My helmet blog has returned safe and sound from a year of inactivity. Something has reenergized me, though I'm not sure what.
Click here to see the Red Chinese Paratrooper helmet I received in the mail yesterday.
Okay, speaking of the Civil War...
I have six different types of helmets from the Spanish Civil War. I reflected recently to a couple touring Antietam that the American Civil War was very unique in that when it was over, the nation healed. Certainly there were, and are still, blowhards who parade their "forget hell" mentality, but this country has been able to survive through thick and thin for the last 150 years as one, united nation.
Spain, on the other hand, hounded, persecuted and often killed those from the losing side for decades after their civil war.
I prefer our way. A few blowhards is a tiny price to pay.
Mannie
2 comments:
Hi Mannie,
I know nothing about the Spanish Civil War, so I have no idea what they were fighting about. Are there parallels between their war and ours? I would agree that it is somewhat miraculous that our country has stayed together, but I'm not sure having "a few blowhards" around is the only price that was paid. A blind eye had to be turned to the way African-Americans were treated for decades after the war, as I'm sure you know. Could the sections have reconciled in a way that allowed the freedmen to assert their civil and political rights? Could the nation have reconciled without the lynchings and Jim Crow?
Bob Pollock
Bob,
You've exposed me as overly glib and simplistic, though I've grown somewhat comfortable with those handicaps thew older I get.
You are absolutely correct. I was relying too heavily on my Spanish Civil War comparison, and some prior knowledge of that struggle is required for the analogy to really work.
But the main idea was for you to go and look at my cool helmets.
Thanks for your fine comment.
Mannie
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