1830 President Jackson and Indian Removal

One of the first big issues for the administration of President Andrew Jackson was Indian removal. Arguing passionately against that policy which would lead to the Trail of Tears is Joseph Hemphill.

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Against the aborigines who once possessed this fair country, what complaint have we to make? In what degree are their scalping knives and tomahawks to be compared to our instruments of death by which we have overthrown their once powerful kingdoms, and reduced the whole fabric of their societies, with their kings and queens, to their present miserable condition? How little did they expect, three hundred years ago, that a race of human beings would come from beyond the great waters to destroy them.

-- Rep. Joseph Hemphill on the House floor

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[Source: Sean Wilentz, "The Rise of American Democracy"]

Three Journal

Instead of going directly back to the 2003 Blurty era, I thought I would add a trip to the 1990s into the routine.

Going through the 90s material is damn depressing, though, not only in terms of the life lived, but also in how sickeningly insipid is the journaling. Such shit! I wish I did a much better job of relaying the news, as well as the personal exchanges between me and the family. It's such shit. My focus and my execution could not have been worse, unless I focused more on the bathroom and kept track of the thickness of my shit and the color of my piss.

There is practically nothing there to use. I was about to give up.

However, flipping through the pages, I would see at least some crumbs of decent material, and I would like to be able to retrieve something, anything, from that time. So, I am going to make this one of my stops for my work on the Three Journal, but it will be largely a scavenging exercise to extract the few crumbs that I can find.

Though, maybe I will go ahead and try to recreate memories from my notes, as if I had another shot to write the journal entries for that time. This could slow things down considerably, as I was thinking of just rifling through those years in pretty quick order - be done with a year in one round, grabbing the three or four colorful nuggets I find.

I'll play it by ear. I am mainly looking for items on the family, on Mother, Pop, Jack, and the dogs. Dreams are generally good, too.

Iliad (1) The Rage of Apollo

Chryses, the old priest and heart-stricken father, heeds Agamemnon’s brutal admonitions to leave the ships without his daughter. However, as he trails away along the shore, he also throws up a fervent prayer to his god, Apollo, who among his many other godly offices is also known as - the “god of the plague”.

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“O hear me, Apollo, master of the silver bow!

“If I ever roofed a shrine to please your heart,
ever burned the long rich bones of bulls and goats
on your holy altar, now, now bring my prayer to pass.
Pay the Danaans back - your arrows for my tears!”

His prayer went up and Phoebus Apollo heard him.
Down he strode from Olympus’ peak, storming at heart
with his bow and hooded quiver slung across his shoulders.
The arrows clanged at his back as the god quaked with rage,
the god himself on the march and down he came like night.
Over against the ships he dropped to a knee, let fly a shaft
and a terrifying clash rang out from the great silver bow.
First he went for the mules and circling dogs but then,
launching a piercing shaft at the men themselves,
he cut them down in droves -
and the corpse-fires burned on, night and day, no end in sight.

-- The Iliad of Homer (tr. Fagles, Fitzgerald)

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55. Kitchen Sink

Pop is crouched down, examining the kitchen sink.

I ask him, “Is it holding up?”

He grumbles in the negative and points to one drop of water that fell on a brown paper bag that he has set there. He says, “For three-hundred-and-sixteen dollars, I don't want to see no damn leaks.” I don’t blame him. That is a small fortune for us. Our family plumber will be getting a callback and another opportunity to enjoy our hospitality.