The Museum, World War I, Peace, Starvation and the Maria Dolens!

History is a mystifying seductress to some of us.  Everywhere we look we find a piece of history that we are curious about.  Myself  I am continually looking into the history of everything and many times finding that I know very little of the history of things at all..

Every year we all set goals for the next and this morning as  I am sitting drinking a cup of coffee I am doing just that, I have struggled, poured much energy and money into keeping the museum open and with this year's pie sale that was pulled off with a struggle and made a success in part on
Sunday sales... with local support, the question that came to my mind was,...”should I continue after more than 20 years?”  

I thought about the new year as most of us do and I tried to find something that would guide me.  I asked myself if you didn’t work on the museum...what would you do?  The answers were pretty simple since I try to do them now… 1. Help wipe out poverty!  2. Work to end all War and Hatred..

I am adamant that we are in a terrible time of class separation, I remember a line from a song…”The hands of the have not’s have fallen out of reach!”  They have and are becoming more so everyday...even though we are in the middle of a supposed boom economy here in the USA. We are also in a time of world war, causing starvation of millions and skirmishes that are killing thousands of innocent people...and for what....Religion and Power....Riches?

So with the recent celebration of the 100th Anniversary of WWI..."The War to end all Wars" I went online to find out what  has been said in the past...   Pope Francis...who signs everything just Francis…in his  New Years message a few years ago for the 48th anniversary of the Day of World Peace spoke in front of a screen that had the Maria Dolens bell ringing in the background.  The Maria Dolens? And so I was off on my newest history quest.

The Maria Dolens is the name of a bell that was cast from the bronze of many of the cannons - 19, one from each of the countries that participated in WWI.  It sits in Roverto, in today’s northern Italy and it rings 100 times each day in the evening to honor the fallen and to many to act  as a symbol for peace and an end to war.

The Bell was the idea of Don Antonio Rossaro,  called the Bell of the Fallen.  It was given the name Maria Dolens and placed on the Malipiero tower of Castello di Rovereto.  It has been recast many times because of fractures from ringing 100 times a day no doubt... but it has always been recast and returned to the tower where is nightly reminds the world of the price of war.  The latest recast was blessed by Pope Paul VI and on November 4^th, 1965 was placed on the Colle di Miravalle where it today rest above the city of Roverto.

On the bell, which is the second largest swinging bell in the world, were added at its recasting the statements of the Pontiff Pius XII "With peace nothing is lost. Everything is to be lost through war." John XXIII: "In pace hominum ordinata concordia et tranquilla libertas."

Today, as always, it rang 100 times at midday...in Italy as I am writing this..... just as it  was shown on the large screen in St. Peter’s square that day.

It is said that it tolls in the hope that Man, in the memory of the Fallen of every war and every nation in the world, may find the path that leads to Peace….

I say AMEN to that…!

Winter, Tom a Hero Cat, and the Crimean War, all on another cold Sunday!

Well it is Sunday again, it is freezing cold again, and they are predicting snow…AGAIN!  March is coming in like a lion…but could it go out like a lamb?

So I am sitting here thinking about getting my Sunday blog up and wondering what in the world to blog about that might be a bit uplifting, unusual, different.  Nothing came to me.  Sure I had tons of stuff to bitch about as usual…but uplifting…hmm.

Just then the little Tommy cat came bounding in the door…I had just named him after a very famous cat called Sevastopol Tom or Crimean Tom a British Hero!  So I decided that for my blog I would tell you the story of Tom…the only hero cat I know who is in a Military Museum…STUFFED!

During the Crimean War in 1854 after a siege at Sevastopol, a port in the Crimea, the British after successfully forcing the surrender or desertion by the Russian Army landed in a place they found totally devastated.  The inhabitants and the Brits were left starving, as well as freezing in the frigid Crimean winter.  They all knew it would be a long while before supplies could come, so men and stray animals were left to scrounged for food. 

At one point, men noticed a sleek and well-fed cat that became very friendly with them… they wondered about him?  One day they followed him to the wharf area where he disappeared under some ruble.   Curious, they began to dig and there under the rubble was a Russian stash of food that had been placed there and hidden for their soldiers.  Most of the food was good, there was also clean water and... Tom got to eat the mice! (Why he was so well fed and sleek.)

Captain William Gair of the 6th Dragoon Guards (the Carabiniers) and his men eventually followed him to other hidden supply locations finding food that saved their lives. Gair and his men officially adopted him as their mascot…naming him Crimean Tom. 

When it came time to return to England, unwilling to leave him behind, they somehow secreted Tom to England with them.  The cat was honored many times and died a well taken care of cat a year later.

Since he was of “heroic” stature, Tom was stuffed and mounted and today gazes at visitors from a display at the Royal United Service Institution Museum… where he is remembered for his service to the armed forces of England!

So there, a tidbit of history... and a cat you can adopt named for a hero cat called “Crimean Tom”!

Hope the weather improves!

A cold Sunday of reality in this World of sadness and tears...Let us Pray for the ones they call the Children of today!

Sometimes I wonder what is wrong with people today.  I think some have never had real hardship in their lives.  Can we have compassion for animals but not for other people?

This weeks news headlines set off a whole flood of feelings I did not want to let into my mind right now.  I have been following some Italian news because of my 500 year ago cousin and the 150^th Anniversary of the Italian Red Cross, when I can across an article on the plight of Libyan refugees trying escape in rafts and boats  across the Mediterranean to the various posts on the European side.

A policy of trying to pick them up and saving them from drowning has been called foolish…”that it is encouraging them to try it”.  In other words if they pick them up and save them from drowning they are causing this problem to escalate.  So we as humans should let them drown?  The reality is they should not have to take such extreme methods to save themselves and especially their children from starvation and war.

On line, via the web, the global warming people are screaming about climate change causing these extremes in weather…while the disbelievers are screaming back that this is all hype and just a way for some to make more money… Some say that we need more oil…OIL?  They say that we have given too many subsidies to “green energy” a source that has produced little energy? 

Mean while people in our own country are freezing and we are cutting programs to our own poor, disabled, or elderly and don’t recognize the marginalized poor that have lost their homes that have become “our boat people” living in tents and shelters?

We are a crazy lot….”War”, greed and religion, has wrought all of this…”Men fighting with GUNS and hatred”.

I guess we have forgotten too soon the price of WWI and WWII.  Herbert Hoover was the man in charge of the rescue of millions of starving people after and during both conflicts.  He had an unbelievable job considering the food had to be brought in because war had devastated the land and infrastructure…not to mention the men and animals lost! Countries unable to feed themselves.

Not good thoughts…

I am stuck here in old Eaton this year trying to save and find homes for a few cats…”dump offs”…I can’t stand to see an animal ill, injured, starving or hurt. I try to help everyone I can and …for the life of me… I can't understand why men go to war for power or religion…and how anyone could condone just letting people drown while they are just trying to save themselves and their children. 

In America we are raging against immigrants…but in reality we are raging against ourselves… as almost all of us except the “First Natives” were brought here for a better life or for religious freedom by our forefathers and mother’s.  So on this Sunday in the blog...I pray for all the “children” of the world….”The ones we call the Children of Today!”

With that thought I whipped out my guitar and sang this old Gordon Lightfoot tune...listen to the words…understand the meaning!

This Sunday morning, thoughts and singing "Early Morning Rain"

Sunday…I can think of a number of Sunday songs that have been popular but today it is Gordon Lightfoot’s “Early Morning Rain” that I am singing, especially since I only have a dollar to my name.  It is raining and quiet and truthfully I wish I could be anywhere but here today.  Wish I could hop a “Jet Plane” and go to some place quiet where there is no news programs, no starving people, no Ebola, no war, no missiles coming in, no sadness.

The news has brought WWIII closer in my estimation.  The media needs stories and just placing this out in the public sector I fear encourages bloodshed.  I can’t imagine killing anyone or anything… think of walking down your street and shooting people or blowing them up because they go to a different church.

Religion and Nationalism have cause more deaths than can be counted by normal means.  We hail our warriors as heroes…and yes those that have to serve are… if they protect us. But why should they have to protect us? 

Towns and cities destroyed because of hatred… Who owns the land?  Who has rights to the water?  Who is right - who is wrong?

If we could all live by that old-fashioned “Golden Rule”…do unto others, as you would have them do unto you the world would be a different place.

What kind of man can kill a child or pass it by as it cries for help because of his nationality or religion????  What sort of person can run over an animal in the road for fun? 

Nothing has changed under the sun since the world began I am sure… but shouldn’t we all learn and become wiser?  Why is it we can’t learn from our mistakes?  What is the main fault of man?

People are worried about climate change…maybe we should be more worried about changing how the world views itself… If climate change occurs and wipes this era of man from the earth… really would that be a bad thing???

All things I am thinking about on this the last Sunday in July 2014…

“You cant jump a jet plane, like you can a freight train.  So I best be on my way… In the early morning rain!”

The Dalai Lama - What a great week for CNY

Well the Dalai Lama was in CNY this week and the 77 year old Holy Man managed to capture the hearts of all.  His message was especially interesting to me....for years since I was a child I dreamt of meeting the High Lama of Tibet and climbing to the city in the mountains where he lived.  I had all sorts of dreams then and to this day I often paint pictures of high peaks.  I laugh because my mother who slaughtered words sometime called him the "Deli Lama"...and I tend to do the same thing out of humor.

I would have loved to have been at one of his panel discussions or at the concert at the Carrier Dome..but unfortunately I could not...

In these weeks of debates and news stories on Iran, Syria and Afghanistan... talk of war was cheap and my feelings are that we like to talk about war in terms of helping people out... At a dinner recently when I mentioned the death toll of soldiers in Afghanistan one person said.."Well they are paid soldiers"....mercenaries..

Well we all too often forget the other deaths.."Collateral Damage" they are called.  So I went on line to find a figure of those civilian deaths in the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars ....go ahead type it into Google and be shocked!  Some estimates vary but one thing does not, the number of soldiers killed is minimal in comparison to the thousands of citizens killed by and trapped by war.  This does not mention the horror of these scenes to the children living in it..those children who will no doubt hate the invaders.....and not understand what it was about..Religion???Hate??? Or was it OIL???

So to me the Lama's message is like prayer sent out to the ether above....understanding and education and learning about one another, and excepting one an-others faith, institutions, culture and need - are the only ways to make peace in the world.... Hatred, bullying, rattling sabers and talking war only brings out the worst in people and in countries who also feel patriotic to their country, customs and beliefs.

I came from that crazy group of people called the "Love Generation".."Make Love not War"....  Where have we gone?  Have we forgotten Viet Nam.. Is it because soldiers join and are not drafted?  War is War!  But for War there must be better reasons than a boost to the economy or threats like.."Weapons of Mass destructions"- or OIL!

Let's all look at each other in this world that is growing smaller every day..in a different light... Let us teach our children to do it...let us reach out to others in a more peaceable way daily... Maybe in something simple like toning down the rhetoric on line on the different candidates for a start!

The world's worst day in modern time

Today has a dubious place in the history of not only the United States... but of the world.  On this date in 1945, the last nuclear bombed to be dropped in war was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan.  It is estimated that over 60,000 - 80,000 people died immediately and thousands more followed from related injuries and radiation.

Today we are willing to go to war to prevent "suspicious-hostile" countries from getting the bomb...but really...would any country drop a bomb on another knowing that in a few minutes the retaliation will wipe their country off the face of the earth..and them too I might add ..????

We now have many people who believe that dropping the bomb was not necessary..but it took two such bombs to get Japan to surrender!  Though we hate to think about the horror this act caused it might also be good for us to reflect on the outcome over all....there has never been another dropped!

Fat Man, as the bomb was named, started an era of negotiation and fear that has managed to keep nuclear weapons at bay...tho..the terribleness of war has pervaded every continent except our own....

As we look back we must wonder at the decision of Truman's to do this and the fact that he said he never regretted doing it!

***It is interesting to note that the energy released from the tsunami that hit Indonesia in 2004 was 1500 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, and the energy released from the   tsunami that hit Japan in 2011 was 600 million times more powerful that that bomb.