Sunday, May 31, 2009

What War Wrought - Battles, Individuals Who Rise Above, Arts

 By Dint:

Citizen Questioning Bloodshed:  Isaac Bashevis Singer
The tale-teller. Read and reread. 

Government as Marketer, Taking Over Lilli Marleen.   World War I protest song, "Lilli Marleen", becomes German army marching song, World War II.

Verdun, France, WWI.  Trench of Bayonets.  Accidents, tragedies other than tactics, of history.  A trench collapsed, the line of French soldiers caught in line as they stood, so the story goes, bayonets facing the sky.  Still do.  Americans built memorial, an open-air structure, tips still show. 

Dresden, Germany, and Area Bombing.  Retribution, revenge fire-bombing of an entire city with no military significance.  Just kill and demoralize.  Signs there now:  "Dresden Lives."

Unlikely Hartford and Colt Armaments.  Recycling opportunity.  Old Colt arms factory, and possible reuse as arts colony, studios, residential apartments, other residences.  But its second floor faces the freeway....

Big Black Tatras; Official Cars.  The notoriety of the vehicles used by the oppressor, the secret police, the ones who carried the powerful, or came to take the less powerful away.  The Tatra. World War II. Slovakia. Elsewhere. The Commpany. .

War Poets.  Poetry from the Trenches.  World War I.  See also Ypres, Ieper, Belgium. Soldier poets.

The Enemy Becomes the Economic Desirable.  Boche to Bosche.  The hated soldier in death; to the newest in kitchen appliances.  Cultural short memories. We rely on that? 

Plus ca change: PTSD.  Post traumatic stress disorder.  PTSD.  Here, World War I.  Poem by Wilfred Gibson, with permission of site.  He lived 1872-1962. 

The Concept of Mutiny:  France, Verdun  And other instances, circumstances, surrounding mutiny; 

1915 Battle of Loos;  Missing.  Son of Rudyard Kipling  "*** Have you news of my boy, Jack?  Not this tide. When d'you think that he'll come back?   Not with this wind blowing, And this tide. *** "

Places of Petr Ginz: Lens and Legacy. Places of Petr Ginz from his diary written in Prague during WWII; until his transport to Theresienstadt (Terezin) and then his death at Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Studying War. Hub: Origins of Conflict - Hub site for the concept. Nature and origins of warfare, other conflict. Roles, hardwired? Is it possible to tame demagoguery and violence, and survive, without becoming a demagogue and violent.

Studying Wars: Mindset, Place and Manner Specific battlegrounds, examples of patterns, aggression and agenda vs. common good, history's unfoldings, internal conflicts. Territory, culture, character.

Wars ongoing, conflict, marginalization

Warfare Against Children  What are the roots of such disregard.  How we transmit the "glory" of war.  
  • Update: Wars on children. See the sculpture grouping with blindfolded children reaching out while vile adults surround and lure, in Moscow. Mihail Chemiakin, Children are the Victims of Adult Vices. It includes Propaganda of Violence.
"Facing History and Ourselves" - an Online Curriculum to Counter Hate.  Curriculum to focus on the hate crimes of the 20th-21st centuries, including wars, so our children can learn and avoid, we hope. How to apply to urban schools so focused on employment issues.
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Czechoslovakia in the 1930's - Roma. Through a Novel's Eyes ("Zoli") Picture the big black Tatras. This section refers to a portion of the book with this section heading: Czechoslovakia in the 1930's.

Roma: Czechoslovakia under Fascism; also part of the Zoli book section Czechoslovakia 1930's to 1949. The Hlinka Guards.

Mouquet Farm, Somme Area, France  Military as fodder, consumer humor - Mouquet Farm became Mucky Farm, the front barely moved for years, tunnels and tunnels. Australian troops.

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