Tuesday, September 28, 1915. La Matanza of Ebenezer

Texas City, Texas.  September 28, 1915.

Between 15 to 30 ethnic Mexicans were murdered by the Texas Rangers at the Alamo (La Matanza of Ebenezer).   An entire series of murders of Hispanics occured in this era based upon guilt by ethnicity.

Field Marshal John French suggested to Gen. Foch that a determined assault at Loos could force a gap in the German line, but Foch demurred.

British and Indian troops defeated the Ottomans at the Battle of Es Sinn, taking a strategic point on the Tigris and Euphrates.

J.P. Morgan and the  Anglo French Financial Commission worked out the details on what was, at the time, the largest loan in history.

Last edition:

Monday, September 27, 1915. Murdered for being Hispanic, Jack Kipling killed in action.

Labels: 1910s, 1915, Battle of Loos, Disaster, Mexican Border War, Oklahoma, Petroleum, Racism, Railroads, Rudyard Kipling, Texas, Texas Rangers, World War One

Lex Anteinternet: Hurt feelings?

Recently I wrote about the Peabody Coal Company being unhappy about the inclusion of lyrics from John Prine's song Paradise in a pleading:

Lex Anteinternet: Hurt feelings?: There's a case pending, apparently, in the Federal District Court of Wyoming in which environmentalist have sued the Peabody Coal Compan...

Well, their motion to strike the lyrics failed, the court deciding they'd just have to live with it, in part because the song's been around since 1971 and everyone ought to be used to it by now.

Monday at the Bar: Courthouses of the West: Kimball County Nebraska Courthouse, Kimball Nebras...

Courthouses of the West: Kimball County Nebraska Courthouse, Kimball Nebraska:

This is the Kimball County Courthouse in Kimball Nebraska.  This fine looking courthouse was opened in 1928 and was constructed of Carthage stone, with floors of Ozark gray marble and fixtures made of solid walnut.  MKTH Photo.

Some Gave All: Wyoming Army National Guard Museum

Here we have yet another post that appeared on another one of our sites, that being the one dedicated to war memorials, that we're linking in here, as it shows us a lot of interesting things that relate directly to the focus of this blog, including some that have been commented on before.  As they say, and quite correctly, a picture is worth a thousand words, and these pictures, while not great.  Reveal quite a bit.  This "mirrored" posts depicts the Wyoming Army National Guard Museum in Cheyenne Wyoming.

As there was a fair amount of text in the original entry, we've set this off as quotes so that we can add our additional comments here and expand on it in the context of this post.

These photographs illustrate the location of the Wyoming Army National Guard Museum.  As I was taking this photo in an effort to illustrate the older, cavalry related, part of this structure, I failed to get a really good photo of the front of the museum.

The building was built in 1936, during a period of time during which cavalry was actually receiving increased attention in the American military.  The Wyoming National Guard (there was only an Army Guard at the time, as of course there was no Air Force at all, that being part of the Army) was cavalry at the time, being the 115th Cavalry Regiment. Some may wonder about the "AL" below the AD on the corner stone.  The AL is the date used in Masonry for the creation of the earth, and many buildings of this type during this era were dedicated with the participation of Masons.

Adding to this what these photos above (and below) depict is architectural evidence of a couple of really interesting things that were going on at the time.

Note the date of the construction, 1936, and what the building was constructed for, the Headquarters unit of the 115th Cavalry Regiment, Wyoming National Guard.

Cheyenne borders what was then Ft. D. A. Russell, which is now Warren Air Force Base.  This, then, tells us something about the oddity of how the Army and the National Guard interacted at the time.  Now, Camp Guernsey, the  huge Wyoming Army National Guard training range, is used nearly full time by units of various states Army National Guards as well as the U.S. Army and the U.S. Marine Corps.  In other words, the service had a high degree of interaction between the reserve and the active duty forces.  In 1936. .  . not nearly so much.  Indeed, it's really odd to think of a National Guard building being built just a few miles from a huge Army post. Why not just build a structure within the post grounds? Well, they didn't.

Additionally, note that this served a horse cavalry regiment, which shortly became a Horse Mechanized cavalry regiment. This stands counter to what a lot of people imagine occurring just three years prior to the German invasion of Poland. But in reality, cavalry not only remained in the U.S. Army in this period, but it had expanded in size and significance after World War One.

This wasn't folly, it reflected a sincere strategic concern. 

In retrospect, it's been enormously common to look down on the armies of World War Two, such as the American army and Polish army, and criticize them for retaining cavalry, as if they were mired in romanticism about the horse.  Far from it, in actuality, the lessons of World War One, when viewed in context, argued for mobility, and well into, and beyond, the late 1930s, that argued for the horse. The challenge was hot to retain mobility so that warfare didn't become static, like it had in late 1914, rather than mobile, and quick.  Armor in the original 1917-18 context didn't offer that promise, and it wasn't clear until World War Two that it did.

Indeed, there was actually quite a bit of horse cavalry action during World War One, something that's often forgotten or completely overlooked, and in some immediate post war examples cavalry was predominate.  Cavalry was hugely significant in the Russian Civil War and in the Russo Polish War, for example.  And, as nearly completely overlooked, ever single army during World War Two used horses, and quite a few armies, such as the Soviet Army, and yes the German Army, used quite a bit of cavalry.  It was World War Two, not World War One, that turned out to be the last big war featuring lots of cavalry.

So, in that context, the expansion of cavalry into the National Guard in the 1920s and 1930s makes a lot of sense. And that's what happened in Wyoming.

Wyoming's National Guard had only one pre 1920s National Guard cavalry unit, that being the Laramie Grey's.  Most of Wyoming's National Guard in the 19th Century was infantry. The reason is fairly simple. Cavalry is expensive.  Sure, there were a lot of people who rode in Wyoming in the 19th Century (and a lot of people who did not), but that didn't mean that the state would be able to provide a lot of horses for people to use once a week at drill (as Guard units, in that era, drilled once a week).  And people aren't necessarily keen on using their own horses for such things. Beyond that, quite a few of the best riders were not the people who would be in town and able to attend a National Guard drill every week.

Wyoming did, of course, famously contribute a volunteer cavalry regiment, the Second United States Volunteer Cavalry, during the Spanish American War. But that unit isn't properly considered to be a National Guard unit. Wyoming did provide some Guard units do the Spanish American War and the Philippine Insurrection, but none of them were cavalry.  In spite of that, it should be noted, the Wyoming Army National Guard retains the lineage of the Second United States Volunteer Cavalry, given Wyoming's role in raising this citizen soldier unit.

During World War One, in contrast, the Wyoming National Guard was artillery.  Artillery used a lot of horsepower in that era, and is pretty complicated to train men on, but that's what it was.  In the 1920s, however, as the Army became increasingly concerned about battlefield mobility, and as it operated to have more and more control over state Guard units and what they were, the Wyoming National Guard became cavalry. This was a cavalry armory.

Another interesting thing about this building's corner stone is the AL 5936 year mark, which is noted above. As noted above, this is a calendar year based upon a Masonic system.  The inclusion of Masons in the dedication of various public buildings has been noted on our blogs before, with both the Federal District Courthouse in Casper and the Colorado State House having cornerstones noting the same.  This demonstrates how significant fraternal organizations were in earlier eras, as this simply would not happen now.  Indeed, including such a mark on a cornerstone now would likely be controversial.  But at the time, it clearly was not.

It also is interesting in the context of the year system, as it reflects a once fairly common view that the world was only a little over 5,000 years old. There are still those who adhere to this, but it is certainly the common scientific view that the world is billions of years old, and most Christian faiths have no problem with this.  The AL system relied upon a fairly common set of efforts by various individuals to determine the age of the world by way of the Bible, even though the Bible never states how old the world is.

Its interesting to note that the Jewish year for 1936 would have been 5696, which isn't greatly different, is also based on the year of creation, with the initial  year being the year before the creation.  Most contemporary Jews would not have a problem with the scientific position that the world is billions of years old.

The calendar date for the Gregorian calendar here is noted as "AD 1936". This too is telling.  AD, of course, stand for Anno Domini, or Year of Our Lord.  As opposed to the AL system noted above, or the AM system of the Jewish calendar (the Year of the Word), the AD system is tied closely to an actual event, that being the birth of Christ. While some may scoff, the fact that the early history of Christianity featured twelve individuals going as far about the globe as they could, all with the same story, and all with the same practices, and  that they left very lengthy letters regarding it, pretty much fixes in time the event and that it happened.

The interesting thing about "AD" as a calendar date is that the whole glove now uses it, but some scholars have recently reworked AD as BCE, that standing for Before the Common Era.  This is a sort of snooty way of devaluing the Christian nature of a calendar that came about as a Papal reformation of an existing Christian calendar, but ironically, it enforces it. What's "common" about the "Common Era". Well, the Christian influence. Again, we have the remarkable fact that twelve men spread all over the known globe for a message that required them to live in poverty and to die for the message, and yet they retained the same on, and that this soon spread over the civilized world and change it. That's the common feature of the Common Era.  That some would even feel compelled to have to deny this is something that wouldn't have come about until our own era.

This shows the front of the building. This structure was used as a National Guard Armory from the 1930s until some time until the 1970s, but I suspect the brick structure was a latter addition.   These small armories became very unsuitable for continued use by the 1960s, and were replaced in quite a few instances during the 1970s to contemplate the need for much larger armories.  Compounding this need was the fact that in some instances, such as in Casper and Cheyenne, the old armories were well within the city limits by the 1960s making their use for military purposes difficult.

Not only is this true, we've noted it before with the photographs of the Casper Armory that came down in the late 1980s.  At any rate, the added element of the story I didn't fill in is that after the Cold War small town armories disappeared altogether, or at least they ceased to be used as armories.  All sorts of National Guard armories that existed in the 1980s when I was in the Guard are no longer used.  Only the bigger towns tend to retain armories, or areas that are so isolated that there's no other choice but to have them. Armories that once existed, for example, in Rawlins, Riverton, Wheatland and Thermopolis no longer do.  However, in some ways that's a long term trend.  Small Glenrock Wyoming had a National Guard unit in the 1920s and 1930s.  It hasn't since World War Two.

M7 105 Gun Motor Carriage. The Wyoming Army National Guard's 300th Armored Field Artillery used these during the Korean War, during which they won a Presidential and a Congressional Unit Citation for an action in which they directly engaged attacking Communist forces.

After World War Two, much of the Wyoming Army National Guard was converted to artillery and became the 300th AFA, as noted here. They used this fine gun, although it was already entering obsolescence.  Fearing the same chassis as the M4 Sherman tank, this was a very good self propelled gun.  By the late 1950s, however, it was obsolete in the U.S. Army, although it soldiered on in other armies into the 1970s.

This is a M59 Armored Personnel Carrier, two of which are on display at this museum.  I'm not aware of any Wyoming Army National Guard unit using these, but some must have as the other items on display here were definitely used by the Wyoming Army National Guard.  Wyoming's units included the 115th Mechanized Cavalry, the descendant of the 115th Cavalry and the 115th Cavalry (Horse Mech), in the 1950s and perhaps onto the 1960s, at which point the cavalry was phased out and the 115th lineage was carried on by the 115th Artillery Regiment.  The former cavalry units became battalions of the 49th Field Artillery along with the 300th AFA.  Today, those units are smaller and are once again the 300th AFA.

I was surprised to see this in the Guard's collection, but they must have used some when the Guard here still had mechanized cavalry.  These early APCs established the American type, but they were always problematic in some sense.

This is a USS M777 155mm howitzer, which is a gun still used by the US military.

This isn't an obsolete howitzer.  The fact that it would show up in this collection, however, shows the extent to which rockets have taken over in the heavy artillery field, in the U.S. Army.

Blog Mirror: Some Gave All: James Bridger's Ferry

I generally try not to post an entry on one of our (less published on) blogs entact here, save for courthouse and church photographic entries, but recently I had a couple that so related to changes in history, and indeed over the time upon which this blog theoretically focuses upon, that I've done that more than usual. Here's one such item, James Bridger's Ferry.

This was put up on our blog on monuments, but it is also now on our regular photograph blog, Holscher's Hub, and on our Railroad blog, Railhead.  I'm posting it here, as it says quite a bit about changes in transportation over the years.  Here was  have a location for a mid 19th Century ferry, that became a late 19th Century railroad bridge location, and then a state highway bridge location.

Note also, this says something, perhaps a little sad, about the nature of modern highways and how they're more efficient, but how they are also less part of things, in some ways.  This monument, put up in a location near the ferry site, is pretty much now never seen except by local traffic.  This is probably only a mile or so away from the Interstate highway, but no such monument appears there.  And the highway itself, that this monument is located on, was located between Orin Junction and Wheatland Wyoming.  Now the Interstate bypasses Orin Junction entirely and it really only zips by Wheatland. For that matter, there isn't a single town on the I 25 that, in Wyoming, you really have to stop in, while traveling the Interstate, except to get fuel if you need it.

This is one of Wyoming's many roadside monuments that's not longer really road side. This monument is on the old highway that ran from Orin Junction to Wheatland.  When the Interstate was built, Orin Junction was bypassed and for that matter, the Interstate zips through, not into, Wheatland.  Many such monuments exist, a few of which are now completely marooned. This one commemorates Jim Bridger's ferry across the North Platte River, which was placed in 1864.

A Burlington Norther Railroad Bridge, which itself isn't youthful, very near where the ferry once was.

Some Gave All: South Carolina World War One Memorial faces contro...

Some Gave All: South Carolina World War One Memorial faces contro...: A World War One memorial in South Carolina faces controversy due to its wording.

Monday, September 27, 1915. Murdered for being Hispanic, Jack Kipling killed in action.

Antonio Longoria.

Texas Ranchers Jesus Bazán, 67, and Antonio Longoria, 49, were murdered by Texas Rangers after visiting the Rangers camp to report horses being stolen.

Lt. John Kipling, the son of Rudyard Kipling, was killed in the Battle of Loos  He was 18 years old, but only barely so, and had initially been rejected for service due to his bad eyesight.

Rail cars carrying casinghead gas exploded in Ardmore Oklahoma, causing massive destruction and killing 43 people.

Last edition:

Sunday, September 26, 1915. Wab.

Labels: 1910s, 1915, Army, Battle of Loos, Bears, British Army, Disaster, French Army, German Army, hunting, Mexican Border War, Second Battle of Champagne, Texas, Third Battle of Artois, World War One, Wyoming

Sunday Morning Scene: Churches of the West: St Edmund Mission Church, Roman Catholic, Ranchester Wyoming

Churches of the West: St Edmund Mission Church, Roman Catholic, Ranchester, Wyoming

St. Edmund Mission Church is a small church in the small town of Ranchester, Wyoming. Located just north of Sheridan, the mission is served by the Parish in Sheridan.

8mm Movie Film to Digital

I have some 8mm movie film of F86’s landing during the Korean War, some of which are damaged aircraft.

I’d like to get these films transferred to digital, but every time I look into it, the costs detour me.

Has anyone done this, and can you recommend somebody to do it at a reasonable price?

The Best Posts of the Week of September 20, 2015

Jeep

Sunday, September 26, 1915. Wab.

The French captured Souchez.  The Germans held in the face of British assaults and inflicted 8,000 casualties on 10,000 meen at Loos.  The French advanced and took 2,000 German pows in the Second Battle of Champagne.

The news of the big offensive hit the U.S. press.

Nobody was accepting responsibility for fighting on the U.S. border.

Wab was taken by a hunter.

Last edition:

Saturday, September 25, 1915. Large Allied Offensive in France.

Labels: 1910s, 1915, Actions of the Hohenzollern Redoubt, Battle of Loos, British Army, Gallipoli, Horatio Herbert Kitchener, Marijuana, Second Battle of Champagne, Third Battle of Artois, Weapons, World War One

Wyoming Fact and Fiction: Wyoming's Sheep Industry

Wyoming Fact and Fiction: Wyoming's Sheep Industry: By the early 1880s, cattlemen were starting to see more and more sheep being brought into eastern Wyoming. Some accepted them but many, som...

Saturday, September 25, 1915. Large Allied Offensive in France.

British troops advancing through gas, September 25, 1915.

The French Tenth Army and the BEF launched offensive attacks on the Western Front.  The main focus was a British effort at Loos and Champagne.  The British used gas for the first time in their efforts, and the British New Army, newly recruited volunteers, were committed to action for the first time.

The British also assaulted the Hohenzollern Redoubt.

Lord Kitchener demanded the redeployment of two British divisions and one French one from Gallipoli to Greece.

Former Princeton football standout Johnny Poe  was killed in action at age 41 while serving in the British Army.

Poe was a restless soul who had served in the National Guard prior to the Spanish American War and hoped to see action in it. He did not, so after briefly working as a cowboy, he joined the Army and served in the Philippine Insurrection.  He subsequently joined the Marine Corps in hopes of seeing action in Panama, but did not.  He was briefly a soldier of fortune in Central America thereafter.

The Ogden Standard posed a question.

The Casper paper warned that U.S. troops might cross into Mexico.

Last edition:

Friday, September 24, 1915. More border violence, Zapata advances, Bulgaria mobilizes, Tragedy at the Fair.

Labels: 1910s, 1915, Bulgaria, Central Powers, Disaster, Emiliano Zapata, Greece, Mexican Border War, Mexican Revolution, Mexico (Veracruz), Sedicionistas, Texas, Texas (Brownsville), World War One

The Big Speech: Pope Francis to Congress, September 24, 2015

Mr. Vice President,

Mr. Speaker,

Honorable Members of Congress,

Dear Friends,

I am most grateful for your invitation to address this Joint Session of Congress in “the land of the free and the home of the brave”. I would like to think that the reason for this is that I too am a son of this great continent, from which we have all received so much and toward which we share a common responsibility.

Each son or daughter of a given country has a mission, a personal and social responsibility. Your own responsibility as members of Congress is to enable this country, by your legislative activity, to grow as a nation. You are the face of its people, their representatives. You are called to defend and preserve the dignity of your fellow citizens in the tireless and demanding pursuit of the common good, for this is the chief aim of all politics. A political society endures when it seeks, as a vocation, to satisfy common needs by stimulating the growth of all its members, especially those in situations of greater vulnerability or risk. Legislative activity is always based on care for the people. To this you have been invited, called and convened by those who elected you.

Yours is a work which makes me reflect in two ways on the figure of Moses. On the one hand, the patriarch and lawgiver of the people of Israel symbolizes the need of peoples to keep alive their sense of unity by means of just legislation. On the other, the figure of Moses leads us directly to God and thus to the transcendent dignity of the human being. Moses provides us with a good synthesis of your work: You are asked to protect, by means of the law, the image and likeness fashioned by God on every human face.

Today I would like not only to address you, but through you the entire people of the United States. Here, together with their representatives, I would like to take this opportunity to dialogue with the many thousands of men and women who strive each day to do an honest day’s work, to bring home their daily bread, to save money and –one step at a time – to build a better life for their families. These are men and women who are not concerned simply with paying their taxes, but in their own quiet way sustain the life of society. They generate solidarity by their actions, and they create organizations which offer a helping hand to those most in need.

I would also like to enter into dialogue with the many elderly persons who are a storehouse of wisdom forged by experience, and who seek in many ways, especially through volunteer work, to share their stories and their insights. I know that many of them are retired, but still active; they keep working to build up this land. I also want to dialogue with all those young people who are working to realize their great and noble aspirations, who are not led astray by facile proposals, and who face difficult situations, often as a result of immaturity on the part of many adults. I wish to dialogue with all of you, and I would like to do so through the historical memory of your people.

My visit takes place at a time when men and women of good will are marking the anniversaries of several great Americans. The complexities of history and the reality of human weakness notwithstanding, these men and women, for all their many differences and limitations, were able by hard work and self-sacrifice – some at the cost of their lives – to build a better future. They shaped fundamental values which will endure forever in the spirit of the American people. A people with this spirit can live through many crises, tensions and conflicts, while always finding the resources to move forward, and to do so with dignity. These men and women offer us a way of seeing and interpreting reality. In honoring their memory, we are inspired, even amid conflicts, and in the here and now of each day, to draw upon our deepest cultural reserves.

I would like to mention four of these Americans: Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Dorothy Day and Thomas Merton.

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, the guardian of liberty, who labored tirelessly that “this nation, under God, (might) have a new birth of freedom.” Building a future of freedom requires love of the common good and cooperation in a spirit of subsidiarity and solidarity.

All of us are quite aware of, and deeply worried by, the disturbing social and political situation of the world today. Our world is increasingly a place of violent conflict, hatred and brutal atrocities, committed even in the name of God and of religion. We know that no religion is immune from forms of individual delusion or ideological extremism. This means that we must be especially attentive to every type of fundamentalism, whether religious or of any other kind. A delicate balance is required to combat violence perpetrated in the name of a religion, an ideology or an economic system, while also safeguarding religious freedom, intellectual freedom and individual freedoms. But there is another temptation which we must especially guard against: the simplistic reductionism which sees only good or evil; or, if you will, the righteous and sinners. The contemporary world, with its open wounds which affect so many of our brothers and sisters, demands that we confront every form of polarization which would divide it into these two camps. We know that in the attempt to be freed of the enemy without, we can be tempted to feed the enemy within. To imitate the hatred and violence of tyrants and murderers is the best way to take their place. That is something which you, as a people, reject.

Our response must instead be one of hope and healing, of peace and justice. We are asked to summon the courage and the intelligence to resolve today’s many geopolitical and economic crises. Even in the developed world, the effects of unjust structures and actions are all too apparent. Our efforts must aim at restoring hope, righting wrongs, maintaining commitments, and thus promoting the well-being of individuals and of peoples. We must move forward together, as one, in a renewed spirit of fraternity and solidarity, cooperating generously for the common good.

The challenges facing us today call for a renewal of that spirit of cooperation, which has accomplished so much good throughout the history of the United States. The complexity, the gravity and the urgency of these challenges demand that we pool our resources and talents, and resolve to support one another, with respect for our differences and our convictions of conscience.

In this land, the various religious denominations have greatly contributed to building and strengthening society. It is important that today, as in the past, the voice of faith continue to be heard, for it is a voice of fraternity and love, which tries to bring out the best in each person and in each society. Such cooperation is a powerful resource in the battle to eliminate new global forms of slavery, born of grave injustices which can be overcome only through new policies and new forms of social consensus.

Here I think of the political history of the United States, where democracy is deeply rooted in the mind of the American people. All political activity must serve and promote the good of the human person and be based on respect for his or her dignity. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” (Declaration of Independence, 4 July 1776). If politics must truly be at the service of the human person, it follows that it cannot be a slave to the economy and finance. Politics is, instead, an expression of our compelling need to live as one, in order to build as one the greatest common good: that of a community which sacrifices particular interests in order to share, in justice and peace, its goods, its interests, its social life. I do not underestimate the difficulty that this involves, but I encourage you in this effort.

Here too I think of the march which Martin Luther King led from Selma to Montgomery fifty years ago as part of the campaign to fulfill his “dream” of full civil and political rights for African Americans. That dream continues to inspire us all. I am happy that America continues to be, for many, a land of “dreams”. Dreams which lead to action, to participation, to commitment. Dreams which awaken what is deepest and truest in the life of a people.

In recent centuries, millions of people came to this land to pursue their dream of building a future in freedom. We, the people of this continent, are not fearful of foreigners, because most of us were once foreigners. I say this to you as the son of immigrants, knowing that so many of you are also descended from immigrants. Tragically, the rights of those who were here long before us were not always respected. For those peoples and their nations, from the heart of American democracy, I wish to reaffirm my highest esteem and appreciation. Those first contacts were often turbulent and violent, but it is difficult to judge the past by the criteria of the present. Nonetheless, when the stranger in our midst appeals to us, we must not repeat the sins and the errors of the past. We must resolve now to live as nobly and as justly as possible, as we educate new generations not to turn their back on our “neighbors” and everything around us. Building a nation calls us to recognize that we must constantly relate to others, rejecting a mindset of hostility in order to adopt one of reciprocal subsidiarity, in a constant effort to do our best. I am confident that we can do this.

Our world is facing a refugee crisis of a magnitude not seen since the Second World War. This presents us with great challenges and many hard decisions. On this continent, too, thousands of persons are led to travel north in search of a better life for themselves and for their loved ones, in search of greater opportunities. Is this not what we want for our own children? We must not be taken aback by their numbers, but rather view them as persons, seeing their faces and listening to their stories, trying to respond as best we can to their situation. To respond in a way which is always humane, just and fraternal. We need to avoid a common temptation nowadays: to discard whatever proves troublesome. Let us remember the Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” (Mt 7:12).

This Rule points us in a clear direction. Let us treat others with the same passion and compassion with which we want to be treated. Let us seek for others the same possibilities which we seek for ourselves. Let us help others to grow, as we would like to be helped ourselves. In a word, if we want security, let us give security; if we want life, let us give life; if we want opportunities, let us provide opportunities. The yardstick we use for others will be the yardstick which time will use for us. The Golden Rule also reminds us of our responsibility to protect and defend human life at every stage of its development.

This conviction has led me, from the beginning of my ministry, to advocate at different levels for the global abolition of the death penalty. I am convinced that this way is the best, since every life is sacred, every human person is endowed with an inalienable dignity, and society can only benefit from the rehabilitation of those convicted of crimes. Recently my brother bishops here in the United States renewed their call for the abolition of the death penalty. Not only do I support them, but I also offer encouragement to all those who are convinced that a just and necessary punishment must never exclude the dimension of hope and the goal of rehabilitation.

In these times when social concerns are so important, I cannot fail to mention the Servant of God Dorothy Day, who founded the Catholic Worker Movement. Her social activism, her passion for justice and for the cause of the oppressed, were inspired by the Gospel, her faith, and the example of the saints.

How much progress has been made in this area in so many parts of the world! How much has been done in these first years of the third millennium to raise people out of extreme poverty! I know that you share my conviction that much more still needs to be done, and that in times of crisis and economic hardship a spirit of global solidarity must not be lost. At the same time I would encourage you to keep in mind all those people around us who are trapped in a cycle of poverty. They too need to be given hope. The fight against poverty and hunger must be fought constantly and on many fronts, especially in its causes. I know that many Americans today, as in the past, are working to deal with this problem.

It goes without saying that part of this great effort is the creation and distribution of wealth. The right use of natural resources, the proper application of technology and the harnessing of the spirit of enterprise are essential elements of an economy which seeks to be modern, inclusive and sustainable. “Business is a noble vocation, directed to producing wealth and improving the world. It can be a fruitful source of prosperity for the area in which it operates, especially if it sees the creation of jobs as an essential part of its service to the common good” (Laudato Si’, 129). This common good also includes the earth, a central theme of the encyclical which I recently wrote in order to “enter into dialogue with all people about our common home” (ibid., 3). “We need a conversation which includes everyone, since the environmental challenge we are undergoing, and its human roots, concern and affect us all” (ibid., 14).

In Laudato Si’, I call for a courageous and responsible effort to “redirect our steps” (ibid., 61), and to avert the most serious effects of the environmental deterioration caused by human activity. I am convinced that we can make a difference and I have no doubt that the United States – and this Congress – have an important role to play. Now is the time for courageous actions and strategies, aimed at implementing a “culture of care” (ibid., 231) and “an integrated approach to combating poverty, restoring dignity to the excluded, and at the same time protecting nature” (ibid., 139). “We have the freedom needed to limit and direct technology” (ibid., 112); “to devise intelligent ways of... developing and limiting our power” (ibid., 78); and to put technology “at the service of another type of progress, one which is healthier, more human, more social, more integral” (ibid., 112). In this regard, I am confident that America’s outstanding academic and research institutions can make a vital contribution in the years ahead.

A century ago, at the beginning of the Great War, which Pope Benedict XV termed a “pointless slaughter”, another notable American was born: the Cistercian monk Thomas Merton. He remains a source of spiritual inspiration and a guide for many people. In his autobiography he wrote: “I came into the world. Free by nature, in the image of God, I was nevertheless the prisoner of my own violence and my own selfishness, in the image of the world into which I was born. That world was the picture of Hell, full of men like myself, loving God, and yet hating him; born to love him, living instead in fear of hopeless self-contradictory hungers”. Merton was above all a man of prayer, a thinker who challenged the certitudes of his time and opened new horizons for souls and for the Church. He was also a man of dialogue, a promoter of peace between peoples and religions.

From this perspective of dialogue, I would like to recognize the efforts made in recent months to help overcome historic differences linked to painful episodes of the past. It is my duty to build bridges and to help all men and women, in any way possible, to do the same. When countries which have been at odds resume the path of dialogue – a dialogue which may have been interrupted for the most legitimate of reasons – new opportunities open up for all. This has required, and requires, courage and daring, which is not the same as irresponsibility. A good political leader is one who, with the interests of all in mind, seizes the moment in a spirit of openness and pragmatism. A good political leader always opts to initiate processes rather than possessing spaces (cf. Evangelii Gaudium, 222-223).

Being at the service of dialogue and peace also means being truly determined to minimize and, in the long term, to end the many armed conflicts throughout our world. Here we have to ask ourselves: Why are deadly weapons being sold to those who plan to inflict untold suffering on individuals and society? Sadly, the answer, as we all know, is simply for money: money that is drenched in blood, often innocent blood. In the face of this shameful and culpable silence, it is our duty to confront the problem and to stop the arms trade.

Three sons and a daughter of this land, four individuals and four dreams: Lincoln, liberty; Martin Luther King, liberty in plurality and non-exclusion; Dorothy Day, social justice and the rights of persons; and Thomas Merton, the capacity for dialogue and openness to God.

Four representatives of the American people.

I will end my visit to your country in Philadelphia, where I will take part in the World Meeting of Families. It is my wish that throughout my visit the family should be a recurrent theme. How essential the family has been to the building of this country! And how worthy it remains of our support and encouragement! Yet I cannot hide my concern for the family, which is threatened, perhaps as never before, from within and without. Fundamental relationships are being called into question, as is the very basis of marriage and the family. I can only reiterate the importance and, above all, the richness and the beauty of family life.

In particular, I would like to call attention to those family members who are the most vulnerable, the young. For many of them, a future filled with countless possibilities beckons, yet so many others seem disoriented and aimless, trapped in a hopeless maze of violence, abuse and despair. Their problems are our problems. We cannot avoid them. We need to face them together, to talk about them and to seek effective solutions rather than getting bogged down in discussions. At the risk of oversimplifying, we might say that we live in a culture which pressures young people not to start a family, because they lack possibilities for the future. Yet this same culture presents others with so many options that they too are dissuaded from starting a family.

A nation can be considered great when it defends liberty as Lincoln did, when it fosters a culture which enables people to “dream” of full rights for all their brothers and sisters, as Martin Luther King sought to do; when it strives for justice and the cause of the oppressed, as Dorothy Day did by her tireless work, the fruit of a faith which becomes dialogue and sows peace in the contemplative style of Thomas Merton.

In these remarks I have sought to present some of the richness of your cultural heritage, of the spirit of the American people. It is my desire that this spirit continue to develop and grow, so that as many young people as possible can inherit and dwell in a land which has inspired so many people to dream.

God bless America!

Read more here: http://www.sunherald.com/2015/09/24/6431313/text-of-pope-francis-address-to.html#storylink=cpy