[Rhodes22-list] Satire: Memorial Day Origins - Thank You R-22 Veterans

[brad haslett]

Bill,

The only thing my hometown had going for it was it had
the only dirt track within 50 miles.  That was the
only entertainment available on weekends and I spent
enough time watching cars go around in circles to last
me a lifetime.  You can't escape it here though, even
FedEx has a car to compete with the UPS car.  I get
updates every time I log-on the company website  to
check my schedule.  We've had this discussion in the
cockpit several times, if we want to solve the energy
problem, tell Nascar they have to run a 500 mile race
on a hundred gallons.  Those boys are some pretty
bright and talented innovators.  They'd come up with a
solution.

The bit about Southern Redneck Presidents was
plagiarized (something I perfected in grad school)
from a comedy sketch by Vic Henley.  Yeah, I know
where they're all from.  Clinton had his own political
machine as well, and the Stephens brothers punished
him after one term as Governor and put in Frank White.
 Billy got the message and played their game and Frank
White took a job at Stephens for his reward.  I've
toned down my critism of Billy lately because I want
his help.  I'm trying to get a guy hired on as a pilot
but I'm just one of 4500 other pilots trying to get
someone to fill less than 200 slots.  This kid's (he's
40) grandfather married Virginia Kelly (Clinton's
mother, now deceased) and he has been reluctant to ask
the former President for help because most crew-forces
are very politically conservative.  I told him to use
all the resources he's got, once he gets the
interview, no one will ever know who pushed the
buttons.

The South didn't stand a chance in the Civil War given
the disparity of resources.  They got the best leaders
out of West Point and it unfortunately took Lincoln a
long time to find a competent General.  One of my
favorite stories from the war remains the one about
the Washington Army brass telling Lincoln that Grant
was a drunk. Lincoln replied, "Find out what brand of
whiskey he drinks and send a case to all my Generals!"

See you later, gone sailing!

Brad


--- Bill Effros <bill at effros.com> wrote:

> Brad,
> 
> I am not maligning auto racing.  Probably the
> biggest factor in uniting 
> this nation around the celebration of Memorial Day
> was the decision to 
> hold the Indianapolis 500 auto race on that day in a
> Northern state 
> witnessed primarily by Southern people.  Memorial
> Day has become the 
> official start of Summer for the whole country.  Few
> remember who or 
> what it really is meant to memorialize, or how
> bitter even the 
> celebration of the day was not so long ago.
> 
> With regard to your statement that "For the last 25
> years, only Southern 
> rednecks get the keys to the bighouse." I will give
> you Bill Clinton.  
> Jimmy Carter wasn't elected within the past 25
> years.  Ronald Reagan was 
> from Illinois.   Both of the Bush boys are from my
> home state of 
> Connecticut, and were born into a powerful New
> England political machine 
> without which neither one could have become
> President.
> 
> But if you want to keep conning the rednecks into
> thinking that we are 
> with them while we use their resources to pay our
> bills...it's kind of 
> irresistible.  That is, after all, what the Civil
> War was really about, 
> wasn't it?  Let's just hope they don't catch on,
> again.
> 
> Bill Effros
> 
> brad haslett wrote:
> 
> >Bill,
> >
> >This is not a fight and if it is, you win!  I quit
> >fighting the Civil War  (known in these parts as
> "The
> >War of Northern Aggression") a long time ago,
> though I
> >still study and read about it.  If you do come
> visit,
> >the statue in the town square of that lovely
> village
> >of Franklin is a Confederate soldier looking south.
> 
> >It is only a matter of time before another idiot,
> >self-appointed PC advocate starts another fuss
> about
> >tearing it down.  It is just a quaint old statue
> >folks, not Saddam.
> >
> >Your comments about car racing is a different
> issue. 
> >NASCAR may not be a big deal in Greenwich, CT but
> you
> >could get your ass seriously kicked if any of the
> >worshipers of that sacred institution think you are
> >maligning their sport.
> >
> >You need to rethink your whole attitude toward
> Bubbas,
> >Bill.  For the last 25 years, only Southern
> rednecks
> >get the keys to the bighouse.  Jimmy Carter -
> Georgia.
> > Ronald Reagan - thought he was a cowboy, we
> count'em.
> > Bush 41 - Texan.  Billy Clinton - big time
> Arkansas
> >Bubba.  Bush 43 - Texan.
> >
> >I'll bet you a hunnert dollas right now the next
> Prez
> >ain't from your parts.
> >
> >Brad
> >
> >
> >--- Bill Effros <bill at effros.com> wrote:
> >
> >  
> >
> >>Brad,
> >>
> >>It sure didn't take you long to turn a question
> into
> >>a fight.  I was 
> >>perfectly happy to let everyone come to their own
> >>conclusions. 
> >>
> >>Our Memorial Day was a memorial to our Civil War
> >>dead.  When I was a 
> >>kid, it was not celebrated in Tennessee or any of
> >>the other Confederate 
> >>states.   In fact, there was considerable
> hostility
> >>in the South to the 
> >>Northern celebration of Memorial Day which
> >>manifested itself in a 
> >>counter-tradition of big Southern picnics,
> >>culminating in automobile 
> >>races to show disdain for the solemnity of the
> >>Northern celebrations.  
> >>Southern states commemorated their Civil War dead
> on
> >>a different day.
> >>
> >>Well, the South won that one, didn't they?
> >>
> >>Nobody either remembers or cares who Memorial Day
> is
> >>supposed to 
> >>memorialize.
> >>
> >>Veterans Day is November 11th.and is the day put
> >>aside to remember our 
> >>Veterans of all wars.  That used to be Armistice
> >>Day, the day put aside 
> >>to commemorate the end of the "War to End all
> Wars".
> >> But nobody 
> >>remembers that either.
> >>
> >>"The world will little note nor long remember what
> >>we say here, but it 
> >>can never forget what they did here."  Lincoln got
> >>that part backwards, 
> >>but the full text of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address
> >>follows anyhow.
> >>
> >>There are no R-22 Civil War Veterans to
> Memorialize
> >>on Memorial Day, 
> >>(not even Stan) and waving a flag between six
> packs
> >>of beer won't change 
> >>that.
> >>
> >>Bill Effros
> >>
> >>Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought
> >>forth on this 
> >>continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and
> >>dedicated to the 
> >>proposition that all men are created equal.
> >>
> >>Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing
> >>whether that nation or 
> >>any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long
> >>endure. We are met on 
> >>a great battlefield of that war. We have come to
> >>dedicate a portion of 
> >>that field as a final resting-place for those who
> >>here gave their lives 
> >>that that nation might live. It is altogether
> >>fitting and proper that we 
> >>should do this.
> >>
> >>But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we
> >>cannot consecrate, we 
> >>cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living
> and
> >>dead who struggled 
> >>here have consecrated it far above our poor power
> to
> >>add or detract. The 
> >>world will little note nor long remember what we
> say
> >>here, but it can 
> >>never forget what they did here. It is for us the
> >>living rather to be 
> >>dedicated here to the unfinished work which they
> who
> >>fought here have 
> >>thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to
> >>be here dedicated to 
> >>the great task remaining before us -- that from
> >>these honored dead we 
> >>take increased devotion to that cause for which
> they
> >>gave the last full 
> >>measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve
> >>that these dead shall 
> >>not have died in vain, that this nation under God
> >>shall have a new birth 
> >>of freedom, and that government of the people, by
> >>the people, for the 
> >>people shall not perish from the earth.
> >>
> >>Abraham Lincoln
> >>Gettysburg Address
> 
=== message truncated ===



		
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