Happy Decoration Day!

We just wanted to take a moment from mowing the grass, washing our cars, BBQ'ing some delicious teriyaki chicken cutlets and watching the auto races to give respect to this most special and sacred day..

Decoration Day.

This is what Memorial Day was before Congress decided to lump all dead of all wars into this holiday in the early 1920s and call it 'Memorial Day'

It was originally meant to honor those who died Specifically in the Civil War when passed into law in 1868...  Not even those who fought and died in the Revolution, War of 1812 or Mexican War were to be included in Decoration Day; a mostly somber occasion.

600,000 human beings on both sides killed in four years (not counting all those who survived with missing limbs)

~ These veterans served under General Forrest

A war fought so Wall Street could be in control of the price of cotton on their trading floors and not the southern plantation owners who would get better prices exporting to England

A war fought because northern industrialists paying a nickle  a day to their poverty-stricken immigrant labor force were resentful they were still paying a nickle more than their southern agrarian counterparts.

Of course some were noble; some did fight to emancipate the slaves..

Most Northern soldiers did not.

Lincoln did not..

But we can't defeat 150 years of propaganda pushed in the school system of Lincoln as near-deity with one mere blog post so we simply state a fact and others can research or dismiss it..

Nonetheless, this is what Illinois Senator candidate Abraham Lincoln said in the 2nd of the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates on August 27, 1858 addressing a question on race (in blue font):

"I  will say, then, that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races -- that I am not, nor have ever been, in favor of making voters or jurors of Negros, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which prevents them from living together on terms of social and political equality.  

And inasmuch as they can not so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man, am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race"

But when you're losing a war, good men are tired of dying for nothing more than the symbolism of a flag and voluntary enlistments will expire after Dec 31, 1862, you as a politician better do Something!

So you get in touch with the everyday man's religious moral side to do right by God and thus you attach liberation to the fight..

Hmm.. after a victory of course... Can't look too desperate..

And when re-election looks like a major improbability, what to do?

What to do?

Yes-- you send one General eastward-- a raging alcoholic and allow him to keep charging and charging no matter how many men of his own side he has slaughtered in ill-planned attacks (Grant wasn't called a "butcher" by his men affectionately.. )

And you send another General westward-- a mentally insane man who dealt with nervous breakdowns and once tried to kill himself in a fit of depression... You send this man into the heartland of the south with the sole goal of targeting the civilian populations-- homes and farms looted then set ablaze.. all livestock stolen so the people would starve..  women raped..

You could accurately say Sherman was America's first Terrorist.

But hey.. you know what?  Lincoln did get that re-election after all so let that be a lesson to you boys and girls and future Presidents..

When successful, the ends truly Do justify the means.

So we take a moment to remember those who've fallen 150-ish years ago and tip our caps...

And now its time for more BBQ'ing..  chicken cutlets and burgers marinated in hickory brown sugar glaze.. Yumm Yumm~