Summerall, a fifty-one-year-old Floridian, had spent three years teaching school before entering West Point. By the time he arrived on the Western Front he wore ribbons from the Spanish-American War, the Philippine Insurrection, and the Boxer Rebellion. He was a severe, unsmiling, some said brutal man who liked to turn out in prewar dress uniform with copious medals, gilded sashes, and fringed epaulettes--suggesting a viceroy of India rather than a plain American officer. Because he had taught English, Summerall prided himself that he possessed a literary turn of phrase. "We are swinging the door by its hinges. It has got to move," he told his subordinates as he ordered them to cross the Meuse River on the war's last day. "Only by increasing the pressure can we bring about [the enemy's] defeat....Get into action and get across." His parting shot was: "I don't expect to see any of you again, but that doesn't matter. You have the honor of a definitive success--give yourself to that." Was he referring to ending his present command over them, or foretelling their fate? In either case, Summerall was spurring them on to defeat an already defeated enemy, whatever the cost.
Doughboys of the 28th Infantry Regiment crowd a trench in France during World War I.
Among replacements rushed to the Meuse was Private Elton Mackin, 5th Marine Regiment. Soon after America entered the war, Mackin had read an article in the Saturday Evening Post about the Marine Corps that lured the baby-faced nineteen-year-old to enlist. He had thus far survived 156 days at the front, beginning with his regiment's bloody baptism in the battle for Belleau Wood. Whether he would survive the last day depended on General Summerall's decision, and the human price it would exact.
In the gray hours before dawn on November 11, Mackin's regiment stumbled out of the Bois de Hospice, a wood on the west bank of the Meuse. The night was frigid, shrouded in fog and drizzle as the marines tried to find their way to the river in the gloom. Army engineers had gone before them, throwing flimsy bridges across the water by lashing pontoons together, then running planks over the top. The first signs that the marines were headed in the right direction were the bodies they stumbled upon, engineers killed attempting to construct the crossings.
Major General Charles P. Summerall
At about 4 a.m., the marines reached the first pontoon bridge, a rickety affair thirty inches wide with a guide rope strung along posts at knee height. They could see only halfway across before the bridge disappeared into the mist. Beyond, nothing was visible but the flash of enemy guns. The marines began piling up at the bridgehead, awaiting orders. A major blew a whistle and stepped onto the bridge. As the men crowded behind him, the pontoons began to sink below the water sloshing about the men's ankles. The engineers shouted to them to space themselves before the span collapsed.
Enemy shells began spewing up geysers, soaking the attackers with icy water. German Maxim machine guns opened fire, the rounds striking the wood sounding like a drumroll, those hitting flesh making a "sock, sock, sock" sound. The span swung wildly in the strong current. Mackin saw the man ahead of him stumble between two pontoon sections and vanish into the black water. The German guns' bullets continued knocking men off the pontoons, like ducks in a shooting gallery. Still, the Americans kept coming. By 4:30 a.m. the marines and infantrymen of the 89th Division had taken Pouilly on the river's east bank. In the remaining 6 1/2 hours they were to storm the heights above the town and clean out the machine gun nests. As day broke, Mackin watched a runner come sprinting across the bridge. The message from General Summerall's headquarters read only, "Armistice signed and takes effect at 11:00 o'clock this morning." Again, nothing was said about halting the fighting in the meantime. Mackin survived to write of his experience. But the Meuse River crossings had cost more than eleven hundred casualties in the hours just before the war's end.
Bridge Built by 5th Division to Cross the Meuse
Numerous members of Congress, including Fuller, had received appeals from families wanting to know why such pointless expenditure of life had been allowed to happen. Congress had already created a Select Committee on Expenditures in the War Department to investigate procurement practices, the sufficiency and quality of weaponry, and waste and graft in supplying the AEF. To this body, the House decided to add a "Subcommittee 3" to investigate the Armistice Day losses. Royal Johnson, Republican from South Dakota, was appointed chairman to serve with another majority member, Republican Oscar Bland from Indiana, and a minority member, Daniel Flood, a Virginia Democrat. Johnson's interest in the task assigned him was intensely personal. He was barely out of uniform himself. At age thirty-six, Johnson had taken leave from the House of Representatives and enlisted as a private in the 313th Regiment, "Baltimore's Own," rising through the ranks to first lieutenant and earning the Distinguished Service Cross and Croix de Guerre.
Among the ranks of the 313th engaged on armistice morning was Henry N. Gunther, a fine-looking soldier in his mid-twenties, erect, with a clear-eyed gaze and a guardsman's mustache that suggested a British subaltern rather than an American private. Gunther, however, had had difficulty with army life. He came from a heavily German neighborhood in east Baltimore where the culture of his forebears remained strong. When the United States went to war, Gunther and his neighbors began to experience anti-German prejudice. In this poisonous atmosphere, Gunther felt no impulse to enlist. He was doing nicely at the National Bank of Baltimore and had a girlfriend, Olga Gruebl, who he intended to marry.
Doughboys in a Captured Enemy Trench
Unidentified Locale
Nevertheless, Gunther was drafted five months after America entered the war. His closest pal, Ernest Powell, became platoon sergeant in Company A, while Gunther was appointed supply sergeant. "Supply sergeants were traditionally unpopular," Powell recalled. "Army clothing in the war, as they said at the time, came in two sizes--too large and too small." Supply sergeants took the brunt of the soldiers' gripes, and Gunther began keeping to himself, his enthusiasm for army life well controlled.
After arriving in France in July 1918, he wrote a friend back home to stay clear of the war since conditions were miserable. An army censor passed the letter along to Gunther's commanding officer, who broke the sergeant to private. Gunther then found himself serving under Ernie Powell, once his coequal, a chafing humiliation. Thereafter, Powell observed Gunther becoming increasingly brooding and withdrawn.
By Armistice Day, the 313th had been engaged in nearly two months of uninterrupted combat. At 9:30 that morning, the regiment jumped off, bayonets fixed, rifles at port, heads bent, slogging through a marshland in an impenetrable fog toward their objective, a speck on the map called Ville-Devant-Chaumont. Its advance was to be covered by the 311th Machine Gun Battalion. But in the fog, the gunners had no idea where to direct their fire, and Company A thus moved along in an eerie silence. Suddenly, German artillery opened up, and men began to fall.
An example of the German defensive posititons
At sixteen minutes before 11, a runner caught up with the 313th's parent 157th Brigade to report that the armistice had been signed. Again, the message made no mention of what to do in the interim. Brigadier General William Nicholson, commanding the brigade, made his decision: "There will be absolutely no let-up until 11:00 a.m." More runners were dispatched to spread the word to the farthest advanced regiments, including Gunther's. The 313th now gathered below a ridge called the Côte Romagne. Two German machine gun squads manning a roadblock watched, disbelieving, as shapes began emerging from the fog. Gunther and Sergeant Powell dropped to the ground as bullets sang above their heads. The Germans then ceased firing, assuming that the Americans would have the good sense to stop with the end so near. Suddenly, Powell saw Gunther rise and begin loping toward the machine guns. He shouted for Gunther to stop. The machine gunners waved him back, but Gunther kept advancing. The enemy reluctantly fired a five-round burst. Gunther was struck in the left temple and died instantly. The time was 10:59 a.m. General Pershing's order of the day would later record Henry Gunther as the last American killed in the war.
Summerall crosses the Meuse on one of the rickety bridges used by the marines.
To question officers as to why men like Gunther had been exposed to death at literally the eleventh hour, the Republicans on Subcommittee 3 hired as counsel a recently retired army lawyer, Samuel T. Ansell. A forty-five-year-old West Pointer, Ansell had served as acting judge advocate general during the war and left the army specifically to take the congressional job for the then-substantial salary of twenty thousand dollars per year. His first move was to have all senior American commanders who had led troops on the Western Front answer these questions: "What time on the morning of November 11, 1918, were you notified of the signing of the armistice? What orders were you and your command under with respect to operations against the enemy immediately before and up to the moment of such notification and after notification and up to 11 o'clock? After receipt of such notification did your command or any part of it continue to fight? If so, why and with what casualties? Did your command or any part of it continue the fight after 11 o'clock? If so, why and with what casualties?" Ansell proved a fire-breathing pros-ecutor, ill concealing his premise that lives had indeed been thrown away on the war's last day. Among the first witnesses he called was Pershing's chief of operations, Brig. Gen. Fox Conner. Proud, ruggedly handsome, and a wily witness, Conner admitted that, pursuant to Foch's order to keep the pressure on, one American army, the 2nd under Lt. Gen. Robert Lee Bullard, had actually moved an assault originally planned for November 11 up to November 10 "to counteract the idea among the troops that the Armistice had already been signed" and "to influence the German delegates to sign."
Troops cross a hastily constructed bridge near the Meuse River
Not all commanders shared the view that Germany had to be pressured to sign. For days the Germans had shown no stomach to engage the Allies and carried out only rear-guard actions as they fell back. On armistice morning, the commander of the 32nd Division, Maj. Gen. William Haan, received a field telephone call from his subordinate commanding the 63rd Brigade asking permission to attack in order to straighten out a dent on his front. Haan retorted that he did not intend to throw away men's lives on the war's last morning to tidy up a map. The 32nd initiated no attacks while Haan's men waited and took losses only from artillery fire.
Hotshot commanders nevertheless managed to find reasons to advance. Stenay was a town held by the Germans on the east bank of the Meuse. The 89th Division's commander, Maj. Gen. William M. Wright, determined to take Stenay because "the division had been in the line a considerable period without proper bathing facilities, and since it was realized that if the enemy were permitted to stay in Stenay, our troops would be deprived of the probable bathing facilities there." Thus, placing cleanliness above survival, Wright sent a brigade to take the town. As the doughboys passed through Pouilly, a 10.5cm howitzer shell landed in their midst, killing twenty Americans outright. All told, Wright's division suffered 365 casualties, including sixty-one dead in the final hours. Stenay would be the last town taken by the Americans in the war. Within days, it too could have been marched into peacefully rather than paid for in blood.
Bland, the other Republican on Subcommittee 3, knifed quickly to the heart of the matter when his turn came to question General Conner. "Do you know of any good reason," Bland asked, "why the order to commanders...should not have been that the Armistice had been signed to take effect at 11 o'clock and that actual hostilities or fighting should cease as soon as possible in order to save human life?" Conner conceded that American forces "would not have been jeopardized by such an order, if that is what you mean."
Bland then asked, regarding Pershing's notification to his armies merely that hostilities were to cease at 11 a.m., "Did the order leave it up to the individual commanders to quit firing before or to go ahead firing until 11 o'clock?" "Yes," Conner answered. Bland then asked, "In view of the fact that we had ambitious generals in this Army, who were earnestly fighting our enemies and who hated to desist from doing so...would it have been best under the circumstances to have included in that order that hostilities should cease as soon as practicable before 11 o'clock?" Conner answered firmly, "No sir, I do not."
Troops of the Segregated 92nd Division
"How many generals did you lose on that day?" Bland went on. "None," Conner replied. "How many colonels did you lose on that day?" Conner: "I do not know how many were lost." "How many lieutenant colonels did you lose on that day?" Conner: "I do not know the details of any of that." "I am convinced," Bland continued, "that on November 11 there was not any officer of very high rank taking any chance of losing his own life...."
Conner, visibly seething, retorted, "The statement made by you, I think, Mr. Bland, is exceedingly unjust, and, as an officer who was over there, I resent it to the highest possible degree."
Bland shot back, "I resent the fact that these lives were lost and the American people resent the fact that these lives were lost; and we have a right to question the motive, if necessary, of the men who have occasioned this loss of life." With that, Conner was dismissed.
Village of Vaux - 1918
Also called to testify was the second highest ranking officer in the AEF, Lt. Gen. Hunter Liggett, who had commanded the First Army. Under questioning by the subcommittee's counsel, Liggett admitted to Ansell that the only word passed along to the troops was that "the Armistice had been signed and hostilities would cease at 11 o'clock, Paris time." Ansell forced Liggett to agree that orders from AEF headquarters had left subordinate commanders in the dark as to their next course of action. The corpulent old general shifted responsibility to the commander on the scene "to judge very quickly from whatever was going on in his immediate neighborhood." Coupling Foch's "keep fighting" order and Pershing's relaying of it, Ansell said, "I have difficulty to discover authority in any division commander under the terms of those two orders to cease advancing or cease firing on his front before 11 o'clock no matter what time he got the notice announcing the Armistice." Ansell added, suppose such a commander concluded: "I am in a situation where I can desist from the attack, and I am going to do so and save the lives of the men. Would you consider he had used bad judgment?" Liggett did not hesitate: "If I had been a division commander, I would not have done that."
At that point subcommittee Chairman Johnson interjected a personal experience in France occurring soon after the armistice while he was visiting a hospital: "I met several subordinate officers who were wounded on November 11, some seriously. Without exception, they construed the orders which forced them to make an attack after the armistice as murder and not war." Asked if he had ever heard such accusations, Liggett answered, "No!" With that, he too was dismissed.
Brigadier General John Sherburne, former artillery commander of the black 92nd Division who had returned to civilian life, provided the Republican members of the subcommittee with what they most wanted: the views of a decorated noncareer officer who felt no obligation to absolve the army. A white officer with the division, Sherburne described the joy his black troops expressed near midnight on November 10 when the sky "was lighted up with rockets, roman candles, and flares that the Germans were sending up."
Additional Sources: www.worldwar1.com
www.32nd-division.org
www.markchurms.com
www.army.mil
one-six-one.fifthinfantrydivision.com
www.100megsfree2.com
www.usgennet.org
On This Day In History
Birthdates which occurred on April 21:
1488 Ulrich von Hutten German poet/humanist/patriot
1619 John A van Riebeeck colonial director/founder (Cape Colony)
1729 Catharina II the Great, writer/emperess/strumpet of Russia (1762-96)
1774 Jean-Baptiste Biot French physicist/astronomer (balloonist)
1775 Alexander Anderson US, engraver/illustrator (Shakespeare)
1803 Levin Minn Powell Commander (Union Navy), died in 1885
1809 Robert Mercer Taliaferro Hunter Secretary of State (Confederacy)
1816 Charlotte Brontë Tornton England, novelist (Jane Eyre)
1816 Louis Trezevant Wigfall Confederate Army, died in 1874
1834 William Rufus Terrill Brigadier General (Union volunteers), died in 1862
1838 John Muir US, naturalist (discovered glaciers in High Sierras)
1849 Oskar Hertwig Germany, embryologist, discovered fertilization
1864 Max Weber German sociologist/economist/historian (“The Protestant and the Spirit of Capitalism”)
1892 ? 1st buffalo born in Golden Gate Park
1905 Edmund G "Pat" Brown (Governor-Democrat-CA)
1911 Leonard Warren New York NY, baritone (Metropolitan Opera 1939-60) died on stage
1913 Choh Hao Li biochemist professor (isolated growth hormones)
1913 Norman Parkinson England, fashion photographer (Harper's Bazaar)
1915 Anthony Quinn Chihuahua México, actor (Zorba the Greek, Lawrence of Arabia)
1915 Frick [W Groebli] Swiss clown (Frick & Frack)
1924 Ira Louvin Rainsville AL, country singer (Louvin Brothers)
1930 Don Tyson founder, Tyson Foods)
1935 Charles Grodin Pittsburgh PA, actor (Beethoven, Woman in Red, Lonely Guy, Heartbreak Kid)
1937 Charles Lee Herron Kentucky, FBI most wanted fugitive (Jan 1 1986)
1939 Ernie Maresca singer/songwriter (Runaround Sue, Wanderer)
1942 Bobby McClure US gospel singer (Don't Mess Up a Good Thing)
1947 Iggy Pop [James Newell Osterberg] Ypsilanti MI, rocker (Zombie Birdhouse)
1951 Tony Danza Brooklyn, (Tony Banta-Taxi, Tony Micelli-Who's the Boss)
1958 Andie [Rosalie Anderson] MacDowell Gaffney SC, actress (Groundhog Day, Multiplicity, Greystoke)
1962 Sergei Viktorovich Zalyotin Russia, Major/cosmonaut
1963 AshlieinTX aka the HOTTEST thing in Texas. Reportedly said that her fondest wish when she grew up was to join Ma and cause as much trouble as possible while having the most fun possible while staying as close as possible to the right side of the law.
(Remember, you have your whole life to be mature, why start now?)
1971 Samantha Druce youngest woman to swim the English Channel
Deaths which occurred on April 21:
1073 Alexander II [Anselmo da Baggio] Pope (1061-73), dies
1109 Anselmus philosopher/archbishop of Canterbury, dies
1142 Pierre Abélard French philosopher (Sic et Non, Héloïse), dies at 62
1509 Henry VII 1st Tudor king of England (1485-1509), dies at 52
1552 Peter Apianus [Bennewitz/Bienewitz] German astronomer, dies at 50
1574 Cosimo de Medici Italian duke of Toscane, dies at about 54
1730 Jan Palfijn Flemish physician/inventor (forceps), dies at 79
1910 Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] author(Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn), dies in Redding CT at 74
1918 "Red Baron" [Manfred von Richtofen] shot down in WWI at 25
1945 German Field Marshal Walther Model, known as the “Fuhrer‘s Fireman,” shot himself near Dusseldorf.
1946 John M Keynes English economist (How to pay for the war?), dies at 62
1962 Frederick Handley Page designer of 1st big airplane (40 seats), dies
1965 Edward V Appleton English physicist (Nobel Prize 1947), dies at 72
1971 François "Doc" Duvalier dictator of Haiti, dies at 64
1973 Ursula Jeans [McMinn] actress (Cavalcade, Over the Moon), dies at 66
1977 Gummo [Milton] Marx US comic (Marx Brothers), dies at 84
1983 Walter Slezak actor (Bedtime For Bonzo), commits suicide in New York at 80
1992 Robert Harris murderer, executed in California's gas chamber at 39
1992 Vladimir K Romanov Grand Duke/Russian pretender to the throne, dies at 74
1996 Dzhokhar Dudayev President of Republic of Chechenia (1991), dies at 52
1996 Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder oddsmaker/sportscaster (CBS), dies at 76
1997 Andres Rodriguez Paraguayan President (1989-93), dies
1997 Diosdado Macapagal Philippine President (1961-65), dies
2003 Ninone Simone (b.1933)(singer, dubbed the high priestess of soul, died.
GWOT Casualties
Iraq
A Good Day
Afghanistan
A Good Day
http://icasualties.org/oif/ Data research by Pat Kneisler
Designed and maintained by Michael White
On this day...
0753 BC Traditional date of the foundation of Rome (as a refuge for runaway slaves and murderers who captured the neighboring Sabine women for wives.)
0953 Otto I the Great gives Utrecht fishing rights
1453 Turkish fleet sinks ships Golden Receiver in Constantinople
1521 Battle at Villalar Emperor Charles I defeats Communards
1526 Battle at Panipat Mogol Emperor Babur defeats sultan Ibrahim Lodi
1649 Maryland Toleration Act passed, allowing all freedom of worship
1689 William III & Mary Stuart proclaimed king & queen of England
1785 Russian tsarina Catharina II ends noble privileges
1789 John Adams sworn in as 1st US Vice President (9 days before Washington)
1794 NYC formally declares coast of Ellis Island publically owned, so they can build forts to protect NYC from British
1828 Noah Webster publishes 1st American dictionary (20 years to complete his two-volume dictionary of more than 35,000 entries)
1836 Battle of San Jacinto, in which Texas wins independence from México
1856 1st railroad bridge across Mississippi River, Rock Island IL-Davenport IA
1857 Alexander Douglas patents the bustle
1862 Congress establishes US Mint in Denver CO
1865 Abraham Lincoln's funeral train leaves Washington
1878 The ship Azor leaves Charleston with 206 blacks for Liberia
1878 New York installs 1st firehouse pole
1878 Pope Leo XIII publishes encyclical Inscrutabili
1884 Potters Field reopened as Madison Park
1892 1st buffalo born in Golden Gate Park
1892 Black Longshoremen strike for higher wages in St Louis Mo
1898 Spanish-American War begins (A splendid little war)
1904 Ty Cobb makes his pro debut for Augusta (South Atlantic League)
1908 Frederick A Cook claims to reach North Pole (He didn't)
1910 Halley’s Comet visible in the night sky. Entrepreneurs peddled "comet gas masks" for people worried about the Earth's passage through poisonous cyanogen gas in the comet's tail.
1913 Gideon Sundback of Sweden patents the zipper
1914 US marines occupy Vera Cruz México, stay 6 months
1930 Fire at Ohio State Penitentiary kills 320
1934 Moe Berg, Senators catcher, plays American League record 117th cons errorless game
1935 King Boris of Bulgaria forbids all political parties
1940 1st $64 Question, "Take It or Leave It", on CBS Radio
1941 Greece surrenders to Nazi-Germany
1945 US 7th Army occupies Neurenberg
1946 SED, Socialistic Einheitspartei Germany forms in East Germany
1948 1st Polaroid camera is sold in US
1952 BOAC (British Overseas Airways Corporation) begins 1st passenger service with jets (London-Rome route)
1954 Gregori Malenkov becomes premier of USSR
1954 USAF flies French battalion to Vietnam
1956 Elvis Presley's 1st hit record, "Heartbreak Hotel", becomes #1
1957 Pope Pius XII publishes encyclical Fidei Donum
1959 Alf Dean (using a rod and reel) hooks a 2,664lb, 16' 10" great white shark (largest fish ever caught on a rod)
1960 Brasilia becomes the capital of Brazil
1961 French army revolts in Algeria
1963 Dr Michael Ellis De Bakey performs 1st successful heart implant
1966 Pfc. Milton Lee Oliver was awarded the Medal of Honor, posthumously, for bravery during the Vietnam War
1967 Los Angeles Dodgers 1st rain out in Los Angeles (after 737 consecutive games)
1967 Svetlana Alliluyeva (Josef Stalin's daughter) defects in NYC
1967 Military coup in Greece, Konstantinos Kollias becomes premier
1969 Record 1,152 starters compete in Boston Marathon
1969 73rd Boston Marathon won by Yoshiaki Unetani of Japan in 2:13:49
1971 Original Codex Reguis (with Edda-liederen) returns to Iceland
1972 John Young & Charles Duke explore Moon (Apollo 16)
1972 Orbiting Astronomical Observatory 4 (Copernicus) launched
1975 Members of the SLA robbed the Carmichael Bank in suburban Sacramento, Ca. Myrna Opsahl, a mother (42) of four, was shot dead. Patty Hearst drove the getaway car.
1975 Last South Vietnam President Nguyen Van Thieu resigns after 10 years
1976 Swine Flu vaccine, for non-epidemic, enters testing
1977 Billy Martin pulls Yankee line-up out of a hat, beats Blue Jays 8-6
1981 US furnish $1 billion in arms to Saudi-Arabia
1984 "Nightline" reverts back from 1 hour to ½ hour
1984 Centers for Disease Control says virus discovered in France causes AIDS
1985 Bomb attack in NATO/AEG-Telefunken building in Brussels
1986 Bob Hering sets Formula One power boat record (165.338 mph, Arizona)
1986 Geraldo "LOOK AT ME I'M GREAT" Rivera opens Al Capone's vault on TV & finds.....nothing, zip zilch, nada.
1987 Tamil bomb attack in Colombo Sri Lanka, 115 killed
1988 Tennessee Sen. Al Gore gave up his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, assuring supporters that "there will be other days for me and for the causes that matter to us." (It's never been reported just what those causes were)
1989 Thousands of Chinese crowd into Beijing's Tiananmen Square cheering students demanding greater political freedom
1993 Brazil voted against a monarchy.
1994 Serbian army bombs clinic in Goradze Bosnia, 28 killed
1995 FBI arrests Timothy McVeigh & charge him with Oklahoma City bombing
1997 Ashes of Timothy Leary & Gene Roddenberry launched into orbit
1998 Skydivers from Malaysia parachuted the national car, the Proton Wira sedan, onto the North Pole this week.
2000 Scientists report that the 66 million-year-old plant-eating dinosaur, Thescelosaurus, had a 4-chambered heart and was likely warm-blooded.
2003 The Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) established as the temporary governing body of Iraq.
Muhammad Hamza al-Zubaydi (queen of spades), was captured by the Iraqi opposition. He was known as Saddam's "Shiite Thug" for his role in Iraq's bloody suppression of the Shiite Muslim uprising of 1991.
Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"
Belize, Hong Kong : Queen's Birthday
Brazil : Tiradentes Day/Día de Tiradentes/Brasilia Day (1789, 1960)
Indonesia : Kartini Day
Israel : Deliverance from Egypt
Taiwan : Death of Chiang Kai-shek/Tomb Sweeping Day (non leap years)
Texas : San Jacinto Day (1836)
US : Astronomy Week (Day 4)
US : National Lingerie Week (Day 4)
National Kindergarten Day
National Fresh Celery Month
Religious Observances
Ancient Rome : Parilia, honoring Pales, protector of flocks & herds
Denmark : Common Prayer
Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Anglican : St Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury, confessor/doctor
Religious History
1649 The Toleration Act was passed by the Maryland Assembly. It protected Roman Catholics within the American colony against Protestant harassment, which had been rising as Oliver Cromwell's power in England increased.
1783 Birth of English churchman and hymnwriter Reginald Heber. Heber published his first hymn at 28, and among his best remembered today are: "Holy, Holy, Holy," "The Son of God Goes Forth to War" and "From Greenland's Icy Mountains."
1828 English churchman John Henry Newman wrote in a letter to his sister: 'May I be patient! It is so difficult to make real what one believes, and to make these trials, as they are intended, real blessings.'
1878 Leo XIII published the encyclical, "Inscrutabili dei consilio." It outlined a program of reconciling the Catholic Church with modern civilization, many of its details reversing policies of his predecessor, Pius IX.
1897 Birth of A. W. Tozer, one of the most popular and influential pastors to come out of the Christian and Missionary Alliance Church. Tozer was also a prolific writer, and his best- known publications include "The Pursuit of God" (1948) and "The Root of Righteousness" (1955).
Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.
Thought for the day :
"Nothing is so simple that it cannot be screwed up."
"Should Bill Clinton be Immune From Prosecution?!!" From another thread, a discussion about whether or not America should hold Bill Clinton accountable for the multiple felonies he and his Administration have committed...
bayourod in bold
"...focus only on the question of whether Bill Clinton should be brought to trial. This was the great question when Nixon resigned and Ford pardoned him because he didn't think the nation should be put through the ordeal of a trial of Mr. Nixon."
First off, Nixon was never accused of committing a criminal offense vis a vis Watergate. Ford pardoned him, but there was never an actual law broken...I would argue that Clinton has committed multiple felonies that, if prosecuted, would have him in jail until the day he passed on to his Final Judgement.
"Some of the considerations should be:
1. How serious was the offense? Was it a technical violation such as comingling union contributions in hard money accounts; or was it a universally recognized crime such as murder of a potential witness?"
While I seriously believe Clinton has most likely conspired to have folks murdered, I've yet to see the concrete evidence; still, just because he's an ex-POTUS, should he be allowed to get away with rampant Abuse of Power, blatant Obstruction of Justice and Perjury, and making a mockery of our existing Campaign Finance Laws? I say no.
"2. What was the impact of the crime on the nation? Was the impact negligible like pardoning someone for going AWOL during World War II; or does the crime threaten the very existence of the country, such as selling China the secrets enabling them to destroy every major city in the nation?"
As the highest-ranking member of the Executive Branch, IMHO Clinton's crimes have done major damage to the legitimacy of our government, and thereby the "very existence of the country." How can a blatant abuser of our laws be allowed to go absolutely unpunished in a Land that claims that NO MAN IS ABOVE THE LAW?! Explain that to the teenager imprisoned for smoking a weed in his basement.
"3. How strong is the evidence? Is it circumstantial, relying on the testimony of dubious witnesses; or is there incontrovertable physical evidence such as video recordings and records written in Bill's hand?"
The arrogance Clinton has displayed in committing multiple felonies has resulted in a carelessness that will bear fruit in any SERIOUS investigation of his crimes. There are many, many people within his sphere of influence who know where the skeletons are buried, and they have likewise committed crimes in his service. As these underlings are brought to Justice and plead out, they will provide valuable testimony linking Clinton to any number of crimes that you and I may never even been aware of. And Clinton has been extremely sloppy in leaving documented proof of his guilt to be readily discovered by hungry investigators.
"4. Was the offense committed as an official act, such as selling seats on trade missions, or was it entirely separate from official duties, such as rape?"
SHEEESH, my FRiend, I cannot believe you actually believe this is a consideration. We are a Nation of Laws, and if those laws are legitimate enough to prosecute you or me for, why not some hayseed from Arkansas?
"5. Would prosecution cause bitter division among Americans because the offense is one that people hold strongly held opposite opinions on, such as lying about having sex because that's what gentlemen are taught to do; or one that everyone is in agreement on, such as using FBI files to blackmail elected officials?"
Once again, if folks are going to argue that the Laws are invalid, how come we don't see an uprising calling for said laws to be revoked, so that you and I cannot be held accountable for them, just like the ex-Most Powerful Man in the FReeWorld?!
"6. How would prosecution effect future policy. Would it create a public outcry for campaign finance reform that would result in destruction of our First Amendment rights and turn the government over to liberal Democrats? Would it appear to Democrat voters as petty vindictiveness on the part of Republicans that would result in such a backlash that Democrat Senators would be forced to reject confirmation of pro-life judges?"
Here, my FRiend, you are arguing political strategy. Fair enough, as that seems to be most FReepers' argument against holding the ex-First Felon accountable for his many crimes against this Nation. My response is that this is a very important time in our Country's history, as we are deciding whether or not We the Sheeple will sit idly by and allow Rampant Corruption to go on at the highest echelons of the Federal Guv'ment, and do absolutely NOTHING!! SHEEESH...Clinton's not a frickin' KING...he's no different than you or I!! Are LeftWing DemocRATS going to actually argue that a corrupt ex-POTUS should be allowed to get away with committing multiple felonies? If so, are the Sheeple going to go along meekly and support those same hopelessly-corrupt individuals in the next election? If so, we've already lost this Country, and we should readily expect to go the way of the once-great Roman Empire.
"Now to answer your question. I believe we elected a President who is of extremely high moral character who loves this country and is trying as hard as he can to do what he sincerely believes is best for our nation. I believe that he chose an honest, conscientious, competent Attorney General. I have complete confidence in their judgment and will support whatever decisions that they make."
Here, my FRiend, we are in complete agreement...however, I believe Dubyuh and Ashcroft need to hear from folks who "sincerely believe [what] is best for our nation" is that the Guilty--no matter how Powerful or allegedly popular--are brought to Justice!! Are we a Nation of Laws? Or are certain folks in this Country ABOVE the Laws that govern and restrict the rest of us?
Seriously, my fellow FReepers, am I just a Right-Wing Whacko for expecting the Laws of this Nation to apply to ALL Americans...even those who once held office at the highest echelons of our Federal Guv'ment?!
FReegards...MUD (07/14/2001)
