Category: Uncategorized

http://securitydebrief.com/2020/04/29/rich-mans-war-poor-mans-fight/

The COVID pandemic is the latest manifestation of “rich man’s war, poor man’s fight”

From its origination, Arlington National Cemetery’s history has been compellingly intertwined with that of African Americans. This book explains how the grounds of Arlington House, formerly the home of Robert E. Lee and a plantation of the enslaved, became a military camp for Federal troops, a freedmen’s village and farm, and America’s most important burial ground. During the Civil War, the property served as a pauper’s cemetery for men too poor to be returned to their families, and some of the very first war dead to be buried there include over 1,500 men who served in the United States Colored Troops. More than 3,800 former slaves are interred in section 27, the property’s original cemetery. Section 27 and Freedman’s Village in Arlington National Cemetery: The African American History of America’s Most Hallowed Ground is a must read and should be added to your reading list.

I have signed a contract with Philadelphia publisher Old City Publishing http://www.oldcitypublishing.com/ to write a book about the Great Influenza and how it was covered in the local newspapers. I am grateful to Ian Mellanby for his interest and support.

Royal Copeland (NYC Health Commissioner), the most quoted public health official throughout the Great Influenza, says 1918 was a great year to be born. He presented that the improvements in pasteurized milk, fresh water and other hygiene measures combined to make New York a “good place to be born.”

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/112935779/lucky-1918-babies/

February 24th – Black History Month @ La Mott Cultural Center

Ric Murphy (ric murphy.com) will present on the first Africans in English North America. https://usct.org/2019/01/09/1619-the-story-of-americas-first-documented-africans/

The Evening Current (Carlsbad, NM) contends that anyone doubting the need for a state health department should only look to the inability to quantify and address the influenza epidemic. Additionally more than 2000 children under the age of 5 died form preventable deaths in the last year.

https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn93061433/1918-12-02/ed-1/seq-1/#date1=1918&sort=date&date2=1918&words=Influenza&language=&sequence=0&lccn=&index=9&state=&rows=20&ortext=&proxtext=influenza&year=&phrasetext=&andtext=&proxValue=&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1320

WAR IS OVER. The Great War ends and in Grants Pass, Oregon a great celebration is planned with a bonfire and a band. The news is tempered by the great influenza: everyone is cautioned to wear gauze masks. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn96088180/1918-11-11/ed-1/seq-1/

Royal Copeland, NYC Health Commissioner lifted all restrictions on opening hours on election day, November 5, 1918. Copeland calls it a “normal day.” That day 147 NYC residents died in the influenza outbreak. The NYC Department of Education director asks for a house-to-house canvass to find children made “destitute” the the outbreak.

https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1918-11-05/ed-1/seq-18/