Friday

Jan. 8, 1999

Standard Time

by Daniel Anderson

FRIDAY 1/8

Poem: "Standard Time," by Daniel Anderson, from JANUARY RAIN (Story Line Press, 1997).

It's the birthday of writer JOHN G. NEIHARDT, Sharpsburg, a village near Springfield, Illinois, 1881, best known for the 1932 book Black Elk Speaks. Niehardt met the Oglala Sioux warrior and holy man Black Elk, and in a long series of talks Black Elk told his life story and about the decades around the famous Custer battle and the Wounded Knee massacre.

It's the birthday of EMILY GREENE BALCH, Boston, 1867, sociologist, economist, and leader of the American pacifist movement during and after WWI. She founded the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom and for years she was recognized as the leader of the United States peace movement. In 1946 she was given the Nobel Peace Prize.

It's the birthday of FRANK NELSON DOUBLEDAY, Brooklyn, 1862, founder of the Doubleday and Company publishing house.

It's the birthday of JAMES LONGSTREET, the Confederate commander during the Civil War, born in Edgefield District, South Carolina, 1821. He was second in command after Robert E. Lee at Gettysburg, and it was Longstreet who organized the doomed Pickett's Charge when nearly 15,000 Confederate soldiers were cut down by Union cannons the last day of the Gettysburg battle.

It's the birthday of JOHN CARROLL, 1735, in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, the first Roman Catholic bishop in the U.S. He became the archbishop of Baltimore, a diocese which at the time included the entire country. He died in 1815, and during his lifetime the U.S. Catholic population went from about 25,000 to 200,000.

Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.®

 

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