Friday

                       Musings and History

Quote of the day:

Soon after the settling of Saint Augustine, Fl. in 1565 the first tourist arrived and said:

“It is a lot better than this in Rochester.”

                        Anonymous

Some of you may not know that I have a website, here it is:

bigalsdailyhistory.blogspot.com

One day I will discontinue the e-mail and only service the website.

A long while ago I was invited to go to Medford, Oregon to meet with an old friend who was a guide on the Rogue river in the summer and an elk hunting guide in the Cascades fall and winter. He wanted to take me salmon fishing on the Rogue. I was an air traffic controller then and we got two free airline trips a year. I used one of them to fly from Greenville, SC to Medford. My friend was rough and ready, y'all. He was about 6'-2” and weighed about 230. He always had his trusty Bowie knife and various sidearms of a variety of calibers strapped to his waist, long hair and a full beard...he also used the hell out of pot. We went out on an overnight trip (sleeping in tents that had been erected deep in the woods). We fished out of drift boats in some of the most arboreal waters I have ever seen. We were after Pacific salmon but did not catch any...but we caught the hell out of Steelhead trout. Some of them were 8 pounds or more. My friend considered the trip a bust but I enjoyed every minute. My friend is no longer with us but as far as I am concerned he was the model for a professional hunter and fisherman, pot not withstanding. By the way, a Steelhead is actually a rainbow trout that developed the ability to travel out to sea and return like the salmon.

This Date in History April 8

563BC On this date the Gautuma Buddha is born. He was actually born as Prince Siddhartha with his father being the King of the Sakya people in northeast India. At the age of 29 the Prince chose to seek peace and serenity. There was confusion and arguing about when the Buddha was actually born then a book called Tripitaka was found and eventually became to be known as the authentic documentary of the life and discourses of Buddha. This book established the date of birth of the Buddha in the mid sixth century BC and 563BC became the accepted date. Buddha’s father tried to keep him isolated away from any religion but the young prince had his chariot driver take him for ride around the countryside. He saw sick and poor people and did not know what to make of it and had to ask his chariot driver who those people were. Then he saw a monk walking down the road with the look of serenity across his face among all of this sickness and poverty. It was then that he decided to eliminate all of his worldly good and seek the ultimate nirvana. The Buddha withdrew into himself and examined every aspect of him and peace and serenity, and at the age 35 he determined the four great truths. They are 1. Existence is suffering 2. Suffering is caused by human craving 3. There is a cessation to suffering called Nirvana. 4. Nirvana can be achieved in this , or another life by following an “eightfold path” and that is having the right views, the right resolve, the right speech, the right action, the right livelihood, the right effort, the right mindfulness and finally the right concentration. The Buddha traveled the roads and back roads preaching his aesthetics. Eventually he gained a large following and today the Buddhist religion has 350 million followers. Buddha died at the age of 80 leaving a legacy that is older than Christianity.

1864 I have described the Red River campaign in previous lessons. A recap is that the Union decided to depart the newly captured city of New Orleans, send a substantial army up the west bank of the Mississippi River, accompanied by several river war ships. Upon reaching the Red River, The Union army was to continue to follow the Red River on into Texas with the ships close aboard. The problem was that the army was being shadowed by a substantial Confederate army. The Union Army was commanded by the inept General Nathaniel Banks. Banks was confronted by an impenetrable swamp and moved away from the river and went inland out from under the umbrella of the river boat artillery. The Confederate army was commanded by General Richard Taylor. On this date Taylor determined that Bank’s army was out of range of the river boats, he launched a surprise attack near the town of Mansfield, Louisiana. Bank’s troops were routed and headed back toward the Big Easy with Taylor’s howling Confederates hot on the trail. Finally Banks received reinforcements and Taylor’s advance was halted. But Banks was unnerved and continued on back down the river leaving the poor riverboats to the mercy of swarms of snipers on both river banks. Eventually Banks and his troops and the river boats were safe in New Orleans. Banks was relieved of duty and little is known of him after that.

1945 Earlier when Hitler had first come to power, a young Lutheran theologian named Dietrich Bonhoeffer was teaching at Berlin University. Dietrich was not enamored with the rantings of the Nazis and continued to tell everyone from the pulpit that the Nazis were calling it one thing but it really was a dictatorship they were trying to establish. Well, the Nazis could not sit still for that and arrested this man of the cloth and threw him in jail, crime unknown. This did not slow Dietrich down and he preached to the inmates in jail. Eventually, Dietrich was finally thrown into the concentration camp at Flossenburg. He continued with his attacks on the Nazis until he was so weak that he could no longer stand and on this day, he was hanged, again crime unknown. Four days later this concentration camp was liberated by the allies. Bonhoeffer’s last words were “This is the end for me, but the beginning of life.” What an enormous display of courage and dedication to his belief.

Born today:

563BC Spiritual leader Gautama Buddha. He said “The Buddhas do not tell you the way; it is for you to swelter the task.”

1898 English writer Sir Cecil Bowra. When asked about his “plain” wife Sir Cecil said “My dear fellow, ugly men can’t be choosers”

1905 US actress Ilka Chase. When talking with another actress the other actress said “I read your book, who wrote it for you?” Ilka responded with “I am glad you liked it, who read it to you.”

1919 Former first lady Betty Ford. She said “My makeup was not smeared, my hair was not disheveled and I never finished off a bottle, how could I be an alcoholic?” It’s easy, Betty, as you know.

Died today:

1835 German philosopher Baron Wilhelm Humboldt. He said “The government is at its best when it is unnecessary.” Yes indeed.

1973 Spanish artist Pablo Picasso. He said “Computers are useless, they only give you answers.” Think on that, y'all

1981 US Army General Omar Bradley. He said “The world has achieved brilliance without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants.” It is scary, ain’t it?

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow