SEEDS OF RESENTMENT

The history of relationships between nations, which ought to be peppered with examples of great statesmanship and rhetoric of world leaders, is in fact peppered with the deep seated resentments of ambitious individuals who carry their acrimony and malice into the very heart of their negotiations. This indignation and umbrage has had the unfortunate effect of causing countless misery and death for millions of ordinary citizens.

The most galling example of this I brought to mind by an event which occurred on the 15^th September 1873, following on from the end of the Franco-Prussian war, when the last occupying German troops left France upon completion to the payment of indemnity.

Areas of France occupied until the war reparations were paid.

With the defeat of Napoleon III, the Second Empire was at an end and the French established a Government of National Defence, which subsequently established the Third Republic; however, the final concluding armistice between Germany (Bismarck) and France (Favre) at Versailles (January/February 1871). The final agreement became the Treaty of Frankfurt, signed 10th May 1871. The surrender terms were pretty severe including loss of certain territories and large payment of indemnity.

Favre

Bismarck

The reaction to the agreement and the new French Government led many to join the Paris Commune, which lasted from March 1871 to May 1871 and was savagely put down by the French Versailles Government with the death of some 20 to 30,000 French citizens - a butchery watched by the German Troops stationed outside the city.

Paris Commune

In any event, the seeds of dissatisfaction planted in French moral depression of 1871, led to a vindictive French policy and the winter of their discontent made glorious summer by the Treaty of Versailles on June 1919, after the slaughter of millions in the First World War. The seeds of further German dissatisfaction as a result of this treaty led to the rise of National Socialism in the form of the Nazi Party.

Prior to that event, 62 years to the day after German forces pulled out of France in 1873, on the 15^th September 1935, Nazi Germany enacted the Nuremberg Laws depriving German Jews of their citizenship and on the same day adopted their new national flag with the swastika. This was merely a prelude of what was to come - the Second World War; which led to the Second French/German Armistice signed at Compiègne on the 22^nd June 1940 in the same famed railway carriage used in 1919.

French General Huntziger signs armistice

The Group

Can one trace the seeds of holocaust to that 15^th September 1873 or does it go back to the 15^th September 1812, the day on which the French Army under Napoleon reached the Kremlin in Moscow? We all know what that unfortunate movement led to.

The evolution of evil is a difficult theory to express. Oddly enough 100 years to the day before the enactment of racist legislation in Germany of 1935, on the 15^th September 1835, HMS Beagle, with Charles Darwin aboard, reached the Galapagos Islands.

One should not be too depressed by the 15^th September. Just have a look at an advert shown today for Australia’s R/U OK day, in support of assistance to potential suicides.  

NUMBER 257

In 1969, the Selective Service System of the United States conducted two lotteries to determine the order of call to military service in the Vietnam War for men born during 1950. "The draft" occurred during a longer period of conscription in the United States, controlled by the President, from just before World War II to 1973.

The days of the year were represented by the numbers from 1 to 366 written on slips of paper. The slips were placed in separate plastic capsules that were mixed in a shoebox and then dumped into a deep glass jar. Capsules were drawn from the jar one at a time.

The first day number drawn was 257 (September 14), so all registrants with that birthday were assigned lottery number 1. All men of draft age (born 1944 to 1950) who shared a birthdate would be called to serve at once. In fact the first 195 birthdates were later called to serve in order 1 to 195. The last one called was September 24 (lottery number 195). This last number saw the largest number of men drafted to serve in Vietnam.

On the same day a second lottery was held to construct a random permutation of the 26 letters of the alphabet. Among men with the same birthdate, any year 1944 to 1950, the order of induction was determined by the permutation ranks of the first letters of their last, first, and middle names. Anyone with initials "JJJ" would have been first within the shared birthdate; anyone with initials "VVV" would have been last.

On the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall there are 171 names of dead soldiers who were born on the 14^th September. As to the 14^th September itself, 112 died on this day.

I was rather lucky when it came to the draft. I was initially classified in 1963 as I-Y, which meant, “Registrant available for military service, but qualified only in case of war or national emergency. Usually given to registrants with medical conditions that were limiting but not disabling (examples: high blood pressure, mild muscular or skeletal injuries or disorders, skin disorders, severe allergies, etc.).” This class was discontinued in December, 1971 and its members were reclassified as 4-F.”

I noted that I could only be called up in case of war or national emergency. The action in Vietnam was never classified as a war, but merely a ‘Police Action’, so I could not have been called up on that ground, but was it a National Emergency?

A state of emergency is a governmental declaration that may suspend some normal functions of the executive, legislative and judicial powers, alert citizens to change their normal behaviours, or order government agencies to implement emergency preparedness plans. It can also be used as a rationale for suspending rights and freedoms, even if guaranteed under the constitution. Such declarations usually come during a time of natural or man made disaster, during periods of civil unrest, or following a declaration of war or situation of international or internal armed conflict.

The Tonkin Gulf Resolution (officially, Asia Resolution, Public Law 88-408) was a joint resolution, which the United States Congress passed on August 7, 1964. The Tonkin Gulf Resolution is of historical significance because it gave President Lyndon B. Johnson authorization, without a formal declaration of war by Congress, for the use of conventional military force in Southeast Asia. Specifically, the resolution authorized the President to do whatever necessary in order to assist "any member or protocol state of the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty." This included involving armed forces; however, I do not recall the action being declared a National Emergency.

I was at one stage asked to return to the United States for reclassification or induction into the Armed Services. I was never reclassified.

JOSÉ CAN YOU SEE ANY BEDBUGS ON ME

Key

Apparently the Star Spangled Banner, the American national anthem, was written 197 years ago today on the 13th/14th September 1814, during the War of 1812, between the United States and the British Empire. It is stated that during the War of 1812, Key, accompanied by the American Prisoner Exchange Agent Colonel John Stuart Skinner, dined aboard the British ship HMS Tonnant, as the guests of three British officers: Vice Admiral Alexander Cochrane, Rear Admiral Sir George Cockburn, and Major General Robert Ross.

Cochrane

Cockburn

Ross

By Dawn's Early Light" 1912 painting by Edward Moran 

depicts legendary moment of September 13/14, 1814. 

Francis Scott Key with his compatriots Colonel John Skinner 

and Dr. William Beanes spy the American flag waving above 

Baltimore's Fort Mc Henry. This inspired Key to write the work

 to become the American national anthem, 

The Star Spangled Banner.

Skinner and Key were there to negotiate the release of prisoners, one being Dr. Wiliam Beanes. Beanes was a resident of Upper Marlboro, Maryland and had been captured by the British after he placed rowdy stragglers under citizen's arrest with a group of men. Skinner, Key, and Beanes were not allowed to return to their own sloop: they had become familiar with the strength and position of the British units and with the British intent to attack Baltimore. As a result of this, Key was unable to do anything but watch the bombarding of the American forces at Fort McHenry during the Battle of Baltimore on the night of September 13 – September 14, 1814. At dawn, Key was able to see an American flag still waving and reported this to the prisoners below deck. On the way back to Baltimore, he was inspired to write a poem describing his experience, "Defence of Fort McHenry", which he published in the Patriot on September 20, 1814. He intended to fit it to the rhythms of  composer John Stafford Smith’s “To Anacreon in Heaven”, a popular tune Key had already used as a setting for his 1805 song "When the Warrior Returns," celebrating U.S. heroes of the First Barbary War. (The earlier song is also the Key's original use of the "star spangled" flag imagery.) It has become better known as "The Star Spangled Banner". Under this name, the song was adopted as the American national anthem, first by an Executive Order from President Woodrow Wilson in 1916 (which had little effect beyond requiring military bands to play it) and then by a Congressional resolution in 1931, signed by President Herbert Hoover.

In the fourth stanza Key urged the adoption of "In God is our Trust" as the national motto. The United States adopted the motto “In God We Trust” by law in 1956.

Here is a rendition of the anthem recorded in 1915, sung by Margaret Woodrow Wilson, Daughter of the President Woodrow Wilson.

EXONERATED AND ABSOLVED - IT STILL GOES ON

Mine workers began their protest march near Harwood
and many were eventually killed by the
Luzerne County sheriff in Lattimer in 1897

Continuing comments on the history of the American Labour movement, on Friday 10th September, 1897, about 300 to 400 unarmed strikers—nearly all of them Slavs and Germans—marched to a coal mine owned by Calvin Pardee at the town of Lattimer to support a newly formed UMW union. Their goal was to support the newly formed UMW union at the still-open Lattimer mine. The demonstrators were confronted by law enforcement officials several times on the road and ordered to disperse, but kept marching. When the demonstrators reached Lattimer at 3:45 PM, they were met again by the sheriff and 150 armed deputies. Sheriff Martin ordered the marchers to disperse, and then attempted to grab an American flag out of the hands of the lead marcher. A scuffle ensued, and the police opened fire on the unarmed crowd. Nineteen miners died, and anywhere from 17 to 49 others wounded. All had been shot in the back, and several had multiple gunshot wounds, which indicated that they had been targeted by the deputies. The event is now known as the Lattimer massacre. Although the perpetrators of this outrage had been arrested and put on trial, no one was convicted, even though the accused had clearly lied to the court.   

Why is it the alleged legal authority always seems to be exonerated when they appear to overstep their authority; particularly when some of the evidence against the accused members of that authority clearly shows them to be lying. This is increasingly the case not only in the United States, but in the United Kingdom. Just because it has been happening for over a century doesn't make it right. When any civilian death occurs at the hands of apparent civil state authority, excuses are always made and accepted. Is it any wonder that at times certain citizens flare up at this continuing and frustrating injustice. We are all meant to be subject to the rule of law - is it not time for the state to exercise that duty for the good of all its citizens, not just the select few.  It is a matter of holding individuals to account and not just a blanket ruling that the authority may have got it wrong. Enforcement of the law should be just that.

The following are but examples:

It is clearly not good enough.

Rodney King, may not have been the most responsible citizen in his life, but it was only after a retrial in a Federal Court (not for the initial assault, but for what was called a 'violation of his civil rights') did he get some kind of redress.

What will happen next in the case of Mark Duggan? Perhaps not a blameless life, but were his civil rights violated? And what of Ian Tomlinson? We await the outcome. The trial is scheduled for October. 

FIRSTS, PHOTOGRAPHS, SLAVERY AND SYSTEMS

The 9^th September is a day of firsts as well as a day of discovery, for me at least. Two firsts separated by 101 years are that on the 9^th September, 1839; John Herschel took the first glass plate photograph (Sir John Frederick William Herschel, 1st Baronet KH, FRS (March 7, 1792 – May 11, 1871) was an English mathematician, astronomer, chemist and experimental photographer/inventor, who in some years also did valuable botanical work. He was the son of Mary Baldwin and astronomer Sir Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel and the father of 12 children. Herschel originated the use of the Julian day system in astronomy. He named seven moons of Saturn and four moons of Uranus. He made many contributions to the science of photography, and investigated colour blindness and the chemical power of ultraviolet rays) and; George Stibitz pioneered the first remote operation of a computer (In a demonstration to the American Mathematical Society conference at Dartmouth College on September 9, 1940, Stibitz used a teletype to send commands to the Complex Number Calculator in New York over telephone lines. It was the first computing machine ever used remotely over a phone line).

Hershel

Stibitz

                                                  

Julia Cameron 1860

I discovered on finding the photograph of Sir John Hershel, that it was taken in 1867 by Julia Margaret Cameron (11 June 1815 – 26 January 1879). She was a British photographer and became known for her portraits of celebrities of her time, as well as for photographs with an Arthurian or other legendary theme. Her career was short, spanning eleven years of her life, from 1864 to 1875. She took up photography at the age of 48 when given a camera as a present. Here are three of her pictures:

"Annie, my first success", 29 January 1864. Cameron's first print she was satisfied with

Ellen Terry photographed in 1864 by Julia Margaret Cameron

Cameron portrait of Julia Prinsep Jackson, later Julia Stephen, Cameron's niece, favourite subject, and mother of the author Virginia Wolf.

And a photograph of herself, taken by her youngest son Henry Herschel Hay Cameron in 1870;

There is more stuff to be found out about this woman, and the art of the glass plate photograph. That first photograph on the 9th of September 1839 and the gift of the camera to Julia Cameron was quite an achievement. 

There are further discoveries. Exactly 100 years before that glass plate, on the 9^th September 1739, the largest slave uprising in Britain’s mainland North American colonies prior to the American Revolution, erupted near Charleston, South Carolina.

The Stono Rebellion (sometimes called Cato's Conspiracy or Cato's Rebellion) was a slave rebellion that commenced on 9 September 1739. One of the earliest known organized rebellions in the present United States, it was led by native African who were Catholic and likely from the kingdom of the Kongo, and some of whom spoke Portuguese. Jemmy (referred to in some reports as "Cato" – Jemmy was probably a slave belonging to the Cato, or Cater, family who lived just off the Ashley River and north of the Stono River) was a literate slave who led 20 other enslaved Kongolese, who may have been former soldiers, in an armed march south from the Stono River (for which the rebellion is named). They recruited nearly 60 other slaves and killed 22–25 whites before being intercepted by a South Carolina militia near the Edisto River. In that battle, 20 whites and 44 slaves were killed, and the rebellion was suppressed. A group of slaves escaped and traveled another 30 miles (50 km) before battling a week later with a militia; most of the slaves were executed; a few survived to be sold to the West Indies.

The above information comes from a series of articles on North American Slave Revolts of which there were many. One such revolt was the 1842 Slave Revolt in the Cherokee Nation. This was the largest escape of a group of slaves to occur in the Cherokee Nation. The slave revolt took place on November 15, 1842, when a group of African-American slaves owned by the Cherokee escaped and tried to reach Mexico, where slavery had been outlawed. They were soon captured. However, at one point the escapees had killed two pursuers, for which five of them were to be later executed. I must confess I had no knowledge that the Cherokee bought and kept slaves. It appears that prior to European contact, the Cherokee had been cultivating wealth from the practice of making slaves of prisoners of war from other Indian tribes. In the late 18th century, there were Cherokee-owned plantations set up on Cherokee Nation land in Georgia and Tennessee. In 1819, the Cherokee Nation passed slave codes that regulated slave trade; forbade intermarriage; enumerated punishment for runaway slaves; and prohibited slaves from owning private property. An example of the consequences of one slave code, passed in 1820, dictated that anyone who traded with a slave without his owner’s permission was bound to the legal owner for the property, or its value, if the property traded proved to be stolen. Another code declared that a fine of fifteen dollars was to be levied for masters who allowed slaves to buy or sell liquor.

There is clearly more to be discovered here.

On a more literary note, in looking into the Cherokee language, I found that it was only created into a written form in 1821 by a Cherokee called Sequoyah. In 1821 he completed his independent creation of a Cherokee syllabary, making reading and writing in Cherokee possible. This was the only time in recorded history that a member of an illiterate people independently created an effective writing system. After seeing its worth, the people of the Cherokee Nation rapidly began to use his syllabary and officially adopted it in 1825. Their literacy rate rapidly surpassed that of surrounding European-American settlers.

We should not underestimate the value of a writing system, nor the importance and effects of that first  remote operation of a computer. One system leads to another. What is this need or desire to record and disseminate information?

ALL THE KINGS MEN

On the 8^th of September 1935, Louisiana State Senator (previously Governor) Huey Pierce Long Jr., was shot by Dr. Carl Weiss. He died two days later on the 10^th September. Dr. Weiss was shot by the Senator’s bodyguards and died on the 8^th September in the rotunda of the State Capitol where he shot the Governor.

Huey Long

Carl Weiss

There is some history of political assassinations in the United States (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_assassinated_American_politicians) most of whom where shot with a gun. There is one bombing recorded, one stabbing and one involving arrows and scalping, but for the most part the victims were shot.

As to Huey Long, he was a populist and spoke words that seemed to promote leftist thinking, although he ran his own political machine in a very American way.  He was instrumental in the building of hospitals, schools, universities, highways and bridges. He created a Share Our Wealth program in 1934 with the motto “Every Man A King” proposing new wealth redistribution measures in the form of a net asset tax on corporations and individual to curb the poverty and homelessness, which was nationwide during the Great Depression.  All that made him extremely popular with the working class and the unemployed voters. He was certainly not a saint, but he knew how to campaign and what worked for him in the state of Louisiana. Charismatic and immensely popular for his programs and willingness to take forceful action, Long was accused by his opponents of dictatorial tendencies for his near-total control of the state government. His governance has had critics and supporters, debating whether he was a dictator, demagogue or populist. In 1929, Long called a special session of both houses of the legislature to enact a new five-cent per barrel "occupational license tax" on production of refined oil, to help fund his social programs. The bill met with fierce opposition from the state's oil interests. Opponents in the legislature, led by freshman Cecil Morgan of Shreveport, moved to impeach Long on charges ranging from blasphemy to corruption, bribery, and misuse of state funds. Long tried to cut the session short, but after an infamous brawl that spilled across the State Legislature on what was known as "Bloody Monday", the Legislature voted to remain in session and proceed with the impeachment.

Long took his case to the people using his characteristic speaking tours. He inundated the state with his trademark circulars. He argued that Standard Oil, corporate interests and the conservative political opposition were conspiring to stop him from providing roads, books and other programs to develop the state and help the poor. The House referred many charges to the Senate. Impeachment required a two-thirds majority, but Long produced a "Round Robin" statement signed by 15 senators pledging to vote "not guilty" no matter what the evidence. They said the trial was illegal, and even if proved, the charges did not warrant impeachment. The impeachment process, now futile, was suspended. It has been alleged that both sides used bribes to buy votes, and that Long later rewarded the Round Robin signers with state jobs or other favors.

Following the failed impeachment attempt in the Senate, Long became ruthless when dealing with his enemies. He fired their relatives from state jobs and supported candidates to defeat them in elections. "I used to try to get things done by saying 'please'," said Long. "Now...I dynamite 'em out of my path." Since the state's newspapers were financed by the opposition, in March 1930 Long founded his own paper, the Louisiana Progress, which he used to broadcast achievements and denounce his enemies. To receive lucrative state contracts, companies were first expected to buy advertisements in Long's newspaper. Long attempted to pass laws placing a surtax on newspapers and forbidding the publishing of "slanderous material," but these efforts were defeated. After the impeachment attempt, Long received death threats. Fearing for his personal safety, he surrounded himself with armed bodyguards at all times

Noted author Arthur Penn Warren wrote a novel All the Kings Men (1946) which won him the Pulitzer Prize in 1947, based very closely on the life of Huey Long. It was made into a triple Academy Award winning film in 1949 (Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress).


Speaking of impeachment, it was on the 8th September 1974 that the United States President Gerald Ford pardoned former President Richard Nixon for any crimes Nixon may have committed while in office.

And on a higher note, on the 8th September 1971, the John F. Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C. was inaugurated, with the opening feature being the premiere of Leonard Bernstein's Mass. Nixon hated Kennedy.

The Kennedy Center as seen from the air. A portion of the Watergate Complex can be seen at the left.

In my looking into the Kennedy Centre, I came across this from the Beach Boys - Brian Wilson was honoured in an evening at the Kennedy Centre - this was not on the bill but what the heck.

BORODINO AND THE BLITZ

Kutuzov

Napoleon 1

Nearly 200 years ago the Battle of Borodino was fought on the 7^th September, 1812. It was the largest and bloodiest single-day action of the French invasion of Russia and all Napoleonic Wars, involving more than 250,000 troops and resulting in at least 70,000 casualties. The French Grande Armée under Emperor Napoleon attacked the Imperial Russian Army of General Mikhail Kutuzov near the village of Borodino, west of the town of Mozhaysk, and eventually captured the main positions on the battlefield, but failed to destroy the Russian army. About a third of Napoleon's soldiers were killed or wounded.

The battle itself ended with the Russian Army out of position. The state of exhaustion of the French forces and lack of information on the Russian Army's condition led Napoleon to remain on the battlefield with his army instead of the forced pursuit that had marked other campaigns that he had conducted in the past. The entirety of Napoleon's Imperial Guard, however, was still available to his disposition and in refusing to implement it he lost his singular chance to destroy the Russian army. The battle at Borodino was a pivotal point in the campaign, as it was the last offensive action fought by Napoleon in Russia. By withdrawing, the Russian army preserved its combat strength, eventually allowing it to force Napoleon out of the country.

Historical reports of the battle differed markedly depending on whether they originated from supporters of the French or Russian sides. Factional fighting between senior officers within each army also led to conflicting accounts and disagreements over the roles of particular individuals.

The fictional account in Tolstoy's War and Peace (Война и мир) is represented with some style by Sergei Bondarchuk in his film version of 1967. Here are a few clips:

It was also on the 7th September 1940, 128 years after Borodino that the Luftwaffe began its bombing campaign on London. It was the first on 57 consecutive nights of bombing.

WALDEN AND THE STAMPEDE TRAIL

The 6^th of September marks the ending of two stories of life in the wilderness 145 years apart. The first, on the 6^th September 1847, is the more admired and successful event. It was on that day that Henry David Thoreau left Walden Pond. The second, on the 6^th September 1992, was the discovery of the body of Christopher Johnson McCandless, a young man who had dreamed of a life in the Alaskan wilderness.

Thoreau produced a book of his thoughts and experiences during his two years of living on the shores of Walden Pond, Walden; or, Life in the Woods (1854). The work is part personal declaration of independence, social experiment, voyage of spiritual discovery, satire, and manual for self-reliance. He stated:

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion.

Thoreau was steeped in the transcendental movement of the 1830’s and ‘40’s which was developed as a protest against the general state of culture and society and in particular, the state of intellectualism at Harvard University and the doctrine of the Unitarian church taught at Harvard Divinity School. Among the transcendentalists' core beliefs was the belief in an ideal spirituality that "transcends" the physical and empirical and is realized only through the individual's intuition, rather than through the doctrines of established religions. Thoreau in Walden spoke of the debt to the Vedic thought directly, as did other members of the movement:

In the morning I bathe my intellect in the stupendous and cosmogonal philosophy of the Bhagavad Gita, since whose composition years of the gods have elapsed, and in comparison with which our modern world and its literature seem puny and trivial; and I doubt if that philosophy is not to be referred to a previous state of existence, so remote is its sublimity from our conceptions. I lay down the book and go to my well for water, and lo! there I meet the servant of the Brahmin, priest of Brahma, and Vishnu and Indra, who still sits in his temple on the Ganges reading the Vedas, or dwells at the root of a tree with his crust and water-jug. I meet his servant come to draw water for his master, and our buckets as it were grate together in the same well. The pure Walden water is mingled with the sacred water of the Ganges.

The writer John Updike commented in 2004:

A century and a half after its publication, Walden has become such a totem of the back-to-nature, preservationist, anti-business, civil-disobedience mindset, and Thoreau so vivid a protester, so perfect a crank and hermit saint, that the book risks being as revered and unread as the Bible.

Thoreau embarked on his two-year experiment in simple living on July 4, 1845, when he moved to a small, self-built house on land owned by Emerson in a second growth forest around the shores of Walden Pond. The house was in "a pretty pasture and woodlot" of 14 acres (57,000 m²) that Emerson had bought, 1.5 miles (2.4 km) from his family home. As you can see, Thoreau did not stray all that far from civilization.

 McCandless, on the other hand, was from El Segundo, California and he did stray some considerable distance from home. He adopted the name Alexander Supertramp and hiked into the Alaskan wilderness with little food and equipment, hoping to live a period of solitude. For years, McCandless dreamed of an "Alaskan Odyssey" wherein he would live off the land of the Alaskan wilderness, far away from civilization, and keep a journal describing his physical and spiritual progress as he faced the forces of nature. In April 1992, McCandless hitchhiked from Enderlin, North Dakota to Fairbanks, Alaska. He was last seen alive on April 28, 1992 by Jim Gallien, a local, who gave him a ride from Fairbanks to the head of the Stampede Trail. Gallien was concerned about "Alex", who had minimal supplies (not even a compass) and no experience surviving in the Alaskan bush. Gallien repeatedly tried to persuade Alex to defer his trip, and even offered to drive him to Anchorage to buy suitable equipment and supplies. However, McCandless ignored Gallien's warnings, refusing all assistance except for a pair of Wellington boots, two tuna melt sandwiches, and a bag of corn chips.

After hiking along the snow-covered Stampede Trail, McCandless found an abandoned bus (about 25 miles west of Healy) used as a hunting shelter and parked on an overgrown section of the trail near Denali National Park, and began to try to live off the land. He had a 10-pound bag of rice, a Remington semi-automatic rifle with 400 rounds of .22LR hollowpoint ammunition, a book of local plant life, several other books, and some camping equipment. He assumed he could forage for plant food and hunt game. McCandless poached porcupines and birds. He managed to kill a moose; however, he failed to preserve the meat properly, and it spoiled. Rather than thinly slicing and air-drying the meat, like jerky, as is usually done in the Alaskan bush, he smoked it, following the advice of hunters he had met in South Dakota.

A self-portrait of Christopher McCandless in his camp on the Stampede Trail was found undeveloped in his camera after his death.

He too, kept a journal containing entries covering a total of 112 days. They disclose his changing fortunes from the ecstatic to the grim. On August 12, 1992, McCandless wrote what are apparently his final words in his journal: "Beautiful Blueberries."

He tore the final page from Louis l’Amour’s's memoir, Education of a Wandering Man, which contains an excerpt from a Robinson Jeffers poem titled "Wise Men in Their Bad Hours":

Death's a fierce meadowlark: but to die having made

Something more equal to centuries

Than muscle and bone, is mostly to shed weakness.

The mountains are dead stone, the people

Admire or hate their stature, their insolent quietness,

The mountains are not softened or troubled

And a few dead men's thoughts have the same temper.

On the other side of the page, McCandless added, "I HAVE HAD A HAPPY LIFE AND THANK THE LORD. GOODBYE AND MAY GOD BLESS ALL!"

His body was found in his sleeping bag inside the bus by Butch Killian, a local hunter, on the 6^th of September, 1992. McCandless had been dead for more than two weeks and weighed an estimated 67 pounds (30 kg). His official, undisputed cause of death was starvation.

The story of Christopher McCandless has now become myth and he has bee made into an heroic figure though books Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer (1993) and films, Sean Penn’s Into the Wild (2007) and a documentary by Ron Lamothe, The Call of the Wild (2007). He also inspired TV episodes and music by folk singers Ellis Paul and Eddie From Ohio.

From another point of view Alaskan Park Ranger Peter Christian wrote:

I am exposed continually to what I will call the 'McCandless Phenomenon.' People, nearly always young men, come to Alaska to challenge themselves against an unforgiving wilderness landscape where convenience of access and possibility of rescue are practically nonexistent [...] When you consider McCandless from my perspective, you quickly see that what he did wasn’t even particularly daring, just stupid, tragic, and inconsiderate. First off, he spent very little time learning how to actually live in the wild. He arrived at the Stampede Trail without even a map of the area. If he [had] had a good map he could have walked out of his predicament [...] Essentially, Chris McCandless committed suicide.

Hero or idiot, in my view McCandless should have found his solitude closer to home like Thoreau, or at least learned more about the life he sought to lead, as indicated by Peter Christian. Perhaps he didn't want to, as indicated by his final thoughts. This You Tube entry has had over a million views. Perhaps another view has been formed.

LABOUR DAY - PROTEST AND TRAGEDY

The 5^th September 2011, the first Monday in September is Labour Day in the United States. It is a National Holiday and is the creation of the labour movement in the United States. Dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers, it, allegedly, constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well being of the United States.

The first Labour Day was celebrated on Tuesday the 5^th September 1882, 129 years ago, in New York City. It was held in accordance with the plans of the Central Labour Union. The Central Labor Union of New York, Brooklyn, and New Jersey was an early trade union organization that later broke up into various locals, which are now AFL-CIO members. The establishment of the CLU predates the consolidation of New York City (1897) by nearly two decades.

The form that the observance and celebration of Labor Day should take were outlined in the first proposal of the holiday — a street parade to exhibit to the public "the strength and esprit de corps of the trade and labor organizations" of the community, followed by a festival for the recreation and amusement of the workers and their families. This became the pattern for the celebrations of Labor Day. Speeches by prominent men and women were introduced later, as more emphasis was placed upon the economic and civic significance of the holiday. Still later, by a resolution of the American Federation of Labor convention of 1909, the Sunday preceding Labor Day was adopted as Labor Sunday and dedicated to the spiritual and educational aspects of the labor movement.

Now, traditionally, most Americans celebrate Labor Day as the symbolic end of the summer. In high society, Labor Day is (or was) considered the last day of the year when it is fashionable for women to wear white. God knows why that is. There is also an extraordinary account by Hunter S. Thompson, of a Labour Day week end spent with the Hells Angels motorcycle gang in California. But…

...there was  a bit of a stir in Madison, Wisconsin, USA on the 12^th March 2011 when some 100,000 people protested against Wisconsin Governor Walker, signing a bill removing workers collective bargaining rights.  Perhaps the labour Movement is not quite dead in America. What will happen on Labour Day today?

In memoriam, it was also on the 5^th September 1972, at the Munich Olympics, that tragedy struck. A Palestinian terrorist group called "Black September" attacked and took hostage 11 Israeli athletes. Two  die in the attack and 9 die the following day.

At 4:30 a.m. local time on 5 September, as the athletes slept, eight tracksuit-clad members of Black September carrying duffel bags loaded with AKM assault rifles, Tokarev pistols, and grenades scaled a two-meter chain-link fence with the assistance of unsuspecting athletes who were also sneaking into the Olympic Village.

THE DAY OF THE BIG STICK

On the 2^nd September 1901, the then Vice President of the United States Theodore Roosevelt, in a speech at the Minnesota State Fair, uses the phrase “Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.” This policy has never been far from United States foreign policy. Roosevelt made this speech twelve days before the assassination of President William McKinley. Roosevelt had used the phrase earlier in a letter to Henry W. Sprague on the 26^th January 1900. 

He had attributed the term as a West African proverb. Roosevelt allegedly described his style of foreign policy as “the exercise of intelligent forethought and of decisive action sufficiently far in advance of any likely crisis.” In other words be well forearmed.  Since the Second World War, the US has certainly attempted to adhere to that part of the policy dealing with weapons, without necessarily following the part relating to intelligent forethought.

Here is a short video extolling the virtues of Teddy Roosevelt.

The advantages of the big stick, or rather possession of modern weaponry, was amply demonstrated three years to the day before Roosevelt’s State Fair speech, on the 2^nd September 1898.  At the Battle of Omdurman, on that day, an army commanded by General Sir Herbert Kitchener defeated the army of Abdullah al-Taashi, successor to the Mahdi. The British forces consisted of 8,200 British Troops and 17,600 Sudanese and Egyptian soldiers against 52,000 warriors. On the British side reported casualties were 47 dead and 382 wounded as against 10,000 killed, 13,000 wounded and 5,000 captured on the other side. It clearly demonstrated what modern rifles and artillery could do against far older weapons. The British always seem to want to display there weaponry on the African continent. I wonder why that is? Is it really something to be proud of? I still wonder. The pretence of protecting civilians by reigning down terror from the air with computer guided bombs, killing other civilians apparently not worthy of protection, is not a particularly brilliant display of intelligent forethought. However…

The Battle of Omdurman is portrayed in the 1939 Alexander Korda film of “The Four Feathers” which follows herewith. A grand display of jingoism and the stiff upper lip, but well acted or course.