On A Pale Horse

I don't have my philosophical questions. I think the deepest one I have currently are "Why do people feel the need to add 's' to everything? For godsakes it's 'Farmer Jack' not 'Farmer Jacks', 'Ford' not 'Fords', 'Meijer' not 'Meijers'." Whatever. I'm not quite as inquizitive as Winifred Bennett, who causally suggested during dinner one night that DNA testing might resolve the historical question if Thomas Jefferson was the father, of at least, one of Sally Hemings children, Jeffersons slave.
Her question was futher examined by Dr Eugene Foster, a retired pathologist. His findings opened up the floodgates and it was soon determined, that in all probablity, Jefferson not only fathered one of Sally Hemings children but perhaps was the father of all six of her offspring.

Ms. Bennett passed away from kidney failure.

July 12, 1935 - October 7, 2006 - R.I.P.

Labels: 1935 births, 2006 October deaths, historical, kidney failure

A few years ago when I was finishing up my worthless Bacholors Degree at Walsh College I had a finance teacher who was, at the very least, interesting. He had been a business man for many years, part of that time working in the oil fields of Saudi Arabia and had plenty of stories that he was willing to share. Part of his required reading included George Orwells 1984 and Balint Vazsonyi's Americans 30 Year War. The book written by a Hungarian immigrant and paralled some of the things that have been happening in America to the things he witnessed in Eastern Europe before his immigration. Interesting book, I highly recommend it to anyone that I get into a political conversation with, especially these days.

Vice Admiral Fredrick "Dick" Ashworth was a weaponer aboard the bomber that dropped the a nuclear bomb over Nagasaki August 9, 1945. The bomb devastated the area and is the cause of an estimated 60,000 to 80,000 deaths. It was a horrible, horrible event in WW2 but was one of many reasons that the War was quickly brought to an end.

War stinks no matter what you say. Dropping bombs on innocent people is horrible way to show power. But to forget about this event such as this would be sickening. On May 18, 1998 the Enola Gay exhibit, the first plane to drop a nuclear bomb on Hiroshima, was discontinued at the Smithsonian Institute. The cancellation was brought on by a number of reasons (googling picked up plenty) that pretty much boiled down to being 'politically incorrect'. Thankfully the exhibit and the plane was moved to the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center and will hopfully be up for a long time to come. It's been often said that to forget the past is to repeat it. It seems like a lot of information is lost now a days thanks to commercial media. If we can keep events like this in mind we can overcome and surpass our predecessors.

Ashworth was born in Beverly, Mass., and graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1933. He passed away on December 6th while undergoing heart surgery.

1912 - December 3, 2005
RIP

Labels: 1912 births, 2005 December deaths, historical, military, surgery

In the summer of 1985, while away at summer camp, I had my one and only big sister. Her name was Laurie and she had to be the sweetest person I’d ever met in my whole life with an incredibly angelic voice. I wrote my mom and dad about her and they wrote back that they couldn’t wait to meet her. You can’t imagine how excited I was when Parents Day rolled around and I pointed her out when she sang the National Anthem at the Swim Show, I didn’t realize my parents’ jaws could drop that low. To me Laurie was the best-est person in the whole world; to my parents she was black.

The Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964 just 8 years before I was born. I know attitudes don’t change over night but every once in awhile my parents or grandparents will say or do something that blows my mind and that at one time in America it was all perfectly normal. It’s just the color of skin we’re not that different underneath it all.

Right down the road we’ve got The Henry Ford Museum that proudly displays the Rosa Parks Bus and patrons can walk through and see that a little place like that made a huge difference in the lives of so many people.

As a side note, I was in Atlanta on Monday for business. A co-worker, from Michigan, and her date, a local resident, were giving me the nickel tour showing me the sites. One thing that kept on coming up was that the city was still really segregated, and even some of her date’s comments were archaic. Pretty mind blowing.

Mrs. Parks made her home in Detroit in 1959 and worked for Congressman John Conyers. She passed away Monday, October 24th

February 13, 1913 - October 24, 2005
RIP

Labels: 1913 births, 2005 October deaths, activist, historical, natural causes, political