dagblog - Comments for "Northern Exposure"

The idea that Amos died with

Ellen — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 14:36:25 +0000

The idea that Amos died with the picture in his hand contemplating his children is likely someone (Bourns?) exercising creative license.

It sounds so much better than the story of someone (Bourns?) ransacking Amos' dead body.

You can't be serious! As you

Ellen — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 14:27:55 +0000

In reply to Northern Exposure

You can't be serious!

As you point out -- "Although what I removed went to the police . . . ."

There's no "Although" about it! Amos' photo was "personal effects"; it should have remained with graves registration. Anyone who removed it from the battlefield for anything other than safe keeping and failed, seasonably, to return it to the army stole it.

Asides:

1) Do they know which grave is Amos'?

2) How do you know "Bourns didn't steal it" in the first place? Is there an independent report of the tavern keeper's story? Or did Bourns make up the tavern keeper story to cover up his theft?

3) Amos likely died near where he was fighting; the regiments (probably, only one) and the companies (several) fighting there would have been known. If the photo hadn't been stolen "graves" could have showed the picture to the men in those companies. Unless Amos was an out-an-out loner (not likely; he was a sergeant), some of those men would have seen it and known who it belonged to.

Bourns' tale stinks.

Thanks for your post and an

stratofrog — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 05:12:00 +0000

In reply to Northern Exposure

Thanks for your post and an old picture of three beautiful children whom I belatedly claim become some part of me. I digress into the double helix.

Visual presence is important to me and helps form the context I’ve carried from my past. Cold Mountain is one of my favorite movies. Many of my relatives seem portrayed in that film, esp. the musicians. And through those people’s lives, I find a road back, not always where I want to go. Even though they remain anonymous to my understanding I still carry forward some of their values in my genes.

Like John Trudell says: DNA means: “Descendants ‘N Ancestors” - that’s who we are, going in both directions.

Wars. Native Americans were 100% of the population here, and now 1%. A common history informs our politics and we have to deal with it, somehow. As far as racism and war go, I think we should replace the black/white dichotomy because together, we are now much more of a mix than that. Maybe we’ll figure it out if we bring out the big pictures, like Flowerchild did on Memorial Day.

I haven’t finished reading the Errol Morris series yet.
But the questions I have float somewhere between nature and
culture, as usual. For me, the common
denominator is image and language...

The information in DNA is stored as a code made up of four chemical bases: adenine (A), guanine (G), cytosine (C), and thymine (T). Human DNA consists of about 3 billion bases, and more than 99 percent of those bases are the same in all people. The order, or sequence, of these bases determines the information available for building and maintaining an organism, similar to the way in which letters of the alphabet appear in a certain order to form words and sentences. – Genetics Home Reference

AGCT vs Who, Me?

Once more: “Human DNA consists of about 3 billion bases, and more than 99 percent of those bases are the same in all people.”

What in that 1% makes us racist or violent or mean? I don’t know but I guess its religion and power, gender and politics and culture. The upside is the answers must reside there too. Somewhere. Maybe we’ll figure it out before we all turn phosphorescent greenish-blue like dickday’s “Devolution” blog predicks.

:-)
P.S. Congrats on the big win over at Quinn's!

Wendy, I just want to say

CVille Dem — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 02:57:54 +0000

In reply to Northern Exposure

Wendy, I just want to say that I am sorry more people didn't read these essays. Most of the comments were just about how to properly post!

They missed out in my opinion, but if it hadn't appeared on my day off, I might have missed it myself, so remember to post these things on Wednesdays (or maybe on weekends, when everyone has more time).

Why do you consider it

CVille Dem — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 02:48:51 +0000

In reply to Northern Exposure

Why do you consider it stealing for someone to take the one possible identifying piece of information off of a corpse before burying it in a (semi) mass grave? Surely everyone knew that it would give some level of comfort to a family to find out what happened to a loved-one who died.

As an emergency room nurse, I have removed rings, other jewelry, and all possible identifying stuff when a dead Jane or John Doe was brought in. Although what I removed went to the police, you have to remember that 43,000 people died in those three days -- leaving it with an inn-keeper turned out to be a pretty good way to get the news to the family after all.

Obviously the person who first took the picture and then gave it to the innkeeper did not benefit personally from it. Although Bourns didn't steal it, he ultimately stole its worth, and refused to return it to Amos' family.

Did anyone ever figure out

Ellen — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 23:36:18 +0000

In reply to Northern Exposure

Did anyone ever figure out who stole the photo of Amos' kids out of his dead hand?*

* I read most but not quite all of Morris' five parter.

I recall your blog entry but

BevD — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 23:18:50 +0000

In reply to Northern Exposure

I recall your blog entry but I don't recall your question. Ask again and I'll be happy to respond.

BevD -- I wrote a sincere

wwstaebler — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 22:20:02 +0000

In reply to Northern Exposure

BevD -- I wrote a sincere question to you in my last blog. I wonder why you did not respond, but say this?

If we don't stop hanging on

BevD — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 21:59:45 +0000

In reply to Northern Exposure

If we don't stop hanging on to the myth that we live in separate cultures, we will never progress. Whether we like it or not, we live in one culture and that culture is the one we create together.

That is the true meaning of "American exceptionalism", that of all nations, we were unhampered by tradition, by heredity, by religious institutions and able to create something new by ourselves, for ourselves.

WW, you can put as many links

TheraP — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 21:31:50 +0000

In reply to Northern Exposure

WW, you can put as many links as you want into a post. And there's a little "link" icon when you're doing blog now, which allows you to highlight the test you'd like to link, then click the link icon, and a window comes down so you can paste the link into the window. And it will light up in your post. :) (as many of them as you want!)