American History

Curse-Word Map Pushes Parental Indiscretion Top Of Mind

Posted on January 5, 2016 by CharlieClaywell

Curse words. Love ’em or hate ’em, they’re an integral part of any language. Some people are quite adept at the art of cursing, while others, like Captain Kirk of Star Trek fame, struggle.

I recently came across a study (below) which details which colorful metaphor is preferred in each section of our country. Since I try to keep this blog PG-13, be advised the study contains the F-Word (and the S-Word, the H-Word, etc.). I say it that way because when my daughter, Molly, was about six or seven we went on vacation at Topsail Island, North Carolina. While on the trip, we took a cruise up the Intracoastal Waterway — a river that divides Topsail Island from the mainland.

It was a sunset cruise and we were all enjoying the view, when I overheard Molly telling a stranger’s 6 or 7 year-old daughter, that she knew the F-Word, the S-Word, the D-Word and the H-Word.

I blamed my wife for the indiscretion, but to be fair the D-word was all mine. When Molly was two or three, something went amiss in her world and she exclaimed — dammit!

“Who’d you hear using that word,” I asked irritated.

“You,” she said.

Defending A Dialect

In my early 20s, I visited the east coast (in the dead of winter — what was I thinking) and visited Boston (again what was I thinking) with a friend. When we became lost, we stopped a man on a sidewalk to get directions. The man spoke with a heavy Boston accent and he loved the F-Word. He used it liberally, sprinkling it throughout the conversation with complete abandon — punctuating every minor point with a F-Bomb.

Finally, my friend, who was driving, decided enough was enough. He told the slightly drunk man, who was having a very difficult time supplying us with clear directions, that we had to be going.

“Besides,” my friend added, “I don’t really appreciate the way you talk.”

“We’ve been talking this way for over two hundred *f!$#!* years,” the man said.

Well, based on the curse-word map — he may have been right (although maybe he was referring to his accent).

Click here to learn which curse words are most popular in your region.

Categories: American History, Funny Stories

Buy Your Way Out Of War Duty

Posted on January 3, 2016 by CharlieClaywell

One of the most interesting aspects of American culture, for me, is the current obsession with the military. In this modern age to say anything even remotely non-supportive of the military or a military action is considered unpatriotic and sacrilegious.

But, even an amateur student of American history can figure out that has not always been the norm.

Possibly the most egregious violation of civil rights and liberties in the United States concerning war duty occurred during the Civil War. Riots and violence broke out on multiple occasions in the North over the practice of paying a commutation fee of $300 to avoid active duty. This approach kept wealthy men like J.P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie and even future president Grover Cleveland out of harm’s way.

But whereas the payment was pocket change for the wealthy, it was a significant sum for the average man to fork over — and the practice effectively separated the North into two classes of people. As the Harrisburg (Pa.) Patriot and Union noted in an editorial,

The odious $300 exemption clause which throws the whole burden upon the poor, while exempting the rich, should certainly be repealed; and we think the clause permitting substitutes to be taken is of the same character, and liable to even greater objections.

Besides the obvious non-democratic method of soldier selection, the concept created an army built more on profit than patriotism. Scandals Of The Civil War reports that 137 soldiers deserted an Army of the Potomac detachment of 625 men. The men had been sent to reinforce a New Hampshire regiment, but 86 of them joined the Confederacy while 36 soldiers simply headed back home.

Source: Scandals of the Civil War by Douglas Lee Gibboney.

Categories: American History, Civil War History

History Of The Pledge of Allegiance Not Divine

Posted on January 2, 2016 by CharlieClaywell

For some Americans the four most important documents are, in order:

The King James Bible
The U.S. Constitution
The Bill of Rights
The Pledge of Allegiance

Of the four, I find the need of many Americans to rally around the phrase “under God” in the Pledge intriguing.

In the modern era of social media, you can expect a post to cycle and re-cycle on Facebook — telling us to keep ‘under God’ in the Pledge. Of course, the post fails to point out that ‘under God’ was never part of the original Pledge.

Origin Of The Pledge

The Pledge was written in response to a late-1800s writing contest for Youth’s Companion, a family magazine with half a million subscribers. Smithsonian magazine explains how a former Baptist ministry set out to write the Pledge as part of a marketing campaign for the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’ arrival in the New World.

As (Francis) Bellamy sat down at his desk, the opening words—”I pledge allegiance to my flag”—tumbled onto paper. Then, after two hours of “arduous mental labor,” as he described it, he produced a succinct and rhythmic tribute very close to the one we know today: I pledge allegiance to my flag and the Republic for which it stands—one Nation indivisible—with liberty and justice for all. (Bellamy later added the “to” before “the Republic” for better cadence.)

It did not take long, though, for the rewording to begin. As the article points out:

In 1923, a National Flag Conference, presided over by the American Legion and the Daughters of the American Revolution, ordained that “my flag” should be changed to “the flag of the United States,” lest immigrant children be unclear just which flag they were saluting.The following year, the Flag Conference refined the phrase further, adding “of America.”

Putting ‘Under God’ In The Pledge

The Pledge was tweaked to its final form during the Red Scare when Congress approved the addition of the words “under God” within the phrase “one nation indivisible.” On June 14, 1954, President Dwight Eisenhower signed the bill into law.

What I have always found interesting about the Pledge is how the Founding Fathers did not feel the need for its citizens to ‘pledge allegiance’ to the flag. Allegiance, of course, can be a slippery slope — it can lead to the naïve belief that unless someone behaves and acts like you, then they are not patriotic, American or a ‘true citizen.’

At least one of the Founding Fathers, Thomas Jefferson, wasn’t a proponent of forcing God or religion into the political arena. Jefferson once said,