The America Comes Alive!™ Blog

Think Today's Game of Football is Tough?

2010-02-07T01:02:20Z

When the Saints and the Colts take the field this Sunday for Super Bowl XLIV, their uniforms and protective gear differ markedly from the gear worn by those who played the game 90 years ago.

A family photograph of the 1917 University of Colorado football team, for which my grandfather played quarterback, hangs in our front hall and shows a very different player of what was clearly a different type of game. The photograph is one of those marvelous panoramic ones that stretch three feet wide, and it depicts two striking elements about the team: The first is the size of the men. My grandfather was 6'2" and at least half the players in this photograph are taller than he is. I always thought previous generations were somewhat shorter in stature than we are...not true with those farm boys. I might add that these players were tall and rangy, not like the muscle-bound players of today.

The second element that catches everyone's attention is their protective gear--or lack of it. The players are wearing very small shoulder pads, more akin to ladies' fashion shoulder pads of the 1980s. The men's thighs are covered with some type of padding, and they may be wearing thin shin guards. For the sake of the picture, each player's small leather helmet is placed on the ground in front of him. Face masks did not exist at that time. None of the gear seems capable of having protected against almost any kind of injury.

Their footwear looks like a well-crafted leather work boot. The boots may have had cleats that are not visible in the photo.

This photo--and the upcoming Super Sunday--sent me on a mission to find out more about early football. I learned that it was a rough game with inadequate protective gear. ]]> Football Helmets

Football was first played in the late 1870s by college men. In these early games, no protective gear at all was worn. The first helmet was crafted by a shoemaker in 1893 for a player gearing up for the Army-Navy game. A Navy doctor had warned the player that he would be risking death or "instant insanity" if he took another kick to the head. From that time on, the helmet began being worn occasionally by some of the players. (Helmets were not mandatory until the 1930s.) The amount of protection offered is debatable; the early helmets resembled aviator caps more than football helmets. Some players wore them to reduce the development of "cauliflower ear," and they may have been effective for that.

Today when Peyton Manning or Drew Brees looks out across the field, each quarterback is aided in finding their team members by scanning for the appropriate color of helmet. Early helmets were all very similar and were simply "leather color," so picking out a team mate by head gear was not part of the process. Only as game rivalries began to increase did players think of painting the helmets so that players down the field could be more easily spotted.

Increase in Rules

Today's players are not only fortunate to have better gear, but they definitely benefit from having more stringent rules that are enforced by the referees. (The game is made even safer since an all-seeing camera can provide instant replay to enhance a ref's ability to call the game.)

In its early days, football was a very rough game with few behavioral guidelines: slugging, group tackling, and a general spirit of unsportsmanlike behavior were very much a part of the play, according to John Sayle Watterson in his exhaustive book, College Football. In the Harvard-Yale game of 1894, Yale's Frank Hinkey, known for rough play, leaped onto a Harvard player's shoulder and neck, breaking the Harvard player's collar bone with his knee.

During the first half, Yale's tackle, identified only as "Murphy," had poked Harvard's Mott Hallowell in the eye, causing bleeding, and the Harvard team was intent on avenging this injury. Murphy had already had a pretty rough time of it. He was still in the game despite having suffered such a hard blow to the head that he was disoriented "and had to be told after each play the direction of his own goal." Harvard eventually had the satisfaction of seeing Murphy leave the field permanently on a stretcher.

Ultimately the game resulted in more injuries and violence than had ever occurred before. Nine substitutes replaced players who were either hurt or ejected for over-the-top behavior we can only guess at. Six players were seriously injured, and Yale's Murphy was taken to the hospital where he remained in a coma until later that day.

By 1905 the level of violence in the game had continued to escalate. That year 18 players died (there were 20 times fewer players in those days) from injuries suffered in the game, and as a result, fewer men were interested in playing football.

This caught the interest of none other than U.S. President Teddy Roosevelt. Ten of his Rough Riders listed "football player" as their profession. He knew and respected many who played the game, and Roosevelt felt football was good for the body and built strong character. He began advocating for reform in football with a greater emphasis on safety.

There was no NFL at the time, the sport was strictly a college game, so Roosevelt invited representatives from the Big Three (Harvard, Yale, and Princeton) to the White House to talk about creating rules to eliminate foul play and brutality. What grew out of this meeting was the American Football Rules Committee that began to implement regulations that would make the game less dangerous.

While today's game certainly takes a toll on the men who choose to play it, they can be thankful that technology has provided scientists with the ability to create better protective gear, and they can be glad Teddy Roosevelt pushed to remake the game so that it could continue. In addition, the players of 2010 might give a chest bump in honor of the tough players like my grandfather who helped create the game they play today.

War Communication Before Modern Technology

2010-01-27T15:46:39Z

Today our military has access to many ways to observe the enemy. From unmanned drones that fly reconnaissance missions to satellite imagery and infrared sensors to detect enemy presence, modern technology permits battles to be plotted by GPS and tracked via computer in ways that earlier military units could not even imagine.

On a recent visit to Gettysburg Battlefield, the licensed battlefield guide reminded our group of the Civil War novel, Killer Angels by Michael Shaara. My interest was caught immediately by the opening chapter, "The Spy," which focuses on a lone rider, a former actor and non-military man, who scouted the movement of Union troops for Lieutenant General James Longstreet, Robert E. Lee's second in command.

The thought of this "hired gun" being an important part of the Confederate war cabinet sent me on a mission to find out more about how the military observed the enemy and communicated their movements during the Civil War.

]]> As indicated in Killer Angels, spies (called scouts if they were in military uniform) were important for providing intelligence to the officers. The spies or scouts rode through potential battlefield areas, observing troop movement and talking to townspeople to pick up any information the locals had gleaned as to the plans of the enemy.

Letters with military orders were sent by courier, from brigade to nearby brigade as well as for much longer distances. These missives were often sent in an agreed-upon code.

The telegraph was introduced into this country in 1835-36, and by 1861, a private telegraph company, Western Union, had wired the U.S. from coast to coast. The system, using wires that could carry Morse code signals, was so popular that when possible, the military would arrive in an area and string wires to provide a way to communicate to the nearest headquarters.

The military was also beginning to look to the air. A self-made aeronautics expert, Thaddeus Lowe, had been experimenting with ballooning before the war, and in July of 1861, Abraham Lincoln appointed him Chief Aeronaut of the Union Army Balloon Corps. These hot air balloons were primarily used for general surveillance of an area. Balloons were also used occasionally during battles, however, they were difficult to transport so they often couldn't reach the location in time.

In a unique combination of two innovative services, Thaddeus Lowe convinced Union Major General George B. McClellan to permit him to attempt to relay information via telegraph, but from a balloon. In 1862 the Army of the Potomac, led by McClellan, pushed south to the outskirts of Richmond. Working behind Union lines, Lowe guided a tethered balloon up about 2,000 feet in the air where he observed the actions and movement of the Confederates from the vantage point of the balloon. The balloon carried a telegraph with wires that were strung to the ground, so the telegraph operator traveling with Lowe relayed in signals everything Lowe saw.

The Signal Corps
But perhaps one of the most important communication tools of the Civil War was a system of flag signals that were used by both Union and Confederate troops. An assistant surgeon in the pre-Civil War army, Albert James Myer, was the fellow who developed the idea. Myer was on the side of the Union but ironically, his idea was first used by Confederate soldiers when one of his apprentices, who was from the South, went home and shared the system with the southern army at the start of the war.

The concept of a flag being used to signal troop movement sounds simple enough, but the method Myer developed was actually quite complex. There were three basic signals used. A wave to the left signaled "one," a wave to the right signaled "two," and a wave forward signaled a break between words or messages. Certain flag waves were determined for each letter of the alphabet so that words could be spelled out. For example:
A is one, two, or 1, 2.
B is one, two, two, one, or 1221.
C is two, one, two 212, and so forth.

The messages were not simple; they ranged from "Look to the left and shoot into the bushes" to complex multi-word messages concerning future strategy. Multiple messages were also sent at the same time. A gun fired once indicated a first message; two shots indicated the start of a second message, etc. Very important messages were to be verified by the receiving station repeating them.

Since both sides based their system on Myer's idea, they realized that if the enemy could see the signals, they could probably interpret the conversation. One of the tools signal corps members carried was a two-disk device that permitted them to "dial" a different code. By signaling to the recipient what cipher they were using, they could then send encrypted messages.

However, the signal corps faced some interesting challenges, beginning with attracting the attention of someone to whom they wanted to signal. A government instruction booklet from 1864 explains that attempts to attract attention "should never be abandoned, until every device has been exhausted; and they should be renewed and continued at different hours of the day and night..." Signaling for attention ranged from running back and forth to flag waving. ["A Manual of Signals: For the Use of Signal Officers in the Field," 1864.]

Signal Corps members carried with them a staff and two flags. During the day the flag color that was most visible was a white flag with a red square but if there was snow on the ground, the flag used was black. They also carried a torch to use for nighttime signaling. When using a torch, the operator placed a second torch at his feet as a reference point to clarify the signals. To better receive messages, members of the signal corps all carried high-powered telescopes.

These men often worked in isolated observation towers built for them by the military. By putting the signal corpsmen up high, they were more visible, and in areas with a lot of fighting, the towers were spaced so that each tower could be seen by the next one so that messages could travel from tower to tower by relay. If there was no time for building a tower, they would clamber up rocks or climb a tree, or sometimes move out in front of the troops so more people could see them. Mortality was high.

While today's battles are just as frightening for the soldiers as were the battles fought between the armies of the Blue and the Gray, today's soldiers can be grateful for the improved technology that drastically improves their odds.

If you enjoyed this post, sign up for my blog alerts (button above). This spring I'll be writing more about this era when I visit some of the locations that are part of the Journey through Hallowed Ground.

My last e-newsletter concerned communication in the days before e-mail. If you'd like a copy of my e-newsletter with great stories about the postal service, send an e-mail with "U.S. mail" in the subject line: kate@americacomesalive.com.

Post Office Gave Wings to Aeronautic Progress

2010-01-19T19:03:49Z

"Innovation" and the "United States Postal Service" are not words that we would normally find in the same sentence, but next time you go to the airport, you might say a silent thanks to the postal service for their work in the early 20th century. They--before the military or the department of commerce--saw the potential in air travel and pushed for progress.

Shortly after Wilbur and Orville Wright's first successful flight in 1903, the brothers approached the "war department" for additional support; in return, the Wrights promised to share what they were learning. In 1908, the U.S. owned only one plane that was not in very good condition, and they did not warm to the Wrights' suggestion.

]]> The postal service had always been interested in the latest in transportation methods as they looked for improved ways to move the mail. Whether it was building better roadways, developing canal systems, or subsidizing a network of railroads, the post office was accustomed to pushing forward, and they saw the possibilities offered by flight and were eager to embrace it.

Making their interest official, in 1911 Postmaster General Frank Hitchcock swore in as a mail carrier pilot Earle Ovington. Ovington flew a mail run daily from Garden City to Mineola, New York. At Mineola, mail bags were tossed out of the plane at a set location where the postmaster knew to pick them up. The first trips were considered very experimental, and so only postcards and souvenir-type mail was carried by this "unsafe method of transportation." One fellow in Los Angeles had already written to the Postmaster General that "he does not want any of his mail transported by aeroplane." (New York Times, 10-12-1911)

In 1911-12 the postal service set up 52 experimental flights and began lobbying Congress for money to fund airmail service. Finally money was allotted, and in 1918 the first regularly scheduled postal air service was instituted between New York and Washington with the planes stopping in Philadelphia for servicing. At the start, the postal service used Army pilots and military planes but after only three months, they invested in their own planes, hiring civilian pilots and mechanics. These were the very early days of flying; pilots had no radios or navigational aids, and they flew by dead reckoning. Bad weather meant forced landings.

By 1920 the postal service had crafted a transcontinental route that was a combination of air and railroad---planes did not yet fly at night so the mail was transferred to rail for night travel, and then shifted back to an airplane when daylight broke again. Within just a year, the post office was under pressure to speed up delivery time, and they began experimenting with night flights.

In 1921 the post office was able to prove that night flights--and reduced time on delivering the mail--was possible; workers throughout the central plains built bonfires to guide the pilots who were flying the mail from San Francisco to New York. Coast-to-coast delivery had taken 78 hours when the mail traveled by air only in the daytime; transit time was reduced to 35 hours when the mail remained airborne. This beat the fastest transcontinental trains by at least three days.

In 1925, the country was beginning to understand the potential of air travel, and Congress passed a law to permit the Postmaster General to contract to outsiders for mail service, a move that was intended to stimulate commercial aviation. By the end of 1926, more and more private contractors were taking on the postal air routes. The post office began transferring the facilities they had developed for the service--airways, landing fields, radio service, landing beacons--to the Department of Commerce. By September of 1927, all mail was carried by non-governmental planes.

These early mail flights, in turn, paved the way for passenger service. It was not uncommon for young men to hang out near the fields where they knew a mail plane would be landing. When the plane touched down, they would ask to hook a ride to the next place by sitting atop a mailbag in the back of the open cockpit.

Missile Mail
Not every type of postal delivery innovation turned to gold. In 1959, the postal service pronounced that mail could be delivered around the world more quickly by using guided missiles. Firing rockets loaded with mail was started in the 1930s by missile enthusiasts who were looking for practical uses for their devices. The first successful rocket flight in the U.S. was made in 1935 and contained a "a live cock, a hen, and 189 messages."
On June 8, 1959, a Navy submarine fired a missile to reach the Naval Auxiliary Station in Mayport, Florida; the missile was carrying 3,000 letters, and the prediction was that soon mail would be delivered "within hours" from New York to California or as far away as India.
While "missile mail" never took hold, another postal innovation did--and one that most of us still enjoy a great deal--the advent of mail order, which began when the postal service instituted "parcel post."
To read about this, e-mail me kate@americacomesalive.com with "U.S. mail" in the subject line. I'll send you my free newsletter that makes sense of today by looking at yesterday. This issue is filled with fascinating facts about mail service before there was e-mail.

http://www.americacomesalive.com/blog/

The Ultimate Gift: A Green Goodbye

2010-01-12T18:58:38Z

If you love stories, cemeteries are almost irresistible - every headstone has a tale to tell. Whether it's a date, a name, a poem, or a piece of statuary that catches your eye, it is hard to avoid wondering, "Who was this?" "Where did they live?" "Why did the family choose these words to memorialize them?" or: "Why did she die so young?"

My most recent cemetery trip was to visit the former inhabitants of my hundred-and-twenty-year-old house. I never knew them but they lived here a very long time, and I knew that Henry Brevoort Towle (1864-1926) was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx. One beautiful Sunday this past October, I journeyed to Woodlawn and found Henry's grave. Of course, with Henry I found several other people who had lived in my house. My "family" expanded with this discovery.

Then last week I received an e-mail about "green burials" from Elizabeth Fournier, a mortician and funeral director in Oregon, and her information gave me pause. While I love walking through a cemetery's park-like lanes, seeing the statuary, and reading the headstones, I never gave much thought to what lies beneath. Nor had I considered the idea that as more Americans die, community planners might have better uses for our land than more cemeteries.

]]> Fournier's company, Cornerstone Funeral Services and Cremation http://www.cornerstonefuneral.com/ outside Portland, Oregon, makes a point of doing the type of burial requested by families, but Fournier notes that an increasing number of people are requesting "green" funerals, and she has become an active proponent of these natural burials. There is no embalming involved, and typically, the deceased is laid to rest in a biodegradable container--the ultimate in "ashes to ashes, dust to dust."

Until after the Civil War, funerals in this country were more like these natural burials, and the process of burying the dead was a family ritual held in the home. Women would lay out the body, and prepare food to serve to family and friends who gathered to say goodbye. The bodies were buried in churchyards or a family plot nearby.

Embalming (replacing blood and bodily fluids with embalming fluid, which consists primarily of formaldehyde) became more acceptable during the Civil War. Union families wanted one last chance to see a loved one, so families who could afford it hired "death specialists" to preserve the body for the trip home. As embalming became popular, the funeral industry grew, and death became the domain of businessmen. Soon, funeral customs changed, and the body is now usually taken away and delivered to a funeral home where it is "prepared" for death.

The Green Movement
How green to make a burial is left up to each family. Today the green movement includes a range of options but experts point out that no state or province in North America requires embalming; and those states with some form of requirement offer refrigeration of the body as an alternative. (If bodies are to be shipped on a commercial airline, they may need to be embalmed.)

The movement also recommends natural coffins made from biodegradable substances. These options range from caskets made of sea grass to urns made of papier-mache (for those who are cremated) to simply wrapping a body in a favorite quilt. The green movement also eschews the lush lawns of most cemeteries as the grass requires great quantities of herbicides to maintain a weed-free appearance.

Cremation offers the benefit of the body not taking up space, so which is greener? "A natural burial is greener," says Fournier. "The process of burning a body requires fuel and creates pollution, and since many people still have teeth that contain mercury fillings, the act of burning the body releases mercury into the air. With a green burial, the body is going back into the soil, feeding trees."

As for the ideal funeral, Fournier describes one particularly memorable backyard burial:
"They used the person's fishing rod to catch fish to be served to the family; they played the person's favorite music; and they passed a basket where each person added something that reminded them of the person and talked about why. It was beautiful."

While Fournier's business is based on people using her services, she notes that green burials are cheaper because they are simpler by design. In addition, she says that having the family more involved in the process of death is actually quite healing. "The more hands-on the family is in dealing with the death, the more quickly they heal."

But what about the pleasure of memorializing? Fournier says there are varying shades of green burials. "A lot of people want the gravesites marked in some way. Many talk of wanting a tree or a bush planted in the spot, but others opt for a name and dates carved into a boulder, or they use a cross to mark where the body is."
As I contemplated writing today's blog, I happened to thumb through the Bas Bleu bookseller catalog, where I came upon an ObitKit. While this method won't satisfy the writer-who-wants-to-know-where-the-former-owner-of-her-house-is-buried contingency, the workbook does provide a thoughtful way of documenting the aspects of your life that you thought were important.

For most purposes, that type of documentation is much more valuable to a family than a headstone anyway.

For information on sustainable burials: Green Burial Council http://www.greenburialcouncil.org/
For caring for the dead without the use of toxins or non-biodegradable materials: Funeral Consumer Alliance http://www.funerals.org/.

For more stories about changes in American life, visit: http://www.americacomesalive.com/blog/

A New Year's Resolution for Communities

2010-01-06T18:53:31Z

When it comes to community planning, American cities and towns are in a difficult bind. You don't need to sit in traffic on the freeways of Los Angeles or note what a big box store does to a neighborhood to know that our preparation for the future is far from perfect.

In many cases, our towns and cities were originally planned for people who traveled by horse or carriage. In more "modern" communities, the streets were designed for many fewer cars or perhaps electrified streetcars. Our bridges are old; our highways need to be re-built; and we are a country in great need of more walkable towns or better infrastructure for public transportation.

]]> Consider:

Main Street in most communities is dead or struggling, with various forms of box stores or malls having replaced the vibrancy of a downtown filled with successful local businesses -- the lifeblood of any community. Those downtown areas that still seem viable often feature chain stores, not mom-and-pop establishments, which decidedly changes the feel of the town. What can be done to re-use and re-enliven these centrally located parts of town?

One need not visit Gettysburg (or any other historic site) to understand that strip malls, Taco Bells, and the highly popular Starbucks, may be convenient for tourists and helpful to residents but these establishments are not the perfect neighbors for sites such as Gettysburg where we are hoping people can "take a step back in time" to better understand the meaning of our country. How can a community balance the need for convenient areas for commerce with the respect for historic preservation?

As the baby boomers age, we will eventually see an increase in the number of people who should not be driving. But how many communities are built with any sort of planning for the growth of public transportation?

With these thoughts in mind, I bring to your attention the publication of the second edition of Community Planning: An Introduction to the Comprehensive Plan by Eric Damian Kelly (Island Press, 2010). In full disclosure, Eric is my brother, and perhaps his approach is so attractive to me because the book embodies the spirit in which we were raised -- that of dedicating ourselves to our communities and participating in constructive citizen activism.

He and I were raised in Pueblo, Colorado by parents who devoted their lives to the town -- our father owned a local insurance agency (started by our maternal grandfather in the 1930s) and spent many years on local boards, particularly the water board; our mother, still living, was on the City Council for many years, and she was instrumental in planning and getting funding for two major developments -- an arts center and a riverwalk park expanse in the center of town. We were raised with the idea that citizens could -- and should -- work to make a difference.

One of the true strengths of Community Planning is the very clear and comprehensible writing style that can be grasped by any layperson, and of course, quickly absorbed by professional planners. Each chapter of the book concludes with two separate sidebars: one on the role of the professional planner and another on the role of the individual citizen, meaning that regular people can turn to this book for specific advice -- on zoning, controlling development, encouraging public transportation, and greener living, for example -- and gain practical suggestions on how to play a constructive role in the community.

Eric brings vast experience to this topic. He a city planner and lawyer, (J.D., Ph.D., FAICP), who is a Professor of Urban Planning at Ball State University. He is a past president of the American Planning Association and in conjunction with James Duncan runs a consultancy practice where he has worked with more than 150 local governments in more than three dozen states. Drawing on his dual backgrounds in planning and law, he also assists local governments in addressing the complex Constitutional issues involved in regulating uses such as signs, billboards, sex businesses and religious institutions. He resides in Muncie, Indiana, where his current public service activities include chairing the Muncie-Delaware County Government Reorganization Committee, created by the Muncie City Council and the Delaware County Commissioners under a 2006 Government Modernization Act.

The publisher has created a comprehensive website for the book, so readers can check it out: http://www.communityplanningbook.org. The website provides short overviews on each chapter, complete with extensive examples, supplemental references and suggested search terms to find more material.

As citizens and community leaders consider their new year's resolutions for 2010 and the coming decade, they might benefit from Eric's experience, guidance, and advice.

My daughter, a journalist who often writes about the urban issues of Los Angeles, has already spirited off my copy of the book so that she'll have a better understanding of the matters on which she may write. The continuation of family values doesn't get better than that, does it?

Health Care: Big Gains Come in Small Steps

2009-12-29T18:44:55Z

President Barack Obama's first year in office is almost at an end, and as evidenced by the fact that both the House and the Senate have passed versions of a health care reform bill, we have proof that our governmental system is at work. While there is distress all around that neither version is "perfect," and the final bill has yet to be written and voted on, this is a good time to recall that big progress starts with small steps.

If you go back to examine government involvement in some type of health care for the poor, the elderly, or the injured, we would need to first consider the workmen's compensation laws that were enacted starting in the beginning of the 20th century.

]]> The post-Civil War expansion into businesses and manufacturing efforts of all types led to an increase in work-related injuries, and Americans began to realize that it was morally wrong for a worker to often lose his job because his injury prevented him from working, and then to also be responsible for the medical bills himself.

The governments in England and Germany had enacted laws that protected the worker, and in 1908, President Theodore Roosevelt pushed through a Federal Employer's Liability act to protect certain federal workers, stressing that that the burden of care following a work-related accident should not fall on the worker or his family. In 1911 Wisconsin was the first state to adopt a "workmen's compensation" law, but it took until 1949 before all states had passed some form of this law to protect workers.

Government-provided health care benefits have been equally slow in coming. Though young people today assume that Medicare (health benefits for senior citizens) has always been around, it has actually existed for a very short time, and even with Medicare, which senior citizens now swear by, it took prodding and pushing to get anything through Congress.

The first time a government health insurance bill was introduced in Congress was in 1935. Later, Harry Truman became the first sitting president to endorse national health insurance. There was a huge outcry about the dangers of "socialized medicine," but eventually lawmakers began discussing the idea of a program to provide medical insurance to Social Security beneficiaries.

Progress on this slowed during the late 1940s and 1950s. Employee benefits such as health insurance began to be provided during World War II when the government imposed a wage freeze but permitted various benefits to be added to enhance employee compensation packages. Companies began to use these added benefits as a way to attract good employees, and the movement grew during the 1950s.

In 1961 President John F. Kennedy recommended to Congress the passage of a bill providing health insurance for the elderly. Finally in 1965 Lyndon Johnson was able to get through Congress provisions for medical benefits for the elderly and under-privileged, and on July 30, 1965 he signed into law provisions for Medicare (for senior citizens) and Medicaid, a federal-state partnership that provides health insurance coverage for the poor.

Since 1965 there have been numerous changes to Medicare and Medicaid, expanding and extending coverage in many ways. As early as 1972, coverage was extended to people with disabilities and end-stage renal disease. More recently, George W. Bush signed into law the "Medicare Modernization Act." In addition, the State Children's Health Insurance Program continues to be expanded to meet an increasing need, with each state receiving some federal funds for their program.

As we look toward Congressional action for 2010, we hope for passage of a "good enough" bill--not a perfect bill--that can be tinkered with as lawmakers and health care administrators note what will serve us well over time.

Happy New Year to all.

The White House and Holidays Past

2009-12-22T18:38:57Z

Even in the 1920s, the economy had quite an effect on the holidays, starting with changes for the president and his family. In 1928 Herbert Hoover and his wife had done their holiday shopping in Rio de Janeiro and celebrated Christmas Day on a battleship traveling back from their good-will tour of Latin America. It was reported that in 1929 they were to celebrate very differently. Here are some of the aspects of the Hoovers' 1929 celebration:

The White House Christmas dinner featured two turkeys that were killed by one of the President's secretaries, Lawrence Richey. Richey also gave the White House staff half of his other killings, three pheasants and two mallard ducks. "Mr. Richey is by no means a frail man, but when he entered the White House with all those birds hung over his shoulders, he had some difficulty walking." (The New York Times, 12-24-29)

]]> The president personally inspected the Christmas trees decorating the White House, and Mrs. Hoover carried on the first-lady tradition of handing out gifts to children from the Central Union Mission. The "rollicking spirit of the occasion and the surging of hundreds of tumultuous youngsters about her" prevented Mrs. Hoover from giving each gift to an appropriate child but the gifts were distributed and matched up later. "With a Christmas tree as a background, the First Lady, wearing a dark red velvet frock and a small red hat pulled closely over the softly waved white hair, fitted into the decorative scheme."

In 1939, Eleanor Roosevelt used the press conference held in December to discuss both her Christmas plans and her youth projects. While The New York Times report gave more space to her holiday activities, the first lady's plans for her youth projects were addressed first. She talked of projects that involved the "training of girls between the ages of 18 and 25," noting that it was as important to make useful citizens of girls as of boys. The article goes on to report Mrs. Roosevelt's holiday plans in both New York and Hyde Park and the family members who planned to be in attendance. Among the plans for December 24 were the President himself reading Dickens' A Christmas Carol aloud to the family.

Unfortunately, the Roosevelt holiday was marred by an accident. On December 29, Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr., who was a law student at the University of Virginia, and his wife, the former Ethel du Pont, were in a car crash. As soon as Eleanor heard the news, the First Lady rushed the 72 miles to the Winchester, Virginia hospital where the young couple was being treated. They had attended a Polish relief ball at a private home in Virginia, and as they were returning to Washington, their car hit a parked truck. The sheriff of Clarke County investigated the accident and reported that the accident was unavoidable. A truck had become stalled on a mountain, the road was icy, and there was no opportunity for the Roosevelt car to stop in time to avoid hitting the truck. The young couple and the truck driver were all released from the hospital with only minor injuries.

But perhaps a story relating to Truman in 1949 holds the most meaning for our current president. In the article (NYT, 12-11-49), Truman is described as the "busiest President in American history." The White House physician, Brigadier General Wallace H. Graham, told a reporter that Truman had benefited from his two-week stay in Key West at the Winter White House, but Graham noted that the strain of office is tremendous. "He has so much to read and go over -- so much comes to him. It tires both the mind and body."

After a break from the rigors of Washington, Truman obviously perked up and felt relaxed enough to think of some simple pranks to play on staff members. One idea, however, he considered and then abandoned. Some of his assistants, including special counsel Clark Clifford, had traveled to Havana over the holiday. Mr. Truman thought it might be fun to have the customs agents "bottle them up" for a good long while on their return home. But then he realized it wouldn't work -- the men would simply call the President and ask him to get them out of their predicament.

Today, even if a president were to contemplate such a prank, I don't think the "inconvenience" of being the staff members' first call would be the only thing holding the President back from such an idea. Times have certainly changed.

If you would like to receive my e-newsletter about holiday shopping and toys of the past, send an e-mail to: kate@americacomesalive.com with "holiday" in the subject line.

Holiday Hazards of the Past

2009-12-14T18:34:17Z

Just as stores in 2009 took special precautions after a Wal-Mart worker was trampled by a frenzied crowd on Black Friday in 2008, stores in earlier times also learned from the past.

While some of the measures are no different from safety measures today, some are unique to the time period. A 1929 article in The New York Times (12-6-29) quoted some of the suggestions made by the fire commissioner to prevent fire dangers:

Post guards at entrances to stop persons from carrying lighted cigars and cigarettes into the building.
Instruct all floor-walkers to stop all smoking by smokers.
Do not place paper shades over electric lights.
Organize and maintain a fire brigade.

Robbery then and now was a problem, but in 1939 a store executive at Woolworth five-and-ten-cent store located in Times Square went above and beyond the call of duty to foil a hold-up.

]]> In 1939 a very unexpected problem occurred in downtown Chicago. An elderly couple, Mr. and Mrs. William Gamble, had gone holiday shopping taking their preferred method of travel, their horse and buggy. They hitched the horse to an electric-light post on State Street and went off on their errands. When they returned after completing their shopping, their "equipage" had proven to be such a curiosity that a "few thousand pedestrians" had gathered to look at it. Responding to the concern expressed by the officers who were also waiting for them, the Gambles said they would leave their horse and buggy at home during future holiday outings.

In 1949 a new type of warning appeared. These concerned ways to avoid home robbery and purse snatching. (NYT 12-5-49). Police Commissioner William P. O'Brien issued guidelines to residents that told them to lock up their houses carefully when leaving to go holiday shopping and not leave notes on the mailbox or door, sure signs that no one was home. Women were told not to let their handbags dangle, and the commissioner's missive suggested not placing handbags on counters while examining merchandise or leaving them on chairs while trying on garments. Motorists were advised to close and lock automobile windows and vents and "to remove the ignition key." (Love it--what good advice!)

Then, as now, there are those who will use the festivities of the holiday to take advantage of those who are unaware. The exact occurrences are altered by the times but they will happen always.

For more information on shopping and holiday practices of the past, send me an email with "shopping" in the subject line. kate@americacomesalive.com I'll send you my December e-newsletter.

In Times of War: Lincoln and the Holidays

2009-12-08T17:19:26Z

In preparation for a panel discussion being held at Greenwich Library this month as part of the celebration of Lincoln's bicentennial, I began wondering how the holidays were viewed in Lincoln's time--particularly early in the Civil War.

Though Lincoln certainly had his hands full, the press of the day did seem to give the Lincoln family some privacy when it came to their holiday celebration. A check of the New York Times of the era showed scant mention of Lincoln and Christmas, though there were certainly some stories that give us a flavor of the time.

In 1861, eight months after the Confederates opened fire on Fort Sumter and the Civil War began in earnest, the news reports of December 25, 1861 were subdued. There is mention of the fact that there is little news because of Christmas, and that "extensive preparations have been made in all the camps for the celebration of Christmas...The President and Cabinet intend making a trip down the Potomac on board the new steam sloop-of-war Pensacola." (NYT 12-25-1861). There is no mention of Lincoln's family or specific activities at the White House.

]]> By 1862, news coverage of the holiday was more robust. Perhaps this reflects the population's acceptance of war as an ongoing factor in their lives. The New York Times (12-26-1862) notes that "As a Nation, we are not in a particularly jolly mood." However, the editors present a roundup of activities around the nation with special attention being given to what was being done for groups ranging from wounded soldiers to "the colored orphan asylum" and the "newsboys' lodging house." [Anyone know about housing for newsboys? If so, contact me, or I'll poke around and report back another week.] With ponds frozen over, public skating was popular. It seemed that the nation was becoming somewhat accustomed to wartime and having to continue on with normal activities.

That year the Times (1-3-62) prints a letter from a member of the infantry who spent Christmas Day in Camp Anderson, near Washington, D.C. The soldier writes of the special dinner that was provided for soldiers on that day, and notes that ne "would be glad if Christmas Day could conveniently be celebrated once a month, at least." When we consider how often the Union troops had trouble obtaining adequate food, this letter takes on a deeper meaning. The letter also reports on what the soldiers were hearing about the timing of when they would be pressed into action.

And in the spirit of holiday giving, one article (12-24-1862) notes that the perfect holiday gift for family members would be a "Photographic Album" ...this would have been in the very early days of photography--the first daguerreotype dates to 1839. People realized then, as now, that there is no better gift for the holidays than a collection of personal photographs that spur family memories.

While the news coverage of the era is more restrained than what we see now, what is clear form a quick survey of these articles is that even with a Civil War underway, Americans treasured the spirit of the holiday, and they took time to fix a holiday meal and to enjoy a moment with friends and family--the same aspects of the holiday we try to honor today.

Battlefield Cycloramas: The "Movies" of 100 Years Ago

2009-12-02T22:03:34Z

Most of us love going to the movies. Whether we are there to be entertained, enlightened, or to be exposed to other worlds, we love sitting in the darkened theater to "be told a new story."

One hundred years ago people had the same desire to see, to think about, to be entertained by stories, but of course, there were no films, not even silent movies. There were, however, cycloramas. These were panoramic paintings, usually of historical events, that were designed to be viewed by an audience that could move about on a central platform to examine the enormous painting that encircled them. During each viewing, a guide would tell the story of what was happening in the painting, often with musical accompaniment. The overall effect was to make audiences feel they were in the midst of the action.

]]> The first cyclorama was painted by an Irishman, Robert Barker, who was said to have climbed to the top of a hill near Edinburgh and was so awed by the view that he determined to create a way to depict a similar view artistically. As the art of creating cycloramas became more widely practiced, their creation proved to be quite complex. These cylindrical paintings were enormous, about 40-50 feet high and 300-400 feet in circumference. To provide visitors with a "you are there" feeling, the artist/designer needed to make some sophisticated adjustments in perspective.

Teams of workers were necessary to create a cyclorama. Certain workers prepared the huge canvas; others erected the scaffolds; a team of artists, most of whom had a specialty such as landscape painting or a particular gift for painting humans or horses, moved from section to section of the painting, adding in the art they did best.

Special buildings were created for the display of these paintings. Dioramas were often constructed in the foreground to add to the feeling of realism. As more buildings were erected for their display, the cycloramas began to be designed so that they could be taken down, rolled up, and transported to a new location.
Cycloramas became so popular that Pulitzer-Prize-winning Civil War historian James M. McPherson, told me that communities that did not have special buildings for their display would arrange for viewings of the paintings in regular auditoriums with men unrolling the painting scene-by-scene while a narrator described what the audiences were seeing.

The fellow who became a leader in designing and painting cycloramas was Paul Philippoteaux (1846-1923). Following the success of several of his paintings depicting European battle scenes, Philippoteaux was commissioned by an American merchant to paint the "greatest battle of the Rebellion," Pickett's Charge. (Pickett's Charge was an attempt by the Confederacy to penetrate the Union line at Gettysburg. The attempt failed, causing Robert E. Lee to call for a retreat by the Confederates, which brought the Battle of Gettysburg to a close.)

In the early 1880s, Philippoteaux came to the United States, where he visited the battlefield and interviewed a good number of the participants, sketching as he went. He also enlisted local photographer William H. Tipton to shoot a series of photographs. Later the photographs were pasted together to provide Philippoteaux with a blueprint for the background for the cyclorama.

Philippotoeaux's first painting of Pickett's Charge was presented in Chicago. Over a half million people visited it during the first year, and as a result, a Chicago businessman commissioned Philippoteaux to paint a second one which was soon sold to a company that placed it in Boston. Eventually, four versions of this work were painted.

Guides at the time were often military men who had been in the battle; the reports were probably very subjective and not all that accurate but they must have been exciting all the same. One fellow who wrote about seeing the Boston cyclorama in 1885 wrote: [It's as if...] you can see for 15 miles all-around. Thousands and thousands of soldiers--horses--cannon--everything in a battle--about 40 feet on every side of you ..." [from the Sue Boardman collection, as cited in The Battle of Gettysburg Cyclorama by Sue Boardman and Kathryn Porch.]

Most buildings that could display a cyclorama were in large cities where more tickets could be sold, and so "Pickett's Charge" was not placed at Gettysburg until 1913. The particular version eventually given for display at the battlefield was one that was acquired by department store magnate Albert Hahne, according to The Battle of Gettysburg Cyclorama by Boardman and Porch. After Hahne acquired it, it was first displayed in the Grand Court of the Newark department store, Hahne & Company, where Hahne also arranged for it to be photographed section by section. Despite the deterioration that had taken place by that time, these photographs have been an invaluable resource for those studying the painting.

In June 1912 the Gettysburg Battle Picture Association received a charter from the Pennsylvania legislature to erect a building to house the painting. Hahne himself contributed $7,000, and from 1913-62 the painting was housed in a building that was intended to be only a temporary home. There was no climate control of any sort, leading to further deterioration.

In 1948 emergency repairs were undertaken to try to restore the painting but it continued to be housed in this same building. Then in 1959 the painting suffered further damage from misguided efforts to restore it. Finally in 1999 park superintendent John Latschar put together a plan to preserve the painting as part of his overall plan for the Gettysburg site. The painting had to undergo multiple cleanings and much of the work done to repair it in the past and to be undone, before a proper plan could be made. Battlefield Foundation president Robert Wilburn, contractor Robert Kinsley, conservator David Olin, and a team of historians and artists worked to bring the painting back from ruin.

Today only about 30 cycloramas survive, and the newly restored, magnificent "Pickett's Charge" is a highlight of the just completed Visitor Center at Gettysburg National Military Park.

If you come to Gettysburg, view the battlefields, and see the cyclorama, you will be reminded that in the 1860s, there was no guarantee that the United States would remain unified...it could just as easily have collapsed as a "grand experiment." Fortunately for us, it did not.

As President Abraham Lincoln concluded in the Gettysburg Address, the Civil War was a "new birth of freedom" so that "government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from this earth."

Come experience it for yourself: http://www.gettysburgfoundation.org/

To receive monthly updates on interesting stories of America, send me an email: kate@americacomesalive.com

What Would Will Rogers Say Today?

2009-11-23T17:15:45Z

"Short and sweet" seemed just right for a holiday week blog.

I found the perfect gem to share, a quote from Will Rogers, as I flew back to New York from Colorado where I'd been visiting my mother.

Humorist Rogers (1879-1935) once said: "Why pay to go to the circus when you can watch Congress for free?"

Those of you who follow me regularly (on the Huffington Post or on my own site, America Comes Alive!) know that I think this country and our U.S. government are as good as it gets...I consider myself fortunate to be an American. But regardless of what side of the Congressional aisle you favor, there are moments when Will Rogers' quote rings true.
So I was going to share a light moment with readers and call it a day.

But then all my plans for the blog changed.

]]> The plane wheels touched down. I turned on my phone, and as the e-mails began to scroll through (and you should know this is Sunday morning), I found an e-mail from Geri Shapiro, Westchester Regional Director for United States Senator Kirsten Gillibrand.

I met Geri at a local meeting on health care about six weeks ago and had e-mailed her afterward about an issue that is important to me. Her e-mail apologized for the delay in getting back to me and noted that she had been swamped (I totally understand that). She went on to say she was now free enough to set up a meeting. (By the way, anyone who can burrow through six weeks of their In Box deserves a LOT of credit!)

So no more "short and sweet" blog with a quick quote from Will Rogers. Congress and our representative system of government go back up on pedestals. Instead, I'm going to quote from Thomas L. Friedman's column in Sunday's New York Times (11-22-09):

"The standard answer [to what is wrong with our country] is that we need better leaders. The real answer is that we need better citizens. We need citizens who will convey to their leaders that they are ready to sacrifice, even pay, yes, higher taxes, and will not punish politicians who ask them to do the hard things."

So I second Friedman's call for more active, participatory citizens, and I add the above story as proof that our government representatives really are there to listen to us and help us--if we help them.

As for Will Rogers, I still love the quote, If Rogers had lived in the early 21st century instead of 100 years ago, I have no doubt that he would have amended his comment to something along these lines:

"Why pay to go to the circus when you can watch reality TV with people like Tom DeLay for free?"

Or:

"Why pay to go to the circus when you can watch Chicago's Rod Blagojevich for free?"

Or insert your own choice: Octomom, Kate and Jon, Levi Johnston, Sarah P, whatever you like...

And then express your thanks for living in this country by pitching in and doing your part. Citizen activism is the true foundation of our government.

And by the way, Will Rogers' son, Will Rogers Jr., didn't take his father's quote too seriously. He went on to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Airline Passengers Needed their Own Rosa Parks

2009-11-17T17:04:01Z

We often read about Rosa Parks' bravery in refusing to give up her bus seat to a white person in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955, but very little is written about what happened to African-Americans who wanted to board an airplane. They fared no better than Parks did on the buses.

Jim Crow laws, enacted in southern states by the turn of the 20th century prohibited blacks and whites from "comingling" on trains, streetcars, and buses. Perhaps because the airline industry was new there no similar laws in place for air travel, but nonetheless, it was not easy for an African-American to buy a plane ticket. If a black person did manage to buy one, the airline personnel attempted to seat them separately so that white people were not sitting next to them. (Planes must not have been as crowded then!)

]]> Sports figures were among the early African-Americans to push the color line in the air. Professional sports had quickly adapted to using air travel as it meant that game scheduling could be tightened up because it was easier for teams to arrive at their various destinations quickly.

According to Daniel L. Rust in his wonderful book, Flying Across America, Jackie Robinson, who was the first African-American major league baseball player, was expected in Florida for spring training in 1946. He and his bride of two weeks boarded an American Airlines flight in Los Angeles to fly to Florida. In the 1940s planes could not fly across the country without several stops to re-fuel, and when they stopped in New Orleans, Robinson and his wife were not permitted to re-board with the other passengers. Left with time to kill in the New Orleans airport while they tried to get on to another flight, they also were refused service in the coffee shop. When they finally were able to book a flight out of New Orleans the next day, that flight landed in Pensacola, Florida where they were asked to find another means of transportation. They completed their trip, riding in the back of a segregated bus.

Ten years later, jazz great Ella Fitzgerald fared no better. She won an out-of-court settlement against Pan Am in 1956 when the airline refused to honor her group's first class tickets and put them in coach instead.

Like train stations and bus stations in the south, the airport services in southern states were segregated through the 1950s. Black passengers could not get served in airport restaurants, and there were separate waiting rooms and rest room facilities as well. In 1960 a Supreme Court ruling specified that airports were subject to federal standards, and a subsequent study of airports in the south showed that some form of segregation existed in 7 of the 14 states studied. By the mid-1960s all airports in the United States were officially desegregated.

In 1961 an article in The New York Times (6-28-61) noted that New Orleans airport practices were under review as the Justice Department had ruled that the airport violated a nondiscrimination clause they had agreed to when they accepted some federal funding for the new airport. The New Orleans manager is quoted as saying, "We will serve Negroes in the coffee shop." The article goes on to explain: "Until a few days ago Negroes wishing to eat in the International Room or the coffee shop were shunted off to a six-stool snack bar at which cellophane-wrapped cookies, sandwiches, and coffee in paper cups are sold."

African-Americans were denied jobs aboard airliners until the late1950s, effectively the 1960s. Until the increasing pressure from the civil rights movement they were relegated to airport jobs such as skycap (bag handler). The first black stewardess was hired by a Mohawk Airlines in 1957, a local feeder line in New York; at the time of her hiring, the New York State Commission Against Discrimination had on its docket 17 complaints from "Negro girls" [sic] who had been turned down for stewardess positions.

While it's worth a momentary thought that those who faced discrimination before the 1960s might relish knowing who currently has the best seat on Air Force One, what we are really working for is a world where it does not matter.

As Rosa Parks must have sensed, change comes about only after many people push back, one situation at a time.

My latest e-newsletter is about what plane travel was like for passengers in the 1940s and '50s--stewardesses passing out free cigarettes and the like! If you would like to receive the e-newsletter, send me an e-mail with "plane" in the subject line: kkelly@katekelly.com

The Importance of Place in the American Story

2009-11-16T01:20:17Z

Last week I visited Gettysburg and learned what it means when we hear, "the acts of men shaped the fate of a nation..."

Being there on the Gettysburg Battlefield, I understood service and sacrifice to one's country in a way that I have never understood it before. I could tell you this clarity arose because of the impressive new visitors' center at Gettysburg, or I could say it was the beautifully restored cyclorama of the three-day battle that inspired my awe (more about that next week), or I could tell you it was the marvelous descriptions provided by the licensed battlefield guide who accompanied our group, but none of those explanations would be adequate.

What gave me chills and put a prayer of gratitude in my heart was overlooking the fields where the fighting took place and thinking of the Union soldiers defended our nation, standing shoulder-to-shoulder in a line that stretched for more than a mile along Cemetery Ridge. Despite empty stomachs, inadequate footwear, and wearing scratchy wool uniforms in July--not to mention the fatigue of two years of fighting--those Union soldiers fought to maintain the integrity of the union. They were learning firsthand something that we all too often forget: that the future of freedom is never certain.

]]> Gettysburg did not end the war, as the soldiers had hoped, but this bloodiest of battles where there were almost 47,000 casualties (killed, mortally wounded, wounded and captured) was a turning point that showed the North that General Robert E. Lee might eventually be defeated.

In 2009 our conversations about our country are more likely to involve complaints about taxes or fretting about the idiocy of some public officials. Rarely do we stop to think about the benefits of living in a free country where we can think as we please, read what we want, travel unhindered, worship as we choose, and participate in local, state, and federal elections. Two hundred and twenty-two years after the United States Constitution was ratified, we still govern according to the plan spelled out by our Founding Fathers. While societal change is never instant and progress and freedom for all comes in fits and starts, the significance of the Union victory in the Civil War has meant that our democracy and our system of government continue on.

What if the Gettysburg Battlefield Were to Become a Shopping Mall or a Housing Development?
In the last 10-15 years, preservationists and historians have felt a new sense of urgency to insure that Americans will always be able to come to "these hallowed grounds" to remember a vital chapter in our American history. Ironically, we may have the Walt Disney group to thank for a renewed awareness of the importance of our real American heritage. In 1993 The Walt Disney Company began making plans to build an American-history theme park in the northern Virginia Piedmont area, 35 miles from the White House and only 5 miles from the Manassas Battlefield where another important Civil War battle took place.

In a historic civic fight that involved historians, environmentalists, American citizens from many states, and the U.S. Senate, The Disney Company was eventually convinced that their plasticized, animatronic version of American history was not welcome in that neighborhood. As the preservationists heaved an initial sigh of relief, they paused in their efforts for only a moment because they began to notice that with or without Disney, urban sprawl was beginning to mar the land that is an important part of our shared American history.

In 2005, a partnership of public and private groups in Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Washington DC, joined together to form an organization called the Journey through Hallowed Ground, a four-state 180-mile path that stretches from Gettysburg to Monticello with many national parks and historic places to visit along the way. Preservation, conservation, and education are the goals of the group. Their website, http://www.hallowedground.org, offers materials and maps that are available to guide people along the path, whether travelers have a day, a week, or a month to explore the area.

My all-too-short autumn trip only touched on a few of the sites, but I can't wait to go back, and I urge all Americans to visit as well. When you are on the streets of Gettysburg and see the bullet holes that pockmark numerous homes in the area, then you think about what it would have been like to be a Gettysburg family hiding in the basement of the home, fearing for your life and wondering how it happened that your small town became the center of this massive battle. Or what it must have been like to be one of the 2,400 residents of Gettysburg who eventually came outside when the fighting ended only to realize that your community now had to cope with the aftermath of the bloody battle, including 7,000 dead and 30,000 injured men, awaiting help in all the fields and orchards surrounding the town.

And only if you stand on the ridge where the Union soldiers waited when Lee ordered the Confederates to go forward in Pickett's Charge, the final battle of the three-day siege that was to give victory to the Union soldiers, can you think of what it must have been to be an American and to be marching on foot in wool uniforms in 87-degree heat on that July day. Your equipment was a gun that fired only about 100 yards, and if you were hurt, there was no medical service to pull you off the battlefield and administer care. You were as likely to die of hunger and thirst as you were to die of your wounds. And you knew that if you were killed, your loved ones would likely never know what happened--where you were, how you were killed, what you wanted them to know before you died.

Despite all this, these men fought on to preserve the Union.

If you should ever forget what makes this country great, take an hour, a day, or a weekend, and visit a location in your state that reminds you of the American story. If we lose our sense of "place," part of our history is eroded. If we lose our sense of history, we can no longer explain who we are and what we stand for.

Freedom is never certain; it can never be taken for granted. We need to remember that--and the soldiers who have fought for us--every day.

To Vaccinate or Not to Vaccinate? Why Is It a Question?

2009-11-03T16:59:28Z

As Americans we have little memory of days when our loved ones could be snatched away from us by a contagious illness. We watch our friends and relatives go through cancer diagnosis and treatment, and we know a few people with diabetes or some type of autoimmune disease that requires careful management. Perhaps we know of someone who had a bad time with Lyme disease, but for the most part, we seem to feel that the 21st century has brought us immunity from deadly viruses.

It has not.

"People have become complacent," says Margaret Lewin, M.D. F.A.C.P., and medical director of Cinergy Health, a health insurance company that stresses preventive health care. "Today's families are too young to remember the fatalities and disabilities that can result from influenza."

]]> As a result, people are hearing the news about the spread of the H1N1 swine flu virus, and they are not alarmed. In a just-released 60 Minutes/Vanity Fair poll, 4 out 10 Americans report that they are not altering their behavior because of the H1N1 influenza virus. When asked what changes they had made to avoid the swine flu, 44 percent answered, "None--I'll take my chances." Just 2 percent said they would refrain from kissing or hugging friends, and only 8 percent said they would stop shaking hands. Thirty-eight percent did admit to washing their hands more frequently, though the answer they picked was: "Wash hands and use so much sanitizer I should own stock in the company."

Many are also opting not to have their children vaccinated or to receive a vaccination for themselves. A recent story in The New York Times (10-29-09) reported that fewer than half of New York City parents had given permission for their children to be given the vaccine at school.

Dr. Lewin points out that some parents have opted out of vaccinating their children against many things, and she notes that in many cases there have been no repercussions. "They are benefiting from 'herd immunity,'" says Dr. Lewin. If the majority of a school is vaccinated against a particular illness, then the unimmunized will also be protected--unless they travel to a country where a particular disease is more widespread.

In an equally baffling maneuver, New York health workers have temporarily overturned a mandate that would have required them to get influenza vaccinations--both seasonal and H1N1. (Why would health workers--who are almost guaranteed exposure to the virus--resist being protected?)

The CDC estimates that 36,000 Americans die each year as a result of the seasonal flu. Even if the current strain of swine flu kills no more than the seasonal flu, that is still a significant number, particularly when you factor in that the swine flu is most dangerous to the young, those born after 1957. Statistics for deaths in car accidents--perhaps a worry parents tend to focus on more seriously--is expected to be lower for 2009 than the deaths by seasonal flu. (The most recent statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration shows 16,626 deaths in the U.S. from auto accidents for the first half of 2009. If we double that figure for an annual estimate, that gives us 33,252 deaths in traffic accidents, fewer than the number of people who will die from the seasonal flu.)

Two Guarantees with a Virus

Even with medical progress, there are two guarantees with influenza:

1. The virus mutates--always. It may become milder, or it may become more virulent. There is no way to predict this in advance.
2. Anti-viral medicines (Tamiflu, Relenza) can lessen the symptoms, they do not prevent, reduce the spread of the disease, or cure the illness.

What We Can Learn from 1918

In March of 1918 the flu that spread in U.S. military camps was relatively mild. By that fall when the disease had an opportunity to mutate, many people became ill with a strain that basically caused them to suffocate within a few hours.

In Philadelphia, during the first four months of the outbreak, an astounding 7 percent of the population died from the flu.

Of those who died from the influenza that spread in 1918, 99 percent were under the age of 65.

A scan through some issues of the New York Times from 1918 provide many stories of people "dropping dead." I read of a streetcar conductor who was well enough to start his shift but died before finishing work that day. Another newspaper report described four women who played bridge together one Saturday afternoon. By Sunday afternoon three of them had become ill and died. There is no shortage of similar stories from that time.

By 1920 the virus was finally slowing down, but estimates are that the Spanish flu, as it was known, had killed 20-40 million people worldwide.

Why the Resistance to Protecting Ourselves?

Other than the federal government, there is no one running any "get vaccinated" campaign to guard against a far more lethal risk that what we face when we get into an automobile. (Where is the vaccination campaign being organized by Mothers in Favor of Getting Children Vaccinated?) Have we become so distrusting of government that we are unwilling to participate in something that will protect us?

Adults sometimes refer to the 1976 swine flu fiasco as the reason why they are disbelievers. Science does not bear out the bad rap received by that vaccine. Here's what happened:

After the 1918 pandemic, the government did not want to be caught off guard, so when epidemiologists warned about a particular flu strain that spread quickly and was anticipated to spread widely during the winter of 1976-77, the U.S. government tried to prepare for a nationwide vaccination program against what was also called "swine flu."

The CDC mustered all its resources to obtain enough vaccine and enlisted volunteer health workers throughout the country to administer the vaccinations rapidly. Forty million doses of vaccine were administered and there were 532 incidents of the debilitating Guillain-Barre syndrome among those who were vaccinated. At the time it was feared that the vaccine was causing this reaction in some people, and since the flu never actually materialized, the vaccine program was halted.

Today scientists feel that the connection between the vaccination and the development of Guillain-Barre syndrome may have been overblown. "Statistically, we know that a certain number of people are going to encounter various health problems, with or without receiving a vaccine," says Dr. Lewin, who points out that one measure the government is taking this time is preparing some baseline statistics as to what health occurrences are statistically probable anyway. This should help counter people's concerns that certain issues occurred as a result of getting a vaccine.

The government is closely monitoring the situation, and a spokesperson for the National Vaccine Program stated on CBS' 60 Minutes (11/01/09) that of the 10 million doses of the swine flu vaccine that have currently been administered, there have been no notable problems.

When flu kills more Americans each year than die in traffic accidents, and our country has a 65-year record of creating safe flu vaccines, there is no reasonable explanation for resisting getting vaccinated. (For those who are concerned about the mercury preservative in vaccinations, there is a mercury-free version of the vaccine available for children.)

Rejecting flu shots is a lot like riding in a car without fastening your seatbelt. You know seatbelts save lives but you decide nothing will happen to you "this time." Anyone who has recently been ill with this strain of the flu would advise you to think again.

DNA and Crime Detection

2009-10-30T16:50:10Z

Today you can't watch a crime show on television without seeing investigators request a cheek swab from suspects in order to analyze their DNA. Though the sequencing of DNA was successfully accomplished in the 1950s, DNA was not used in criminal cases until more recently.

The first use of DNA found at a crime scene occurred in Britain in 1986. A professor by the name of Alec Jeffreys was assisting the British police in solving two separate rape-murders. In each case, a 15-year-old girl was raped and killed, one in 1983 and another in 1986. The two murders were similar in pattern leading investigators to believe that the cases were linked.

]]> The police thought they had their man when they arrested a young fellow with a history of mental illness, but Professor Jeffreys disagreed. Jeffreys analyzed semen collected from both bodies, and then Jeffreys asked everyone in the small town of Narborough, England to voluntarily submit to DNA testing. At first, the results were disappointing--no guilty party emerged.

As the investigation continued, townspeople began gossiping that a local baker by the name of Colin Pitchfork (real name!) had paid someone else to give a DNA sample for him. When police re-interviewed Pitchfork, he confessed to both crimes. When they specifically tested Pitchfork's own DNA, police had a match and their man.

In the United States, we need look only as far back as 1995 to the trial that is sometimes known as the "trial of the century"--that of sports star O. J. Simpson--to find an early test of the use of DNA in American courts. Though Simpson's DNA was found at the crime scene, the prosecution was unable to convince the jury of Simpson's guilt.

The use of DNA in court was still very new in 1995. (The use of DNA was officially approved for court cases by the National Academy of Sciences in 1992.) The defense successfully convinced the jury that the evidence may have been contaminated. This case brought to light the importance of careful training of criminal investigators in the collection of evidence. As a result, it was soon specified that crime laboratories had to be certified for this type of testing in order for it to hold up in court.

By the late 1990s, forensics labs started to adopt a new method of analysis called STR (short tandem repeats) that cuts analysis time from weeks to days. Testing is also more accurate than it was originally. Early in the use of DNA for forensic evidence, the chance of error was one in one hundred thousand. The STR method brings the chance of error to a figure closer to one in a trillion.

The Use of Fingerprints

As DNA gradually edges out the use of fingerprints in criminal investigations, it is interesting to look back at the first time fingerprints were used in a murder case. With this type of evidence, too, it took thirty years of experimenting before it became accepted.

In 1905, two shopkeepers, a husband and wife, were found bludgeoned to death in their shop in Deptford, a small town outside London, and their cash drawer had been robbed of ten pounds. An Inspector McNaughton, who had been learning about and experimenting with fingerprint identification, was among those called to the scene. When he examined the cash box, he found on the underside of it one sweaty thumbprint. He sent it off to be identified, and this evidence soon led to the arrest of one of the two men who were responsible for the crime.

DNA is proving to be more accurate than fingerprint identification, but another major advantage has been the fact that this DNA evidence is being saved. Throughout the United States, a good number of court cases are being revisited as advocates for prisoners re-examine the cases and bring them back into court. If it is revealed that the prisoner's DNA did not match that left at a crime scene, the result has been the freeing of a good number of wrongly-convicted prisoners.