The First American

Webner House

I live in Franklin County, Ohio, where the large statue of Benjamin Franklin pictured below is found at the county courthouse, so it makes sense that at some point I would finally turn to reading a biography of the county’s namesake.  I chose The First American, a fine recent biography by H.W. Brands that is well worth reading if you are interested in learning more about the early history of America and one of its foremost founding fathers.

Franklin is a fascinating character for more reasons that you can reasonably count.  During his lifetime, he was easily the most famous American alive, known and lauded in both America and in Europe for his experiments with lightning and electricity, his invention of the Franklin stove and other devices, and his writings, both in Poor Richard’s Almanac and elsewhere.  He was a hard-working capitalist, turning his printers’ shop into a thriving…

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A courageous 16 year-old horse rider

When we think about the women’s movement, we mostly think about the 19th and 20th century, but do not bring our thoughts to the American Revolutionary War.

The New York militia officer and later an aide to Gen. George Washington, Henry Ludington, founder of Ludingtonville, which later became the town of Kent, New York, got the news of Gov. William Tryon’s attack on Danbury, Connecticut, some 15 miles (25 km) to the southeast, where the munitions and stores for the militia of the entire region were stored. Colonel Ludington began immediately to organize the local militia.

Ludington’s great-nephew Connecticut historian Louis S. Patrick, says Sybil Ludington her father

“bade her to take a horse, ride for the men, and tell them to be at his house by daybreak.”

Through the night the 16-year-old girl rode her horse nearly 40 miles (65 km) on unfamiliar roads around Putnam county, spreading the alarm. She ranged south to Mahopac and north to Stormville before returning home.

The city doctor Adam from the Doc in schooltime got not to know about that girl who reminds him of his daughter and her horse at age 16.

How important her charge was and how courageous she must’ve been….

He loves her story and brings it to us by his article:

The Girl and Her Horse that Changed History

She would later be commended by George Washington for her heroism and became widely celebrated in the United States of America, since around 1900. Memorial statues honour her, and books have been written about her.

She was honoured on a United States Bicentennial postage stamp that was released on March 25, 1975, which depicts her on her horse. Each April since 1979, the Sybil Ludington 50-kilometer footrace has been held in Carmel, New York. The course of this hilly road race approximates Sybil’s historic ride and finishes near the statue which was erected in her honour on the shore of Lake Gleneida, Carmel, New York.

So, when you hear the tale of Paul Revere, remember the other riders, one of which was the very courageous Sybil Ludington.

In October 1784 Sybil married Edward Ogden, a lawyer, and she lived in Unadilla until her death.

On the 11th hour…

Today there are still a lot of people who do have an idealist view of what ‘military service‘ and ‘military heroes’ are . Many families have lost members at the terrible battlefields of 1914 and 1939-1945.

It is good that the world stand still for remembering all those people who gave their life for what they thought to be ‘giving their live for the good cause”.

Still many consider that service to one’s country only can take place by taking up weapons. To go to defend their country with weapons demands a special breed of person – they consider such a person a true Hero. But throughout the years hopefully many veterans came to see that those hero’s of ‘one day’ were often very soon forgotten by their governments.

The United States Congress officially recognized the end of World War I when it passed a concurrent resolution on June 4, 1926, with these words:

veteran’s give up a 3 lot to serve our country

 

After the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783) there have been several rebellious movements, with a.o. the Whiskey Rebellion (1791–1794),  Quasi-War (1798–1800), to get a First Barbary War (1801–1805), Tecumseh’s War (1811), the War of 1812 with the Creek War (1813–1814), Second Barbary War (1815) and so many wars against the local American autochtone inhabitants, the Indians. Many died in a Patriot War (1838) whilst many accepted American Federal authority after the Utah War (1857–1858) but had to go to fight again believing in their cause to dome to a dissolution of the Confederacy and to get a beginning of the Reconstruction Era.

The Spanish–American War (1898) may have brought the collapse of the Spanish Empire, it seemed the Americans did not yet learn from all those battles, but thought they just did it in the right way to get that what they wanted, more power.

The United Kingdom, Russia,  Japan, France, United States, Germany, Italy and  Austria-Hungary had already their little war on a world level with the Boxer Rebellion (1899–1901) defending the colours of their flag with the Righteous Harmony Society and  China.

Mexico and Germany got Carrancistas and the United States fighting a Border War (1910–1919) which made them rolling from one war into an other, having their youngsters also going to fight across the Ocean on the battlefields of Flanders and getting many casualties in World War I (for them 1917–1918), the Russian Civil War (1918–1920) and World War II (for them starting two years later = 1941–1945).

But still they did not seem to get enough, though so many cried out for “No more war!”. Soon as part of the Cold War many countries send their boys out to fight in the Korean War (1950–1953).

The Indochina Wars got many from our generation ‘fighting’ on the streets to stop all that killing, but our protestsongs did not do so much to end the Vietnam War (1955–1973). The boom-children could see that those who were afraid of sharing with each other and having common goods where willing to spend lives which belonged to many fathers and mothers who were not interested in politics. The Bay of Pigs Invasion (1961) and the Cuban missile crisis (1962) brought again much fear into many family homes.

Our children and grandchildren came to see how much turned about power over others or over resources of nature (oil, metals, diamonds, a.o.) like in the Gulf War (1990–1991) where like in the Vietnam war innocent civilians and unknowing soldier were victims of chemical experiments.

Those veterans of the many wars certainly had and have nothing to celebrate on a veteran’s day. They are victims of those in power. They are left in the cold when the battle was over or when they got out of the news in the media.

So many of those veterans still living today have horrible nightmares, have tremendous pains to endure,and who is helping them? Who is standing behind them to be there when they are needed? suddenly those veterans are not necessary any more because they became useless for a battlefield.

It are those forgotten soldiers we should remember as well.

It is not right to blame the general public to say

Vietnam War veterans were treated very badly, since public opinion of the war was so low.

The United States government could still take care of the many who returned damaged. They tax people so they receive money from the (working) public to govern and to take care of social issues. But they did and do not enough. and still there is not done enough to make all conscious that never again such a war should be able to get of the ground.

11th of November 1918, marked the cessation of the most destructive, sanguinary, and far reaching war in human annals and the resumption by the people of the United States of peaceful relations with other nations, which we hope may never again be severed, and

In the 1960ies we came on the streets to call for peace. Today our call and the call of our children and grandchildren should be so much stronger demanding Peace for all!
Click on the picture to find out more about a peace-movement which should continue to grow!

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