Posts tagged United States
AMERICA’S DEADLIEST WAR ALSO IS MOST MEMORIALIZED, CU-BOULDER PROFESSOR SAYS
Jun 20th
South Carolina militiamen fired the first shots of the Civil War at Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, and over the next four years more than 10,000 military engagements between the North and South took place. In the end more than 600,000 soldiers died.
“The Civil War was our most destructive war, it claimed the most lives, and it was on our territory,” said Professor Kenneth Foote of the University of Colorado Boulder’s geography department. “And when it comes to memorials and monuments, the Civil War is by far our most memorialized of the nation’s wars.”
In general, public memorials are created to act as a reminder of a tragic event or because an event has an important moral or ethical lesson that needs to be preserved, says Foote.
“I think there is a lesson from Civil War memorials that carries through to the present day because the Civil War was this very divisive event in the 19th century over slavery — and the destruction caused by it — though later some battlefields also became points of reconciliation,” Foote said.
And in the case of the Civil War, many people in America still feel a personal connection to the war.
“When it comes to the Civil War, even today probably a majority of Americans had some family member involved, and so there is still, even after these many generations, a pretty direct family connection for many people,” Foote said. “The other major factor is that it involved the issue of slavery in the United States.”
Gettysburg is one of the most visited and recognized Civil War sites. It also is one of the most decorated battlefields in the world, according to Foote. Virtually every corps, army, division, brigade, regiment, company and battery that served at Gettysburg has erected a memorial, he said.
“Almost all of the major Civil War battlefields are marked very extensively and some of them have become more important — like Gettysburg or Vicksburg — because they mark critical turning points in the war,” Foote said.
Civil War monument and memorial styles have changed over the years, Foote says, and are very much a function of the time when they were built. For example, the Civil War statue located in front of the Boulder County Courthouse on Pearl Street was created at the end of its era, Foote says.
“This would be very similar to the ones that were put up in the 1860s and 1870s,” he said. “When this went up in about 1914, the style of representation was beginning to fade away to more abstract public art.”
When it comes to the North and the South honoring their dead, Foote said the styles of the memorials changed over time as the war’s wounds healed.
“Initially, many of the memorials started off as very partisan, so Northern memorials celebrated the heroics of Northern forces, while it was common in the South to see memorials that were built as a protest,” Foote said. “One of the most common statues in the South was of Nathan Bedford Forrest, who was a general, but also was the founder of the Klu Klux Klan.”
Overall, Foote says the Civil War will always represent an important point in the history of our nation, and the memorials are part of that history.
“There were still some great divides that aren’t possible to ignore, but people gradually came together over the meaning and it was worked out oftentimes with these memorials and monuments,” Foote said.
Foote became interested in studying memorial sites during a 1980s visit to Salem, Mass. While there, he was surprised to find at that time no memorial site or markers associated with the Salem witch trials, a significant chapter in early U.S. colonial history and in Salem’s history. He has visited hundreds of sites that have been scarred by war battles or other incidents of violence or tragedy in the United States and abroad, and is the author of the book “Shadowed Ground: America’s Landscapes of Violence and Tragedy.”
To view a video featuring Foote talking about Civil War memorials visit http://www.colorado.edu/news and click on the story headline.
Boulder Homeless protest; Wall Street rip off; Afghanistan; actions by RMPJC
May 3rd
2) Action Alert on Wall Street rip off of home equity
3) Action Alert on withdrawal from Afghanistan
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HOMELESS PROTEST TUESDAY:
Tuesday, May 3 BOULDER Come show your support for places for homeless people to sleep in Boulder. Starting May 1, homeless people in Boulder will have no legal place to sleep every night as the Homeless Shelter will be closed, and BOHO will be open dependent on the weather. But the City will continue to give homeless so- called “camping tickets”. Join us at the corner of Broadway and Canyon in Boulder from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. to protest the city’s policy and then speak at the Boulder City Council during public comment which starts at 6 p.m.. Sign up on line between 4-4:45 p.m. atwww.bouldercolorado.gov or after 5 p.m. at the Municipal Building.
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CALL STATE LEGISLATORS RE WALL STREET THEFT OF HOME EQUITY
Call/Email CO House Members about S.B. 234: Stop Wall Street from Stealing Your Home Equity
Ask the chair and vice-chair of the Colorado House of Representatives Local Government Committee and your Colorado State House rep. to support SB 234, which prohibits the dangerous financial scheme of private transfer fee covenants on homes. Often unnoticed by homeowners, Wall Street Home Resale Fees (otherwise known as Private Transfer Fees) are inserted into home sale contracts by private third parties, and require that every time a home is sold for the next 99 years, a percentage of the sale of the home (usually 1%) be paid to the third party. In return, homeowners receive nothing but reduced home equity and a harder time selling their home.
SB 234 passed in the passed in the Senate on 4/29/11 by a vote of 31-2 with two excused. The bill was introduced today in the Colorado House of Representatives Local Government Committee. Please call and email Rep Laura Bradford, Chair at 303-866-2583 and laurabradford55@gmail.co and LIBBY SZABO, Vice Chair at 303-866-2962 and libby.szabo.house@state.co.us and your representative (see www.congress.org if you’re not sure who that is) and ask them to support SB 234.
The Coalition to Stop Wall Street Home Resale Fees (http://www.stophomeresalefees.org/about) is organizing to fight the dangerous financial scheme of private transfer fee covenants and to protect homeowners across the country. Together, they are fighting to ensure that homeowners keep full equity in their home, and have the freedom to buy or sell their home without paying off an unaffiliated third party.
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U.S. SENATE BILL FOR WITHDRAWAL FROM AFGHANISTAN: CALL YOUR SENATORS TO CO=SPONSOR
Ask Senator Mark Udall and Senator Michael Bennet to co-sponsor S.186, the Safe and Responsible Redeployment of United States Combat Forces from Afghanistan. The bill states that it is U.S. policy to begin the phased redeployment of U.S. combat forces from Afghanistan by July 1, 2011. It also requires the President to submit a plan to Congress, by July 31, 2011, for the phased redeployment of U.S. combat forces from Afghanistan, including a completion date for such redeployment. The bill was introduced by Senator Barbara Boxer on January 25, 2011 and has four sponsors. The bill has been referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations. A copy of the bill is below
Senator Michael Bennet
Phone: 303-455-7600 Toll-free: 866-455-9866 Fax: 303-455-8851
(202) 224-5852 Fax: 202-228-5036
Email Senator Bennet at http://bennet.senate.gov/contact/
Senator Mark Udall
Washington, D.C. Office Phone: (202) 224-5941 Fax: (202) 224-6471
Phone: (303) 650-7820 Fax: (303) 650-7827
Email Mark Udall at http://markudall.senate.gov/?p=contact_us
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S.186 Safe and Responsible Redeployment of United States Combat Forces
from Afghanistan Act of 2011 (Introduced in Senate IS)
S 186 IS
112th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. 186
To provide for the safe and responsible redeployment of United States combat
forces from Afghanistan.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
January 25 (legislative day, January 5), 2011
Mrs. BOXER (for herself, Mr. DURBIN, Mrs. GILLIBRAND, and Mr. BROWN of Ohio)
introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee
on Foreign Relations
A BILL
To provide for the safe and responsible redeployment of United States combat
forces from Afghanistan.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of
America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the `Safe and Responsible Redeployment of United
States Combat Forces from Afghanistan Act of 2011′.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress makes the following findings:
(1) October 7, 2011, will mark the 10?year anniversary of the start of
Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.
(2) Members of the United States Armed Forces and coalition forces
have served valiantly and at great personal sacrifice in support of
Operation Enduring Freedom.
(3) As of January 25, 2011, 1,457 American military personnel have
lost their lives in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and 10,226
have been wounded.
(4) As of January 20, 2011, United States taxpayers have spent an
estimated $336,000,000,000 for operations in Afghanistan.
(5) During a speech at the United States Military Academy at West
Point on December 1, 2009, President Barack Obama outlined a
detailed plan to allow the United States `to begin the transfer of our
forces out of Afghanistan in July of 2011′.
(6) President Obama also stated, `It must be clear that Afghans will
have to take responsibility for their security, and that America has no
interest in fighting an endless war in Afghanistan.’
(7) It is essential to begin turning responsibility for security in
Afghanistan over to the Government and people of Afghanistan.
SEC. 3. STATEMENT OF POLICY ON PHASED REDEPLOYMENT OF UNITED
STATES COMBAT FORCES FROM AFGHANISTAN.
It is the policy of the United States to begin the phased redeployment of
United States combat forces from Afghanistan not later than July 1, 2011.
SEC. 4. PLAN FOR COMPLETION OF PHASED REDEPLOYMENT OF COMBAT
FORCES.
Not later than July 31, 2011, the President shall submit to Congress a plan for
the phased redeployment of United States combat forces from Afghanistan, to
include an end date for the completion of that redeployment.
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For more information on RMPJC, call us at 303-444-6981 or visit our website at www.rmpjc.org or link with our facebook page at our website.
RMPJC is located at 3970 Broadway, Suite 105, Boulder. From Quince and Broadway go east and take a right into the second driveway into the shopping center.
Carolyn Bninski
RMPJC
303-444-6981x2
Life’s most urgent question is: What are you doing for others?-Martin Luther King