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Sitting Bull’s Speech Still Rings True

indian_heroes_1210I was raised a military brat.  I was born the year that Eisenhower started his presidency, and thus my early education was in the 50s and 60s.  The result of the two was a deep pride of country, and an admiration of our history.  As I grew older, as I studied more and as I read more I retained an admiration for our founding fathers.  They were remarkable men alive at a pivotal point of history, but they were still men.  Many things that happened then were the sausage of compromise. So much of our history after that point was colored by the institution of slavery and the genocide of the native populations.  Those two, in my mind, make the history of the United States less than glorious.  So much of our history from Vietnam onward is less than efflugent.  We have a sense of global empire that bothers me deeply.  Our government has basically been hijacked by the corporations and the mega-wealthy.   I would love to have a sense of pride and admiration in my country again, but it does not seem to be in the cards.

In my work commute of 54 miles round trip in big city traffic this week, I have been listening to the audio book, Indian Heroes and Great Chieftains by Charles A. Eastman (Ohiyesa).  In this book he included a speech by Sitting Bull that rings true even today for our society.  I have included it here with Eastman’s  introductory paragraph:

His bitter and at the same time well-grounded and philosophical dislike of the conquering race is well expressed in a speech made before the purely Indian council before referred to, upon the Powder River. I will give it in brief as it has been several times repeated to me by men who were present.

“Behold, my friends, the spring is come; the earth has gladly received the embraces of the sun, and we shall soon see the results of their love! Every seed is Continue reading “Sitting Bull’s Speech Still Rings True”

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Fun with Flags – 6

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) formally ceased to exist on 26 December 1991. The result was 15 more or less separate countries. Below are the 15 resultant countries. Can you match the flags?

  1. Armenia
  2. Azerbaijan
  3. Belarus
  4. Estonia
  5. Georgia
  6. Kazakhstan
  7. Kyrgyzstan
  8. Latvia
  9. Lithuania
  10. Moldova
  11. Russia
  12. Tajikistan
  13. Turkmenistan
  14. Ukraine
  15. Uzbekistan

 A
Azerbaijan

 

 

Continue reading “Fun with Flags – 6”

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Imaginary overheard snippet of conversation

Imaginary overheard snippet of conversation…

“Don’t be fooled by the big ears, big hands and big feet…”

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The Story of Mary MacLane by Mary MacLane

The Story of Mary MacLane by Mary MacLaneMaryMacLane

This is a memoir that was very popular in its time.  It was “lost”, and then rediscovered.   It is written by a 19 year old woman who lived in Butte, Montana in 1901.  Ms. MacLane was at the wrong place at the wrong time. Butte, Montana of 1901 was a mining time, and for many reasons Ms. MacLane did not feel like she fit into it.  For the times she had more than the usual education for a man and certainly for a woman.  She tells us she is a genius, and who am I to argue with her.  Later in life she became openly bisexual. The memoir openly speaks of her love for a woman that is beyond platonic.  I cannot imagine trying to come to terms with those stirrings in that place at that time.  It had to be difficult.   The following passage is but one of many that speaks of this.

“I feel in the anemone lady a strange attraction of sex. There is in me a masculine element that, when I am thinking of her, arises and overshadows all the others.

“Why am I not a man,” I say to the sand and barrenness with a certain strained, tense passion, “that I might give this wonderful, dear, delicious woman an absolutely perfect love!”

And this is my predominating feeling for her.

So, then, it is not the woman-love, but the man-love, set in the mysterious sensibilities of my woman-nature. It brings me pain and pleasure mingled in that odd, odd fashion.

Do you think a man is the only creature with whom one may fall in love?” Continue reading “The Story of Mary MacLane by Mary MacLane”

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Oscar Wilde – His Life and Confessions by Frank Harris

Oscar_Wilde_His_Life_and_Confessions_1004Oscar Wilde is best known for his quips, quotes and aphorisms, at least to me.  The Importance of Being Ernest gave to me my first real appreciation of plays.  It is a light, comic romp full of misdirection and subtle and not so subtle puns.  For various reasons I have seen the play three times over the years.  The Picture of Dorian Gray is a classic of this epoch.  The novel also in many ways led to his downfall.  While he wrote the book before his fall from grace I found The Picture of Dorian Gray metaphorically autobiographical of his entire life.  In the end Oscar Wilde ended up destroying himself.  The book raised the rancor of  puritanical 1890 England due to its homoerotic theme, and allusions of an underworld of what was then considered deviant behavior.

I knew Oscar was gay(in the modern sense of the word) and had gone to jail for two years for this “crime”.  However, I had always pictured him as this bon vivant, a social gadfly.  The Oscar I discovered in this book Continue reading “Oscar Wilde – His Life and Confessions by Frank Harris”

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And John Kerry called it…

John_F__KerrySpeaking at an international security conference in Munich, Germany, Kerry said:

“The aspirations of citizens are once again being trampled beneath corrupt, oligarchic interests – interests that use money to stifle political opposition and dissent, to buy politicians and media outlets, and to weaken judicial independence and the rights of non-governmental organizations.”

Most folks thought he was talking about Ukraine, but sounds a lot like what is going on the good old USA.