Quote of the day (Misuse of the Bible)

“When Christians cite the Bible to defend child molestation, Jesus should sue for defamation.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/10/opinion/roy-moore-sexual-assault.html

Nicholas Kristof, New York Times, 2017-11-10

See also "Real Christians exist, they just rarely make the news". 

Optimism in the Great War (1917-10-13)

My sister-in-law twice sent me a few letters that my mother's uncle, Myron F. Greed, sent to his brother and our grandfather, Arthur C. Greed.  I think she and my brother were given them by my grandfather or were found by them among his possessions after he died.  He was living in a retirement home near them in central Ohio.   I finally scanned both sets so that I can pass them on to other family members.

Myron F. Greed enlisted or was drafted into the U.S. Army in or before October 1917.  He was in the Sanitary Corps, a group that provided administrative and technical services to military physicians.  Myron spent most of his time in Camp McClellan, Anniston AL.

For the most part, his letters are upbeat and he seems to be enjoying camp life.

I will let his words speak for themselves.  I will only add commentary about people and places he mentions.

Note the postmark is Oct. 17, 1917, Myron wrote what looks like 1915 on his letter.  Note also the addresses of my grandfather on the various envelopes.  My grandfather moved a lot all of his life.

"Mother" is Eva Didham Greed Brainard; a widow, she had married for the second time that summer.

"The baby" is my mother, Martha Marie, born April 7.

Others in this series are:

Optimism in the Great War (1918-04-03)

Optimism in the Great War (1918 Spring)

Optimism in the Great War (Summer 1918)

Optimism in the Great War (1918-04-03)

 I don't know how many letters Myron wrote since October or if any of them are still around.

"Wife" is my grandfather's wife, Marie Schack Greed.  Yes, that is a German name.  She supposedly ran away from home because she didn't want to speak German.  I have some letters to her from a cousin who married a well-off man and lived on Long Island.  The cousin complains about some of the shortages.

"Gertrude" is Myron's and Arthur's sister.  I don't know if she had married yet.

"little Martha" is my mother.

"nigger" - sigh!  What would they think of how multi-hued his brother's descendants have become or may become?  And what would they think of their buddies in future wars?

Others in this series are:

Optimism in the Great War (1917-10-13)

Optimism in the Great War (1918 Spring)

Optimism in the Great War (Summer 1918)

Optimism in the Great War (Spring 1918)

"next Wed - the 11 or 12" - his "previous" letter was written on Wednesday, April 3.  He gives the day of the week for this letter as Tuesday with no day of the month.  I'll let you figure out the actual day he wrote this letter and whether this letter was before or after the letter of April 3.  It's too confusing to explain my own thoughts about this.

The names of the first group of people are not familiar to me, but A.C. Crocker was considered a cousin of my great-grandmother or great-grandfather.  His funeral was the first that I remember going to, probably in the late 1940s.  His longer name is Alfred C. Crocker.  He was born in England in 1896; his wife Minnie A Didham was born in Chagrin Falls in 1873.  She is either a niece of cousin of my great-grandmother.  Her given name may have been Mary, and her father was William Didham.

The name Fred Didham is not familiar to me, but he is probably a nephew of my great-grandmother.  He was born in Ohio in 1886 or 1887.

Martha was his niece who became my mother twenty years later.

Others in this series are:

Optimism in the Great War (1917-10-13)

Optimism in the Great War (1918-04-03)

Optimism in the Great War (Summer 1918)

Optimism in the Great War (Summer 1918)

This is the last in a series of letters that I am uploading.  Previous letters to follow in reverse order.

I have the following letters and cards from Myron F. Greed sent to his brother Arthur C. Greed in the summer of 1918.

 

Myron died October 6, 1918 in France, probably of flu.

Others in this series are:

Optimism in the Great War (1917-10-13)

Optimism in the Great War (1918-04-03)

Optimism in the Great War (1918 Spring)

Winner takes all and the people lose

"Santorum surges in the South" read a headline in today's Duluth News Tribune for an Associated Press story written by David Espo.  The first sentence begins "A resurgent Rick Santorum swept primaries in Alabama and Mississippi Tuesday night…"

But what does "sweep" really mean?  With partial returns in Alabama, "Santorum was pulling 35 percent of the vote…"  That means that 65 percent of the vote went to other candidates.  To me, a sweep would be 60 or even 70 percent of the vote.  I did not see any turnout figures, but if we assume the turnout was 50 percent, if that, then Santorum had the support of less than 20 percent of the voters.  That is a sweep?

With partial returns in Mississippi, Santorum had 33% of the vote.  That means that 66% of the vote went to other candidates.  That is a sweep?

I do wish election stories would include all this information instead of sweeping generalizations about a particular candidate "winning" with a "sweep" or a "landslide".  If nothing else, it would give the "winners" a bit of humility instead of a feeling of a "mandate".

Alabama and immigration – a legislative disaster

One of the hot button issues is immigration reform, sort of meaning be a legal citizen or get out. Both are a catch-22 for many people who have come to the U.S. without formal papers; becoming a citizen may mean they have to go back to their home country and getting out means the same thing.

Alabama has recently enacted strict immigration laws and is suffering unintended consequences, consequences predicted by many who opposed such laws or who thought the laws would have these consequences.

Not only are farm laborers disappearing, but in many communities customers are disappearing. Alabama is even making itself hostile to foreign businesses it worked so hard to get. A Mercedes manager was stopped for some traffic offense and didn't have his license; he had to spend a night in jail.

For more details see "The Price of Intolerance", New York Times, 2011-11-27

Too many people forget that this country was founded by illegal immigrants. Wave after wave of people from Europe overwhelmed the people already living here. Sometimes they negotiated for land in good or bad faith; many times they just took it.

Interestingly, the original U. S. Constitution does not contain the words "immigrant" or "immigration". Although it has many references to "citizen", it never mentions how one becomes a citizen. Probably the writers were depending on the processes already in place in the several states.

You can find several articles on the web about "citizenship 1700s". I opened the first I saw "History of citizenship in the United States - a knoll by Thomas Sulcer". It is a bit of a ramble, but it has many interesting thoughts about democracy and several references to other authors.

Note: Google will discontinue "knols" (units of knowledge) on 2012-05-01. Knols will be hosted on Annotum.