Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Heard a story this week.

My eldest son and I had the pleasure of attending a symposium on local heroes from the War Between the States downtown at the local library.

One of the stories was especially touching. Pictured with this entry is the headstone of Bayard Hand. Yes, he died in 1859, two years before the war but this US sailor had a role in the biggest conflict in American History up to that time.

In 1864 William Sherman and his army paid a visit to Rome. After a time of planning and organizing torches lit the fire of the first of many towns burned in the "March to the Sea". As the US Army left with the flames reaching for the sky, their knapsacks clinked with the pilfered jewelry, silverware and other valuables they decided to help themselves to. But material goods were not all the Yankees stole. They also stole the body of Lt. Bayard Hand

Apparently, after seeing the US Naval emblem on the tombstone, the Federal soldiers decided that such a man should not be buried in Rome, Georgia. So, in spite of his family's protests, they exhumed his body and sent it to Arlington, Virginia to be buried at the new cemetery established on the estate that the same US Army stole from the wife of General Robert E. Lee.

This family, without doubt, lost material possessions to the invading army. Perhaps they lost their home and certainly their hometown to Sherman's torches. But the thought of the Union Army marching away with their disinterred son and then to hear of his burial at Arlington. It's hard for me to imagine.

But a father's love runs deep.

Bayard's step-father travelled to Virginia in 1866. At a personal cost of $300 (a large sum in that day) he had his son re-exhumed and transported back to Rome. Bayard Hand was then reinterred in his own grave.

Sitting there with my son it was hard to imagine what that dad went through, what he dealt with or the ease with which I can only guess he parted with a large sum of money to right such a wrong and get his son back, even 6 years after Bayard's death.

Being a dad, I understand.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Happy Holidays!

There. I said it. That horrible, terrible, most anti-Christian display of syncretism known to man.

The horror.

Before the the fire is lit under the tar kettle or the knives are put to pillows to produce the wispy goose down for my Yuletide adornment please allow me to explain myself.

In America a few things can be counted on in consideration of the year's closing act. 1) Retail stores will continue to steadily ease the appearance of Christmas decor and music ever closer to the Fourth of July and people will continue to be offended by the phraseology used to wish goodwill during the weeks surrounding the Winter Solstice.

Almost makes one want to switch to "Go fart fire" or maybe "Have a terrible winter". Something like that.

Anyway.

The funny thing is, the person most likely to correct you towards "Merry Christmas" is proportionately just as likely to express "support for Israel", whatever that means.

Which makes me think...either you love Israel or you don't. You can't have it both ways.

Now, while most of the Jewish people I have met appear to harbor no obvious animosity to wreaths, candy canes, Jolly ol' St Nick, O Tannenbaum or even live reenactments of shepherds watching their flocks by night breaking away from the task to welcome the birth of Christ, I think it is ignorant on the part of us, as Christians, to expect them to "Have a Merry Christmas or get on a boat and go back where you came from".

Seriously. They're Jewish. We love Jewish people, right? You know, Jewish people, King David, Elijah, Solomon, Jesus, John, Peter, Paul and a bunch of ladies named Mary. Jewish people.

A pleasant "Happy Holidays" gives a polite inclusion to a group of people that were being persecuted before Jesus celebrated His first Hanukkah. It also includes the Federally-recognized holiday "New Year's Day" as well as "Thanksgiving", which apparently has something to do with pro football, elastic waistbands and Christmas, although there are those that refer to people known as "pilgrims" that founded Macy's or something like that. I'll have to research those claims for an entry next November. Maybe by then I'll have the tar and feathers removed.

Until then, I hope whatever holiday you prefer is as glorious, magnificent, merry and happy as it can possibly be. And SMILE, this is the most wonderful time of the year.

Thoughts on "Recent" Developments

The news is disconcerting.

A man walks into a school and kills a couple dozen people, mostly small children, before taking his own life.

I don't know his name. I haven't seen his face. I don't care to be enlightened to either. He's not someone I care to know about or remember. I'm not sitting in judgement of him. That's not my chair. I just don't want to know him.

Why did this specific incident happen? I don't know.

There will be those who use this event to push their agenda of gun control. There will be those that say this was caused by song lyrics or movies or video games. And still those that think its because there's not enough prayer in school. There's never a deficiency of ignorance in America.

I think the problem lies in our culture. Not the entertainment choices of our culture but in the role we have pushed masculinity into. "Gentlemen" have become the exception, not the rule.

In most cases these acts of senseless violence have been carried out by young men. Often times these young men are outcasts or bullied. The gun represents power that they wield. It would be the same with a knife, a baseball bat or a fertilizer bomb. The motivator is power. The ability to be strong or intimidating because that's what young men are taught they should be.

We don't (as a culture) teach young men about the masculinity of caring for a child, holding a door, demonstrating common courtesy, loving one woman for her whole life, protecting the weak and dozens of other traits that our grandfathers just did because "it's what men do."

Robert E. Lee, no stranger to violence, put it this way:

"The forbearing use of power does not only form a touchstone, but the manner in which an individual enjoys certain advantages over others is a test of a true gentleman.
The power which the strong have over the weak, the employer over the employed, the educated over the unlettered, the experienced over the confiding, even the clever over the silly — the forbearing or inoffensive use of all this power or authority, or a total abstinence from it when the case admits it, will show the gentleman in a plain light.
The gentleman does not needlessly and unnecessarily remind an offender of a wrong he may have committed against him. He cannot only forgive, he can forget; and he strives for that nobleness of self and mildness of character which impart sufficient strength to let the past be but the past. A true man of honor feels humbled himself when he cannot help humbling others."

That's the difference in a man like Lee and one of these shooters. The difference between protecting and harming. The difference between taking and giving.

The man Lee was describing would never shoot up a school, wouldn't kill his wife, wouldn't bomb a post office, wouldn't fly an civilian airplane into an office building. He uses power justly. He forgives. He moves on.

These are the men we need today. Where are these men?