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Posts Tagged ‘Civil War’

Day 107 – Greg H.

Posted in Donation, tagged , , , , , , , on April 8, 2010| Leave a Comment »

I met up with a journalism student from Howard University who was tasked with doing a short video report.  Brittney chose to do it on the Year of Giving and asked to meet up with me and follow me around as I gave out my $10 for the day.

We met at 9am at the Starbucks on Howard’s campus.  We spoke for a little while and then headed South down Georgia Avenue in search of a $10 recipient.  We hung out near the Shaw Metro entrance but then decided to walk up to U Street.  We came across the African American Civil War Memorial.  You might recall that on day 79 I went to the memorial and then walked over to the museum and met with Hari, the curator of the African American Civil War Museum, and gave him my $10 for the day.

Memorial surrounded by the Wall of Honor

It was still early and the sun was shining bright on the 209,145 engraved names of the soldiers and officers who served in the United States Colored Troops.

There was a woman pushing a stroller slowly around the memorial.  I approached her and asked if she would accept my $10.  The woman, who I believe was a nanny from French-speaking Africa, declined to participate in the Year of Giving.  She got nervous I think with the possibility of being on camera.  I don’t know if she was here illegally or something, but she was pretty clear that she wanted to avoid any and all cameras.

I then spotted a man in a trench coat studying the monument.  I walked up to Greg and asked him if he could help me with a project that I was doing.  He heard me out and said he was ok with it.

Greg is 41 and lives in Virginia.  Born and raised in Massachusetts, he has been in the greater Washington area for 10 years.  Greg has been in the hotel and hospitality industry for many years.  In fact, he transferred from Massachusetts to DC for a new job with the same hotel conglomerate that he works for now.  

Greg at the African Civil War Memorial in DC (Photo: Reed)

Greg was actually working when I ran into him.  Well, it wasn’t obvious he was working.  How many jobs pay you to check out monuments?  Note to self: apply for Greg’s job!

Ok, he wasn’t getting paid to do that, but he was waiting for his hotel’s liquor license renewal paperwork to be issued around the corner.  Greg explained that the district renews the licenses once a year on the same date for all establishments.  It seems insane to process all of these licenses at the same time.  It would seem to me that the office would be pretty slow for 11 months and then go crazy for one month.  

Greg was getting ready for a week of vacation up in Massachusetts.  He is a history buff and was excited that he was going to witness the reenactment the battles of Lexington and Concord.  This year marks the 235th anniversary of the battles.  

I asked Greg what he would do with the $10.  He asked if I knew if there was an association or foundation supporting the memorial.  I told him about my encounter with Hari and explained that the museum has a place for donations.  He promised to walk over to the museum and make a donation.  I told him to make sure that he said hello to Hari…who coincidentally I passed earlier that day as I walked over to Howard University and he walked to work.

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Day 104 – Gene R.

Posted in Donation, tagged , , , , , , , on April 2, 2010| 6 Comments »

Several of you have been nice to ask how my job search is going and I thought I would give an update.  I continue to actively look for new employment.  There are several opportunities that I am studying right now.  Most of them are very similar to roles that I have held in the past (leadership roles in IT/telecom and nonprofits focused on education), however, part of me thinks that I should really think out of the box.  What ideas do you have?  What are the most interesting / inspiring careers you have heard of?

As you might have read yesterday, I was down in Southern Virginia with my cousin Doug doing some genealogical research on our family.  On Sunday Doug and I drove to Petersburg, VA to the Blandford Church, where one of my great, great, great (about 6 more “greats” should be inserted here) grandfather, Theophilus Field, was buried.  He is the only person to be buried in the church itself. 

Gate to the area where the civil war soldiers are buried (Photo: Reed)

That’s not the only reason the church (and surrounding cemetery) is notable.  Built in 1735, it is one of six buildings in the world that every window is made of Tiffany stained glass.  The church has an interesting history which includes it’s restoration in the early 20th century.  After years of abandonment, The Ladies Memorial Association of Petersburg decided to restore the church as well as retrieve thousands of bodies left scattered around the Petersburg area after the Civil war and give them a Christian burial.  What they thought would take them a year or so turned into a 15 year process where more than 30,000 soldiers’ remains were collected and buried. 

During this time, the celebrated stained glass artist Louis Comfort Tiffany offered to help the Ladies Association and steeply discount the cost of 15 stained glass windows to be outfitted in the church.  The Ladies sought sponsorship from Confederate states and states that were sympathetic to the South.  Only one state that was asked didn’t sponsor a window, that was Kentucky.  When that happened, Tiffany himself paid for the last window. 

The windows are beautiful…my favorite was the Louisiana window that portrays St. Paul holding a sword.  Standing inside the dimly lit church the kaleidoscope of colors and the musty smell transport you back in time.  If you visit Petersburg, make sure you visit the church.

Photo: Reed

The cemetery is also interesting.  The remains of soldiers from every war that the US was involved in prior to the Gulf War can be found there.  It is the resting spot of the late actor Joseph Cotton, made famous for his work in many of Orson Wells’ films.  With more than 300 acres, it’s the second largest cemetery in VA (after Arlington Cemetery). 

So why do I know all of this…because I had a great tour guide!  Gene, originally from Pennsylvania, moved to Petersburg for a 2.5 year military assignment and ended up staying over 50 years.  Full of knowledge and energy, Gene now works for the Petersburg Tourism Department.  It is by chance that he ended up being our guide, as the person scheduled to lead our tour was running late and Gene offered to cover for her.

Gene in front of Old Blandford Church (Photo: Reed)

 

I learned some other interesting things about Gene…he used to be a school teacher – taught piano and voice, although had to stop his singing due to some throat complications he had as a result of contacting Polio when he was 10.  Another interesting tidbit about Gene is that he and I went to the same university.  Well, when Gene attended it was called Indiana State Teachers College – now it is Indiana University of Pennsylvania.  I rarely meet alumni by chance and this was extra special since he studied there before it achieved its university status.  

Gene was very hesitant to accept my $10 since I am unemployed now.  He shared that his son who lives in Florida has been unemployed for 15 months.  He finally agreed to accept the $10 and decided to donate it to the Petersburg Museum Foundation, a new organization founded in 2007 whose mission it is to ensure the long-term preservation, restoration, and interpretation of Centre Hill, the Siege Museum, and the Blandford Church.

Gene and I have already exchanged emails and I look forward to keeping in touch with him throughout the year.  I am waiting to get donation details if anyone would like to send the Petersburg Museum Foundation a contribution.  They have ambitious plans but need more than a million dollars in funding.

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Day 79 – Hari J.

Posted in Donation, tagged , , , , , , , , , on March 7, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Memorial surrounded by the Wall of Honor

I have done a poor job this week of updating the blog…but trust me, I have not wavered on my commitment to giving.  In fact, I have some very interesting people to tell you about as I get caught up.  Today is Hari’s story.

Being unemployed has some benefits.  One thing is that I try to go regularly to the different museums and cultural institutions that Washington has to offer.  There is an abundance of information and history here and I have time to soak it up.

I decided to check out the African American Civil War Museum.  It is located on the corner of 12th and U in DC.  A short walk away is the memorial and the Wall of Honor that remembers the 209,145 soldiers and officers who served in the United States Colored Troops.

Hari is the museum’s curator.  He was gracious to spend some time talking with me about the civil war.  Listening to Hari unfold the events that led to the civil war is exhilarating.  Usually when someone tells you about some event that took place deep in our history, it is hard to appreciate the actual event because you don’t have sufficient understanding of contributing events, cultural references, etc.  But Hari anticipated my questions and painted the full picture for me.

Hari at the African American Civil War Museum (Photo: Reed)

He first was drawn to history by his elders in his hometown of Pauls Valley, OK.  The elders took the time to explain to Hari historical events that they had lived through.  In the 8th and 11th grade, Hari discovered that the text books that he was using didn’t accurately portray the involvement of Americans of African descent  in the Civil War.  His teachers at the time, Ms. Bagley and Ms. Wallace respectively, understood that this history was suppressed and taught the true history. 

Hari went on to graduate from the University of Oklahoma.  It was there that he had a Kenyan American professor of African American History who was not only ignorant of the involvement of African Americans in the Civil War but refused to teach it saying that it was not on his syllabus. It was this encounter that fueled Hari’s desire to dedicate himself to researching the involvement of African Americans in the Civil War. 

He received a commission in the Marine Corps and later found himself as an instructor at the Naval Academy.  He realized that there was still a lack of understanding of our own history and felt that Americans need a foundation of common understanding about our own history before we are fully capable of dealing with conflict and struggles in foreign lands.  “If we can not understand what went on her in our own history and what cultural attributes were possessed by Americans” Hari explained, “then it will be impossible for us to do it anywhere else.  The only thing that we’ll be able to do is to kill people when we can not get them to understand our way of thinking.”

Hari left the Marine Corps to dedicate himself full-time to the topic.  I encourage you to stop by the Museum and meet Hari.  If he has time, I know he would be happy to share with you his extensive knowledge of our nation’s history.

Here is a clip of Hari discussing our views on race and how a paradigm shift has occurred in our society’s views about race as it pertains to sports and how this represents a much greater paradigm shift in our society’s way of thinking.

It’s no surprise that Hari decided to donate his $10 to the museum. 

For those of you who can not make it to the museum to meet Hari, he recommended two books to me that you might want to check out:

  • The Great Conspiracy by John Alexander Logan
  • A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn – A note about Mr. Zinn.  He died unexpectedly on January 27th of this year.  He was 87.  He was quoted as saying that he would like to be remembered “for introducing a different way of thinking about the world, about war, about human rights, about equality,” and “for getting more people to realize that the power which rests so far in the hands of people with wealth and guns…ultimately rests in people themselves and that they can use it.”

 

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