Showing posts with label President Lincoln. Show all posts
Showing posts with label President Lincoln. Show all posts

Friday, November 29, 2013

PTSD in Civil War times

PTSD in Civil War times: A Md. museum exhibit
By Associated Press
November 29, 2013
FREDERICK, Md. — A new exhibit at the National Museum of Civil War Medicine in Frederick offers a historical perspective on post-traumatic stress disorder.

The exhibit is titled, “The Emotional Toll of War.” It opened last weekend and will be up through March.

The exhibit includes period newspaper articles, soldiers’ letters and accounts by Civil War surgeons.

The documents offer perspectives on homesickness, melancholy, insanity and suicide.
read more here

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Healing war fighters is the next great task remaining before us

Healing war fighters is the next great task remaining before us
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
November 19, 2013

Today the speech from President Lincoln honoring the fallen in the Gettysburg Address will be repeated, but there is a special section in it that we really need to focus on.
"It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion."
(Gettysburg Address)

Historians can figure out how many, or close to it, died on the battlefield in every war this nation has had, but the truth is, none of them can even come close to how many we lost because of the battlefield.

They will never know how many committed suicide because we failed to bind their wounds inside of their bodies.

"With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan—to do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations."


The Civil War: The Gettysburg Address

The Civil War: The Gettysburg Address
Ken Burns


The Gettysburg Address
"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.

We are met on a great battle-field of that war.

We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live.

It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.

The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.

It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.

It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

Learn the Address

Sunday, November 17, 2013

Commitment to veterans

Veterans always seem to want to "fit back in with society" but the truth is, they never did. There was always something different about them. They were always wanting to do more than others did. The proof of this is in the top five jobs they seek when they come out of the military. Their number on choice is law enforcement to protect society. Number two is firefighting, yet again, to protect society. Then comes emergency responders, medical professions and teaching. All of these are jobs done for the sake of others and not self serving like the rest of us. We depend on people like them everyday.

Yesterday I was talking to a veteran of today's wars. He said how he had a time fitting back in. I asked him why he would want to and then asked him to think about what he was like before he got into the military. Sure enough, he noticed that he was always different from his friends. Oh, by the way, he's still in the Reserves.

Expecting them to be what they are not, it is easy for us to just tell them to get over it and live normal lives. Do we really want them to do that? Isn't that why they were willing to risk their lives in the first place? Do we really expect a National Guardsman to be like the rest of us when a storm destroys everything? Do we expect them to stay home and just take care of their own families and property? No, we expect them to show up and help the rest of us. We never seem to be able to think of them as being like us. Why on earth should we expect it out of them when they come home from combat?

While they are similar to us with their own families and issues, they are not like us because in times of need, they show up.

Column: Commitment to veterans
The Bulletin
By John Costa
Published: November 17. 2013

I don't know another newspaper that has demonstrated a greater commitment to our veterans.

These are the folks who have risked life and limb to defend us, and public recognition is the least we at The Bulletin can do for them.

Last week — the week of Veterans Day — I attended the annual economic forecast breakfast sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce.

The moderator asked anyone in the audience of hundreds who had served in the military to stand up.

Very few got to their feet.

That's a product of our times, a product of volunteer services and no draft.

It's also a problem.

There are a lot of pluses to a draft-less society, but the steep downside is that there is a fading attachment between citizen and soldier.
Tuesday is the 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg address, the finest commemoration of citizen soldiery in our history.
read more here

I left this comment.
I couldn't agree more. I track veterans news reports around the country because the major news organizations no longer do it. The only reporters interested in telling their stories and covering their events are local, usually small news outlets.

Had I not read this, I would have forgotten about the anniversary of what Lincoln said at Gettysburg even though I use the quote often. Thank you!


Gettysburg Address Bliss Copy
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Abraham Lincoln
November 19, 1863

Friday, July 26, 2013

Lincoln Memorial was vandalized

Lincoln Memorial Vandalized: Monument Closed While Statue Is Cleaned (VIDEO)
Huffington Post
Posted: 07/26/2013

The Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. was vandalized overnight.

According to NBCWashington, green paint was splattered inside the chamber of the memorial, on Lincoln and on the floor around it.
read more here

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Old Guard Soldier in new Lincoln movie

Old Guard Soldier Takes Talents to the Big Screen
Nov 21, 2012
Army.mil News
by Staff Sgt Megan Garcia
"The civil war era was very familiar to me because my whole family are war re-enactors," said Hague. "I've been a war re-enactor since I was four years old."
"This whole thing was really top secret in a sense that we weren't allowed to talk about it to anyone," said Staff Sgt. James Hague. "I wasn't allowed to talk about this big Spielberg film that was coming out."
Hague, drum major, United States Army Fife and Drum Corps [FDC], 3d U.S. Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard), explained his recent experience in the new Steven Spielberg movie, "Lincoln", which debut this weekend.

Members of The Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps wear uniforms and white wigs modeled after musicians of Gen. George Washington's Continental Army. They play on 10-hole fifes, handmade rope-tensioned drums and single-valve bugles to replicate the sounds of that period. During the movie, Hague said fitting into the part of an 1865 Marine Band piccolo player was fairly easy due to his experience as a FDC fifer.

"They're not the same instrument, but they are related. The fife has no keys on it but the piccolo does," said Hague, who joined FDC in 2006. "Also, being that the role was in a military band, I was able to fit right in."
read more here