Virginia #AtoZChallenge

Today I am spotlighting the state of Virginia.  I have visited it several times.

First, a beautiful university campus in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Welcome to the University of Virginia, founded by Thomas Jefferson in 1819.  

Its Rotunda was designed by Jefferson and its construction was completed shortly after Jefferson's death in 1826. If you wonder, viewing these pictures, if it resembles Monticello (Jefferson's home) - it does.

Monticello from a distance, April 2016

It should be noted that buildings on the original campus were built with the labor of enslaved people, and that scholars (male, of course).  Women also had to fight hard to be able to go to this university, which only became fully co-educational in 1973.

Near Charlottesville, Virginia.

Rolling rural hills. 

Along I-77, fog can be scenic, and also dangerous.

Virginia Welcome Center, I-77. (Interstate 77)

I'll end here with beautiful dogwoods in bloom, Monticello, April of 2016. 

V day in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge.  My theme:  Beauty of our Land.

 

Jefferson (Wine and More) #AtoZChallenge

 When you hear the name Thomas Jefferson (the third President of the United States), you don't normally think of wine.  But if you like wine, you may very well know about the connection between Jefferson and the modern American wine industry.

Thomas Jefferson loved wine.  He was introduced to different types of wine during and after the Revolutionary War, both by Hessian  (German mercenaries fighting on the British side) prisoners of war and later, to French wine when Jefferson was our nation's first ambassador to France.  He built a wine cellar at Monticello, his home near Charlottesville, Virginia. 

Monticello, near Charlottesville, Virginia

Jefferson's dream was to take old world grapevines, grow them at Monticello and nearby, and make the European type wines he enjoyed, but the Vitis vinifera he tried to grow died from diseases such as black rot and from the ravages of a pest called phylloxera  (a relative of aphids) found in Northeast American soil.  Today, we know how to graft Vitis vinifera stock to roots that are resistant to this pest and wine grapes are grown in many regions of the United States.

Ironically, the area around Monticello is now a wine grape growing region, and the county Charlottesville is in has more than 40 wineries.

Enter the Jefferson Vineyards, which my spouse and I visited several years ago.  Here is an interior picture, complete with a bust of Jefferson.

Another interior shot with the chickens I love.

Dreams can come true, but not always in our lifetimes.

 

Jefferson's statue at the State House in Richmond, Virginia, the State Capitol.

Before I end this post, let's return to Monticello for a moment.  These are some of the gardens there today.  Back in Jefferson's day, these gardens and Jefferson's house and properties were tended by enslaved people.  There are many sad truths in the study of history that must be faced head on, and that is one of them.  More so now than in the past, the paradox of liberty (the author of our Declaration of Independence owning humans and even fathering children with a woman he owned) is examined.

I'll end with another view of Monticello.   It's well worth the visit, incidentally, whether you are a student of history, a student of agriculture or architecture, or just someone who wants to know more about our complex third President.

"J" day in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge.  My theme:   "From Florida to Vermont With Stops In Between"

Is Love All We Need?

Our local newspaper had a supplement today celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Woodstock Concert - peace and love in the midst of a country at war thousands of miles away.  Our streets were full of protestors. Assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Kennedys were very much on our minds.  Much out there was anything but peace and love.

Now, 50 years later my mind turns to  Charlottesville, Virginia. Today I remember August 12, 2017, the day the white supremacists rallied under the guise of protesting the removal of a statue and one of them drove a car into a crowd and killed a 32 year old woman by the name of Heather Heyer.  Two police were also killed that day, and many people were injured.

Tomorrow, I, and many others, will remember Heather Heyer, the act that killed her and injured dozens of others trying to exercise their right of free speech, the rallies the night before meant to terrorize, and that day that we now remember with anguish.

The driver/killer is in jail, convicted of the crime.  A 32 year old woman's life was cut short and our country still struggles to make sense.  How could there possibly be fine people on both sides? We are afraid to face what our country is becoming.  We pause.  We feel that we've lost our way.

Here are some signs of that day.  It amazed me, in a May 1 visit to Charlottesville, that "Love" seemed to be one of those reactions.

Is love all we need, though?

This is near the scene of that tragic act on May 1 of this year.  A message to those who hate: "You just magnified her."

The street memorial. 

Think about it.  Are we stronger than this hate?

A young woman died here, killed by hate.  We struggle to maintain our democracy.

"We have met the enemy, and he is us" - Walt Kelly, who wrote it in a different context.  But never mind that. Will we have the strength for the days ahead? Slogans are good, but the right actions are better.

Sobering thoughts for a Sunday.

And Meanwhile

It's interesting going on social media today and seeing what is trending.  You would think, on this first anniversary of the tragic clash between white nationalists in Charlottesville and those opposing them, ending in the death of a 32 year old woman, Heather Heyer (and a commemorative march in Washington DC called Unite the Right) that would be big news.

But apparently, the really big news on Twitter right now is a rapper who apparently sampled the song of a music legend without permission, and the fans of both going after each other.

Yes.  It's so much easier to ignore the true hate, to ignore what is happening around us.  It's hard to take a look back. 

Today, my post is political.  Tomorrow, I return to my normal upbeat programming.

It's necessary to pause today, though, especially if you are a member of one of the groups these neo-Nazis targeted that day, which I am.

Today, some more memories of Charlottesville, Virginia, eight months before that day, August 12, 2018, that opened eyes.

The Charlottesville Freedom of Speech Wall.

The Founding Fathers of our country.

The downtown mall on a quiet January weekday morning.  This is not the street where Heather Heyer was killed. Part of that street has been renamed in her honor.

This may have been the door to a bank - I don't remember

So peaceful.  But that peace was just surface.  I didn't know that then.  I do now.

It was the calm before the storm that still continues.  Maybe one day, this sign will be what Virginia is known for, again.

Don't be fooled; the forces of evil are regrouping.  We all must pay attention to what is presented today.

"If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention".

RIP, Heather Heyer.

Our job is to make sure you did not die in vain.

Charlottesville Redux

In January of 2017 my spouse and I visited Charlottesville, Virginia, blissfully unaware that, on August 11 and 12, 2017, we would be watching Charlottesville after neo-Nazis marched, tiki torches in hand.  And then, on the 12th, some of their ilk stood, armed, visible from a nearby synagogue while worshippers arriving for Saturday services.

It wouldn't be long before the whole country would be watching.

Later that day, someone drove their way through a crowd and mowed an innocent young woman down.

And what followed sticks in our memories here in the United States.

These things took place within walking distance of where some of these pictures were taken.

What happened to friendship that day?

I don't know if this Seat of Harmony was still downtown that horrific day.

Here's a sign telling us more about that seat. 

Did that seat watch as neo-Nazis marched past it on an August summer night?  Did people sit on it in shock and tears in the following days?

A sign on a dorm door at the nearby University of Virginia is chilling, in 20-20 hindsight.

Today C'Ville, as the locals call it, is on lockdown, with no one knowing what to expect.  

We can not allow hatred to grow unchecked.

More memories tomorrow.

RIP Heather Heyer.  RIP too many things.

And Forever in Peace May It Wave

I was ready with a light hearted "Happy Fourth of July" post with some flowers.  If you want light hearted only, here are some flowers for you, and I'll caution you not to read any further.

Three cheers for the red...

...white...

and blue.

For those of you who remain, a Facebook friend told me (yesterday) about something trending on Twitter - a hashtag, #SecondCivilWarLetters.

I rarely blog about politics,  and I didn't mean to today, when we are supposed to be celebrating our Independence Day and remembering what the price of freedom is.  But I was intrigued and decided to read some of these tweet "letters", as I am an occasional student of the American Civil War.

During the 150th anniversary (2011-2015) I had a weekly Civil War Sunday feature - you are welcome to look it up and read my posts, if you are so inclined.  I am not a "buff", nor a historian - just someone who enjoys history.

For those who haven't heard the story of how Second Civil War Letters came to be on Twitter yesterday, a brief summary:  a man (I refuse to name or link to him) declared, on Monday, that the Democrats were going to start a Civil War today, the 4th of July, the day we in the United States celebrate as our Independence Day.

The Twitterverse quickly took revenge - people tweeting out "letters" in the style of letters written by soldiers of the first (and hopefully, only) American Civil War.  Some were literate.  Some, in fact, were pretty well done.  Some poked fun of liberals, all poked fun at the "other side" and some were just plain mean.

OK, I get it.  The Battle of Bowling Green (aka the "Bowling Green massacre"), the liberal's love of avocados and Starbucks, the dreaded covfefe.

I learned what "kek" meant.  I had just heard about the Space Force and learned more about various memes than I ever wanted to. 

But after a few too many "letters" especially one describing the (satirical) last words of a dying "alt right" soldier, I sobered up and stopped laughing, because, in fact, a second Civil War is no laughing matter.

My ancestors did not come to the United States until well after the Civil War ended.  It is in my DNA, though, as a third generation American.  I was born and raised in New York City, but I have lived parts of my life in the South - the former Confederacy - in Florida, Texas, and Arkansas, to be exact.  And Kansas - once known as Bloody Kansas.  The Civil War lives on in these places.

A monument to Confederate soldiers, Charleston, South Carolina

When I lived in Arkansas, my daily commute to work involved driving through one Civil War battlefield (Prairie Grove, now an Arkansas state park) and near another one (the Battle of Cane Hill).

Some facts:
The death toll from the Civil War is hard to know, but estimates vary from 620,000 to 850,000 for military- possibly two percent of the then-population of the United States.  The 620,000 figure comes from a study done around 1889  The higher figure is more recent.

The number of "casualties" at Gettysburg - a three day battle that concluded on July 3, 1863 - dead and injured - 51,000.  That's more than the population of Binghamton, New York, where I work.

Let's not forget those taken prisoner in the war (I know someone descended from one of them).  Andersonville (South Carolina). Elmira (New York) and many other prisoner of war camps, on both sides stand as monuments of horror today, as Americans descended to depths we would hope we would never descend to again.

One hundred fifty seven years later, we still can't even agree about the causes of that war.

I fear we are heading towards a second American Civil War, as we turn against our neighbor, against our relatives, against our co-workers.  We can not seem to have any civil (no pun intended) conversation anymore.  Fake news rules.  People receive death threats on social media for expressing their opinions.

Neo-Nazis and their sympathizers can openly deny the Holocaust and be taken seriously.  They were allowed to gather near a synagogue in Charlotteville, Virginia on the Jewish Sabbath one August Saturday (the Charlottesville police having turned away the synagogue's requests for protection) hours before one of their kind allegedly rammed a car into a crowd of counterprotestors.

On this, the 242nd anniversary of our Declaration of Independence, I implore you to think twice about a second American Civil War.  Let us remember the toll of the first.  Let us remember how the trauma still lives with us today.

It's good to laugh for a few minutes.

But then, there is work to be done to make sure the Second Civil War never happens.  One of those opportunities may come soon to a community near you, and will certainly come in November.

Write your Congressperson or Senator. Subscribe to you local newspaper and read it.  Become informed.  Be respectful, always.

And then, VOTE.

Day four of the Ultimate Blog Challenge #BlogBoost

Charlottesville Glow - #SkywatchFriday

January, 2017, Charlottesville, Virginia.

Golden hour light against a "Gold's Gym" building, with clouds above, The Meadows in Charlottesville.

Join other bloggers weekly at #SkywatchFriday, taking pictures of the sky from all over the world.

Yogi, who runs the Skywatch blog, expects lots of solar eclipse pictures next Friday.  I'm not sure I can indulge him, but I will try to post....something related to it.

Strap In For Turbulence

This is a political post.  If you would rather experience a spot of floral beauty, click here.

Living through history is not an easy thing. I've lived through the Cuban Missile Crisis.  The assassination of John F. Kennedy.  Vietnam.  Watergate.  9/11.  And much, much more. My Dad lived through World War I and World War II (and served in World War II, sustaining a head injury that impacted him for the rest of his life).

We live in exciting, but dangerous, times.  

In January of this year, I visited Charlottesville, Virginia and spent several days there.  It was my second visit. 

Between Friday and Saturday, Charlottesville became the focus of our country.

In January, walking downtown, I took this picture. 

Yesterday, the marquee had a different message: That one read "C'Ville Strong" ("C'Ville" is what locals call Charlottesville.).  The longer marque at the front read  "Heather Heyer Gone But Not Forgotten".

Until Saturday, few in this country had ever heard of Heather Heyer.  Now, her name in on the lips of many.   Heather Heyer, age 32, participating in a demonstration against white supremists, was run down in cold blood, allegedly (the accused driver has not yet been tried and is presumed innocent until proven guilty) by a domestic terrorist.  19 others were injured, some seriously.

But wait..there was more, earlier that day, at the local synagogue.

Three white supremists, armed with semi-automatic weapons,  had tried to intimidate congregants of the local synagogue during its Sabbath services by standing a block away, in plain sight.  There are pictures taken by congregants of neo-Nazis marching past the synagogue, holding Nazi flags, chanting Nazi slogans I refuse to quote here.  Someone said that if those pictures had been taken in black and white, one may have thought they were looking at a Nazi demonstration from the 1930's.

But the march was here in the United States.  And a simple Google search will reveal hate crime after hate crime, against various minorities.  This incident that took the life of Heather is only the latest one.

The mother of Heather Heyer, at a memorial service yesterday, urged mourners to “make my daughter’s death worthwhile” by confronting injustice and channeling “anger into righteous action.”

Heed her words, spoken from the deepest pain a mother can know.

You may well already be speaking out.  If so, I thank you.  As a member of a religious minority, I thank you with all my being.

It is quite possible, on the other hand, that you feel this does not impact you.

If you feel you are not threatened by this wave of "alt-right" hate, I have a question for you.  Did your parent, or grandparent, fight in World War II or work in a domestic support factory (like my mother did)?  If so, how would they feel today about what is happening?   Would they have rested easy knowing their sacrifices were apparently in vain?

Nazi Germany did not happen in a day.  Or in a month.  Or in a year.  And many living there did nothing, thinking it would never get "that bad".  It could never happen "here".  Until it did, and they were trapped.

We have this one chance to fight tyranny.  So know this: Tyrants come into power because people let them have the power.  They watch, with each action they take, to see how people react.  If there is little reaction, they do something more drastic. And more drastic.  And one day....

We must react, and not just today.  This is not "take part in a march, high five each other go the afterparty, and then go about your life."

I wish I could be more elegant.  I wish I could channel the tears and the anguish I've felt since I turned my computer on Saturday afternoon and read what had happened in Charlottesville, in the ways others more elegant with words have done.

 It can happen here.  It already has.  The followers of hate have come out of the shadows.  They paraded Friday night in the light of tiki torches, pretending that what they cared about was the heritage of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. That statue was their excuse.  They know what they are doing.  They use their symbols and imagery consciously.  And they are not trailer park yahoos.  Don't ever think that.  You would be wrong.

They are educated.  They are angry.  You may not know them, but they know you.  They are no longer in hiding.

They could be your co worker.  Or next door neighbor.  Or relative.  Or friend.

If we don't speak up, and speak up daily, the hatred will only spread.  They have the ear of power.

Nor can we allow it to go back into the shadows to hide and wait for their next opportunity.

Don't be distracted  We have a small window of opportunity.

Strap in for turbulence.

Civil War Sunday - Charlottesville

Civil War Sunday, 2017 edition???

For four years, from 2011 to 2015, I (most Sundays) blogged about the United States Civil War, which took place from 1861 to 1865.

Except that I believe the war never ended.  The nature of the fight changed.

Yesterday, another battle of the war was fought in Charlottesville, Virginia, home of the University of Virginia.

Because this is not a political blog, I will not discuss the events in Charlottesville yesterday, August 12, except to explain that an occasion of hate became even more tragic when a man, driving a car, rammed into a crowd of counterprotesters near a white nationalist rally in this Virginia college town.  At the time I write this, one person is dead, and 19 others injured, 5 critically..

In a related incident, a police helicopter crashed (they had been monitoring the protests from the year), killing two.

This car ramming is the latest incident after this city, once in the Confederate State of America, decided to take down an equestrian monument honoring the Confederate General (and native Virginia son) Robert E. Lee.

Hatred.  Division. We still struggle with the racial divide.   Even our President's remarks after the incident sparked controversy.

Outside of Charlottesville, January 2017

The mayor of Charlottesville said he was "broken hearted".

Downtown Charlottesville, before April the Giraffe became famous

I have visited Charlottesville three times in the last eighteen months.  I will come within 30 miles of it later this month.  It is a city that, for many reasons, I have grown to enjoy.  In fact, I was going to visit it later this month, although my plans changed (several weeks ago) due to circumstances.

Nothing in our history is simple.  If only it could be simple. If only we could say our Civil War was over.

Downtown Cutout

When you don't face issues head on, and let them simmer for year after year, it never ends well.