7 Color Lagoon

Between the obesity epidemic, growing levels of diabetes and heart disease related illnesses, people need to be aware of the dangers of corporate food. One group of US doctors is suing several of the giant, junk food purveyors for failing to mention a carcinogenic substance in their grilled chicken. Even salads are declared unsafe.

A US doctors’ group has filed a lawsuit against seven leading fast-food chains including McDonald’s and Burger King over their use of a “dangerous carcinogenic” in grilled chicken.

In other countries (like here in Mexico) the danger is lessened. Junk food chains are expensive alternatives to real food here. Sadly, advertising budgets are huge for the less developed world, the desire to have what the Americans have, and the assumption that because the food is expensive it must be good make the chains a dangerous US export.

Health

Photo ©Beringer-Dratch. USCG patrol in Miami harbor.

The Toronto Globe and Mail reported on 28 September of a brewing controversy between the American Coast Guard and Canadian residents along the Great Lakes. Canadians are scared and unhappy about patrols now routinely shooting thousands of rounds of lead ammunition in zones the American forces have designated for anti-terrorist drills. The new patrols which are heavily armed and using the Lakes for target practice were not seen as a great danger until they announced the formation of 34 zones of fire and a continuing program on the Lakes.

Environmentalists and lake-shore residents are unhappy about the perceived danger to pleasure boaters and the danger of so much lead being wantonly deposited in a body of water where environmentalists have worked for years to remove lead contamination. There are 40 million persons who take their drinking water from the Lakes.

Canadians are also astounded that the American military is flexing its’ might along what has been called “the longest, undefended border…” Mike Bradley, mayor of Sarnia, Ontario wrote to the Prime Minister in complaint, saying “The longest undefended border in the world is gone. It’s passé. And this is an example of it.”

The mayor of Toronto, David Miller, who works with a coalition to protect the Great Lakes, wrote to the Canadian Prime Minister requesting assistance. He said, in part,

At a time … when there is interest in restoring the integrity of the lakes, it is most disturbing that the U.S. is contemplating exercises that will militarize the lakes, cause pollution and environmental degradation, restrict shipping and recreation, and change the peaceful border between Canada and the U.S.”

Far more people are killed on Toronto streets by illegal U.S. guns crossing the border than bloody-minded terrorists from Canada crossing south. The idea that terrorists are flooding across the Great Lakes is utter nonsense.

The Coast Guard proclaimed that machine guns on its’ patrol boats do not break the treaty that was signed after the War of 1812 which has helped guarantee almost 200 years of peace between the two countries.

Even the most paranoid Americans hiding under their collective bed from the onslaught of terrorist hordes are probably not really afraid that disaffected Canadians are going to storm the northern frontier to take over America. Canadian dollars may not quite equal US dollars in value (so far) but the idea of hordes of Canadians coming to America to take jobs and change the foundation of our culture seems, perhaps, a little far-fetched.

The fear of terrorist cadres from increasingly sophisticated, well-supported terrorist operatives will use the long border to sneak into America is possible. But the thought ignores a whole lifetime of movies about the Mounties, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Didn’t anyone tell those Bushists that the Mounties always get their man? They are true-blue (albeit redcoats), resourceful and perservering. We all know that. Sometimes they sing — which I hate — and sound a lot like Nelson Eddy. They put the Boy Scouts to shame. Who are we to doubt they are better protection on the Canadian side of the border than the fumble-fingered, frontier fighters of the Border Patrol are on our own?

How many countries can we alienate? How many societies can we insult? How many lakes can we shoot at without looking just a little silly?

It should be noted that the USCG has attempted to calm the situation. Chief Petty Officer Rober Lanier tried to answer concerns with the statement,

I don’t know what it is, but I know I want to be prepared for it when it happens. We need to conduct these live-fire exercises so we are prepared for whatever it may be. If we are not prepared for it, there are going to be questions about why we weren’t prepared for it.

To date the Coast Guard has run its live-fire practice maneuvers without injury or obvious damage to passing pleasure craft. They promised to make marine radio broadcasts beginning hours before their firing commences and will have another craft patrolling the area around the zone of fire.

This promise has not quieted opposition leaders who know that many small boats do not have marine radios, don’t use them or will just wander into the firing ranges which, wet as are the Lakes, will not be marked. Others are concerned about the results of introducing thousands of rounds of lead bullets into the ecological system. During the past few years there has been a campaign to further reduce lead levels in the Lakes. Environmentalists had been trying to get fishermen to replace their lead sinkers and efforts to ban lead paint.

Using the wonderful Canadian website that presents a huge number of Canado-US treaties (”site is the result of the cooperation of the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, (Government of Canada) the Library of International Relations (Chicago-Kent College of Law, Illinois Institute of Technology), and the LexUM (Centre de recherche en droit public, Faculté de droit, Université de Montréal”)., I found this exchange regarding the Rush-Bagot Agreement of 1817 which took place in 1940,

In a confidential letter addressed to the Secretary of State on January 31, 1939, Admiral Leahy, the Acting Secretary of the Navy, raised certain questions regarding the Rush-Bagot Agreement of 1817. Among other things, Admiral Leahy requested the views of Mr. Hull concerning the mounting of two 4-inch guns on each of the American naval vessels on the Great Lakes, to be used in firing target practice in connection with the training of naval reserves. He inquired, if this was considered improper, concerning the possibility of modifying the Rush-Bagot Agreement to permit this practice. After careful consideration of the problem, Mr. Hull is inclined to the opinion that a modification of the Rush-Bagot Agreement would be undesirable at this time… From a naval standpoint, its provisions have long been out of date, but in spite of numerous vicissitudes the Agreement itself has survived unchanged for more than one hundred and twenty years and, with the passage of time, has assumed a symbolic importance in the eyes of our own and Canadian citizens.

The Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs’ spokesperson did explain that Canada and the U.S. had signed a written agreement three years ago that allows light machine guns to be used on the lake without abrogating the treaty. They said that the treaty had been made to forbid heavy armament on the lakes such as cannon (”weapons of war”) on sailing ships.

The Coast Guard spokesman, CPO Lanier, replied with, I sincerely hope, some degree of humour, “We don’t have any cannons or rocket launchers or anything like that.”

Whether or not the Bush Administration is acting in such a way as to alienate most of the world — even our neighbor and ally, Canada — does not affect the fact of self-less bravery in peace and war on the part of the US Coast Guard. Bad decisions are made at different levels of the military and the government. So be it. The Coast Guard continues its’ duties of rescue and patrol. Just watch The Perfect Storm again to be reminded of their constant heroism.

Politics

A crystal-clear mountain stream in Ulster County, New York with a fall leaf submerged. ©Beringer-Dratch.

I have neither been shooting for about a year nor have I been scanning anything new for months after I had to re-install my operating system.

This week I have the scanner connected and it works — sort of. Therefore I have images to play with again. I put camera to eye again and it felt good albeit tiring. Fighting a cataract has made seeing and focusing difficult at times but it can be done. So soon there may also be some new pictures. Nostalgia is dragging me to the small amount of files that still exist.

Visit the Expatriate Photoblog. It seems to be working again.

Photo of a weekend dance and concert for all ages on the town basketball court in the zocalo/town square in Muna, Yucatan a few minutes north of the splendid ruins of Uxmal.

Visit my photoblog on the Yucatan and Mayan ruins and culture, Mayan Mesoamerica.

Photography

Be warned, America. Our place on the world economic stage is in danger. CNN recently reported on a study by the World Economic Forum that the United States has fallen in global “competitiveness”. It fell from first to sixth place in the annual survey and was replaced by Switzerland.

We are seen this year as having a lowered rate of savings, record deficits at a high level and a balance of payments that is more and more negative. This caused the Forum to report that there is a “non-negligible risk” to our competitiveness in world markets. Because America is one of the greatest of the economies of the world, this “non-negligible risk” becomes a factor in the “future of the global economy.”

The US fall in world economic positioning is based on the gigantic spending by the Bush administration on “defense”, the homeland security apparatus, long-term needs to meet pension and health care costs and, perhaps, plans to lower taxes.

The top 10 were Switzerland, Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Singapore. The United States, now sixth where it had been number one in 2005 was followed by Japan, Germany, the Netherlands and Britain.

India was seen as improving by two places to the 43d spot in ranking by the World Economic Forum. They did note, however, that “… persistent poverty, weak health infrastructure and a large public sector deficit… ” acted to negate the blossoming advance in high-technology sectors.

Italy fell to 42d from 38th. Russia fell 9 spots from last year to 62d mostly based on business worries about the independence of the judiciary and the ability of businesses to seek legal redress. A survey of 11,000 businessmen world-wide found that they saw,

Legal redress in Russia is neither expeditious, transparent nor inexpensive, unlike in the world’s most competitive economies. Partly because of this, the property rights regime is extremely poor and worsening.

China, the world’s emerging economy, fell this year from 48 to 54. Concerns were shown over its low secondary school and higher-education enrollment rates, lackluster “penetration” of cell phones, computers and other technologies, and concerns over the banking system.

Chile was the leader for America Latina at 27th in the survey. Venezuela fell to 88th (four places) even though it showed a surplus in the oil-producing sector. The slight fall was due to the need the Forum saw for it to strengthen its’ institutions that would allow methods to fight graft and to lessen government interference in economic activities.

What does this mean for the United States, I wonder? First, I would think that it is the “wake-up call” for some serious thinking and planning in the US about what it is doing on the world stage, why, and what it is going to do in the future. It is obvious that we absolutely must protect against the barbarians who want to kill us unless we embrace their brand of violent religion. No one can question the need for self-preservation in a world where the forces of evil and chaos are growing. However, the way in which that protection is administered is surely questionable. Here we have seen the World Economic Forum questioning it heavily. Need we answer to them? Of course not. But they are the businessmen of the world and when they lose confidence in the economy of the nation that has led the world for so long, there is something amiss.

According to Augusto Lopez-Claros, Chief Economist and Director, Global Competitiveness Network.

The top rankings of Switzerland and the Nordic countries show that good institutions and competent macroeconomic management, coupled with world-class educational attainment and a focus on technology and innovation, are a successful strategy for boosting competitiveness in an increasingly complex global economy.

I point those interested in domestic and international economics to the website of The Levy Institute of Economics which presents engaging articles on strategic analysis and a large and growing database of documents. The Institute is part of Bard College. I must add that they were a long and valued client of mine and I spent hundreds of hours listening (while photographing) to presentations, lectures and debates on economics. My meager knowledge of the field comes from those times. The opportunity to be friendly with the late Dr. Hyman Minsky was a fine perk. The Institute also has a stream of interesting visitors, Fellows, students and researchers. I recommend their site, publications, and, for those in the New York region and around Cambridge U., their conferences and lecture series.

The “war on terror” need be fought and should be won but there must be ways to do it that are not totally incapacitating to the nature of freedom and the stability of the economy. The Bush Wall with Mexico is a case in point. We have problems with a wave of would-be immigrants and workers. That is hardly in question. Is an expensive wall to stop them? How much of the force for that wall came from the recent announcement that Boeing would be building masses of high-tech guard towers. What kind of money will that earn a few Republican cronies? How many Latin Americans will the Wall deter out of the masses who will continue to come into the country to work where they are needed? How much will Americans pay per head to deter immigration. It will stop it as much as Khruschev’s Berlin Wall stopped East Europeans from fleeing to the West, perhaps.

The health-care crisis in costs must also be taken in hand and somehow controlled. That is far beyond the scope of this short note on a survey. We can no longer just say that the doctors and the hospitals are charging too much, cheating too much, ordering too many tests. The crisis is far more than that. There is an aging population, an obesity epidemic, increased stress, the proliferation of junk food on every corner, the growth of HMO-businesses and the practices of drug-salespeople and drug companies. There are the actions of numerous government agencies like the FDA which have grown in response to the need for some regulation of exploding industries and taken on bureaucratic lives of their own.

Given the present administration in Washington, if there are concerns over impending tax cuts, we can assume that the cuts will benefit those who have the most and therefore will cost the country the most. Although economists and bankers are most comfortable with the rich and powerful, they are often realists who see that the effects of useless or harmful payments and expenses will not make a competitive nation.

Education was not mentioned for the US. Perhaps America continues to ride on its laurels with a system that can and should provide the world’s highest level of education. While we look at Homeland Security, the health-care crisis and tax-reform, we cannot ignore the need to plan for maintaining the level of education as the highest in the world and the interest of the population in taking advantage of those opportunities. Without planning for a very highly educated labor pool and for basic, unfettered research in both technologies and the social sciences; we will be bound to take another dive.

We must protect America but that calls for two fronts: security against outside evils as well as building productivity and competitiveness. A country will not long survive based on the hiring of police, the building of prisons and the waging of long, unrewarding wars.

Current Affairs

Globalization

I was thinking about the feelings of communities when their home country, the country they left, commits some heinous act. People are hurt or killed and their government indulges in violence and repression.

In this case, back in 1989, it was Tianaman Square and the massacre of protestors demanding more democracy. The Chinese community, which is close-knit, in America reacted with shock, horror and anger. This small demonstration which included a piece from a Chinese opera, in Upstate New York was a tiny tip of the iceberg.

Politics

The American Spice Trade Association writes that man began to use spices around 50,000 BC when someone discovered that some leaves give meat a good flavor. By 2300 BC the Assyrians, in one of the earliest known written records, wrote that the gods drank sesame seed wine before creating the earth.

Photo © Beringer-Dratch.

Spices became a form of currency that sent intrepid adventurers onto unknown oceans to find new places, people and trade routes. The Spice Route to China sucked in Marco Polo and brought the spice trade to Europe. Christopher Columbus set out to find the way to the source of spices and found the New World. The British Raj occupied India to gain its’ wealth, its’ spice and tea trade.

It isn’t just the pepper you sprinkle on that burger, the Tabasco Sauce on your chicken wings. Spices are sacred, may be aphrodisiacs, make foods tastier and are filled with anti-oxidants. Grab some ginger and saffron, garlic and chiles and be healthy, happy, graced by the gods and sexually satisfied. What more does anyone need?

In 50 BC the Romans brought mustard seed to England. In 595 AD they tell us that Mohammed married a “… wealthy spice-trading widow; his followers combine missionary work with spice-trading in East and build first spice monopoly.” Little I knew that the Prophet was a married businessman.

Columbus, Magellan, and Vasco de Gama were all searching for spice routes and supplies. Spices were wealth. In 1505 the Portuguese discovered Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and its’ important supply of cinnamon (only now are we learning about cinnamon as a disease-fighter). In about 1519 Magellan’s expedition circumnavigated the globe . His surviving ship returned in 1522 with enough spices on board to finance the entire voyage.

By 1672 Elihu Yale gets to India, starts a business in spices and ends up with enough of a fortune to endow a University in Connecticut. In 1969 spices make it to the surface of the moon in an attempt to make the astronauts’ food more palatable. The British discovered that powdered ginger is twice as good as Dramamine in preventing motion sickness in 1983.

This year the Chicago Tribune reported on 13 September that the US Department of Agriculture found that spices may have, ounce per ounce, measure for measure, more anti-oxidant compounds than fruits and vegetables. Anti-oxidants help prevent cancer, Alzheimer’s, diabetes and heart disease.

Note that these are animal and lab studies using amounts of spices far higher than most people would add to their meals so do not plan to cure any diseases with a ginger-flavored meal — fresh or powdered.

Cinnamon, evidence is mounting, is one of the most beneficial spices. Richard Anderson, a researcher with the U.S.D.A. has found that three key proteins are highly important in “…insulin signaling, glucose transport and inflammatory response.” Cinnamon’s insulin-like qualites come from the release of these proteins. His and prior studies have shown that even 1/4 teaspoon on cinnamon a day can allow the spice to “… help lower the risk of the constellation of factors associated with metabolic syndrome — high blood cholesterol, triglyceride and glucose levels — by as much as 10 to 30 percent.” Metabolic syndrome puts individuals at higher risk for type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Investigation continues on cinnamon for its possible anti-bacterial and anti-microbial elements. Go ahead, put some cinnamon in that pot of steamed rice, add some chile, too. In the morning put some cinnamon in your freshly-brewed coffee, in your chocolate, on your cereal, your porridge, under your nose.

Some studies have found that merely smelling the spice can increase alertness and brain function. A study from Wheeling Jesuit University in West Virginia showed that the mere scent increased alertness and decreased frustration while driving. It was reported that “… one study found cinnamon improved scores on tasks such as memory, recognition, visual-motor speed and coordination, and attention.”

Ginger, whose significant ingredient is called gingerol, has been known to significantly help with nausea, vomiting and motion sickness. Gingerol is a powerful anti-oxidant with cancer-fighting attributes that may even help prevent Alzheimer’s. Not only that but you can make ginger-bread and snaps. How can you lose? How could the Chinese survive without the taste and smell of ginger? Heat up the wok, throw in some ginger, garlic and a cayenne pepper and stir-fry fresh vegetables cut to the perfect size, add a little meat, poultry, sea-food or tofu and there is the perfect dinner over steamed rice.

One of the things that reading about spices more deeply than just some books on Chinese or Italian cooking is the deep inter-relationship of the smells, tastes and colors of spices and herbs that make each culture unique. Every book I read about India and almost every article on Desicritics takes note of the smells of the Indian home, the tastes and the table. There is cumin, cardomon, chile and tumeric wafting though short stories and novels. I only wish my health allowed visits to more places, more cultures and the chance for more smells and tastes.

Living in Mexico with a taste for the hot, the picante, what the Mexicans call rico, I thrive on chiles and peppers. It was the fault of two uncles who had a hand in raising me — one Mexican-American (with contents over who could eat the hottest tacos) and one from way back in the bayous of Louisiana. He kept the Tabasco Sauce bottle close by and I, too, learned that it went with everything but dessert. Therefore any research on spices must come to spicy spices. Mexico is filled with different types of chiles - jalapeños, habaneros, chipotle… The Epicentre website has a fine encyclopedia of spices. They describe Capsicum frutescens or cayenne pepper and tell its’ history. I recently wondered if, since I had seen a Chinese movie where the house was covered with strings of drying cayenne, chiles had come from the New World. They did.

The name, cayenne, comes from the Cayenne region of French Guyana from where it supposedly sprung. The name itself is a Tupi Indian name. Cayenne is grown primarily in Mexico, India, East Africa and the U.S. The Epicentre tells us that the cayenne pepper is not very different from the powdered chile save for textural differences. I disagree. I believe the difference between powdered chile and the chile itself is gigantic with the powder providing only heat whereas the pepper provides heat and taste — a unique taste from each type of pepper.

Cayenne has been used for centuries as a medicinal substance. It would appear to lower the chance of developing cardiovascular disease by lowering cholesterol and triglyceride levels. “Cayenne also reduces the platelet aggregation and increases fibrinolytic activity.” It has been used for a number of digestive ailments like gas build-up, is used to relieve cramped muscles and may be useful as an analgesic by enhancing endomorphins and may block the transmission of “substance P” which transmits some pain messages to the brain. Good stuff. Americans and Europeans are beginning to look to spicy cuisines. When the palate adjusts, spiciness becomes much more than just hot. It is filled with taste. Enough taste to help those of us on low-sodium diets. Spice it up and the salt craving is lessened (it never goes away any more than the insidious urge for tobacco ever really leaves).

India may be one of the places with the most visible use and love of spices. It is, after all, the source of spices those adventurers braved so much to reach. The cuisine rests on its colors and smells with a collection of tastes I would wish to learn more about. The Web India site describes cardamom as “the queen of spices”. They describe this “high-priced” spice as

Cardamom is grown in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. It is the dried fruit of a herbaceous perennial plant. Warm humid climate, loamy soil rich in organic matter, distributed rainfall and special cultivation and processing methods all combine to make Indian cardamom truly unique-in aroma, flavor, size and it has parrot green colour. It has well established culinary values, and it is used in a wide range of sweets and confectionery. It is an important ingredient of garam masala, a combination spice for many vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes. Cardamom acts as a mouth-freshener after meals. Tea and coffee made with cardamom are pleasantly aromatic and refreshing.

Besides all these medicinal, aphrodisiac and flavorful points for spiciness in your life, the The Hospitality Institute in St. Paul, Minnesota is working on the anti-microbial facets of spices. Some spices have always been known for their help in preserving foods. Recent work has shown that gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria are slowed with the addition of “… garlic, onion, cinnamon, cloves, thyme, sage, and others…” These spices are being found to inhibit the growth of microbes: Cinnamon, cloves, mustard, allspice, bay leaf, caraway, coriander, cumin, oregano, rosemary, sage, thyme, and, to a lesser extent, black pepper, red pepper and ginger.

The subject fascinated me as I began to read about what I have tasted and/or smelled. There is so much more to go. Here in Mexico there are the cactus which are not spices but interest me with their taste and medicinal qualities (as well as making tequila and mezcal) and those indigenous plants and herbs from the Yucatecan jungle nearby that my velador (guard/assistant/bodyguard) is showing me as we explore the edges of the receding jungle. Hoja Santa, the holy leaf, grows easily in my yard and the jungle nearby and has a strong, unique taste. I use it steamed above a soup or sauce or wrapped around a fish under a banana leaf. Chaya grows for everyone here and, a green leafy, blends wonderfully with eggs and chiles — my favorite breakfast. The only problem are its tiny, hidden thorns and little insects that bite. Picking the leaves is easy but they bite back.

The subject of spices, like herbs, needs a lifetime to explore. That is the lure of the herbalist. It is time to examine closer and harder the spices that have been so important in the history of the world. They seem to have more going for them than even the ancients knew. Science will find the active ingredients — like gingerol — and we will continue to enjoy the magic of the colors, perfumes and tastes.

I neglected the aphrodisiac qualities of spices. Some provide erotic - it is said - smells and others enhance male’s virility. That will have to be another article. I suggest experimenting with it yourself. If you don’t have any success, just sprinkle lots of cinnamon on your mate and find some fun way to take it off. I promise it will have an aphrodisiac effect. If not, it will taste good. Blogcritics is never X-rated, so go to it on your own. Bon Appetit, Provecho, Enjoy!

Health
Food

Spices have caught my interest. There is so much to read and so much to know. That ignores the best parts — so much to smell and taste.

I am writing an article on spices and health that is more complete than the earlier article. This picture surfaced now that my film scanner is finally re-installed and working. It is shared for now and later may be part of the article unless I have found more.

Health
Food

During the past two weeks the editors at Blogcritics have chosen three articles of mine as Editors Picks. I enjoy the honor especially with BC publishing more and more people, more and more good articles. Also, fighting depression, any recognition is important.

Visit: “Chocolate Does Good Things For You”, the movie review for Easy Rider and the “Book Review: 1776 by David McCollough”.

Movies
Books
Health

During the past two weeks the editors at Blogcritics have chosen three articles of mine as Editors Picks. I enjoy the honor especially with BC publishing more and more people, more and more good articles. Also, fighting depression, any recognition is important.

Visit: “Chocolate Does Good Things For You”, the movie review for Easy Rider and the “Book Review: 1776 by David McCollough”.

Movies
Books
Health

It was a good year for a revolution, 1776. Not that it started well. Those radical, barefoot boys and men had come from the farm and the street to become an army of provincials, old men and little boys playing the fife and drum.

It was later, after chasing the redcoats from Boston, that the rag-tag revolutionaries, those British subjects with too few guns; were, themselves, chased out of New York. Think of them, those ill-clad radicals and traitors to the crown. They fought the legal government of the 13 colonies and, later, on 2 July the Continental Congress took the revolutionary step of voting to “dissolve the connection” with Britain. It was a dangerous move – fighting the most powerful nation on earth.

King George was angry. He spoke before Parliament and ordered the insurrection stopped. His choice of commanders, Lord George Germain, thought the rebellion best crushed with a “decisive blow”. Edmund Burke spoke sympathetically for the colonists but even he called them “our “colonies.

236 years later the early part is myth and history, the glorious Revolution has been forgotten. The CIA fights revolutionaries and some fear them, fear the people who flock behind the populists as Fidel’s people once marched misguidedly out of Oriente Province into Havana. 1776 had its’ Tories who fled behind British lines, spied against the would-be “Americans” and, in the end, retreated to the islands, Nova Scotia and the Commonwealth or were man-handled by the “patriots”.

Black (in reality, Afro-British) slaves joined the Tories when they could. Great Britain was decades ahead in the banning of slavery. We revolutionaries waited until 1862 and then had to kill ourselves about it.

David McCollugh writes a great yarn and good history, an action-adventure of a history. He has the story and the myths, the back-home boys writing letters and the Fathers of the nation, those mythological creatures who live on dollar bills and are indoctrinated into our baby heads between pledges of allegiance and anthems. His history does not “come alive”; it radiates.

George Washington is there astride his horse, brave and straight. He looked the Commander and prided himself on making sure he looked the part because he believed that it was a requirement of a leader. His men thought so and wrote home of his being on the battlefields, exhorting and checking, leading his men and learning about them even if he, the Virginia gentleman, acted the aristocrat back at Mount Vernon.

This was a younger Washington than our dollar-hero, this is the 40-something on whose shoulders rested the rest of the story — English colony or world power. He won and we became the world power. Only now do we worry of a nation in decline, its’ Constitution emperiled by the loss of memory of our revolutionary roots and the devotion of the men who forged a democratic republic ruled by law, not kings.

This was the man who, even then, became a hero, a national hero before there was a nation.

McCullough gave me a far better picture of these mythological characters than I have had before. Washington, the Virginia gentlemen and slave-holder is different than our popular myth. No apple tree here but a man who sits tall on his horse, who presents his uniform as a symbol and frets over the problems of his command. He received the command from the Continental Congress but warned them that he might not be up to the task. The problems and, during that year, the routs and failures, some of them his failures, the dead and dying, the cold men in the storm heading down the road to the Delaware River on the retreat from the Battle of Brookly, are his burden that he bears quietly.

In the beginning of August during the rebel siege of Boston, Washington discovers that there are less than 10,000 pounds of gunpowder. He now knows that the army which is to fight the experienced British army and hired Hessians has about 9 rounds per man. “According to one account, Washington was so stunned by the report he did not utter a word for half an hour.”

“These are,” wrote Thomas Paine in The Crisis in December, 1776, “the times that try men’s souls.” Washington’s soul is tried. He worries about the undisciplined army that often walks off when their short enlistments are up. In the middle of a battle, he must “change” armies. The Congress has given him a command but not enough money. A fighting army, we know, crawls on its’ collective wallets.

After the disastrous Battle of Brooklyn and the loss of Fort Washington, New York City is lost and the victory for the Continental Army is only their successful retreat. It is possible to gain support by a disciplined retreat that leaves the enemy surprised that you are gone. But retreats do not win wars.

The army marched in the cold toward Philadelphia. Two men froze to death during the march. General Nathanael Greene had, wisely, suggested a trail of supplies for the retreat that had to come given the British fleet and the nature of New York harbor. It had always been indefensible and somehow Washington ignored that fact until he could no longer defend it. He was brave and charismatic and led the colonies to nationhood. He was not always right.

The surrender of Fort Washington on 16 November was a severe blow to the colonists – 2000 taken prisoner, 59 killed, 146 cannon lost to the British and Hessians in a “matter of hours”. It was a humiliating blow.
The retreat and the loss of Fort Washington produced one notable hero — heroine. Molly Corbin was the widow of a soldier, John Corbin, from Pennsylvania. She accompanied her husband into battle (they weren’t wimpy, those colonial women) and, when he was killed, she took his position. She continued to load and fire the cannon until she, too, was hit. She nearly had her arm amputated. Her captors allowed her to go back to her Pennsylvania home. McCollough gives us good stories on the side.

McCollugh gives what I want in a history of warfare. He presents maps and clear descriptions of the placement of forces and the landscape. His battle scenes could be made into movies with blood, gore and glory.

Better yet, we are reminded just why George Washington crossed the Delaware. I can see him standing tall in his blue coat in the bow of a river scow in the cold and snow. Why did the Founding Father cross the river? To get to the other side, silly. In this case, however, the story is exciting. The retreat from New York was accomplished without losing the army and the war to the outnumbering British and their fleet. The General and his staff planned a crossing of the Delaware above Trenton, New Jersey by 3 elements of his army. Only one succeeds in crossing due to a nor’easter blowing cold and snow, the river freezing or frozen enough to deter the other two flanks of the attack from trying to get across.

You might want to look at the Revolutionary War Page or the British view. The Library of Congress also maintains a great site with Washington’s papers and diaries.

Washington’s papers include an order to the troops about profanity from August, 1776. How much American values have changed!

That the Troops may have an opportunity of attending public worship, as well as take some rest after the great fatigue they have gone through; The General in future excuses them from fatigue duty on Sundays (except at the Ship Yards, or special occasions) until further orders. The General is sorry to be informed that the foolish, and wicked practice, of profane cursing and swearing (a Vice heretofore little known in an American Army) is growing into fashion; he hopes the officers will, by example, as well as influence, endeavour to check it, and that both they, and the men will reflect, that we can have little hopes of the blessing of Heaven on our Arms, if we insult it by our impiety, and folly; added to this, it is a vice so mean and low, without any temptation, that every man of sense, and character, detests and despises it.

In case you hadn’t noticed, I enjoyed the book immensely. It moves. It is also moving. This is a great tale of how we made this nation and the Constitution that protects us and makes America what it has been. I was happily immersed in this adventure story and merely wanted to read more (of the same quality) when it was over. The Revolution went on until 1783.

After so much reading of Washington, Hamilton, Greene, Hancock and Franklin, I can only hope that the present George finds time to read and understand that Constitution.

Our present “George” has designated this “Constitution Week” in a statement from the White House.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim September 17, 2006, as Constitution Day and Citizenship Day, and September 17 through September 23, 2006, as Constitution Week. I encourage Federal, State, and local officials, as well as leaders of civic, social, and educational organizations, to conduct ceremonies and programs that celebrate our Constitution and reaffirm our rights and responsibilities as citizens of our great Nation.

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