US Backed Afghan President Took the Money and Ran

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist 

As the government of Afghanistan collapses, it is becoming exceedingly clear that Joe Biden was right.  We were never going to prevail there because the government that we helped to install was motivated by grandiosity and cash.  The leaders of Afghanistan were on our payroll, and many used their positions to grow obscenely rich.  When the US pulled out, they quit - and many disappeared, leaving the people to fend for themselves.

When the Taliban reached the capital of Kabul earlier this week, the president of the country, Ashraf Ghani, placed a letter of resignation on his desk, packed a few bags, and hurriedly left the country.   Today we learned that several of his bags were stuffed with US dollars - a hundred and sixty-nine million US dollars!  Apparently Ghani and his (our) money are currently in the United Arab Emirates.  

Afghanistan's Defense Minister has asked Interpol to arrest former president Ghani.  

The United States spent twenty years pouring at least two trillion dollars into the rathole that was Afghanistan.   We were "nation building," or creating an Afghan military and police organization capable of defending and running the country, and we were strengthening local governments and building schools and hospitals.  But even with all of that "nation building," much of the US money that flooded into Afghanistan never reached the ordinary citizens.  It was siphoned off by greedy political and military leaders who used it for their own comfort and security.

So we left (or are leaving), and they packed their bags and headed for the border as well - and Ashraf Ghani was undoubtedly not the only Afghan leader who was busy getting large amounts of US currency out of the country.

What a shame our government takes less interest in the money it throws at despots than it does in monitoring our meager incomes.   War comes with tremendous costs, and the costs of twenty years of war are damned near incalculable.  

Ashraf Ghani should be arrested and his (our) money seized.  $169 million would feed, clothe, and house many people in need in Afghanistan - or many of the refugees pouring out of Afghanistan. It could even do a lot of good right here in the United States, where it originated.   Leaving those millions of dollars with a thief is unacceptable and immoral.    

And the next time we get stampeded into one of these bloody circuses, accountants should be imbedded at every level of operation.   Free-flowing money brings corruption, and corruption brings defeat!

Hunting Forebears in Huntsville

 

by Pa Rock

Grave Robber

Yesterday afternoon in my never-ending quest to dig up more dirt on my ancestors, I drove over to the town of Huntsville, Arkansas, which is in the northwest part of the state just a few miles from Eureka Springs, often referred to as the "gayest town" in the "Natural State."   Mother Carrie Nation, a sweet older lady who gained fame for swinging an axe as she destroyed saloons, once lived in Eureka Springs, and several of my ancestors once lived in and around Huntsville.

My grandfather, Dan SREAVES, and his family left Huntsville in 1901 in two covered wagons and moved to McDonald County, Missouri.  He didn't return until sixty some years later when one of his daughters and her family drove him there - in a car!  (The wagons took the better part of three days with two nights of camping under the stars.)  When Granddad returned after six decades of absence, he was able to locate his old one-room schoolhouse, which by that time was being used to store hay, and he found one of his boyhood friends and spent quite a bit of time catching up with him.

I drove my mother to the Huntsville area in the 1980's, and we spent several hours walking through cemeteries looking for our ancestors - but somehow I don't think we ever drove into the actual town.

Huntsville, Arkansas, of Madison County, was founded in the 1830's by a group of pioneers who moved to the area from Huntsville, of Madison County, Alabama.  One of the neighboring communities today is a speck just off of the main road called "Alabam."  Huntsville, Alabama, is today a key player in the aerospace industry, and Huntsville, Arkansas, has a "Butterball" turkey processing plant.

My primary reason for visiting Huntsville, Arkansas, was to check out the Madison County Genealogical and Historical Society's library - which I was able to do this morning.    I was impressed with their extensive collection of materials, and the lady who manages the library was very courteous and helpful.  The library is only open from 10:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. three days a week - Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday - and it is a little more than a three-hour drive from my home in West Plains, Missouri, so I had to plan my trip carefully.  

I drove over on Monday afternoon and stayed at what I believe to be the only motel in town, an older place - but freshly remodeled and reasonably priced - called the Madison Motel.  It had formerly been known as the Faubus Motel.   (For those who aren't history majors, or as old as me, Orval Faubus was the governor of Arkansas who, when school started in September of 1957, called in the National Guard to surround Central High School in Little Rock to prevent nine black students from enrolling.   President Eisenhower, however, one-upped Faubus by sending in the 101st Airborne Division to escort the "Little Rock Nine" into the building and to their classes!)

Orval Faubus was a native of Madison County, Arkansas, and is buried in the county.  The manager of the motel told me that she thought his family had owned the business at one time.

Visiting the library and doing the research was the easy part of the trip, but the journey itself involved a lot of high drama.  First of all I got off to a later start than I had planned and felt rushed.  Then ten miles out of West Plains I realized that I had forgotten my meds and the clothes that I planned to wear the next day, so I had to turn around and backtrack to the house.   Altogether, I lost about thirty minutes in that maneuver - so then I really felt rushed!

My sister, who lives forty miles from Huntsville in Rogers, Arkansas, drove over to join me for dinner.   It was about five-thirty in the evening and we could not find a restaurant that was open, so we ate at the local Sonic.  It was my treat - and as I was putting my billfold back in my pocket, I apparently dropped it onto the floor of her car - a fact that I did not discover until my sister was already back at her house.  I telephoned her and said that I would come over and get it, but she said that she would bring it back the next morning and have breakfast with me at what looked to be a nice restaurant (and was) which was only open for breakfast and lunch.  So she made her second trip to Huntsville in two days to bring the wallet back to its clumsy owner.

Incident number three occurred when I tried to leave town this afternoon.   For those who are not familiar with the area, Eureka Springs is called "Little Switzerland, and with good reason.  It has hills everywhere and all of the roads are up-and-down-curvy, making driving a real challenge - as well as finding one's way around the town - and Huntsville is almost as bad.  The roads wrap around the hills, and a "straight stretch" of road might be no more than a couple of dozen yards in length.   As I was leaving today I thought I was on the right highway, but there were no markings.  I drove a full five miles before finally seeing a sign that let me know I was heading the wrong way - so I went back to town and tried again.

The second effort at getting out of town was even worse than the first.  I wound up on the town square, which has a tricky pattern or entering and exiting, and I exited wrong but managed to get in a flowing lane of traffic and headed in what I thought was the right direction.  A minute to two later the policeman who pulled me over for exiting the square wrong, told me that I was again headed the wrong way.  He spent ten minutes examining my license and car paperwork, and undoubtedly "running" me to make sure that I wasn't some Missouri desperado like Jesse James, and then (very kindly) told me that he was just giving me a warning because I wasn't from around there and didn't have a grasp of their very tricky traffic patterns.

Then, God bless him, the nice policeman led me out of town and sent me on my way.   (And I drove like the parson's grandmother all the way back to West Plains - and kissed the driveway when I arrived at the house!)

So much for my late summer vacation!  (The good news was that I did dig up a few tidbits about a couple of very "great" grandparents that I will be incorporating into the "Ancestor Archives" - so the trip wasn't a total wash!)

But be it ever so humble, there's no place like home!

At Least New Missouri Stamp Ignores St. Louis Arch!

 

by Pa Rock

Missourian

Missouri celebrated its 200th anniversary as a state last Tuesday, and on that same date the US Postal Service issued a stamp honoring the event.   The stamp features the pre-Civil War "Bollinger Mill" which is located in the community of Burfordville, in Cape Girardeau County - in the southeastern corner of the state.  

The mill looks like an old brick institutional structure and is not really appealing for artistic value, although the nearby covered bridge, also pictured on the stamp, is interesting.  The image was taken from a stock photograph of landscape photographer Charles Gurche and designed by the USPS Art Director, Greg Breeding, with apparently no involvement from actual Missourians.  As US postage stamps go, it is a very "plain Jane."

Alley Springs Mill near Eminence, Missouri, was used on one of the state quarters (Ozark Scenic Riverways in 2017) and has a much more rustic mill appearance than does Bollinger.   Hodson's Mill near Dora, Missouri, also has more natural charm that Bollinger.  

But, at least the designer had the good sense to forgo using the St. Louis Arch on his version of Missouri history.  The arch, which was completed on October 28, 1965, is used on virtually all art work highlighting Missouri, and it was the centerpiece of 2003 Missouri state quarter with a depiction that seemed to show it spanning a river - which in reality it does not do.  The "Gateway to the West" arch is completely  in Missouri along the Mississippi River at St. Louis, and does not span anything other that riverfront land.

But the St. Louis Arch is iconic, and when it is featured on anything people instinctively think of St. Louis, and sometimes even Missouri.

I'm not planning on being around for the my state's sestercentennial (250 years) anniversary in 2071, but here is my nomination for that stamp:  Old Matt's Cabin on Highway 76 near Branson.  It was the focal point "Shepherd of the Hills," the 1907 novel by Harold Bell Wright which alerted much of the world to the natural beauty of the Ozarks, and that story has since gone on to foster the country music and tourism industry of Branson and southwest Missouri.

And, Old Matt's Cabin evokes a far more realistic depiction of Missouri's rugged history than does a four-story brick mill with no visible waterwheel.  Just sayin . . . 

Freedumb Files: Parent Assaults Teacher Over Face Mask

 

by Pa Rock

Former Teacher and Principal

 I remember the first day of the school year as being an exciting time, especially when I was in elementary school:  fresh school supplies, new clothes, old friends, meeting the teacher and becoming acclimated to the classroom.  It was a wondrous time.  Years later as an elementary school principal I still found the first day of school to be one of the most exciting and rewarding of the school year.    Weeks of hard work by teachers suddenly came together as the doors opened to another crop of children eager to get back to the exciting task of learning.

Great times!

But times change, and I am quite certain that being a teacher or running a school is not the joyful experience that it was just a few short years ago.  People have more pent-up anger today and seem to approach every situation ready to boil over at the slightest provocation.  The lingering pandemic is undoubtedly behind some of this frustration, but the situation is also being inflamed by scurrilous politicians and pundits who seem eager to keep their followers in turmoil.

Last Wednesday was the first day of school at the Amador County Unified School District in northern California, and as that first day of classes was coming to a close there was a serious incident between a parent and staff members at one of the district's elementary schools.   A parent was waiting to pick up his daughter at the Sutter Creek Elementary School (K-6) when he saw her leave the building wearing a face mask.  The parent had apparently sent the little girl to school that morning without a mask and had intended for her to remain unmasked.   

(The California state health department has mandated that masks be worn inside of the state's schools, and the district superintendent says that the school has no discretion over the matter.)

The angry father chose to confront the female principal on the spot, with countless parents and children undoubtedly watching, and was expressing his outrage when a male teacher interceded, obviously with the intent of protecting the principal.  That made the parent even angrier, and he assaulted the teacher leaving him with lacerations on the face and a "knot" on the back of his head.   

The parent has been barred from the campus, and the child is welcome back at school.   A police report was filed and school officials are currently working the the country district attorney's office to determine whether or not to file charges against the parent.

In a letter to parents telling of the incident, the school's superintendent gave this snippet of very sound advice:

"If I ask nothing more of you this school year it is this. Take a breath, pause, listen and walk away if necessary." 

The superintendent also noted that the school had two primary objectives with regard to the pandemic situation:  to keep everyone safe - and to keep the schools open.

She also had this to say

"I beg that we do our best to set all feelings aside and look at what is best for students. We know emotions are high, and conversations are intense. We must promote and support school environments that are compassionate and sympathetic. I encourage you to connect with someone in our school community you feel comfortable confiding in to create a safe place to vent and obtain clarification as needed. The mandates are forever changing so understanding current requirements is critical. Staff will support you and listen at all times when communication is appropriate."

One parent had his say, his way, and probably earned bragging rights down at the local honkey-tonk, and he may or may not go to court, and ultimately to jail.  But he also has a child who has been traumatized and may now develop a twisted view of what school, and even life, is all about.   And others have been traumatized as well:  the parents who watched the incident unfold and now have to worry about random outbreaks of violence in which their own children might get hurt, the other children who saw their friend's dad get crazy and hit a teacher, and the teachers and staff members who now have to do their jobs, with smiles on their faces, all the while knowing they could be the next ones to run afoul of a deranged parent.

Schools should be places of joy and hope, and not gauntlets of fear.  

God bless the dedicated teachers, administrators, and other school personnel who have the courage and determination to show up for work in these awful times, and who constantly strive to educate and protect the children in their care.   They are true heroes!

Bush's Middle East Wars are Ending

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Today US embassy personnel in Kabul, Afghanistan, are busy shredding documents, destroying computers, and throwing their lives into suitcases and garbage bags as they prepare for a hasty exit from the place that some of them have called home for the better part of the past two decades.  Within the next couple of days they, and some of their Afghan employees and friends, will be flown out of the country in a US military airlift.  And before those rescue planes even make it safely to their destinations, agents of the Taliban will be posing for pictures inside of the embassy offices and homes that the fleeing diplomatic corps have left behind.

Biden officials are worried that the rushed exit is going to look like the horrific images of the United States' frenzied exit from Saigon - and it will.

Joe Biden shouldn't take the impending calamity too personally.  He didn't get us into the twenty-year mess in the Middle East - that was George W. Bush and his evil puppet master, Dick Cheney.  And Biden wasn't the one to actually announce that we would be leaving Afghanistan - that was Donald John Trump. But Joe Biden is the one who had to pull on his Big Boy pants and ultimately make the exit happen.

If Dick Cheney had ever cracked open a history book, he might have saved his country from two decades of death and sacrifice in the mountains and valleys of Afghanistan - as well of trillions of dollars in US taxpayer money that has now been effectively flushed down the crapper.  History could have taught him that Afghanistan, in modern times, had survived major invasions three times before - twice from Great Britain in the 1800's, and then the long slog of the Russian invasion from 1979 to 1989.   

The British won some battles and lost some battles before suffering a major defeat in their first invasion (1839-1842), and they also won a few and lost a few during their second foray into the country (1878-1880), but ultimately installed a puppet government and then made a fast exit.  Forty years later the Afghans had regrouped to the point that they were able to come after the British and attack them in India.

The Afghan people are resilient - and not easily cowered.    

When the Soviet government flew divisions of troops and war equipment into Kabul (the capital of Afghanistan) on Christmas Eve of 1979, Afghan fighters took to the hills and committed to a hit-and-run strategy against the invaders that went on for a decade and denied the Soviets effective control of the country.  Many regard the extraordinary Afghani (Taliban) resistance as one of the major contributing factors that played hell with Russian morale and helped to bring about the collapse of the Soviet Union.

And the US government assisted the Taliban fighters  - usually surreptitiously -  to defend their homeland.

Now, more that thirty years after the Soviets were driven from Afghanistan, another invader is being sent packing.

(Yes, the United States shepherded some social advances during the years that it propped up a government in Afghanistan, perhaps most notably in the education of its female citizens, and hopefully some of those advances will take root and help to bring about permanent change.   But during those same years that society was showing some signs of advancement in Afghanistan, America continued to turn a blind eye to the plight of women in the oil kingdoms - like Saudi Arabia - where appeasing a corrupt monarchy was deemed to be in our national best interest - or at least in our corporate best interest.)

US forces are tentatively scheduled to be out of Iraq by the end of this year, and at that point the failed presidency of George W. Bush can officially be put to rest.  Perhaps then we will be able to return some of our national treasure to domestic uses - things like free and accessible health care for all, free college for all, green energy, real mass transit, and a thousand other things which we have been told - over and over - that we cannot afford.  

Maybe now we can afford a few nice things in life.

And maybe now Afghanistan can begin to heal and chart it's own destiny without outside interference.

White Dominance in the US is Winding Down

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

The US Census Bureau released demographic population data yesterday that will be used by the states in drawing their congressional districts for the next decade.  Some progressive states have devised independent agencies to draw those districts with an eye toward limiting decisions based on politics, but the majority have systems in place where the legislatures and governors ultimately determine district lines, and those systems are, by-and-large, completely political.

Republicans generally expect to use the redistricting to enhance their position in Congress, but when it comes to designing the make-up of the House of Representatives, this time may prove to be conservative white America's last hurrah.

The census data release yesterday showed more than just how many Americans were living where, it also gave other factors like educational level, income, and race - things that will also be taken into account as politicians carefully craft districts designed to benefit themselves and their political parties for the next ten years.

It was the area of race that generated the most headlines, with the overall thrust being that on the basis of race the United States is steadily becoming a more diversified nation.  The new numbers show that while non-hispanic whites still represent the majority in the US - at 58% of the population, the percentage of non-hispanic whites has decreased over the past two censuses.  In 2000, non-hispanic whites represented 69% of the total population, and in 2010 that same demographic was 63.7% of the population - or in simpler terms, non-hispanic whites as a percentage of the total US population were decreasing about five percent every ten years.

That would appear to be a fairly significant drop.  

But, even more surprisingly, the actual number of non-hispanic whites dropped for the first time in the US Census history, counts which have been taken every ten years since 1790.  In 2010 there were 224 million non-hispanic whites in the United States, and the 20s0 census revealed only 204 million non-hispanic whites.  A highly significant drop in actual numbers of people in that racial category.

Newser.com had a headline this morning which read:  "For the First Time in History, White Population Shrinks."  It shrank not only as a percentage of the total population, but in actual numbers as well.  It was a true headline, and the ramifications of that truth are likely to exacerbate the racial paranoia that helps to fuel the country's political anger.    Politicians will work even harder at crafting laws to limit the rights of non-whites, rabid racists will become even crazier in their war on immigrants from south of the border,  trust in government will continue to decrease, and gun sales will continue to increase.

It's very hard to accept that more than two centuries of cultural, social, economic, and political dominance is coming to an end.

Ancestor Archives: Sarah Ann Kelly (1817 - After 1880)

 

by Rocky Macy

Sarah Ann KELLY was born on August 5th, 1817, in North Carolina.   She married Joshua Calvin ELLIS on February 28th, 1837, in Forsyth County, Georgia.  Sarah passed away sometime after the 1880 census was taken, probably in northwest Arkansas.

Sarah Elizabeth KELLY was my g-g-g-grandmother.

The fact that Sarah Ann (KELLY) ELLIS was born in North Carolina is established by the four existing US census records in which she was recorded by name (1850 in District 31 of Forsyth, Georgia;  1860 in War Eagle and Walnut, Benton, Arkansas;  1870 in White River, Benton, Arkansas;  and, 1880 in Prairie, Madison, Arkansas.)  It also appears likely that she was the daughter of Hiram KELLY and Elizabeth McGEE who were married in Burke County, North Carolina, on August 19th, 1813.  If that is the case, Sarah may have been born in Burke County, North Carolina.

Sarah’s marriage to Joshua Calvin ELLIS is a part of the Georgia public record, and it is noted in the Ancestry.com record:  “Georgia Marriages 1699-1944.”

Sarah and Joshua had seven children, and census records indicate that all of them were born in the state of Georgia.  They were:  William J. (born 1840 - died after 1880), Hiram Kelly (1842-1912), Joshua “Thomas” (1844-1914), Mary Ann (1846-1888), James Calvin (1848-1907), Adeline (1851-1916), and Sarah Clementine (1853-1911).

The oldest son, William J. ELLIS, married Matilda J. COOK, and they were my great-great grandparents.  Hiram Kelly ELLIS married Susan LANE;  Joshua “Thomas” ELLIS  married 1.) Mary Palestine PHILLIPS, and  2.) Georgianne ROBERTS;  Mary Anne ELLIS married Jasper COOK;  James Calvin ELLIS married Nancy Ellen NELSON;  Adeline ELLIS married Charles O’CONNOR;  and, Sarah Clementine ELLIS remained single.

The family moved north to Arkansas, undoubtedly in pursuit of cheap government land, sometime between the birth of Sarah Clementine ELLIS on May 27th, 1853, and the enumeration of the 1860 US census.  The census of 1860 showed the family complete, with father, mother, and seven children ranging in age from seven (Sarah Clementine) to twenty (William J.)  That was the only census in which all nine family members were residing under the same roof.

Only two of the family’s children were still at home when the 1870 US Census was taken:  “Adline” (age 19) and Sarah (13).  (Sarah Clementine would have actually been seventeen.)

When the 1880 US Census was taken, the only “children” still in the home were again Adeline, listed as “Adaline O Conner” (age 28) who was living there with her one-year-old daughter, Alice P. (Pauline) “O Conner” (age 1), and the youngest of Joshua and Sarah’s offspring, Sarah Ellis (age 25).  Joshua ELLIS died of a heart attack in December of that same year.

Sarah Ann (KELLY) ELLIS has not been found in the public record after the 1880 US census.  (The 1890 US census was almost entirely destroyed by a fire.)  It is unknown at this time when and where she died.  Three family researchers at Ancestry.com list Sarah’s date and place of death as July 27th, 1890, in Madison County, Arkansas, but none of the three provide a source for that information.

Aside from the fact that Sarah Elizabeth (KELLY) ELLIS has not been located on the 1900 US Census, another indicator that she was likely dead by that time is that her youngest daughter, the unmarried Sarah Clementine who had been twenty-five (probably twenty-seven) and living at home when the 1880 census was taken, was, in 1900, living in the household of a widowed physician, E.F. (Edward Forest) ELLIS and his two sons, ages thirteen and eight, where she was listed as a “servant.”  (The family connection, if there was one, between Sarah Clementine ELLIS and Dr. ELLIS, is unknown.)  Dr. ELLIS and his sons were residents of Fayetterville, Washington County, Arkansas, in 1900.

(The 1910 US Census lists Sarah Clementine ELLIS, the youngest child of Joshua and Sarah ELLIS, as a member of the household of her brother, Joshua “Thomas” ELLIS  of McLennan County, Texas.  She died and was buried there the following year.)

If Sarah Clementine’s mother had been alive in either 1900 or 1910, it seems likely that she and her youngest (unmarried) daughter would have been residing in the same household.  Therefore it would also seem likely that Sarah Ann (KELLY) ELLIS died sometime prior to 1900.

Wherever and whenever Sarah Ann (Kelly) ELLIS passed away, she saw a great deal of the newly forming United States during her lifetime, undoubtedly experienced many of the hardships imposed by the Civil War, and helped to carve out a life for herself, her children, and their descendants in the wooded hills and valleys of northwest Arkansas and beyond.  She was a true pioneer, both in spirit as well as deed.

Through the Looking Glass, Where Extremists are Moderates

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

The United States Senate apparently worked through last night to pass a $3.5 trillion budget "resolution."  The resolution, as artfully amended by senators trying to show their own strengths while highlighting the shortcomings of others, passed by a party-line vote of 50-49.  It is a "non-binding" resolution which means that it has no official force whatsoever other than to serve as a guide for spending bills, but the nocturnal exercise did give a ninety-nine highly skilled politicians an opportunity to pose for voters on a wide array of issues and political hot buttons.

And today there is plenty of news coverage about the political maneuverings of last night.   Tales of devious senators proposing "gotcha" amendments that forced their foes into uncomfortable voting positions (and may turn up in campaign commercials as the next election cycle heats up) were the order of the evening.  It was a night of high theatre.

Several Democrats, primarily those up for reelection in conservative-leaning states, joined with Republicans on various amendments that seemed to run against the main current of the Democratic Party, and two in particular, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Krysten Sinema of Arizona, neither of whom is up for re-election in 2022, seemed quick to side with an assortment of Republican positions.

And the press, many outlets, blithely continue to refer to Manchin and Sinema as "moderates" because their views aren't aligned with those of the majority of their political party on even some fundamental issues like killing the undemocratic filibuster.  But if Manchin and Sinema are "moderates," where does that place the remainder of the Democratic senators?  Are Manchin and Sinema "moderate" in relation to more "extreme" Democrats?  That is certainly the unspoken implication.

And if "moderate" Manchin and Sinema align politically with the GOP majority in the senate, does that make the Republican senators "moderates, " too?  Are Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and Josh Hawley moderates?   Can anyone, and especially any journalist who covers the national political scene, describe Josh Hawley as a moderate - with a straight face?

Last night Joe Manchin and Krysten Sinema both voted to protect the future of fossil fuel power plants in the United States - at a time when the world is literally aflame from climate change.  (Yes, it was a non-binding amendment to a non-binding resolution, but it still turned a tin ear to the climate crisis at a time when the world needs to be listening - and leaders need to be leading.).  If turning one's back on a burning planet, even with a symbolic vote, makes a person a "moderate," then spare me the moderation!

It's time to get radical!

Missouri's Big Day!

 

by Pa Rock

Missourian

Missouri, my home, formally achieved statehood two hundred years ago today.  It was a Friday.

The United States had acquired the territory that included Missouri in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, an agreement in which the administration of Thomas Jefferson paid the government of France $15 million for 828,000 square miles of land extending from New Orleans up to the Canadian border.  The deal amounted to around $18 per square mile. 

By 1820 when the young territory of Missouri was preparing to seek admission to the country as a bonafide state, the expansion of slavery was a major political issue.  Missouri, which had been largely populated by settlers from the slave states of Kentucky and Tennessee, was seeking admission as a slave state.

Henry Clay, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, drafted a temporary solution that became known as the Missouri Compromise of 1820.  In that agreement, Missouri would be allowed to join the nation as a slave state, and to keep a balance between slave and free states in Congress, Maine would be separated from its parent state of Massachusetts and granted statehood as a free state.  Clay's compromise was later amended to prohibit any part of the Louisiana Purchase north of a line running along Missouri's southern border from ever joining the United States as a slave state.

And thus it was done.  Maine became the twenty-third state on March 15th, 1820, and Missouri was added as the twenty-fourth on August 10th, 1821.

One of the first two U.S. Senators from Missouri was Thomas Hart Benton.  He served for thirty years in the senate and was known as one of the major proponents of "Manifest Destiny," the notion that God intended the country to expand ever-westward until it reached the pristine beaches of the Pacific Ocean.  Senator Benton is also remembered because of a great-grandnephew who was named after him.  Thomas Hart Benton, the world renowned painter, was born in 1889 in the small southwestern Missouri community of Neosho, the same town where this tired old blogger also happened to be born in 1948.

In addition to Thomas Hart Benton, the painter, numerous other famous people were born in Missouri.  A partial list would include singer Josephine Baker, military generals John J. Pershing and Omar N. Bradley, scientist George Washington Carver, poets Langston Hughes and Eugene Field, businessman J.C. Penney, baseball great Yogi Berra, the clown Emmett Kelly, the outlaws Jesse and Frank James, cartooning pioneer Walt Disney, President Harry S. Truman, and, of course, literary giant Mark Twain, the man who turned Hannibal, Missouri, into America's ideal boyhood home.

The Missouri State Genealogical Association has a program which it calls "Missouri's First Families."  That program offers special certificates of recognition to family researchers who can document connections to ancestors who lived in Missouri at various times.  

• "Territorial Certificates" are available to persons who can prove to have at least one ancestor who was residing in the Missouri prior to statehood o August 10th, 1821;   
• "Pioneer Certificates" may be obtained by people who can prove that they had an ancestor residing in Missouri between August 11th, 1821, and December 31st, 1860;  and, 
• "Civil War Service Certificates" are available to people who can show that they had an ancestor who served in a Missouri unit during the Civil War, or those whose ancestor served in other units but saw service in Missouri, or those whose ancestor was a Civil War veteran who died or was buried in Missouri.

(I can qualify for  several different "Pioneer" and "Civil War Service" certificates, but cannot find any ancestral lines going back to Missouri's "Territory" days.  So far the longest line that I can document is that of two of my g-g-g-g-grandparents, Abraham and Mouring (BIGGS) MARTIN who arrived in Newton County, Missouri (where Neosho is located) in the early 1840's.  That makes me a 7th generation Missourian - but alas no "territorial" cigar.  Boone, my twenty-two-year-old grandson, if he is reading this, can claim the honor of being a 9th generation Missourian!)

(Mark Twain would have also been unable to claim "Territorial" status.  His family migrated from Jamestown, Tennessee, to the hamlet of Florida, Missouri, in 1835 shortly before the birth of their famous son later that same year.)

Today over six million people call Missouri their home.  Some of us have been here longer than others, and some have family lineages in the state stretching back to the time of Daniel Boone and beyond, but we are all Missourians - and this is our big day.   So break out the cake and start lighting the candles because Missouri is celebrating 200 years of statehood today!

Happy bicentennial, Missouri!

Sturgis Carnival of Death Gets Underway

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

It's that time of year again, the armpit of summer when "bikers" and their "old ladies" climb onto their Harley Hawgs and head to Sturgis, South Dakota, for ten days or so of beer-drinking and pot-smoking social intercourse.  There will be concerts, and vendors, and vomit on the sidewalks - all in the name of good old American freedom!

Most of the year Sturgis is a town of around 7,000 people, actually a good-sized community for rural South Dakota, but during the week of the rally the population explodes.  Last year the community made an effort to tamp down the activity out of a fear of the COVID pandemic, but around 460,000 largely maskless goobers crammed into the town anyway.   This year, with the far more contagious "delta variant" running wild across the nation,  estimates of how many will attend begin at over 700,000.  

The population of the entire state of South Dakota is just 884,000.

A popular tee-shirt at last year's rally read, "Screw COVID, I Went to Sturgis!"  Some locals who would like to see the event brought under control and more tightly regulated admit that the rally runs the town and not the other way around.

The Sturgis "rally" is currently in it's eighty-first year and draws participants from across the United States as well as some international locations.  When the rally comes to an end this weekend, all of those participants will be returning home and taking their souvenirs with them - some of which will undoubtedly be viral in nature.

Governor Kristi Noem of South Dakota will be attending some of the activities in Sturgis this week, and she plans to participate in a charity ride.  Noem, who poses as openly defiant of any government restrictions related to stopping the spread of COVID, should perhaps look at using some of the money generated by the charity ride to purchase more ventilators for the state's hospitals.  Just a thought - for a governor who doesn't do much thinking.

The Sturgis Rally is a superspreader event, and it poses a serious health risk and even death to untold numbers of people who have never even been to South Dakota.  But it is an economic boon to Sturgis and surrounding communities, and it also serves as an angry fist in the air to what some see as government trying to limit their freedoms.

So once again sound medical advice goes unheeded,  and a loud group of malcontents maintain their freedom to keep spreading the contagion - and a few people make some money - and some politicians get noticed.

That's life - and death - in the United States in the summer of 2021.

Stephen King's "On Writing," Notes and Thoughts

by Pa Rock

Reader

I believe that I have read exactly three works by Stephen King:  the novels "Christine" and "Cujo," and the novella "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption," all of which were compelling reads that were later turned into popular movies.  Mr. King has written dozens of books and hundreds of stories - and I have read hundreds of books and thousands of stories, so why our paths have not crossed more is somewhat odd.

Now, however, that seems likely to change.

For the past couple of days I have been enjoying King's "On Writing," a non-fiction effort that he wrote in the late 1990's as an aid to aspiring writers.  In addition to being a "how to" guide to the craft of writing, the famed author also uses "On Writing" as a collection point for numerous personal tidbits from his childhood and adult life which ultimately influenced the way that he writes.  

(King was in the process of writing this reflection 'on writing' when, as a pedestrian out for an afternoon walk, he was struck and almost killed by a distracted driver.   He included a narrative of that close encounter with death in this narrative as well as his struggle to regain the ability to engage in prolonged writing on a regular basis.)

"On Writing" is generally regarded as one of the best works on the topic of writing.  King encourages writers to acquire the basics of grammar and vocabulary, much of which can be absorbed through reading and exposing oneself to the written works of others, and he stresses narrative, description, and dialogue in the creative process.

And he is death on adverbs!

King talks about writing in terms of constructing a house.  A competent carpenter has a toolbox that he uses in the construction process, and a competent writer also brings along his toolbox when he is working.  The writer's toolbox contains that competencies (things like grammar and vocabulary) that writers need to construct the sentences which then are used to form paragraphs - and the paragraphs become the ultimate building blocks of stories.

The author compares his own writing process to the excavation of fossils.  When he encounters an idea, some tidbit of a thought that strikes a chord of interest, he regards it as the tip of a fossil sticking out of the ground.  Then, instead of "plotting" where the story will go, he begins writing - or carefully excavating the fossil - to see where the story and the characters take him - and what the fossil (story) looks like when it is completely unearthed.

King also talks about the levels of writer competency, which he illustrates through a pyramid.  At the base are "bad writers," people whose writing may be functional but whose overall abilities at the craft are uninspiring and unlikely to ever show much improvement.  Next up on the pyramid are the "competent" writers, people with a basic skill of writing and who, with practice, will improve to the next level and become "good writers," or people who have developed and polished their skills and can sometimes even make a living off of writing.  Above all of those, in the rarified air at the tip of the pyramid, reside the "great writers," the very few whose gifts as writers are well beyond those of ordinary mortals, people, according to Stephen King, like Shakespeare, Faulkner, and Eudora Welty.  

(I would add Twain, but who am I to advise a master of the craft?)

Actually, Stephen King and I do have a few things in common.  He is six months older than me - and always will be - and we both graduated from high school in 1966 just as the Vietnam War was going completely off the rails.  We both taught high school for a few years, and the many music references that he makes in "On Writing" have all been part of the soundtrack of my life as well.   We are both fans of H.P. Lovecraft, and we have both received multiple rejection slips from Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine.   Stephen King rides a Harley and I ride a Dixie Chopper, 

And, like the celebrated author, I always have a book with me and read during any down time, like long waits at the DMV or the doctor's office.

For those who wonder about what books Stephen King reads, he lists a couple of hundred that he has enjoyed over the past thirty years or so in "On Writing," and for those, like me, who have not read much by Stephen King, he tells enough personal stories about how particular books germinated or survived that curiosity begins to kick in.  I will now be adding "The Stand" and "From a Buick 8" to my bedside pile.    "On Writing" has pulled me back into the Stephen King orbit.

For those who "pull into" Sturgis this week, don't expect to encounter a Dixie Chopper.  It's a lawnmower!

Butterflies Do It in the Grass

by Pa Rock

Farmer in Summer

I will admit to not being a very keen observer of nature, but every now and then, especially living in a rural area, I stumble across something that sticks with me.  Years ago, for instance, I found a stone in the woods that had a small, unusual ridged growth attached to it.  Being a freshly minted high school teacher, I took it to my classroom and placed it on the chalk tray where I kept a few curiosities for my history students to chatter about.  That was in the late fall or winter, and the rock spent the next few months being ignored in my warm classroom,  Ignored, that is, until the door was opened one morning the following spring and my first class of the day quickly discovered that they were sharing the room with dozens of baby praying mantises!

One of our young science teachers was called in to investigate and quickly focused on the rock sitting in the chalk tray.  It turns out that the odd growth on the rock was a praying mantis egg case.  The school was in a rural setting, and a major activity for the rest of the day was carefully removing as many of the small insects as possible out into their more natural environment.

I suspect that most of my students learned more science that day forty years ago than they did history.  I still occasionally come across praying mantis egg cases out in nature, and now I leave them in nature!

Yesterday I had another unplanned encounter with the reproductive cycle of insects.  I had stepped out of the house via the back door and was headed for the mailbox which sits along the road in front of the house.  As I came around the side of the house in the shade and stepped into the sunlight that was enveloping the front yard, I happened upon two small orange butterflies who were flying in circles and seemed to be engaged in some sort of airborne mating ritual.

Not being in any particular hurry to check on the mail, I stopped to enjoy the aerial acrobatics of the butterflies.  After a minute or so one seemed to tire of the game and landed in the grass about five feet where I was silently standing and watching.  I'm guessing that was the female because almost immediately the other flew down, with the skill of a kamikaze pilot, and landed on top of her.   Even from my remote viewing point of five feet away and nearly six feet up, I could tell that something of a very personal nature was occurring.  

I stood there transfixed by the action in the grass for several minutes before finally growing bored and heading on out to the mailbox.   I took my time, pulled a weed or two along the way, and eventually reached the mailbox only to discover that the mail lady had yet to arrive.  On the way back to the house I slowed to check on the butterflies.  They were still at it!  Then, as I watched, they took a break and flew around for a few seconds before landing back on the ground for another round!  A minute or two later they separated again, this time apparently for good, and flew off their separate ways - her to lay eggs on the underside of a really good leaf, and him spend the rest of the day bragging to his buddies.

Both of yesterday's butterflies will soon be dead.  Next spring their legacy will emerge as caterpillars, and the ones that don't get eaten by the chickens or fall prey to other predators will spin cocoons and eventually emerge as butterflies where they will spend their summer frolicking in the warm breezes and looking for places to have sex away from the prying eyes of the voyeuristic human who shares their space!

Senate Seat Opens in Missouri: Send in the Clowns

by Pa Rock

Missouri Voter

Apparently his duties in the US Senate have taken too much time away from the lucrative business of lobbying, and Missouri's senior senator, Ol' Roy Blunt, has announced that he will be retiring from his day job at the end of his current term in 2022.  Blunt, who is married to one of the most powerful lobbyists in Washington, DC, Abigail Perlman, and whose three adult children are all lobbyists, will no doubt slither on over to K Street on the day his Senate replacement is sworn in.  Lobbying appears to be a major virus in the Blunt bloodstream.

Now the attention begins to focus on who will replace Ol' Roy in the Senate.  Mitch McConnell will no doubt try to guide Missouri Republicans in their choice of a replacement since, of the five GOP contenders who have announced so far, at least two would likely be highly unacceptable to the national (corporate) Republicans who want to insure that the seat stays in reliably Republican hands.

Currently the list of declared candidates from the Republican Party to replace Ol' Roy include four white males and one white female.  The lady candidate, Congressswoman Vicky Hartzler, is out outspoken opponent of the Equal Rights Amendment, voted against renewing the Violence Against Women Act, and is stridently anti-abortion, so she has little in the way of gender baggage that might hinder someone challenging a Missouri good ol' boy.   Hartzler has also made a name for herself by opposing LGBTQ initiatives and is an outspoken critic of gay marriage.  The former home economics teacher should be a formidable presence on the ballot.

Another Missouri congressman announced last week that he, too, will join in the push to replace Blunt at the Senate hog trough.  Congressman Billy Long, an auctioneer from Springfield, won a crowded primary to replace Roy Blunt in Congress when he moved to the Senate in 2010.  When Long announced on Tucker Carlson's Fox television show last week that he was running for the Senate, he seemed to make the point that since he had replaced Blunt once, it was only logical the he be the one to replace him again.  Long also used that television appearance to get his campaign off on the wrong foot by announcing that Roy Blunt and Missouri's other senator, Josh Hawley, were the "honorary co-chairs" of his campaign.  He apparently did not clear that claim with either senator, and both quickly denied having affiliations with any of the primary candidates at this point in the race.

A third congressman, Republican Jason Smith, is also making noises about getting into the crowded Republican primary.   Smith, who claims to be a farmer, has proven his skill over the years at milking corporate lobbyists, and he reportedly has a campaign war chest in excess of a million-and-a-half dollars.

Other announced GOP candidates include a lawyer from St. Louis who made a few headlines when he and his wife, also a lawyer, stumbled out into their yard waving guns at BLM protesters who were marching nearby, the state attorney general who tries to stay to the political right of Hermann Goering and Donald Trump, and the state's most recent GOP governor who was forced to resign after it was revealed that he had duct-taped his naked mistress to a piece of exercise equipment in his basement, and then photographed her and threatened to reveal the photos if she ever blabbed about their sexual tryst.  Most polls show ex-governor Sleaze Bag in the lead.

With that ridiculous field fighting for the Republican nomination, this should be an easy pick-up for the Democrats - that is IF they had a contender with a high, positive name-recognition who could run a winning race.  Of the Democrats fitting that description, , former two-term senator Claire McCaskill has said that she will never run for elective office again, former two-term governor Jay Nixon has said he will not run, and former Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander, the Democrat who almost beat Blunt in 2016 when Trump was walloping Clinton in the state, is apparently also not interested in running again.

So Missouri may be a laughingstock now with Senator Fist-in-the-Air representing our state in the nation's capitol, but in January of 2023 we could sink even lower when he is joined by Senator Duct-Tape.

Of course, it's still a long time until filings close, but this 7th-generation Missourian remains pessimistic.  The quality of political candidates in the Show-Me State has been caught up in a mudslide over the past few decades, and there does not seem to be much on the horizon which would reverse that trend.  I would like for my Republican friends in the state to know that if the Democrats fail come up with a candidate who looks capable of winning, I will join them in voting a Republican ballot in the August primary to help in the actual selection of our next US Senator.  It's the most I can do.

Critical Race Theory: Just Another GOP Boogeyman

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

My congressman, a Republican from southeast Missouri by the name of Jason Smith, tossed a piece of red meat to his supporters this week that went after one of the GOP's more popular boogeymen:  critical race theory.  Smith, who couldn't define critical race theory if his free lunch depended on it, much less put forth a coherent argument against it, doesn't like it, anyway!

In a tweet on July 31st Congressman Smith snarled:

"Critical race theory has no place in the classroom.  Period,  #StopCRT"

Republicans are trying to put forth the idea that CRT (whatever that is) teaches that America is a racist country and demeans us as a nation.  It is therefore un-American and must never be taught to susceptible children.  Republican legislatures have rushed to grab some headlines and political headwinds by making the teaching of CRT (again, whatever that is) illegal in their states, and threatening school districts that allow it to be taught with fines or reductions in funding.  

(Many of the same GOP legislatures are also hard at work writing and passing legislation designed to keep racial minorities from voting.)

The predictable result of the anti-CRT movement, since the topic and the "crime" are so ill-defined, is that schools are unlikely to allow any instruction related to race that might upset parents or local politicians, some of whom actually are racists.  Not only will teachers not be allowed to even suggest links between things like eduction, housing, and the economy with race, they may also be hesitant to lecture on things like the March on Washington, Freedom Riders, and the lives of people like Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Suddenly topics that were once acceptable and standard areas of study get smeared with a "CRT" label and fall before the classroom censors.

"Critical race theory" is this election cycle's version of "Sharia Law," something the GOP used to scare its base a few years ago.  It's a distraction from jobs, the economy, health care, our crumbing infrastructure, and so many other things that politicians like Jason Smith don't want us to notice. 

Race is an American hot button, one that too many politicians are eager to push and exploit for their own benefit.   Bellowing to the heavens against something as ethereal as "critical race theory" has, in all of its piousness, a strong whiff of racism.

In fact, it stinks.

Ancestor Archives: Joshua Calvin ELLIS (1814-1880)

 

by Rocky Macy

Joshua Calvin ELLIS was born on January 31st, 1814, in North Carolina.  He married Sarah Elizabeth KELLY in Forsyth County, Georgia, on February 28th, 1837.   Joshua Calvin ELLIS died in Madison County, Arkansas, on December 21st, 1880.

Joshua Calvin ELLIS was my g-g-g-grandfather.

Joshua and Sarah had a total of seven children, and census records indicate that they were all born in the state of Georgia.   The children included:  William J. (1840-after 1880), Hiram Kelly (1842-1912), Joshua Thomas (1844-1914), Mary Ann (1846-1888), James Calvin (1848-1907), Adeline (1851-1916), and Sarah Clementine (1853-1911).  

Of the children, William J. married Matilda J. COOK;  Hiram Kelly married Susan LANE;  Joshua Thomas married  1.) Mary Palestine PHILLIPS, and 2.) Georgianne ROBERTS;  Mary Ann married Jasper COOK;  James Calvin married Nancy Ellen NELSON;  Adeline married Charles O‘CONNOR;  and, Sarah Clementine remained single.

Joshua and Sarah’s marriage in Forsyth County, Georgia, in 1837 is part of that state’s public record.  Thirteen years later when the 1850 US Census was taken they were still living in Forsyth County, Georgia.   At that time he was listed as “J.C. Ellis”  (age 36) and she was noted as “Sarah A.” (34).  The children in the household were William J. Ellis (10), Hiram K. Ellis (8), Thomas J. Ellis (6), Mary A. Ellis (4), and James C. Ellis (1).

Sometime after the birth of the youngest child, Sarah Clementine ELLIS, on May 27th, 1853, Joshua and Sarah moved their family to northwest Arkansas.  When the US Census was taken in 1860, the family was living at “War Eagle and Walnut” in Benton County, Arkansas.  Included were:   Joshua (47), Sarah (44), William 20, Hiram (18), Thomas (17), Mary (13), James (11), “Adaline” (9), and Sarah (7).

The 1870 US Census located the family in White River Township, Benton County, Arkansas.   There were just four members in residence:  “Joshuay” Ellis (57), Sarah Ellis (54), “Adline” Ellis (19), and Sarah Ellis (13).

The ELLIS home in 1880 was located in Prairie Township of Madison County, Arkansas.  At that time Adeline had married Charles O’CONNOR and she was living without him, but with their one-year-old daughter, Alice Pauline O’CONNOR in her parents' home.)  The family household as recorded by the US Census that year included:  Joshua C. Ellis (66), Sarah Ellis (63), “Adaline O Conner” (28), Sarah Ellis (25), and Alice P. “O Conner” (1).

(Note:  Adeline’s married name of O’Connor appears in the public record as “O’Conner” in about equal measure.  I have chosen to go with “O’Connor” because that was the listing on her death certificate, a document that was informed by her son-in-law, C.T. MORRISON with what appears to be a great deal of care.)  

Joshua Calvin ELLIS passed away on December 21, 1880, while taking part in a community hog-butchering.   A great-granddaughter of his, Pearl Crews of Eureka Springs, Arkansas, heard the story of his death from her mother who was a granddaughter of Joshua.  Pearl mailed this account to me in 1981:

“Joshua Ellis and several neighbors were butchering hogs for their winter’s meat.    It seems like each neighbor brought his hogs and put them in a pen with all the others, and Joshua’s job was to kill the hogs and put them on a big sled pulled by a horse.   He would sled them up to the big fire and hot water vat, (where) the other men would scald and scrape the hogs.  They had finished cleaning one hog and wondered why he was not there with another hog to be scalded.    They walked around the barn and he was laying dead from a heart attack.  There was snow on the ground and he had walked to a rail fence.  His hand prints were in the snow on the rails.”

A cold and snowy winter’s day, and a sixty-six-year-old man was killing hogs and loading them onto a sled by himself.  He probably did die of a heart attack!

The old man, like so many hardy pioneers of his generation, was struggling to provide for his family up until his final breath.

Joshua Calvin ELLIS is at rest in Vaughan-Whitener Cemetery in Hindsville, Madison County, Arkansas.

COVID on a Houseboat

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

South Carolina's senior senator, Lindsey Graham (R), was feeling a bit peckish yesterday and decided to walk himself over to the House side of the Capitol where he was examined by the House physician.  Graham said that he had flu-like symptoms and what felt like a possible sinus infection.  His "infection" turned out to be of a more serious nature.  It was COVID.

Graham apparently was quick to cough up the fact that he was "fully" vaccinated, which is likely responsible for his symptoms, so far at least, being mild.

In checking Graham's social history in order to track the path of possible infection, it was revealed that he had attended a soiree the previous Saturday evening aboard Senator Joe Manchin's "houseboat" - along with Manchin and five other United States Senators.

On board in addition to Manchin and Graham were senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Catharine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Chris Coons (D-DE), and John Thune (R-SC).  Throw in the odd spouse, a bar tender or two, and a few lobbyists to direct the evening's conversation, and it might have been quite a crowded affair - a great breeding ground for the "delta variant" or "moderate" obstruction of the Biden agenda.

Some might regard Manchin's "houseboat" to be as much of a story as the close encounter that the entire group had with COVID.    The "houseboat" which Manchin refers to as a recreational vessel, is docked in the Potomac River and serves as his home when he is in Washington, DC.   

But it is bigger than the boats of which most Americans are familiar.  Manchin's boat, which he has named the "Almost Heaven" in honor of one of West Virginia's four official songs, is big enough for him to live on and entertain his fellow senators on drink-laden cruises up and down the Potomac.  Manchin once told Time that Senator Chuck Schumer was so comfortable aboard "Almost Heaven" that he jokingly refers to it as "his" boat.  

Some Republican wags even go so far as to call Manchin's floating home and entertainment venue a "luxury yacht," but the humble Manchin is having none of that.  At the very most it is a simple "houseboat."

Republicans, like Betsy DeVos, own yachts - and Democrats, at least Democrats who must run for re-election in the hills and backwoods of West Virginia, don't.   Pictures of Manchin's "houseboat" are widely available on the internet.   "Almost Heaven" is a beautiful vessel, much more closely related to one of DeVos's sea-going excesses than it is to Travis McGee's "Busted Flush."

Joe Manchin bought his "recreational" boat for a bargain price of $220,000, and, according to PolitiFact, immediately turned around and insured it for $700,000 - a situation that might look to some like he got a great deal because of who he is and what he does for a living.  (The median sales price for single-family homes in the DC area is above a million dollars - according to an article in a recent Newsweek.)

So, to recap, Lindsey Graham has a mild case of COVID, even though he has had his shots, and he may have shared his unfortunate condition with as many as six other United States Senators - and Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia lives on a houseboat on the Potomac River where he occasionally shares a beer to two with other Senators, and where they could perhaps be devising public policy away from the prying eyes of the nosey public.

Neither of those situations are good for America.

Nothing to see here, folks - just business as usual in our nation's capital.  Please move along.

Monday's Poetry: "Sea-Fever"

 

by Pa Rock

Poetry Appreciator

We have been in the throes of of miserably hot summer for the past few weeks in the Ozarks, but a nice rain early yesterday, just before daylight, has broken that heat, at least temporarily.  Still, it would be nice to stroll along a sandy beach somewhere, wet our feet at the fringe of the pulsing waters, and fight the call to wade ever deeper.

I ran into an old friend on-line this morning, a poem about the sea that was penned more than a century ago (1902) by John Masefield, a man who went on to become the poet laureate of England from 1930 until his death in 1967.  "Sea-Fever" is one of his best loved works, a poem that students used to have to learn and recite in schools, and one that is sometimes used at funerals.

"Sea-Fever" is a story about returning to a calmer existence, a serenity that perhaps precedes and follows the chaos that passes for life.  It can also serve as a relaxing and meditative pause in one's busy day.  Listen to the gulls, feel the wet sand oozing between your toes, and breath-in the salt-tinged pungency of faraway shores.   The sea is reaching to bring us home.

Sea-Fever 

by John Masefield

I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea's face, and a grey dawn breaking.

I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull's way and the whale's way, where the wind's like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over.

The Art of the Protest

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

One way to move the needle on social, economic, and political issues in the United States has been to protest.  Our country has a long history of rallies, marches, lockouts, walkouts, brawls, sit-ins, and even love-ins, all used in promoting or opposing various movements and causes.  

A couple of noteworthy protests occurred this weekend.  

Rep. Cori Bush, a Democrat from Missouri, has a first-hand understanding of what it means to be homeless.  At one point in her pre-congressional life she was living in a car with her two small children.   Rep. Bush was angered that the House adjourned this week without moving to extend the US moratorium on evictions, a move that many believe will have a significant impact on under-employed black women who are heads of households.  

The Missouri congresswoman decided that she would protest the lack of congressional action on the matter by spending Friday night sleeping outside of the US Capitol.  She sent a letter to all of her colleagues airing her feelings on the matter of the moratorium being allowed to expire and inviting them to join her in the campout.    Two others, Reps. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, both Democrats like Ms. Bush, showed up with their sleeping bags and joined in the protest.  Their efforts generated news coverage and some national discourse on the matter.

In Texas former Congressman Beto O'Rourke led a citizen's march from Georgetown, Texas, to the state capitol in Austin, a walk of twenty-seven miles, to protest a spate of voter-intimidation and vote-suppression laws that the Texas legislature has been debating.   O'Rourke compared their march to the famed civil rights march that Dr. King led from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1965.   When Beto and his marchers got to the Capitol they were treated to a free concert by Willie Nelson.   The country superstar is an outspoken opponent of the proposed new laws.  Willie said:

"It is important that we ensure the right for every American to vote and vote safely.  Voting restrictions are unAmerican and intended to punish people of color, the elderly, and disabled." 

And when Willie Nelson sings - or speaks - people listen!

Protests may not be a uniquely American art form, but they have been used to great effect throughout our nation's history.  The Boston Tea Party was an act of protest against the British government.   It was carried out in December of 1773 and helped to precipitate events that led to the American colonies declaring their independence from Great Britain less than three years later.

After we became an independent nation and defined our government through a Constitution, protests were used to highlight the inequities that remained in how the country functioned.  Street protests in some northern communities helped to hold the government's feet to the fire on the issue of slavery, an issue so intense and divisive that it finally took a great, bloody war to resolve it.

Women's rights and suffrage were long simmering political issues in the United States, and after the Civil War had supposedly cleared the stage of the slavery issue, the suffrage movement began to come to the forefront of political discussion.  Many of the women at the center of the movement were also active in the prohibition (of alcohol) movement, and suffrage and prohibition became inter-twined in American politics.  It was primarily American women who carried signs and marched in parades to bring about prohibition.  Slogans like "Lips that touch liquor will never touch mine" were rallying cries, and some extremists like "Mother" Carrie Nation even became notorious for acts of violence and mayhem like busting-up saloons.

There was a sizable parade for Women's Suffrage in Washington, DC, in 1913 that included 5,000 marching "suffragettes," several bands, and many floats.   Angry men who felt threatened by the changing times attacked the marchers, and more that a hundred were treated for injuries. Seven years later women witnessed two victories for their efforts.  The 18th Amendment establishing prohibition was enacted in January of 1920 (but repealed thirteen years later), and women were given the right to vote through the 19th Amendment which was added to the Constitution in August of 1920.

In 1963 Martin Luther King, Jr, led the "March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom," an event that helped to bring about the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and generated public support for the Civil Rights movement of the 1960's.

Being gay was a crime and also regarded as a mental illness not many years ago.  In 1969 in response to a surge in anti-gay harassment by New York City Police, gay patrons of the Stonewall Inn decided that they weren't going to continue to take the police abuse.  They fought back physically in a series of clashes with police that became known as the Stonewall Riots.  The riots lasted for a week, and the efforts of that group of angry protesters led to the establishment of the gay rights movement in America, a movement that has witnessed many social advances and  a rising level of acceptance over the following fifty years, including the legalization of gay marriage.

Protests over the Vietnam War and the draft were instrumental in causing Lyndon Johnson not to seek a second full term in the presidency, and the continuing protests forced his successor, Richard Nixon, to begin peace negotiations.

Native American rights were highlighted through two major acts of defiance in the early 1970's.   In the last days of 1969 a group calling itself "Indians of All Tribes" seized and occupied Alcatraz Island off of the California coast.  The occupiers, who at one time numbered more than four hundred, existed on the grounds of the abandoned federal penitentiary for nineteen months, often without water or electricity,  demanding better services for Native Americans.   The protesters also sought to put an end to the "Indian Termination Policy" in which the government intentionally worked to eliminate  the tribal system and completely incorporate the remaining Native Americans into the general population.  President Nixon, to his credit, ended that policy and replaced it with the concept of Indian self-determination, but Nixon also had the squatters forcibly removed from their citadel on the Pacific.

Later during the Nixon administration the government was more forceful and deadly in dispersing a group of Lakota Sioux who took over the impoverished town of Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.

The Women's March on Washington in January 0f 2017, the day after the Trump inauguration, was significant not only because the crowd was far larger than the one that had attended the inauguration, but also because it focused the country's attention on issues that were of importance to women and families, things like equity in wages and universal childcare.

In March of the next year, 2018, some survivors of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida organized the "March for Our Lives" protest in Washington, DC.  The day-long event drew 800,00 participants to the nation's capital, and there were auxiliary protests around the country.  The students spoke eloquently for what many regarded as "common-sense" gun laws including the restoration of the 1994 ban on assault-style weapons, having background checks for all guns sales, including private and gun show sales - and prohibition of the deadly bump stock add-ons which increased the firepower of certain weapons.  Their efforts intensified the national discourse about guns, and the Trump administration banned bump stocks at the federal level.

The nationwide protests that came about after the police killing of George Floyd last year helped to focus attention on racism and brutality in America's policing agencies.

Protests are an important part of the American fabric.  They highlight issues that many would rather see shelved or forgotten, and place those problems directly before the public.  

Cori Bush and Beto O'Rourke have generated some news coverage and gotten people talking.  They have made evictions and vote-suppression a little harder to ignore - and that is a good start.

And we have not heard the last from either of them!