Friday, February 12, 2010
[1793 - Congress enacts the first fugitive slave law]
[1809 - Charles Darwin, naturalist, born in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England]
[1809 - Abraham Lincoln, 16th U.S. President, born on Nolin Creek in Kentucky]
[1837 - Thomas Moran, painter, conservationist,
born in Bolton, England]
[1880 - John L. Lewis, leader United Mine Workers
of America, born in Lucas, Iowa]
[1881 - Anna (Pavlovna) Pavlova, prima ballerina, born in St. Petersburg, Russia]
[1893 - Omar Nelson Bradley, U.S. Army General, first Chairman
Joint Chiefs of Staff, born in Clark, Missouri]
[1915 - Lorne Greene (Lyon Chaim Green),
actor, born in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada]
[1919 - Forrest Tucker, actor, born in Plainfield, Indiana]
[1986 - Anatoly Scharansky, human rights activist,
released after 8 years in Soviet prisons & labor camps]
Life Goes On
The time span of this little almanac is not large. A few centuries, on average, separate the oldest entry from the most recent event listed on any given day. Although several hundred years may seem a long time, not much really changes in terms of the human condition in such a time. In today's example we see our own fledgling government taking steps to institutionalize slavery in the late 18th Century. The concept that one man could own another and benefit from his labors was widespread in that era.
In today's last entry we again find late 20th Century government in a foreign land exacting forced labor from dissidents as the price of speaking out against the state. Tyranny may have gone out of fashion in our own country, but it appears to be alive and well in too many places on this planet.
William's Whimsical Words:
No matter how repressive laws may be and how brutally they may be enforced by those in power, freedom eventually does break out.
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