Tomorrow is Memorial Day, the day Americans have honored since 1868, when we mourn those military personnel who have died in the service of the country—that is, for the rest of us. For me, one of those people is Beau Bryant. When we were growing up, we hung out at one particular house where a friend’s mom provided unlimited peanut butter and fluff sandwiches, Uno games, iced tea and lemonade, sympathetic ears, and stories. She talked about Beau, her older brother, in the same way we talked about all our people, and her stories made him part of our world even though he had been killed in World War II 19 years before we were born.
As a child, I frequently listened to my uncle, well he was an honorary uncle but an honorary one was the same as a blood uncle, but Uncle Omar Bartlett, who was from New Hampshire and spoke with a distinctive down east accent, told his story of the D-Invasion of Normandy. I suspect he was in that wave. Hearing him speak of this in the late 1950s meant that it was only 14 or 15 years earlier — a blink of an eye in time. Today 14 years seems like yesterday today. Time does that to you as you age. But Uncle Omar proudly repeated his story of the invasion. I probably sat in silence stoking one of his and Auntie Carman’s cats, Tiger or Buster. And my anticipation to visit them frequently on Sundays likely seeded in my recesses, the pleasure of feline companionship in the home. Dag. I’m lucky Auntie Carman and Uncle Omar didn’t own any cows.
Thank you Heather for this story of what we are celebrating on Memorial Day. Annabel has given us a reminder that we need to honor those who died by making sure our democracy survives and voting blue.
That used to be not such a hard climb. Now that evil (and Steve Bannon’s bullshittery is evil), has touched us, I worry that we will let them down. I hope we don’t need another Gettysburg
It's hard to understand why it is a hard climb for so many, when the choice is so easy. If only people can focus on what's important, such as the things JL mentioned, rather than the false equivalency that is fed to them, then we will be alright.
Fox never thought those things were important. I remember the junk bond fiasco of mid to late 80’s. That was when Greed is good became the Repub mantra. It still is. Greed to feed the hogs in charge, that is.
"Greed is good" was a line from a predatory financial industry villain in the cautionary movie "Wall Street". It was meant to be as appealing as "I get you my pretty and your little dog too", but modern Republicans, true to form, embraced treachery and tried to make a virtue of it, as they now cerebrate the "Heroes" who invaded the Capitol on January Sixth. Greed is not just acquisitive excess, it is acquisitive excess that deprives others. THAT is sentiment the toadies of plutocracy try to make respectable. I commonly read the phrase "Greed is Good" in financial press, but saying that particular phrase out loud seemed to fade, if reluctantly, in the wake of the Great Recession.
I'd say it started with the Stock Market. And it definitely got a boost with the lucre made by our WASP oligarchs in WWI. To see greed in action just search "Prescott Bush - Wall St Putsch" 1933. The coup failed, but the Oligarchs haven't given up. One Branch down, Two to go, but it really only takes the White House.
J L, exactly. We need to come to together and we won't have the first two words of your post if we don't have a livable planet. it will be an ugly scrabble for survival and we are seeing the first instances of this already. Salem (OR) just elected a mayor bought and paid for by the people who do not care about a livable planet, only making more money and covering all the land with something that will grow their bank accounts. Coming together also means working with good people of faith. Lately i have been seeing memes dissing religion as if every believer is the same and takes the Bible literally while extolling science as if it has the answer to everything, never turns out to be wrong, and never changes. i have blocked two of them who seem to believe that f bombs make a good argument. The problem is with those who want a theocracy here run by white nationalist pseudo Christians who are willing to use death star as a means to achieve this and those are the people we need to call out and vote out of power.
I agree with the important parts of this, Michele, but I cannot see science as the problem. Science can help us all have better lives even though we ignore or suppress it when it tells us to take action that the money-changers resist as wrt to climate change. Like science, religion can and has been used to support unimaginable horrors on the planet. What we need is compassion, empathy and determination to find the greatest good for the greatest number and make that our goal.
John, i think you have delineated the problem with science. it isn't always right. Some experiments are not very good and/ or are paid for by companies looking to sell a cure. There has also been plenty of stealing of work as well. And yes, it can be used to support and design incredible horrors. i am actually not saying that science is a problem, but i do have a problem painting all people of faith with a negative brush. i would say Native American beliefs and spirituality can help us with climate change. Agree totally with your final sentence. That is my hope.
Yep, fortunately science is self-correcting in its efforts to improve our understanding of things. Some indeed misuse it in attempts to make money. TRUTH and honesty are what matters. All useful understanding depends in both. IMO nobody should ridicule honest beliefs held by others about matters of which there can be no certainty. However, hypocrisy is abhorrent as are attempts to force others, without their agreement, to act in accordance with one’s own beliefs. Useful social compacts result from general agreement about acceptable behaviour. Let’s hold fast to the notion of GGFGN! 😊
The religious people I very much admire are humble and humane. Those who claim to be religious who also claim to have all the answers and the God-given right to force them on others, seem to me the opposite of anything Jesus recommended. I think of science as paying very careful attention to the way things are, and quarrel when people want to reject what can be reasonably proven for Biblical literalism. Some of the same people who claim every item in the Bible is literal fact have also claimed that Jesus was not really talking about real enemies when he said "love thy enemy" and you have to have special knowledge (as they do) to realize that. I think that scientific thinking gives us a much clearer picture of our circumstances, and can help us to prioritize our choices, but it is not designed to (nor can it) to deliver ethical choices. For that, we have to probe our own inner values and learn from each other in ways that allows us to question our own selfish motives. We all are obliged to look out for ourselves, but become toxic when we fail to look out for each other. Freedom defined as impunity for the individual can become sociopathy. Freedom worthy of the name is achieved socially. Isn't that what the Constitution tries to reinforce? "We the People..."?
So long as a person is not hurting others, how they come by an abiding sense of fairness and responsibilities to others seems to me beside the point. I am not religious in any conventional manner, but among my greatest heroes are Desmond Tutu, the Dalai Lama, and MLK. Faux-pious Republicans have corrupted Jesus's message of kindness. I wish more of his faithful followers would visibly stand together against that. When greed and ego push every other value out of the nest, it becomes truly evil.
"Accustomed to trample on the rights of those around you, you have lost the genius of your own independence, and become the fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant who rises." - Lincoln
“Science never claims to have the final word on anything, religion claims to have the final word on everything.” Don’t remember where I saw that, but so true…
Unfortunately, many people do not understand science nor do they understand that some scientists are people of faith. Sometimes a particular discipline does not disprove certain things in religion. Prayer, for example, is not disproved by statistics and if it is not merely asking for something and is mediative, the health consequences can be measured. Fundamentalists of all kinds claim to have the final word on everything.
this reminds me of how the segment of Ken Burn's commencement speech to Brandeis (with its powerful Jewish history) about how we need to find the "us" and "we" in our country again. while what he was Actually setting up, and which barely got any coverage, was a break in his famous "neutrality."
The part of the speech where he made it clear that we need to come together, but the choice is Clear. We must make the choice to save our democracy.
Some Christians, a very small number from what I've seen, are coming out in favor of democracy and the Clear Choice of tolerance, non-judgement and love, but Not Enough and Not Loudly Enough.
I'm always glad to find someone who is Christian, I assume you are, who is willing to break from the flock and actually practice "do unto others."
I hope you can amplify your voice in support of the oppressed, the needy, the non-white, the women who need abortion as healthcare, the LGBTQia community and all the others that many "christians" are attacking day in and day out.
Yes, we need to find the we. I am not a Christian actually, but a person who believes in the universal energy whatever people want to call that. For years my husband sneered at Christians without making a distinction between good people of faith and hypocrites and pharisees. We have a friend who is a Christian and is the most grounded person i know and her energy is a comforting presence. She is also one of the those people whose faith does what you have described in terms of social issues. i had a friend on Facebook, since blocked, who constantly posted memes under the name faith is a mental illness. I am sure it is for some and certainly magnifies hate of anyone who is different...which is not what Jesus taught in the first three Gospels. Most of the people, when I defended good people of faith and said many people welcome prayer simply because they need support, assumed I was some kind of religious fundamentalist nut. I kept telling them that they had no idea of what I believed or did not believe. Some of them thought they were too clever by half and failed to understand what I actually wrote. And if I made a point, for example, yes, Jesus is mentioned outside the Bible, very briefly in Josephus, they ignored it. MY husband looked up studies on the efficacy of prayer and found out that studies can be fraught with problems, but when it is meditative, good health results can be measured. I never send people prayers, btw, because I don't pray, but instead healing reiki energy which probably amounts to the same thing if they feel supported by it. You need not strike do unto others because the same sentiment is found in many religions as a way to tell people to treat others as they would want others to treat them. I never judge a faith or a belief by the fundamentalists, hypocrites, and haters. I have often mentioned Native American beliefs and myths as a way of approaching nature.
In Beau’s memory, please pledge to yourself that you will search out your entire family and friends to encourage as many of them as possible to cast their vote for Joe Biden and other democrats on the ballot! We each have an honorable role to protect and preserve OUR Democracy! Let’s all pitch in to make it happen, ok? Many thanks!
Great idea! But they all watch FN, refer to J6 as a peaceful protest, and believe the former guy is being unfairly prosecuted by the out of control Biden DOJ.
Every servicmember who has died for their country is rolling in their grave, due to the words spoken (I will not defile this article} on Memorial Day by "the evil one"..."the great dragon" .."prince of demons"........
Diaper Don's granddaddy was a pimp and draft dodger?? Was he the first bone spur tRumpshitter?. It is a shame that MAD Magazine no longer exists. William Gaines and the "usual gang of idiots" could go weekly with what the Orange A-Hole is up to everyday.
Heather's letter today reminds me of a poem that I used to read to and discuss with my students when I was teaching. For a homework assignment, I asked them to read the poem to their parents or grandparents. One grandfather wrote me and thanked me for reminding the children of the sacrifices that were made so that they could have the freedoms, much taken for granted, that they enjoyed.
If you have rime to read it, here it is:
In Flander's fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks still bravely singing, fly,
Scarcely heard amid the guns below.
We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved
(And spent our paycheck on a dress for our mother)
Amen, Michael ... and if it does the people must revise the system to make sure that it really is a democracy: abolish the EC and elect the President based on the popular vote, revise the basis of the senate, revise the basis of the SCOTUS, etc. Otherwise, it seems clear that democracy will perish under the rules that define it. It appears still to be nip and tuck, as incredible as it seems.
Beautiful story, Heather. One that keeps memories alive. Writing has been that since our human beginning. And compassion knows no boundaries….that of a country or a person’s thinking.
All we have to do is release the feeling of compassion to the Universe. All will feel it. All will be within it.
It is simply a must that we not let those who sacrificed so much, some with their lives, to have done so in vain. We need to sharpen our perspective of the threat that we are up against. Toward that end, the following is my message to my fellow Lakeland, Florida Democratic Club members regarding some of what we can do and why:
Dear Fellow Lakeland Democratic Club Members and friends: That is the question - do our letters published in the newspapers affect anything? I don't know for sure. I do think that they can reinforce the views and motivations of those who agree with the letters. I always read the letter to the editors. The letter below was published in today's (Sunday, May 26, 2024) edition of the Palm Beach Post. I encourage more of you to please write letters to The Ledger and other area newspapers. Kathie's letter about climate change was published in today's Ledger.
The reason evangelicals support Trump
Cal Thomas, in the May 18 edition of the Post, took Donald Trump to task because of his use of profane and filthy words. Thomas then ponders, 'Does he believe in heaven and know how to get there? His fervent evangelical supporters, some of whom bizarrely claim he shares their faith, should ask him.' Respectfully, that line of inquiry completely misses the reasons for Trump’s support among white evangelicals.
I wondered who could vote for such a flawed person to be president of the U.S. Two professors at the University of Kansas also wondered, conducted a study and published their findings in the journal Critical Sociology: 'The Anger Games: Who Voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 Election, and Why?' The authors discovered that white evangelicals do not support Trump because of their shared 'Christian' views but rather they share the same views about race, women’s rights, gay rights and immigrants. Trump wants to be dictator and his supporters are willing to sacrifice democracy to have a white Protestant Christian autocracy.
Trump, if back in power, as a sop to (Russia’s Vladimir) Putin, would pull the U.S. out of NATO. The failure of democracy here would probably lead to a domino effect around the world with other democracies falling. For that reason alone, this November’s election is the most important in the history of the world.
You are so right, Annabel! I have pointed out to many people that this year's election is not about liking or hating the candidates, it's voting for or against democracy. It's that simple.
Thank you for this. The picture says it all about the spirit and community to build a democratic republic. My father was also flying B17s in daylight missions without fighter support. God bless them and keep them all.
Thank you Christopher, perhaps President Biden will invoke similar words on D-Day this year, 6/6/24. Weather can be wet & stormy off the Atlantic & the Channel in early June as General Eisenhower had to deal with formidable logistics on the longest day very long.
Well, *maybe* the last great Republican *politician*, though even of that I would not want to swear. And certainly I have known personally some wonderful Republicans who were not in government.
Me too. I remember that when Ford "pardoned" Nixon I thought "Well, THAT's gonna come back and bite us in the ass."
As far as I'm concerned, what Ford did was just as bad what the "founding fathers" did in acquessing to the south in not obliterating slavery. We're STILL paying for it today and the current political scene is fomented by the same type of people from the same neck of the woods
I thought "Well, THAT's gonna come back and bite us in the ass."
I thought that too, though I underestimated how wide that loophole in equal justice and rule of law would be stretched. How instrumental it was in turning the former "Party of Lincoln" into "All Treachery, All the Time" I can't say for sure, but it saliently demonstrated how loopholes in our system could be exploited wholesale, which modern Republicans have turned into an industry.
Ford is credited for pardoning Nixon for the "right reasons", and Ford never seemed like Machiavellian schemer, nor the brightest light on the tree; but it seemed more to me like dereliction of duty. Eric Holder, Obama's AG, infamously said "I am concerned that the size of some of these institutions becomes so large that it does become difficult for us to prosecute them when we are hit with indications that if you do prosecute, if you do bring a criminal charge, it will have a negative impact on the national economy, perhaps even the world economy." And unlike the Savings and Loan scandal, the AG's office did not go after wrongdoers, supposedly from the 'good" of the country, but with the overall problems left changed little in the end, and many of the "so large" institutions were deliberately made much larger.
It seems to me that we have been "smoothing over" a whole lot of unworkable, unsustainable, and treacherous stuff over the last several decades, and it's been biting us big time since. If not stopped now, it threatens to ruin everything.
I think their must have been Beau's in my family but I've never heard their stories. On this day I usually think of what it must have been like for my dad and my father-in-law to lose so many buddies in the Korean War. Other than that, watching Saving Private Ryan always makes me tear up at the end. How can we just throw away such sacrifice, and democracy itself only to justify Twitler's Big lie that has been so thoroughly proven to be just that?
Heather, thank you for making this Memorial Day meaningful by telling us about Beau. His story is one that should inspire us to do our part to battle facism whenever it raises its ugly head.
I grew up with WWII veterans in my family as I was born shortly after the war ended. The uncle that I was closest to was in the 101st Airborne and had to parachute into Nazi Germany. Another uncle served on a Destroyer that was hit by a kamakazi Zero. My dad lied about his age in 1942 and joined the Navy, going into the Merchant Marine. He sailed on troop transport ships during WWII and Korea. He served until 1957. My mom was class of 1944 at Spring Hill School and went to Nursing School. She served as a nurse stateside until she was pregnant with me in 1951. They are all gone now but their service and devotion to Democracy will always be in my heart.
These were the living people who served in WWII that were a large part of my life growing up. I would like to mention my dad's older brother Woodrow who went down in a B-24. I never met him. His remains are in a cemetery 5 miles from here. I am the only one who ever visits his marker.
My family, unfortunately, has many people who sacrificed their lives in the defense of their country. One of them was my cousin, Ned Turner Dybvig, who was killed in action on June 16, 1968, in Vietnam. Ned was a talented artist and an athlete. He was in top physical shape and highly intelligent. He was an outdoorsman and he skydived for fun, which perhaps is why he volunteered for the 101st Airborne. His name is one of the thousands listed on the Vietnam Wall. We will always remember him. https://www.vvmf.org/Wall-of-Faces/14393/NED-T-DYBVIG/
Because Beau and so many others gave up not only their lives but also their futures to protect American democracy, we must do our part by speaking out and fighting against the current serious threats.
Heather… thank you for Beau’s story and your end salutation. I’m a retired Navy Captain. As much as appropriated the thanks for my service on Memorial Days, I have to remind folks that today wasn’t about my service, it was for the service of those “who gave the last full measurement of devotion.”
If I was the author of today’s letter, it would honor the memory of Chief Petty Officer Patrick Wade. Chief Wade was killed in action in Sumatra Iraq on 17 July 2007. I met Chief Wade the week before, my 1st week in Iraq.
As two Navy guys living among a sea of Army folks, I came across his EDO team at a DFAC (chow hall). We got to talking & he was curious as to why a Navy submariner got sent to Iraq. After telling him I was assigned to the Army Corps of Engineers for construction work, he told me his team’s next assignment that day was to sweep the route my team would take for IEDs the following morning. A week later I learned of his loss along with one of his teammates. I think of him often.
Wow! So glad that you were able to meet and speak with Patrick Wade! Now, like Beau, I feel I know him, and appreciate him with love for his service to you and who knows how many others!
Thanks Valerie. We only spoke for about 10 minutes in that dining hall. I shook the hand of his team. There’s a strong bond in the Navy between the commissioned officer corps and the CPO corps (aka non-commissioned officers). I never would have made Captain if it weren’t for good deck plate leaders like Chief Wade. Sometimes 10 minutes is all you need to form a lifetime bond. Aloha … TJB
Heather's gentle and eloquent telling of Beau's story calls to mind the very long list of names of the people who fell in service to our nation since its inception. The lives unlived.
Postscript: There is so much more to say about going to war -- but, for another time.
Just last weekend, one of the fighter pilots who arrived in 1944 and turned the air war around for the guys in the bombers died. My friend, General Bud Anderson, was a week away from his 103rd birthday. At the time of his departure, he was the top-scoring living American ace, with 16 victories during that year of 1944, the year America liberated the world. Unlike Beau, Bud died peacefully in his bed, seven years after his wife, who he married in 1945 after coming home from the war, surrounded by his three children and their seven children and their children's five children. Three generations who were fortunate to come into the world after Bud survived. These were the guys who went out and saved the world, then came home and made the world we grew up in. After 40 years of writing about American airmen in World War II, none of those I met over those years and became friends with are still here. Bud was the last. I've had the best writing career anyone could have, making sure their stories weren't lost. (Fortunately I recorded every interview I did and have enough first-person material to finish the still-uncompleted series)
They're not that good (since I mostly was learning on the go), and yes, the series will be completed, so long as I get the benefit of 10 generations of family DNA that I should live into my 90s with "all systems go," having not been killed by a bear (like my sixth great grandfather) or stuck a piece of uranium in the pocket of my workpants in the 50s (as my father did).
Good, bad, useful are determinations for future scholars. They might have uses that are unforeseen today. It's a time capsule. Judging from your love of MAGAs, sending a bear with a necklace of uranium to a Trump rally might be your destiny?
Most are written interviews with "memory joggers" since my brain is wired that if I am interested in something, it never goes away (and if I'm not it never sticks around). Facts and dates, quote lines. Like for an article as the journalist I was very early on.
TC knows how & where these stories are preserved. The National Pearl Harbor Museum is sitting right above the sunken Arizona; here is a collected survivor story from the Memorial.
"GINO GASPARELLI, On December 7th my duty stations at Wheeler Field on the island of Oahu ... Wheeler was the largest fighter airbase on the Island. "[Wheeler] had been on alert status all week long until Saturday morning".
TC tipped me to the radar the U.S. was using on the warning station on Northeast shoreline of Oahu circa 193x-1941; I am certain TC's work will be completed & preserved.
I read about General Anderson in The NY Times—what a great man. Your professional life is another amazing story—thank you for writing these historical accounts for us.
Thank you for posting the link to this powerful story. Remarkable men, Yaeger and Anderson. The concluding sentence in the article is as poignant a message, as it is profound, for America today.
May his memory forever be a blessing. And may citizens learn about and honor the ultimate sacrifice that men like Beau made to protect the values of freedom and democracy.
That’s the refrain that went through my mind as I read today’s poignant post. My uncle, too, died before I was born, in the flower of his youth like so many others. I had no cousins. Uncle Cy was serving with the RCN on a Corvette, the HMCS Alberni, that was torpedoed in the English Channel during WWII. But his absence was always a presence in our home, and I have remembered him every Remembrance Day since I was a school child. The 80th anniversary of the day he and 58 others died will be celebrated on August 21 this year at a museum dedicated to the history of the Alberni. https://www.alberniproject.org/
That line and the song is still so sadly relevant on days like these set aside for honoring those who served and gave up the ultimate sacrifice for their country.
We just finished going through a treasure trove of pictures that had been boxed up after my mother died. There's one of a handsome young man in uniform. I remember being told as a child that he was a cousin, but I don't remember his name. And there is no one left from that generation to tell me. So when you have questions about your family history, ask, before it's too late.
Betsy, I would issue a plea to preserve every old photograph you have. Our technology will continue to advance in the ability to recognize faces of people in old pictures. I'm not an expert, but I predict that eventually machine learning will be able to correlate disparate scraps of information, enabling identification of the people in a picture of our great grandparents' yard party in 1900, or whatever. I've been working on genealogy for several years, and I have pictures of people that my Mom saved, like you, but I don't have a clue who they were. The Internet gives us the ability to connect the dots, around the world, in a way that was not possible until this current era. That process, and ability, is surely nascent now, and will continue to develop (assuming civilization does not collapse in November). It will probably take the form of centralized collection points, where pictures and letters can be voluntarily uploaded to a "cloud-based" database, along with whatever information and clues we can supply. I've been a science fiction fan since the 1950s, so maybe I'm just dreaming. But I'm confident it is possible that old picture identification will help in our research as genealogists.
Thank you for this encouragement. There has been a fair amount of genealogy work on my mother's side of the family, but none that I know of on my father's, and I think that the picture that I referred to is on his side, since nobody has been able to identify it. But, like my mother, I'm a packrat, so this photo, along with a bunch of others, is in a box for now.
I think patience is essential in genealogy work. I have a mystery in my mother's direct line, five generations back. My wife and I have been talking about going on a road trip to Upstate New York and Vermont, to explore several cemeteries in both states, and research materials in Rutland, VT. I'll need to get back into the research before we go, hoping thereby to not miss the little hunches that occur after being into it with single-minded focus for hours or days on end. Vermont has digitized a lot of their records, but so far I have been unable to find my great-great-great-great-x-grandmother.
I’m weeping. Thx for sharing this! May we honor Beau and all those who lost their lives in service to our country by protecting the treasure of democracy in our country.
We owe it to all the Beaus to keep our democracy intact. Please vote for democracy and against fascism this coming November. Vote blue!
I didn’t expect to be so touched by this story of Heather’s l
Brought tesrs
Me, too.
Me,too.
Me three. What a great and heartfelt story!
Me too
Me four
and also me
That makes 6 and counting. I have been blessed to see and hear a B17,B29,Lancaster and B26 all in the same day. Thank you for your sevice.
7 and counting❤️
As a child, I frequently listened to my uncle, well he was an honorary uncle but an honorary one was the same as a blood uncle, but Uncle Omar Bartlett, who was from New Hampshire and spoke with a distinctive down east accent, told his story of the D-Invasion of Normandy. I suspect he was in that wave. Hearing him speak of this in the late 1950s meant that it was only 14 or 15 years earlier — a blink of an eye in time. Today 14 years seems like yesterday today. Time does that to you as you age. But Uncle Omar proudly repeated his story of the invasion. I probably sat in silence stoking one of his and Auntie Carman’s cats, Tiger or Buster. And my anticipation to visit them frequently on Sundays likely seeded in my recesses, the pleasure of feline companionship in the home. Dag. I’m lucky Auntie Carman and Uncle Omar didn’t own any cows.
Me as well!
Thank you Heather for writing this wonderful piece!
I too was unexpectedly touched by her story.
Me too - thanks, Heather
May all Beau & his fallen comrades be remembered - and may we who remember & honor them continue to stand up for all they stood for!
Same here— very moving.
Truly a beautiful and moving story. Thank you, Heather, for remembering and sharing the story of Beau.
Amen.
Thank you Heather for this story of what we are celebrating on Memorial Day. Annabel has given us a reminder that we need to honor those who died by making sure our democracy survives and voting blue.
Democracy, decency and a livable planet, What are we bequeathing to succeeding generations?
That used to be not such a hard climb. Now that evil (and Steve Bannon’s bullshittery is evil), has touched us, I worry that we will let them down. I hope we don’t need another Gettysburg
It's hard to understand why it is a hard climb for so many, when the choice is so easy. If only people can focus on what's important, such as the things JL mentioned, rather than the false equivalency that is fed to them, then we will be alright.
Fox never thought those things were important. I remember the junk bond fiasco of mid to late 80’s. That was when Greed is good became the Repub mantra. It still is. Greed to feed the hogs in charge, that is.
"Greed is good" was a line from a predatory financial industry villain in the cautionary movie "Wall Street". It was meant to be as appealing as "I get you my pretty and your little dog too", but modern Republicans, true to form, embraced treachery and tried to make a virtue of it, as they now cerebrate the "Heroes" who invaded the Capitol on January Sixth. Greed is not just acquisitive excess, it is acquisitive excess that deprives others. THAT is sentiment the toadies of plutocracy try to make respectable. I commonly read the phrase "Greed is Good" in financial press, but saying that particular phrase out loud seemed to fade, if reluctantly, in the wake of the Great Recession.
I'd say it started with the Stock Market. And it definitely got a boost with the lucre made by our WASP oligarchs in WWI. To see greed in action just search "Prescott Bush - Wall St Putsch" 1933. The coup failed, but the Oligarchs haven't given up. One Branch down, Two to go, but it really only takes the White House.
J L, exactly. We need to come to together and we won't have the first two words of your post if we don't have a livable planet. it will be an ugly scrabble for survival and we are seeing the first instances of this already. Salem (OR) just elected a mayor bought and paid for by the people who do not care about a livable planet, only making more money and covering all the land with something that will grow their bank accounts. Coming together also means working with good people of faith. Lately i have been seeing memes dissing religion as if every believer is the same and takes the Bible literally while extolling science as if it has the answer to everything, never turns out to be wrong, and never changes. i have blocked two of them who seem to believe that f bombs make a good argument. The problem is with those who want a theocracy here run by white nationalist pseudo Christians who are willing to use death star as a means to achieve this and those are the people we need to call out and vote out of power.
I agree with the important parts of this, Michele, but I cannot see science as the problem. Science can help us all have better lives even though we ignore or suppress it when it tells us to take action that the money-changers resist as wrt to climate change. Like science, religion can and has been used to support unimaginable horrors on the planet. What we need is compassion, empathy and determination to find the greatest good for the greatest number and make that our goal.
John, i think you have delineated the problem with science. it isn't always right. Some experiments are not very good and/ or are paid for by companies looking to sell a cure. There has also been plenty of stealing of work as well. And yes, it can be used to support and design incredible horrors. i am actually not saying that science is a problem, but i do have a problem painting all people of faith with a negative brush. i would say Native American beliefs and spirituality can help us with climate change. Agree totally with your final sentence. That is my hope.
Yep, fortunately science is self-correcting in its efforts to improve our understanding of things. Some indeed misuse it in attempts to make money. TRUTH and honesty are what matters. All useful understanding depends in both. IMO nobody should ridicule honest beliefs held by others about matters of which there can be no certainty. However, hypocrisy is abhorrent as are attempts to force others, without their agreement, to act in accordance with one’s own beliefs. Useful social compacts result from general agreement about acceptable behaviour. Let’s hold fast to the notion of GGFGN! 😊
The religious people I very much admire are humble and humane. Those who claim to be religious who also claim to have all the answers and the God-given right to force them on others, seem to me the opposite of anything Jesus recommended. I think of science as paying very careful attention to the way things are, and quarrel when people want to reject what can be reasonably proven for Biblical literalism. Some of the same people who claim every item in the Bible is literal fact have also claimed that Jesus was not really talking about real enemies when he said "love thy enemy" and you have to have special knowledge (as they do) to realize that. I think that scientific thinking gives us a much clearer picture of our circumstances, and can help us to prioritize our choices, but it is not designed to (nor can it) to deliver ethical choices. For that, we have to probe our own inner values and learn from each other in ways that allows us to question our own selfish motives. We all are obliged to look out for ourselves, but become toxic when we fail to look out for each other. Freedom defined as impunity for the individual can become sociopathy. Freedom worthy of the name is achieved socially. Isn't that what the Constitution tries to reinforce? "We the People..."?
So long as a person is not hurting others, how they come by an abiding sense of fairness and responsibilities to others seems to me beside the point. I am not religious in any conventional manner, but among my greatest heroes are Desmond Tutu, the Dalai Lama, and MLK. Faux-pious Republicans have corrupted Jesus's message of kindness. I wish more of his faithful followers would visibly stand together against that. When greed and ego push every other value out of the nest, it becomes truly evil.
"Accustomed to trample on the rights of those around you, you have lost the genius of your own independence, and become the fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant who rises." - Lincoln
you said it so much more kindly and clearly than I did. Thank you
Very well said JL I agree completely. i have no idea if I was going to say more because i am just in from the garden.
One if my favorite sayings is
“Science never claims to have the final word on anything, religion claims to have the final word on everything.” Don’t remember where I saw that, but so true…
Unfortunately, many people do not understand science nor do they understand that some scientists are people of faith. Sometimes a particular discipline does not disprove certain things in religion. Prayer, for example, is not disproved by statistics and if it is not merely asking for something and is mediative, the health consequences can be measured. Fundamentalists of all kinds claim to have the final word on everything.
Yes they do, I reject fundamentalists of every stripe
this reminds me of how the segment of Ken Burn's commencement speech to Brandeis (with its powerful Jewish history) about how we need to find the "us" and "we" in our country again. while what he was Actually setting up, and which barely got any coverage, was a break in his famous "neutrality."
The part of the speech where he made it clear that we need to come together, but the choice is Clear. We must make the choice to save our democracy.
Some Christians, a very small number from what I've seen, are coming out in favor of democracy and the Clear Choice of tolerance, non-judgement and love, but Not Enough and Not Loudly Enough.
I'm always glad to find someone who is Christian, I assume you are, who is willing to break from the flock and actually practice "do unto others."
I hope you can amplify your voice in support of the oppressed, the needy, the non-white, the women who need abortion as healthcare, the LGBTQia community and all the others that many "christians" are attacking day in and day out.
Yes, we need to find the we. I am not a Christian actually, but a person who believes in the universal energy whatever people want to call that. For years my husband sneered at Christians without making a distinction between good people of faith and hypocrites and pharisees. We have a friend who is a Christian and is the most grounded person i know and her energy is a comforting presence. She is also one of the those people whose faith does what you have described in terms of social issues. i had a friend on Facebook, since blocked, who constantly posted memes under the name faith is a mental illness. I am sure it is for some and certainly magnifies hate of anyone who is different...which is not what Jesus taught in the first three Gospels. Most of the people, when I defended good people of faith and said many people welcome prayer simply because they need support, assumed I was some kind of religious fundamentalist nut. I kept telling them that they had no idea of what I believed or did not believe. Some of them thought they were too clever by half and failed to understand what I actually wrote. And if I made a point, for example, yes, Jesus is mentioned outside the Bible, very briefly in Josephus, they ignored it. MY husband looked up studies on the efficacy of prayer and found out that studies can be fraught with problems, but when it is meditative, good health results can be measured. I never send people prayers, btw, because I don't pray, but instead healing reiki energy which probably amounts to the same thing if they feel supported by it. You need not strike do unto others because the same sentiment is found in many religions as a way to tell people to treat others as they would want others to treat them. I never judge a faith or a belief by the fundamentalists, hypocrites, and haters. I have often mentioned Native American beliefs and myths as a way of approaching nature.
actually even "do unto others..." would be twisted in the hands of many "Christians" today so strike that.
In Beau’s memory, please pledge to yourself that you will search out your entire family and friends to encourage as many of them as possible to cast their vote for Joe Biden and other democrats on the ballot! We each have an honorable role to protect and preserve OUR Democracy! Let’s all pitch in to make it happen, ok? Many thanks!
Great idea! But they all watch FN, refer to J6 as a peaceful protest, and believe the former guy is being unfairly prosecuted by the out of control Biden DOJ.
Trump hates dogs. Because dogs hate him.
Dogs know💙
They do indeed
this may actually cut through to the cult mind
Every servicmember who has died for their country is rolling in their grave, due to the words spoken (I will not defile this article} on Memorial Day by "the evil one"..."the great dragon" .."prince of demons"........
I know. It's what I plan to discuss w folks.
And if you need more nicknames, I'm particularly fond of orange cocksplat, or as Stormy calls him, orange turd.
His grandfather was also a draft dodger if it makes you feel better. And a pimp.
Diaper Don's granddaddy was a pimp and draft dodger?? Was he the first bone spur tRumpshitter?. It is a shame that MAD Magazine no longer exists. William Gaines and the "usual gang of idiots" could go weekly with what the Orange A-Hole is up to everyday.
unbelievable, ain't it?
Amen, Annabel.
Heather's letter today reminds me of a poem that I used to read to and discuss with my students when I was teaching. For a homework assignment, I asked them to read the poem to their parents or grandparents. One grandfather wrote me and thanked me for reminding the children of the sacrifices that were made so that they could have the freedoms, much taken for granted, that they enjoyed.
If you have rime to read it, here it is:
In Flander's fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks still bravely singing, fly,
Scarcely heard amid the guns below.
We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved
(And spent our paycheck on a dress for our mother)
And now we lie in Flander's fields.
TAKE UP OUR QUARREL WITH THE FOE: ( My caps)
To you from failing hands we throw the torch;
Be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die,
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flander's fields.
Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae. 1915
This poem has special resonance for me because my grand-uncle Geoffrey died near Flanders Field on his first sortie in 1918.
He is interred at the Marfaux British Cemetery. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/56470545/g-h-hewson
Thank you for sharing that!
And a very kindly edit.
😊
Thank you. This is so meaningful
😊
😊
Thank you!
😊
@Annabel. Not suckers or losers.
Register Democrats to defeat fascism.
https://www.fieldteam6.org/
Good point. Mr. Bone Spurs told us exactly who he is.
Let 's all make sure democracy wins this November.
Amen, Michael ... and if it does the people must revise the system to make sure that it really is a democracy: abolish the EC and elect the President based on the popular vote, revise the basis of the senate, revise the basis of the SCOTUS, etc. Otherwise, it seems clear that democracy will perish under the rules that define it. It appears still to be nip and tuck, as incredible as it seems.
Absolutely!
Beautiful story, Heather. One that keeps memories alive. Writing has been that since our human beginning. And compassion knows no boundaries….that of a country or a person’s thinking.
All we have to do is release the feeling of compassion to the Universe. All will feel it. All will be within it.
Salud to ALL!
🗽💜
It is simply a must that we not let those who sacrificed so much, some with their lives, to have done so in vain. We need to sharpen our perspective of the threat that we are up against. Toward that end, the following is my message to my fellow Lakeland, Florida Democratic Club members regarding some of what we can do and why:
Dear Fellow Lakeland Democratic Club Members and friends: That is the question - do our letters published in the newspapers affect anything? I don't know for sure. I do think that they can reinforce the views and motivations of those who agree with the letters. I always read the letter to the editors. The letter below was published in today's (Sunday, May 26, 2024) edition of the Palm Beach Post. I encourage more of you to please write letters to The Ledger and other area newspapers. Kathie's letter about climate change was published in today's Ledger.
The reason evangelicals support Trump
Cal Thomas, in the May 18 edition of the Post, took Donald Trump to task because of his use of profane and filthy words. Thomas then ponders, 'Does he believe in heaven and know how to get there? His fervent evangelical supporters, some of whom bizarrely claim he shares their faith, should ask him.' Respectfully, that line of inquiry completely misses the reasons for Trump’s support among white evangelicals.
I wondered who could vote for such a flawed person to be president of the U.S. Two professors at the University of Kansas also wondered, conducted a study and published their findings in the journal Critical Sociology: 'The Anger Games: Who Voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 Election, and Why?' The authors discovered that white evangelicals do not support Trump because of their shared 'Christian' views but rather they share the same views about race, women’s rights, gay rights and immigrants. Trump wants to be dictator and his supporters are willing to sacrifice democracy to have a white Protestant Christian autocracy.
Trump, if back in power, as a sop to (Russia’s Vladimir) Putin, would pull the U.S. out of NATO. The failure of democracy here would probably lead to a domino effect around the world with other democracies falling. For that reason alone, this November’s election is the most important in the history of the world.
Richard Sutherland, Lakeland
You are so right, Annabel! I have pointed out to many people that this year's election is not about liking or hating the candidates, it's voting for or against democracy. It's that simple.
Thank you for this. The picture says it all about the spirit and community to build a democratic republic. My father was also flying B17s in daylight missions without fighter support. God bless them and keep them all.
Thank you Christopher, perhaps President Biden will invoke similar words on D-Day this year, 6/6/24. Weather can be wet & stormy off the Atlantic & the Channel in early June as General Eisenhower had to deal with formidable logistics on the longest day very long.
Eisenhower was the last great Republican, president or otherwise.
Well, *maybe* the last great Republican *politician*, though even of that I would not want to swear. And certainly I have known personally some wonderful Republicans who were not in government.
I am old enough to recall some good faith Republicans. The Party appeared to sell it's soul after Nixon was pardoned.
Me too. I remember that when Ford "pardoned" Nixon I thought "Well, THAT's gonna come back and bite us in the ass."
As far as I'm concerned, what Ford did was just as bad what the "founding fathers" did in acquessing to the south in not obliterating slavery. We're STILL paying for it today and the current political scene is fomented by the same type of people from the same neck of the woods
I thought "Well, THAT's gonna come back and bite us in the ass."
I thought that too, though I underestimated how wide that loophole in equal justice and rule of law would be stretched. How instrumental it was in turning the former "Party of Lincoln" into "All Treachery, All the Time" I can't say for sure, but it saliently demonstrated how loopholes in our system could be exploited wholesale, which modern Republicans have turned into an industry.
Ford is credited for pardoning Nixon for the "right reasons", and Ford never seemed like Machiavellian schemer, nor the brightest light on the tree; but it seemed more to me like dereliction of duty. Eric Holder, Obama's AG, infamously said "I am concerned that the size of some of these institutions becomes so large that it does become difficult for us to prosecute them when we are hit with indications that if you do prosecute, if you do bring a criminal charge, it will have a negative impact on the national economy, perhaps even the world economy." And unlike the Savings and Loan scandal, the AG's office did not go after wrongdoers, supposedly from the 'good" of the country, but with the overall problems left changed little in the end, and many of the "so large" institutions were deliberately made much larger.
It seems to me that we have been "smoothing over" a whole lot of unworkable, unsustainable, and treacherous stuff over the last several decades, and it's been biting us big time since. If not stopped now, it threatens to ruin everything.
I hope and I am sure he will….even if it rains!!!!
Biden really out to just read this post to the nation tomorrow.
I think their must have been Beau's in my family but I've never heard their stories. On this day I usually think of what it must have been like for my dad and my father-in-law to lose so many buddies in the Korean War. Other than that, watching Saving Private Ryan always makes me tear up at the end. How can we just throw away such sacrifice, and democracy itself only to justify Twitler's Big lie that has been so thoroughly proven to be just that?
Heather, thank you for making this Memorial Day meaningful by telling us about Beau. His story is one that should inspire us to do our part to battle facism whenever it raises its ugly head.
I grew up with WWII veterans in my family as I was born shortly after the war ended. The uncle that I was closest to was in the 101st Airborne and had to parachute into Nazi Germany. Another uncle served on a Destroyer that was hit by a kamakazi Zero. My dad lied about his age in 1942 and joined the Navy, going into the Merchant Marine. He sailed on troop transport ships during WWII and Korea. He served until 1957. My mom was class of 1944 at Spring Hill School and went to Nursing School. She served as a nurse stateside until she was pregnant with me in 1951. They are all gone now but their service and devotion to Democracy will always be in my heart.
These were the living people who served in WWII that were a large part of my life growing up. I would like to mention my dad's older brother Woodrow who went down in a B-24. I never met him. His remains are in a cemetery 5 miles from here. I am the only one who ever visits his marker.
My family, unfortunately, has many people who sacrificed their lives in the defense of their country. One of them was my cousin, Ned Turner Dybvig, who was killed in action on June 16, 1968, in Vietnam. Ned was a talented artist and an athlete. He was in top physical shape and highly intelligent. He was an outdoorsman and he skydived for fun, which perhaps is why he volunteered for the 101st Airborne. His name is one of the thousands listed on the Vietnam Wall. We will always remember him. https://www.vvmf.org/Wall-of-Faces/14393/NED-T-DYBVIG/
Thank you for sharing this, James.
Because Beau and so many others gave up not only their lives but also their futures to protect American democracy, we must do our part by speaking out and fighting against the current serious threats.
Heather… thank you for Beau’s story and your end salutation. I’m a retired Navy Captain. As much as appropriated the thanks for my service on Memorial Days, I have to remind folks that today wasn’t about my service, it was for the service of those “who gave the last full measurement of devotion.”
If I was the author of today’s letter, it would honor the memory of Chief Petty Officer Patrick Wade. Chief Wade was killed in action in Sumatra Iraq on 17 July 2007. I met Chief Wade the week before, my 1st week in Iraq.
As two Navy guys living among a sea of Army folks, I came across his EDO team at a DFAC (chow hall). We got to talking & he was curious as to why a Navy submariner got sent to Iraq. After telling him I was assigned to the Army Corps of Engineers for construction work, he told me his team’s next assignment that day was to sweep the route my team would take for IEDs the following morning. A week later I learned of his loss along with one of his teammates. I think of him often.
Very sincerely & respectfully
TJB, CAPT, USN (Retired)
Thank you everyone for honoring Chief Wade with your ‘likes’ & replies. Sorry for my missed word; appreciated instead of appropriated. Oops.
🙏🏾💔
Thank you for your story Thomas.
Wow! So glad that you were able to meet and speak with Patrick Wade! Now, like Beau, I feel I know him, and appreciate him with love for his service to you and who knows how many others!
Thanks Valerie. We only spoke for about 10 minutes in that dining hall. I shook the hand of his team. There’s a strong bond in the Navy between the commissioned officer corps and the CPO corps (aka non-commissioned officers). I never would have made Captain if it weren’t for good deck plate leaders like Chief Wade. Sometimes 10 minutes is all you need to form a lifetime bond. Aloha … TJB
As long as we tell the stories, they will be remembered.
Always a visceral reaction after reading this bit of history. The lives unlived.
Heather's gentle and eloquent telling of Beau's story calls to mind the very long list of names of the people who fell in service to our nation since its inception. The lives unlived.
Postscript: There is so much more to say about going to war -- but, for another time.
I remember this story from the first time you wrote about Beau, so touching…thank you to all those folks who took the time to visit his grave
I have a photo of my dad beside the grave of his younger brother, who was killed in front of bim
They were in Germany in 1944 and 45. Daddy would be so upset to see today's politicians.
AND your daddy would be so proud of you for continuing to support democracy.
😢💔🙏🏼
This is a perfect remembrance of Memorial Day and the sacrifices of ordinary Americans like Beau. Thank you.
Just last weekend, one of the fighter pilots who arrived in 1944 and turned the air war around for the guys in the bombers died. My friend, General Bud Anderson, was a week away from his 103rd birthday. At the time of his departure, he was the top-scoring living American ace, with 16 victories during that year of 1944, the year America liberated the world. Unlike Beau, Bud died peacefully in his bed, seven years after his wife, who he married in 1945 after coming home from the war, surrounded by his three children and their seven children and their children's five children. Three generations who were fortunate to come into the world after Bud survived. These were the guys who went out and saved the world, then came home and made the world we grew up in. After 40 years of writing about American airmen in World War II, none of those I met over those years and became friends with are still here. Bud was the last. I've had the best writing career anyone could have, making sure their stories weren't lost. (Fortunately I recorded every interview I did and have enough first-person material to finish the still-uncompleted series)
Suggestion: Finish the series. Make sure your recordings are archived for future scholars.
They're not that good (since I mostly was learning on the go), and yes, the series will be completed, so long as I get the benefit of 10 generations of family DNA that I should live into my 90s with "all systems go," having not been killed by a bear (like my sixth great grandfather) or stuck a piece of uranium in the pocket of my workpants in the 50s (as my father did).
Good, bad, useful are determinations for future scholars. They might have uses that are unforeseen today. It's a time capsule. Judging from your love of MAGAs, sending a bear with a necklace of uranium to a Trump rally might be your destiny?
Most are written interviews with "memory joggers" since my brain is wired that if I am interested in something, it never goes away (and if I'm not it never sticks around). Facts and dates, quote lines. Like for an article as the journalist I was very early on.
Best idea ever
write faster...
The publisher doesn't like the idea of :flooding the market" and neither do I. I should have the last of the planned books completed in 4-5 years.
TC knows how & where these stories are preserved. The National Pearl Harbor Museum is sitting right above the sunken Arizona; here is a collected survivor story from the Memorial.
"GINO GASPARELLI, On December 7th my duty stations at Wheeler Field on the island of Oahu ... Wheeler was the largest fighter airbase on the Island. "[Wheeler] had been on alert status all week long until Saturday morning".
TC tipped me to the radar the U.S. was using on the warning station on Northeast shoreline of Oahu circa 193x-1941; I am certain TC's work will be completed & preserved.
I read about General Anderson in The NY Times—what a great man. Your professional life is another amazing story—thank you for writing these historical accounts for us.
Here’s a link to his obituary:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/18/us/bud-anderson-dead.html?unlocked_article_code=1.vE0.JJPS.oGWJFozf4I2j&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
Thank you for posting the link to this powerful story. Remarkable men, Yaeger and Anderson. The concluding sentence in the article is as poignant a message, as it is profound, for America today.
Most lovely, TC. If I may say so, it seems like a bit of Bud lives on in your writing that I have seen
I certainly hope so!
Grateful for your vision to preserve their legacies
Thank you for your work. Bud and his fellow pilots were friends of all Americans and a blessing for democracy. 🇺🇸♥️
May his memory forever be a blessing. And may citizens learn about and honor the ultimate sacrifice that men like Beau made to protect the values of freedom and democracy.
When will we ever learn?
Where have all the flowers gone?
That’s the refrain that went through my mind as I read today’s poignant post. My uncle, too, died before I was born, in the flower of his youth like so many others. I had no cousins. Uncle Cy was serving with the RCN on a Corvette, the HMCS Alberni, that was torpedoed in the English Channel during WWII. But his absence was always a presence in our home, and I have remembered him every Remembrance Day since I was a school child. The 80th anniversary of the day he and 58 others died will be celebrated on August 21 this year at a museum dedicated to the history of the Alberni. https://www.alberniproject.org/
That line and the song is still so sadly relevant on days like these set aside for honoring those who served and gave up the ultimate sacrifice for their country.
For those not familiar with the song and the stories behind it, here's a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1y2SIIeqy34 Sing along with Pete Seeger and the audience.
We just finished going through a treasure trove of pictures that had been boxed up after my mother died. There's one of a handsome young man in uniform. I remember being told as a child that he was a cousin, but I don't remember his name. And there is no one left from that generation to tell me. So when you have questions about your family history, ask, before it's too late.
Thank you for posting Pete's video, Betsy. And for your poignant reminder to treasure our family histories.
Indeed, ask - and write it down in a safe place that won't get lost in the shuffles of many moves. 🙏
Betsy, I would issue a plea to preserve every old photograph you have. Our technology will continue to advance in the ability to recognize faces of people in old pictures. I'm not an expert, but I predict that eventually machine learning will be able to correlate disparate scraps of information, enabling identification of the people in a picture of our great grandparents' yard party in 1900, or whatever. I've been working on genealogy for several years, and I have pictures of people that my Mom saved, like you, but I don't have a clue who they were. The Internet gives us the ability to connect the dots, around the world, in a way that was not possible until this current era. That process, and ability, is surely nascent now, and will continue to develop (assuming civilization does not collapse in November). It will probably take the form of centralized collection points, where pictures and letters can be voluntarily uploaded to a "cloud-based" database, along with whatever information and clues we can supply. I've been a science fiction fan since the 1950s, so maybe I'm just dreaming. But I'm confident it is possible that old picture identification will help in our research as genealogists.
Thank you for this encouragement. There has been a fair amount of genealogy work on my mother's side of the family, but none that I know of on my father's, and I think that the picture that I referred to is on his side, since nobody has been able to identify it. But, like my mother, I'm a packrat, so this photo, along with a bunch of others, is in a box for now.
I think patience is essential in genealogy work. I have a mystery in my mother's direct line, five generations back. My wife and I have been talking about going on a road trip to Upstate New York and Vermont, to explore several cemeteries in both states, and research materials in Rutland, VT. I'll need to get back into the research before we go, hoping thereby to not miss the little hunches that occur after being into it with single-minded focus for hours or days on end. Vermont has digitized a lot of their records, but so far I have been unable to find my great-great-great-great-x-grandmother.
😢
I’m weeping. Thx for sharing this! May we honor Beau and all those who lost their lives in service to our country by protecting the treasure of democracy in our country.