Day 242 - I Hate Hughesnet

[farad]

I meant to post this to WriMo but I set it to Daybook and now I can't delete it because I can't stay logged long enough to do so.  HUGHESNET SUCKS.

All of that said - here's today's post to Wrimo.

I went looking for the history of "Labor Day", wondering if our guys would have celebrated it.  It doesn't officially become an issue until 1886, and then, in New York.

But what I found that was a little more angsty is Memorial Day:

"

Three years after the Civil War ended, on May 5, 1868, the head of an organization of Union veterans — the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) — established Decoration Day as a time for the nation to decorate the graves of the war dead with flowers. Maj. Gen. John A. Logan declared that Decoration Day should be observed on May 30. It is believed that date was chosen because flowers would be in bloom all over the country.

The first large observance was held that year at Arlington National Cemetery, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C.

The ceremonies centered around the mourning-draped veranda of the Arlington mansion, once the home of Gen. Robert E. Lee. Various Washington officials, including Gen. and Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant, presided over the ceremonies. After speeches, children from the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Orphan Home and members of the GAR made their way through the cemetery, strewing flowers on both Union and Confederate graves, reciting prayers and singing hymns.

Local Observances Claim To Be First Local springtime tributes to the Civil War dead already had been held in various places. One of the first occurred in Columbus, Miss., April 25, 1866, when a group of women visited a cemetery to decorate the graves of Confederate soldiers who had fallen in battle at Shiloh. Nearby were the graves of Union soldiers, neglected because they were the enemy. Disturbed at the sight of the bare graves, the women placed some of their flowers on those graves, as well.

Today, cities in the North and the South claim to be the birthplace of Memorial Day in 1866. Both Macon and Columbus, Ga., claim the title, as well as Richmond, Va. The village of Boalsburg, Pa., claims it began there two years earlier. A stone in a Carbondale, Ill., cemetery carries the statement that the first Decoration Day ceremony took place there on April 29, 1866. Carbondale was the wartime home of Gen. Logan. Approximately 25 places have been named in connection with the origin of Memorial Day, many of them in the South where most of the war dead were buried."  (http://www1.va.gov/opa/speceven/memday/history.asp).

It makes me wonder - do our guys have this moment of commemoration? Even if they fought on different sides, would they come together, around the saloon table or a campfire or - somewhere - to honor the ones they knew who died? 

Comments

[solosundance]

Even if they fought on different sides, would they come together, around the saloon table or a campfire or - somewhere - to honor the ones they knew who died?

I wonder, and if so, who would initiate such a commemmoration? Someone whose service the others knew about, like Buck and Chris perhaps, or maybe someone whose service the others didn't... and how hard might it be to keep perspective when the stories start coming out. Whether combatants or not, the war would have shaped them all in different ways. Hopefully remembrance, however they chose to do it, would bring them closer, maybe be cathartic. Although... your scenario makes me think of two guys I knew at college from opposite sides of the Troubles in northern Ireland, well known for being close and easy-going with one another about it all... until one day (a traditional day of marching on one side) when just one little word out of place was said and a whole bunch of unexpected anger came out and wrecked their friendship. Not quite the same kind of thing as you're talking about - they were both civilians who happened to be living either side of the divide - but illustrative that where conflict is involved, certain tensions/memories/emotions can always be near the surface.

[farad]

Not quite the same kind of thing as you're talking about - they were both civilians who happened to be living either side of the divide - but illustrative that where conflict is involved, certain tensions/memories/emotions can always be near the surface.

No, that's a lot of what it was here, too - and sometimes still is. In the period after the war, starting in 1865, but growing after the economic collapse of 1873, a large number of people left the south because of the destitution the war wrought - and the inability to rebuild economically afterwards. Many of them came West. The scene in "The Trial" with Sheriff Stains is one that was probably rather common in the period after the war. I suspect there would be a lot of possible problems between and amongst the seven, especially if they had fought and watched friends and relatives die - and die in horrible ways.

There's a level at which I think that sort of 'agree to disagree' concept is elemental to Mag 7 though; the boys do come from different pasts and different backgrounds and they have some intrinsic differences of opinion. Ezra is the one we see that most clearly with, but I think it's at the heart of almost all the characters. That's part of what makes it so wonderful- they do, consciously at times, agree to disagree, which means more than just 'not talking about it'. It means not making smart remarks at times, not alluding to differences, not forgetting that there are ways in which they do not agree and bringing them back up all the time. It's part of why the little things, like BUck handing Vin his horse's reins at the end of "Manhunt", and Nathan going after Ezra in "Chinatown", and Ezra loaning Nathan the money to start with in "Chinatown" are big deals - they do things that are against their principles for the sake of the friendships, they're playing in areas of 'grey' where the friendship means more. It's a hard thing to do sometimes.