They call me the working man

My Grandpa once faced down the Mafia. It was a long time ago in the 50's a time when America was a different place. Cigarette smoke, Elivs, Rock 'n roll, and so forth. Anyhow as I heard the story he was parked somewhere in Brooklyn. And a Woman on the street and a shawl told him 'They don't like it when you park there.' And shortly afterward a man came out walking towards him. I remember hearing that he left after because he had his kids in the car but the story always held an interest to me. An average citizen with nothing to do with Organized Crime suddenly being thrust into its world.

Struggle.

I'm reading a book right now about the Pullman Porters. Pullman Porters were workers on sleeper trains from the late 1860s until 1969. George Pullman the founder of the Pullman company recruited mainly African-Americans for the positions because he believed the mainly white passengers wouldn't notice them and wouldn't see them as someone they would ever see in everyday life. The Porters attended to the passengers every need making beds, running telegrams, helping with luggage etc; Also they relied mainly on tips because of the low wages the Pullman company paid them during the early years of its operation. In the book the author Larry Tye talks about the face the Porters had to put on to deal with the racism and insults and disrespect they put up with on a daily basis. This resonated for me because as a former Deli worker I had to put up the same kind of face. While I was never subjected to the long hours, and blatant racism of the porters dealt with I can attest to the shabby way people can treat you in the service industry. In the deli people think you are a servant an idiot. And you end up having to put up that mask. The mask of servility which the books talks about. The porters dealt with it because they had families to support and they knew it was a lot better then working as sharecroppers or in factories as many in their community did. Also much better then their forefathers who had toiled in the cotton fields as slaves. The Porters would have to 'Tom' it after Uncle Tom the slave in Uncle Tom's cabin. Dealing with people is hard, much less racist assholes. To this Friday I crack open a beer for the Pullman Porter.

That speech won't scour.

Nobody likes a sore loser. The mobs that riot after their team has lost. That sad pathetic man dialing his ex-wife drunk at three in the morning pleading for her to come back. Historically in my opinion John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of Abraham Lincoln was one of the most infamous. The son of Edwin Booth a noted and celebrated Shakespearean actor and a celebrated actor himself, Booth had developed a sympathy towards the south and the Southern Cause. Booth first hatched a scheme to kidnap Lincoln and conspired with several Confederate sympathizers among them John Surratt a Confederate spy who's mother Mary owned a boardinghouse in Washington where whose and his conspirators often met. Booth plan to kidnap Lincoln was later thwarted by bad intelligence. Montreal was a hotbed of Confederate spies at that time including a group that set fire to several hotels in New York City. Confederate guerrillas had also launched a raid on Vermont from there. Booth eventually returned to Washington and fell into a deep despair as Confederate defeat became obvious. Richmond had fallen. Sherman's march to the sea had devastated the Confederacy and Lee had surrendered. On April 11 Lincoln had given a speech at the White House and had mentioned giving the right to vote to black soldiers in the Union army. Booth had been present at the speech and stated 'Thats the last speech he'll never make.' Booth knew the layout of Ford's theater intimately as he had performed there before. John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln in the the back of the head with a single shot pistol thus ending what could have been a good life. The war was over, he had just been reelected and seemed to most of those around him to be in good spirits. The entire history of reconstruction and the civil rights movement might have been different had he had lived. Booth thought that assassinating Lincoln would bring him support but this was misguided. Eventually ending up in a barn at the Garret Farm in Virginia he found himself surrounded by Union troops. Booth refused to give up and eventually Boston Corbett a Union soldier shot him in the neck. Booth later died from his wounds asking to see his hands and remarking 'useless, useless.'

The fuckin soffets

In the annals of military history there are many great Generals. U.S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, Patton, come to mind. Then there are those who you may not have heard of. Generals like Ambrose Burnside, George McClellan, Joseph Johnston. The reason you may not of heard of these guys is well..they kind of sucked at their jobs. This article is about one in particular George Brinton McClellan. Graduate of West Point with an unmistakable air of professionalism about about him McClellan came to Washington at a time when all seemed lost. The Union Army of the Potomac had been routed at Bull Run and had straggled into Washington afterwards confused and demoralized. The General the pressed dubbed the 'Young Napoleon,' at first seemed to do everything right organizing the units into neat camps around Washington and drilling and training the men all day. McClellan inspired loyalty in pride in his troops. As historian Shelby Foote noted 'His specialty was preparing troops for battle. McClellan trained that army, whatever that army did in its later years was due to the training McClellan gave them in that first year.' Yet as summer turned to fall and later winter Abe Lincoln and his cabinet began to wonder why McClellan, now in command of 100,000 men, did not move this mighty host against the Confederates. When pressed McClellan would come up with a host of excuses, he didn't have enough men, he was ill, they weren't prepared. As Secretary of war Edwin Stanton observed 'If he had a million men he would swear the enemy had two million, and cry in the mud and ask for three.' Finally in the spring of 1862 McClellan launched what became known as the Peninsula campaign, moving his might host up the York/James peninsula in an attempt to move on Richmond. Even though McClellan outnumbered Lee, Lee kept up the offensive. After seven days of fighting in which the Union army won all but one of the engagements McClellan retreated to Harrisons landing. One officer suggested the General was motivated by 'Cowardice or treason.' And as one observer noted he had been 'He was simply out-Generaled.' Lee had read McClellan cautious nature and had taken the offensive from the start. Whilst McClellan preferred a defensive strategy. Many historians have argued where this apparent lack of will to fight came from. I think one of the factors is he simply didn't have the stomach for it. Writing to his wife Mary Ellen he wrote 'I grow tired of the sickening sight of the battlefield with its mangled limbs and poor suffering wounded. Victory had no glory for me when purchased at such cost.' True the battlefield is a sobering place. But your'e a goddamn General for chirst sake! Thats me saying as a line cook that I don't like doing multiple slips at one time, its part of your fucking job. After the peninsula campaign McClellan eventually faced Lee again at Antietam in Maryland where he was able to push Lee back into Virginia after his invasion of Maryland. Finally after Antietam and McClellan lack of follow up Lincoln ended up firing him. It took a long time for hold honest Abe to find a General who had what it takes to take on Bobby Lee but he finally found one in Ulysses S. Grant probably the exact opposite of McClellan, quiet, unpretentious, not found of military displays or parades. If I were old Abe I could have fired him long before.

This station is now the ultimate power in the universe.

Women are fuckin' nuts. Forgive me if I now go on a tirade but I speak the truth. As anyone who has been through an intense breakup or divorce can testify to women can turn on you. In a second, a blink of an eye. It can go from being all roses and good times to 'fuck you I don't want anything to do with you.' It can baffle you sometimes. I am continually baffled by it. I was watching this documentary on the history channel about this outlaw motorcycle gang and their ways and manners. And one member was talking about how basically they treat their women like property but that women still always want to be with them. This is what baffles us normal non-abusing, cheating folk. I was talking to a girl at my work who was wondering why this one guy was with this girl saying 'I've been with guys who have hit me, who have cheated on me why can't I get someone like him.' We too wonder why you keep going with those assholes, it remains a great mystery. One that most likely will not be solved anytime soon. I don't understand I don't get it. My good friend Katrina Bell once said that women are 'cruel, vicious, creatures.' And I think it rings true. Its just never said amidst the whole 'Girls are sugar and spice and everything nice.' Its an intense thing having a girlfriend, doing right. As hard as having a normal friend plus the whole sex thing. Someday i'll figure it out.

After midnight, we gonna let it all hang down.

'That sucked.' Those were my words or something of that nature after my first day of Kindergarten according to my Mom. Not that I don't remember an experience that would merit such a response. And that feeling pretty much sums up my experience in later years in school. I was always singled out for being 'different.' I was put in special ed programs for years taught by people that were well intentioned but it was obvious that funds were lacking. And I never felt like I learned anything. Beyond basic aspects of interacting with people of my own age group. But in terms of learning and gaining new knowledge it was few and far between. And I've always had something of a complex because of it. I see some people my sister for example who seem to be able to do the academic thing so well and excel at it. But I just don't feel it. I feel like school totally takes everything that is fun and good about reading and learning new things and makes it horrible. As I have grown older whenever I meet an older person they always ask me 'are you in school?' and I never know what to say. You say 'no.' I suppose they think you are some kind of a slacker. Sometimes I feel like saying 'You know what? I've had ten plus years of school and I did not enjoy it.' Maybe i'm insane, full of shit, its hard to say. But I never liked it. I remember in third grade I had this one special ed teacher who was well intentioned but had the worst breath. Like liver and onions type of deal. And she would always get really close to you when she talked which just exascerbated the problem. But I just never fit in never felt like part of the crowd.

Pickett's horrible charge

Today is July 3rd. In 1863 at Gettysburg Confederate general Robert E. Lee committed one of the most colossal blunders in military history, Pickett's charge. It was directed at the Union position on cemetery ridge and little round top where Joshua Lawrence Chamberlin's 20th Maine had fought a famous engagement the day before. It was through a half mile of open field with no cover at all. Suicide. The logic had been that an artillery barrage on the Union position an hour before would break down the defenses early. Some historians say Robert E. Lee was perhaps a little cocky. Indeed he may have had good reason to be given the fact that he had defeated or at least fought well against the Army of the Potomac many times before. General James Longstreet, one of his closest officers strongly disagrees. As historian Ed Bearss points out he had seen the carnage at Marye's heights in Fredericksburg, Virginia where a year before Union troops under Ambrose Burnside had made a disastrous and suicidal charge against a stone wall there. In fact as Lee's legions had come on the waiting Union troops had chanted 'Fredericksburg,Fredericksburg.' remembering that battle. It certainly must have been a morale booster for an army which had such a bad record at that time the result of poor generalship. Fredericksburg had cost 13,000 casualties and had helped give leverage to a movement to end the war. The units that went on Pickett's charge suffered 60 percent casualties. As they got closer they got hit with canister and grapeshot. Canister is basically a can packed with balls which when fired disperses cutting a wide swath through the enemy ranks. Now imagine several of those going off at the same time. As put in Ken Burns documentary 'Entire regiment's disappeared.' Lee never regained his offensive momentum after that. On July 3rd Vicksburg, Mississippi fell a crucial port of goods and with it the Confederacy's hope of victory. They were effectively cut in two. Parkers Hills a tour guide who I listened to when I went to Vicksburg said that basically after Gettysburg the war could have been over but the south chose to go on. As Shelby Foote says 'Especially that they were not going to get foreign recognition without which we wouldn't have won the first revolution.' England would simply not support a nation built by and maintained by slave labor. The people wouldn't stand for it. Anyhow whenever its a hot day around two o' clock in the afternoon, I think of those soldiers about to make that charge.