Lighting the National Christmas Tree

At the beginning of December, hundreds of people gathered on the Ellipse of the White House to see the lighting of the National Christmas Tree by the First Family, an event I was fortunate enough to witness. The tree lighting has been an American tradition for more than 90 years.

Photo: thenationaltree.org

On December 24, 1923, President Calvin Coolidge lit the first "White House community Christmas tree" in Washington, DC with just the touch of a button. While there had been other trees in DC, this tree was meant to be the National Christmas Tree, rather than a Washington, DC Christmas tree.  

Photo: whitehousehistory.org

The tradition continued until World War II. During America's participation in World War II, the National Christmas Tree was not lit until 1945. President Truman called the Christmas of 1945 one that "a war-weary world has prayed for through long and awful years. With peace comes joy and gladness. The gloom of the war years fades as once more we light the National Community Christmas Tree."

Photo: georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov

In 1963, the lighting of the Christmas tree was again the turning point from grief to joy. After the assassination of President Kennedy on November 22, the lighting of the tree was postponed until after the mandatory 30 days of mourning. President Johnson said, "Tonight we come to the end of the season of great national sorrow, and to the beginning of the season of great, eternal joy. We mourn our great president, John F. Kennedy, but he would have us go on. While our spirits cannot be light, our hearts need not be heavy."

Photo: transition.lbjlibrary.org

Through happy celebrations and sorrowful times, the lighting of the National Christmas Tree has signaled a moment to reflect and to celebrate joy. At this year's lighting ceremony, President Obama spoke about the families of the victims of the San Bernadino terrorist attack: "This is of course the most wonderful time of the year, but we would be remiss not to take a moment to remember our fellow Americans whose hearts are heavy tonight. Grieve for loved ones, especially in San Bernadino, California. Their loss is our loss too. For we are all one American family. We look out for each other, in good times and in bad. They should know that all of us care about them this holiday season. They are in our thoughts, they are in our prayers and we send them our love."

Photo: Hilary Grabowska

"The Only Thing We Have to Fear"

December 7th, 1941, is "a date which will live in infamy," the day "the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan", despite not being a combatant in World War II. It was the date that launched the US into the war, in both Pacific and European theaters.

Photo: worldwariifoundation.org

Prior to the attack on the US naval base of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, Americans were by and large concerned with American affairs; the nation was in an era of isolationism after the horrors of World War I. With the surprise attack, however, public opinion changed and the country went to war. Views of Japanese-Americans also changed, and not for the better. 

Photo: ibiblio.org

Prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor, the US and Japan were in negotiations to remain at peace. The surprise attack on Hawaii was viewed as very subversive and many believed that Japanese in Hawaii helped with the attack. This belief turned Americans against their neighbors of Japanese descent and led to President Roosevelt's Executive Order 9066, issued on February 19th, 1942. 

Photo: warhistoryonline.com (Roosevelt signing EO 9066)

EO 9066 established military zones in which people of Japanese decent were not allowed. The entire west coast was declared a military zone and many Japanese-Americans were relocated to interior America or to internment camps. In Hawaii, Japanese-Americans were placed in an internment camp on Sand Island not long after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

The fear was that these citizens supported Japan and had assisted with the attack, but there was no evidence to prove this. One incident in which a Japanese pilot crash landed on a remote Hawaiian island and was aided by Japanese immigrants helped to spur on the anti-Japanese hysteria and EO 9066.

General John DeWitt of the Western Defense Command was very vocal about placing Americans of Japanese descent in internment camps, without any military reason; simply put, he was prejudiced against Japanese "undesirables," suspecting--again, without any evidence or indication--that they would engage in sabotage.

Photo: npr.gov (Honouliuli Internment Camp)

On August 10, 1988, President Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act. This Act formally apologized to the Japanese-American community for their unjust incarceration during World War II and paid $20,000 to each of the survivors of the camps. When the Japanese-Americans were released from the internment camps, they wanted to put that very embarrassing part of their past behind them.

But with the Civil Rights Movement, the Japanese-American community began to seek an apology from the American government. They were not fueled by a desire for financial gain but rather to make life better for future generations of Japanese-Americans, in fulfillment of a Japanese family value: "Kodomo no tame ni," For the sake of the children.

Photo: internmentarchives.com

With the rise of DAESH (the Arabic name for ISIL or ISIS) and the recent terror attacks in Paris and San Bernadino, many Americans are succumbing to their fear of others and Islam in particular, which is resulting in calls for tracking all American Muslims, placing them in camps, refusing to allow refugees into the country and, most recently, even a call by a Christian university president to "end those Muslims."

The fear of Japanese-Americans during World War II was unfounded and caused a lot of people undue harm. Many Japanese-Americans enlisted in the military to fight against the Axis Powers. These people who were forced from their homes still fought for their country because they were loyal American citizens and the rest of the country had no reason to fear them. 

We must learn from our terrible mistake of unjust, forced internment of Japanese-Americans, German-Americans and Italian-Americans, and not give in to fear. By giving in to fear and discriminating against American Muslims, we assist DAESH in succeeding in its mission to spread terror and divisiveness.

As President Roosevelt so eloquently said in his inauguration speech: "...the only thing we have to fear is fear itself." He could have been talking about today's hysterical and unAmerican fear of American Muslims.

Photo: americanrhetoric.com

Refugees: A History

A refugee, as defined by Merriam-Webster, is a "person who flees to a foreign country to escape danger [war] or persecution." This is not a new word or a new definition because the world has had refugees ever since lines were drawn between groups of people.

Photo: nasa.gov

One of the first major instances of refugees occurred in 1685 in France under the rule of Louis XIV. With the Edict of Nantes, the Huguenots, French Protestants, were allowed to practice their faith in safety, but after the Wars of Religion were renewed, King Louis XIV issued the Edict of Fontainebleau. This stated that if the Huguenots practiced their religion, they risked persecution by the state. Historians estimate that over the next twenty years, two hundred thousand people fled France out of fear for their lives. Those who remained were subjected to having their marriages nullified, their children declared illegitimate and their churches burned down.

Photo: history.com (King Louis XIV)

In 1881, Russian Tsar Alexander II was assassinated by a leftist group called Naradnaya Volya. They were not a Jewish group but the media placed the blame on the Jewish population for the assassination of the Tsar. The reaction by the population towards the Jewish population resulted in progroms: the organized massacre of a specific ethnic group. Over the course of 20 years, Jewish homes were attacked violently, causing 2 million Jews to flee Russia and seek refuge in Europe.

Photo: allrussias.com (Assassination of Tsar Alexander II)

With the onslaught of World War I, Europe saw thousands of civilians massacred and a mass exodus of people from several countries, especially Belgium and Armenia. Fortunately for the Belgians, most of the two million refugees were able to return to their country after the war. But the Ottoman empire decimated much of the Armenian population and 5 million Armenians are still without a homeland today. The attack on the Armenians is considered to be the first genocide of the 20th century.

Photo: vetfriends.com

The number of refugees that fled during World War II far surpassed the numbers of the "Great War," World War I. By the end of the WWII, 40 million people were refugees in Europe alone and the world did not know how to deal with this issue. In response, organizations such as the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Geneva Conventions were created to help the refugees recover from the horrors of war.

Photo: vilnews.com (Refugees of World War II)

Today, due to the Syrian Civil War, four million Syrians have been displaced and are refugees. When World War II ended and non-governmental organizations were created to protect the rights of refugees, it appeared that the world was planning to help refugees. But today, there are currently 60 million refugees in the entire world and many countries are closing their borders to these people in need.

Photo: theguardian.com

There are claims that these people will bring terror, destruction and disaster to the countries that welcome them in. In fact, refugees are the least likely to cause harm to their new homes. They are actually fleeing terror, are thankful to their new host country for giving them a second chance, and they are focused on rebuilding their lives. Despite the fear-mongering by the small-minded who are ignorant of history, immigrants and refugees have always been the strength of America, since America was created by immigrants and refugees. 

Photo: origins.osu.edu (Ellis Island)

The Witch of November

Today, the SS Edmund Fitzgerald is best known due to the Gordon Lightfoot ballad, which memorializes the ship's historic sinking on November 10, 1975, in which the entire crew was lost. But in 1958, the ship was known as the largest ship on the Great Lakes, one that set haul time records.  

Photo: mhsd.org

The Edmund Fitzgerald was a lake freighter that crossed Lake Superior carrying cargo. The captain of the ship in 1975 was Ernest McSorley, and at the end of that year's shipping season, McSorley and the ship were both going to retire.

Photo: findagrave.com

On November 9, the Edmund Fitzgerald set out from the port of Superior, Wisconsin with a load of taconite pellets, a low-grade iron ore. As the ship crossed Lake Superior, headed for Detroit, the National Weather Service issued a gale warning. These strong November storms on the Great Lakes are known as witches, November Witches or the Witch of November. By 3:00 pm on November 10, the Edmund Fitzgerald had sustained damages, as was relayed by Captain McSorley to the SS Arthur M. Anderson, a cargo ship sailing behind the Fitzgerald. 

Photo: boatnerd.com

McSorley and the captain of the Anderson remained in contact because as the day continued and the storm did not let up, the Fitzgerald lost both radars. In the final communication between the two ships, the Anderson asked how the Fitzgerald was making out with its problems. McSorley's response: "We are holding our own." But sometime between 7:20 pm and 7:30 pm., the ship went down in the cold waters of the big lake known by the Ojibwa as Gitche Gumee.

Photo: lakesuperiornews.com

There is no clear understanding as to why the ship sank that night. "They might have split up or they might have capsized, they may have broke deep and took water." However it happened, today the ship rests, along with its crew of 29, 530 feet underwater at the bottom of Lake Superior, 17 miles from the safe haven of Whitefish Point. The 29 men and the big freighter are remembered in Gordon Lightfoot's song The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. 

Dia De Muertos

Today, the Mexican holiday "Dia De Muertos" is celebrated around the world but the multi-day holiday we know is rather different from the original. 

Photo: lib.gccaz.edu

From the 14th to 16th centuries, the Aztecs, an indigenous people of Mexico, held two feasts in honor of the dead. Death itself is not celebrated, but rather the lives of those who have moved on are commemorated. The first, the Feast of the Revered Deceased, was observed by the Aztecs in present-day July, while the Feast of the Greatly Revered Deceased took place during present-day August. Both festivals lasted all month and were presided over by the Queen of Mictlan, Mictlantecuhtli, the "Lady of the Dead." In Aztec culture, skeletons were seen as representations of fertility and health. 

Photo: scalarchives.com

When the Spanish arrived in Mexico, conquered the Aztecs in the 1500s and imposed Catholicism on the indigenous peoples, these feasts were moved to coincide with the Catholic holidays of All Saints and All Souls Days at the beginning of November. Initially, Dia de Muertos wasn't celebrated throughout the country because the Aztec empire was concentrated in central and southern Mexico.

Photo: spanishwars.net

Today, Dia de Muertos is celebrated all across the country because at the beginning of the 21st century the Mexican government made it a national holiday. Up until then, people in northern Mexico commemorated All Saints and All Souls Days in a more Catholic setting, rather than the Aztec-influenced Dia de Muertos. 

One prominent figure during Dia de Muertos is La Calavera Catrina. She is similar to the Queen of Mictlan in that she presides over these celebrations, but that was not her intended role. José Guadalupe Posada was a satirical Mexican engraver who was active between 1871 and 1913. One of his best known works, "La Calavera Garbancera," was an engraving of a skeleton in elaborate clothing in the style of high class Europeans. Posada was making fun of Mexicans, especially those in government, who appeared to be turning away from their Mexican heritage and focusing on the pale skin and elaborate fashions from Europe. Specifically, Posada was mocking the Mexican dictator Porfirio Diaz, whose actions eventually led to the Mexican Revolution. Later, La Calavera Garbancera became known as La Calavera Catrina. 

Photo: mvsnoticias.com

To outside eyes, the holiday of Dia de Muertos appears to be a very public celebration of death but it is a very private occasion for Mexican families. They light candles and create paths of marigolds to guide their lost loved ones back to their homes. Within the home, the families create elaborate altars for their beloved deceased and provide them with food and sugar. While there are large public parades with enormous skeletons, the most important part of the holiday is an intimate celebration of the life of a lost loved one and a way to help them move on after death. 

Photo: npr.org

"We few, we happy few, we band of brothers"

The French were reeling 600 years ago from their unexpected, even shocking defeat at the hands of the English at the Battle of Agincourt. The battle was one of the turning points in the Hundred Years War. The conflict arose over claims to the throne of the French kingdom, which the English felt they had a right to because William the Conqueror was originally from Normandy, France.

Photo: telegraph.co.uk

Henry V of England began his campaign against the French with a siege of Harfleur, a seaport on the northwestern coast of France in 1415. The city resisted for a month until surrendering on September 22, but it cost Henry 3000 soldiers. October marked the end of the campaign season but instead of retreating back to England with only one town conquered, Henry attempted to make his way to the English town of Calais in northern France.

Photo: collections.vam.ac.uk

The French had attempted to raise an army to counter Henry during the siege but were unable to muster enough men. When Henry moved north along the coast, the French army followed, recruiting local nobles and hoping to pin the English against the River Somme. Instead, the English found a ford and crossed the river. By October 24, the two armies were in place for battle but the French delayed, hoping for more nobles to join their forces. The exact numbers of the armies is unclear but it was clear the English were in desperate straits: they had little food, were outnumbered, and they were infantry and archers versus French cavalry. The prospects looked bleak for Harry the King.

Photo: historum.com

Despite the odds, the English prepared for battle. Henry gave a speech to inspire the troops, which was dramatized famously by Shakespeare in his play Henry V, known as the St. Crispin's Day speech. The battle commenced and the English longbows prevailed in a shocking victory for Henry, who established himself as a legitimate threat to the French and returned to England as a conquering hero. 

The war dragged until 1453. After that date, the French and English were still technically at war but the English were occupied by the War of the Roses at home and, ultimately, the English relinquished their claim to the French throne in 1475.

Photo: donatoart.com

The Battle of Agincourt was won by the underdogs but also by the countrymen of England. Their performance in defiance of what appeared to be certain annihilation was an inspiration for Shakespeare and generations of Englishmen to come:

"And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day!"  


 

"The DAR sent us a cannon for the courthouse square!"

That line from "The Music Man" song "Wells Fargo Wagon" was my introduction to the Daughters of the American Revolution, the DAR. October 11, 2015 marked the 125th anniversary of the establishment of the organization. The DAR was created in 1890 because the other organizations tracing their roots back to the Revolutionary War refused to admit women. In response, women created their own. 

Photo: sar.org

1889 marked the 100th anniversary of George Washington's presidential inauguration and a renewed time of patriotism. Both the Sons of the Revolution and the Sons of the American Revolution (SAR) were exclusive organizations that did not allow women. The Sons of the Revolution required that members be descendants of a man who served in the military during the War for Independence, while the SAR required members to be descendants of someone who actively supported the war. 

Photo: blogs.loc.gov (23rd street Arch, New York City, Washington Inaugural Centennial parade)

Mary Smith Lockwood was denied membership to the SAR. In response, she published the story of Hannah White Arnett, a woman who convinced men of Elizabethtown, New Jersey to refrain from proclaiming loyalty to the British. Lockwood asked in the article how Arnett, obviously a patriot who contributed to the war effort, would be remembered. A great-grandson of Arnett offered to help Lockwood form a society for Daughters of the American Revolution.

Photo: dar.org

Mary Smith Lockwood, Mary Desha, Ellen Walworth and Eugenia Washington are considered the four founders of the DAR, but there were 18 people at the first meeting who helped to establish the society. The first woman to hold the post of President General of the society was Caroline Harrison, the First Lady to US President Benjamin Harrison. First Lady Harrison was in the process of renovating the White House and was interested in historic preservation. This interest helped her to draft the goals of the DAR: Historical, Educational and Patriotic. 

Photo: loc.gov (First Lady Caroline Harrison)

The Historical goal was to remember those who worked for and achieved American Independence. The Educational goal was to follow George Washington's encouragement "to promote, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge." The Patriotic goal was to maintain the institutions of American freedom and to foster a love of country. 

Photo: dar.gov (First DAR Congress)

Since its establishment, the DAR has grown and surpassed the SAR. Today, there are chapters in all 50 states as well as 12 other countries and there have been 930,000 members since 1890. While October 11th is the anniversary date, the DAR is commemorating its 125th anniversary throughout the year of 2015 through community service, education and supporting patriots. 

Photo: dar.org