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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Topic Author's Original Post - May 22, 2015 - 05:42pm PT
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Big weekend for most Americans, gettin' out on the road, campin' and hikin' and lookin' at flowers on graves.
On behalf of florists everywhere, "Thank you for remembering us, too."
I hope you all have a good visit to wherever you'll be going, taking your time on the road--it's a HOLIDAY, not a commute.
Sad song in order. Sunnyland Slim's singin' and playin' the piano on the Sonny Boy Williamson classic.
Decoration Day. Everybody seems to have put a version of this out on vinyl.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBOxIKvBi9E
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Topic Author's Reply - May 23, 2015 - 04:11pm PT
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I was saving this, waiting for another thread to appear, just to see what would happen (a devil inside).
The meaning of Decoration Day is not what it was originally meant to be.
They've even changed the name to Memorial Day, which is fine, but in so doing, they have served no one but themselves.
The following article was originally published on LiberationNews.org.
The revolutionary origins of Memorial Day and its political hijacking
The way the Civil War became officially remembered—through Memorial Day celebrations—was based on the erasure of the Black veteran and the liberated slave.
What we now know as Memorial Day began as "Decoration Day" in the immediate aftermath of the U.S. Civil War. It was a tradition initiated by former slaves to celebrate emancipation and commemorate those who died for that cause.
These days, Memorial Day is arranged as a day "without politics"—a general patriotic celebration of all soldiers and veterans, regardless of the nature of the wars in which they participated. This is the opposite of how the day emerged, with explicitly partisan motivations, to celebrate those who fought for justice and liberation.
The concept that the population must "remember the sacrifice" of U.S. service members, without a critical reflection on the wars themselves, did not emerge by accident. It came about in the Jim Crow period as the Northern and Southern ruling classes sought to reunite the country around apolitical mourning, which required erasing the "divisive" issues of slavery and Black citizenship. These issues had been at the heart of the struggles of the Civil War and Reconstruction.
To truly honor Memorial Day means putting the politics back in. It means reviving the visions of emancipation and liberation that animated the first Decoration Days. It means celebrating those who have fought for justice, while exposing the cruel manipulation of hundreds of thousands of U.S. service members who have been sent to fight and die in wars for conquest and empire.
The first Decoration Day
As the U.S. Civil War came to a close in April 1865, Union troops entered the city of Charleston, S.C., where four years prior the war had begun. While white residents had largely fled the city, Black residents of Charleston remained to celebrate and welcome the troops, who included the TwentyFirst Colored Infantry. Their celebration on May 1, 1865, the first “Decoration Day,” later became Memorial Day.
Historian David Blight retold the story:
During the final year of the war, the Confederates had converted the planters' horse track, the Washington Race Course and Jockey Club, into an outdoor prison. Union soldiers were kept in horrible conditions in the interior of the track; at least 257 died of exposure and disease and were hastily buried in a mass grave behind the grandstand. Some 28 black workmen went to the site, re-buried the Union dead properly, and built a high fence around the cemetery. They whitewashed the fence and built an archway over an entrance on which they inscribed the words, "Martyrs of the Race Course."
Then, black Charlestonians in cooperation with white missionaries and teachers, staged an unforgettable parade of 10,000 people on the slaveholders' race course. The symbolic power of the low-country planter aristocracy's horse track (where they had displayed their wealth, leisure, and influence) was not lost on the freed people. A New York Tribune correspondent witnessed the event, describing "a procession of friends and mourners as South Carolina and the United States never saw before."
At 9 a.m. on May 1, the procession stepped off led by 3,000 black schoolchildren carrying armloads of roses and singing "John Brown's Body." The children were followed by several hundred black women with baskets of flowers, wreaths and crosses.
Then came black men marching in cadence, followed by contingents of Union infantry and other black and white citizens. As many as possible gathered in the cemetery enclosure; a childrens' choir sang "We'll Rally around the Flag," the "Star-Spangled Banner," and several spirituals before several black ministers read from scripture. ("The First Decoration Day," Newark Star Ledger)
The battle over the 'memory' of the Civil War
Blight's award-winning "Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory" (2001) explained how three "overall visions of Civil War memory collided" in the decades after the war.
The first was the emancipationist vision, embodied in African Americans' remembrances and the politics of Radical Reconstruction, in which the Civil War was understood principally as a war for the destruction of slavery and the liberation of African Americans to achieve full citizenship.
The second was the reconciliationist vision, ostensibly less political, which focused on honoring the dead on both sides, respecting their sacrifice, and the reunion of the country.
The third was the white supremacist vision, which was either openly pro-Confederate or at least despising of Reconstruction as "Black rule" in the South.
Over the late 1800s and the early 1900s, in the context of Jim Crow and the complete subordination of Black political participation, the second and third visions largely combined. The emancipationist version of the Civil War, and the heroic participation of African Americans in their own liberation, was erased from popular culture, the history books and official commemoration.
In 1877, the Northern capitalist establishment decisively turned their backs on Reconstruction, striking a deal with the old slaveocracy to return the South to white supremacist rule in exchange for the South's acceptance of capitalist expansion. This political and economic deal was reflected in how the war was commemorated. Just as the reunion of the Northern and Southern ruling classes was based on the elimination of Black political participation, the way the Civil War became officially remembered—through the invention of Memorial Day—was based on the erasure of the Black veteran and the liberated slave.
As Blight explains, “With time, in the North, the war’s two great results—black freedom and the preservation of the Union—were rarely accorded equal space. In the South, a uniquely Confederate version of the war’s meaning, rooted in resistance to Reconstruction, coalesced around Memorial Day practice.” (“Race and Reunion,” p. 65)
The Civil War whitewashed
In the statues, anniversary parades and popular magazines, the Civil War was portrayed as an all-white affair, a tragic conflict between brothers. To the extent the role of slavery was allowed in these remembrances, Lincoln was typically portrayed as the beneficent liberator standing above the kneeling slave.
The mere image of the fighting Black soldier pierced through this particular "memory," which in reality was a collective and forced "forgetting" of the real past. Portraying the rebellious slave or Black soldier would unmask the Civil War as a life-and-death struggle against slavery, a true social revolution, and a reminder of the political promises that had been betrayed.
While African Americans and white radicals continued to uphold the emancipationist remembrance of the Civil War during the following decades—as exemplified by W.E.B. DuBois’ landmark “Black Reconstruction”—this interpretation was effectively silenced in the “respectable” circles of academia, mainstream politics and popular culture. The white supremacist and reconciliationist retelling of the war and Reconstruction was only overthrown in official academic circles in the 1950s and 1960s as the Civil Rights movement shook the country to its core, and more African Americans fought their way into the country’s universities.
While historians have gone a long way to expose the white supremacist history of the Civil War and uncover its revolutionary content, the spirit of the first Decoration Day—the struggle for Black liberation and the fight against racism—has unfortunately been whitewashed from the modern Memorial Day.
So let’s use Memorial Day weekend to honor the fallen fighters for justice worldwide, to speak plainly about this country’s historic crimes, and rededicate ourselves to take on those of the present.
Commentary--
If you will have noticed, Sunnyland Slim is like many others: ignorant of the original meaning of Decoration Day. He's singing about someone other than a veteran, much less a black vet. Around the turn of the last century is when this began happening, this placing of flowers on the graves of the dead, soldiers or not.
Things change, ideas must mutate, it's inevitable. There's no reason to bitch about this, just know for yourselves what in heck you're celebrating, whether it's an auntie who sat home and knitted doilies or your family vets or your family pets.
It's all good.
Peace.
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Wayno
Big Wall climber
Seattle, WA
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May 23, 2015 - 04:39pm PT
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Thanks Mouse, I did not know that.
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neebee
Social climber
calif/texas
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May 23, 2015 - 08:49pm PT
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hey there say, mouse... thank you for a good share, here...
may folks always to remember those that had to go through things that many of us will never understand...
prayers folks, everywhere... and the loved ones that wait, and hope...
as to those that still serve...
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FGD135
Social climber
Boulder Canyon Colorado
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May 24, 2015 - 09:22am PT
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That original day in Charleston was a significant event, however, many different springtime dates during and immediately after the Civil War are documented clearly and were called variously "Decoration Day" and "Memorial Day", esp. in the south, where Confederate veterans were memorialized by their kin. Even Gen. Logan, head of the GAR, the northern veteran's organization, recommended that the nation follow the lead of various southern groups in declaring a remembrance day for all Civil War deaths of both sides.
Certainly you can make that into a political statement if you wish to do so, but the overwhelming circumstances seem to indicate to me a desire by the nation to honor all dead, and by doing so, help the nation recover from a brutal conflict. That this has morphed into the current Memorial Day neither denigrates the original meanings of the holiday nor causes us to forget these meanings.
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Topic Author's Reply - May 24, 2015 - 11:16am PT
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^^^
Well said.
Hear, hear!
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TGT
Social climber
So Cal
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May 24, 2015 - 06:19pm PT
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[Click to View YouTube Video]
Here is a post I made on another message board in May of 2000. It's a little outdated in that it doesn't reflect the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I thought of updating it, but ultimately decided to let it stand as written. I walk amongst the graves every year and remember, and since I wrote this, the responsibility has grown as now I have sons to teach as we walk together. Millions of people cavalierly toss about their opinions about politics and foreign policy and government. Very few of them stop to realize the real world costs of the freedoms we enjoy. War is nasty, brutal and unforgiving. The innocent and the guilty alike are consumed by it's fury. It is not by any stretch of the imagination "nice", but sometimes, as bad as war is, it is necessary and preferable to the alternative. When we as a society take our lives as they are for granted, we shame those who bought us our freedoms with their lives.
I sit here at my computer on the night before Memorial Day, and ponder what my day will be like. I intend to take a little trip, you see, and like any intelligent being, I am planning it in advance. The weather tomorrow is supposed to be overcast and rainy, but rather than dampen the mood, I imagine it will enhance it. It is altogether fitting that the weather reflect the somber yet joyful emotions required for my trip. I plan on visiting my local cemetery.
I see myself strolling through the even graves, row upon row. I shall consider all the lives represented by the seemingly endless markers, and I imagine I will be drawn to one or more adorned with the flag of the United States. As I peer down upon the hallowed resting place of a man or woman who gave a portion, or perhaps all of their life in service of this country I will remember. I will remember how lucky I am to be well fed while so many in this world go to bed hungry. I will remember the privilege I enjoy of living among others with the freedom to live, be happy and prosper. I will remember that there are places where a group of government thugs could tear me from my home and family to imprison or kill me, with nothing more than a whim or the whispered suggestion of wrong thinking to condemn me. Most of all I will remember that the liberties that I so blissfully take for granted were paid for at a terrible price.
At some point during my stroll, I will probably fall to my knees and silently pray to a God whose form I am not sure of, asking that the fallen never be forgotten and entreating him for the strength within myself to make sure their sacrifices were not in vain.
I will commend the courage of the 4,435 who died standing up to the most powerful empire in the world, saying 'Enough! All men are created equal!"
I will regret the passing of those 2,260 who, in the War of 1812, gave their lives in a war which was fairly pointless, but none the less validated the United States as a power to rival those in Europe.
I will cherish the memory of 13,283 who followed the lead of a heroic few Texans and stood off an invading Mexican army.
I will weep bitter tears as I consider that 558,052 American men, women and children paid the ultimate price while fighting each other, and the result is a union that would never again be questioned. These people died in the cause of unity, and the nation they fought to save has gone on to lead the world.
I will consider what it must have been like for the 2,446 who died fighting a minor European power in 1898. Historically, the Spanish American War may be trivial, but they answered the call all the same.
I will give endless thanks that I did not have to experience the absolute horror of trench warfare in Europe, while honoring the 116,708 who were killed doing nothing less than standing against the Kaiser's crack troops, fresh from the Eastern front, expecting to roll the Allies into the channel. WWI could easily have been a German victory without them.
I will stand in awe of the willingness displayed by 407,316 ordinary men and women who left their homes and paid the ultimate price to ensure that fascism did not engulf the world and lead to the darkest time in history. The everyman of WWII is an amazing concept, yet that is how it has been throughout history. Just plain folks doing their duty.
I will reflect on how 33,651 Americans passed the torch of freedom from their failing hands to a little country called South Korea, proving that they may look different and speak what to us is a very strange language, but they are no less deserving of freedom than we.
I will ponder the plight of the Vietnam veteran, along with his 58,163 comrades who did not come home. How must it have been, to go to an unknown place, to fight and die for a people who often didn't want them there. How terrible to come home to a population who scorned them, whose only answer to the anguished plea, " I answered the call, I did my duty" was all to often a turned back?
I will rejoice that only 293 Americans were called to sacrifice themselves in 1991, but remember that thousands of opposing troops, people who do not have our freedom to set the course their government takes, died as well.
I will remember that the cost has been great, but celebrate that the results have been greater. As I raise my eyes again, and peer at the carved stone remembering only one such life, I will whisper from the depth of my soul the two words that are completely inadequate, and yet are all that I have to offer.
"THANK YOU".
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