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Mr. Gibson - LOVED your "My Word" editorial on your show this afternoon. I especially revelled in the "bolshevik" comment, which is probably more apropos than many people would be willing to admit or understand.
The fact that the Red Cross symbol was originally a simple reverse of the cross (representing the Holy Roman Empire!!!) found on the Swiss flag is very telling about the origins of the organization and the goals of its founders.
Check this story out (copied for you below with its source URL). You may wish to get this writer/historian on your Monday show. (John Hutchinson is on faculty at Simon Frasier University. His contact information found via the university's search function is: john_hutchinson@sfu.ca Phone: 1 604 291 4306)
(My name here), loyal FoxNews viewer for several years now
(My town here)
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http://www.sfu.ca/mediapr/sfnews/1996/May9/redcross.html
May 9, 1996 Vol . 6, No. 1
SFU historian writes Red Cross story
By Bruce Mason
The Red Cross - perhaps the world's most recognized symbol and largest organized charity - is rarely scrutinized. Despite more than 125 years of rapid growth and transformation, its image of universal benevolence remains remarkably unchanged.
Now, the first objective and critical study, Champions of Charity: War and the Rise of the Red Cross by SFU historian John Hutchinson - has been published revealing previously untold dark chapters and how the intentions of its founders were compromised soon after its inception at the Geneva Convention of 1863. Almost 100 posters, photos and postcards illuminate this revealing new perspective on organized charity, war and the state.
"We knew the Red Cross existed, and that its existence was a good thing, but we took it and its goodness entirely for granted," notes Hutchinson, who spent a decade researching and writing the book.
"In fact, Red Cross societies aided and abetted the militarization of charity before and during World War I. The leaders of most national societies enthusiastically prepared for whatever war service armies and government wished them to perform," he explains.
In "Champions of Charity", Hutchinson weaves together tumultuous events and colorful, larger-than-life figures - from the birth of the Red Cross to its remarkable growth and rapid change before and after World War I.
During work on an earlier book on revolutionary Russia, Hutchinson first uncovered criticism of the Red Cross. He also developed skills that he would need to gather information for a history on the organization - unacknowledged by its own literature - that was little known.
Denied free access to the archives of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva, he found the details for a rich historical narrative of the first 50-plus years of the organization's history in Europe, the U.S. and Japan. And he discovered the diverse roles played by national societies: the precisely organized Germans, the chaotic and factionalized French, the military efficiency of the Japanese and the hard selling patriotism of the Americans.
"The original founders had a grand vision to make war less barbaric through a display of Christian charity by neutral volunteer nurses who would assist and aid wounded and dying soldiers," reports Hutchinson.
"However, within decades, Red Cross societies had become wartime propagandists who issued military-style uniforms to members," he says. "They were used to efficiently recycle wounded soldiers back into the front lines and raise funds which enabled governments to spend more on war."
Hutchinson was surprised to discover that one early critic of the idea of the Red Cross was Florence Nightingale, who feared that it "would render war more easy." She refused an invitation to help found a society in England.
Hutchinson uncovered a prominent American who was sentenced to 30 months in jail for criticizing the organization. The sanctity of the Red Cross is driven home in one poster of the Stars and Stripes and the Red Cross flag with the caption, "Loyalty to One Means Loyalty to Both."
And he investigates the mass involvement of women on the home front, the emergence of civilian enthusiasm and patriotism and the search for avenues of continued growth in peace time.
"Thanks to "tainted blood" scandals in France and Canada, the Red Cross will likely never again be regarded as a sacred cow," says Hutchinson who intends to write a second volume on the Red Cross and international health.
John Hutchinson deserves a medal from the BLOODHOUNDS!