From my earliest recollection until my early teen years fireworks were sold in Georgia. I'm not sure when they were outlawed but I recall it happening. As long as they were legal my sister June and I played with them often but especially around July fourth and New Year's. I remember them being sold in McLarry's at "the curve" in Flemington. After they were outlawed in Ga. huge Fireworks stores sprang up just across the Savannah river in South Carolina. Consequently we have always had fireworks. Our older brother Homer and our Daddy taught us to have a healthy respect for potential danger is we failed to be careful with them. I don't remember us ever making any bad decisions with them.
We played with the lower powered firecrackers, sparklers, roman candles and occasionally the larger more powerful red firecrackers. There was also something called a whistler or chaser but we never dealt with those. In later years the was the "Cherry Bombs" which were about the size of a quarter and round with a large fuse about an inch and a half long. We never had any mishaps around our home but we always heard reports of people being burned or injured or accidental fires of structures or yards and woods.
I am not exactly sure what year the following story took place but I imagine it was around 1960 give or take a couple of years either way. At the time Hinesville was still a very small community where everybody knew everyone and there was very little crime. R.V. Bobby Sikes was sheriff so I know it was after he had succeeded his father Sheriff Paul Sikes who had died in 1959 I believe. I believe the Sheriff's department then consisted of Sheriff Sikes and Deputies David Carter, DeWitt Branch, Myles Groover and Adrian Long. Perhaps there were more but I don't recall.
The Hinesville Police department was even smaller. There was Mr Dave Mobley who served as Chief and his son Royce worked in the office as radio operator etc. Mr Vivian Hodges was the first patrolman I think. Later Jimmy Downs became a Patrolman. There were only two traffic lights and they were both located on Main St. One was on the north side of the Court St between the Courthouse and the Texaco station across from the Miller house' The other light was on the intersection of South St (Now MLK St) and Main. The Saunders company was across the street from the Courthouse and a street separated it from the McCall house Miller house. Going north on Main just past the Miller house was a vacant lot on the corner of Memorial Drive and Main. Across Memorial was the Methodist Church. Facing Memorial drive on the east side of Main was the police station. The police station was a simple small frame structure barley eight by eight. There was a doorway in the center of the front facing Memorial and a window on each side as well as in front. Hinesville was a sleepy little place with very little action after supper time. We always had at least one pool Hall and one or two cafes.
It was not uncommon as the night grew later to see the policeman seated in the station just about asleep. Well that is exactly what happened one night as three rascals were out cruising the streets. All three of these fellows have been lifelong friends and I too consider them to be lifelong friends. I hope none of them will take offence at my little story.
This story took place sometime around 1967 give or take a little while. I am retelling a tale that I've heard several times from two of the culprits and I may not get it exactly right but I'll tell it as I recall it.
Take Me To Post Comment Form I'm not sure how many of our bloggers are white or how many are black. I know that we are not all the same
color.
It appears to me that we have had a number of blogs posted which are
nothing more than efforts at race baiting. This is not good for our
community nor is it good for our country.
When the United States of America became a country two hundred and forty
plus years ago there were no black people at all in this country.
Funkentelecky commented on Thursday, Nov 16, 2017 at 20:00 PM
The first black slaves arrived at Jamestown Virginia in 1619. 157 years before the country was founded in 1776.
There were white people from Europe who had come over to forge a new
life in a new land which had previously been the homeland of the red man
or Indians. Some of the Indian nations were more civilized than others
but basically they were all civilized. They
had learned how to coexist on the same continent although there were
occasionally conflicts that erupted into wars among various tribes. The
Indians were robbed of their homeland, rounded up like livestock and
relocated to barren lands westward toward the
Pacific. Many died or were slaughtered by the white man who had arrived
aboard sailing ships from Europe.
At first these newcomers lived under the rule of the English Crown. They
struggled and prospered on the new land but were taxed by the crown and
soon they revolted declaring war on the crown. Independence was won in
July of 1776 I believe. Some forty plus years
later England once again invaded the upstart new nation In the war of
1812, but again the Americans defeated the crown and the rest is
history.
At some point black people from Africa were captured by other black
people and herded to the western African shore and sold to White traders
who in turn took them to other lands to be sold just like livestock.
The USA was not the only nation to allow slaves to be brought to their country.
Many Americans came here as indentured servants which had signed
contracts to work for their freedom in various occupations, but mostly
in agriculture I believe. Ultimately some black indentured servants were
also brought to this new land and ultimately earned
their freedom.
The very first black slaves brought to America were bought and brought here by other black people.
It was black people who instituted the ownership of other black people into America.
Ultimately these United States took varying different degrees of acceptance of slavery or not to accept it in their states.
I don't think the practice was very successful in northern states
because of such harsh climate conditions. However the black folks
survived very well in the south where there was less freezing and cold
conditions.
This country was founded on the principal that free enterprise is the
foundation of our survival. There is a line in the Jaycee Creed which
reads:
"ECONOMIC JUSTICE CAN BEST BE WON BY FREE MEN THROUGH FREE ENTERPRISE".
As this young country grew and became prosperous it and it's people
astounded the world With their victory in the war of 1812. Later came
the American Civil War which was really caused by a struggle of States
rights versus Federal Imperialism but many folks
believe that the primary issue was slavery.
I did not live in those days and I don't really know what caused that
war. History books tell us that many families were divided on the issue
and there were cases of Father fighting son and brother fighting
brother. Again I don't know for sure about these things.
After slavery was abolished the rule of segregation was imposed on the
races. I grew up in a time of segregation and my next door neighbors in
my childhood were black. I am white and I grew up in a majority black
community in Liberty County.
In the late sixties integration was implemented and it took a long time for it to become accepted especially in the South.
However in 2008 a black man was elected to the highest office in the
land and he could have ended racism for once and for all but instead he
proclaimed that now the white man can ride on the back of the bus.
Today we have a great President who is attempting to right the course of
some thirty plus years of the elite folks in the DC swamp who have made
countless bad choices in their governing of us on the Federal level.
I hope all fellow bloggers on this Courier blog site will offer
commentary regarding our racial divide because in my opinion it is
greater today than it was in the fifties.
If we fail to unite both black and white and remain divided as we are we will ultimately fail to survive.
I am not the best student of history and if I have made errors in any
issue of this blog please point it out and I will make the necessary
corrections.
Although it took me thirteen years to get my diploma I only attended school for twelve years. After my eleventh year I stayed out for one year. The BI class of 61 started school in school year 49/50. I graduated in May of 1962 and the graduation ceremony was in the (then fairly new) Gymnasium/stage on Washington Ave. Washington Ave became Memorial drive later when the original Memorial drive was relocated to align with Washington Ave. at the traffic circle where the two streets met Main St.
That nice early summer evening I walked out of the building with my Diploma only about a hundred feet from where I had entered a different red brick building in September of 1949. I cried coming out just as I had cried going in. Coming out of the gym and passing thru the lobby I had to force myself to walk past the very stern one Faye Darsey. I desperately wanted to pause and give her a hug and kiss but I was choking back tears and I could only go outside and walk off alone so as to regain my composure. I found myself walking around the corner of the gym after glancing toward the old white building which stood next door just west of the gym.
"The Old White Building" had been the original Bradwell Institute school when it was relocated to Washington Avenue probably in the early thirties. It had the design of a typical school building. It consisted of two wings located in parallel and adjoined across the front which gave it a u shape. The middle portion was a wonderful auditorium the likes of which has never been recreated in Liberty County. You entered the auditorium from the west wing hallway and you entered backstage from the east wing hallway. That auditorium was in my opinion one of and possible the very best piece of architecture in Liberty Co. It was a very poor decision to take it down. There was a row of seats in the middle of perhaps ten or twelve and a row on either side of about five or six. The isles on either side descended down a floor-way built at a gradual downward slop so that the stage was the same level as the hallways. The front seats were almost two feet lower than the floor of the building. there were three steps up onto each end of the stage which stood probably twenty some inches above the floor in the immediate front of the stage. The front view, which faced down the end of Bradwell St. going toward Court St., was one wide white concrete wall with decorative entrances opening onto small alcoves or porchs with windows all across the front. The metal roof was adjoined to each wing in a hip like style. Atop the center of the building was a bell shaped metal roof over an octagonal shaped structure about eight feet wide and deep and it served to ventilate the attic with louvers on all sides. Tall window sashes adorned all of the exterior walls.
That early summer night in May of 1962 as I eased into the shadow beneath the Live oak, which stood near the sidewalk in front of the median between the "White Building" and the Gymnasium/Auditorium, had been the drive where the two strips of concrete had been put in place for the school buses to park in the afternoons when I was in the first grade. Earlier in my very young years a short distance west on Washington Ave. there had been a stile crossing the field-fence which had surrounded the "White Building" until 1953 when the No Fence law had been enacted in Georgia. Until then Georgia had been a free range state in which livestock such as cattle and hogs
I have written about signs from above in the past and proudly I received yet another one yesterday evening August 17, 2017.
I discovered back in April of this year that my blood pressure was very high and since then I have (with my Doctor's help) been struggling to get it back under control. I discovered that I myself quite possibly caused it by taking an over the counter supplement which had interfered with my medicine. There were days when it would be ok and then mysteriously suddenly go back up. To tell the truth I became increasingly worried and actually that likely contributed to my difficulty. I with Leslie's help tried to improve my diet as well as my habits. Still it would be alright for a few days and the it would just seem to change for whatever reasons. It seems that just when I felt I could relax then boom out of nowhere it would change. After my Doctor suggested that we could change my prescription to morning and evening instead of simply evening. We also added the daily taking of a diuretic (water pill) and that appeared to help. My goal was to get back to only one pill per day and secretly I dreamed of getting back to normal without any pharmaceutical as I don't like to put any more of that than necessary into my system. I believe that a healthy diet during my youth and early adulthood has been mot beneficial and for the most part I've managed to remain fairly healthy in spite of some poor decisions over the course of my journey across fool's hill otherwise known pathways of life.
It is a fact of humanity that people need a place to go and grieve their loved ones who pass on. Even if a loved one is cremated, the ashes are lovingly preserved somewhere easily accessible or scattered in a specific place that can be returned to. As human beings, we need a place to go grieve, which is why we go to cemeteries where our loved ones are buried and place flowers or mementos for special occasions and do so regularly. The truth is the people in the South were the same way. The vast majority of Confederate soldiers did not die at home. They died on a battlefield, in a hellish prison camp or in a hospital far from home. Sometimes the bodies were retrieved but that was not the case most of the time. That is the reason the South is salted with Confederate monuments. Our people needed a place to grieve. How can outsiders come to our home and demand gravestones to our fathers be removed? How? Those monuments have stood for 100+ years. How dare you? How dare you?
Confederate monuments are NOT monuments to white supremacy and you know it. Confederate monuments were not erected to intimidate anyone, and you know it. They were erected for the grieving family members to have a place to grieve and they put them where everyone in the town could have access to them, and see them on a regular basis so as not to forget. We, in the South, do NOT forget. What you may not know is how the monuments were paid for, erected and dedicated. The majority of the men in the South, did not survive the war and the women, daughters, mothers, wives, sisters, grandmothers and nieces raised the money out of their poverty. Their abject poverty. There are ads in Confederate Veteran magazine that are heart-breaking as it lists the donations from bereaved orphans, wives, and family members of dimes, nickles or quarters. These bereaved persons did without sugar for their tea or butter for their bread in order to raise money to pay for the monuments, which serve as gravestones for their loved ones.
The truth is, the monuments you are removing in our South are gravestones for the ones who did not get to come home. And God will judge you for it. He will. And if you think it does not matter and it was so long ago, consider the Judgement Day. Things will be judged there that "happened in the past". The past does matter. Stop desecrating our gravestones to our dead fathers in our South. If you don't like what you see in our South, you are free to go back where you came from. That's the truth.
Stock car racing was born in the south and it has always been of interest to me as my Father liked it also. Daddy took me to the first race I ever attended at the Oglethorpe Speedway in Savannah. He also took me to see the speedboat races held at Sunbury, Ga. on the gorgeous Liberty County coast. I guess it was instilled into me as we attended those events a number of times in Daddy's 1946 and then 1951 Ford automobiles. Probably why I've always liked the Ford race cars.
My older brother was a fan also and he took me to the first race I ever attended at the Daytona International Speedway in Florida. That was in February 1961 for the Daytona 500 on the new paved two and a half mile track. That was the first of many events I would attend both at Daytona and other not too distant destinations such as Atlanta, Charlotte and Darlington. For many years I have recorded the races.
What I love most about the events is that they are always preceded by a wonderful prerace show which includes a command over the loudspeakers from the announcer of the broadcast that "Now Ladies and Gentleman please all stand and remove your hats for the performance of the National Anthem" which is often accompanied at the end by a flyover of aircraft as the Anthem reaches the "Though The Rockets Red Glare" part. Often there will be a contingency of some branch of our military as the flag is proudly displayed.
Before the Anthem is performed the cameras will span the stands as well as the pit row where drivers stand with their wives and children in reverence as a minister delivers a prayer for those in attendance as well as members of race teams.
Finally the Command comes over the PA for the drivers to start their engines. Only those who have attended a live race can really understand the adrenaline rush as the sound of forty 700 plus horsepower engines roar to life. Then the cars slowly file onto the track following a pace care for a couple of laps before the pace car leaves the track and the flagman waves the green flag to signal the start of the race. Then depending on the type track they are racing on the cars soon may reach speeds exceeding 200 miles per hour if that weeks event is on some of the longer oval courses. Some tracks are only a half mile in length and that is an entirely different event involving much banging and scrubbing at speeds of about a hundred miles per hour. There is also some road courses where there are both left turns as well as right turns. Drivers have to be multi talented and the temperature inside the cockpit is often a hundred and forty degrees. Drivers wear fire-suits which are equipped with cooling devices but drivers often collapse at the end of an event as they exit the car and remove their neck restraints and helmets.
Only those who have attended an event and felt the sensation of the roar of the engines and the smell and taste of the exhaust and burning rubber permeates the air. Then there is also the sight of fans many of which are beautiful ladies and the men who occupy the seats in the stands.
All in all it is quite a contrast to what I hear and read about the millionaire NFL players who proudly knell sometimes with raised fists as the Anthem is performed.
Following is a great story which I have copied which gives a far greater insight into my favorite sport.
Please enjoy.
Life, (near) death and racing: Ernie Irvan’s tragedy and triumph at Michigan
By Matt CrossmanNASCAR.comAugust 12, 2017at 10:22 am
Ernie Irvan keeps all the trophies from his Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series career in a display case. He and his family are moving this weekend from Charlotte, North Carolina, to Ocala, Florida, and he recently packed the trophies to prepare for the movers’ arrival.
He won the Daytona 500, the night race at Bristol and both road courses. He won at Talladega, the longest track in the sport, and at Martinsville, the shortest. He won 15 Cup races in all, and as he grabbed each trophy, memories of the circumstances behind each win came back.
“When I was packing them all up, I saw the one at Sears Point. You think of what happened at Sears Point. You see one at Watkins Glen, and think about what happened at Watkins Glen,” Irvan says. “Whenever you’re sitting there, you always reminisce.”
When he picked up the Michigan trophy — his 15th and final win, 20 years ago this summer — the memories were particularly powerful. And not just because it was the last Cup race he ever won, but because of brutal crashes before and after that win and the life-saving maneuvers of a doctor who arrived at his car. Without that doctor and helicopter on site, he says, he would have died at the track and never gotten that final win.
“All the things put together, it was just kind of a miracle,” he says.
THREE WEEKS GONE
The mid-1990s were a brutally difficult time for NASCAR. On April 1, 1993, defending champion Alan Kulwicki died in a plane crash. On July 13, 1993, Davey Allison died in a helicopter crash. In February 1994, Neil Bonnett and Rodney Orr died in separate practices for the Daytona 500.
When Ernie Irvan joined Robert Yates Racing in late 1993 to replace Allison, he had long been considered a fiercely competitive and extremely talented driver. When he won his third race in the Yates car in the 10th race of the 1994 season, he appeared poised to take the next step and win a championship.
“It was just instant success, instant speed,” says Doug Yates, RYR’s chief engine builder and son of owner Robert Yates. “It was a perfect driver for our No. 28 Texaco Havoline Ford. We couldn’t ask for anybody better to succeed Davey Allison.”
With a new team, Ernie Irvan looked like a title contender in 1994 until his wreck at Michigan. | RacingOne
Through the first 20 races of 1994, Irvan had three wins and 13 top fives. He had been first or second in points every week of the season. It looked like he and Dale Earnhardt would have a season-long battle for the championship. Superstardom awaited.
The Friday of the August Michigan race, Irvan, Doug Yates and their wives played Monopoly in Robert Yates’ motorhome parked inside Michigan International Speedway. Throughout the game, Irvan made side deals. He accumulated first great wealth, then a bunch of hotels. Soon he stacked bills high in front of him and everybody else was out of money. He beat them all.
But he has a confession to make: “I was cheating really bad.”
Doug Yates laughs when he hears this … and confirms the outcome, if not the cheating. But he wouldn’t be surprised. Whatever Irvan did – cards, Monopoly, racing, pickup basketball — he did whatever he had to do to win.
That game of Monopoly is Irvan’s last memory for three weeks.
During practice the next morning, Irvan’s Ford Thunderbird cut a tire and slammed into the wall. He was bleeding badly and says now he would have died right there in the car if Dr. John Maino, who had been stationed nearby, hadn’t arrived so quickly. Irvan was in danger of drowning in his own blood, so Maino performed an emergency tracheotomy inside the car — he cut a slit in Irvan’s throat and inserted a tube to allow him to breathe. Irvan says he would have died without that. He was on a helicopter just 23 minutes later and flown to a hospital in Ann Arbor.
Irvan suffered a traumatic brain injury, skull fracture and chest injuries. Doctors gave him a 10 percent chance to live. “When something serious happens, an eeriness comes over the garage. It becomes very quiet. This was one of those situations,” says Dale Jarrett, who drove for Joe Gibbs Racing at the time. “As we got more information, about just how serious an accident it was, our attention turned to hoping that Ernie was going to be OK. Many of us have been through blown tires, this was one of the severe cases of what can happen.”
‘WASN’T A PRETTY DEAL’
Marc Reno had been friends with Irvan for years. They had raced together and lived next door to each other when they were trying to launch their racing careers. Reno was working at the time for an XFINITY Series team and by coincidence, his hauler had been parked next to Irvan’s in the XFINITY garage that weekend.
After a dispute about tires that weekend at Michigan, Reno’s team opted to leave instead of race. Reno had just gotten home to Florida when he heard about the wreck. He immediately flew back to Michigan. “I was in on a good part of the doctors’ meetings and stuff when they told him he had a 10 or 15 percent chance of living — if he made it 48 hours,” Reno says. “It wasn’t a pretty deal.”
Reno says he flew back and forth to Michigan 10 times to be by Irvan’s side. It was unsettling to see his friend lying in the hospital bed. On one visit, he counted 21 tubes running into Irvan.
George Tiedemann photo
Irvan remembers waking up 20 days after the wreck wondering where he was. The TV was on, and he says he saw someone else — it turned out to be Kenny Wallace — driving his No. 28 car. He couldn’t talk, so he used hand gestures to ask questions. His wife, Kim, explained to him what had happened.
Irvan’s rehab was long and extensive. But he returned to the race car in late 1995, competing in three races for Robert Yates Racing and finishing sixth, 40th and seventh. Jarrett had replaced him; when Irvan came back, RYR expanded to a two-car team.
In 1996, Irvan won at Loudon in his 19th race back and again at Richmond a few months later. “It was just miraculous, really, that he could even be back driving a race car after everything he had been through,” says Jarrett, who won the 1999 championship for RYR and is now a NASCAR analyst on NBC. “He had such a near-death experience, and here he was performing at a high-level once again.”
The wreck left Irvan with lingering vision issues, so he raced with a patch over one eye. “He was as good or better as anybody with one eye,” Doug Yates says. “This guy is the most talented and toughest guy I’ve been around. It was truly amazing.”
‘WILL TO LIVE, COMPETE’
As the 1997 season approached, Larry McReynolds had left as Irvan’s crew chief and RYR was looking for a replacement. Reno went to the Robert Yates Racing office in Charlotte for an interview for the position. When he got back out to his car after the interview, he discovered somebody had broken into it and stolen all of his family’s Christmas presents, which had been in the trunk. But he got the job.
As the season started, the cars Reno built and Irvan drove were fast, but they both say they let a few wins get away. “I remember in 1997 thinking, ‘God, he is fast,’ ” says Kyle Petty, who drove for a team he owned that season and is now a NASCAR analyst on NBC . “He was back as a contender.”
At Michigan for the June race, Irvan and Reno must have had high expectations. Though Irvan had never won there, he had finished in the top five the two previous races. Throughout practice, Reno experimented with the car’s setup. “We started putting bigger rear springs on the car, getting the back of the car up in the air. And it would go faster and faster and faster,” he says. “Every time we would go up 50 pounds, it would just go faster.”
Irvan started 20th on June 15, 1997. He took the lead for the first time on Lap 163 (of 200) and led for 12 laps. He resumed the top spot on Lap 180. He started to cry with 10 laps to go.
“There were some tears shed in the pits as well,” says Doug Yates. “Any time you’re leading the race at the end, your stomach is in knots. The anticipation is building. Take all that and multiply it by 10, 100 or 1,000 because of everything that went on. It was a pretty special moment. It was a great day.”
As he took the white flag, Irvan thought about his wreck from three years before. He looked at the wall that nearly killed him as he zoomed past it. “I’m thinking, ‘Man, I’ve got to get through the corner, because that was the corner I crashed in,’ ” he says. “But everything went smooth.”
After he pulled to a stop in Victory Lane, his wife, Kim, leaned in to kiss him. “The first thing I thought of is, ‘I finally conquered this place. It didn’t get me, I got them,’ ” he says.
He climbed out of the car and was greeted by pit road reporter Mike Joy, then of CBS. Irvan seemed to have his emotions in check — he talked about sponsors and bad luck so far that year and getting a win in Ford Motor Company’s backyard. Joy asked Kim Irvan a question on live TV about the win being big for the family, and she was so speechless by what had just happened that she barely squeaked out an answer.
Joy, who now does play by play for FOX’s NASCAR coverage, compares Irvan’s win to Kevin Harvick’s win for Richard Childress Racing three weeks after Dale Earnhardt died and Jeff Gordon’s win in the first race at the Brickyard and last career win at Martinsville.
“It felt RIGHT,” Joy says via email. “Fitting, redemption, validation, relief, all yes. Historic? Moreso now than then.”
I had no
idea! Were the authors of U.S. History books lying liberals going all the
way to when we were in high school, or was I just not paying
attention?
The
Marine Hymn ''To the shores of Tripoli"....... Interesting concise history
lesson and a good reminder. A bit long but very good
reading!
A 232
Year History of our fight against Islam & why it is no longer taught in our
public schools...
When
Thomas Jefferson saw there was no negotiating with Muslims, he formed what is
now the Marines (sea going soldiers). These Marines were attached to U. S.
Merchant vessels. When the Muslims attacked U.S. merchant vessels they were
repulsed by armed soldiers, but there is more.
The
Marines followed the Muslims back to their villages and killed every man, woman,
and child in the village.
It didn't
take long for the Muslims to leave U.S. Merchant vessels
alone.
English
and French merchant vessels started running up our flag when entering the
Mediterranean to secure safe travel.
Why the
Marine Hymn contains the verse, "To the Shores of Tripoli
".
This is
very interesting and a must read piece of our history. It points out where we
may be heading.
Most
Americans are unaware of the fact that over two hundred years ago the United
States had declared war on Islam, and Thomas Jefferson led the
charge!
At the
height of the 18th century, Muslim pirates (the "Barbary Pirates") were the
terror of the Mediterranean and a large area of the North Atlantic
.
They
attacked every ship in sight, and held the crews for exorbitant ransoms. Those
taken hostage were subjected to barbaric treatment and wrote heart-breaking
letters home, begging their governments and families to pay whatever their
Mohammedan captors demanded.
These
extortionists of the high seas represented the North African Islamic nations of
Tripoli, Tunis, Morocco , and Algiers - collectively referred to as the Barbary
Coast - and presented a dangerous and unprovoked threat to the new American
Republic .
Before
the Revolutionary War, U.S. merchant ships had been under the protection of
Great Britain. When the U.S. declared its independence and entered into war, the
ships of the United States were protected by France.
However,
once the war was won, America had to protect its own
fleets.
Thus, the
birth of the U.S. Navy. Beginning in 1784, 17 years before he would become
president, Thomas Jefferson became America's Minister to France. That same year,
the U.S. Congress sought to appease its Muslim adversaries by following in the
footsteps of European nations who paid bribes to the Barbary States rather than
engaging them in war.
In July
of 1785, Algerian pirates captured American ships, and the Dye of Algiers
demanded an unheard-of ransom of $60,000. It was a plain and simple case of
extortion, and Thomas Jefferson was vehemently opposed to any further
payments.
Instead,
he proposed to Congress the formation of a coalition of allied nations who
together could force the Islamic states into peace. A disinterested Congress
decided to pay the ransom.
In 1786,
Thomas Jefferson and John Adams met with Tripoli's ambassador to Great Britain
to ask by what right his nation attacked American ships and enslaved American
citizens, and why Muslims held so much hostility towards America, a nation with
which they had no previous contacts.
The two
future presidents reported that Ambassador Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja had
answered that Islam "was founded on the Laws of their Prophet, that it was
written in their Quran that all nations who would not acknowledge their
authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them
wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as
prisoners, and that every Musselman (Muslim) who should be slain in battle was
sure to go to Paradise."
Despite
this stunning admission of premeditated violence on non-Muslim nations, as well
as the objections of many notable American leaders, including George Washington,
who warned that caving in was both wrong and would only further embolden the
enemy, for the following fifteen years, the u\American government paid the
Muslims millions of dollars for the safe passage of American ships or the return
of American hostages.
The
payments in ransom and tribute amounted to over 20 percent of the United States
government annual revenues in 1800.
Jefferson
was disgusted. Shortly after his being sworn in as the third President of the
United States in 1801, the Pasha of Tripoli sent him a note demanding the
immediate payment of $225,000 plus $25,000 a year for every year
forthcoming.
That
changed everything.
Jefferson
let the Pasha know, in no uncertain terms, what he could do with his demand. The
Pasha responded by cutting down the flagpole at the American consulate and
declared war on the United States.
Tunis,
Morocco, and Algiers immediately followed suit.
Jefferson,
until now, had been against America raising a naval force for anything beyond
coastal defense, but, having watched his nation be cowed by Islamic thuggery for
long enough, decided that it was finally time to meet force with
force.
He
dispatched a squadron of frigates to the Mediterranean and taught the Muslim
nations of the Barbary Coast a lesson he hoped they would never forget. Congress
authorized Jefferson to empower U.S. ships to seize all vessels and goods of the
Pasha of Tripoli and to "cause to be done all other acts of precaution or
hostility as the state of war would justify".
When
Algiers and Tunis, who were both accustomed to American cowardice and
acquiescence, saw the newly independent United States had both the will and the
right to strike back, they quickly abandoned their allegiance to
Tripoli.
The war
with Tripoli lasted for four more years, and raged up again in 1815. The bravery
of the U.S. Marine Corps in these wars led to the line "to the shores of
Tripoli" in the Marine Hymn, and they would forever be known as "leathernecks"
for the leather collars of their uniforms, designed to prevent their heads from
being cut off by the Muslim scimitars when boarding enemy
ships.
Islam,
and what its Barbary followers justified doing in the name of their prophet and
their god, disturbed Jefferson quite deeply.
America
had a tradition of religious tolerance. In fact Jefferson, himself, had
co-authored the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, but fundamentalist Islam
was like no other religion the world had ever seen.
A
religion based on supremacy, whose holy book not only condoned but mandated
violence against unbelievers, was unacceptable to him.
His
greatest fear was that someday this brand of Islam would return and pose an even
greater threat to the United States.
This
should concern every American. That Muslims have brought about women-only
classes and swimming times in America at taxpayer-funded universities and public
pools; that Christians, Jews, and Hindus have been banned from serving on juries
where Muslim defendants are being judged; Piggy banks and Porky Pig tissue
dispensers have been banned from workplaces because they offend Islamist
sensibilities; ice cream has been discontinued at certain Burger King locations
because the picture on the wrapper looks similar to the Arabic script for Allah;
public schools are pulling pork from their menus; on and on and on and
on..
It's
death by a thousand cuts, or inch-by-inch as some refer to it, and most
Americans have no idea that this battle is being waged every day across
America. By not fighting back, by allowing groups to obfuscate what is really
happening, and not insisting that the Islamists adapt to our culture, the United
States is cutting its own throat with a politically correct knife, and helping
to further the Islamists' agenda.
Sadly, it
appears that today America's leaders would rather be politically correct than
victorious!
IF YOU DO
NOT REMEMBER THE PAST, YOU ARE DOOMED TO REPEAT IT.
