Holocaust to Haven to Home #SkywatchFriday #AtoZChallenge

Yes, I admit this is a weird combination, but today is both Skywatch Friday and "H" day for the Blogging from A to Z Challenge.  There is an important story connected with my theme, New York State, that needs to be told.

So, as you look at the sky, I hope you'll stay for the story of Safe Haven, in honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day, which was yesterday.  The story of Safe Haven in Oswego, New York is part of the history of our country that many don't know, and should know.  I grew up in New York City and never heard of it until a couple of years ago.

Taken during a visit in September 2019

Welcome to Ft. Ontario State Park, Oswego, New York, near the shores of Lake Ontario.  Ft. Ontario has the distinction of having seen military service in every war our country has been involved in, up to and including World War II.

But it also completed a special mission that many people alive today are not aware of.

World War II created millions of refugees as war raged between the Nazis and the Allied Forces, including the United States.  In 1944, then President Franklin Roosevelt signed an order permitting a group of mostly Jewish refugees from Europe to come to the United States.  Other than the invite, they had no legal right to stay here.  In fact, they had to sign an agreement to leave our country at the conclusion of the war.

Some 982 refugees made the journey to Ft. Ontario and Oswego, New York.  There, they were to spend nearly two years in a type of limbo at the Ft. Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter, as it was called.  It was the first, and only, refugee shelter set up during World War II in the United States.  

These refugees came mainly from Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Yugoslavia and Germany.  Some of them had already been refugees for well over five years.  Some had been tortured.  All of them were hungry, malnourished, and scared.  The ship journey to the United States had left many of them with major seasickness.

At the camp, they lived enclosed by barbed wire.  They were "guests" and not permitted to work or leave the camp for the first month or so.  Eventually, the refugee children (all ages were at the camp, including children and the elderly) were able to go to school in Oswego.  Residents of the city brought the refugees food.  A couple got married.  Volunteers taught them English.  They published a camp newsletter for themselves.  They dreaded their first winter up in the snowbelt of New York State, but made their way through.

After World War II ended in 1945, the refugees' legal status remained doubtful, but eventually, they were allowed to stay in the United States if they wished.  The camp then closed in early 1946.  A 50th reunion was held in 1994 and a commemoration of the 75th anniversary was held in 2019 with 19 former refugees and their families.

Various oral histories and other documents are available online.

Lake Ontario, Oswego, September 2019

I will close today with a couple of Oswego sunsets.

A Humble end to a little known story.  Thank you for reading.

"H" day at the Blogging from A to Z Challenge.  My theme:  New York State.

Joining Yogi and other Skywatchers for #SkywatchFriday.

Bald Eagle #WordlessWednesday

I am writing this blog post Tuesday evening, election night in the United States, before any of the polls start to close.  As of posting this (Wednesday morning) the Presidential race has not yet been called.

Last week I was exercise walking with my spouse near the Susquehanna River.  My spouse's vision is better than mine - you could say that he has an eagle eye.

Spouse caught a glimpse of a bird in a tree. I didn't see the bird right away.  In this picture, it's just a tiny dot.

But once he pointed it out, I saw a bald eagle.  The bald eagle is the national symbol of our country.  My old iPhone doesn't have a great zoom and if I enlarged it further, the picture might pixelate.   But the eagle is clearer now, in the upper right.

A website says "the eagle rides on the winds of change, telling us that it's time to gather all our strength, courage, and wisdom, in preparation for life changes..."

What lies ahead for us, and our United States?  Maybe, by the time you, dear reader, read this, we will have a better idea.

 

Joining up with Sandee at Comedy Plus for her #WordessWednesday.

Say Goodbye To Montana?

Every time you lose faith in the Internet, the Internet comes through to entertain and enlighten us.
Take Montana, for example.

Montana, for the benefit of my foreign readers, is one of our 50 states, and is one of several states on our border with Canada.

Someone started a petition on change.org to sell Montana to Canada for $1 trillion dollars to "eliminate the national debt".

To everyone's surprise, some 12,245 people (as of the time I wrote this post) have signed this petition. The petition has now gone viral.

Goodbye, Montana?

I haven't been to Montana since 1979.  I only spent one night there, camping with my spouse in a deserted campground (mid September) and admiring the Big Sky Country. In case you've heard of Big Sky Country - it's real.  And I've never seen it since that day.  To me, Montana is far from useless, and I will give the petitioner credit for thinking outside the box (as the saying goes).

People from Montana pride themselves on independent thinking.  I suspect that more than a few of them might not mind joining up with Canada and becoming Canadian citizens.

Sometimes, I think I wouldn't mind becoming a Canadian.  How could I not love a people who paid tribute to the late Leonard Nimoy by "spocking" their five dollar bills?

Although, has anyone thought about how this might affect Bigfoot?

Selling off land is not a new idea.  After all, how do you think we obtained Alaska?  Or, all those states in the Louisiana Purchase? Governments sold territory to us in our younger days and I know people will point out that Russia and France sold us territories and not parts of their actual nations.  But is it possible for the United States to sell off a state?

Our national debt really is no laughing matter.  But, why not lighten things up for a moment?

Would you sign this petition?

Let's have some fun with this, because it seems there is so little to laugh about.

Nuclear War - What's In It For You?

A post about - nuclear war?

No, not exactly.  But, the title was so catchy, I couldn't resist.  Just ask any headline writer or any author.  The title of a book, a blog post, or a newspaper article, plays a major role in hooking the reader.  So, my reader, you have been hooked.

Of course, the writer or author then has to reel its reader in.

I follow a blog called "Awful Library Books".  It is written by two public librarians in Michigan.  They consult with other libraries on various topics, including weeding their collections of books that are outdated - a process also called "library deselection".

During that process, they blog about books they find that are just plain awful.  When you look at a "topical" book from the 50's (yes, 50's books still in library collections!), the 60's, 70's, or even 80's through the lens of the 2nd decade of the 21st century, you find some books just haven't aged well.  Sometimes the outdatedness is hilarious.  Sometimes, scary.

Sometimes, sobering.

Today, the Awful Librar Books bloggers wrote about a book called "Nuclear War - What's In It for You?" by the "Ground Zero Project"  It dates from 1982.  Besides having a catchy title for a blog post, it asks you: "Why Do You Feel Scared with 10,000. Nuclear Weapons Protecting You?"

Good question. 

I grew up in the "duck and cover" days and we in the United States had lots of nuclear weapons pointed at the then-Soviet Union.  Trouble was, the Soviets had as many pointed back at us.  Yes - many of us put this into one corner of our minds and went about our daily lives.  What else could we do? But, to this day, when I hear a siren go off or see a flash of sunlight out of the corner of my life - for one instant, I know my time is up.


I found this book on Amazon (it seems to be out of print, though) and two people reviewed it - both people gave it a positive review.

The book talks about a nuclear attack on a major U.S. City - Detroit, to be exact.  (no comment). It describes the first nuclear war (yes, World War II, where the United States used 100% of its nuclear weapons).  It talks about the U.S.-Soviet Arms race I grew up during.  It even talks about "Star Wars" (not the movie, but something my generation will recognize.) 

But, although outdated, this book teaches a lesson it probably never intended to teach.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

We are still scared.  Only the names have changed.

Once again, nostalgia ain't what it is cracked up to be.

My Official 4th of July Post- Read it Quick, Before the Vandals Come

Several other people I know have posted 4th of July thoughts on Facebook, or in their blogs.  I don't promise mine will be a masterpiece of writing but here goes.  (if it rambles...well, that's my name.)

Many of us are thinking way past the BBQ- hot dogs and apple pie-setting off of illegal fireworks/terrorizing your neighborhood dogs-traditions of the 4th this year.  This is a sober year for many of us:  continued unemployment, struggles getting decent health care (health care reform notwithstanding) but most of all, watching the continued polarization of our country into two camps, neither willing to compromise, creating a paralysis while the American People suffer.

I'm rarely serious in my blog, but these are serious times.

What I want to say to both of these camps is something that isn't that original.  "We've become a nation of fearful people, a nation of angry people, who just lash out at each other while parroting the slogans of the  radio and television political commentators of our choice.  Is that what we want?  Is that what we have come to?  You are drowning out the voices of the common people, the "man in the street" and the "woman in the street", taking advantage of their fears to gain power for yourselves."

The American People, the true American people, need to take their country back.  I'm not talking Yes We Can here.  I'm not talking Tea Party.  I'm not talking red, or blue, and I don't care which color you support.  This isn't a sleepaway camp color war, folks.  This is our very lives.

I'm talking pride in our country, our community, and taking responsibility for their success or failure. 
I've traveled this country.  I've been to 46 states in a span of about 40 years.  I've met many different people, from many different cultures and "walks of life" during this time.  I lived in a liberal city of New York, and a conservative rural area in Arkansas.   We are a good people.

Many people have called Binghamton, NY, my adopted hometown area, a "burnt out industrial town".  Well, there are worse places.  Places such as Flint, Michigan (where I remember passing huge auto plants, so many of them now closed, deserted, the same as the former EJ (Endicott Johnson) plants here.  Their people out of work, wondering where the American Dream went.

No wonder they are angry.  And lashing out.

Meanwhile, and for some reason my thoughts keep circling back to this, someone tries to beautify this industrial town.  He brought the art of his late grandfather to life, starts a movement called the "hART of BC".  Artists were commissioned.  Dinosaurs were decorated.  Other cities have done this kind of thing.  It wasn't original.

But, what happened next is something that everyone in this city should ponder.

The vandals struck.  They struck again and again.  Measures were taken, and still they struck.

Now, the City of Binghamton has given up fighting the vandals.  The dinosaurs have been moved to our area indoor mall in Johnson City. (the same Johnson City that was almost dissolved last November.)

Sometimes, folks, we deserve what we get.

Circling back to my original point do we deserve to have our country destroyed by the people who take advantage of the rage of the American people?  Is it time for us to suffer the invasion of the Vandals, like the invasion of the vandals of downtown Binghamton?  I think not.  There is still a lot of life left in the American Dream.  We are not ready to go down the path of the Roman Empire.  I think we can still learn from history.  History's lesson #1 is: pay attention/educate yourself/ take responsibility.   Remember who the original Vandals were, who we name our small letter vandals after.  With other tribes, they toppled one of the strongest civilizations ever, because that civilization was rotten to the core.

Read your history.  Don't get it second hand from some mile-a-minute blabbermouth of the media, just because he/she sounds good or is entertaining.  Don't obsess about rock or TV stars, who married whom, who just got pregnant.  Obsess about what is happening in your home town.  Don't let others do it for you.

It isn't too late for us.   Yet.


And with that...may you have a happy and meaningful Fourth of July.