Thursday, December 3, 2020

Today In Wyoming's History: A New Sidebar: Wyoming Myths

Today In Wyoming's History: A New Sidebar: Wyoming Myths

A New Sidebar: Wyoming Myths

In the next couple of days we're going to premier a new sidebar series on this site, that being Wyoming Myths. The focus of the series is probably obvious.

It's not like it'll be an exhaustive series with vast numbers of entries.  By and large, Wyoming's history has been pretty accurately recorded and portrayed.  But every state's story includes some myths, some simply frequently repeated, and some that are in fact cherished.

Indeed, it's just one such myth that causes this series to come about.  It's a myth that I've known about for a long time and its simply not true.  But it is a beloved one in certain quarters.  I've avoided writing on it as deflating a beloved myth can provoke ire, particularly one like we're going to start off with, but things that aren't true, aren't true.  And preserving a falsehood doesn't do anyone any good.

One thing on this, which I'll note right from the onset, this thread won't be "revisionist".  I'll occasionally take positions on some things, although not so much on this blog, which are "revisionist" in nature, but only where they are in need of revision based upon the facts of a matter.  Indeed, one likely teed up "myth" we'll address is a revisionist myth seeking to "correct" an earlier history which, at least based upon what we currently know about the matter, was likely correct.

Indeed, that would tend to be true about the first myth we'll deal with here as well, which was the product of an early 20th Century revision.

The first entry is almost ready to go.  We hope you'll enjoy the series, or at least read it, and of course should you choose to defend the myth, well you certain are welcome and encouraged to comment on it.  And if you are relieved, surprised, or whatever when a post comes up, well please feel free to note that as well.

Tuesday, December 1, 2020

December 1, 1920 Álvaro Obregón becomes President of Mexico.


In what some regard as the end of the Mexican Revolution, although that can be debated, Álvaro Obregón  was sworn in as the elected head of Mexico's republic.  He was the first head of state to cleanly take that position since at least Modero, if not well before Modero.

He can also, therefore, be regarded as the start of the long rule of the PRI which would dominate Mexico's politics for decades.

His term in office was marked by massive education reform and mild land reform.  He normalized Mexico's relationship with the United States which gained him American recognition but also sparked a failed rebellion.  He was somewhat anti clerical, inheriting that position from the existing Carranza era constitution, but not as much as his successor would be.


The USS California was in dry dock in San Francisco.  Commissioned in 1915, she was one of the ships sunk, and then raised, at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.  She'd serve as an active warship until 1947.

Pope Benedict XV issued his encyclical On Children of Central Europe - Annus Iam Plenus, which stated:

Encyclical of Pope Benedict XV, promulgated on December 1, 1920

Venerable Brethren, Health and Apostolic Benediction.

A whole year has now passed since We (when the war was but a thing of yesterday) called upon all to turn their hearts in pity towards the children of Central Europe, who were so severely afflicted by hunger and want that they were wasting away with disease and were face to face with death. And, indeed, a wonderous joy it is to Us that Our appeal has not fallen vainly to the ground - an appeal which was actuated by that charity which enfolds in its kindly embrace all men, without distinction of race or nation, whosoever bear within them the image of God. The happy issue of our supplication, Venerable Brethren, is especially well known to you who assisted Us zealously in so salutary an enterprise. For in truth, a generous supply of money has been collected from the peoples of every land. There has been, as it were, a noble competition in liberality, with the result that the common father of so many, innocent children has been able to look to their necessities and dissipate their sorrows. Nor do we cease to proclaim the kindly providence of God, Whom it has pleased to use Us as a channel whereby the manifold blessings of Christian charity might flow to His abandoned little ones. In this matter We cannot desist from offering a public tribute of praise to the society entitled the "Save the Children Fund," which has exerted all possible care and diligence in the collection of money, clothing, and food. But, indeed, the general scarcity and the high cost of living, which the war has brought in its train, are of such a complex and varied character that the assistance We have rendered has perhaps neither succeeded in reaching those parts of Europe where necessity pressed hard, nor, where help was given, has it always been adequate to the actual need. To this must be added the fact that in the course of the year following the Encyclical Letter which We addressed to you, Venerable Brethren, on this very topic, there has been no appreciable improvement in the lot of most of those areas where it is evident that the people, and especially the young, find life growing yet harder and harder owing to the shortage of the necessaries of life. Nay, in some parts, war has flamed out anew and calamities of every kind, to the serious loss of those very elements that it is necessary to reestablish; in other parts where the civil State has been overthrown and where most frightful and disgraceful massacres have been perpetrated, it has come about that numberless families have been reduced to penury; that wives have been bereft of their husbands, and children of their parents; there are many districts, too, where it is so difficult to make provision for the food supply that as a consequence the population is afflicted by almost the same hardships which pressed upon it in the hideous days of the war.

2. Wherefore once again, inspired by the consciousness of that universal fatherhood which it is Our office to sustain, and with the words of the Divine Master on our lips - "I have compassion on the multitude . . . for they have nothing to eat" - now, when the anniversary day of the birth of Christ draws nigh a second time We call loudly upon Christian peoples to give us the means whereby we may offer some relief to the sick and suffering children, of whatsoever nationality they may be. Yes, We call on all who have hearts of kindness and pity to make a generous offering, but in particular we turn to the young children who dwell in the more prosperous cities of the world, to those who can with comparative ease stretch out a helping hand to their poor little brothers in Christ. Is not the birthday of Christ Jesus, in an especial manner the feast of the young? See then how the desolate children of those scattered districts strain suppliant hands to those other happier children, and seem to point to the cradle where the Divine Infant cries in helplessness! Yet is not that Infant the common brother of them all, He Who "being rich became poor," Who from that manger, as from the throne of heavenly wisdom, silently teaches us not only the value of brotherly love but also how men from their tenderest years onward must detach themselves from the longing for the goods of this world and share them with the poor, who in their very poverty are so much nearer to Christ? Surely the children of the richer parts of Europe will have it in their power to nourish and clothe those little ones of their own age who languish in want, and especially should this be so at the approaching season of the Nativity of Our Lord, which parents are wont to render still happier for their children by little gifts and presents. And shall we think that these last are endowed with such a spirit as to be unwilling to contribute even a part of their own little savings, whereby they might strengthen the weakness of children who are in want? Oh, what a deep consolation, what joys they will secure for themselves, if happily they become the means whereby those little brothers of theirs, who are deprived of all help and all pleasure, should spend the approaching Christmas time just a little more comfortably, just a little more happily. For even as the Infant Jesus on the night of His birth blessed with a most sweet smile the shepherds who came to Him with gifts to lighten the burden of His poverty, and even as He brightened their souls with the supreme gift of faith, so He will reward with his blessing and heavenly graces those children who, fired with love for him, shall soften the misery and the sorrow of their little brothers. Nay, there is nothing else more acceptable to the Infant Jesus that thou could do or offer at this season. And so we earnestly exhort all Christian parents, to whom, the Heavenly father had committed the grave charge of training up their offspring to the practice of charity and the other virtues, to use this happy opportunity of exciting and cultivating in the minds of their children sentiments of humanity and holy compassion. And in this matter it pleases Us to set before you an example worthy of all imitation; for we remember that last year many children of the Roman nobility made their offerings to Us personally, offerings which, at the suggestion of their parents, they had collected amongst themselves not without some sacrifice of their individual pleasures.

3. We have said that this work of charity and kindness would be most pleasing to the Infant Jesus. And, indeed, why does the name Bethlehem mean one and the same thing as "House of Bread," unless it be that there Christ was to be born into the light of day, Christ, Who, solicitous for our weakness, gave Himself as food to nourish our souls, and Who in the words "Give us this day our daily bread" taught us to beg ardently every day of the Father for nourishment of soul and body? Oh how Our heart would expand if We were certain that throughout the Christmas festivities there would be no home destitute of consolation and joy, that there would be no child whose sorrow should wring the dear heart of its mother, and that there would be no mother who should look upon her little ones with weeping eyes."

4. And so, Venerable Brethren, We entrust Our project to you, even as We did a year ago, that you may bring it into effect, especially those of you who dwell in districts which enjoy a happier fortune and a more tranquil state of affairs.

5. And inasmuch as those words of Christ Our Lord should take deep possession of your souls, "He that shall receive one such little child in My name, receiveth Me," We beg that you leave no measure untried whereby the liberality and generosity of the faithful over whom you are set may correspond to the urgency of the present need. Accordingly it is Our wish that you forthwith announce throughout the whole of your several dioceses that a collection of alms is to be made on the twenty-eighth day of this month, the feast of the Holy Innocents, or if you prefer, on the Sunday immediately preceding, for the support of the children made needy by the way and that you particularly recommend this collection to the children in your diocese; further, that with all diligence in your power you see that the money thus collected is sent either to Us or to the "Save the Children Fund," which We have before mentioned.

6. For Ourselves, in order that, after exhorting the faithful by Our words, We may stir their generosity by Our example, We have set apart one hundred thousand Italian lire for this most sacred work of charity. Meanwhile, Venerable Brethren, to you and to all your Clergy and people, we lovingly impart the apostolic benediction, a pledge of heavenly reward and a token of Our own paternal good will.

Given at Rome at St. Peter's on the first day of the month of December in the year nineteen hundred and twenty, the seventh of Our Pontificate.


Unreality.

What is wrong with our civilization can be said with one word — unreality. We are in no danger either from the vices or the virtues of vikings; we are in danger of forgetting all facts, good and bad, in a haze of high-minded phraseology.

G. K. Chesterton

Monday, November 30, 2020

November 30, 1920. The Anglo Irish War heats up.


The way the IRA viewed it, Ireland had declared war, more or less, some time prior. The terrorist campaign and occasional military action launched by the IRA had been authorized by the self organized Irish Dail some time prior, which claimed to be the legitimate parliament for Ireland.

The British insertion of the Black & Tans, however, had caused the war against the IRA to take a new more violent swing, and the IRA struck back. That caused British fears that the IRA would strike in the United Kingdom itself.

The struggle was heating up.

In a location of other resolutions in this time period, Adolfo de la Huerta was in his last day as the President of Mexico.  Obregon had won the Presidential election in Mexico as the transfer of power, in this instance, would occur, and would be peaceful.

De la Huerta.

Which didn't mean that De la Huerta wouldn't attempt an overthrow of the government in the future.

For the time being, he became the secretary of finance in the new administration.

Page Updates for 2020


Page updates for January, 2020.


2. They were soldiers.  Mike Pompeo and DeForest Kelley.  January 12, 2020.

3.  The Dodge 3500 Project

4.  They were soldiers.  James Earl Jones, Richard Pryor, Oliver Stone.  January 18, 2020.

5.  Cast Iron.

6.  Tiny cast iron frying pans, February 16, 2020.

7.  They were soldiers.  Tony Randall.  February 26, 2020.

8.  They were soldiers, James Montgomery Doohan.  March 3, 2020.

9.  They were soldiers, Max Von Sydow.  March 11, 2020

10.  They were lawyers:  Andrew Yang.  March 20, 2020.

11.  They were soldiers:  Tulsi Gabbard.  March 20, 2020

12. They were soldiers:  F. Scott Fitzgerald, Lee Van Cleef, Klaus Kinski.

13.  They were lawyers:  Huey Long, April 5, 2020.

14.  They were farmers, Alvaro Obregon., April 13, 2020.

15.  The Jeep TJ Project

16.  New category of Blog Links added, that being "Radio".

17.  Lots of new links added over the past year in blog links, fwiw.

18.  Cast Iron:  Waffle Iron.  April 28, 2020.




Lex Anteinternet: What happens if you've seen 2001, A Space Odyssey ...

Lex Anteinternet: What happens if you've seen 2001, A Space Odyssey ...:   STRANGE NEWS Large Metal Monolith Mysteriously Appears In Remote Region Of Utah's Red Rock Country

And now its gone.

Since is recent discovery and disappeared, the object attracted a fair number of visitors, who in turn left quite a mess.

Nobody knows who put it there, or who took it away. Same folks?  Who knows.

Monday at the Bar: Justices lift New York’s COVID-related attendance limits on worship services

 

Justices lift New York’s COVID-related attendance limits on worship services

From Wind River to Carlisle: Indian Boarding Schools in Wyoming and the Nation

From Wind River to Carlisle: Indian Boarding Schools in Wyoming and the Nation

Blog Mirror: Geegaw Nation: revisited

 

Geegaw Nation: revisited

Sunday, November 29, 2020

Pope Francis in the New York Times and the Fatigued Audience.

In the past here, up until this past year, when a Pope made a major statement I usually commented on it.  I've pretty much given up doing that with Pope Francis.  Indeed, I've come to the point where I dread his new proclamations as all too often they're followed by clarifications and explanations, and the like, and generate confusion.

Indeed, I find the Catholic Answers responses to this interesting.  I tend to find that the apologist who comments there that I like the most, Jimmy Akin, simply doesn't comment on them as they come up in general, an overall wise approach in my view.  Others take to trying to explain them which can be difficult not because they aren't explainable, but because the Holy Father simply isn't a good writer, at least in so far as the English translations of his works would have it, and he tends to speak without really internally vetting what he's saying.  Tim Staples, whom I normally don't listen to, was simply gushing in his praise of the Pope's most recent encyclical declaring it absolutely brilliant, for example, which probably was really only persuasive to those who were already convinced, and pretty much turned off by those who were.

The entire recent "Pope approves of civil unions" matter was such an example.  Put in context the Pope was in fact not declaring that the Church now approves of civil unions nor was it modifying its positions on marriage in general. But his remarks frankly were hard to explain and caused at least one really orthodox but not rad trad apologist, Matt Fradd, to react with despair.  Indeed, the Pope allowing his comments to end up in a public medium being misconstrued yet again, even if they predate his Papacy (which they seem to have) was pretty much the tipping point for a lot of orthodox Catholics who are not rad trads.  If he couldn't have prevented his comments from being used, which he very well might not have been able to do, and if they predated his Papacy, there should have been some quicker response than there ultimately was so that there wasn't a widespread press declaration confusing the rank and file in the pews and causing figures like Fr. James Martin to declare them to be "first steps", which they were not.  I.e., I think orthodox Catholics have sort of turned Pope Francis off, and "liberal" or "progressive" Catholics are an aging declining demographic whose views, frankly, really don't matter.  The support, therefore, by Fr. James Martin, SJ, really matters only to the Press, not so much the people in the pews.

Compounding this, while the Pope isn't a good writer, he's a proficient one, and its gotten so a person can hardly turn around without a new Papal writing appearing.  Just in the last couple of months he issued a new encyclical that was an extremely lengthy text which appeared to a be a summation of all of his prior encyclicals.  Indeed, this was so much the case I wondered if it was some sort of final compilation prior to a resignation.  It doesn't appear to be, but its hard to figure out why he issued an encyclical which is a lengthy summation of his prior encyclicals.

That wasn't his only writing, however, this year.  Just a few weeks ago the Pope issued Let Us Dream: The Path to a Better Future, which I have not read and which I'm very unlikely to.  This book was apparently written during a Coronavirus lockdown and comments on a lot of contemporary social matters, including protests in the United States.  And now, over the past few days, he has an op ed in The New York Times.

I'll note here that I don't expect the Pope to really be familiar with the Times, and I'll give the Times credit for running it.  The Times does have one highly orthodox Catholic columnist on its staff who writers very Catholic themed articles.  Having said that, the Times isn't what it once was, so to a degree choosing the Times is an interesting choice by whomever made it.

Additionally, the Times has a "pay wall" and that means people who regularly read it will probably not be able to unless they're a subscriber, which there's no point in being.  Be that as it may, I did read it.

I was frankly prepared to dislike it as I'm frankly very tired of the Pope saying things that have to be explained as they creep up on falling outside of orthodoxy.  I'm like Matt Fradd and a lot of other loyal orthodox Catholics that way in which there's been so much, I'm just tired of it and probably have the volume on pretty low at this point.  A lot of us, rightly or wrongly, are at this point just marking time until the Boomer generation ages out of high Church offices and a new age of orthodoxy resumes, which it will.  It's not that we're not respectful or loyal to the Pope, but we're probably resuming the mental attitude of Catholics of the 18th Century or 19th Century who didn't really expect to hear from the Pope much and are accordingly sort of tuning out now.  Or maybe more accurately we may have the view of Eastern Rite Catholics who are fully Catholic in every sense but are more insular and traditional in ways that don't allow the outside world to impact them to the same degree.  Indeed, quite a few orthodox Catholics were headed in that direction anyhow. 

Well, at any rate, the Pope has published in the Times with an op ed entitled:

A Crisis Reveals What Is in Our Hearts

To come out of this pandemic better than we went in, we must let ourselves be touched by others’ pain.

We should note that headline writers, and not the authors, write headlines for papers like the times.  If that seems sort of an un Francis like headline and subheading, it probably is.  It was no doubt written by the Times.

Anyhow, I read the entire op ed and didn't find anything unorthodox or shocking, although it may be signaling an intended effort, which I'll address below. So as is frequently the case, I was a bit pleasantly surprised.  So far on Francis' encyclicals, I've found them that way.  I also find their views often uniquely foreign in a way, but then he isn't an American, after all.

A lot of the Pope's article is personal about the events leading up to his lung removal many years ago, and the experience of pain and illness.  A lot of it is, in fact, deeply personal and an homage to two sisters who were nurses when he was ill, noting as he ties it back in:

Whether or not they were conscious of it, their choice testified to a belief: that it is better to live a shorter life serving others than a longer one resisting that call. That’s why, in many countries, people stood at their windows or on their doorsteps to applaud them in gratitude and awe. They are the saints next door, who have awakened something important in our hearts, making credible once more what we desire to instill by our preaching.

My conservative friends, I'm afraid, aren't going to like it. There's pretty clearly a swipe at Americans, and perhaps the Trump Administration, and a common view in the United States, where he states:

With some exceptions, governments have made great efforts to put the well-being of their people first, acting decisively to protect health and to save lives. The exceptions have been some governments that shrugged off the painful evidence of mounting deaths, with inevitable, grievous consequences. But most governments acted responsibly, imposing strict measures to contain the outbreak.

Yet some groups protested, refusing to keep their distance, marching against travel restrictions — as if measures that governments must impose for the good of their people constitute some kind of political assault on autonomy or personal freedom! Looking to the common good is much more than the sum of what is good for individuals. It means having a regard for all citizens and seeking to respond effectively to the needs of the least fortunate.

It is all too easy for some to take an idea — in this case, for example, personal freedom — and turn it into an ideology, creating a prism through which they judge everything.

This gets into an interesting Catholic belief which is that governments, all governments, derive their authority from God and therefore are charged, accordingly, with responsibilities.  That belief is the one that causes people to misconstrue the old "Devine right" of kings, which isn't what it means, so much as it means that all authority is ultimately God's and any legitimate exercise of authority, whatever it is, is only to the extent that God permits it, and therefore must be used accordingly.

Of course, this is also a lecture aimed at individualist who value personal freedom or collective safety in this context, which is something that has been seen all over the globe.  The Pope clearly disapproves.

And that's where the op ed then takes a big turn, returning to common Francis themes.

God asks us to dare to create something new. We cannot return to the false securities of the political and economic systems we had before the crisis. We need economies that give to all access to the fruits of creation, to the basic needs of life: to land, lodging and labor. We need a politics that can integrate and dialogue with the poor, the excluded and the vulnerable, that gives people a say in the decisions that affect their lives. We need to slow down, take stock and design better ways of living together on this earth.

The pandemic has exposed the paradox that while we are more connected, we are also more divided. Feverish consumerism breaks the bonds of belonging. It causes us to focus on our self-preservation and makes us anxious. Our fears are exacerbated and exploited by a certain kind of populist politics that seeks power over society. It is hard to build a culture of encounter, in which we meet as people with a shared dignity, within a throwaway culture that regards the well-being of the elderly, the unemployed, the disabled and the unborn as peripheral to our own well-being.

To come out of this crisis better, we have to recover the knowledge that as a people we have a shared destination. The pandemic has reminded us that no one is saved alone. What ties us to one another is what we commonly call solidarity. Solidarity is more than acts of generosity, important as they are; it is the call to embrace the reality that we are bound by bonds of reciprocity. On this solid foundation we can build a better, different, human future.

In doing this its interesting to see the references to the Catholic Social Teaching of Solidarity.  Solidarity and Subsidiarity are old Catholic themes, prominent in the writings of Pope Leo XVIII and best recalled from Rarem Novarum.  A really well schooled Catholic will recognize the references to Solidarity right away, but Protestants, and frankly most Catholics for that matter, won't.

The editorial also recalls themes that Pope Francis has had throughout his papacy in regard to economics, and which seemingly have evolved towards a certain type of internationalism in a way more recently, but it's not specific on them.  Criticism of capitalism, however are nothing new in Catholic circles and indeed Rarem Novarum criticized both capitalism and socialism, giving rise to the development of distributism.  Interestingly, that latter fact is hardly noticed anywhere, and hasn't been by Pope Francis himself, perhaps because capitalism has come to so dominate free market economies that the free market concept of distributism is hardly known to even exist outside of the small population of (somewhat gadfly) distributists.

At any rate, it's not a bad editorial.  I doubt it'll be very impactful, however.  Pope Francis has spoken too much, and too vaguely, and written too much, and too vaguely, to really be noticed very much now outside of Catholic circles, and the orthodox, who would be most likely to normally listen and try to heed what he says, have assumed a sort of fatigued state of indifference.  There's some sort of lesson in all of that. 

And part of that lesson has to deal with his intent.  If you read all of his works that touch upon the economy, and there's a bunch, what you are left with is a pretty clear impression that Pope Francis is arguing for a overhauling of the entire global economy in a way that reflects his writings.  This would emphasize a certain sort of international Solidarity (in Catholic social teaching terms) acknowledging everyone as our brothers and sisters, with a certain sort of regionalism reflecting, vaguely, Subsidiarity, while also stress the need to aid the poor and not fall into the vices of consumerism.  Here too, however, the problem is that those themes have been intertwined with numerous other ones and never clarified, so they're lost, irrespective of whether we agree with them or not.

Popes, contrary to what some Rad Trads tend to believe, have never decreed anyone system of anything, including economics, to be "the" Catholic ideal.  And they're not going to.  So Pope Francis isn't straying off the well paved road in that respect.  But Pope's have been a lot more direct and succinct.  As Pope Francis hasn't been, it'd take a clear, limited and precise encyclical or writing to do that.  If that's coming, it's coming late in the day and after so much has already been written that getting everyone to turn the volume back up to listen will be difficult.

More on Societal Scurvy

We linked this in earlier this week, but perhaps we should have saved it for today:

Lex Anteinternet: SOCIETAL SCURVY:   SOCIETAL SCURVY

A series of related items appeared in the news today, and we'd pondered linking this in here.

The them of this entry from Catholic Stuff You Should Know has to deal with the impact of Sunday services in unknown and unseen ways.  It's excellently done, and deals with community, or lack of it, in this Pandemic Era.

We run a series here every Sunday, as the few folks who routinely stop in know, called Sunday Morning Scenes. These are, of course, just pictures from our companion blogs in which we've photographed churches, for the most part, although occasionally they include commentary.

There's no doubt that the pandemic has been hard on community, and that very much includes churches.  In my own region the Bishop of Cheyenne has suspended the obligation to attend Mass that Catholics normally have.  That is, church attendance isn't optional for Catholics, normally.  Right now it is here.

For a time the churches opened back up and when they did, I resumed going to Mass.  I missed it in more ways than one and felt an obligation to do so.  Indeed, I also was critical of the Bishops in the US stopping public Masses in general and felt they should not have.

Now, however, that we are in the thick of the pandemic I've not gone the last few weeks.  I may be in a category that's distinctly different from some others around here, but having watched Coronavirus rip through the legal community, killing at least one local lawyer and disabling, at least temporarily, some others, I'm taking this seriously.  Indeed, I'm in the "avoidance" category of people who isn't going to stores, and isn't going to restaurants, and the like right now.  I'm stilling going into my office as I have to, but for the next few weeks I'm riding this out by minimalizing my contact with people as much as I can.

There's no doubt, however, that this has crossed  over to a point that's having a negative personal impact on the psyche of a lot of people.  In today's news there are reports that alcohol and marihuana abuse are at an all time high.  Pornography use is as well. Both of these are addressed in the Societal Scurvy episode mentioned above.  In Japan suicide deaths for last month exceeded the the number of COVID deaths in that country and are back up at rates last scene in 2015, which of course is not all that long ago.

At some point, something has to be done, but what?  Will we break through this and be back out in January?  

On being cautious, while I rarely mention it I had a childhood asthma condition and after having talked to several people who have had it, and survived it, I'm pretty sure that the common views in some quarters that its not as bad as people claim don't hold up, at least for some people.  So, yes, I'm now worried.  Not panicked, but worried.

And I'm worried about society too.  People holed up and not getting out at all, some people naively fleeting to rural areas in the belief that it can't get to them there.  Things are not good right now.

I wonder if people dealt with this better in 1917-18?  I'm not convinced we are dealing with this well right now.  Indeed, in a lot of ways, I think we're less well situated to deal with it now, than we were then.

November 29, 1920. Monday Events.


The U.S. Post Office held a Christmas themed parade in Washington D. C. on this day in 1920.

On the same day, the Red Army invaded Armenia.

Soviet troops in Armenia.

Lenin famously declared the right of self determination of nations, none of which stopped the infant Soviet Union from invading those areas which had declared their independence and which had been part of Imperial Russia. The Baltic States had to fight for their independence, and by this point Poland and the Soviet Union had fought a war in which, had the Soviets won, and they nearly did, would have imposed Communism on Poland in 1920 and probably would have reincorporated the country into the Soviet Union.  Trotsky at the time, moreover, envisioned the Red Army continuing on to Berlin.

Armenia would regain her independence after the fall of the Soviet Union, but the oldest officially Christian nation in the world has continued to be beset by its neighbors to the present day.

Also on this day a newspaper photographer photographed the eclectic Adelaide Johnson.

Piece of marble being moved by oxen using a stone boat.

Johnson was a feminist sculptor who was able to launch her career following a settlement she received in a tragic accident.  She sculpted female centric themes and in later years would fall into poverty as she wouldn't sell her works for the prices she was offered, figuring they commanded more. She destroyed some publicly in later years in protests over this.  Her "bridesmaids" at her wedding were three sculpted figures of feminist and suffrage heroes, which might, or might not, be the work depicted below.




Sunday Morning Scene: Churches of the West: Redemption Church, was Kaycee United Methodist Church, Kaycee Wyoming

Churches of the West: Redemption Church, was Kaycee United Methodist Chu...

Redemption Church, was Kaycee United Methodist Church, Kaycee Wyoming

We rarely feature a church twice here, although occasionally we do if there's a reason.  This is one such example.

We posted on the Kaycee United Methodist Church quite some time ago in this post:

Churches of the West: Kaycee United Methodist Church, Kaycee Wyoming

Kaycee Wyoming is a small ranching community in southern Johnson County. This Methodist Church is located there.
Here's the same church today:


The church is still there, but it's no longer a Methodist Church.  It's name indicates that it is the "Redemption" church which causes me to suppose its likely some type of non denominational protestant church.  That doesn't surprise me much because, in modern times, having a sufficient population of Methodists in a small town such as this would be a bit of a surprise for Wyoming.  I'd have expected the Baptist church, which is often the default protestant church in this part of the country, but a Methodist church is quite specific.  This is not to say, of course, that this pattern always holds.  For example, Shoshoni has a prominent Presbyterian church.

For much of modern small town Wyoming today, however, what we'd expect to see is probably a non denominational protestant church, maybe a Baptist church, a Catholic church, and a Mormon church.  We might omit any one of those, or perhaps half of those, depending upon how small and isolated the town is.  This contrast notably from a century ago, or half century ago, when an Episcopal Church would almost be a default for any small Wyoming town and we'd see more active small, but denominational, churches.

In all of this Wyoming follows a bit of the modern trend, although that trend isn't really properly analyzed as a rule.   There are very distinct doctrinal differences between the various protestant churches but a lot of rank and file protestants don't really acknowledge them very much which has given a boost to "non denominational" Christian churches which are not quite as non denominational as it might seem in real terms.

Anyhow, this church appears to have changed roles a bit.  I wonder what denomination originally built it?

Saturday, November 28, 2020

Best Posts of the Week of November 22, 2020

 The best posts of the week of November 22, 2020/

2020 Election Post Mortem VII. Joe Biden and the "Catholic vote".


2020 Election Post Mortem VIII. What in the world is Donald Trump doing?


2020 Election Post Mortem IX. Monday At The Bar. The public gets a look at the American legal system. . .


Mid Week At Work. Large Animal Veterinarian


2020 Thanksgiving Reflections.


November 27.


2020 General Election, Part II

Blog Mirror: Bird’s Eye View of Sioux Camp at Pine Ridge, South Dakota, 11/28/1890

 A remarkable and tragic image:

Bird’s Eye View of Sioux Camp at Pine Ridge, South Dakota, 11/28/1890

November 28, 1920. Reprisal

On this day in 1920, a flying column of the Irish Republican Army ambushed trucks carrying officers of the Auxiliary police in Kilmichael, County Cork.

IRA Flying Column.

The 36 IRA volunteers assaulted the trucks carrying 18 Auxiliaries, killing 17 of them and wounding one.  Three IRA volunteers were killed.

While well executed from a military prospective, the real significance of the action was psychological in that it showed the IRA as capable of undertaking a military action and pulling it off, which hadn't always been the case.  It also demonstrated to the British that the war was escalating.

Thursday, November 26, 2020

2020 Thanksgiving Reflections.

One of Norman Rockwell's Four Freedoms paintings used as wartime posters, first coming out in 1943.  They were based on his prewar January 1941 speech advocating for these freedoms. At the time of the speech, and certainly at the time of the war, a lot of people didn't have a freedom from want.

In some prior years I've put up a Thanksgiving Day post. Some years, I don't.

There's a lot of hubris in writing a blog, a principal part of that being the thoughts that 1) you have anything meaningful to say; and 2) anyone cares to read it.  In large part, probably neither of those are true, so no blogger should feel compelled to write an entry.  Still, some years. . . 

For a lot of people, this will be a Thanksgiving like no other. Well, rather, like no other one that that we recall. There are certainly plenty of North American Thanksgivings that more strongly resemble this one than we might imagine. * 

After all, the holiday was already fully established as a European religious observation long before the passengers of the Mayflower put in early as they were out of beer (which is in fact why they put in when they did).  We might imagine those early Thanksgiving celebrants looking like they were out of a Rockwell or Leyendecker illustration, but they likely rarely did.

Clean parents, chubby child. . . probably not very accurate for the early colonial period.  Carrying a matchlock on the way to church might be however, and not because they were going to hunt turkeys on the way home.  Illustration by J. C. Leyendecker from November 1917.

Indeed, a lot of the giving of thanks on days like this from prior eras was probably of a much more to the bone nature. The crop didn't fail, when it looked like it might.  The milk cow didn't bloat up and die.  The Algonquian's simply walked by the village a couple of months ago when it looked like they might attack.  That ship on the horizon wasn't a French one and no Troupes de Marne landed to raise the district.  The Spanish didn't arrive from the south.

Freedom from Fear.  For much of human history, most people lived in fear for at least some of the time.

Part of all of that, on top of it, was dealing with political and physical turmoil.

Smallpox arrived and went leaving people, if they were lucky, scarred for live.  The flu came and when it did people died nearly every time.  Horses kicked people in the ribs and they died in agony a few days later.  Dog and cat bites turned septic.  Tooth infections were caught too late causing fevers that went right to the brain and then on to death.

Storms came with only hours, or minutes, warning.  Hurricanes arrived with no notice.  Tornadoes ripped through villages at random.  Hail destroyed crops.  Early winters froze the crops in the ground. Spring thaws came suddenly and swept animals, houses, and people away.  Snow blocked travel and locked people who still had to work outdoors during the winter indoors.  People got lost, and then were lost forever.  Seafarers disappeared in winter storms and were never heard of again, or if they were they were, their washed up bodies were identified by the patterns in their wool sweaters, unique to individual villages, like dog tags of their day.

And added to that, there was the additional turmoil of vast struggles beyond people's control.  Catholics lived in fear of oppression from Protestants.  Protestant dissenters lived in fear of the Established Church.  Jews lived in fear of everyone.  Forces in England struggled against the Crown and each other and their fights spilled out to their colonies.  Native Americans lived in fear of a European population of an expansive nature that seemed to defy the laws of nature.  Africans lived in fear of slavers and if that fate befell them they thereafter lived in lifelong despair.

Freedom of Worship. Even this American value didn't come about until the scriveners of the Constitution prevented the United States from creating a state religion.  At the time of the Revolution the Congress had declared the Crown's tolerance of Catholicism in Quebec one of the "Intolerable Acts". As late as the Civil War Gen. Grant's General Order No. 11 targeted Jews.

The point is, I guess, that our ancestors endured all of this and made it.

Of course, they endured it better sometimes than in others.  When they lost the ability to at least get along, things got very bad indeed.  The most notable example, probably, came in 1860 to 1865 when Americans had reached the point where their differences could only be solved violently.

When those things got that way, one notable thing was the fragility of civility, order and even common sense.  In bad times Americans have done well if their leaders had a vision, even if disagreed with, and were clear about it, even if the opposition was distinct in that opposition.  A key to it was an overall sense that we were all in this together in spite of those differences.  The US did well as a society in the Great War, even with lots of failings, as it generally agreed with Wilson that something needed to be done in Europe and we had to do it, and even if we disagreed with that, we were all Americans and weren't going to send just our neighbor off to fight.  We did very well in World War Two uniting behind Franklin  Roosevelt and Harry Truman on the concept that we were a democratic nation, united by that, and we were going to bring those values to a world that had forgotten them, even if some wished the war hadn't ever come.  We did pretty well in the Cold War, with the exception of some real distress in the late 40s and early 50s, and again in the late 60s and early 70s, with the idea that we were freedom's sentinel, even if we didn't always like what that meant.

Right now, we're a mess.

We are not united on anything, and we've politicized everything.  And our polarization is massive.

We've been polarized of course before, but it's been sometime since we were this split, or so it would seem. Some would argue that we're really not, and that most are in the middle.

If we aren't mostly in the middle, the problem then becomes the point at which we arrive at a point at which we not only aren't, but we've reached the state where the polarized sides only see forcing their view at all costs upon the other as the solution.

Advanced nations have had that happen before.  Weimar Germany lived in a state of being that started off that way in 1918 and dissolved due to that in 1932.  It wasn't that there were not right wingers who valued democracy over force, or that there were not left wingers who valued democracy over force, but rather that people quit listening to them and opted for the parties that promised to force their views with dominating finality.

That is, of course, sort of what happened in 1860 to us, when one side decided that it had to have its way so much that it would leave to get it, and kill to maintain it.

Surely we're not there yet. But one thing we are is fatigued.  And that's not a good thing.  A lot of people have just had enough. They're worn down by the Pandemic. They're tired of politicians.  They don't want to hear anymore.  It's not that they're disinterested. 

They're tired.

So perhaps we can look back on those early North American Thanksgivings here a bit.  The crops didn't fail.  The North Koreans didn't attack South Korea. The Chinese didn't invade Taiwan.  The Russians didn't suddenly decide they wanted Poland back.

And yes, a lot of us fell ill, some will never fully recover, and some have died. That will continue on.  But as tragic as that is, we've had their better times and our prior health, and as grim as it is, it serves as a reminder that our path through here is temporary, and if, in the words of the old country song, we "don't have a home in this world anymore", well we never had a perfect one.

Freedom of speech, something which most people have not had except on a local level since at least the point at which society became advanced, but which is an American hallmark.

Related threads:

Thanksgiving Reflections





*Thanksgiving isn't really a North American holiday any more than its just an American one, in the larger sense, and this confusing entry here reflects that.  I'm mostly referring to the United States in this entry, and the predecessor English colonies, but not exclusively, as can be seen by text above that's more applicable to other areas.

Blog Mirror: A Hundred Years Ago; A Thanksgiving Tale

A Thanksgiving Tale

Boston 1775: Abigail Adams’s Quiet Thanksgiving in 1798

Boston 1775: Abigail Adams’s Quiet Thanksgiving in 1798: On 29 Nov 1798, Abigail Adams sat down to an unusually small Thanksgiving dinner . An autumn Thanksgiving feast was an important tradit...

November 26, 1920. Distant scenes.

San Francisco Harbor.  November 26, 1920.  This would be right about the time my grandfather lived and worked in San Francisco as a teenager.


On this day Simon Karetnik was executed by the Bolsheviks in an example, one of many, of the Communists destroying other radicals.  Karetnik was a Ukrainian anarchist leader (yes, that's a ironic situation to be in) of the Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army of Ukraine, and a quite successful one. The RIAU itself was fairly successful for some period of time in fighting the Russian Whites, but it was naïve in the extreme in deluding itself that there was a place for it in competition with the Reds, whom they resisted union with.

RIAU commanders, Karetnik third from left.

On this day in 1920 Karetnik and fellow RIAU officers went, with some reluctance, to a meeting with Red Army commander Mikhail Frunze who had ordered them place under a command of his army.  On the way they were arrested and executed.  Frunze was a successful Red Army commander who died in surgery in 1925.


RIAU commanders.

The entire event also helps demonstrate the absolute mess that Russia had become in its late imperial stage.  Anarchy was a theory that was never going to succeed because of its nature.  Revolutionary socialist other than the Communist were never going to prevail in a struggle as they were insufficiently organized and single minded.  The Whites couldn't succeed as they had no really strong central unity in fact or in theory. That doomed Russia to years of an alien whacky political theory that didn't match its nature or culture and which set Russia back so far in development that it is nowhere near overcoming it today.

The central feature of this rise of extremism had been a pre World War One governmental and economic system that was frozen in the distant past. With no outlet of any kind for a developing society, absurd economic and political theories festered underground.  It's no accident that many of these theories were the same as ones that were then also circulating in Germany and Austria, which likewise had old order monarchical systems going into World War One.

Wednesday, November 25, 2020

Be careful out there.

Okay, this is going to be an uncheery, pre Thanksgiving Day post.  But I'm going to note it anyhow.

This is about Coronavirus nonobservance and a modicum of self protection.  

Now, what I don't mean is the topic of people who dispute wearing masks entirely or things of that type.  No, what I mean is the interesting behavior of people who acknowledge all the public warnings and the instructions, and really feel they should be observed. . . except when it comes themselves.

I've noted it a lot.

This includes nearly every kind of recommendation regarding the disease, but most particularly the "don't pack up" and "wear a mask" in groups recommendations, warnings or orders.  People who will wear masks for their daily activities and wipe stuff down, but if they regularly go to the bars simply suspend every precaution.  It's as if they feel that COVID 19 lurks office hallways and grocery stores during the day, but it takes the night off if people go to the bar.  

Or people who wring their hands in angst when a family member gets the disease, as perhaps they should, but don't see any of the precautions that they felt should be taken regarding the afflicted one anywhere else.  "Wear a mask. . .stay inside. . .don't get near Cousin Luigi. . . let's go down to Walmart and I forgot my mask. . . "

We're gong to see a lot of that over the next several days, probably the next couple of months.

There are those who wouldn't dare go out in a crowd right now who will go into crowded kitchens on Thanksgiving Day, as you can only get the disease from coworkers or strangers at the supermarket, not Cousin Harry whose day job is taking complaints at the Denver International Airport "I lost my luggage from Wuhan" department and who at night is the accordion player for Sparky Spark and the Spunky Bunch.  Some people are going to linger maskless for holiday drinks with a coworker even though the spouse of the coworker has been sick in bed with "something" for the last few days, as you can't get it from somebody you are in close association with, only strangers.  People who will spray down an work surface with every known anti viral or anti bacterial substance right up to and including DDT, Agent Orange and Zyklon B will at the same time go about their regular day even though Junior was sent home from 7th Grade "not feeling well".  Some people are going go, as they do every day, for the Massive Flapjack, Waffle and Lox Bruch Hootenanny at Gigantic Twenty Four Hour Eatery as their pals are there and you can't get it from them, only those strangers that lurk at the mall.

And as the holidays are commencing some are going to hit the mall as its the holidays on the joyless Black Friday that always follows Thanksgiving, that day after which we honor the old Christian holiday giving thanks to God for the food on our tables by going out and buying a bunch of stuff in anticipation of missing the point of Christmas.

Okay, so what am I saying.

Well, I guess I'm in part saying the same thing the old desk sergeant did n the old series Hill Street Blues; "be careful out there".  

And I'm also saying folks need to think just a bit.  I don't want all the eateries and taverns out of business by any means, and I sure want small businesses to make it, but the lesson of the Spanish Flu is one to keep in mind.  It's called that as the King of Spain got it in 1918.

You aren't the King of Spain.

King Alfonso XIII.  If a pandemic could reach him. . . it can get to you.

Be careful out there.

November 25, 1920. Thanksgiving Day


It was Thanksgiving Day for 1920. 

Thanksgiving's date has moved over the years but this one was nearly on the exact same day as it will be this year, 2020.  Also the same as a century later, normally, there was a full slate of football games, including a local high school game, to entertain people on their Thursday off.

And it was the start of broadcasting those games as well, which you can read about here:

November 25, 1920: The First Broadcast of Play by Play College Football By Radio Station

Commercial radio, as we've discussed before, was brand new.  1920 was turning out to be quite a year for radio firsts.

My father used to listen to football and baseball both on the radio, and I've listed to baseball occasionally that way. Football is a sport I lost interest in when I was a kid, although my wife likes it.  I haven't listed to a football game on the radio for years, and probably haven't ever listened to one that way of my own volition.  Indeed, the last time I did that I think I was going hunting with a friend during football season and he wanted to listen to a game that was being played.

The day wasn't limited to team sports.  On the same day the Pulitzer Prize Trophy Race was held, which is mentioned in the newspaper above, and which you can read about on this blog here:

This Day In Aviation:  25 November 1920

Aviation was a new thing as well, as we have been tracking, and things associated were still so novel as to make the front page in newspapers.

Also on this day the last big event of the automobile racing season occurred with a 250 mile race in which the youngest of the Chevrolet brothers, Gaston, was killed.

Gaston Chevrolet.

The day is also St. Catherine's Day,, the feast day for that saint, which at the time was still celebrated in France as a day for unmarried women who had obtained twenty-five years of age.  Such women were known as Catherinettes. Women in general were committed since the Middle Ages to the protection of St. Catherine and on this day large crowds of unmarried 25 year old women wearing hats to mark their 25th year would gather for a celebration of sorts, where well wishers would wish them a speedy end to their single status. The custom remained strong at least until the 1930s but has since died out.

Catherinettes parading in 1932 in Paris.  By this time the tradition must have been changing as a photograph from 1920 (copyright protected, apparently, and therefore unable to be posted here) shows a huge crowed of young women on the streets generally dressed in the fashions of the day, save for odd hats. The weather must have been colder on that 1920 day as well, as  they're all wearing coats.  This photo makes less sense, but the references to sailors probably is a bit more salacious.

Then, as now, magazines offered advice on how to cook the perfect Thanksgiving Dinner:

How to Serve a Great Thanksgiving Dinner, 1920 Style


Blog Mirror: A Haiku On Why You Should Give Up On Your Dreams And Pursue A Sensible, If Ultimately Unfulfilling, Career Instead

 

A Haiku On Why You Should Give Up On Your Dreams And Pursue A Sensible, If Ultimately Unfulfilling, Career Instead