Happy Mother’s Day

Posted on May 14, 2017May 13, 2017 by sokorra

Today, April 14, is Mother’s Day in the United States. Its a day to remember and celebrate our Mothers and grandmothers – or any mother in our lives. For some its a day to spend with their loved ones, and some its a day to remember the mothers we have lossed. Its celebrated outside the US as well, on various dates.

The American Mother’s Day was created by Anna Jarvis in the early 1900s. She did it as a way to remember her own mother, who had served as a nurse during the civil War. She wanted a day where people would show their mothers their appreciation, by visiting or writing their mothers letters expressing it. She promoted it, campaigned for it, and saw it become a reality nationally in 1914. She was later against it because it became too commercialized in her opinon. I wrote about this before for last year’s Mother’s Day Post

However, it was not the first time motherhood was celebrated. Even in Ancient times, there were festivals to mother goddesses, and in early Christianity there was Mothering Sunday.

Ann Reeves Jarvis, Anna Jarvis’ mother, actually had a Mother’s Day of her own. It was a group of mothers who would work towards peace as well as help improve things. It fought to improve sanitary conditions, infant mortality rates and tended to wounded during the war. Julia Ward Howe had a “Mother’s Day Proclamation” in 1870 asking mothers to join together to be politically active in the fight for peace. What we consider Mother’s day wasn’t celebrated until 1908 in Virginia and Pennsylvania.

It is celebrated in various countries around the world at different times of the year and in different ways. Some have special days chosen so Mother’s Day is associated with another event. In Thailand, the date of Mother’s Day falls on the birthday of their Queen who is seen as a mother to her citizens. Some countries associate it with Christian celebrations such as Mothering Sunday (a day originally meant to visit your “mother” church) or days that celebrate Mary, the mother of Jesus. In the end, the sentiment behind the holiday is usually the same – to celebrate the women who are our Mothers, or took on the role in some way.

I wish all the mothers out there a happy Mother’s day. Including my own, who like Ann Reeves Jarvis is a nurse and will be taking care of people today.

History.com – Mother’s Day

National Geographic : “Mother’s Day Turns 100”

American History, history, Politics

The Articles of Confederation: Part Two

Posted on May 12, 2017 by sokorra

The First Four Articles

Preamble

The Preamble introduces the states that will be part of a “perpetual union”. Its interesting to read it because not all the states have the same name today. For example, Massachusetts is still referred to as Massachusetts Bay, and Rhode Island is called Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. Otherwise the States remain the same.

The original Thirteen were Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Delaware, Maryland, Connecticut, Virginia, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

It dates the document as November 15, 1777 and the second year of Independance.

Article 1

Article One is perhaps the most straightforward piece of legislation I have ever read. It simply reads that this country shall be named “The United States of America”. This time around it had a bit more literal a meaning, as it was to represent a union of states rather then a government that had states. The Articles of Confederation were very strong on the side of individual state rights.

A Confederation is defined as being a group of states with a central government with with independance of internal affairs. This was the style of government the US tried first. Our current government is a Federation – meaning it has a strong central government. Confederations have weaker central governments, with more power being distributed to the indivusual members of the union.

Article 2

The States get any power not delegated to Congress as their representatives, and retain their sovereignty. This is important. State rights have often been an area of contention between those who favor strong central governing from those who prefer uncentralized (State/local) power distribution.

In fact, it was over this fact that the first political parties were formed. George Washington had no party, and found the idea an horrible one. Clearly no one listened, and parties were formed. The first two major parties in the US were the Federalists (those who believed in a strong central government) and the Democratic-Republicans (those who favored a weaker central government and stronger State governments). The first election where this became an issue was when John Adams ran for President afer George Washington stepped down.

This all happened after the constitution, which gave the central government more rights then the Articles do. In the Articles, the central government really only has the power to deal with foreign affairs, such as payment of debts, declaring war & peace, and dealing with diplomatic channels. But there is a section on that so we will get to that later.

State Rights have been extremely important in American History. It not only created the first party divide, and political divisions, it also created some of the incentive for the Civil War which would occur less then 100 years later.

Article 3

One of the many reasons the states entered into this union was the fact that there were a few common needs the states faced where a central government would come in handy. One of them was mutual defense.

Article 3 was an agreement between the states to come to each other’s aid for common defense, general welfare and resistence against outside forces trying to attack the state in question through religion, soverneignty, trade or other issues.

Article 4

In the fourth Article, the Confederacy states that any citizen of the United States shall have their rights respected by all states, and can move freely around the country as long as they are not convicted of a crime. It also states that if someone is on the run from a crime and is found by another state, that state shall render the suspect back to their original state upon request from the executive of said state. This may sound familar because the Constitution also states this. However, the articles have a much weaker central government and much stronger state governments. The Constitution gave Congress more power to enforce such regulations.

To make an analogy, perhaps this is like the EU (although I admittedly have little knowledge on how governmentally the EU is set up.) The EU allows for its members to pass freely from country to country, no passports needed. However each country is independent. Under the Articles of Confederation, States had individual powers over many things we now consider Federal responsibility. They were able to create their own currencies and more. It would eventually cause problems, but this article enforces the idea that citizens of one state must have the same rights as a citizen of another state. So you can’t ignore someone’s rights just because they are from New Jersey and made the mistake of going to Philly for some cheesesteak.

May is…

Posted on May 10, 2017 by sokorra

May has a lot of observances and awareness connections. I decided to write about some of them. There are of course many other observances during May, so here is the list from Wiki if you want to explore more. I am by no means an expert on any of these, so please research more on your own if you find yourself interested.

Awareness Month

May is set aside for the awareness of several diseases and causes.

Celiac Disease

Celiac (or Coeliac) disease is a autoimmune disease where the small intestine can not properly digest gluten. It causes damage to the lining of villi, which help digest nutrients. It can range from discomfort to great pain and other health problems. This disease is probably getting more known due to gluten-free diet trends. Gluten can be found in wheat, Rye and Barley. It is a genetic disorder as well, so it runs in families.

More information:

Celiac.Org

Beyond Celiac.Org

Cystic Fibrosis

Cystic Fibrosis is a serious genetic disorder that effects the major organs, particularly the lungs. It is caused by a recessive gene mutation, which causes secretions like sweat, digestive fluids and particularly mucus to become thicker. There is no cure for Cystic Fibrosis, just treatments to treat the symptoms.

More information

Cystic Fibrosis Foundation

Cystic Fibrosis – Mayo Clinic

Cystic Fibrosis (Wiki)

Mental Health Awareness Month

Awareness of Mental Heath issues is very important. Misinformation, ignorance of treatment and other factors have led to people not getting the treatment they need, or choosing to refuse treatment because they don’t’ want to be treated poorly for having a mental health issue. While societal views on mental illness have improved over the last few decades,we have far to go till its treated like any physical illness.

More information

Mental Health America.Net

National Alliance on Mental Illness

National Month Observances

National Pet Month (US)

National Pet Month is basically a month to recognize the benefits that pets bring to our lives. It is observed in April in the UK and in May in the US. It also promotes pet adoption, and animal health.

National Pet Month.Org (UK)

Flores de Mayo

Flores de Mayo is a month long celebration in the Philippines. It has its roots in Catholic devotions to Mary including daily offering of flowers. On the last day of the month a pageant is held called the Santacruzan which honors events in Catholic history. In particular, it celebrates the finding of the true cross by St. Helena. Young women search for a hidden cross after attending a mass and the one who finds it is designated as Reyna Elena (St. Helena).

Flores de Mayo (Wiki)

Flores de Mayo & Santacruzan – Catholics & Cultures

Single Day/Week Observances

Cinco de Mayo (May 5)

Cinco de Mayo is a Mexican-American holiday. In Mexico, it is a day of observance on a a military victory over French Occupation. It is usually observed with military parades. In the United States however it has become a day to celebrate Mexican-AMerican culture. There is debate on the ethical points of Cinco de Mayo in the United States, however, due to the fact that it was originally a Mexican holiday and the US celebration has nothing to do with the original Mexican. Also it has a tendency to promote stereotypes and racial issues.

International Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Awareness Day (May 12)

Chronic Fatigue affects many people, though many go undiagnosed. Sometimes it is a side effect of another illness, but it can be an issue on its own. It is often hard to diagnose as there is no blood or lab test that can detect it. Awareness and research can bring more answers to the cause of Chronic Fatigue

CDC- Chronic Fatigue Awareness Day

Mother’s Day (May 14 in US)

There are several countries that celebrate Mother’s Day, and its on several different days of the month. However, since I live in the US I choose to note the date that the US is celebrating. I’ll be posting a separate post about this one when the day arrives.

Endangered Species Day (May 19)

Endangered Species day is a day to recognize the efforts that are out there to protect the wildlife on our planet. Many species have been lost in the last few decades alone, and there are many organizations out there trying to prevent more species from going from endangered to extinct.

US National Fish and Wildlife Service

Ramadan (May 26-June 25)

Ramadan is a religious observance by Muslims, and this year will start May 26/27. I am by far no expert on Islamic traditions, so I do recommend googling Ramadan and finding out more on your own. Ramadan is a religious rite that occurs for a month. It involves daily fasting and focusing on the Quran, their holy book.

Ramadan (wiki)

BBC Religions: Ramadan

American History, essay, history, Politics

The Articles of Confederation: Introduction

Posted on May 5, 2017May 8, 2017 by sokorra

Introduction:

The Constitution of the United States was not the first attempt to organize our government once the United States declared Independance. The original “constitution” was called the Articles of The Confederation and Perpetual Union or Articles of Confederation for short. For simplicity I will refer to it as The Articles in this essay series.

I’ve been doing this series a little backwards, starting with the Constitution’s amendments, then the Constitution itself and now the forerunner document, but if you are reading this after the fact, you may be starting here. So it all depends on if you are going in tag order, chronological order or in the order the documents were written. Welcome to my journey of amatuer history commentary.

But lets get back on topic. When the young nation first declared independence, it was quickly seen that something needed to be done about forming a new government to replace the one they had rejected. The influences on this document started long before independance.

Continue reading “The Articles of Confederation: Introduction” →

American History, history, movie reviews, space history

Apollo 13 – Film and History

Posted on April 18, 2017April 18, 2017 by sokorra

I wrote this yesterday with the intent of posting it, but various life things happened that means it gets pushed off till today. So here’s the belated Article:

As I have stated in several posts, my favorite movie is Apollo 13. It is the dramatization of the real life story of the Apollo 13 Lunar mission that went horribly wrong in April of 1970. Today while reading my email, I got a list of today’s historical events, and it reminded me that today in 1970, they finally made it back to earth. So I decided to write about the Apollo 13 mission and the movie in general.

The movie is mostly accurate, with a few details changed for dramatic (well, movie dramatic) effect. However, the writers and producers of the film were interested in making it as close as possible. After all, sitting in a space ship hoping you’d get home after the oxygen tank explodes is a pretty interesting story.

Apollo 13 was the 8th manned mission in the Apollo series. Apollo 1 had ended tragically in 1967. It took a two year review, and several changes to the Apollo spacecraft before they were manned again. Apollo missions 2-6 were unmanned tests of the spacecraft, after it had been decided that the Apollo 1 identity would not be moved to the new mission. Therefore, the first Apollo mission that was manned and made it to space was Apollo 7, which orbited the earth. Apollo 8 went a step further and orbited the moon itself. This mission also had James Lovell involved, who was also involved in 13. Apollo 9 and 10 practiced lunar landing procedures. And Apollo 11, which is perhaps the most famous of American space flights, took us to the Moon.

Apollo 13 took off on April 11, 1970, a little over 3 years after Apollo 1, and only 9 months after Apollo 11. It was manned by James Lovell (Commander), Jack Swigert (Command Module Pilot) and Fred Haise (Lunar Module Pilot). The Apollo capsule was only large enough to fit three men, unlike the later Space Shuttle craft. Through a small connecting tunnel, they connected to the Lunar Module (also known as the LEM – Lunar Excursion Module) which would become the life raft that kept these three men alive during the four days it took to get home.

On April 13, 1970 shortly after recording a television transmission the three astronauts felt a jolt and soon realised that their spacecraft was venting out into space. I’ve included a link below to the wikipedia page, where there is a audio recording of the famous “houston we have a problem” report. What had occured is when Jack Swigert went to do a routine stirring of the tanks to keep the liquid fuel/oxygen from freezing, the temperture gauge in the oxygen tank was broken. It overheated the tank, and the tank exploded. This was due to a issue that developed during pre-launch checks which was not realised until after a review board looked at all the evidence.

They spent the next four days in the LEM, using the oxygen tanks and fuel tanks that would have sent them to the moon to keep themselves alive and target their way back home. This had been a contingenoucy plan developed previously but this was the first time it was ever attempted, and various problems surfaced during the four days that the astronauts and the men in Mission control had to solve.

The film dramatizes some of it, changing up some of the words said by the astronauts and introducing a few scenes that were never documented by anyone to fill out some of the characters reactions. But overall the film is fairly accurate for a biopic. They even used archive footage of a launch to use with CGI to create the launch scene in the movie, and used actually low gravity in some of the scenes where you see them float for more of a real effect. So while its definately a movie, not a documentary, it is pretty well done.

The film was nominated for Best Picture in 1994, but lost to Braveheart. It did win Best Editing, and Best Sound. It is one of my favorite movies still, over 20 years after it was released. You can stream it on Amazon, it is available for both purchase and rental. It used to be on Hulu but right now I can’t find it to confirm.

The film was based on James Lovell’s novel called Lost Moon which was renamed Apollo 13 when the film came out. It’s a great read as well, especially if you are interested about the space program. It not only covers the Apollo 13 mission, but Lovell’s earlier missions and interactions with other astronauts.

I also recommend the Tom Hanks mini-series From the Earth to the Moon. It is a great dramatization of the real events of the Space Program and also has some great actors in it.

Apollo 13 Wikipedia

Apollo 13 – NASA Website

Apollo 13 Film Wikipedia

To The Earth From The Moon

American History, history, Politics

The Constitution: Article Six

Posted on February 22, 2017 by sokorra

Article Six addresses various other items that were of a concern with creating a new constitution and a new Federal government.

Clause 1: The US will still honor its debts.

There was some concern that with a new constitution/government that the US wouldn’t honor debts or contracts entered into under the Articles of the Confederation (The First constitution that the United States had ratified). The first clause addresses this concern by saying that the Constitution will uphold anything debts that occurred or engagements (such as treaties and contracts) shall be continued under the new constitution.

Basically it means that the US is under new management, but the old deals still apply.

Clause 2: The US Constitution shall be the ultimate law of the land.

This directs that any law, judgement or other actions by the government must adhere to this document. It also states that all states are subject to the Constitution and Federal law, effectively bringing them under the same umbrella. One of the ongoing issues with the Articles of Confederation was the lack of power the federal government had to do anything. The confusion as states formed their own money etc couldn’t be corrected by the federal with much power behind it. This government however was stronger, and made sure to specify that this document was the supreme law. This also effectively transitions the country from working under the Articles of Confederation to having a new constitution.

Clause 3: All officers of the government shall uphold the oath. None of them will be forced to prove their religious faith.

There are two elements to the third clause. One is that every officer of the government is to swear an oath of allegiance to uphold the constitution when taking office. The other element is that no officer has to prove his religious choices to get into office.

This particular element has come under recent speculation, This clause basically assures that there is no government backed religion, that no person who works in the government will have to prove their religion in order to take office.

With fundamentalism of many religions being more visible, many people are being asked unofficially to prove that they belong to one religion or another. Personally I believe that this clause in the Constitution makes it unconstitutional to make someone prove that they are part of a religion (regardless of said religion) in order to do their job (i.e. take office), or seek services from the federal government. Many have alternate points of view on the subject.

The Supreme Court expanded this clause to the states in 1961’s Torcaso v. Watkins. Now no governmental employee, federal, state or otherwise, is required to prove one’s religious conviction or religious orientation to take office.

I found Heritage Guide to the Constitution had an interesting background for this particular clause (I’ve included the link below in the further reading) which also goes into people’s concern about secular language (a argument still had today).

The Constitution: Article Five

Posted on February 20, 2017February 20, 2017 by sokorra

Article Five is unique because it only has one section. It also has only one job: To explain how we can alter the constitution.

To change the constitution to suit the evolving needs of its citizenship, Congress can pass Amendments. Amendments must be passed by two-thirds majority of both houses, and then present it to the legislatures of the states. It must be ratified by 3/4ths of the states before it can be accepted into law.

There are currently 27 Amendments that have been ratified as part of the constitution. Several amendments have been proposed but not voted on, others have been voted on and not quite made the cut vote wise. There are even a few amendments that missed ratification due to a time limit and lack of state ratifications.

Some examples of failed or still pending Amendments include:

The Equal Rights Amendment
First introduced in 1923 by Alice Paul, this amendment keeps poping up as society seems reluctant to catch up with equal rights in reality rather then theory. It got as far as being ratfied by 35 states, falling short by 3 by the deadline of the 1972 edition. It has still come up for a vote in Congress in recent years
The “First” Amendment.
When the Bill of rights was proposed, there were actually 12 amendments, not 10. 11 of those Amendments have been ratitifed as Amendments 1-10, and 27 (which took the longest of any amendment to be ratified). It dealt with the size of congress, and basically deals in thousands when we have millions of citizens now so it doesn’t really fit the current needs of the population.
The Nobility Amendment
This is still on the books to be ratified, but doesn’t really come up often. It was a restriction on American’s ability to hold international nobility titles. Basically it came down to Americans could not receive any gifts, income, title from a foreign government without the permission of Congress. Otherwise they must surrender their citizenship to the US
The Corwin Amendment
While James Buchanan was president, an amendment came up that actually protects slavery, and would have made it unconstitutional to do away with slavery. Its still technically out there to be ratified despite the 13th Amendment which makes it moot and unconstitutional. Its one of two Amendments that the President actually signed (again, Presidents really have no input in Amendments offically). The other is the 13th, which was signed by Buchanan’s successor Abraham Lincoln.
Child Labor Amendment
This Amendment would have regulated child labor and made it a federal issue, removing the power from the States. It has been ratified by 28 states.
District of Columbia Amendment
This amendment would have granted DC representation in Congress. It wasn’t ratified before the 7 year limit posed on it was reached.
1876 – Anti-Congress Amendment
As you can well imagine, this one never passed Congress. The Amendment would have abolished the Senate.

Most Amendment proposals don’t make it out of their respective house. The last amendment to be ratified was the 27th, which was one of the original 12 amendments made in 1789. It was ratified in 1992, 203 years later.

The Constitution: Article Four

Posted on February 13, 2017February 13, 2017 by sokorra

Now that we have developed the Federal government’s three branches (Legislative, Executive and Judicial) its now time to figure out the states relation to each other. Section Four deals with States rights and how they fit in the hierarchy of government.

Section One:

Continue reading “The Constitution: Article Four” →

American History, essay, history, Politics

The Constitution: Article Two (Part Two)

Posted on February 8, 2017 by sokorra

Article 2: Part 1

Section Two

Section 2 relates to the President’s duties as far as administrative function. He is given the right to fill vacancies in the executive department (providing that they are confirmed by Congress), and to take into consideration the opinions of those people. He is also allowed to fill vacancies in Ambassadorial positions. This part of the job is well shown on Media these days as Congress goes through the process of confirming nominations for the cabinet positions. It is rare that nominations are not confirmed. In some cases Nominations are pulled before they take a vote if it proves problematic. However, there have been a few over the years (Senate.gov).

For most confirmations a simple majority vote is taken, from precedent from the first cabinet confirmations. In current history, Betsy DeVos was confirmed by the Senate President – Vice President Pence – breaking a tie. This was not a usual occurrence, and all sources I find at the moment point to it not having happened before.

He is also the head of the military services, and can call state militias into the national service. When the US was first created, the national military was very small, and depended on state militias to fill out the ranks. Over the centuries as the National military grew, and due to experiences in the Civil War and Spanish-American war, this was altered. Each state now has a National Guard, whose primary use is for State needs, but can be called up for Federal service.

For example, President Eisenhower federalized the Arkansas National Guard to “prevent anarchy” and to enforce the law passed by Congress requiring schools to integrate races. The story of Little Rock 9 is often told as a major point in race relations in the US, as is Eisenhower’s decision to use the National Guard to overrule the school/Governor defiance of the law.

Some states still have their own Defense Force outside the National Guard. Several states had them at one point but are currently inactive either due to States dismissing them due to liability issues or other reasons. Pennsylvania had a reserve militia, for example, but only during WWII and Korea. Then again Pennsylvania’s history with state militias is an interesting story for another time.

Section 3

This section essentially lays out the State of the Union address. The constitution requires that the President occasionally present before Congress his plans for the nation and the status of the nation. When originally used, it was not required that it happened every year but it has become customary now that it happens every year.

And because I love using segments of West Wing:

This section also makes him the chief diplomat, in that he is expected to meet with Ambassadors and other dignitaries of the world. He is also to make sure that laws are faithfully adhered to. Which really goes back to the oath of office.

Section 4:

This section adds that the President is subject to impeachment.

Further Reading:

Civil War Army Organization (Civil War.org)

State Defense Force (Wikipedia)

President Sends Troops To Arkansas (New York Times; September 25, 1957)

The National Constitution Center: Article Two

The National Constitution Center: Five Presidential Cabinet Rejections

American History, history, Politics

The Constitution: Article Two (Part One)

Posted on July 22, 2016July 22, 2016 by sokorra

So as Article One created the Legislative Branch, Article Two creates the executive branch. Notably this branch contains the President and Vice President, but it also contains the cabinet and their departments as well as a few other smaller government offices.

Section One

This section sets up the Presidency. Who it is, how long he/she is in there, and how they are elected. Continue reading “The Constitution: Article Two (Part One)” →