Little Egypt Heritage Articles Stories of Southern Illinois Bill Oliver 10 November 2002 Vol 1 Issue: #11 ISSN: pending Good Evening Ladies and Gentlemen of Little Egypt, Reading this week took me to many places. One of the major topics reached far back in my memory to a college term paper written forty five years or more ago. It attempted to document America's preparation for WWII in the 1930s. Well, we are far removed from some past wars and very near to potential future ones. Yesterday and tomorrow, people, in cities, burgs, and hamlets the breadth and width of the North American Continent, will march in remembrance. My attention was directed to Veterans' Day by internet friends to three internet sites [listed below] which set me to reading and reading some more. Some of the things read this week include items listed here. Clare Milne, granddaughter of A.A. Milne, wants to bring Winnie the Pooh's commercial value home to England. More than 20 cities have signed contracts to buy, for one dollar U S, police cars. After some "hoops" they will carry sponsors logos/ads. Looking like race cars, I'm sure that the camouflage will work in their favor, but what about the "conflict of interest" possibilities? Have you ever wondered about the ripples in the US Flag picture taken by Neil Armstrong on the moon July 26th, 1969? What does a skunk do before drenching us with "Eau de Pole Cat"? Mephitis mephitis will usually fluff its tail, shake its tail, stamp the ground with its front feet, growl, stand on its hind legs, turn its head and spit before lifting its tail and spraying. Speaking of police cars above, poetic justice was handled very well in a southern Michigan town. The moral of that story was, never, when impersonating a police officer, pull over the local Chief of Police. Newspaper stories are measured by the column inch half a page was devoted to the King of Swaziland, who has "absolute" power, having a law suit filed against him by the mother of his chosen tenth wife. Oh, well, back to Veteran's Day. On the 19th of November 1863, two keynote speakers would be involved in dedicating the National Cemetery on Cemetery Hill at Gettysberg, Pennsylvania. The first would be Edward Everett, a professor of Greek and President of Harvard [and US Secretary of State] would speak for two hours without notes. The man to follow that would take out a piece of ordinary looking paper, unfold it and speak from it for three minutes. This latter man would set forever the purpose for the war fought not, slavery. To establish this, Abraham Lincoln, takes those present, back to the founding moment of this nation ["four score and seven years ago"] to the very document declaring our independence ["dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal"]. Lincoln reiterates the moral tone for the future with the words: "...that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom". With these words [the Gettysberg Address], Abraham Lincoln gave us a document which took its place with the founding documents as an expression of the nation's purpose. We were individual states before, but after we became singular "... one nation, under God, indivisible ..." We have generations of people in the world who question the reality of the Nazi concentration camps, just as some are now questioning if there is breeze enough on the moon to ripple a flag. Those who can attest to the reality of the gas chambers are very few. We have film, but those have been questioned. To those who went from Guadacanal to Iwo Jima have the Iwo Jima Memorial in Washington. There are the Tombs of the Unknown Soldiers in Arlington National Cemetery. To my memory, these do not seem so long ago. Then there was Korea not a war, but a "police action". Until quite recently this conflict was a forgotten thing, except that Korea is still divided and thus in the news. Next came the protested "war" Vietnam. This war damaged the collective spirit of this country and left Americans yearning for relief, closure, and rebirth, as Lincoln gave us in 1863. These Veterans came home to conflict as to their role. Despite this, like in other wars, they came home survivors of their thankless ordeal, picking up their lives, and moved on. And, some didn't recover, mentally or physically, as in any war. Years ago, at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in the year 1918, Armistice Day was born. We call it Veteran's Day now, but it is still the day to remember the heroes among us the Veterans of the various wars our country has felt the need to participate in. Before I end this article, I would like to celebrate the vision of Maya Lin of Athens, Ohio, who gave us the stark black granite memorial in Washington, D. C. which has been characterized as America's Wailing Wall. Twenty years ago this past week, this young lady caused another controversy by winning the national competition for the Vietnam Memorial. There are 58,229 victims posted in the order of their deaths. Standing in that memorial one has the deep sense of reverence for the names of personalities carved in granite. This may have been an unpopular war, but it is a memorial which seems to bring the realization of the tremendous sacrifice individuals pay for going to war. As unpopular as it was, it still recognizes the dutiful service done to protect that for which we take for granted. Two very ambitious websites are developing and are well worth looking at. They are: http://www.thevirtualwall.org/ http://www.thirdstbooks.com/ffwwaindex.html To end this article, a bit of trivia. Dancing lights create a sky theater. Electrically charged particles from our sun generate a spectacular glow when hitting the earth's atmosphere. In the north they are called aurora borealis and in the south they are called aurora australis. Wado, Bill -- Notes: 1. . Link to Archived Articles http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ne/state/ Little Egypt Heritage articles will be posted on Sunday evening on the SOIL-L@rootsweb.com ILJackso-L@rootsweb.com ILJohnso-L@rootsweb.com ILMassac-L@rootsweb.com . To subscribe: Clicking on one of the shortcut links below should work, but if your browser doesn't understand them, try these manual instructions: to join ILMassac, send mail to ILMassac-L-request@rootsweb.com with the single word subscribe in the message subject and body. To join ILMassac-D, do the same thing with ILMassac-D-request@rootsweb.com. Subscribe to ILMassac-L Subscribe to ILMassac-D (digest)