Today I showed to my media leadership a U-Tube clip of the Battle of Gettysburg movie, where Col. Joshua Chamberlain of Maine, on Little Round top, saved the Union. It wasn't Grant or Lincoln. The Army of The Potomac had never beaten the Army of Northern Virginia under Lee. It had invaded Pennsylvania, looking for shoes, victory, and taking the war on the offensive. Next stop--Washington D.C.
I asked my students--what do you do if your army is losing? If you've always been beaten by this other army? If they have the better leaders? If you're out of ammunition? If the enemy wins, and therefore defeats your entire army? If two days from now they enter Washington, and win the war? What do you need, other than a miracle?
Answers? A leader with a sixpack( from an Army sergeant (female). A leader who can inspire. A leader with courage.
Watch the clip on UTube, in HD. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjceQjmlzwI
Watch it and cry.
My students, independent thinkers all, think "leadership" at UCO has become a buzzword, but they grabbed this. My guys, the ones in gray, with the star-crossed flag, came up against this rock-hard Mainer who decided to charge, not retreat, and saved the Union on the second day of Gettysburg. The next day, my general, Lee, made the mistake that cost us our cause--ordering Picket's Charge.
Leadership isn't a buzzword--it is written with blood.
Today, Bowdoin College in Maine has a statue on its grounds to a famous ex-president--Col. Joshua Chamberlain. Been there, seen it.
I met one of his descendants 10 years ago...but that is a different story.
I'm a Confederate, a Texan, and--you'll think I'm crazy but I don't care--I marched with Bobby Lee in a former life--but here's to Col. Joshua Chamberlain, who saved the Union.
That's leadership. Thank you Col., from a Confederate.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Pressure and grocery lists
My friend, and poet and seeker K. Lawson Gilbert, says I can make grocery lists interesting....
Hmmm...the pressure, thepressure. "The Horror, the Horror."
Ok scribes, what favorite deceased author of mine is that phrase in and in what story, my favorite?
Hint: "I love the smell of napalm in the morning."
Coming up, an interesting grocery list, I hope.
Hmmm...the pressure, thepressure. "The Horror, the Horror."
Ok scribes, what favorite deceased author of mine is that phrase in and in what story, my favorite?
Hint: "I love the smell of napalm in the morning."
Coming up, an interesting grocery list, I hope.
The last pages of August
The sun inches toward equinox,
announced by the rattling leaves
and the breeze of a fading season
I've turned many pages of poetry
and lived some too, trying
to find the right words
for the changes I sense...
Maybe the answers
are not on the pages,
but in thumbing through them.
announced by the rattling leaves
and the breeze of a fading season
I've turned many pages of poetry
and lived some too, trying
to find the right words
for the changes I sense...
Maybe the answers
are not on the pages,
but in thumbing through them.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
I'm buying a hard hat
I was thinking about it for Halloween, but it'll go further than that.
This weekend, starting tomorrow, is the Oklahoma LaborFest, in the Plaza District, of OKC. Celebrating Labor Unions and Labor Day.
Never been a union member. Don't want to be. But.
Anybody who has the guts to organize such a thing in right wing Oklahoma deserves a nod.
I first learned about it thanks to Jeanetta Calhoun Mish, poet and publisher, http://www.jeanettacalhounmish.com/jeanetta_calhoun_mish/Welcome.htmlwho won a National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum Wrangler award for her book, Work is Love Made Visible--poetry combined with black and white photos of her Oklahoma family background.
She sent me more poetry books to review on this blog, and I've half-obliged (more to come). One of them is Ken Hada. http://vacpoetry.org/hada.htm She said she'd be "personing" a table at the Labor Fest, and reading poetry tomorrow night, along with Ken, at the Labor Fest. You can tell she's a liberal by the use of that word, but she lives in Norman, so what do you expect? Owner of Mongrel Empire Press. Anybody who names something after a Mongrel has to be an American. http://www.mongrelempirepress.com/Welcome.htmlWe're all mongrels.
I'm going. I might buy a hard hat tomorrow just for the fun of it. $9.98 at Home Depot. My uncle E.T. Culp, Momma's baby brother, was a big union man and Democrat in Nacogdoches Worked for Ma Bell. Union dues and wages helped set him and his lovely wife Lamerle, up for a comfortable retirement, and provide for my two cousins, David and Chalres, Lindy--whose photos you've seen in earlier posts). Of course those two renegades are now right-wingers much to their parents loving chagrin. "There are things," LaMerle told me in my last visit, in her soft East Texas accemt, "that we just don't talk about."
Is this boring you? I'm finding stories everywhere these days, and they're fun to hear and tell.
Back to the Labor Fest, on 16th Street , just down the road from some right-wing friends who live on Carey Place. Think I'll go buy and ring their door bell, just to irritate them.
I'll wear my pre-Halloween decorated hard hat.
Wait till I tell you the decals I'll put on it...Palin, Unions, Infidels, NRA, Arizona, Confederate flag, A Texas flag with Secede on it, WWJD (What would Jesus do), next to Nuke Iran, you get the picture. More on that later.
Anyway, come to the Poetry reading at Coffy's cafe between 7 and 9 tomorrow. These are Oklahoma poets writing about Oklahoma people--not sicky rhyming stuff, not political, just about real people.
Look for me in my hard hat.
http://www.redflagpress.com/oklahomarevelator/laborfest/
This weekend, starting tomorrow, is the Oklahoma LaborFest, in the Plaza District, of OKC. Celebrating Labor Unions and Labor Day.
Never been a union member. Don't want to be. But.
Anybody who has the guts to organize such a thing in right wing Oklahoma deserves a nod.
I first learned about it thanks to Jeanetta Calhoun Mish, poet and publisher, http://www.jeanettacalhounmish.com/jeanetta_calhoun_mish/Welcome.htmlwho won a National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum Wrangler award for her book, Work is Love Made Visible--poetry combined with black and white photos of her Oklahoma family background.
She sent me more poetry books to review on this blog, and I've half-obliged (more to come). One of them is Ken Hada. http://vacpoetry.org/hada.htm She said she'd be "personing" a table at the Labor Fest, and reading poetry tomorrow night, along with Ken, at the Labor Fest. You can tell she's a liberal by the use of that word, but she lives in Norman, so what do you expect? Owner of Mongrel Empire Press. Anybody who names something after a Mongrel has to be an American. http://www.mongrelempirepress.com/Welcome.htmlWe're all mongrels.
I'm going. I might buy a hard hat tomorrow just for the fun of it. $9.98 at Home Depot. My uncle E.T. Culp, Momma's baby brother, was a big union man and Democrat in Nacogdoches Worked for Ma Bell. Union dues and wages helped set him and his lovely wife Lamerle, up for a comfortable retirement, and provide for my two cousins, David and Chalres, Lindy--whose photos you've seen in earlier posts). Of course those two renegades are now right-wingers much to their parents loving chagrin. "There are things," LaMerle told me in my last visit, in her soft East Texas accemt, "that we just don't talk about."
Is this boring you? I'm finding stories everywhere these days, and they're fun to hear and tell.
Back to the Labor Fest, on 16th Street , just down the road from some right-wing friends who live on Carey Place. Think I'll go buy and ring their door bell, just to irritate them.
I'll wear my pre-Halloween decorated hard hat.
Wait till I tell you the decals I'll put on it...Palin, Unions, Infidels, NRA, Arizona, Confederate flag, A Texas flag with Secede on it, WWJD (What would Jesus do), next to Nuke Iran, you get the picture. More on that later.
Anyway, come to the Poetry reading at Coffy's cafe between 7 and 9 tomorrow. These are Oklahoma poets writing about Oklahoma people--not sicky rhyming stuff, not political, just about real people.
Look for me in my hard hat.
http://www.redflagpress.com/oklahomarevelator/laborfest/
East texas cousins, chapter 3
One more photo, to go with my thoughts on East Texas
 | |
| Notice the trio of trouble at right on the back row...David Culp, Terry, Charles (Lindy) bottom row from right, Tommy Culp, Jerry Clark, Brenda Gee. I think the other girls are all Son''s. I'm sure my mouth cousin Sarah Beth will correct me.. |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)