Excellent, Concise Statement on The American Cilvil War

Much is being said and written today about the American Civil War, especially as it relates to monuments, the reason for the war, the flag, and Robert E. Lee's dilemma. I think this (a comment in a Facebook thread related to Robert E Lee) is an excellent, accurate, concise statement on the issue of Lee’s dilemma, and that of many, at the onset of the Civil War. I could not agree with it more. Obviously, it is oversimplified and understated, but it gets at, succinctly, the origin of the issue related to the war and Lee. 

“The commonly held concept of what constituted the United States of America was much more wide ranging in 1860 than today.  Many Americans felt their first loyalty was to their State and not to the Federal government in Washington.  Lee was offered command of the Union Army but he resigned his commission and stood with Virginia.  Lee’s father fought in the Revolution, and many believed that war was a confederation of individual states against the Crown. In 1860, many Americans saw the coming conflict in the same terms. President Lincoln’s overriding goal was to preserve the Union. The conflict followed.  Lee felt he had done as his duty dictated, as did many others on both sides.  The war settled the issue of whether the country was one nation, or a confederation of semi-independent states.  In the passion of the times, Lincoln was hated by many, and so was Lee.  I consider both to be great Americans.”

This statement is reconciling. It is consensus building. It reflects a reasonable and accurate approach to the issue of Lee's dilemma and the war. I learned from it.

Friend Bill Sharpe, 'We Knew He Was a Christian.....

Today I was honored to attend the Celebration of Life for friend Bill Sharpe on the campus of Elon University.  It was held in historic Whitley Auditorium where Bill held many chapel and counseling sessions as Elon chaplain and where I attended many mandatory chapels as a college student at Elon in the late 1960s.

Bill was such an accomplished, delightful, cool person, one of those 'forever age 50' people. Bill was a Duke undergraduate, Duke Divinity School graduate, a pastor, a college chaplain, and college administrator,. He had a love for the theater, he wrote plays, and he wrote poetry. He loved sports and was active in the NC Senior Games. He had a beautiful wife of 60 years, 3 beautiful daughters, and 7 grandchildren, one of whom was Atlantic Coast Conference Golf Champion in 2016 and is now a golf professional.

Bill's life was characterized by inclusion, social justice, and an open-mindedness to the world and God's possibilities in it.  He participated in the Durham civil rights sit-ins in the early 1960s as a Duke student and later served on a community race relations committee. He heard Martin Luther King preach in 1960 and was moved and inspired by it. He opened his heart to gays and lesbians as early as the 1970s.  He once told me the story of, as a teenager,  thumbing from his small eastern NC hometown, with a buddy, to the 1952 Democratic convention in Chicago and hearing Harry Truman's give his Farewell Address.  His life of activism, accomplishment, and adventure amazes and inspires me.

Most of all, Bill's life was characterized by his deep love of God  and commitment to his faith. Bill lived fully into the story of Jesus. He was faithful to God's gifts to him. He touched many lives with his kindness, his humor, his intellect, and his love. He lived life fully. Bill wrote the prologue to the celebration of his life. It was beautiful and moving. He reminded us, among many favorite, meaningful passages, of John 13: 35 ….'they'll know we are Christians by our love for one another….'

Patrick Murphy, Pastor at Front Street United Methodist Church in Burlington, read Jesus' Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:7) from the Message Version of the Bible.  Please read that version.  He also prayed the beautiful Gaelic Blessing, "Deep Peace", which I had never heard and which was a favorite of Bill's:

Deep peace of the running wave to you.
Deep peace of the flowing air to you.
Deep peace of the quiet earth to you.
Deep peace of the shining stars to you.
Deep peace of the gentle night to you.
Moon and stars pour their healing light on you.
Deep peace of Christ, of Christ the light of the world to you.
Deep Peace of Christ to you.

I am so grateful I got to know Bill Sharpe. It reinforces to me how many wonderful people there are in the world...…….. some of whom we are fortunate and blessed that God sends our way.  

Liberals Need Fresh Ideas; National Conservatism Is On the Move

Conventional politics is at it's end. It's pretty easy to sense that. This past weekend the National Conservatism Conference met in Washington, DC. The press basically missed it. They were busy bloviating over the disaster in the White House, Donald Trump, and his destructive tweets.

These are national hawks who met. They are concerned with (as they see it), among other things, the post-cold war order of weak borders and straitjacketed free trade ideology and policies.

Among speakers who were there was the star of TVs top-rated cable news show (Tucker Carlson), the Trump administration's national security advisor John Bolton, Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Theil, the rapidly rising senator Josh Hawley, and the best selling author J. D. Vance (Hillbilly Elegy). Those were the marque names, but the rest of the speakers, and many of the attendees as well, were just as notable, if not as well known.

Their primary focus, according the Daniel McCarthy, author of this piece on the event, seemed to be:

1) Striking at laws and cultural assumptions that permit tech companies to amass wealth and power.

2) Striking at the bastions of liberal ideology in higher education.

3) Supporting American industry for the sake of workers as well as national security.

4) Adopting a more restrained foreign policy than the US has seen since the end of the Cold War.

McCarthy says, "The mystique of policy in Washington is a religion, but real policies are not the result of blueprints or manifestos, they are the product of talent applied to circumstance. What was different about this was that these were people who specialize in opening new fronts in ideological conflict."

The right doesn't have demographics on their side going forward, nor the moral high ground in my view, but they appear to have ideas which are crystallizing. The left of center folks better come up with a fresh view of the new world in which we find ourselves, and a direction for it. Freshening up stale, old New Deal ideas and policies in the year 2020, will not cut it. National Conservatives appear galvanized and inspired. This could be the beginnings of a new conservative intellectual movement, paradoxically, with Donald Trump as it's leader.

Senior Chief, US Navy, Irvin A. Godfrey and the USS Missouri

I found the above pictured medallion that my late Uncle, Senior Chief, US Navy, Irvin A. Godfrey, received (as did all aboard), and gave to me long ago, in commemoration of being aboard the USS Missouri when General Douglas MacArthur boarded the ship for the formal signing of the Instrument of Surrender by the Japanese Government, formally ending WWII, Tokyo Bay, Sept 2, 1945. Here read an account (Click here) of the ceremony and events leading up to it, and General MacArthur's famous, short, historic speech that ended World War II.

There is a great old Native American proverb which I love. It, basically says, we stand in the center of six generations, three generations that came before us, parents, grandparents, and great grandparents, and three generations which are coming after us, children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. And all that we do and that we say should serve to honor the past generations, and teach the generations coming after us.  I believe this bit of history will serve to do just that.

"Something Must Be Done About Prince Edward County: A Family, A Virginia Town, and a Civil Rights Battle"

I make a book recommendation: "Something Must Be Done About Prince Edward County: A Family, a Virginia Town, and a Civil Rights Battle", by Kristen Greene. 

The book has a Greensboro tie. It is a fascinating story about Prince Edward County VA (Farmville) public schools completely closing down for five years (1959-1964) in reaction to Brown vs The Board and opening a 'whites only' academy with the public school money. There was no school option for children of color in the county during that time. (It was the only school system in the country to completely close down as a result of Brown v Board.). 

The Prince Edward Academy (whites only) was going broke in 1993 when billionaire JB Fuqua contributed $10M dollars to upgrade it. He hired creative, brilliant, private school turnaround specialist who grew up in Greensboro and graduated from Page in 1967. She turned this tainted, rundown school around, made it diverse, progressive, academically and athletically strong and moved it into the 21st century. 

It’s a story of the old South, civil rights and segregation, the struggle for forgiveness, reconciliation and atonement. Ruth Shuping Murphy, who JB Fuqua hired and made President and Headmaster, is featured prominently in the book. JB Fuqua (born in Farmville) is also the donor for whom the Duke Business School is named. 

It is fascinating history, story, and a great read.  My wife and I took a day trip to Farmville VA.  We visited the Moton Civil Rights museum (in the old, dilapidated black high school from which black students walked out in 1951), the Fuqua School, and the black First Baptist Church where Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy came and spoke and to lend support to the black community.  I will be attending a lecture at Elon University on Wednesday, September 12, given by author Kristen Greene. The book is the 'community read' for Fall at Elon.  I will update my blog afterward. 

The Harrison's of the 19th Century, Collecting, and a Symmes Family Tie

Although I am a collector of early 20th century political items, I have developed a minor interest in 19th century political item collecting.  As I became involved with it, I recalled that my wife, the former Jean Courtland Symmes, is a direct descendant, on the paternal side of her family, of prominent 19th century politicians and Presidents of the United States, William Henry and Benjamin Harrison. While I intend to keep my focus on early 20th century political collecting, this recollection has heightened my interest in adding additional 19th century items to my collection.  

William Henry Harrison was an American military officer (prominent in conflicts with Native Americans and leader in the famous Battle of Tippecanoe), a politician (Whig), and the ninth President of the United States.  He died of pneumonia thirty-one days into his first term in office.  Harrison was a son of Founding Father Benjamin Harrison V and paternal grandfather of Benjamin Harrison, the 23rd President of the United States. He was the last president born as a British royal subject in the original thirteen colonies before the American Revolution (1775-1783).

William Henry Harrison was born the seventh and youngest child of Benjamin Harrison V and Elizabeth Bassett Harrison at Berkeley plantation along the James River in Charles City, Virginia, February 9, 1773. He attended Hampton Sidney College, and in 1795, at age 22, met Anna Tuthill Symmes of North Bend, Ohio. She was daughter of Anna Tuthill and Judge John Cleves Symmes , who served as a Colonel in the American Revolutionary War.  William and Anna Symmes Harrison had ten children including Elizabeth Bassett (1796-1846), John Cleves Symmes (1798-1830), father of future US President Benjamin Harrison, Benjamin (1806-1840), and Mary Symmes (1809-1842).

Benjamin Harrison, (1833 - 1901), was an American politician and lawyer (Whig and Republican), who was elected the 23rd President to the United States in 1888, defeating the Democratic incumbent, Glover Cleveland. He was the grandson of William Henry Harrison, the great grandson of Benjamin Harrison V, a founding father, and son of John Scott Harrison and Elizabeth Ramsey Harrison.

The above pictures from my collection include a large, period portrait of William Henry Harrison, and a 19th century and 20th century collection of period pieces, reunion pieces (such as Gettysburg), anniversary pieces (such as Washington's birthday), and advertisement pieces, among other items.  In addition to the large portrait item, there are three prominent 19th century Harrison pieces in the collection: a vintage die-cut hat ad (center of frame) and a cabinet card (bottom center) of Benjamin Harrison and his wife, and a portrait card of William Henry Harrison (upper left).

An interesting and politically prominent 20th century Harrison and Symmes family descendant was Harrison Matthews Symmes (1921-2010), brother of my wife's father, Andrew Harriss Symmes, Sr., (1923-2016). A dear friend of my immediate family, Harrison served as US Ambassador to Jordan (1967-1970), US Under Secretary of State for Middle East Affairs (1963-1966), and Resident Director of Mount Vernon (1977-1980).

1920 Cox / Roosevelt Ticket

James M. Cox was born on this day in 1870.  He was Democratic nominee for President in 1920.  You will recognize his running mate.  He is modern day Cox Communications.  They were soundly defeated by a GOP ticket of Harding and Coolidge.

This pin is 'the flagship', 'the holy grail' of buttons of the American political memorabilia collecting hobby (along with a few other Cox / Roosevelt jugate buttons). (I do not own it).