They are burying Joe Paterno today.

Many many people will stand up and talk about all the good things he did, while others will stand outside and try to remind people that it is the responsibility of good men and women everywhere to fight evil where they see it.

Throughout the past century there have been many countless cases of people who were not necessarily evil, but who stood by while evil happened.

There was the murder of Catherine Susan “Kitty” Genovese.
The actions of everyday people to German concentration and extermination camps.
The rounding up and internment of American citizens during WWII.

Such evil occurs every day because people who are not bad–who are not evil–ignore it. Because people think “someone else will do something about that.” Because people believe that if someone in power has allowed it, it cannot be wrong.

But it IS wrong.

A story appeared on Daily KOS about child molestation. I warn you, it is upsetting and distressing, not just the descriptions, but the realization that what is described happened to a ten year old child.

It should be read by all those who think that Joe Paterno is a hero to be worshiped.

He isn’t.

I am not saying he was a bad man.

I am not saying he did not attempt and achieve good things when given the opportunity that came his way.

But when push came to shove, when he was confronted with true evil, he did what most people do: He passed the buck and hoped that someone else would take care of the problem.

He had the power to stop evil, but he didn’t use it.

He did not make a stand when his legendary prowess and strength were most needed.

He allowed evil to occur, thinking–hoping most likely–that someone else was dealing with it. Hoping someone else would take care of it.

That failure? It doesn’t make him evil, it just makes him a coward.

To be honest, most of us are cowards. Few people in the world are willing to stand up against wrongdoing. To speak out against injustice.

Because it’s hard.

Standing up means that you will face ridicule. Disdain. Threats. Maybe even death.

Most people don’t have the heart or the balls to see what is right in front of them and take action. After all, it’s not their loved one in harm’s way. They have to look out for themselves, to protect those they love, first. Right?

Standing up against evil, against what is wrong is so very hard. It’s something that most people can’t do.

Does that make those people evil? I don’t know, but I don’t think so.

But it does mean they most certainly are not heroes. They are not deserving of worship and adulation by strangers.

So on this day when tributes are being made to Joe Paterno, I believe we are better served considering individuals and organizations that are in truth heroic. That have stood up and said: NO. This will not happen. I will not allow such evil to pass unnoticed and unremarked.

Erika Heymann
Paul Rusesabagina
Gyöngyi Mago

Simon Wiesenthal Center
National Sexual Assault Online Hotline
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children

And maybe–just maybe–next time you see a wrong, you’ll stand up and say something. You’ll do what is right instead of what is expedient. You’ll take the hard road, strewn with ridicule and danger, and think not of yourself, but of the weak and the powerless who cannot stand up for themselves.

December 11, 1964

…A second evil which plagues the modern world is that of poverty. Like a monstrous octopus, it projects its nagging, prehensile tentacles in lands and villages all over the world. Almost two-thirds of the peoples of the world go to bed hungry at night. They are undernourished, ill-housed, and shabbily clad. Many of them have no houses or beds to sleep in. Their only beds are the sidewalks of the cities and the dusty roads of the villages. Most of these poverty-stricken children of God have never seen a physician or a dentist. This problem of poverty is not only seen in the class division between the highly developed industrial nations and the so-called underdeveloped nations; it is seen in the great economic gaps within the rich nations themselves. Take my own country for example. We have developed the greatest system of production that history has ever known. We have become the richest nation in the world. Our national gross product this year will reach the astounding figure of almost 650 billion dollars. Yet, at least one-fifth of our fellow citizens – some ten million families, comprising about forty million individuals – are bound to a miserable culture of poverty. In a sense the poverty of the poor in America is more frustrating than the poverty of Africa and Asia. The misery of the poor in Africa and Asia is shared misery, a fact of life for the vast majority; they are all poor together as a result of years of exploitation and underdevelopment. In sad contrast, the poor in America know that they live in the richest nation in the world, and that even though they are perishing on a lonely island of poverty they are surrounded by a vast ocean of material prosperity. Glistening towers of glass and steel easily seen from their slum dwellings spring up almost overnight. Jet liners speed over their ghettoes at 600 miles an hour; satellites streak through outer space and reveal details of the moon. President Johnson, in his State of the Union Message12, emphasized this contradiction when he heralded the United States’ “highest standard of living in the world”, and deplored that it was accompanied by “dislocation; loss of jobs, and the specter of poverty in the midst of plenty”.

So it is obvious that if man is to redeem his spiritual and moral “lag”, he must go all out to bridge the social and economic gulf between the “haves” and the “have nots” of the world. Poverty is one of the most urgent items on the agenda of modern life…

…The time has come for an all-out world war against poverty. The rich nations must use their vast resources of wealth to develop the underdeveloped, school the unschooled, and feed the unfed. Ultimately a great nation is a compassionate nation. No individual or nation can be great if it does not have a concern for “the least of these”. Deeply etched in the fiber of our religious tradition is the conviction that men are made in the image of God and that they are souls of infinite metaphysical value, the heirs of a legacy of dignity and worth. If we feel this as a profound moral fact, we cannot be content to see men hungry, to see men victimized with starvation and ill health when we have the means to help them. The wealthy nations must go all out to bridge the gulf between the rich minority and the poor majority.

In the final analysis, the rich must not ignore the poor because both rich and poor are tied in a single garment of destiny. All life is interrelated, and all men are interdependent. The agony of the poor diminishes the rich, and the salvation of the poor enlarges the rich. We are inevitably our brothers’ keeper because of the interrelated structure of reality…/blockquote>

Prickett Fort Cemetery is a private cemetery located in Prickett’s Fort State Park. It was established in the late 1700s, and contains markers that in some cases are nothing more than simple stones.

There were “newer” stones that had obviously replaced older worn stones, but even many of the stones from the early 1900s are wearing and will soon be illegible.

Very humbling to think that even the stone markers we leave as our memorials eventually return to nothing more than stone, with our passing and history erased.

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Barrackville Covered Bridge

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Prickett’s Fort State Park was only about 15 minutes from our house when I was a teenager and young adult. Yet I don’t ever remember going there.

Of course, this isn’t as illogical as it sounds. The son of friends of my parents was killed there, struck by a train, when I was eight or nine years old. (Their daughter is the same age as me, and the memories of the day of the funeral are still sharp.) It just never seemed like a fun place to go.

But, today I decided it was time to leave the past in the past, so we went. It was a little odd, but I’m glad I finally decided to let myself get past it.

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For those who have served this country, past and present, thank you for your service.

The following 146 people lost their lives in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire.

Leone, Kate, 14
Maltese, Rosaria, 14
Brodsky, Ida, 15
Mehl, Rose, 15
Viviano, Bessie, 15
Altman, Anna, 16
Billota, Vincenza, 16
Cooper, Sarah, 16
Franco, Jenne, 16
Grasso, Rosie, 16
Koppelman, Beckie, 16
Kupferschmidt, Tillie, 16
L’Abbate, Annie, 16
Midolo, Gaetana, 16
Miller, Annie, 16
Pasqualicchio, Antonietta, 16
Stellino, Jennie, 16
Brenman, Sarah, 17
Brunetti, Laura, 17
Cammarata, Josephine, 17
Caputo, Francesca, 17
Eisenberg, Celia, 17
Gerstein, Molly, 17
Gitlin, Celia, 17
Rosen, Israel, 17
Sabasowitz, Sarah, 17
Shapiro, Rosie, 17
Tortorelli, Isabella, 17
Weintraub, Sarah, 17
Wisotsky, Sonia, 17
Berger, Yetta, 18
Brooks, Ada, 18
Cirrito, Rosina, 18
Evans, Dora, 18
Fichtenholtz, Yetta, 18
Friedman, Rose, 18
Gerjuoy, Diana, 18
Goldstein, Mary, 18
Grossman, Rachel, 18
Hollander, Fannie, 18
Kanowitz, Ida, 18
Kaplan, Tessie, 18
Lehrer, Max, 18
Maiale, Bettina, 18
Nicholas, Annie, 18
Nussbaum, Sadie, 18
Pack, Annie, 18
Pildescu, Jennie, 18
Reines, Beckie, 18
Schiffman, Gussie, 18
Sorkin, Rose, 18
Stein, Jennie, 18
Wendorff, Bertha, 18
Bernstein, Essie, 19
Bernstein, Morris, 19
Dockman, Clara, 19
Horowitz, Pauline, 19
Jukofsky, Ida, 19
Kessler, Beckie, 19
Kula, Bertha, 19
Kurtz, Benjamin, 19
Lehrer, Sam, 19
Levin, Jennie, 19
Levine, Pauline, 19
Liermark, Rose, 19
Meyers, Yetta, 19
Neubauer, Beckie, 19
Oberstein, Julia, 19
Oringer, Rose, 19
Schpunt, Golda, 19
Caruso, Albina, 20
Feibisch, Rebecca, 20
Goldstein, Esther, 20
Goldstein, Yetta, 20
Maltese, Lucia, 20
Ostrovsky , Beckie, 20
Pearl, Ida, 20
Saracino, Teresina, 20
Schneider, Ethel, 20
Taback, Sam, 20
Velakofsky, Frieda, 20
Weiner, Rosie, 20
Brodsky, Sarah, 21
Del Castillo, Josie, 21
Hochfeld, Esther, 21
Lansner, Fannie, 21
Lederman, Jennie, 21
Maiale, Frances, 21
Nicolosi, Michelina, 21
Prato, Emilia, 21
Rosen, Fannie, 21
Rosenberg, Jennie, 21
Rosenthal, Nettie, 21
Schochet, Violet, 21
Weisner, Tessie, 21
Welfowitz, Dora, 21
Benanti, Vincenza, 22
Bierman, Gussie, 22
Giannattasio, Catherine, 22
Goldstein, Lena, 22
Leventhal, Mary, 22
Mankofsky, Rose, 22
Prestifilippo, Concetta, 22
Rosenbaum, Yetta, 22
Rosenfeld, Gussie, 22
Rothstein, Emma, 22
Rotner, Theodore, 22
Stiglitz, Jennie, 22
Terranova, Clotilde, 22
Uzzo, Catherine, 22
Wilson, Joseph, 22
Brenman, Rosie, 23
Florin, Max, 23
Klein, Jacob, 23
Liebowitz, Nettie, 23
Utal, Meyer, 23
Adler, Lizzie, 24
Donick, Kalman, 24
Salemi, Santina, 24
Schwartz, Margaret, 24
Ardito, Annina, 25
Cohen, Anna, 25
Cordiano , Michelina, 25
Dashefsky, Bessie, 25
Greb, Bertha, 25
Saracino, Sarafina, 25
Sklover, Ben, 25
Fitze, Daisy Lopez, 26
Floresta, Mary, 26
Manaria, Maria, 27
Binowitz, Abraham, 30
Colletti, Annie, 30
Pinelli, Vincenza, 30
Starr, Annie, 30
Bassino, Rose, 31
Carlisi, Josephine, 31
Schmidt, Theresa, 32
Lauletti, Maria Giuseppa, 33
Rosen (Loeb), Louis, 33
Seltzer, Jacob, 33
Rosen, Julia, 35
Ciminello, Annie, 36
Bernstein, Jacob, 38
Maltese, Catherine, 39
Herman, Mary, 40
Panno, Provindenza, 43

Photos from the Cornell memorial site.

Photos from the NY Times.

Thanks Jim!

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.
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Yesterday, December 7, 1941 – a date which will live in infamy – the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.

The Pearl Harbor attack kliied 2,403 and wounded 1,178. Twenty-one ships were sunk or damaged, including the USS Arizona, which remains on the harbor floor, and the USS West Virginia, which was eventually refloated, repaired, and rejoined the fleet towards the end of the war.

Images from the Pearl Harbor attack.

USS Arizona Restoration

Information about the Pearl Harbor Attack.

The USS West Virginia, including pictures of the ship from the 20s through the “mothballing” of the ship in the 1950s (She was later broken up and sold for scrap).

The USS Arizona, from the University of Arizona, including a brief history and online exhibits.

President Roosevelt’s speech in response to the other attacks that day.

Is anyone else boggled by the amazing irony of this?

Laid out at last weekend’s NATO summit in Portugal, the partnership would involve a greater role for Russia in the U.S.-NATO war in Afghanistan.

92 years ago today The Great War, the War to End All Wars, official ended.

Twenty one years later, the second World War started, and horrors even greater were seen and experienced by soldiers and civilians alike.

On May 26, 1954, President Eisenhower officially changed Armistice Day–a day to honor those who fought in WWI–to Veterans Day, to honor all veterans.

Five years later, the Vietnam War would begin, and the American view of military service would change profoundly.

Of all the war memorials in the US (not including Arlington Memorial Cemetery) I believe that the Vietnam War Memorial is the most profoundly affecting.

Because the war was so controversial, and because so many veterans were treated shamefully upon their return home, that I find The Wall so affecting. It is if, as a country, we suddenly woke up to the wrongness of our actions. To me, the Wall, and the listing of the names of those who died, is in part an apology to each soldier listed there, it makes them individuals remembered for their service that was so unappreciated at the time.

For the current wars, we have digital memorials that are updated daily, remembering those who have died with more than just names. And these memorials are deeply affecting. But nothing compares to standing at the wall and seeing name after name listed. The sheer magnitude of the loss is almost overwhelming.

On Veterans’ Day, we should remember the individuals who have served, but in remembering the individual losses, we should not lose sight of the vast number who have given their lives in their service. We should remember not just those individuals who served and the sacrifices they made, but also the loss to the country of so many of our sons and daughters.

American Military Service from the Civil War to the First Gulf War
U.S. Military Service During War 41,891,368
Battle Deaths 651,030
Other Deaths (In Theater) 308,800
Other Deaths in Service (Non-Theater) 230,279
Non-mortal Woundings 1,431,290

To those who serve, past and present, thank you for your sacrifices so that we may remain free.

Inter Arma Silent Leges
-Cicero

If we let people see that kind of thing, there would never again be any war.
– Pentagon official, on why US military censored graphic footage from the Gulf War

It is well that war is so terrible; else we would grow too fond of it
– Robert E. Lee

A man’s country is not a certain area of land, of mountains, rivers, and woods, but it is a principle; and patriotism is loyalty to that principle.
– George William Curtis

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.

The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.
– Thomas Jefferson

Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.
-Abraham Lincoln

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
– Benjamin Franklin

We must be free not because we claim freedom, but because we practice it.
– William Faulkner

Eileen Mary “Didi” Nearne was born in London on March 15 1921 into a large Anglo-Spanish family which moved to France during the interwar years; she was thus brought up speaking French. When France fell the Nearnes fled through Spain, eventually arriving in England in mid-1942. Eileen Nearne and her older sister, Jacqueline, joined the FANY, but their language skills were highly prized and later they and their brother, Francis, were recruited by SOE.
…
On July 21 1944, however, she was arrested. Despite prolonged and brutal interrogation she maintained her cover that she was a girl from the south looking for work who had been asked to send messages on behalf of a businessman. Didi Nearne was subjected to water torture, being held face down in a cold bath until she nearly drowned, but did not crack.
…
Of her time as an agent, she told one interviewer: “It was a life in the shadows, but I think I was suited for it. I could be hard and secret, I could be lonely, I could be independent, but I wasn’t bored. I liked the work. After the war, I missed it.”