Daily history

Good morning,


Quote of the day:

“The only true wisdom is knowing that you know nothing. This allows the learning process to expand throughout your life.”

                                          Albert Einstein

Thursday afternoon the Greenville city cops set up a prostitute sting out on the west side. They arrested twenty "Johns" and other potential clients as young as the age of 16. They took that boy home to his parents but his father was not home. The 16 year old said that “Dad was with me but ran away when he saw me get busted.” What a great example his father is setting.

Down in Orangeburg, South Carolina the principal of a K-8 school and his wife decided to go to the Verizon store and look into a cell phone. The woman was sitting down and the man was walking around making disparaging remarks about his wife. She got fed up and with the insults and said she was leaving. She began to rise from the chair but her husband ran over, grabbed her by the throat and pushed her back into the chair saying “Sit your ass down.” Needless to say this jackass was put on administrative leave from his job until a determination can be made. What the hell has come over everybody? This man is looking at assault, criminal domestic violence and lynching. Is that the kind of person anyone would want as a principal in your children’s school? What would be your response if that man’s wife was your daughter? I have already told my daughter’s boyfriends/husbands that my kids can hold their own verbally, but if it gets physical they will have to deal with me. Don’t let that happen.

Down in a small suburb of Greenville there is a pretty fancy gated apartment complex. One of the apartments is occupied by a 38 year old man and a 23 year old woman. Thursday night an argument evidently broke out and it escalated to a fever pitch. The man stabbed his roomie in the chest 6 times killing her, and then he stabbed himself in the chest also but did not die immediately. He was rushed to the hospital but it was too late, he died too. How tough was that to inflict a fatal wound in your own chest? He had to be really upset.

I read a combat report about a US Green Beret whose unit was clearing out Fallujah, Iraq a few months ago. This Green Beret walked into a room in a dark house and was hit from behind by a Taliban with a 2 X 4. The board glanced off the soldier's helmet and hit him in the shoulder dislocating his collar bone. The Green Beret, using only his good arm, began wrestling with the attacker. He finally got the Arab down on the floor and was able to reach his throat and bit open the man’s jugular vein and held him down until he bled out. That, my friends, is bad to the bone.

Here is one other combat tale. This happened in Nam. After a fire fight, an American Marine was lying wounded in the field of battle. A corpsman name Cpl. Darden was sent to retrieve the wounded man. He dashed out, put the wounded man over his shoulder and headed back. All of a sudden a North Vietnamese soldier attacked out of the undergrowth and attempted to impale Cpl. Darden on his bayonet. Cpl. Darden snatched the rifle from the enemy soldier, whacked him, up side of the head with the stock putting him on the ground and then beat him to death with the butt plate. During all of this Cpl. Darden never released the Marine across his shoulder. That also, is bad to the bone.

In the last few days a good friend of mine passed away. I do not know exactly what he died of. I have heard that he had kidney failure associated with stomach cancer. It is reported that he refused to be kept alive by artificial means. He had been feeling bad for a few months but refused to go to a doctor. In fact, he had not been to a doctor since 1992. His best friend and his brother went to his house and carried him to the hospital but it was too late. He could have been saved if the disease had been detected sooner. I have no problem going to Doc Hammond, y’all, and everybody needs to keep their health in mind from time to tiime. By the way, with my friend's last breath when he was told that there was nothing they could do for him he said that he wanted to go home to die because he was ready to go. He died at home the next day. Many tears were shed, including mine.

This date in history April 3

1776    The United States did not have a standing navy of warships to combat the British men-of-war that were blockading nearly every American port. On this date, the inimitable John Hancock issues “LETTERS of the MARQUE and REPRISALS” to those private warships and vessels that are interested. In short the United States was ready to hire pirates to board and capture English vessels on the high seas.. The notice read that those vessels carrying a LETTER of the MARQUE were commissioned by the United States to captured English vessels, by force of arms if necessary, and bring such vessels and/or cargo into any United States port as sanctuary. The deal was that in return for sanctuary the pirate vessel would have to split the cargo with the United States. Vessels that were prohibited from capture were those ships bringing immigrants to the United States or any vessel carrying armaments to the United States. The French government had been sending a stream of arms to America on French ships both covertly and later overtly. I have not done any research about the results of the issuance of LETTERS of the MARQUE but it would be an interesting journey to find out.

1882    Earlier as teenagers and during the Civil War Jesse and Frank James joined with a Confederate Raider named William Quantrill in the Kansas/Missouri/Texas area. Quantrill did what he could to disrupt Union military activity in this area but he also would not hesitate to intimidate and kill, if necessary, anyone that was a Union supporter civilian or otherwise. After the war ended in 1865 Jesse and Frank returned to their farm in Missouri and began farming. These boys soon found out that the four years of excitement with Quantrill was still with them and they could not be happy farming. So they decided to rob a bank once in a while. The first was a bank in Lexington, Missouri in September of 1865. They did not go on rampages but just robbed about two banks a year and lay low on the farm the rest of the time. Then they branched off into train robberies. On one train robbery they robbed all the passengers except any southerner that they knew was suffering under the so-called Reconstruction. It was this act that gave them the legend of being a type of Robin Hood. But make no mistake, if anyone got in their way during a robbery, Yankee or Southerner, they would be killed. Finally the railroads hire the Pinkerton Agency to put a stop to these two. On one occasion the Pinkerton agents surrounded their mother’s house thinking the brothers were inside and threw in a tear gas canister which exploded and killed a nine year old boy that was inside and permanently injured the mother’s left arm. This also did not enamor the Yankees with the local gentry not Jesse and Frank. Jesse and Frank got together with their cousins the Younger brothers and decided to go way out of their territory where they would be the least expected and rob a bank. They chose Northfield, Minnesota as a target. The robbery went to hell in a hand basket and the Younger brothers were tracked down by a huge posse and all were killed or imprisoned. The James brothers escaped and fled to Tennessee and hid out until the heat was off. Then they organized another gang that included the Ford brothers, Bob and William. On this date, Jesse had called a meeting of the gang at his house to plan another robbery. The Ford brothers showed up and as Jesse was hanging a picture with his back to the room, Bob Ford shot Jesse several time in the back killing him instantly. Bob was after the reward money that the railroads had posted. Bob Ford went down in history as one of the worst scoundrels in American history along with Benedict Arnold.

1817    William Alexander Anderson Wallace is born in Lexington, Kentucky. Little is known of his youth but his older brother was in Texas helping fight for its independence from Mexico and was massacred by Santa Anna’s army in Goliad, Texas. In this event 465 Texans had gathered in defense of Goliad and Santa Anna shows up with a force of 3,000 and surrounds the town, The 465 surrender thinking they will be treated as prisoners of war. Santa Anna chose to treat them as traitors and killed them all. William declares he is going to Texas and “take my revenge on those Mexicans”. However, Sam Houston and 765 wild-eyed Texans beat the living shit out of Santa Anna and the war was over before Wallace got there. But Wallace enjoyed the independent attitude of the Texans and decided to stay. Wallace was a big boy, was 6’ 2” and weighed 240 pounds. Not only that he had gigantic feet and gained the nickname “Bigfoot”. Bigfoot Wallace became a legend in Texas by being in the Texas Militia and later on became a Texas Ranger under Captain John Hays. From this point on his life was one adventure after another. On one event he was driving an empty stage coach on the very dangerous San Antonio to El Paso route. And sure enough, a group of Kiowa Indians stopped him and stole his mules and he ended up having to walk across that Texas desert all the way to El Paso. He said that he ate 27 eggs at the first farm he came to and then went on into El Paso for a “real meal”. He was captured by the Mexicans and spent 15 months in the notoriously brutal prison in Vera Cruz. During the Civil War he fought for the Confederacy but served by protecting the Texas frontier from Indian raids his later years He enjoyed sitting around telling the younger kids of his adventures. Wallace died in 1899 after serving the state of Texas for most of his life. He is buried in the Texas State Cemetery in Austin. His biography is worthy for all to read. He was a man of enormous courage and determination.

Born today:

1822    US religious leader Edward Everett Hale. When asked if he prayed for the United States Senators. He said “No, I look at the Senators and pray for the nation.” I think Reverend Hale has his finger on the pulse of American politicians.

1593    English writer George Herbert. He said “Follow not the truth too closely, lest it knock your teeth out.” Sometimes the truth hurts, obviously.

Died today:

1933    US writer Wilson Mizner. He said “When a man continues to proclaim that he is no fool usually has his suspicions.” We all know such people.

1996    Mayor Charles Stokes. He said “When you start talking about making a “real change” it usually means that you are going to take away something someone possesses.”

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow