Steampunk Granny's Unsung Hero of the Week

                                                               

I have to say a  big "Thank You" to fellow writer and member of the South Jersey Writer's Group, Jord Fox, for posting this information on his Facebook page about this wonderful and compassionate lady. I was trying to decide on a featured hero for my blog, but after reading about this woman, I decided on Irena Sendler.



THIS LADY!!!

Look at this lady - Let us never forget!
The world hasn't just become wicked...it's always been wicked.
The prize doesn't always go to the most deserving.

Irena Sendler
Died 12 May 2008 (aged 98)
Warsaw, Poland

During WWII, Irena Sendler got permission to work in the Warsaw ghetto as a plumbing/sewer specialist.

She had an 'ulterior motive'.

She KNEW what the Nazi's plans were for the Jews (being German).

Irena smuggled infants out in the bottom of the tool box she carried and she carried in the back of her truck a burlap sack, (for larger kids).

She also had a dog in the back that she trained to bark when the Nazi soldiers let her in and out of the ghetto.

The soldiers of course wanted nothing to do with the dog and the barking covered the kids/infants noises.

During her time of doing this, she managed to smuggle out and save 2500 kids/infants.

She was caught, and the Nazi's broke both her legs, arms and beat her severely.

Irena kept a record of the names of all the kids she smuggled out and kept them in a glass jar, buried under a tree in her back yard.

After the war, she tried to locate any parents that may have survived it and reunited the family.

Most had been gassed. Those kids she helped got placed into foster family homes or adopted.

Last year Irena was up for the Nobel Peace Prize.

She was not selected.

President Obama won one year before becoming President for his work as a community organizer for ACORN

and

Al Gore won also --- for a slide show on Global Warming.

                            photo from 2007, she died in 2008                             

In MEMORIAM - 63 YEARS LATER

I'm doing my small part by forwarding this message.

I hope you'll consider doing the same...

It is now more than 60 years after the Second World War in Europe ended.

This e-mail is being sent as a memorial chain, in memory of the six million Jews, 20 million Russians, 10 million Christians and 1,900 Catholic priests who were murdered, massacred, raped, burned, starved and humiliated!

Now, more than ever, with Iran, and others, claiming the HOLOCAUST to be 'a myth'.

It's imperative to make sure the world never forgets, because there are others who would like to do it again.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/13/world/europe/13sendler.html?_r=0

There isn't much to say after reading about this amazing heroine except that we should never, ever stay silent when we witness an evil act perpetrated against another human being. We will be judged on what we failed to do.

A Tribute to Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce Tribe

                                                           

I am continuing something I started last week with a story I had seen on Facebook about a very brave man, Eugene Bullard. This week, I am doing a tribute to Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce Tribe. This tribe was responsible in helping the Lewis and Clark on one of their stops during the Expedition. Here is a quote from Chief Joseph about this:

“The first white men of your people who came to our country were named Lewis and Clark. They brought many things which our people had never seen. They talked straight and our people gave them a great feast as proof that their hearts were friendly. They made presents to our chiefs and our people made presents to them. We had a great many horses of which we gave them what they needed, and they gave us guns and tobacco in return. All the Nez Perce made friends with Lewis and Clark and agreed to let them pass through their country and never to make war on white men. This promise the Nez Perce have never broken.”  

                                                                    

Chief Joseph (1840-1904) was a leader of the Wallowa band of the Nez Perce Tribe, who became famous in 1877 for leading his people on an epic flight across the Rocky Mountains. He was born in 1840 and he was called Joseph by Reverend Henry H. Spalding (1803-1874), who had established a mission amongst the Nez Perce in 1836. Young Joseph and his father soon returned to their traditional ways in their Wallowa homeland in Oregon. When Joseph grew up and assumed the chieftanship, he was under increasing governmental pressure to abandon his Wallowa land and join the rest of the Nez Perce on their reservation near Lapwai, Idaho. Joseph refused, saying that he had promised his father he would never leave. In 1877, these disputes erupted into violence and Joseph's band, along with other Nez Perce bands, fled across the Bitterroot Mountains into Montana, with federal troops in pursuit. Joseph was by no means the military leader of the group, yet his standing in the tribe made him the camp chief and the group's political leader. It was Joseph who finally surrendered the decimated band to federal troops near the Canadian border in Montana. Joseph and the tribe were taken to a reservation in Indian Territory in present day Oklahoma, where they remained until 1885 when they were sent to the Colville Reservation in North Central Washington. Joseph made several visits to Washington, D.C., to plead for a return to the Wallowa country, but his pleas were in vain. Joseph died in 1904 in Nespelem, Washington, of what his doctor called "a broken heart." His tomb remains in Nespelem today.

                                                                      

The rest of the story can be read here: http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=8975

                                                                       

Conclusion

When you do a great wrong; your soul does not rest and neither does the land you steal. We came to this land, immigrants and refugees from other lands and we forcibly took what rightfully belonged to the original people. I picked this story because of what is happening to other immigrants and refugees that seek shelter in America. How dare we refuse sanctuary in a land that we took from the Native Tribes? Sure there needs to be a safe and productive way to introduce new arrivals into the fold, and yes, they should pay taxes just like us, even though the corporations and filthy rich seem to find all kinds of way to not pay their fair share...big sigh!! If we are closing our borders to immigrants, then maybe the sign on the Statue of Liberty, should read, “It’s a big lie.”

                                                                            

I’ll end this debate with one of many quotes from Chief Joseph which you can find here: http://www.fold3.com/page/1250_chief_joseph_of_the_nez_perce/stories/#3675/

If the white man wants to live in peace with the Indian...we can live in peace. There need be no trouble. Treat all men alike.... give them all the same law. Give them all an even chance to live and grow. You might as well expect the rivers to run backward as that any man who is born a free man should be contented when penned up and denied liberty to go where he pleases. We only ask an even chance to live as other men live. We ask to be recognized as men. Let me be a free man...free to travel... free to stop...free to work...free to choose my own teachers...free to follow the religion of my Fathers...free to think and talk and act for myself."  

Amen to that

Unknown Hero, Eugene Bullard

                                                           

I love learning about history and, I love learning about brave men and women. The other day, my friend Stacey Wright posted this bit of unknown history, at least unknown to most Americans, about Eugene Bullard. This information was originally posted by Gina Genochio on her Facebook and I'm so happy that the news about this man is being shared on social media. Here is what Gina posted:

Do you know who this is a photo of? Chances are you don’t, but don’t feel bad because probably not one American in one million does, and that is a National tragedy. His name is Eugene Jacques Bullard, and he is the first African-American fighter pilot in history. But he is also much more then that: He’s also a national hero, and his story is so incredible that I bet if you wrote a movie script based on it Hollywood would reject it as being too far-fetched.

Bullard was an expat living in France, and when World War 1 broke out he joined the French Infantry. He was seriously wounded, and France awarded him the Croix de Guerre and Medaille Militaire. In 1916 he joined the French air service and he first trained as a gunner but later he trained as a pilot. When American pilots volunteered to help France and formed the famous Lafayette Escadrille, he asked to join but by the time he became a qualified pilot they were no longer accepting new recruits, so he joined the Lafayette Flying Corps instead. He served with French flying units and he completed 20 combat missions.

                                                           

When the United States finally joined the war, Bullard was the only member of the Escadrille or the French Flying Corps who was NOT invited to join the US Air Service. The reason? At that time the Air Service only accepted white men.
Now here is the part that almost sounds like a sequel to ‘Casablanca’: After WWI Bullard became a jazz musician in Paris and he eventually owned a nightclub called ‘L’Escadrille’. When the Germans invaded France and conquered it in WW2, his Club, and Bullard, became hugely popular with German officers, but what they DIDN’T know was that Bullard, who spoke fluent German, was actually working for the Free French as a spy. He eventually joined a French infantry unit, but he was badly wounded and had to leave the service.
 
By the end of the war, Bullard had become a national hero in France, but he later moved back to the U.S. where he was of course completely unknown. Practically no one in the United States was aware of it when, in 1959, the French government named him a national Chevalier, or Knight.

                                                               

In 1960, the President of France, Charles DeGaulle, paid a state visit to the United States and when he arrived he said that one of the first things he wanted to do was to meet Bullard. That sent the White House staff scrambling because most of them, of course, had never even heard of him. They finally located him in New York City, and DeGaulle traveled there to meet him personally. At the time, Eugene Bullard was working as … An elevator operator.

Not long after Eugene Bullard met with the President of France, he passed away, and today very, very few Americans, and especially African-Americans, even know who he is. But, now YOU do, don’t you? And I hope you’ll be able to find opportunities to tell other people about this great American hero that probably only 1 American in 1 Million has ever heard of.

Conclusion

Like I stated in the beginning of this blog, I love History and I love learning about brave men and women who fight against tyranny and monsters. Eugene Bullard was one of those brave souls who fought against a great wrong. When we only honor certain people because of color, race or gender and nationality, then we are not reporting true events or true history. We should honor all heroes in spite of their color, race, gender and nationality. We should report history as it really happened and maybe...just maybe, we will learn how to avoid future wars.

Gilbert's Review of Cold Justice.

                                                                           

There’s a new cop show on T.V. and I love it. It’s not your typical cop show; it’s a reality show. Cold Justice, produced by Dick Wolf, is TNT’s new hit which is on every Tuesday night at 10 p.m. The two female stars are real crime fighters.

Kelly Siegler has been a licensed attorney in the State of Texas since 1987. She is a dedicated and successful Prosecutor; she tried 68 murder cases and never lost. She worked her way up to Bureau Chief of Special Crimes. This crime fighter is tough on criminals and compassionate to victims.

                                                                  

Yolanda McClary was with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department for 26 years with 16 of those years working the crime lab. Her cases involved murders, suicides, sexual assaults, etc. etc.
                                                                        

It’s a hard town and the crimes match it. Yolanda McClary was the inspiration for Marg Helgenberger’s character on the T.V. show, C.S.I.

                                                                        

These two ladies along with a former Houston Homicide Detective, Johnny Bond work as a team with other law enforcement personnel to bring closure to an old case by re-examining or re-creating the crime scene (if possible), re-questioning suspects and witnesses.
                                                                                

                                                                

Do you know what this means? It doesn't matter how many years have passed; a murderer can still be caught. If I was a family member of someone who was killed, I would want someone like these two amazing women, doing everything in their power to bring the guilty to trial. Sometimes, the show ends with the case going to the grand jury and the killer behind bars.  Go on the Cold Justice site to see all the cases and what new facts have been discovered. And follow these caring crime fighters on twitter and Facebook. We have ourselves a pair of real superheroes

Cold Justice has won the Steampunk Granny Award of excellence!