The Last Valley

A Scene of the Thirty Years War - Ernest Crofts
(Source)

The Thirty Years War ended on the 15th of May in 1648 with the Treaty of Westphalia. What began as a series of religious squabbles in the German states eventually dragged the major powers of Europe into open warfare. The bulk of the fighting was in what we now call Germany.

Over 8,000,000 people died. From the war itself, from disease, and from starvation. There were areas of Germany which lost 25 to 40% of their population. The male population in many areas was reduced by as much as half.

The Treaty of Westphalia marked the virtual end of the feudal system in western Europe and also marks the birth of the nation-state. But the thirty years preceding that treaty were a savage and horrible time.

Friday evening I went looking for a film which I remember watching long ago. Probably due to researching material for yesterday's post on the last stand of the Swiss Guard. One of the paintings I looked at (and have used here on the blog before) was of a unit of pikemen, surrounded by the detritus of war, at the Battle of Rocroi.

This one -

Rocroi, el último tercio (Rocroi, The Last Tercio) - Augusto Ferrer-Dalmau
(Source)

Why that painting had me charging off to Netflix, Amazon, and YouTube for a dimly remembered movie tells you something about the way my mind works. Not sure what, but there it is.

The film (I eventually found it, and watched it on YouTube) was The Last Valley -

Michael Caine and Omar Sharif in The Last Valley
(Source)

At the opening of the film, Omar Sharif's character, Vogel - a teacher, is fleeing from the war itself. Like many during the Thirty Years War he has been reduced to the clothes on his back and only what he can carry. He sees horrific sights along the way, including the pillaging of a village he has stumbled into, seeking food and shelter.

Eventually he finds his way to a village in a high Alpine valley (the movie was shot in the Tirol) which is apparently deserted. He is closely followed by a band of mercenaries (of both Protestants and Catholics, for the Thirty Years War began as a religious war and only later became a struggle between warring kings) led by Michael Caine's character, the Captain.

The villagers eventually return to be surprised by the soldiers. The Captain and his men wish to pillage the village and return with what they find to their army. Vogel convinces the Captain that winter is approaching, if they return to the army whatever they find in the way of food will disappear "down a thousand throats" and he and his men will face an uncertain future. But if they stay in the valley for the winter, they will have plenty of food and shelter.

The Captain agrees.

Much of the film is about the interactions between the soldiers and the villagers. There is friction between those who wish to pillage the village and return to the army and those who just want a few months of peace. There is friction between Catholic and Protestant, the Captain's band is a mix of the two. The village is Catholic. It's a good film of people who have found a refuge from an insane world.

I cannot imagine living in such times. Armies, composed of many mercenaries, taking what they wanted, killing all who stood in their way, disease killing thousands. There really were very few places that were safe.

For those who think the times we live in are bad, and admittedly for some they are, there are areas of the world now which rival the Thirty Years War for disease and suffering, for the most part we have it good. For whatever reason, there are some in the world who feast on suffering and lies, even in our own country.

My home is my last valley, it is my refuge from a sometimes insane world.

I aim to keep it that way.

Don't Mess With These Guys!

Schlechten Krieg - Hans Holbein
(Source)

Cavalry once dominated the European battlefield. Armored men with lances on armored horses ran down infantry at will. As most of the infantry were simple peasants rousted out of their fields to serve in their lord's levies, armed with older, cheap weapons if they had weapons at all. Many carried their farm implements to war. Make no mistake, some of those could be deadly, but not usually against men on horseback.

While archers could, and did, decimate cavalry when properly emplaced, archers took a long time to train. So cavalry ruled the battlefield for a long time.

While long weapons, like the pike and the spear, had been around for a long time (Alexander the Great's phalanx carried a very long pike, the sarissa, in ancient times and they were very effective with it) their use by large formations faded. The Roman legions were far more mobile than the Macedonian phalanx.

After the fall of Rome, Europe devolved into competing fiefdoms. Charlemagne's empire rose and fragmented over time. Armored horse were all the rage. Then somewhere along the line, someone figured out (or remembered) that horses won't charge into a hedgehog of spears. The pike began to reappear in the hands of men trained to use it.

Switzerland in this modern day and age is known for a number of things: Swiss Army knives, Swiss cheese, Swiss banking, skiing, chocolates, watches, and more. A little known feature of modern Switzerland is their military. Military service is compulsory and while the standing army isn't that large, the reserve system keeps a number of trained men available. In addition, reservists keep their personal equipment at home, including their personal weapons. (Up until 2007 they had their ammunition at home as well.)

While the Swiss military hasn't fought a war in quite a while, the Swiss cantons were once famous for their pikemen.

An example of why other European countries leave the Swiss alone. Tough to campaign in the Alps!
(Source)

At one time units of Swiss pikemen were the most feared infantry in Europe

During the Late Middle Ages, mercenary forces grew in importance in Europe, as veterans from the Hundred Years War and other conflicts came to see soldiering as a profession rather than a temporary activity, and commanders sought long-term professionals rather than temporary feudal levies to fight their wars. Swiss mercenaries (Reisläufer) were valued throughout Late Medieval Europe for the power of their determined mass attack in deep columns with the pike and halberd. Hiring them was made even more attractive because entire ready-made Swiss mercenary contingents could be obtained by simply contracting with their local governments, the various Swiss cantons—the cantons had a form of militia system in which the soldiers were bound to serve and were trained and equipped to do so. Some Swiss also hired themselves out individually or in small bands.

The warriors of the Swiss cantons had gradually developed a reputation throughout Europe as skilled soldiers, due to their successful defense of their liberties against their Austrian Habsburg* overlords, starting as early as the late thirteenth century, including remarkable upset victories over heavily armoured knights at Morgarten and Laupen. This was furthered by later successful campaigns of regional expansion (mainly into Italy). By the fifteenth century they were greatly valued as mercenary soldiers, particularly following their series of notable victories in the Burgundian Wars in the latter part of the century. The standing mercenary army of king Matthias Corvinus of Hungary (Black Army of Hungary 1458–1490) also contained Swiss pikemen units, who were held in high honour by the king. The native term Reisläufer literally means "one who goes to war" and is derived from Middle High German Reise, meaning "military campaign". 

The Swiss, with their head-down attack in huge columns with the long pike, refusal to take prisoners, and consistent record of victory, were greatly feared and admired—for instance, Machiavelli addresses their system of combat at length in chapter 12 of The Prince. The Valois Kings of France, in fact, considered it a virtual impossibility to take the field of battle without Swiss pikemen as the infantry core of their armies. (Although often referred to as "pikemen", the Swiss mercenary units also contained halberdiers as well until several decades into the sixteenth century, as well as a small number of skirmishers armed with crossbows or crude firearms to precede the rapid advance of the attack column.) 

The young men who went off to fight, and sometimes die, in foreign service had several incentives—limited economic options in the still largely rural cantons; adventure; pride in the reputation of the Swiss as soldiers; and finally what military historian Sir Charles Oman describes as a pure love of combat and warfighting in and of itself, forged by two centuries of conflict. (Source)

Eventually other countries adopted the Swiss fighting style, notably the Spanish with their famous tercio.

The tercio was an administrative unit with command of up to 3,000 soldiers, subdivided originally into 10, later 12 compañías, made up of pikemen, swordsmen and arquebusiers or musketeers. These companies were deployed in battle and were further subdivided into units of 30 soldiers. These smaller units could be deployed individually or brought together to form what were sometimes called Spanish squares. These powerful infantry squares were also much used by other European powers, especially the Imperial Army of the Holy Roman Empire. (Source)

The Swiss Guards at the Vatican are the descendants of the Swiss pikemen who once terrorized the battlefields of Europe. These chaps -

(Source)

Are the military ancestors of these chaps -

(Source)

The Pontifical Swiss Guard have watched over the Pope at the Vatican since the late 15th Century, though they were officially created on the 22nd of January 1506, though Swiss mercenaries were in the pay of the Pontiff since at least 1497. The Swiss Guard is the only mercenary unit from Switzerland by law since 1859. The soldiers are individually recruited from some of the best soldiers of the Swiss Army.

While their duties include the ceremonial posting of those colorful sentries one sees around the Vatican, they have a deadly purpose, protect the Pope, head of the Roman Catholic Church. In 1527, during the Sack of Rome, they more than earned their pay -

On the morning of May 6th, 1527, from his headquarters set up in St. Onofrio's Convent on the Gianicolo hill, Captain General Bourbon launched a series of attacks on Rome. During one of them, at the Torrione Gate, while leading the assault of the walls, he himself was mortally wounded. After just a moment's hesitation, the Spanish mercenaries broke through the Torrione Gate, while the landsknechts invaded the road of Borgo Santo Spirito and St. Peter's. The Swiss Guard, standing firm at the foot of the obelisk (now in St. Peter's Square, but then near the German cemetery within the Vatican close to the Basilica), together with the few remnants of the Roman troops, resisted desperately. Their Captain, Kaspar Röist was wounded, and later killed by the Spaniards in his quarters in front of his wife, Elizabeth Klingler. Of the 189 Swiss Guards, only 42 survived, the ones who, when all was lost, under the command of Hercules Göldli guarded Clement VII’s retreat to safety in Castel Sant’Angelo. The rest fell gloriously, massacred together with two hundred fugitives, on the steps of the High Altar in St. Peter's Basilica. Pope Clement VII and his men were able to escape to safety, thanks to the "Passetto", a secret corridor which Pope Alexander VI had built along the top of the wall connect­ing the Vatican with Castel Sant’Angelo. The savage horde was in a hurry, for fear that the League troups would cut off their retreat. Across the Sisto bridge the landsknechts and Spaniards fell on the city and for eight days committed every sort of violence, theft, sacrilege and massacre, even the tombs of the Popes, including that of Julius II, were violated in search of spoils. There were as many as 12 thousand dead and the booty amounted to ten million ducats. All that happened cannot really be regarded with surprise because the imperial army and in particular Frundsberg's landsknechts, were animated by a violent spirit of crusade against the Pope. In front of Castel Sant’Angelo where the Pope had retreated, a parody of a religious procession was set up, in which Clement was asked to cede the sails and oars of the "Navicella" (boat of Peter) to Luther, and the angry soldiery shouted "Vivat Lutherus pontifex!" (Long live Luther, Pontiff!) The name of Luther was incised with the tip of a sword across the painting of the "Dispute of the Most Holy Sacrament" in the Rooms of Raffaello, out of disdain, while on another wall a graffito hailed Charles V, emperor. Concise and exact was the description given by the Prior of the Canons of St. Augustine at that time: "Mali fuere Germani, pejores Itali, Hispani vero pessimi." (The Germans were bad, the Italians were worse, the Spaniards were the worst.) Besides the irreplaceable damage of the destruction of the relics, during the Sack of Rome, inestimable art treasures, namely the greater part of the Church's finest artisan-made gold and silver ware, were lost forever. On June 5th, Clement had to surrender and to accept heavy conditions: he had to cede the fortresses of Ostia, Civitavecchia, and Civita Castellana, to hand over the cities of Modena, Parma and Piacenza, and to pay the sum of four thousand ducats. Moreover, a ransom for the freedom of prisoners was demanded. The papal garrison was replaced by four companies of Germans and Spaniards, and two hundred landsknechts took the place of the Swiss Guard which had been suppressed. The Pope obtained permission for the surviving Swiss Guards to join the new Guard, but only 12 of them accepted, among them Hans Gutenberg of Chur and Albert Rosin of Zurich. The others wished to have nothing to do with the hated landsknechts. (Source)

Of course, Bad Ass of the Week featured a post about the Swiss pikemen here. Yes, they use adult language over there and are often over the top, but they tell a good story. And because this whole post was occasional reader Paweł's idea (and a good one it was), I thought I'd also have one of his favorite bands tell the story of the Swiss heroes who fell that day.

Tough guys those fellows in the odd uniforms.

I wouldn't mess with them!

Dzięki Paweł, świetny pomysł!





* Oddly enough the Hapsburgs originated in Switzerland. The dynasty is named after their seat of origin, the Habsburg Castle founded by Radbot, Count of Habsburg in the Swiss Canton of Aargau.
The origins of the name of the castle are uncertain. Most people assume the name to be derived from the High German Habichtsburg (Hawk Castle), but some historians and linguists are convinced that the name comes from the Middle High German word ‘hab/ hap’ meaning fjord, as there is a river with a ford nearby. The first documented use of the name by the dynasty itself has been traced to the year 1108.

Zzzzzz...

(Source)

The post I was attempting to write on Thursday evening (last night) was rapidly getting...

• unclear
• confused
• unintelligible
• incomprehensible
• hard to follow
• disjointed
• disconnected
• disordered
• mixed up
• garbled
• jumbled
• scrambled
• muddled
• rambling
• wandering
• disorganized
• illogical
• inarticulate
• mumbling
• slurred
• All of the above

In a word, incoherent. I sat there and nothing was making much sense. In fact, I noticed a startling inability to even type. I was becoming incomprehensible.

So I thought it best to down tools, stand easy, and spend the night vegetating, perhaps even sleeping.

Know this, that as you read this particular post (which took far too long to compose) I am recumbent in my rack, sleeping the sleep of the weary. Fortunately I have this day off (tomorrow as I type, today as you read) and have decided to lie low.

I won't ever again try to write an historical post while exhausted. You Swiss pikemen will just have to wait until I've had more sleep.

(Original)

Bis gleich...

Best Admiral, Ever

Admiral Yi Soon Shin
(이순신)
(Source)

So a few of you pinged me about doing some Korean history, perhaps get The Missus Herself to write a post. Well, that first thing is happening right now, the second thing, well, don't hold your breath. When I mentioned that to the love of my life, my raison d'être, she smiled and said, "No." Then proceeded to tell me a wee bit of Korean history which elicited the standard Buckism, "I had no ideer." Which I will relate to you someday, POCIR.

Now about that title, I'm sure some of you are thinking, "Really Sarge? Never heard of this guy, and you're hinting that he's better than the great Nelson?" Well, yeah, I am sort of leaning that way, but what did an admiral of the Royal Navy have to say?

It is always difficult for Englishmen to admit that Nelson ever had an equal in his profession, but if any man is entitled to be so regarded, it should be this great naval commander of Asiatic race who never knew defeat and died in the presence of the enemy; of whose movements a track-chart might be compiled from the wrecks of hundreds of Japanese ships lying with their valiant crews at the bottom of the sea, off the coasts of the Korean peninsula... and it seems, in truth, no exaggeration to assert that from first to last he never made a mistake, for his work was so complete under each variety of circumstances as to defy criticism... His whole career might be summarized by saying that, although he had no lessons from past history to serve as a guide, he waged war on the sea as it should be waged if it is to produce definite results, and ended by making the supreme sacrifice of a defender of his country. (The Influence of the Sea on The Political History of Japan, pp. 66–67, Admiral George Alexander Ballard, Source.)

Although I might wax eloquent and sing the praises of Admiral Yi myself, I found an accurate (and rather humorous) account of the Admiral's career over at Bad Ass of the Week (which I really need to add to the Blog Roll). For the faint of heart, they use adult, sergeant-like, and longshoreman-like words over there, ye have been warned. With that in mind, go read this.

I hope you found that edifying and educational. I know I did.

Going into battle against 130 warships escorting numerous transports with only 13 ships under his command, none of them the first ironclad in history (sorry CSS Virginia and USS Monitor, the famous 거북선, or "Turtle Ship" was first) takes some very big, brass cojones. Not to mention which, he won!

(Good article about the Turtle Ship at the source of this photo.)

Another good article about these very effective warships is here. There's a video as well!

Admiral Yi is one of Korea's most honored heroes, in both halves of the peninsula. A guy you should know. As to him being better than Nelson? Let's let Admiral Togo (victor of the Battle of Tsushima Straight over the Russians in 1905) give his opinion -

Admiral Togo regarded Admiral Yi as his superior. At a party held in his honor, Togo took exception to a speech comparing him to Lord Nelson and Yi Sun-sin.

It may be proper to compare me with Nelson, but not with Korea’s Yi Sun-sin, for he has no equal. (The Imjin War, by Samuel Hawley, pg. 490, Source.)

So there's your first taste of Korean history, there will be more!

Rules

Moses with the Tablets of the Law - Rembrandt
(Source)

There have always been rules. In Genesis there was one rule, don't eat from the Tree of Knowledge. Nope, didn't last long. Went from "don't eat from that tree" to "who told you you were naked?" in pretty short order. So from the Garden of Eden we were unceremoniously tossed. The Lord showed Adam and Eve the Heavenly red card and they were "sent off."

Further on down the road (Exodus), the people of Israel were leaving Egypt. On Mount Sinai the Lord gave Moses ten commandments, ten rules. Much of which boiled down to the basic "don't take things from people which aren't yours." Such as wives, property, life itself, etc. Yes, there were other rules, all perfectly reasonable, ten, total.

By Deuteronomy there were hundreds of rules. Which to me is a proof of evolution, sort of. The Lord in His Heaven did not create lawyers, they simply evolved to meet the need of "there are too many rules, how do we keep track of all these?" A good question, which lawyers have been answering ever since.

When the Saviour came along, He tried to make things simple again, "love one another." The Golden Rule, "do unto others..." etc.

Nope, didn't last.

Perhaps one rule is just too simple and people are too complicated.

It's hard for people to follow rules. Often it's because there are just too many of them. We have a Constitution, it covers many of the basic things to make our Nation strong and well run. But once again, evolution stepped in. From lawyers there evolved the politician...

Hhmm, perhaps "devolved" is the more appropriate term.

In warfare the Europeans decided that there needed to be rules. Like -

• Don't execute prisoners
• Don't use particularly nasty weapons (like chemical weapons)
• Don't invade other countries.
• etc...

Seems to me the best rule in warfare is that if you start a war, it's okay for the other side to do whatever it takes to make you quit.

Again, warfare is one of those "don't take things from people which aren't yours" situations. Which leads me to this...

Once you have rules you have to decide what to do with people who break the rules, so you get special rules on punishment. Apparently in the old days, and I mean way back, many cultures had a very simple approach to punishment.

"What's that? John Doe broke a rule? I guess we better execute him."

"You mean, as in kill him?"

"Yup."

"Seems harsh but yeah, a rule's a rule."

I'm guessing that after a while somebody said, "You want the guy dead for stealing food for his family? You kill him, I'm not going to." Or some similar scenario where the rich and powerful (also known as "those who make the rules" or "those for whom there are no rules") discovered that the common folk outnumbered them. Also that they drew most of the guys who enforced the rules from the common folk.

I'm sure that after a few episodes of "pitchforks and torches people, let's go slaughter the nobility," the powerful got a bit more humble. Or at least a bit more sneaky about breaking the rules which didn't really apply to them anyway.

Now I was a sergeant for nearly twenty years in the Air Force, you'd think that I'm a big "rules guy," well, not really. I think that there are probably too many rules, which comes directly from bad leadership. In the military, if you break the rules, you get punished. If the higher ups decide, well, some drunk Marine drove his car into a local and killed the poor guy, everyone must suffer. So...

Okay, no more drinking anywhere in this theater. One guy broke the rules, so everyone suffers.

I really think all of life can be boiled down to one simple rule, "Don't be an asshole."

Everything else is just what to do if (when) people persist in being assholes.

Too bad I'm not in charge, neh?

Oh yeah, Happy Valentine's Day. St. Valentine broke the rules of Rome. He paid with his life. So we send each other cards and chocolates.

I wonder who made that rule?

The Sword, The Jewel, and The Mirror

The death of Taira Tomomori - Utagawa Kuniyoshi, 1798 - 1861
(Source)

In ancient Japan, the country was ruled by emperors, believed to have been descendants of the sun goddess, Amaterasu. The emperors ruled from Kyoto, they and their courtiers dwelled in luxury, attending to the finer things in life. While out in the countryside, the people who eventually became the samurai, pushed the barbarians back, eventually extending Japanese rule over the islands of Kyushu, Shikoku, Honshu, and finally, the far northern isle of Hokkaido.

Politics then was as nasty and fickle as it is today.

Two great clans arose, the Taira and the Minamoto. They competed to gain favor from the emperors, over time they came to dominate the emperor. Eventually things came to a head. Both clans wanted to rule through the emperor. And there could be only one...

The Taira were a seafaring race, dwelling along the shores of the Inland Sea, the Minamoto were land based. Both families were descended from the imperial family, those members who were barred from succession that is.

Both clans wished to change that...

So they went to war.

Eventually the Taira were driven from the East of Japan and retreated to their lands along the coast. The Minamoto bided their time. The Taira were masters of the sea, so the Minamoto learned and built ships of their own.

Soon the showdown came in the Shimonoseki Straight, off the southern tip of Honshu...

The Taira were outnumbered, but some sources say that they had the advantage over the Minamoto in understanding the tides of that particular area, as well as naval combat tactics in general. The Taira split their fleet into three squadrons, while their enemy arrived en masse, their ships abreast, and archers ready. The beginning of the battle consisted mainly of a long-range archery exchange, before the Taira took the initiative, using the tides to help them try to surround the enemy ships. They engaged the Minamoto, and the archery from a distance eventually gave way to hand-to-hand combat with swords and daggers after the crews of the ships boarded each other. However, the tide changed, and the advantage was given back to the Minamoto. 

One of the crucial factors that allowed the Minamoto to win the battle was that a Taira general, Taguchi Shigeyoshi, defected and attacked the Taira from the rear. He also revealed to the Minamoto which ship the six-year-old Emperor Antoku was on. Their archers turned their attention to the helmsmen and rowers of the Emperor's ship, as well as the rest of their enemy's fleet, sending their ships out of control. Many of the Taira saw the battle turn against them and committed suicide. 

Among those who perished this way were Antoku and his grandmother, Nun of the Second Rank, the widow of Taira no Kiyomori. (Source)

The sword, the jewel, and the mirror of the title were the Imperial Regalia of ancient Japan. As defeat approached, the Taira threw the sword and the jewel overboard. Before they could throw the mirror overboard, their ship was captured, the survivors dove overboard to join their emperor and their clansmen in death.

Divers eventually recovered the jewel, some claim that the sword was also recovered and is now kept at the Atsuta Shrine in Nagoya.

Many believe that the ancient sword, 草薙劍 (Kusanagi no Tsurugi) was lost forever at the battle and still lies somewhere on the sea floor.

The Taira were also known as the Heike, and the Minamoto were also known as the Genji. Japanese legend says that the crab native to the Inland Sea, the Heike crab, bears the faces of the dead Taira warriors. It's easy to see why.

Heikegani, or Samurai Crab
(Source)

The Minamoto eventually established the first Shogunate which made the Emperor a mere figurehead in the control of powerful warlords. This situation lasted until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. The Shoguns ruled Japan for nearly seven centuries.

Japan has a rich history, it's rather a shame few people in the West know of it. For some reason, I always feel a pang of sadness to think of the defeat of the Taira, and I wonder, does that ancient sword lie on the sea bed, or is it really at the Atsuta Shrine?

In truth, I don't want to know. I prefer the mystery.

Cypress Trees Byōbu, folding screen by Kanō Eitoku
(Source)

This is my interpretation of a time in Japan which is shrouded in myth and legend. The truth may, or may not be in the ancient texts. Who knows for sure?

Lunchables

There's a significant difference between "having to work this weekend" and "getting to work this weekend".  One becomes a drudge and, unless you're an hourly employee, means no weekend and no extra pay.  Solidly " ¡No Bueno!

On the other hand, if one of your former co-workers, who's moved on to a bigger, better, faster and (most importantly) more lucrative career, calls and asks if you'd help him by taking on a project he needs done, well then, that's  a horse of a different color.  

Source

Provided, of course, you're not doing this out of the goodness of your heart and the remuneration is commensurate with your mastery of skills and the fact that your weekend went down the tubes.

Fortunately that's the case this weekend.... because Mrs. Juvat needs new shoes! Or something....

So, my usual Sunday of browsing the internet in search of pithy trivia related to some universe shattering issue has been put aside for to earn those new shoes.

Source

Also lost in the shattering of the usual weekend rut schedule was breakfast this morning.  Normally, Sunday is spent in Church first then a breakfast at a local restaurant off the tourist path.  However, as the morning broke with a temperature in the low 20's and a freezing rain falling, those were both scratched from the Ops Schedule.

Finally around 9ish, the conditions were such that I could drop Mrs J off at her store where she could commit merchantilism whilst I toiled after those precious slippers.

But as I headed towards my usual office space (because it's quiet, no distractions and the internet connection is WAAAY faster than home, Sarge, if you must know), I realized that I hadn't consumed any nutrients.  Desiring to rectify that prior to the onset of hypoglycemia, I stopped at a bakery in town, and ordered some sausage kolache's.  

Source

Yes, I know.  typically kolache's are made with pastry and jam, not pastry and sausage.  Yes, I know to do otherwise is "cultural appropriation".  SFW!  They taste very good with the sweetness of the pastry offsetting the savoriness of the sausage.  My money, my breakfast!

Now, this particular bakery, is owned and run by an Asian family.  If I had to guess their ethnicity, which I'm horrible at, I'd say they were Vietnamese.  The head of the household is approximately my age, so very well could have emigrated towards the end of those festivities.  The wife and the son's and their wives all work the storefront.  

Very nice people, very pleasant, very hard working and, much to my cardiologist's dismay, they produce an excellent product.  So....

How's that for Cultural Appropriation?  A 50% Irish, 25% Italian, 25% German born in America purchasing breakfast from an immigrant from Vietnam, who uses  French dough, and German Sausage to make a Czech pastry in a Texas town. 

Murica!

As I was standing at the register waiting to sign the credit card receipt, I happened to notice something, which clarified a lot of things in my mind.

A simple display of flags.  A couple of United States Flags and one for each of the 5 services (Coast Guard! Jeez guys!).

It dawned on me these folks are proud to be here, proud to be Americans, proud of our country.  Just like most of my friends, family and I.

That solidified a thought I've been ruminating about lately.  The knowitalls, regardless of the letters following their name (CNN, D, R, BLM... whatever!) would have you believe that all immigrants want to bring their culture here and don't want to "be like us". 

But, there really are two kinds of immigrants.  The group the knowitalls describe are those who want to be here, because they'll be supported and don't have to work at all.  They bring the bad things of their culture and want us to become them. The source of all knowledge, cites a term "Lunchables" defined as where separate cultures "co-exist" by being entirely separate and maintaining no contact or involvement. That seems an apt description for this group.

 The other group is those that want to be here, work hard, succeed and become one of us while bringing the good things from their culture to improve ours.  Like this family.


I see the "knowitall" Lunchable plan as a recipe for chaos and disaster.

Am I wrong?

I'm good with Immigrants from the first group coming here.

As for the second, well, if I wanted to join their culture, I'd move there.  Doesn't seem to be much of that happening for some odd reason though.

As best I can figure, being in the first group is not determined by the legality or illegality of their arrival.  The same could be said for members of the second.  I think that distinction lies within the individual.  I support that hypothesis by looking at our student population.  There is a key field in my database that defines their arrival method. 

Unfortunately, that information seems to be the Alpha and Omega in the ongoing argument on immigration. Legal=Good, illegal=Bad.  I don't believe that to be correct.  If you live between Brownsville Tx and San Diego CA, you know folks that didn't go through the proper channels.  Heck, if you live most places in the US, you know folks...

I'm not condoning breaking the law to get here, and I do wish it were easier to do it legally.  But from my point of view, I see  no correlation between the value in that field and grades or discipline, in either direction.  By extension, I do see a correlation between trends in grades and discipline and where you're headed in life (i.e. whether you're going to be an asset to the population or a burden which in my binary brain translates to Good/Bad).

I also think that there's a correlation with the trend in grades and discipline and the attitudes of the adults/chronologically advanced humans in their children's lives and the Good/Bad distinction.

Given that, I think the President's proposal for a 12 year wait to determine intent is not a bad idea and should not be dismissed outright.  Get a job, stay out of trouble and in basically the same time a legal immigrant can gain citizenship, so can they.

My 2 cents.

Or as I used to say...

"Fight's on!"