On June 27, 1863, near Chambersburg, Pennsylvania–just days before
the momentous Battle of Gettysburg, Confederate General Robert E. Lee
issued a general order to the Army of Northern Virginia, praising them
for their honorable conduct thus far in their march into Union
territory, but cautioning them on their continuing responsibility to
respect all private property and the lives of all noncombatants.
“The commanding general considers no greater disgrace could befall
the army, and through it our whole people, than the perpetration of the
barbarous outrages upon the unarmed and defenseless and the wanton
destruction of private property, that have marked the course of the
enemy in our own country…It must be remembered that we make war only
upon armed men, and that we cannot take vengeance for the wrongs our
people have suffered…without offending against Him to whom vengeance
belongeth, without whose favor and support our efforts must all prove in
vain.”
The poem was written shortly after Mr. Lytle’s death in 1995. I intended it to be part of an expanded edition of Poems from Scorched Earth, thus continuing the meditation on fire–in both its destructive and regenerative powers.
The fire that he loved to stoke was an image
of his eternal energy and his gift for conviviality.
–J.O. Tate
No longer will he stand in life
Before his blazing hearth
The fire of bourbon in his aged hand.
No longer will the warmth of cabin flame
Heat up the soles of winter’s pilgrim feet,
Or brightest talk
Cheer up the way-worn wanderer’s heart.
That fire in memory preserved
Must last in shadows of cold
And dark diminished time;
Must last reflected in the gift
Of our own warmth
That burns brighter,
Compensating loss.
There are not enough words to express the excellent changes he has ordered and/or the difference in attitude the VA personnel now have contrary to their mediocre one before. I am now able to go to practitioners in Tarboro instead of Durham. (Before I had a 6 hour round trip when I lived in Cape Carteret)
I've dived off the island before from the Spirit of Adventure
A fisherman's beloved dog that was presumed to be drowned in the Pacific
Ocean has been found alive five weeks after falling overboard his boat.
Nick Haworth's dog, Luna, a 1 ½-year-old German shepherd, was spotted
Tuesday on San Clemente Island, a Navy-owned training base 70 miles off
San Diego. The blue-eyed pup disappeared February 10 as Haworth, a
commercial fisherman from San Diego, worked on a boat two miles from the
island.
MSNBC host Joe Scarborough in a series of tweets on Tuesday scolded
the 2020 Democrats for taking leftist positions, arguing that they would
all lose to President Trump.
Addressing the candidates, he wrote, “You now support: (1) universal
health care for illegal immigrants, (2) making illegally crossing
America’s borders legal, and, (3) a return to forced busing. Do you also now support the banning of the Betsy Ross flag from public places?
President Donald Trump says he is working on a plan to address a
spike in homelessness in the United States, particularly in several
California cities.
During a Fox News Channel interview that aired Monday night, host
Tucker Carlson asked the president about homelessness in major urban
centers.
“It’s disgraceful. I’m going to [propose something], maybe, and I’m looking at it very seriously,” Trump told Carlson on “Tucker Carlson Tonight.” “We’re doing some other things that you probably noticed.”
The president added: “This is the liberal establishment. This is what
I’m fighting. They—I don’t know if they’re afraid of votes. I don’t
know if they really believe that this should be taking place.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is horrified at what she’s seen on her
visit to a holding facility for illegal immigrants — just a week after
she voted against emergency funding to improve conditions at what she’d taken to calling “concentration camps.”
This after months when Democrats insisted that talk of a border
crisis was just a Trump administration contrivance, and refused to even
vote on its requests for funds.
I have two pieces for you this week as I want to address some issues that have hit the news.
1. Nike pulled a sneaker displaying the “Betsy Ross Flag” in
response to a complaint from Colin Kaepernick. The NFL star (known for
political activism in protest of systemic racism – including kneeling
during the national anthem) expressed that he and others considered the
symbol (featured on the shoe’s heel) offensive. The shoe was set to go on sale this week.
In
all seriousness, I feel that we can get lost in this holiday (like
others) and focus solely on the BBQ and fireworks. But let’s take a
minute to reflect on America and the true heroism it took to give us
freedom. We are the greatest country alive so let’s show a little
appreciation :)
“I can’t go to work because I can’t take my eyes off my boys,” said
Antonia Portillo Cruz, a 44-year-old migrant from Honduras, who said the
men have been targeting the shelter where she stays. She said she
witnessed some of the men asking women in the shelter about purchasing
their children, but none of them made the offer directly to her.
Local pastor says groups are trying
to buy children or pair up with single mothers out of sheer desperation,
but women and children migrants in Tijuana are terrified.
Some
migrants in Tijuana are trying to purchase children from vulnerable
single mothers in local shelters so they can more easily cross into the
United States, according to shelter directors, migrants and Tijuana law
enforcement authorities.
Most importantly, Deripaska’s interview with the FBI reportedly was
never provided by Team Mueller to Manafort’s lawyers, even though it was
potential proof of innocence, according to Manafort defense lawyer
Kevin Downing. Manafort, initially investigated for collusion, was
convicted on tax and lobbying violations unrelated to the Russia case.
Sometimes it is the quiet, elusive ones who come back to haunt you. And for ex-special prosecutor Robert Mueller, one of those might be a Russian billionaire named Oleg Deripaska.
The
oligarch who once controlled Russia’s largest aluminum empire has been
an international man of intrigue in the now-completed and disproven
Trump collusion investigation.
the Commerce Department said certain products produced in South
Korea and Taiwan were shipped to Vietnam for minor processing before
being exported to U.S. as corrosion-resistant steel products and
cold-rolled steel.
If you thought the world was safe from further trade-war escalation
after Trump vowed to postpone slapping tariffs on $300 billion+ of
Chinese goods, think again.
During an interview with Maria Bartiromo last week, President Trump
accused Vietnam of being "almost the single worst abuser of everybody"
and asserted that "Vietnam takes advantage of us even worse than China."
This sudden turn in Trump's rhetoric contrasted with the praise he
offered Vietnam back in February for trying to reduce its trade surplus
with the US. According to the Office of the Trade Rep, trade with
Vietnam amounted to nearly $60 billion. Though earlier this year, the
Treasury Department stopped short of accusing Vietnam of manipulating its dong (for those who are unaware, that's the name of its currency).
51. “I was canvassing for the Union with all my
strength; I was addressing a large and excited crowd, large numbers of
whom were armed, and literally had my hand extended upward in pleading
for peace and the Union of our Fathers, when the telegraphic news was
announced of the firing on Ft. Sumter and the President’s call for
75,000 volunteers. When my hand came down from that impassioned
gesticulation, it fell slowly and sadly by the side of a secessionist. I
immediately, with altered voice and manner, called upon the assembled
multitude to volunteer not to fight against, but for South Carolina. I
said, if war must come, I prefer to be with my own people. If I had to
shed blood I preferred to shed Northern blood rather then Southern
blood. If we had to slay I had rather slay strangers than my own kindred
and neighbors.”
--N.C. Gov. Zebulon Vance, April 1861 on Lincoln’s call for troops
I always liked the idea of Texas—a massive, arrogant,
sun-scorched, red-blooded homeland for impenitent cattle rustlers who
provided a cultural counterpoint to the sniffly, snobby classes of the
Eastern seaboard. Back when America was all about expansion rather than
retreat, Texas was far more American than anything you could scrape up
from either coastline.
While July 4th has special meaning for Americans, our
Independence Day celebrates the concept of the sovereign individual, a
world view and an ideal that extends far beyond our borders.
For centuries, man was ruled by autocrats and despots who owned
everything and everyone, controlled all property, and had the authority
to dictate the course of events in their realm. Common man eked out his
sparse existence with the constant anxiety of an uncertain future. No
part of his day to day life was secure or safe from the whims of the
monarch who controlled his fate.
The Declaration of Independence,
by far the most important of our founding documents, ousted the ruling
elite from their positions of power and destroyed the pedestals that
supported their thrones.
This document declares the sovereignty of the
individual, outlines the Natural Law Rights that belong to each of us by
dint of our birth, summarizes the grievances against the British Crown,
justifies separation from the mother country, and sets out the proper
place for government as the servant of the people.
