interests . . . thus, the Constitution which we now present is the result of a spirit of amity, and of that mutual deference and concession, which the peculiarity of our political situation rendered indispensable.”

Lexi

World Trade Center Lights

Do you remember where you were? It’s a question that doesn’t require much recall to answer when someone asks where you were when you first heard the news about September 11th. I was home, eating a late breakfast in my kitchen. Me and my dad were getting a late start to the day… I missed the school bus because I overslept. The night before was the first game of the NFL season for the Denver Broncos and New York Giants; my dad let me stay up late with him to watch Monday Night Football. It was after midnight by the time the game had ended, and I forgot to set my alarm when I crawled in to bed. I was frantic in the morning because I’d missed homeroom and most of first period. Plus, I didn’t like missing any part of any class, especially first period… American History (my favorite subject). Little did I know that I was about to witness American history unfold before me, as I sat in front of the 13″ TV on my kitchen counter, while eating a Quaker Chewy granola bar.

I never made it to school that day. I was glued to the TV all morning, afternoon, and evening. Many people if asked will recant a similar series of events. Well, maybe not the part about missing the school bus, or not hearing about the bus conversation between my friends, but most will say that they spent much of September 11, 2001, near a television or radio to learn as much as possible. It’s hard to find a silver lining about anything that occurred on September 11, but I think it’s fair to say that a renewal of patriotism for our country emerged within all of us that day. That said, it is more than fitting that September 11 will forever be a holiday known as Patriot Day.

The day of remembrance was signed in to law by President Bush on December 18, 2001, and directs that all American Flags, at home and abroad, be flown at half-staff. It also asks that Americans observe a moment of silence at 8:46 AM, the time at which American Airlines Flight 11 crashed in to the North Tower of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

This year will be the eighth anniversary of 9/11. It’s hard to believe that eight years has passed, as the memory of the events of that day still seem so fresh in our minds. This week preparations in New York are underway for the return of a support column from the Twin Towers. It’s a giant steel beam, 36 feet tall and weighing nearly 60 tons. It has been kept for the last seven years in a hangar at Kennedy Airport, and is being returned to Ground Zero where it will be memorialized in the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. The hangar at Kennedy Airport where the beam spent the last seven years served as a museum of sorts. Visitors of the memorial left firehouse patches, police logos, union stickers, and other types of markings and tributes to the victims of the attacks.

World Trade Center Memorial

Construction of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum at the World Trade Center is currently underway. The Memorial will consist of two massive pools set within the footprints of the Twin Towers, with waterfalls cascading down their sides. The names of the nearly 3,000 individuals who were killed in the September 11 attacks in New York City, Pennsylvania, and at the Pentagon, and the February 1993 World Trade Center bombing will be inscribed around the edges of the Memorial pools. Surrounding the pools will be the green Memorial Plaza, with nearly 400 trees set to be planted. Cobblestones, grass, and flowers will line the ground, and a small clearing called The Memorial Glade provide space for gatherings and ceremonies. Construction of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum at the World Trade Center won’t be complete for about two years.

I’m not sure exactly where I’ll be two years from now. But this year, on the morning of September 11, Patriot Day, I’ll be in the same place I’ve been for the past seven years before: in front of my TV watching the ceremonies, and observing a moment of silence.

Lexi

Civil War Reenactment

Hello, gang! I hope your Summer is going swell. I can’t believe it’s almost over. You can always tell what time of year it is simply by walking in to any retail store and checking out what kind of products are being highlighted. They always come out with the products (and decorations) anywhere from six to eight weeks in advance. Check the calendar when you see the first Halloween decoration. I’m willing to bet that you see a pumpkin or skeleton within the next month.

On my most recent trip to the store I was bombarded with rows upon rows of school supplies. Aisles dedicated to notebooks and pens and pencils. If there were enough manufacturers making them, I bet there would have been a whole section dedicated to the glue stick. Either way, when you see the school supplies in the store, you know it’s time to start thinking about saying so long to the lazy days of Summer. And while we might have to bid farewell to weekend picnics and warm evening walks, back to school aint so bad.

I enjoyed school (and I was also a big fan of a brand new notebook and pads of blank paper). I have one of those curious types of minds anyway, so learning has always been a kind of a hobby. That’s why I got on my American Civil War kick from the get go; I saw a show last month on TV about Civil War reenactments, and it got me thinking about the real history. In my last couple blog entry’s I touched on some key points during the period. While I would enjoy nothing more than to go in depth on more of this most important period, there is just too much to talk about. For real, there were over 10,000 battles… I would have to start my own website and, well, there’s lots of sites online that are already dedicated to the history of the Civil War. Today I’m gonna wrap up this topic with some information about the Emancipation Proclamation, and the Gettysburg Address.

The first of the two is the Emancipation Proclamation, which consists of two executive orders issued by President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War. The first executive order declared freedom for all slaves in the Confederate States of America that did not return to the Union by January 1, 1863. The second order, issued January 1, 1863, named ten specific states where it would apply. It all sounds fine and dandy today, but it was a controversial measure back in the day, and there were a few legal hiccups in the paperwork which allowed slavery to continue in some areas. Because border states of Kentucky, Missouri, Maryland, or Delaware never declared a secession from the Union, they were not named in the proclamation and slaves were not freed there. Exemptions were also considered for Tennessee, and portions of Virginia and Louisiana. Nevertheless, the Proclamation was the stepping stone toward the freedom of nearly four million slaves by July 1865. On December 18, 1865, the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment ended the practice of all slavery.

Abraham Lincoln

On November 19, 1863, President Lincoln delivered a peaceful message that forever will live in the hearts and minds of the American people, and it’s the second item from the Civil War that I’ve chosen to highlight in this blog. The Gettysburg Address was read by the President at the dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, four and a half months after the Union’s decisive win over the Confederacy at the Battle of Gettysburg. The Gettysburg Address was crafted in ten sentences and read in less than three minutes, but the words, carefully chosen by President Lincoln, are regarded as one of the greatest speeches in American history. In the speech Lincoln called for equality and freedom for all citizens. In the speech the President referred to events of the Civil War and, in the middle of the speech made this statement: “The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.” It is true that the world, and the American people in particular, have not forgotten, but little did the President know then that the words that he carefully crafted in the Gettysburg Address would in fact be remembered long after they were spoken. Remembered, revered, and relived again and again. To read the Gettysburg Address, please click here or scroll down below.

I say relived, because reliving is what percolated my initial curiosity to re-explore the events of the Civil War. Reenactments of the Civil War have become a pretty big event in the United States. In fact, reenactments of the American Civil War have even been known to take place in Canada, Great Britain, Germany, and Italy as well. Despite the following abroad, reenacting Civil War history is most popular in the United States with a following of over 50,000 participants (and growing). And some of these reenactors take authenticity very, very seriously! I’m not kidding! Those involved in reenactments have gone so far as to put their fellow reenactors in to categorized classes based on their dedication to authenticity. The classes are referred to in reenactment circles as Farbs, Mainstream, and Progressive. Farb reenactors are those who don’t put a whole lot of effort in to their “character.” Mainstream participants take a more authentic approach to their appearance and behavior, but it’s the Progressive participants who are known to completely immerse themselves in to the event. They go so far as to eat the proper foods that were available during the Civil War period (including what was and was not seasonally appropriate), speaking 100% of the time as words were spoken back then, and even sew their own clothes with the same types of fabrics, materials, and stitching that were available nearly 150 years ago. Don’t expect to see these guys carrying a period flag or historical flag made from polyester, polyester, or anything other than cotton and wool. Just like their dedication to food, speech and dress, they use nothing that was not available to the soldiers in the 1860’s.

Civil War reenactments are serious business for participants in order to make the presentation as authentic as possible for the public (and themselves). From what I’ve read I often think that that the authenticity of the events is more important to the participants than the observers. Public reenactment events can include living history of the period that portray life at the time of the War, public demonstrations, and scripted battles. Reenactors, specifically the Progressive or “hard-core” individuals, participate in closed events that are for their own consumption. Now that’s dedication!

Take a look at these recreations of Historical Flags. Some of these are items you’ll see if you ever view or participate in a Civil War reenactment.

I hope the remainder of your Summer activities will be fun-filled and joyous. Until next time, my friends!

Lexi

Has anyone noticed our weird weather this summer? The southeast is a smidge cooler and experiencing a bit more rain compared to the last couple years. In the northeast the summer hasn’t really been very warm at all. Thank you, El Nino! Boy, oh, boy! I love summer – it’s my favorite of the four seasons – and I just wish we could have a little bit of fun outside before Labor Day rolls around. If it’s any consolation, winter is supposed to be milder and not as chilly. That is a nice trade, I suppose. I hope everyone has been having a nice summer, despite the goofy weather. Anywho… I left a huge cliffhanger in my last blog for all of you, and I hope you’re ready for next chapter of the story.

Fort Sumter

When we left off I told you that the American Civil War officially began on April 12, 1861, when the Confederate Army launched a siege on Fort Sumter in South Carolina. It was a 34-hour fight that ended with Confederate forces triumphant over the Union. It was the first battle of a war that would consume and divide the United States for the next four years. At the conclusion of the battle the Union commander carried the Fort Sumter Flag (which fell during battle) north where it became a symbol of their goals, and a rally cry for supporters of the Union. The Siege of Fort Sumter was the first of 10,000 individual battles that were waged in the United States during the Civil War – with forty percent of the fighting taking place in Virginia and Tennessee. However, not all were epic struggles, such as Gettysburg or Antietam.

Following the Siege of Fort Sumter President Lincoln called for a volunteer army from each state, which led the secession of four more southern slave states: Virginia*, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee joined the seven states (South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas) that seceded prior to Lincoln taking office. During the Civil War that spanned time between February, 1861, and May, 1865, the 10,000 battles fought were categorized in to regional campaigns: The Eastern Theater, Western Theater, Lower Seaboard Theater, Pacific Coast Theater, and Trans-Mississippi Theater. What follows is a brief (and abridged) account of what occurred in the Eastern Theater, which is considered by historians and the most prolific of all during the Civil War.

The Eastern Theater

The Eastern Theater included the states of Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, the District of Columbia, and the coastal forts and seaports of North Carolina. The United States National Parks Service documents that 160 battles waged during the American Civil War took place within the borders of the Eastern Theater. Battles in The Eastern Theater generally are more famous than others in the history of the war, mostly because the fighting took place in densely populated areas, the proximity to the capital cities of Richmond (Confederacy) and Washington, D.C. (Union), and press coverage at the time.

Great battles fought in the Eastern Theater included Bull Run (Virginia), Gettysburg (Pennsylvania), and Antietam (Maryland). The First Battle of Bull Run, fought in Virginia on July 21, 1861, ignited just months after Battle of Fort Sumter in South Carolina. The Confederate Army stood victorious while the fighting amassed nearly 4,900 combined casualties in a single day. Antietam (September 17, 1862) is recorded as the bloodiest single-day engagement, and the three-day Battle of Gettysburg (July 1-3, 1863) was the bloodiest of all battles of the War. Military engagements in the Eastern Theater continued until April 9, 1865, where, at Appotomax County Courthouse in Virginia, Union infantry surrounded Confederate forces led by General Robert E. Lee. It was at this time and place where General Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant and, in doing so, marked the final engagement of war between the Union and Confederacy in Virginia.

In period of 1861 and 1865 that was the American Civil War, 620,000 soldiers died and an undetermined number of civilians were injured or killed. While considered the darkest (and deadliest) time in American history, the legacy it left behind includes the ending of slavery in the United States, the restoration of the Union, and strengthening role of a federal government. The social, political, economic and racial issues of the war shaped the reconstruction era and brought about the necessary changes that made the United States a global superpower.

I hope that this blog topic is… well… I hope it’s a couple things. I hope that it is informative and interesting for you to read, and I hope that it sparks your interest just enough that you might seek out some of this history for yourself. If that might be true, I have included a couple links below where you will find a surplus of historical information on this period of our history. When I write next time I will include more historical information about the Civil War, and some of the more prolific events during that period, such as the Emancipation Proclamation, and the Gettysburg Address. In the meantime, God bless you, and God bless America!

Some sites worth visiting:

http://www.nps.gov/history/hps/abpp/civil.htm

http://www.civilwar.com/

Until next time e-friends…..have a great day!

Lexi

*The northwest portion of Virginia seceded from Virginia, joining the Union as the new state of West Virginia on June 20, 1863.