Friday

                       Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“I know you believe you understand what you think I said, but I am not sure you realize that what your heard is not what I meant.”

                                     Robert McCloskey

       This sounds like a conversation with my third ex-wife.

Recently a group of Canadian archaeologists discovered the wreckage of the HMS Investigator in Mercy Bay. The ship was tasked by the British Government with locating the fabled Northwest Passage which was a sea passage between the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans through North America. This passage is possible but not with a wooden ship like the Investigator that began the search in 1850. The commander of the Investigator, Sir John Franklin, was blocked by sea ice on his first attempt and wintered in Mercy Bay. The next summer he tried again and was blocked by sea ice once again and sailed back into Mercy Bay and awaited rescue. The rescue came in the form of HMS Resolute in 1853 and the Investigator was abandoned. The archaeologist found the ship in superb condition due to the cold water. They also found the corpses of three sailors. Out of respect to the dead, the ship will not be raised.

A while back I could hardly restrain myself when I saw President Obama speaking about the so-called “Arizona law” he said “The United States cannot allow an individual in power (Governor of Arizona) to declare themselves anti-immigrant just to make a name for themselves…”. Hey Barack, what about the 66% of Americans who agree with the Arizona law as written? Are all of us trying to make a name for ourselves? You are so out of touch with mainstream America it is scary….and I mean scary.

               This Date in History August 5

1981 On this date President Ronald Reagan fired about 11,600 air traffic controllers that had gone on strike earlier. I was one of them. The roots of the strike began about three years earlier when our Union President went out and contacted Presidential candidate Ronald Reagan, the ex-governor of California, and told him that we the 16,000 members of the Air traffic controller’s union would campaign to get him elected if he would just promised to do one thing. The union had tried to get the retirement system for air traffic controllers changed because the stress wore heavily on their ability as they aged. The Union had spent millions of dollars literally bribing the right Senators and Representatives to get a bill introduced that would change the retirement system for air traffic controllers. All was asked of Reagan was that he not interfere or veto the bill once it is introduced as part of the next contract. According to our Union President Reagan agreed to this. Reagan came to office in 1980 and the next year our contract came up for renewal. We were excited that a change in the retirement was on the horizon. Reagan came out and said “Here is $43,000,000 dollars, do with it what you want, and that is all you are getting for your contract.” Money was not an issue as far as we were concerned; we wanted a change in the retirement plan. But when we threatened a strike President Reagan pointed to the $43,000.000 and said something how greedy we were in typical political bullshit, he did not even mention the retirement change. Even if we had wanted a pay raise, $43,000,000 divided into 16,000 people for three years made it a 58 cent an hour pay raise. That made it a matter of honor, so we went on strike and was fired. This whole scenario was described to the rank and file by our Union President and therefore could have been enhanced...one way or another. It probably saved my life getting out of that business because counting my time in the Air Force I had been doing it for 25 years and I was pretty much worn out anyway.

1864 US Admiral David Farragut had been tasked with the capture of Mobile Bay and the city of Mobile, Alabama. On this day he arranged his ships in two columns out in the Gulf of Mexico and then turned into the mouth of Mobile Bay. The Confederates had a well armed fort on either side of the entrance to the bay. They were Fort Morgan and Fort Gaines. Farragut sent four ironclad ships to lead the way. When the two forts opened fire, one of Farragut’s ironclads “The Tecumseh” went to the bottom within minutes. The ships behind began to run around in confusion until Admiral Farragut supposedly signaled “Damn the torpedoes (artillery), full speed ahead” and the ships fell back into line and kept going into the bay. Farragut’s quote during this battle is suspect at best, but the US Navy succeeded in capturing Mobile Bay and the city of Mobile, Alabama. The US fleet did not escape totally unscathed except for the “Tecumseh”, several US ships were destroyed or ran aground but the victory was Farragut’s.

1953 On this date ex-Texas Ranger Ira Aten dies at his home in Burlingame, California at the age of 89. At the age of 13 Ira and his family had moved to a farm in the central Texas town of Round Rock. This was on the outer edge of the western frontier at the time and Ira had to learn the law of the west first hand. His father was a Methodist minister and attended to the burial of more than one outlaw that was killed by vigilante groups. He became very handy with his fists, hand guns and was a crack shot with a rifle. At the age of 20 he joined the Texas Rangers and was assigned a territory on the Rio Grande River where much cattle rustling happened headed both north and south. He got into several gunfights but always came away unhurt. He was then sent to the west Texas frontier that was considered to be more peaceful. While there he met up with an outlaw named Judd Roberts and tried to arrest him but Roberts wanted to fight so Aten shot Roberts in the gun hand but Roberts escaped. Aten met up with Roberts again and tried to arrest him but Roberts again wanted to fight so Aten shot him in the leg but Roberts escaped anyway. Finally, Aten met Roberts a third time and did not try to arrest him; he put a bullet into Roberts’s sternum killing him instantly. Aten finally got out of law enforcement and became a supervisor on the enormous XIT (Ten in Texas) ranch. Even then he had to deal with cattle rustlers. He finally moved to Burlingame with his five children and lived out the rest of his days in serenity. He was one of the last to have lived in the legendary “wild west”.

Born today:

1961 US comic writer Liz Winstead. When speaking of Jerry Lewis she said “The train of bitterness stopped at his station years ago.”

Died today:

1895 German philosopher Frederick Engels. He said “An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory”.

             Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow