Tuesday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“It isn’t what you have, or who you are, or where you are, or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about.”

                                               Dale Carnegie

Our ancestors possessed slaves in this land for 163 years before the Confederacy even existed...flags and statues not withstanding. But don't let me confuse you with history just continue your ignorance.

I feel for the Cecil the lion but if you have the freaking moxie look up and see how many people under age of 20 were killed in Chicago and Detroit in the month of July. Or are you afraid to look which would make you appear like a ridiculous pawn of the media in your angst? Don't be stupid....be knowledgeable and don't be used. The media stirs up anger as part of their promotions. If there was peace and understanding they would be out of business.

There is a man-made lake complex in eastern South Carolina that is the largest body of water east of the Mississippi River. It is known as Santee-Cooper. It is two giant lakes formed by the damming of the Cooper and Santee rivers and are connected by a canal. The eastern most lake is labeled Lake Moultrie and the western most lake is Lake Marion and the entire area is surrounded by very thick swamps that contain a myriad of wildlife including full grown American alligators. A while back it was reported that a 56 year old man staggered into a picnic area on Lake Moultrie minus a left arm up to the shoulder saying an alligator took it. Fortunately for him, there were five nurses present in the picnic area and the staunched the blood flow with ice and called 911. The EMT’s showed up and transported man to the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. A Wildlife officer also showed up went looking for the that alligator. The Wildlife officers found an 11 foot, 550 pound gator at the spot described by the victim. They dispatched the reptile and open up its stomach and retrieved the man’s arm and immediately put it on ice and sped it to the MUSC just in case it could be re-attached. If all of this is true that 56 year old victim is the luckiest man on the planet to have found a group of nurses immediately after such a trauma as that. However, it sounds like an urban myth to me.

I was recently thinking about events in my past that made an impression. One in particular came to mind:

I was discharged from the USAF at McChord AFB near Seattle. A friend and I were headed from McChord to the Seattle-Tacoma airport in a cab to fly home. I was coming home to Greenville, SC and my friend was going home to St. Petersburg, Florida. While enroute in the cab we saw a '53 Chevy on the side of the road for sale and we looked at each other and decided to drive home. We stopped the cab, bought the car and headed out. We were going to drive south to the California beaches to stay a while before heading east. A map told us that if we did not take the highway that paralleled the Columbia river that would be the last chance to head east for several hundred miles. We decided to turn east down that highway rather than go hang ten with Tammy and Moondog. This was before there were any Interstates (1961). It took us 9 days to get to Columbia, Tennessee where my friend wanted to stay a few days visiting some of his family so we flipped a coin to see who would buy the other one out. I lost so he bought my share of the car and bought me a bus ticket to Greenville. On one particular occasion during this trip we had stopped at some tiny town in eastern Colorado for gas and food. This town was about 8 blocks long and dust was in the air like you would imagine in a Hunter Thompson novel . We went into a mom and pop cafe to eat and as men will do, we struck up a conversation with the female server. We told her that we had just gotten discharged and were on our way to the east coast but was going to have a good time along the way. We got up to leave and she pulled us aside and with the saddest look on her face she said “Look out the window, I was born here but please don't leave me here, take me with you.” I looked at my friend and we knew we could not do that and refused. The look of sadness on her face and the despair in her voice will be with me the rest of my days.

 

                     This Date in History  August 4

1892  On this date the Fall River, Massachusetts police are called to the home of Andy and Abbie Borden. The two had not been seen or heard for several days. Upon entry the cops found Andy in the downstairs living room where someone had chosen to part Andy’s face down the middle with an ax. The police were stunned, that is until they go upstairs to one of the bedrooms where Abbie was lying in a pool of blood. This girl had been struck several times on her skull also with an axe. According to the police Abbie’s head had been literally crushed from multiple blows. Well, the only possible suspects that could have committed this massacre were a daughter Lizzie or the housekeeper. Abbie was Lizzie’s step-mother and the word on the street was that they were not very friendly toward each other. The police arrested Lizzie for murder. She was tried and acquitted in spite if the evidence. In those days it was inconceivable that young lady could muster up such a rage and deliver a hacking like that, especially on her parents. There is little question that Lizzie did the deed but the good people from Massachusetts did not want to admit that one of their young ladies were capable of such a slaughter.

1961  On June 21 three civil rights workers were scanning the countryside in and around Meridian, Mississippi in an attempt to resister to vote many black people that had never voted before. Two of them were from New York named Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman. They were accompanied by a local black man name James Chaney. On June 21 they were riding away from the jail in Philadelphia, Mississippi where they had spent a couple of hours for a trumped up charge of speeding. What they really went to jail for was so the Sheriff could notify the KKK and they could prepare an ambush when they left. The ambush was indeed sprung and all three of the civil right workers were killed. The parents of the New Yorkers got concerned when they did not hear anything from Michael and Andrew for several days and notified the local police and the FBI. The local police were not interested in pursing the case but the FBI was very interested. They moved into Philadelphia, Mississippi in force and began an investigation that was somewhat less than gentlemanly. The local rednecks responded with more and more heat being applied to the blacks. Finally the FBI bribed a local Klansman into telling where the bodies of the three workers were buried. They were in the bottom of an earthen dam that was under construction and were unearthed on this date. Several Klansmen went to trial fro murder but were acquitted by a very prejudicial jury. The FBI re-arrested them and put them on trial for violation of their civil rights, a federal offense. They all did hard time but not what they would have gotten if they had been convicted of murder. Mississippi declares that their people don’t think that way any longer and they are out in the sunshine now. I certainly hope so.

                 Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow