Remember September

Your humble bloggers have been less productive in recent months, I'll be the first to admit. Both of us have a lot going on in our lives, and it's been a very busy summer. But as autumn draws near, as the days get shorter and cooler and the U.S. presidential election fast approaches, methinks we'll soon be revving up the Posse.

I've only been producing one commentary per week for several months; my goal is to increase that to at least three per week -- after my son gets married on Sept. 12. Meantime, I'm preoccupied, but Sunday morning still offers a respite.

Rather than comment on presidential politics, riots or the latest outrage from the abysmal mainstream media, I decided to reflect a bit on September's importance in world history.

I was aware of some of the key dates -- e.g., the terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2001 -- as well as the official beginning and ending of World War II (Sept. 1, 1939 when Hitler's forces invaded Poland, and Sept. 2, 1945, when Japan surrendered to the Allies aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay).

I also recall, just a few months after my college graduation, on Sept. 1, 1983, Korean Air Lines Flight 007 was shot down by a Russian fighter jet en route from New York to Seoul, killing all 269 persons on board. The U.S. Congress passed a resolution condemning the Soviets' action, and the late Rep. John Conyers of Detroit was one of only two lawmakers who voted against the resolution. I'll give the guy credit for one thing: He was a consistent leftist throughout his career and made no bones about it.

Here are some other monumental events of history occurring in September:

• Sept. 14, 1812 - Napoleon and his troops first entered Moscow as the retreating Russians set the city on fire. Determining it would be impossible to stay through the winter in the ruined city, he then began a retreat from Moscow, which became one of the great disasters of military history. Fewer than 20,000 of the original 500,000 men with him survived the Russian campaign.
• Sept. 2, 1864 - Gen. William T. Sherman's troops conquered Atlanta;
• Sept. 8, 1883 - The Northern Pacific Railroad was completed, offering a route from Minnesota to the Pacific Coast;
• Sept. 8, 1935 - Louisiana Gov. Huey Long (aka "Kingfish") was shot and mortally wounded while attending a Louisiana House of Representatives session in Baton Rouge. He died two days later;
• Sept. 8, 1941 - The German Army began its blockade of Leningrad, which lasted until January 1944 and resulted in the deaths of nearly 1 million Russian civilians;
• Sept. 2, 1963 - Alabama Gov. George Wallace forcibly halted public school integration by encircling Tuskegee High School with state troopers;
• Sept. 6, 1991 - Russian legislators renamed Leningrad St. Petersburg following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

This could be much longer, but I'll spare you.

One thing I've learned as the years go by is that history is not just fascinating, interesting, and intriguing; it also helps us be more grateful for our blessings. History teaches us a lot about human nature, and humans' dangerous capacity for inhumanity and depravity.

Any time we think we're having a rough day, we just need to remember the suffering endured by so many people throughout the ages, and how much of it was not due to Mother Nature or the vicissitudes of fate, but rather, deliberately inflicted by evil, misguided people whose greed, pride, narcissism, ruthlessness and lust for power overcame them.

There is no doubt in my mind that if far more people studied and pondered history, we would have much better people leading our nation and world. Freedom and liberty would be the rule rather than the exception.

But to be ignorant of history is, as has been repeated ad nauseam, to have to repeat its tragic consequences.

Comments

[T-Mo]

Thank you! Everything went well, and we are very pleased with our new daughter-in-law!

[TrolleyProblem]

Congratulations on your son getting married!