Sergeant William Gordon

On this date July 1st in 1916, 5,500 men of Ulster died in the Battle of Somme. One of them my Great Uncle Sergeant William Gordon went over the top that day never to return.

Oral family tradition holds that all of Ulster went silent as the news broke, only the weeping behind drawn shades was heard.  Ulster which is no bigger than Connecticut East of the Connecticut River suffered greatly that day. He is buried in Northern France close to where he fell. British tradition buries their fallen on the soil they fell, “forever British”, but as my Grandmother said, “The sun may never set on the British Empire, and it’s blood is on every square inch of it.”

Over The Top And Into History, For God and Ulster

Sgt Gordon was just one of many Great Uncles of mine that I would never meet who fell that day, Hewitts, Magills, Boyds, Walkers and Gordons you would not believe the numbers if I published them. Accurate stats and photographs are tough to come by, these men generally speaking had no children and few were married.

The character of the region was forever changed by this large loss of life.

The Hewitts are famous for their Lambeg drums in 2008 they assembled at the Ulster Tower in France. The memorial was built in 1920 to honour the Ulster Dead.  Almost 100 years after the war, Ulster remembers.

Hewitt Lameg Drums at the Ulster Tower

Rapidly Approaching Category 5

http://www.nap.edu/catalog/12999.html

Executive Summary

A Few Factoids

Thirty years ago, ten percent of California’s general fund went to higher
education and three percent to prisons. Today, nearly eleven percent
goes to prisons and eight percent to higher education.1

China is now second in the world in its publication of biomedical
research articles, having recently surpassed Japan, the United Kingdom,
Germany, Italy, France, Canada and Spain.2

The United States now ranks 22nd among the world’s nations in the
density of broadband Internet penetration and 72nd in the density of
mobile telephony subscriptions.3

In 2009, 51 percent of United States patents were awarded to non-
United States companies.4

The World Economic Forum ranks the United States 48th in quality of
mathematics and science education.5

Of Wal-Mart’s 6,000 suppliers, 5,000 are in China.6

There are sixteen energy companies in the world with larger reserves
than the largest United States company.7

IBM’s once promising PC business is now owned by a Chinese
company.8

The legendary Bell Laboratories is now owned by a French company.9

Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. (computer manufacturing) employs
more people than the worldwide employment of Apple, Dell, Microsoft,
Intel and Sony combined.10

No new nuclear plants and no new petroleum refineries have been built
in the United States in a third of a century, a period characterized by
intermittent energy-related crises.11

Only four of the top ten companies receiving United States patents last
year were United States companies.12

United States consumers spend significantly more on potato chips than
the government devotes to energy R&D.13

The world’s largest airport is now in China.14

In 2000 the number of foreign students studying the physical sciences
and engineering in United States graduate schools for the first time
surpassed the number of United States students.15

Federal funding of research in the physical sciences as a fraction of GDP
fell by 54 percent in the 25 years after 1970. The decline in engineering
funding was 51 percent.16

GE has now located the majority of its R&D personnel outside the
United States.17

Manufacturing employment in the U.S. computer industry is now lower
than when the first personal computer was built in 1975.18

In the 2009 rankings of the Information Technology and Innovation
Foundation the U.S. was in sixth place in global innovation-based
competitiveness, but ranked 40th in the rate of change over the past
decade.19

China has now replaced the United States as the world’s number one
high-technology exporter.20

In 1998 China produced about 20,000 research articles, but by 2006
the output had reached 83,000 . . . overtaking Japan, Germany and the
U.K.21

Eight of the ten global companies with the largest R&D budgets have
established R&D facilities in China, India or both.22

During a recent period during which two high-rise buildings were constructed
in Los Angeles, over 5,000 were built in Shanghai.23

In a survey of global firms planning to build new R&D facilities, 77 percent
say they will build in China or India.24

China has a $196 billion positive trade balance. The United States’ balance
is negative $379 billion.25

Sixty-nine percent of United States public school students in fifth
through eighth grade are taught mathematics by a teacher without a
degree or certificate in mathematics.26

Ninety-three percent of United States public school students in fifth
through eighth grade are taught the physical sciences by a teacher
without a degree or certificate in the physical sciences.27

(editor: Any wonder that our kids are not getting turned on to math and science!)

Of the Big Three American automakers, one is now owned by a firm in
Italy (after having been previously sold by a German firm), and another
is 60 percent owned by the United States government.28

The United States ranks 27th among developed nations in the proportion
of college students receiving undergraduate degrees in science or
engineering.29

Forty-nine percent of United States adults do not know how long it
takes for the Earth to revolve around the Sun.30

The United States graduates more visual arts and performing arts
majors than engineers.31

The total annual federal investment in research in mathematics, the
physical sciences and engineering is now equal to the increase in United
States healthcare costs every nine weeks.32

Bethlehem Steel marked its 100th birthday by declaring bankruptcy.33

The United States ranks 20th in high school completion rate among
industrialized nations and 16th in college completion rate.34

In less than 15 years, China has moved from 14th place to second place
in published research articles (behind the United States).35

China’s real annual GDP growth over the past thirty years has been 10
percent.36

According to OECD data the United States ranks 24th among thirty
wealthy countries in life expectancy at birth.37

For the next 5-7 years the United States, due to budget limitations, will
only be able to send astronauts to the Space Station by purchasing rides
on Russian rockets.38

The average American K-12 student spends four hours a day in front of
a TV.39

China’s Tsinghua and Peking Universities are the two largest suppliers
of students who receive PhD’s—in the United States.40

Sixty-eight percent of U.S. state prison inmates are high school dropouts
or otherwise did not qualify for a diploma.41

The United States has fallen from first to eleventh place in the OECD in
the fraction 25-34 year olds that has graduated high school. The older
portion of the U.S. workforce ranks first among OECD populations of
the same age.42

When MIT put its course materials on the worldwide web, over half of
the users were outside the United States.43
Six of the ten best-selling vehicles in the United States are now foreign
models.44

Since 1995 the United States share of world shipments of photovoltaics
has fallen from over 40 percent to well under 10 percent—while the
overall market has grown by nearly a factor of one hundred.45

Among manufacturers of photovoltaics, wind turbines and advanced
batteries, the top ten global firms by market capitalization include two,
one and one United States firms, respectively. The other firms are from
China, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Spain, Taiwan and the U.K.46
An American company recently opened the world’s largest private solar
R&D facility . . . in Xian, China.47

By 2008, public spending in the United States on energy R&D had
declined to less than half what it was three decades ago in real purchasing
power. By 2005, private investment had declined to less than
one-third of the total.48

A single Japanese automobile model constitutes about half of the U.S.
hybrid market.49

Last year Mitsubishi introduced the world’s first mass-produced allelectric
car.50

A Japanese company produces over 75 percent of the world’s nickelmetal
hydride batteries used in vehicles.51

Japan has 1524 miles of high speed rail; France has 1163; and China
just passed 742 miles. The United States has 225. China has 5612 miles
now under construction and one plant produces 200 trains each year
capable of operating at 217 mph. The United States has none under
construction.52

Roughly half of America’s outstanding public debt is now foreignowned—
with China the largest holder.53

The increase in cost of higher education in America has substantially
surpassed the growth in family income in recent decades. United States
current and former students have amassed $633 billion in student loan
debt.54

There are 60 new nuclear power plants currently being built in the
world. One of these is in the United States.55

In 2008, 770,000 people worked in the United States correction sector,
a number which is projected to grow. During the same year there were
880,000 workers in the entire United States automobile manufacturing
sector.56

Between 1996 and 1999, 157 new drugs were approved in the United
States. In a corresponding period ten years later the number dropped
to 74.57

All the National Academies Gathering Storm committee’s recommendations
could have been fully implemented with the sum America spends
on cigarettes each year—with $60 billion left over.58

Youths between the ages of 8 and 18 average seven-and-a-half hours
a day in front of video games, television and computers—often
multi-tasking.59

In 2007 China became second only to the United States in the estimated
number of people engaged in scientific and engineering research and
development.60

In January 2010, China’s BGI made the biggest purchase of genome
sequencing equipment ever.61

In May 2010, a supercomputer produced in China was ranked the
world’s second-fastest.62

Almost one-third of U.S. manufacturing companies responding to
a recent survey say they are suffering from some level of skills
shortages.63

According to the ACT College Readiness report, 78 percent of high
school graduates did not meet the readiness benchmark levels for one
or more entry-level college courses in mathematics, science, reading
and English.64

“We might have been a free and great people together” were cut at the end after  his list of offensives the King had committed against his colonies.

The Declaration documents and justifies the breakup of a race and nation, we were now separate not of one, while descended, separate and standing alone.

“Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. … They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends. ”

At that time virtually all of the colonialists could trace a parent or grandparent or themselves directly from the British Isles.  To wrestle one’s identity from the mother race from which they drew from all manner of custom and tradition had to be a particularly poignant and to embark on a grand experiment in self rule without the benevolent figure of a King keeping a steady hand over all, was …. well, radical.

“He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.”  Even then the citizens complained of more government than they needed!

A re-read of the Declaration is relevant today many of the listed offensives of the King read like sound bites from Capitol Hill between the warring parties.

“For imposing taxes on us without our consent:”  A timeless lament.

Despite the war of Independence and the nasty little conflict of 1812 where they burned our White House and Capitol the Brits and the former Colonists did come together in one of the great and enduring friendships any two countries have ever shared.  It might even survive President Obama boxing up Churchhill’s head and sending it back to the British Embassy.  How rude!

Dr. Fenella France, a research chemist at the Library of Congress, shows recent imaging of the document. (Susan Walsh - AP)

On this 4th of July does anything symbolize the spirit of this country, this nation more than the obliteration of “subjects” and the creation of “citizens” ?

From the Washington Post:

But in a moment when history took a sharp turn, Jefferson sought quite methodically to expunge the word, to wipe it out of existence and write over it. Many words were crossed out and replaced in the draft, but only one was obliterated.

Over the smudge, Jefferson then wrote the word “citizens.”

No longer subjects to the crown, the colonists became something different: a people whose allegiance was to one another, not to a faraway monarch.

Scholars of the revolution have long speculated about the “citizens” smear — wondering whether the erased word was “patriots” or “residents” — but now the Library of Congress has determined that the change was far more dramatic.

Celebrate this weekend by reading just a bit about this fascinating person, Thomas Jefferson. I’ve reproduced the Declaration of Independence below.

Wikepedia: Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826)[2] was the third President of the United States (1801–1809), and the principal author of the Declaration of Independence (1776). Jefferson was one of the most influential Founding Fathers, known for his promotion of the ideals of republicanism in the United States. Jefferson envisioned America as the force behind a great “Empire of Liberty”[3] that would promote republicanism and counter the imperialism of the British Empire.

Major events during his presidency include the Louisiana Purchase (1803) and the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804–1806), as well as escalating tensions with both Britain and France that led to war with Britain in 1812, after he left office.

As a political philosopher, Jefferson was a man of the Enlightenment and knew many intellectual leaders in Britain and France. He idealized the independent yeoman farmer as exemplar of republican virtues, distrusted cities and financiers, and favored states’ rights and a strictly limited federal government. Jefferson supported the separation of church and state[4] and was the author of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom (1779, 1786). He was the eponym of Jeffersonian democracy and the cofounder and leader of the Democratic-Republican Party, which dominated American politics for 25 years. Jefferson served as the wartime Governor of Virginia (1779–1781), first United States Secretary of State (1789–1793), and second Vice President of the United States (1797–1801).

A polymath, Jefferson achieved distinction as, among other things, a horticulturist, political leader, architect, archaeologist, paleontologist, musician, inventor, and founder of the University of Virginia. When President John F. Kennedy welcomed 49 Nobel Prize winners to the White House in 1962 he said, “I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent and of human knowledge that has ever been gathered together at the White House – with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.”[5] To date, Jefferson is the only president to serve two full terms in office without vetoing a single bill of Congress. Jefferson has been consistently ranked by scholars as one of the greatest of U.S. presidents.

Declaration of Independence

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

The 56 signatures on the Declaration appear in the positions indicated:

Column 1
Georgia:
Button Gwinnett
Lyman Hall
George Walton

Column 2
North Carolina:
William Hooper
Joseph Hewes
John Penn
South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge
Thomas Heyward, Jr.
Thomas Lynch, Jr.
Arthur Middleton

Column 3
Massachusetts:
John Hancock
Maryland:
Samuel Chase
William Paca
Thomas Stone
Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia:
George Wythe
Richard Henry Lee
Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Harrison
Thomas Nelson, Jr.
Francis Lightfoot Lee
Carter Braxton

Column 4
Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris
Benjamin Rush
Benjamin Franklin
John Morton
George Clymer
James Smith
George Taylor
James Wilson
George Ross
Delaware:
Caesar Rodney
George Read
Thomas McKean

Column 5
New York:
William Floyd
Philip Livingston
Francis Lewis
Lewis Morris
New Jersey:
Richard Stockton
John Witherspoon
Francis Hopkinson
John Hart
Abraham Clark

Column 6
New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett
William Whipple
Massachusetts:
Samuel Adams
John Adams
Robert Treat Paine
Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins
William Ellery
Connecticut:
Roger Sherman
Samuel Huntington
William Williams
Oliver Wolcott
New Hampshire:
Matthew Thornton

At this point in time (1905) there were less than 1 billion people on the entire planet. The average life expectancy? in the U.S. was 47 years and there were only about 8000 cars. We’re all looking at people who earned a living on 22 cents an hour, making $200-$400 a year… At this time the flag only had 45 stars. Think of the wars yet to fight, there won’t be even an idea of many of the innovative technology we all depend on today, for another 80+ years.

Everyone in this movie is dead, some led full lives, others died in the earthquake and fire one year in the future. Some lived to see two World Wars. First flight to man on the moon.

Everyone person in this movie is a story, most probable none have been recorded other than what you see here. Wouldn’t it be fascinating to know the story of the boy on the bike?