Three of the BIG LIES of World War I






1. It was called "the war to end all wars".  
Of course it didn't!  As I have written elsewhere, the first world war was simply the first act,  placed into intermission by the armistice in 1918, with the second act taken up in 1939.
"The War to End All Wars".  That's a bit like spreading tuberculosis to end tuberculosis.
2. To make the world safe for democracy.  (U.S. President Woodrow Wilson).
Democracy for who?  Certainly not for **Negroes (as they were then called) in the U.S.A.
They had fought with enormous skill and bravery on the western front.  They returned to an America with defacto racism in the north, and with dejure racism in the former confederate states ( "Jim Crow" laws, brutality and lynchings).
(Remember please that Woodrow Wilson was an ardent segregationist. When he became President he re-segregated the Federal Civil Service).
3. To make the United Kingdom "a land fit for heroes".
The British and Irish ( the territory which we now call the Republic of Ireland) men and women who served King and Country came back, not to a land fit for heroes but to poverty, unemployment, the great depression, and often to  destitution.  
They also came back to a land where the much vaunted and over rated Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill  treated them not as heroes but as dangerous subversives.  
In 1919, under Churchill, by now Secretary of State for Air and War;  tanks and an estimated 10,000 troops were deployed to Glasgow during a period of widespread strikes and civil unrest,  amid fear of a Bolshevist revolt. (BBC NEWS WEBSITE)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
**  I use the word 'negro" in the historical sense as it was used right up to the time of the Revd. Dr, Martin Luther King, 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Shoe insults

Last year I consulted with a local podiatrist: Dr. Robert F Herbold Jr. D.P.M. 4717 Swift Rd., Sarasota , FL – 34231  because I was being bothered with a couple of bunions  (yes I am at that age). I was very impressed with this Doctor.  He agreed that I had bunions, but he ventured that it was much too soon for surgery. (Now there’s a first). Instead he recommended some “arch supports” to relieve the tension for my feet, a tension which was exacerbating the bunions. What’s more -  he told me that he sells these arch supports at the miserly sum of $2.50 each (about 1/5 of the price in the local pharmacies). He is an honest man, and I recommend him to anyone with foot problems. So, a couple of weeks ago, having purchased some new walking shoes, I knew that I needed to buy a couple of new arch supports I took myself to his office. Once there, my mind went blank. I wanted to ask his front desk Clerk if I could buy some “shoe inserts” , as I could not rem...
Read more

It began in Bristol U.K. "A man dies" and "Jesus Christ Superstar"

Image
I well remember the swirling controversy in Bristol, U.K. when a (Presbyterian) Minister the Revd, Earnest Marviin created a ":Rock Opera", called "A Man Dies"  in and for his congregation in the Lockleaze area of Bristol, U.K. Earnest Mrvin I was a sixteen years old member of the Plymouth Brethren Church back in those days, so I most likely disapproved of "A Man Dies" .  We, (the Plymouth Brethren),  disapproved of everything! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I had forgotten all about "A Man Dies" until earlier today when saw these pictures on the "Bristol, Then and Now"  Facebook page.   St. James Presbyterian Church, Lockleaze, Bristol  The Bristol Then and Now page includes the following commentary: Lockleaze, Bristol  -  'Jesus Christ Superstar' began at St.James (Presbyterian) Chur...
Read more

The background, the couple, my friends, the wedding ceremony, the Shaykh, the Priest,

Image
The background   I have known the Keller/Bonsey family since 2000 when I became the Rector at St. James's, Cambridge, MA. They (Elisabeth Keller and the Revd. Steven Bonsey with their four children Noah, Sam, Josiah and Annie) had come back to Cambridge from Hawaii where Steve had been the Rector of an Episcopal parish. Steve had just been appointed as a Chaplain at Tufts University (no Sunday morning duties) so the entire family was able to enrich our common life at St. James's - which they did with great love and joy. I count them as friends and have stayed in touch with them since my retirement.  Noah, the oldest son is eloquent in Arabic (he spent a year in Damascus when Syria was a safe place).  He has developed a super career as an analyst of social media in the near East.    Noah worked in Tampa for a while a few years ago, so he and I were a...
Read more