Books, Posts, Podcasts, & Mini-Docs – PAUL ANDREWS
It is no longer a well-hidden fact, nor even a national embarrassment, that Australia was originally founded as the Botany Bay Penal Colony in the late 18th century. Botany Bay is an inlet on the eastern coast of Australia, just south of Sydney. But how exactly did an entire continent come to be settled by thousands of British convicts sent into exile?
U.S. President Andrew Jackson certainly had a background tailor-made to be a life long politician. And he certainly was a bombastic, shrewd and seasoned one. But what did “Old Hickory” do to earn the right to be on the U.S. twenty-dollar bill? Born in the Carolina wilderness, he was a true son of the American Revolution. His quiet frontier life changed forever when the British Redcoats invaded in 1780.
At only 14, he volunteered in the local militia, serving as a rebel courier. Captured once by the British, the boy brazenly refused to shine a Redcoat officer’s boots. The red-faced officer drew his saber and struck him across the cheek, leaving a permanent scar. Such hot-headedness would get Jackson into many fights. Tall and wiry, with fiery red hair and ice blue eyes, he certainly looked the part of a loose cannon.
After the war, Jackson decided to become a lawyer and moved to Nashville in the Tennessee territory to practice law. There he met and married Rachel Robards, a young woman who was leaving a very troubled marriage. To his shock, he later learned her divorce had never been finalized! It was a scandalous detail that would hound him the rest of his public life.
Jackson’s willingness to physically fight any of his wife’s accusers earned him a reputation as a volatile man with a VERY short-temper. He even challenged one of his critics to a formal duel. Despite being wounded in the chest by the 1st shot, Jackson stood his ground and fired a round that killed his opponent. Like the facial saber scar, he’d carry that lead bullet in his chest the rest of his life.
In 1798, the Jacksons acquired The Hermitage plantation in Tennessee and became slave owners as well. The loud, gregarious Jackson was popular amongst the menfolk, fond of both drinking, dancing, and gambling. Though at first reluctant, Jackson was convinced by local colleagues and officials to enter politics. He won his first election, becoming Tennessee’s first U.S. House Representative, followed later by its U.S. Senator.
When the War of 1812 with Britain erupted, Jackson was appointed Major General of the Tennessee militia, though he had zero military experience. Nevertheless, he led 1,500 troops on a 5 month campaign against the Creek Indians (who were British-allies at the time). He defeated the Creeks and forced the chiefs to sign a treaty ceding 20 million acres to the U.S. government, over half their territory in Georgia and Alabama.
Jackson was then ordered south to defend New Orleans from a British invasion. The two sides finally clashed in January of 1815. Although outnumbered 2-to-1, Jackson led 5,000 U.S. soldiers to a surprise victory over the British in The Battle of New Orleans (hence the presence of his statue in Jackson Square). The British suffered 2,000 casualties while the Americans only 70.
Jackson received a Congressional medal and his status as a daring national war hero was forever solidified. He was so popular amongst his troops they gave him a nickname he carried the rest of his life.
Jackson’s exploits made him a political star, and Tennessee nominated him for President. In the election of 1824, against John Quincy Adam, Jackson won the popular vote, but neither man won the Electoral College. The Speaker of the House, Henry Clay, threw his support behind Adams, who later made Clay his Secretary of State, once Congress chose John Quincy as the winner.
Jackson raged publicly against what he called a “corrupt political bargain” and resigned from the Senate in protest. Undeterred, he spent the next 3 years campaigning for president, presenting himself not as a Washington politician, but as an outsider, a representative of the American people or “the Common Man.”
In 1828, after a 2nd ugly campaign where the old bigamy and adultery charges rose up once again, Jackson defeated the incumbent John Quincy Adams by a landslide. His pious wife Rachel though had been deeply affected by the cruel campaign and her smearing in the press. She died of a heart attack before entering the White House. Jackson never remarried. The couple never had children of their own, but adopted the 3 sons of Rachel’s deceased brother.
Jackson became America’s 1st frontier president, calling himself “The People’s President.” His opponents called him an Unstable Jackass, a name he took a liking to. So much so, the donkey became the emblem of his Democratic Party. Jackson was the 1st president to invite the public to attend the White House Inaugural Ball. A large and rowdy mob arrived, got promptly drunk on the free booze, and began to break furniture and shatter dishes!
Early in his first term, Jackson dismissed his entire cabinet as he watched them slowly distance themselves from his unpredictable behavior. So he relied on a group of close Tennessee friends and advisors instead— his opponents calling them the Kitchen Cabinet. He would eventually replace much of the Executive Branch, loudly charging them with either incompetency or corruption.
“One man with courage makes a majority.”
U.S. President Andrew Jackson
Despite his popularity with the people, Jackson’s presidency had its share of controversies. He had an oversized ego and demanded absolute loyalty. Still angry that he lost the 1824 election, he believed in the Popular Vote and attempted to abolish the Electoral College. As his opponents grew, they coalesced into a new political party, united in their common aversion to Jackson. The Whigs were formed to “defend liberty and protest the despotic policies of King Andrew.”
While prior presidents vetoed bills they deemed unconstitutional, Jackson vetoed bills he simply did not like. He vetoed the bill to renew the Second Bank of the U.S., which he felt favored “the Elites.” His opponent for re-election in 1832, Henry Clay, believed the bank fostered a strong economy, making it his central campaign issue. The public supported Jackson’s populism instead and he won re-election with 56% of the popular vote and five times as many electoral votes.
Jackson faced another opponent however in his own Vice President. South Carolina believed new federal tariffs favored the North and vowed to secede. A furious Jackson threatened to use the military to enforce the law. VP John C. Calhoun supported his home state and became the first U.S. Vice President to resign. A compromise was passed, the crisis averted, but it foreshadowed South Carolina’s role in the coming Civil War 30 years later.
An unemployed housepainter fired a pistol at the president just outside the Capitol. When the gun failed, the assassin pulled out a second pistol, which also misfired. An irate Jackson charged the shooter, and hammered him with his cane until others, including Representative Davy Crockett, subdued him. Of course, this only added to his legend amongst his followers.
Jackson is perhaps best known for his controversial policies toward Native Americans, who were being pushed slowly westward by frontiersmen. Jackson believed the backbone of America was family farms—so to maintain that growth – new farmland was needed, even at the expense of peaceful American tribes, considered autonomous nations – Creeks, Seminoles, Chickasaw, Choctaw and Cherokee.
The Indian Removal Act gave him power to force treaties on tribes, resulting in their forced displacement to the Oklahoma territory west of the Mississippi. Jackson let the state of Georgia violate a treaty and seize 9 million acres of Cherokee land. Although the Supreme Court ruled Georgia had no authority to do so, Jackson refused to enforce the decision. The so-called Trail of Tears forced the westward relocation of an estimated 15,000 Cherokees. It claimed the lives of 4,000 men, women, children and elderly, who died along the way of starvation, exposure and disease.
Andrew Jackson was a 2 term president. His successor, Democrat Martin Van Buren defeated the Whigs and won the 1836 election. Due to Jackson’s often erratic fiscal and banking policies, he left his successor with an economy on the brink of collapse, leading to The Panic of 1837 and America’s first economic depression.
After leaving the White House, Jackson retired to his Hermitage in Tennessee, his popularity now dried up due to the state in which he left the country. He died in 1845, at the age of 78. The cause of death – lead poisoning from the bullet still stubbornly wedged in his chest after all these years. At the time of his death he owned 150 slaves at his Hermitage plantation.
His face was placed on the U.S. $20 bill in 1928 by an act of Congress. Jackson continues to be regarded as one of the most polarizing and controversial of U.S. presidents due to his brutal treatment of Native Americans in the Southeast. He is a personal favorite of the 45-47th U.S. president, Donald Trump. He had a portrait of Old Hickory hung prominently in the White House Oval Office near the Resolute desk.
Here are 10 cases of ideas or theories that were once widely believed, but most definitely are on the Wrong Side of History – some are moral, some technological, and some philosophical. Through today’s lens, some of these will appear ridiculous … or even repugnant. Yet at the time, in their day, they were deemed Fact and perfectly logical and acceptable. Some may even give you an unsettling sense of déjà vu.
Mont-Saint-Michel is truly an astonishing site. An awe-inspiring Gothic/Renaissance Abbey rising out the sea like something from Game of Thrones. Today it’s referred to as the “Wonder of the West,” a UNESCO World Heritage Site with over 3 million visitors a year. But how on earth did such a gem get in such a place?
Mont-Saint-Michel is actually a rocky, pyramid-shaped tidal island sitting about a kilometer off the northwest coast of France, between Normandy and Brittany, near the mouth of the River Couesnon. The island itself covers only 17 acres. It’s connected to the French mainland by a silty tidal embankment that’s completely submerged at high tide. The tides in the bay are quite dramatic and can vary by as much as 50 ft (15 m) depending on the weather and time of year. Because of this unique phenomenon, the Mont has held great religious AND strategic value over the centuries.
Back in the 5th century, the forested Mont was named Mont-Tombe by Irish monks. They established a small hermitage on the island, which over the next 300 years became a site of religious pilgrimage. Then according to legend, in 708, Bishop (later Saint) Aubert of Avranches was visited by the Archangel Michael in a dream 3 times. In his visions, Michael told Aubert to build an oratory chapel in his name atop Mont-Tombe. By 709, Aubert had fulfilled the Angel’s wish, building a small church on the island. He placed there holy relics of St. Michael he had brought in from Italy.
Norman domination of Mont-Saint-Michel began in 966 when King Lothair of France issued a charter, establishing a Benedictine monastery on the island. The monastery was built in the Romanesque style with thick stone walls, arched ceilings, and small windows. The Benedictine monks, under the Duke of Normandy’s rule, managed their monastery extremely well, turning it into both a major center of religious pilgrimage AND, due to its strategic coastal location, a place of commerce. The Benedictine monks produced so many manuscripts on the island, Mont-Saint-Michel became known as the “The City of Books.”
During the 11th century, Norman rulers saw Mont-Saint-Michel both as a place of faith AND a strategic fortress, due to the increased rivalries within France. The Mont received a military garrison, put at the disposal of both the abbot and the Norman kings. It was the Normans who built its larger Romanesque abbey church on top of the old Aubert chapel, which became its crypts.
During a successful siege by Philip II of France in 1203, Mont-Saint-Michel endured heavy damage. But his subsequent patronage facilitated the construction of a larger, three-story stone Monastery known as La Merveille, “The Wonder.” This impressive building is a masterpiece of Norman-Gothic architecture. Built on the rocky, sea-side of the island, it consists of a pilgrim almonry, a Chevaliers Hall for royal guests, a monks’ Refectory, plus a beautiful Cloister. The French King also fortified the small island, building high stone battlements and 9 towers around 2/3 of its perimeter.
Benedictine monks translated ancient texts to Latin, and the relics of Saint-Michel attracted the faithful by the thousands. Back in the Middle Ages, those pilgrims had to cross about 4 miles (7 km) of sea to reach the island (5 kilometers farther than it is today). Those crossings could be a deadly task as one had to time it carefully with the low tides. Pilgrims routinely drowned trying to beat the tides and reach the Mont. In addition to the abbey, a small thriving village flourished on the island’s shore, on the south and east sides, facing the French mainland. Surrounded by high, thick walls, its narrow winding streets, with successive flights of stone steps, lead up to the abbey on top.
Thanks to its fortifications, the Mont survived numerous English attacks during the Hundred Years War. Then in 1421, during a siege by Breton knights, a fire resulted and burned down much of the abbey church’s chancel. It was then reconstructed a final time over the next 100 years, now in the Gothic style, complete with tall stained glass windows and flying buttresses like Paris Notre Dame. The church was heightened as well with a slender gothic tower above the transept, topped with a golden, armored Archangel St. Michael at 300 ft (91 m) high.
But all good things must come to an end. After the 14th century Renaissance and the 15th century Reformation, the island had lost both its military and religious significance. Mont-Saint-Michel sadly fell into a period of slow decline and disrepair. By the time the French Revolution came about in 1789, there were only seven monks left in residence at the Abbey. The French clergy, as well as its aristocracy, became targets of the bloody Revolution and its notorious guillotine.
The Mont held the new French republic’s political prisoners, deposed members of the aristocracy, and ironically, even priests, up to 300 at one time – anyone who went against the principles of Robespierre’s new Republic. Mont-Saint-Michel sadly became known as the “Bastille of the Sea”—in reference to the despised Parisian prison that was stormed during the Revolution.
When Emperor Napoleon took over, he continued to use the abbey as a prison, adding wooden floors into the high ceiling monk’s Refectory to hold even more cells. A large treadwheel crane, manned by prisoners, was installed to drag supplies up the hillside. The beautiful Mont had turned from an admired place of worship and pilgrimage, into a feared fortress prison.
Mont-Saint-Michel continued to hold prisoners until 1863, when influential French figures, like writer Victor Hugo (author of Les Misérables), campaigned fiercely for its closure. Hugo wrote, “Mont-Saint-Michel comes into view like a sublime thing, a marvelous pyramid.” The campaign was successful. Its 650 remaining prisoners were transferred elsewhere, and the abbey was rented from the government by the French Catholic Church.
The French government, still owner of the abbey, managed the renovations. To make access easier for visitors, a long causeway road was built in 1879, on an elevated, artificial embankment. In 1922, monks and worship services finally returned to the Mont, making it a site of Catholic pilgrimage once again. The Abbey was returned to the Benedictine order in 1966 to mark its 1,000 Year Anniversary. Religious pilgrimages, and more importantly thousands of European tourists, came back in force. It became a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1979
In 1983, a project to restore the ‘island’ aspects of the Mont was begun. Over the decades, the causeway road had provoked silt and sand to build up along the coast, basically connecting the island to the mainland, making it into a peninsula rather than island! The old causeway and a car park were removed. A new road, constructed above the water on concrete pillars was built, again allowing the bay’s tidal waters to flow freely around the island. It opened in 2015.
If you visit Mont-Saint-Michel, and I highly recommend you do if ever in France, be sure to have a hearty brunch at La Mere Poulard, a local restaurant since 1879, famous for its fluffy omelets. And wear sturdy shoes for you will be climbing a LOT of stones stairs up to the famous gothic abbey and monastery. The challenge for our 21st century is to continue providing access to the abbey for the 2,500,000 visitors who come each and every year. Only about 45 people live there in residence year round. Today, it remains one of the top three most visited sites in France, outside of Paris.
There was a time during the Cold War when nuclear warheads were not only sitting in ballistic missile silos, but also flown 24/7 by large bombers. In 1966, a B-52 Stratofortress bomber took off from a North Carolina airbase, headed to Eastern Europe. It would explode over Palomares on the Mediterranean coast of Spain. For years, the U.S. Air Force’s Strategic Air Command flew bombers to the very edge of the Soviet Iron Curtain. At least a dozen B-52s patrolled the skies over the North Atlantic and Western Europe at all times, each with a payload of 4 HYDROGEN BOMBS.
At 10:30 am on January 17th, 1966, a B-52 bomber collided with a KC-135 tanker plane during a mid-air refueling attempt at 31,000 feet over the Mediterranean Sea, just off the east coast of Spain. The KC-135 tanker was destroyed when its fuel load ignited, killing all four crew members. The B-52G broke apart in the explosion, killing three of the seven crew members aboard. The other four, including pilot Major Larry Messinger, managed to parachute to safety.
Fortunately, all four bombs were unarmed, so there was never any danger of nuclear detonation. Wreckage from the 2 military airplanes soon rained down on the unfortunate town of Palomares, a small seaside community of about 2,000, known for growing the best tomatoes in Spain. Townspeople looked up and saw a huge ball of fire streaking towards them as the two large planes broke apart. Miraculously, no one on the ground was killed.
The bomber was part of Operation Chrome Dome. During the Cold War, it provided NATO with a rapid-response nuclear strike capability around the world. What the villagers didn’t know was that falling debris also included four thermonuclear weapons. Three crashed down near Palomares. None of the bombs caused a nuclear explosion, but the conventional explosives on two of them detonated upon hitting the ground. The third bomb landed intact and unexploded. The 4 American survivors were soon rescued and taken to a nearby hospital.
With four “broken arrows” (U.S. code for lost nuclear weapons), SAC mobilized a small army of American military to quickly descend on tiny Palomares. Military police arrived by helicopter just a few hours after the crash. They found huge pieces of smoking airplane wreckage all over the village. A large part of the bomber had crashed in the school yard. The undetonated bomb had thudded into a soft sandbank near the beach and remained intact.
Two bombs had hit hard and exploded, leaving house-sized craters on either side of the village. While safeguards prevented nuclear detonations, explosives surrounding the plutonium cores exploded and blew radioactive dust over the houses and tomato fields of Palomares. The two exploded weapons in essence acted like ‘dirty bombs,’ scattering radioactivity across the Spanish coast.
By the next day, truck loads of US troops arrived from nearby bases, bringing hand-held Geiger counters. Almost everywhere they pointed them, the highest readings were measured. The Pentagon’s top priority was collecting those 4 bombs, and largely ignored the danger of plutonium dust. Villagers and troops were told by the U.S. Air Force that they were safe, since the radiation would not penetrate their skin. U.S. troops searched for the bombs through highly contaminated tomato fields, with Geiger Counters, but no safety gear.
Reports leaked in the press that a nuclear device had been lost. Both the US Air Force and Spanish dictator General Francisco Franco made no statement about Palomares. The silence only fed the rumor mill. The Soviet Union’s Radio Moscow reported that the entire area was covered in a ‘death rain‘ of lethal radiation. Accounts of the crash became front-page news around the world. American and Spanish officials tried to play down the risk. They blocked the press from the village and flatly denied any nuclear weapons were involved in the crash, and there was NO radiation. In order to show this, Spanish officials allowed Palomares’ villagers to remain in the town!
After a week of searching, the 4th bomb still remained lost. Then a random tip came in and they interviewed a fisherman who witnessed a crash at sea. Now the search became far more tedious. The US military became engaged in a massive underwater search and recovery operation. The US Navy arrived and began trawling the Mediterranean waters off the coast of Palomares with an armada of ships and 2 submersibles, the Alvin and the Aluminaut.
By March, with still no sign of the missing bomb, the US military finally admitted it was hunting for a lost H bomb off the coast of Spain, and that another had ‘cracked,’ and released a small amount of harmless radiation on the coast. Spanish officials described a rigorous cleanup and vehemently denied Soviet claims that the Mediterranean was contaminated. Worries the news would destroy Spanish tourism, the Spanish Minister of Tourism, Manuel Fraga, and US Ambassador Angier Biddle Duke took a much-publicized swim at a nearby beach on March 8th to ‘prove’ the waters were safe.
After 2 months of the largest undersea search in history, the missing bomb was finally located by the submersible Alvin, 5 miles off the coast, 2,550 feet deep. Then while the bomb was being winched to the surface, the cable suddenly snapped, causing the bomb to fall again, another 350 feet deeper! An unmanned recovery vehicle then became tangled in the bomb’s parachute. Both were finally lifted to the surface by a U.S. Navy ship on April 7th—nearly 3 months after the crash. Reporters were allowed to photograph it the next day.
Spanish and American authorities assured villagers that they had nothing to fear. The villagers, accustomed to living under General Franco’s dictatorship, dared not question a thing. Spain insisted the mess be cleaned up by the US before the summer tourist season. The U.S. Air Force bought tons of contaminated tomatoes the Spanish public refused to eat. Troops hacked down contaminated vines with machetes. The Air Force scooped up 5,300 barrels of dirt from the radioactive craters and loaded them onto US Navy ships. American troops hauled away some 1,400 tons of contaminated topsoil and vegetation, to be buried in a secure nuclear waste storage site in South Carolina.
After all this, the incident was largely forgotten! But there was still the matter of the people, both U.S. troops and Palomores citizens, who’d been exposed to plutonium dust. Radiation near the bombs had been so high it sent the military’s monitoring equipment off the scales. Troops spent months shoveling toxic dust, wearing little more protection than military fatigues. And the villagers were allowed to stay in their homes during the clean-up.
For 50 years, the US Air Force has maintained there was no harmful radiation at the crash site. It says the danger of contamination was minimal and strict safety measures ensured that all personnel were protected. U.S. Troops started to get sick soon after the cleanup ended. Healthy young men experienced joint pain, headaches, weakness, and skin rashes. Decades later, some developed testicular cancer, and rare lung and lymph nodes cancers. Of 40 veterans who helped with the cleanup, 21 had cancer and 9 have died from it. Of course, it’s impossible to determine whether or not these men developed cancer as a direct result of Palomares, or through natural causes.
A medical monitoring system was established, and for the last several decades, the US and Spain have funded annual health checkups. Monitoring of Palomoras however has been random. While at least 5% show traces of plutonium in their bodies, officials maintain that the amount is well below the danger levels. The US promised to pay for a public health program, but has provided little funding. Spanish scientists lacked the resources to follow up on potential risks, including reported leukemia deaths in local children. Today, the long-term health effect on villagers is poorly understood.
In the late 1990s, new surveys of the village found some contamination that had gone undetected. About a fifth of the plutonium from 1966 was estimated to still contaminate the Palomares area. The Spanish government appropriated the land in 2003 and fenced it off to prevent further use by the locals.
In 2015, after several years of negotiations, the U.S. government signed a Statement of Intent to assist Spain in finally finishing the 50-year-old cleanup process in Palomares. The U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, and the Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel García-Margallo, signed an agreement in Madrid to finish cleaning up the site and remove the remaining contaminated materials at a suitable location in the United States.
Count Saint Germain and his amazing talents attracted as much attention as his believed immortality. We know he was a gifted Musician, a talented Alchemist, a trusted Spy, and a Confidant of kings. First, he was a natural linguist and could speak over dozen languages with such perfection no one could pinpoint his origin, including Italian, French, German, Spanish, English, Russian, Greek and Latin. He dropped into local dialects with such ease people thought him a native no matter where he traveled. And travel he did, from the gilded palaces of Versailles and Peterhof, to the exotic capitals of the Persian and Mughal Empires.
Second, a skilled raconteur, Saint-Germain regaled nobility with stories from centuries past. Whether scandals of ancient Rome, or exploits from the Dark Ages, his audiences were always glued to their seats. He spun tales with such exquisite detail, relaying the intimate conversations of famous historical figures, listeners believed he had been present in the flesh. He often slipped into the first person, then back to narrator, leaving guests positively bewildered. Those who knew him intimately claimed he never aged over the decades as the 18th century progressed. He looked to be 40 years of age, but exactly how old was this man?
Third, the Count was also an accomplished composer. He played several musical instruments “like an orchestra,” including his favorites, the violin and harpsichord. This was the Classical Age of Music, with prolific geniuses like Handel, Mozart and Hayden as his contemporaries across Europe. While in London in the 1740’s, Saint-Germain presented a pasticcio opera, L’Incostanza Delusa, at the Haymarket Theatre and published several of his own Violin Sonatas. At the palace of Versailles, he privately entertained French King Louis XV and his mistress, Madame Pompadour, with his violin.
Fourth, his alchemical skills were also known far and wide. Count Saint Germain offered ladies beautifying cosmetics for delicate skin and pomades for their voluminous hair. For the Russian Navy during the Turkish War, he developed St. Germain’s Tea, a purge still in use today. For the Venetians, he started a factory to dye wood and skins. French King Louis XV gave him apartments at the Chateau Chambord to conduct his alchemical experiments. Many believed he possessed the secret to removing flaws from gems and enlarging pearls. And of course, rumors abounded he possessed the legendary Philosopher’s Stone or even the Elixir of Eternal Youth.
Fifth, Saint-Germain was a high-ranking member of several Masonic Lodges throughout Europe. Every lodge jealously wanted the ‘Immortal Count’ among their ranks. He used the Freemasons (Free and Accepted Masons) to expand his network of influential contacts worldwide. He was whispered to be among the inner circle of the Illuminati, the Knights Templar, and perhaps the most secret society of all, the Rosicrucians [Brotherhood of the Rose and Cross]. He used such societies to move about freely and gain trust and acceptance at royal courts in France, Austria, Britain and Russia.
Sixth, Louis XV used him a secret diplomate in an attempt to end the Seven Years War which had enveloped Europe. The Count’s jealous detractors labeled him a charlatan and a fraud. The British twice arrested him as a suspected Jacobite spy in London. His enemies tried in vain to discover his true identity and the source of his ample wealth. Over the decades, the Count accumulated a long list of rivals, including the famous rogues Casanova and Cagliostro. To his credit, they failed to prove him guilty of a single crime. He offered his talents to many kings and kingdoms, but never asked for payment in return. Though at times vague and wily, he never swindled any of his many patrons.
Today, we would label such an unusual man as eccentric or an enigma – a wealthy, overly-intelligent gentleman involved in various world affairs now and again, whether governmental, corporate, or philanthropic. Shying away from the spotlight, yet never hesitating to get involved when a true need arises. Our world could use such a person right about now. But in the time of Count of Saint Germain, he was indeed a true Renaissance Man.
Given this century’sMiddle Eastern wars and refugee crises, it’s not hard to fathom the intense bigotry experienced by Irish immigrants of the mid 1800’s. The great Irish Potato Famine lasted from 1845 to 1855 and brought massive numbers of starving Irish refugees to America’s eastern shores. Ireland’s strict landlords evicted poor tenant farmers who could no longer pay rent with their blighted crops. So, faced with starvation or death, hundreds of thousands of Irish emigrated across the Atlantic Ocean to the US, a nation which boasted freedom, liberty and opportunity above all else.
Bigotry against the Irish in the U.S. included many different stereotypes like the belligerent Irish drunkards, thieving criminals, dangerous drunken hooligans, certainly not to ever be trusted. Newspaper cartoons of the day depicted a prehistoric species to bolster claims the Irish were an inferior, servant race compared to white Protestant, Anglo-Saxons of English decent. The common derogatory terms tossed about loudly were ‘Micks, Paddies or Biddies,’ based on common Irish first or last family names. Irish Catholic laws and customs were particularly open to ridicule by the wealthy, protestants, politicians, and the press alike.
Irish immigrant refugees were subjected to distortions of their Catholic religion and ostracized simply because of their faith. Catholics were labeled as barbaric pagans, papists, not being ‘real Christians.’ Some Protestant ministers forbid association with the heathen Catholics. Intermarriage was strictly forbidden. Many Protestants distrusted a religion that in their eyes was highly suspicious with its rosary beads for the Virgin Mary and Latin prayers to long dead Saints. The sheer number of families coming across the Atlantic Ocean caused wide spread fear and even led to attacks on U.S. Catholic churches, some being burned to the ground.
Many poor Irish came ashore with few skills besides farming, but just enough for the women to be low paid servants and the men factory workers. The Industrial Revolution was still running strong in the 1800’s. The poor Irish monopolized the lowest-paying jobs, creating growing resentment amongst established citizens as they were seen by the public as taking work away from ‘Real Americans.’ It became common practice for those with Irish names or brogue accents to be barred from voting, entering public buildings, and employment opportunities.
It was felt in the mid 1800’s that the Irish immigrants hated America’s patriotism and its ‘purer’ form of Christianity. Irish were considered illiterate, hot-tempered, tended to congregate suspiciously by themselves, and perhaps most shockingly bred like rabbits, having far more children than was common back then. The ‘pure’ or ‘real’ Americans felt that this ‘reckless, slothful, and superstitious race‘ was overtaking them. They certainly had no place in the U.S. society and should all be packed on ships and deported back to where they came! Sound familiar?
During the Civil War, the Irish immigrants found some bit of respect of sorts. As willing Yankee soldiers, they could help outnumber the Southern Confederacy and win major military battles. Many Irish Americans fought at the fierce battles of Gettysburg and Antietam. However, after the war, that camaraderie did not change the opinion of most Americans for decades. By the 1880’s, many Irish still occupied the poorest slums of major U.S. cities like Boston, New York and Chicago. Time was on their side however, as future generations took their rightful place.
Of course, we know today that the Irish immigrants were eventually embraced by the U.S. and in fact became a vibrant, healthy part of America’s melting pot culture. Just imagine a March without St. Patrick’s Day celebrations. Irish Americans eventually became a force to be reckoned with in the police departments, labor unions and local politics. President John F. Kennedy was of Irish decent, as was the actor John Wayne and car maker Henry Ford. One could say the same for European, Mexican and Asian immigrants. Just imagine the U.S. without its beloved pizza, beer, nachos or egg rolls!
Unfortunately, the same foul treatment was true for those subsequent waves of immigrants who arrived after the Irish. Whether from Eastern Europe, China, or India, they brought their own strange languages, religions and customs to our shores. Each wave, like the Irish before them, faced decades of bigotry and racism at the hands of the established Americans, including ironically, Irish Americans. That is until their descendants too were ultimately, and often reluctantly, considered Americans. I make no mention here of African American slaves or their descendants here. That is the topic for another blog. Their plight and journey before and after slavery was far worse.
And the human cycle continues today with the latest waves of immigrants and refugees arriving in the United States and Western Europe from places like Mexico, Central America, the Middle East, Africa and southeast Asia. The struggles and rejection they face today sounds oddly familiar given the lens of history.
I leave you with this line from Emma Lazarus’ 1883 stirring poem, The New Colossus. It is etched into the base of the Statue of Liberty in New York City harbor, right next to Ellis Island:
BRING US YOUR TIRED, YOUR POOR, YOUR HUDDLED MASSES YEARNING TO BREATH FREE. THE WRETCHED REFUSE OF YOUR TEAMING SHORES. SEND THESE, THE TEMPEST TOST TO ME. I LIFT MY LAMP BESIDE THE GOLDEN DOOR.
Statue of Liberty poem, 1883
The “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” is just what its sounds like. Not one, but two immense clusters of man-made trash concentrated in the North Pacific Ocean. One is off the east coast of Japan, the other between Hawaii and California, often described as being as being ‘as large as Texas!’
The name may lead you to imagine floating islands of garbage, full of plastic bags visible from an airplane. But the reality is far more insidious. Most of the debris is made of much smaller pieces. They range in size, from large, discarded fishing nets to tiny micro-plastics, chunks smaller than 5 mm (0.2 in.). They look more like dirty snowflakes swirling in a cloudy ocean soup than something you can grab off the water with your hand. It’s possible to sail through the Garbage Patches and see only the small pieces and little large debris on the surface.
The amount of waste in the two Patches accumulates over time because most is not biodegradable. In the ocean, the sun breaks down plastics into tinier pieces in a process called photodegradation. The garbage is constantly being churned by wind and waves, causing it to be spread not just at the surface, but deep down through the water, sometimes to the ocean floor. The sea floor beneath the Patches probably looks like acres of underwater trash dumps. Think of that the next time you enjoy a Pacific lobster at your favorite seafood restaurant.
It’s difficult to estimate the size of the Garbage Patches because the edges are constantly changing with the ocean currents. They’re formed by whirlpool-like, rotating currents called “gyres,” sucking fresh debris in like magnets. The gyres are formed where the warm waters of the South Pacific meet the cold waters of the Arctic.
There are two gyres in the North Pacific Ocean. The most famous is located between Hawaii and California, far out in the middle of the ocean. It was discovered by a yacht captain named Charles Moore over 20 years ago in 1997. He was sailing from Hawaii to California after a yachting race. While crossing the eastern Gyre, his crew noticed millions of pieces of plastic surrounding his ship. The patch was later named by Seattle oceanographer Curt Ebbesmeyer, a known expert in tracking ocean currents.
About 80% of the trash comes from North America and Asia. The remaining 20% comes from cargo ships, fishing trawlers and offshore oil rigs that routinely dump their waste directly into the ocean. Garbage from one side of the Pacific takes only about 1 year to travel to the other side. About 80,000 tons is discarded fishing nets and traps alone. More unusual stuff is everything you can imagine: sneakers, styrofoam, harder bottle caps, and even plastic Legos.
Because of their remoteness, the two Garbage Patches are hard to study. But we definitely know their impacts. Fish and other sea life are caught, injured, and killed by lost fishing nets. They are called “ghost nets” because they continue “ghost fishing,” even after being discarded by man. Plastic debris with loops, like six pack straps, and plastic bag handles also get caught on sea life.
These indigestible items clog their stomachs, making the animals feel full, and stopping them from eating. Sea turtles often mistake plastic bags for jelly fish, their favorite food. Albatrosses mistake plastic pellets for fish eggs and feed them to chicks, which die of ruptured organs. Seals, walruses, and other marine mammals are especially at risk. They can get entangled in ghost nets and drown, unable to reach the surface to breath.
If algae and plankton are threatened, the entire food chain is screwed. Animals that eat them, like fish and turtles, will have less food. If their population decrease, there’ll be less food for their predators like tuna, dolphins, sharks, and whales. An estimated 100,000 marine animals are strangled, suffocated, or injured by plastics every year. Eventually, seafood will become rarer and as a result, more expensive for you and me.
Why should we care about something so far away? Well, humans are exposed to those microplastics from seafood, sea water, and sea salt. Scientists are exploring what this does to us humans over the long haul, but all agree it’s not good. As photodegradation breaks down plastics, they leach out harmful petrochemical pollutants and chemicals. To make matters worse, floating plastics absorb the other pollutants we dump in the oceans. These chemicals then enter the food chain and eventually us, when eat our favorite fish and seafood.
This growth will worsen the impacts on our environment, fishing, navigation, the economy, and all our health. So what do we do about it? It may not be possible to entirely clean up the Garbage Patches. Man-made materials take a very long time to break down naturally and the plastics may never fully go away. Larger debris can be removed by man, but the micro debris is spread from the surface to the ocean floor.
Recent studies predict that unless a major response is mounted, the patches will increase exponentially and could TRIPLE by 2050. Cleaning up the debris is not that easy. Any net small enough to capture microplastics would also capture small marine life as well. Truth is, the sheer size of the Patches makes clean up almost too big to consider. The US NOAA’s Marine Debris Program estimates it would take 67 ships 1 year to clean up just 1 percent of 1 patch. It would be very difficult and expensive to remove it all.
Trash enters our streams, rivers, bays and oceans in ways like poor waste management, dumping, littering, and storm water runoff. Because the patches are in international waters, far from any nation’s coastline, no countries are taking responsibility or providing funds to clean it up. Scientists agree that eliminating our dependence on disposable plastics and switching to biodegradable materials is the best way by transitioning from toxic, disposable plastics to reusable materials.
Thankfully, a few international organizations are dedicated to preventing our ocean’s Garbage Patches from growing. The Patches are now the target of a $32 million cleanup campaign. It was launched in 2014 by a young Dutch millennial, Boyan Slat, CEO of the nonprofit, Ocean Cleanup. Through investment money, his company developed floating boom collection systems dubbed the Interceptor.
Their goal is to clean up 90% of floating ocean and river plastic by 2040.
But everyone, including governments, industries, and WE the people of the Earth, the simple citizens of this planet, will have to change our ways and limit out use of plastics. We caused this problem, and now we will have to fix it for the next generation.
We used to take vaccines for granted. After all, they’ve been around for decades, some given to our grandparents and even great-grandparents. So much so, we were shocked by a modern pandemic in 2020, due in part to the lack of a ready COVID vaccine. How could that be?
Anti-vaxxers likewise have been with us since the beginning of vaccinations, all the way back to Smallpox. They often questioned their safety or efficacy, or not trusting “big pharma” or “big government.” But more often, they are objecting to the infringement on their Rights when it becomes mandated, even if for the overall public good, they don’t like being told what to do. So how did we get here?
That’s right, the world has had vaccines since the 18th century.
1) SMALLPOX 1796 – It all started here. British doctor Edward Jenner speculated that protection from the dreaded Pox could be obtained through inoculation with a related cowpox virus. He boldly tested his theory by inoculating the arm of 8 year-old James Phipps with cowpox pustule liquid, taken from the arm of a milkmaid, Sarah Nelmes. And it worked! Today smallpox has been all but eradicated globally.
2) RABIES 1885 – The first attenuated (weakened) live viral vaccine was developed by none other than Louis Pasteur, using desiccated rabbit brain tissue, inactivated with formaldehyde. Crude yes, but effective. A 9 year old boy in France, mauled by a rabid dog, was the first to receive the injections from Pasteur himself.
3) PERTUSSIS (Whooping Cough) 1914 – The vaccine, a suspension of whole cell, inactive Bordetella pertussis bacteria was first developed by American pediatrician Leila Denmark. Inactivated vaccines were prepared with a virus that had been killed, again usually with a strong chemical like formaldehyde.
4) DIPTHERIA (AKA the Strangler) 1924 – Diphtheria toxoid was prepared from inactivated bacterial toxin, that lost its toxicity when heated, but kept its antitoxin and immunogenic properties. French doctor Gaston Ramon discovered the diphtheria toxoid at none other than the Pasteur Institute in Paris.
5) TUBERCULOSIS (AKA Consumption) 1927 – the Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine (live but attenuated Mycobacterium bovis bacteria) became the most widely administered of all vaccines in the WHO’s arsenal. Tested in cattle, it was first given to a French newborn baby in Paris, whose mother had Tuberculosis.
6) YELLOW FEVER 1935 – Epidemics spread by mosquitos in swamps attacked the men building the Panama Canal in 1912. A live vaccine was developed by Max Theiler, who famously used chicken eggs for culturing the vaccine on a large scale. It was used widely on troops in World War II in the Pacific theater against the Japanese Empire.
7) INFUENZA 1942 – The first flu vaccine was introduced to the Armed Forces first during World War II, also mass produced in chicken eggs. The vaccine was licensed for public use in 1945 and, following the war, was used on civilians. Today’s annual flu vaccines offer immunization against multiple flu strains at once, though never with 100% effectiveness.
8) DPT 1948 – The first ever combination child vaccine was licensed for Diphtheria, Pertussis and also Tetanus in a single shot to the buttocks. It was revolutionary and praised by pediatricians and parents alike. No more coaxing frightened young children into 3 needle injections. Booster shots are typically given 10 years later.
9) POLIO 1955 – People sent dimes to the White House to help find a vaccine for the dreaded Infantile Paralysis, which famously attacked President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The inactivated polio vaccine was licensed in 1955 and its inventor, American Dr. Jonas Salk, became an overnight global hero. In 1961, an oral polio vaccine was developed by Dr. Albert Sabin, grown in monkey kidney cells and licensed for use in the US.
10) MMR 1971 – The second famous combination childhood vaccine was for Measles, Mumps, and Rubella. The first live measles vaccine was licensed in 1963. A live Mumps vaccine was developed in 1967 by Maurice Hilleman, who isolated the virus from his daughter Jeryl, as she was recovering from mumps. A Rubella (German Measles) vaccine was licensed in 1969, grown in dog, duck or rabbit kidney cell cultures.
By the 1980s, 7 vaccines were available for children: Because 6 were combined into two shots (DTP and MMR), and one, the oral polio vaccine, was given by mouth, kids received only five shots from their pediatricians, (including boosters) by the time they were 2, and never more than one shot per visit.
So, are we giving our children too many shots with too many vaccines? Are they SAFE (from serious side effects), both immediately and in the long run? Are they EFFECTIVE (do they confer lasting immunity) immediately and in the long run? Do parents have a right to Refuse inoculating their children for whatever personal or religious reasons? Do governments have a right to Mandate vaccinations in the interest of public safety?
All Excellent Questions. History, and the overwhelming evidence generated since, has shown us that all the above vaccines are both safe and effective over time. Our great-grandparent received the smallpox vaccine, our grandparents the tuberculosis vaccine, and our parents the polio vaccine. We have all likely received the ‘triples’ DPT and MMR shots as kids, as well as annual flu shots as adults, often free from our employers.
On a cold winter’s night in 1926, 36-year-old mystery novelist Agatha Christie vanished from her English estate in Berkshire without a trace. Around 9.30 p.m. on December 3rd, Christie kissed her 7 year-old daughter Rosalind goodnight and went back downstairs. Instead of retiring herself, she climbed into her Morris Cowley automobile and drove off into the dark countryside. She would not be seen again for 11 days.
Agatha Christie was already one of the most famous mystery writers in all the world. So her disappearance sparked one of the largest manhunts in English history. Her car was found empty on a steep slope at the edge of a caulk quarry, not far from her home. Its hood was up and lights still on. Inside was Christie’s fur coat and driver’s license. But there was no sign of Agatha herself, and no evidence of an accident.
News of the famous novelist’s disappearance spread quickly, and a massive manhunt was organized. A thousand police officers and 15,000 volunteers combed the English countryside. Dredge teams scoured the surrounding lakes, ponds and rivers. Biplanes searched from the air – the first ever in England’s history for a missing person. Home Secretary William Joynson-Hicks pressured police to solve the case, and a London newspaper offered a £100 reward.
Even fellow mystery writers contributed to the hunt. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries was an avid occultist. He gave one of Christie’s hand gloves to a London medium in hopes that the “Spirit World” might provide a clue to his fellow author’s disappearance. Alas, it did not.
By the end of the week, Christie’s disappearance was making headlines around the world. Newspapers had a field day, inventing lurid theories as to what might have happened. After all, it was the perfect story, with all the elements of one of her own mysteries. Suicide seemed unlikely for her career was as lucrative as ever. Doubters proclaimed the whole thing was nothing more than an elaborate publicity stunt, a clever ploy to sell more of her novels. Others hinted at a far more sinister plot …
Suspicions fell upon Christie’s older husband, Colonel Archie Christie, a former World War I pilot. It seemed the retired Colonel had struck up a public affair with a much younger woman by the name of Nancy Neele. The philanderer made no attempt to hide his affair from his wife, or anyone else for that matter. On the day of Agatha’s disappearance, the Christie’s had quarreled after Archie announced he planned to spend the weekend with his mistress rather than his wife! Did that argument lead to murder?
Agatha Christie remained missing for 11 days. Then suddenly, on December 14th, she was finally found – not in a roadside ditch but safe and well, hiding away at the elegant Swan Hydropathic Hotel in Harrogate, England. She was eventually recognized by one of the hotel’s musicians, who alerted the local police. They quickly informed her husband. Colonel Christie came to collect Agatha, but she was in no hurry to leave. She kept her husband waiting at the bar while she changed into a travelling dress. The next day, Christie left with her daughter for her sister’s home in Cheadle.
It seemed Agatha had registered under the name Theresa Neele from Cape Town, South Africa, using the last name of her husband’s mistress, Nancy Neele. The circumstances raised more questions than answers. Christie herself was unable or unwilling to provide any clues. She claimed she remembered nothing of the night she disappeared. It was left to the police to piece together what might have happened. They concluded that Agatha Christie had abandoned her malfunctioning car and boarded a train to Harrogate. Upon arrival, she checked into the Swan under an assumed name with almost no luggage.
Some suggested darker motives – suicidal depression or a clever scheme to publicly spotlight Archie as a murder suspect. Others surmised an upset Christie merely sought to turn the tables and shame her cheating husband for once. Agatha Christie never spoke publicly about those missing days. Her husband said she’d suffered total memory loss as a result of a car crash. Psychiatrists suggested she been in a ‘fugue’ state or trance, brought on by the trauma or depression of her husband’s affair. She never discussed the matter in interviews and the incident does not appear in her own autobiography.
In the days after her return, the author blamed her vanishing on a “mysterious state,” in which she took on an entirely new identity:
“For 24 hours I wandered in a dream, and then found myself in Harrogate as a well-contented and perfectly happy woman who believed she had just come in from South Africa.”
Agatha Christie
Christie made a full recovery and soon took to her typewriter once again. But she would no longer tolerate her husband’s philandering. Agatha divorced the Colonel in 1928. She later remarried a young archeologist named Max Mallowan two years later and they remained happily married for the rest of her life.
Agatha Christie went on to have a long and distinguished career writing 66 detective novels. Interestingly, her autobiography makes no reference at all to the mysterious disappearance. She died peacefully in 1976 at the age of 85 with her daughter Rosalind inheriting her estate. Her novels have been adapted into countless movies over the years, and still are, most recently by actor Kenneth Branagh. Today, the only person who truly knows what happened in those lost eleven days is long gone. Alas, Agatha Christie left us a mystery even her famous detectives Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple would find unsolvable.