May 2, 1919. At Ease, In Distress, Distressing news in Central America, and in the United States

The day after the Red May Day, things were more normal, and not.

American officers posed for a portrait in Germany:

Commanding officer staff, 42nd Division.  Maj. Gen. C. A. F. Flagler, Lt. Col. Stanley M. Rambaugh. Col William N. Hughes, Jr., Cpt. James M. Boyd, Maj. E. H. Bertram, Maj. Robert J. Gill and Lt. H. W. Fletcher.  New York Tribune, May 2, 1919. Taken at headquarters at Ahrweiler.

Elsewhere in Germany, or more particularly in Munich, the Freikorps advanced riding with Death's Head, a symbol that dated back to German military antiquity, but which became increasingly associated with Germany's right wing.

The Freikorps had, of course, crushed the nascent Bavarian Soviet, a Communist state that exhibited typical Communist brutality in going down in defeat.  In Russia, however, the Whites were exhibiting some problematic behavior of their own.

The families of Bolshevik prisoners outside of the prison at Ekaterinburg with food for their relatives. North Platte Semi Weekly Tribune, May 2, 1919.

While that was going on, the United States was supporting the Whites against the Reds, or not, or was, or was not.  We really couldn't make up our minds.

J. K. Caldwell looking studious and calm as Russia disintegrated.  He was the American counsel in Vladivostok.  May 2, 1919.

Meanwhile, in Costa Rica, today a vacation haven, Gen. Manuel Choa, late of Pancho Villas' forces, and former Catholic Priest, the Belgian educated Jorge Volio Jimenez, stumbled into rebellion against the country's leadership.

The Cheyenne State Leader couldn't help but note the events of May 1.

The reference to Lenin in Denver was surprising, but then Denver has always had some oddities. At the start of the Civil War a party tried to declare Denver for the Confederacy.

The Laramie Boomerang had given up on peace, it seemed.  It would prove correct in that view.

The Wyoming State Tribune was more optimistic.

A New Japanese Emperor

Japanese Imperial Standard.

While Japan no longer has an empire, it does have an emperor (an odd thought), and as of today, it has a new one.*  Emperor Naruhito.

It has a new Empress as well, Empress Masako, who was a career Japanese diplomat prior to marrying Naruhito.  For reasons that aren't clear to me, Empresses don't go through the formal investiture ceremony in Japan.  That may have something to do with the traditional role of the Emperor as a Shinto Priest.

Naruhito, age 59, is the first Japanese Emperor to take office since World War Two who was not alive during World War Two.  Having said that, there's only been three Japanese Emperors since World War Two, if we include Hirohito, who was of course Emperor during World War Two and up until 1989.  After Hirohito came his son Akihito, who just resigned, making Naruhito the first Emperor in 200 years to take office following a resignation of his predecessor.  Akihito was born in 1933 and was therefore 12 years old when World War Two ended.

That's significant as well in that Akihito was born into a Japanese royal family whose heirs had a technical claim to an expectation to be accorded an official deity status, although that is really fairly grossly exaggerated in the West.  The Japanese royal family dates back to vast antiquity and its origins are so ancient that they frankly aren't very well known.  The first generally recognized emperor is Jinmu, who reigned starting in 660 BC, which is a very long time ago.  Not surprisingly, with a family tree that ancient, the claim to the title of Emperor isn't completely unchallenged and there have been competing lines over time.  Having said that, the fact that the Japanese imperial family tree can be traced back that far is really impressive.

Jinmu with a long bow, as depicted in the 19th Century.

The role of the Emperor has been a hard one for westerners to figure out.  At various points in Japanese history the Japanese crown had nearly no power at all.  In the history of modern Japan, it really acquired power with Emperor Meiji, who reigned from 1867 until 1912 and who, with the aid of his supporters, both modernized Japan and restored the power of the Imperial crown.  Following the Meiji Restoration the crown had power of some sort, but it's always been difficult to discern.  During the 1920s that power may or may not have waned following what amounted to a sort of right wing military coup following an attempted young officers left wing military coup.  Everyone acting in both coups claimed to be acting with the interest of the Emperor at heart.

The pivotal modern Japanese Emperor Meiji.

From the 1920s until the end of World War Two a confusing era resulted in which various historians claim that Hirohito had more or less power.  He clearly had a fair degree, no matter which view a person might take.  That came to an official end in 1945 when the Imperial crown was really saved from termination by the Allies, who found it useful to preserve it.  Hirohito retained his position as Emperor for a very long time after that, but with no real official power, although as late as a couple of decades later it was discovered that high ranking officers of the Japanese Defense Force still consulted with him on matters, resulting in a scandal.

Douglas MacArthur and Emperor Hirohito in 1945.

Hirohito, as noted, had been required to renounce claims to a divine status following World War Two but the claim was rather vague in the first place.  A more significant role was that of Shinto Priest, which the emperor always was.  The Imperial heads of state always receive the treasures of the Japanese crown, which date back centuries and into antiquity, that have Shinto significance, but I don't know if the Emperor remains a Shinto Priest as they once did.**  At any rate, the strong claims, to the extent they existed, of divinity were boosted by the Japanese military in the 20s through the 40s and post war surveys by the Japanese government found that the Japanese people had never actually believed the Emperor had divine status anyhow.  His renouncement of the claims, therefore, had no real impact on their views.

In any event, for the first time in modern history a Japanese Emperor has ascended to the thrown who was 1) born after Japan was no longer an Empire; and 2) was born after the crown had disclaimed any divinity.  A new era of some sort, in an era when monarchy remains, but its hard to tell why.

________________________________________________________________________________

*Having said that, it's hard to figure out exactly why the Japanese Empire is historically regarded as such prior to the 20th Century, unless you take the view that the consolidation of power in the crown in the Japanese islands themselves constitutes an empire.

As there is some ethnic diversity in the overall island holdings, that's not an illegitimate view.  Hokkaido was in fact the home of an ethnically separate people.  The Japanese started colonizing the island in the 1330s.  Okinawa is also the home of an ethnically separate people.  It didn't become part of the Japanese Empire until 1879.

**Like a lot of things surrounding Japan, the Japanese Imperial Regalia are mysterious.  They consists of a named sword, a named mirror, and a jewel. They are not as impressive, reportedly, in appearance as a person might suppose.

The sword is known to have existed as far back as the 680s, but it's older than that.  The mirror is also ancient and may or may not have been destroyed and replaced in a fire in 1040.  The jewel is likely prehistoric.

These items are not revealed to the general public and its sometimes speculated that they've been lost or destroyed.  Japan, however, is remarkable in its ability of preservation of artifacts so the better bet, in my view, is that they're all original.  They're all absolutely ancient as well.

May 1, 1919. A Red May Day

May 1, May Day, has long been associated with the far left as its the International Workers Holiday.  In 1919, with Communism on the rise everywhere, May 1 was notably Red everywhere.

The evening Casper newspaper  noting the riots in Cleveland as well as the anarchist bombing campaign.  This paper also discussed the acquisition of property with a future eye towards social services.  Costa Rica and Mexico were trying to get into the League of Nations, the paper also noted, but weren't admitted due to political instability.

In the United States, the Communist Party USA was founded, rapidly gaining membership (while always remaining a minor political party) in the wake of the decline of the Socialist Party in the United States, which had come under the eyes of the law for its opposition to World War One. 

The CPUSA would have its glory years, if they could be called that, in the 1920s and the 1930s, during which it not only was a serious, if minor, political party, but during which it was also an organ for espionage for the Soviet Union.  It never had more than 80,000 members at its peak.  It's role as an arm of the efforts of the NKVD were already known, if not fully appreciated, by some who tried to bring it to the government's attention by the 1930s, and indeed a precursor to what later became known as the McCarthy Hearings actually occurred in the late 1930s and focused on some of the same people who would be examined later, but it was not until the end of World War Two when the full horrors of Communism in Russia were revealed that the CPUSA really started to decline to the trivial, where it remains today.

In Cleveland riots occurred on this day, springing from a Socialist march that was supported by Communist and Anarchist.  The imprisonment of Eugene V. Debs was the spark that ignited that flame.  There were about two deaths as the result of the riot, and about forty injuries.

In Winnepeg construction workers went on strike.  It would soon expanded to be a general strike.

In Bavaria, German forces, supported by Freikorps, breached the Communist defenses in Munich bringing the Bavarian Soviet Republic to an end.

Cheyenne was having an air show on this day in 1919.

In the U.S. the news was also still breaking about the anarchist bombing campaign that had been started but detected.  The campaign would revive later.  It wasn't connected with any other radical group, although it likely had the appearance of that to the general public at the time.

All of this would contribute to making the summer of 1919 the "Red Summer", as it was termed by James Weldon Johnson.  It would also fuel an ongoing "Red Scare" that had commenced during World War One.  With the summer beginning the way that it was, that the scare would occur was pretty predictable.  And in fact, the far left of 1919 was not only radical, but seeing a fair amount of global success.  It's chances of success in the United States were frankly slim and always would be, but the combination of the news produced a predictable reaction.

Blog Mirror: No, robots are not coming for your jobs

No, robots are not coming for your jobs

So says Robert J. Samuelson.

I hope he's right.  Artificial Intelligence and electronic automation are something I do worry about.  I'm glad that I'm not young in an era in which I'll have to face it really.

Indeed, frankly, I think technologically we're over the point where our technology is helping us and its clearly hurting.  Tragically, people can't go back as they can't imagine doing so. But things are not improving in this area, in  my view.

Mid Week At Work: The good the bad and the ugly - Work for a living

Ten Years?

Lex Anteinternet: Lex Anteinternet?: The Consolidated Royalty Building, where I work, back when it was new. What the heck is this blog about? The intent of this blog i...

Maybe even a little longer, as this blog was at first a highly inactive blog while I had a couple of others.  Indeed, I've wiped out versions of this blog at least twice, or rather other blogs that represent what this one became.

But it's likely ten, as this one was formed very early on, and indeed may have been the first one formed. At that time, as noted above, it was to aid in the writing of a novel.  The novel is still unfinished, and risks never being finished, even though I still intend to.  In the meantime, due to another one of my blogs, I did write and complete a book on Wyoming's history.

This month I'll also enter my 29th year of practicing law, and in fact my association with where I work goes back thirty years in the form of my first legal job, which morphed into my permanent legal job about a year later. In the interval my second legal job, the only other one I've ever had, in the minor form of being employed to write a paper with a professor that was published in a law journal, occurred. So in that sense, this month commences my 30th year in the profession I currently occupy, or I should say one of the two professions I currently occupy. It is of course the profession that I shall occupy until retirement, should I live so long, assuming I retire, which few lawyers that I know do.  Prior dreams of entering the judiciary are now slaves to the passage of time, where they'll accordingly remain dreams unfulfilled.  A path not taken not because of a choice not to do so, but because fate burned the bridge before I could cross it, that in fact being the fate of the majority of people who contemplate that career, and therefore being a fate that cannot be lamented.

The lack of progress on the book can probably be lamented, however, at least by me.  It may have to wait until the aforementioned retirement.  At least I'm not making much progress on it, other than in my mind, where I write almost everything that I write long before I commit it to the visible form.  So perhaps in that sense, there is progress.

Certainly this blog has made it much improved.  I know a lot more about the era its set in than I did before. And it's been fascinating indeed.

I've enjoyed this blog.  I hope have as well, and are continuing to.

The Brady Bunch is not The Lancet

The fact that those who think that abstaining from vaccinating their children would cite to a Brady Bunch episode in their support is proof, as if any is needed, on what an astoundingly ill advised concept that movement supports.

Now, I get it, it's supposed to suggest that back in the 60s and 70s nobody thought the measles were a big deal.

Well people did think the measles were a big deal, they were just common and therefore often had to be endured.  It's not that people welcomed them or regarded them as light sniffles. Indeed, having lived through that era, I can recall parents dreading them.

And citing to examples from prior decades on matters of health isn't really the wisest thing to do in all cases, now is it?

No, it really isn't.

No, not at all.

Nope.

Besides, enough of the Brady Bunch already.

April 30, 1919. The USS Tennessee launched, brewing of beer to cease.

Helen Lenore Roberts, age 16, the daughter of Tennessee's Governor Albert H. Roberts, at the April 30, 1919 launching of the USS Tennessee.  Brooklyn Navy Yard.

The USS Tennessee, which was completed to late to serve in World War One but which would go on to see service in World War Two, was launched.

Dignitaries, including Assistant Secretary of the Navy Roosevelt and Governor Roberts, at the launching of the USS Tennessee.

The Tennessee was the first ship of its class, for which the class was named.  She was at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, but was not sunk in the surprise attack. She went on to see service in nearly all of the principal Pacific engagments.

On the same day, pioneering Navy pilot Lt. Com. Patrick Bellinger was photographed.

Navy Pilot Patrick N. L. Bellinger, who would be part of the Navy's Trans Atlantic flight, photographed on this day in 1919.

The occasion was the naming of pilots who were to take part in the soon to be launched Navy Trans Atlantic flight.  Bellinger would go on to complete a forty year career in the Navy and rise to flag officer rank during World War Two.

There was a lot of tense news also going around on April 30, 1919.

Italy had walked out of the Paris Peace Conference over the issue of the city of Fiume.  Like a lot of European cities in this era, the population was quite mixed and no one state had really good claims to what had been a multi ethnic Austrian Empire port city. The Italians, however, did not see it that way.

The big news, however, was the launching of an anarchist terror campaign in the United States, the first bomb of which had gone off the day prior.  A postal office worker realized the connection between the package which had gone off and others, so that more explosions did not occur immediately.

Also on that day was the news that the brewing of beer was to cease on May 1, 1919.

And Carranza's finances weren't looking good.

Blog Mirror: Despite backlash, vegans admit meat saved their health

No surprise.  You aren't evolved to eat like a Armadillidiidae (rolly poly).

So I had a piece of salmon and my brain felt like a computer rebooting,

Ann Hathaway.

A headline a person shouldn't have to be reading in 2019

Nebraska Is Avoiding Measles Outbreak With Its High Vaccine Rate

No kidding.

April 29, 1919. Germans Arrive. Americans Departing. Spring Horse Show

The German delegation arrived in Paris to start their negotiations with the Allies.  Of note, it had taken the Allies all this time from the Armistice to come up with a treaty to present to the Germans.

In New York, more traditional peacetime events were going on, albeit interesting to benefit a martial one, and a one that represented a different technology, making for an interesting contrast.

Still in France, Americans were coming home, or otherwise moving on with their lives.

Enlisted men and officers at a dance with Red Cross personnel in Brest.

 Canteen Directeress Florence (Henderson) Payne a few days after her marriage to Col. E. V. R. Payne of the 25th Engineers.  Some of the service personnel relationships with Red Cross personnel obviously had moved on to new levels.

Walking wounded embarking at Brest.

The U.S. suspended its "black list" of nations outside of the declared belligerents who traded with the enemy in the U.S. view.  The list, promulgated under the Trading With the Enemy Act, had been hard on companies in some regions, such as South America.

I just can't muster up any concern over . . .

Game of Thrones.  I'm totally disinterested.  It strikes me, frankly, as just flat out silly and a little dim.

Why watch a pseudo Medieval England when you can read about the real one?

Alfred the Great's father AEthelwulf.  Why did his young son take office over his elders?  Why did Alfred go to Rome as a boy?  Why did Alfred's parents name him "Advised by Elves".  Why do people watch a goofball television show with an actress who is hopelessly clean in a Medieval setting and looks like an albino?

I also can't muster up any real interest over UW's most recent president Laurie Richards being demoted back to professor.

I really ought to. And I did care when Sternberg was demoted.  It seems to me that Richards did a good job, but I really can't muster up a snit about it.

Old geology lecture hall at the University of Wyoming.  I've noted before that I have an ambivalent relationship with my two time alma mater that I don't have with my first one, a community college.  Indeed, post public schooling warm feelings, I have stronger ones for that college and the Field Artillery training school at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma, for some reason.  I really have no idea why.  Perhaps that's why I recall can't muster up a snit about the current UW president situation.

And I'm also disinterested in the scandal in which Felicity Huffman and Lori Loghlin are accused of paying bribes to get their children into competitive private universities.  I'm generally disinterested in actors and actresses anyhow, and frankly I have always simply assumed that baksheesh is an element of getting into the big dollar schools.  Wasn't this always obvious?  It seems to me to be pretty clear, but perhaps I was naive in thinking this was a scandal as society at large is. . . well apparently naive.

Mabel Normand, actress.  She died at age 37 in 1930.  I just like the photo.

Blog Mirror. Daily Tasks of the Priest and Parochial Solipsism

Catholic priest from Taos, New Mexico, helps a parishioner value his land.

A very interesting podcast from a Catholic prospective, including an interesting item on the history and early purpose of the diaconate.

The office of Deacon goes back to the very early days of the Church.  Indeed, the creation of the diaconate is described in the Acts of the Apostles.

At that time, as the number of disciples continued to grow, the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution.  So the Twelve called together the community of the disciples and said, “It is not right for us to neglect the word of God to serve at table.  Brothers, select from among you seven reputable men, filled with the Spirit and wisdom, whom we shall appoint to this task, whereas we shall devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” The proposal was acceptable to the whole community, so they chose Stephen, a man filled with faith and the holy Spirit, also Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicholas of Antioch, a convert to Judaism. They presented these men to the apostles who prayed and laid hands on them.  The word of God continued to spread, and the number of the disciples in Jerusalem increased greatly; even a large group of priests were becoming obedient to the faith.

Act of the Apostles, Chapter 6. As can be seen, in the very early days of the Church, Deacons hold what we might regard as a a temporal service role to their congregation, as well as a spiritual role, which we will discuss below.  And as we can also see from the above, they were ordained in that role.  

The qualifications they had to hold from their office were set out from the earliest days.

Similarly, deacons must be dignified, not deceitful, not addicted to drink, not greedy for sordid gain, holding fast to the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. Moreover, they should be tested first; then, if there is nothing against them, let them serve as deacons. Women, similarly, should be dignified, not slanderers, but temperate and faithful in everything.  Deacons may be married only once and must manage their children and their households well. Thus those who serve well as deacons gain good standing and much confidence in their faith in Christ Jesus.

Timothy, Chapter 3.

We know that they preached, and in fact we know that the first Christian martyr was a Deacon.

Now Stephen, filled with grace and power, was working great wonders and signs among the people.  Certain members of the so-called Synagogue of Freedmen, Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, and people from Cilicia and Asia, came forward and debated with Stephen, but they could not withstand the wisdom and the spirit with which he spoke.  Then they instigated some men to say, “We have heard him speaking blasphemous words against Moses and God.”  They stirred up the people, the elders, and the scribes, accosted him, seized him, and brought him before the Sanhedrin. They presented false witnesses who testified, “This man never stops saying things against [this] holy place and the law. For we have heard him claim that this Jesus the Nazorean will destroy this place and change the customs that Moses handed down to us.” All those who sat in the Sanhedrin looked intently at him and saw that his face was like the face of an angel.

Acts of the Apostles.

We also know that they preformed Baptisms,.

As they traveled along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “Look, there is water. What is to prevent my being baptized?” Then he ordered the chariot to stop, and Philip and the eunuch both went down into the water, and he baptized him.

Acts of the Apostles, regarding Philip the Evangelist, who is not to be confused with Philip the Apostle.

They occupied a role different from that of the Priests, but still an ordained one, with, at first, a service role that freed the Priests from that same role.  Quite soon, the Deacons obtained an assisting role to the Bishops, and assisted the Bishops in liturgy, administration, and distribution of alms to the poor.  St. Ignatius of Antioch noted about them, in his Letter to the Trallians;

Let everyone revere the deacons as Jesus Christ, the bishop as the image of the Father, and the presbyters as the senate of God and the assembly of the apostles. For without them one cannot speak of the Church.

The association with the Bishops resulted in their office, in the early centuries of the Church, growing in importance and they became the local representative of the Bishops, something that was restored when the diaconate was restored in recent decades.  I.e, they work for the Bishops, not the local Priest, at least in a technical sense.  In the very early days, and indeed for a very long time, we need to keep in mind that there were many more Bishops per parishioner capita than there are now, although its been suggested that this situation also be restored to a more prior patter.  In the Latin Church, however, the diaconate began to decline in the 400s, something that did not occur in the Eastern Rites however.  To some extent, moreover, the rise of monasticism in the West and its strong emphasis on taking care of the poor caused their role to decline.  By 800 their role was reduced to being a temporary one on the way to ordination as a Priest.  Again, this was not something that was experienced in the East.

Concerns over various things, most interestingly the overstretched burdens of Priests in South America, lead to a restoration of the office in the 1960s in the Latin Rite.  Now Deacons are once again common as a third order of ordained clergy in the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church.  A rarity even in the 1980s, they are fairly common now.  As a rule, they're from the local community they serve.

So, in this interesting podcast with a complicated name, a Catholic Priest discusses possibly restoring their original role in an updated format, replying on the work of another Catholic Priest from some decades back:

07 FEB 2019 · #376 PAROCHIAL SOLIPSISM

Fr. John Nepil & Fr. Austin Litke

Why your priest friends don't call each other

Highly decorated Belgian Priest during World War One.

The thing I'd add to this, is that what's discussed here probably not only explores "why your priest friends don't call each other", but also why they don't call you either.  I.e., Catholic priest are incredibly busy, but also incredibly isolated.

I have another post I've semi drafted regarding Pope Benedict's recent article, and in some ways this is vaguely related to that one, but I'll plow forward none the less rather than wait, which would possibly be a more prudent thing to do.

Anyhow, one of the things I've noted over the half century that I've been around is that Priests of more recent generations can be really hard to get to know, at least if they're Americans.  I've probably only known three Priests fairly well, and I'd state that this observation was true of 1/3d of those Priests, which when I state that somewhat cuts against what I just stated.  Of those three, one was from the region and was very easy to know.  A fourth I can claim to quasi know.  A second had come out of Sub Saharan Africa and was also easy to get to know, ironically in fact because his rural African origin made him a lot more like a lot of us around here than Priests who come from elsewhere.  The other one I'd say was extremely difficult to get to know.  Of the one I can state to have quasi known, it was simply his highly unique and aesthetic personality that probably contributed to that.

In contrast to this, when I was a kid I recall my father being very good friends with a Priest who had a lot of the same outdoor interests and who in fact grew up in the same region as my father had.  He'd come over for dinner and a frequent conversation of their topics was bird hunting.  Perhaps somewhat related to this, I can also recall my father picking up two Priests and the Bishop when their car broke down on the highway and we happened to drive by. The conversation on the way home was about fishing.

If all this seems odd and has a "where is this going"? quality to this, it's this.  I've also observed that the administrative burdens of a Parish are enormous and I really don't think that the average Priest probably enters the seminary with that in mind.  If we regard the Priesthood as not only a vocation, but an occupation, it would share that feature with a lot of other occupations.  Lawyers, doctors, dentists, accountants, etc. etc., don't enter their fields of professional responsibility thinking that they're going to be office managers, but very frequently that takes up a lot of their daily tasks.

But because Priests aren't simply an occupation, it makes sense to me that this could indeed become a problem in more ways than one.  Indeed, most parishes have a parish administrator of some sort and is assisted by a Parish Council and a Finance Council.  But the administrators are in turn oddly burdened as their secular role doesn't feature a clerical one at all.

I guess that the podcaster in this instance received a fair amount of flak from his fellow Priests for this suggestion.  But in my view, as a layman, it's one worth considering.  The substantial problem I see with it from the onset is that almost nobody who is currently a Deacon would have entered that state with this role in mind, and therefore may be no more prepared for it than the Priests may be.  On the other hand, as they are otherwise laymen, they likely have more day to day experience in the administrative role than Priests would ever have.  The ones I know off hand, and I don't know very many well, would tend to potentially demonstrate that, as they've occupied such varied roles as insurance broker to lawyer.  And indeed I've seen a couple of them take the position of Parish Administrator when it came open, so perhaps things are somewhat headed that way by default.

When the Permanent Diaconate was established following the 1960s it didn't mean that those seminarians progressing towards ordination in the Priesthood no longer experienced that stage, so we already have two types of Deacons in the Church now.  Perhaps establishing a third type of sorts, a Permanent Deacon with a permanent administrative role, a servant of the Bishop but serving on a career basis locally, is a good idea.  He could assist the Priest in the clerical areas he's entitled to, and free up the Priest in the administrative role so that the Priest could be focused only on the spiritual mission he's charged with.  Perhaps then, a Priest could find the time to "call his friends", or even go fishing or bird hunting now and then.

And I think, frankly, that's important for a variety of reasons.  And one is this.  It's been common to note that while the Church has an all male Priesthood, women occupy lots and lots of the various roles in the daily role of the Church and accordingly men can feel they don't identify well with things (something that's claimed not to be the case in the Eastern Rite or in the Orthodox churches).  If a Priest joined you at the fishing hole or in the bird fields now and then, I suspect that might be a bit different.  Christ, it might be noted, had a group of dedicated male friends.

Something to consider.

Blog Mirror: DON GIUS AND THE NEUROSCIENCE OF COMMUNITY

A really interesting podcast on the nature of community:

14 MAR 2019 · #381 DON GIUS AND THE NEUROSCIENCE OF COMMUNITY

Fr. John Nepil & Fr. Nathan Goebel & Fr. Michael O'Loughlin

Becoming truly human means raising the question

Best Post of the Week of April 21, 2019.

The best post of the week of April 21, 2019.

Sunday Morning Scene: Churches of the East: Notre Dame de Paris, Paris France

Notre Dame de Paris, Paris France

The 2020 Election, Part 1

Earth Day, 2019

Take Our Daughters And Sons To Work Day, 2019

George Wuerthner as an example of American Movement Politics Senility.

Today In Wyoming's History: Oops. Errors and Omissions.

The Kiwis had the coolest hats.

Sunday, April 27, 1919. Movie releases, Marching Americans in Russia, Disbanding Reds in Limerick, Wyoming National Guardsmen to Remain In Germany

It was a car racing movie.

As we've noted here before, in the teens it was common to release movies on Sunday, taking advantage of the fact that most people had the day off.  The Roaring Road was an exciting car racing movie, in which the protagonist pursued his love interest and auto racing with equal vigor, showing how automobiles were really coming in.

If car racing wasn't your thing, on the same day Select Pictures released "Redhead".

I suspect that this is a lost film as details on the film are really sketchy, but movie taglines for it are really odd.  Alice Brady's character is described as such a tantalizing beauty that men "didn't care what color her hair was".  Eh?  And an alternative poster states "This is the girl he found himself married to".

I suppose a person would have to see it to figure that one out.

Other romances were also released to the sliver screen on this day.

Wow.  What a turgid plot.

Comedies were also in the offering, including a short featuring a wealthy man whose is a victim of mistaken identity.

Well, while people back in the states were seeing the latest pictures, soldiers were doing what they have for time immemorial.  Marching.

31st Infantry marching near Vladivostok.

The area around Vladivostok in this photo looks a lot, quite frankly, like winter scenes in Wyoming.

Those same troops had recently been fighting.  And fighting was still going on most definately, including between the Estonians and the Reds.

Anton Irv

Estonian officer, and former Imperial Russian enlisted man and then officer, was killed in action on this day in 1919 in that conflict.  He'd been one of the organizer of Estonia's armored trains, something that featured prominently in that war and in the Russian Civil War.  In the East, armored trains would continue to be a feature of conflict into World War Two.

Elsewhere some other Reds or proto Reds went home.

Members of the Limerick Soviet

The goofball Limerick Soviet came to an end after a little over week of being in existence when the local mayor and the local Bishop asked them to knock it off. They then voluntarily closed up shop.

Readers of the Cheyenne papers learned that Wyoming artillerymen would not be coming home soon.

Among other things they also read that Carranza could not hold out much longer.  The author of that article suggested American help to keep him in office would be required, which was a shockingly bad suggestion.

Chicago had its selection of Sunday cartoons of course, including ones that were not really intended to be funny.

I's interesting that even in 1919, gas mileage was a topic.

And some folks in Alaska had their portrait taken.

The Kiwis had the coolest hats.

Today In Wyoming's History: Oops. Errors and Omissions.

Today In Wyoming's History: Oops. Errors and Omissions.:

Oops. Errors and Omissions.

Occasionally we get things wrong.



And when we do, we appreciate corrections.



We had just such a correction come in, in a comment, which is the best way to draw things to our attention.  This came up in an entry here on the the May 16 entries, in which we had the following:



1946  USS Wyoming decomissioned. (This entry is doubly in error, check the comments below).

A Navy veteran pointed out for us:

1. I'm not sure you intended that image of the ship to be the USS Wyoming. It is not. USS Wyoming has had four incarnations. The one from 1946 was a WWI battleship that was used in WWII as a gunnery training platform. The ship shown is definitely not a battleship. I'm not positive but I think that might be a destroyer escort. Kim Viner CDR U.S. Navy (ret), Laramie, Wyoming. 

   ReplyDelete
2. 
   UnknownApril 23, 2019 at 11:36 AM

   p.s. USS Wyoming was officially decommissioned on Aug 1, 1947, according to the the U.S. Navy: https://www.navy.mil/navydata/ships/battleships/wyoming/bb32-wyo.html
   
   Kim

The weird thing about this is that I actually had the event correctly noted on the correct date, which was pointed out to us in the comment.



1947  The USS Wyoming, BB-32, is decommissioned.



Even weirder yet, the USS Wyoming, BB-32, shows up on this blog a lot, along with the other ships named Wyoming.  The USS Wyoming in question was a pretty important ship at that, playing a significant role in World War One.



I'm going to take the error down here shortly, but I'm leaving it up long enough to acknowledge the correction, which I appreciate.

From when Social Security was new.

A poster from 1935.