text:
Mike Noirot has a post up about First Bull Run at his Civil War Battles and Battlefields blog. He also includes links to his photos of the battlefield, and to his summary of the battle (I have a few quibbles – for instance, I think he mixes up which Confederate brigades belonged to Beauregard's army and which belonged to Johnston's) but it's worth a look.
First Bull Run on Another Blog22 07 2010
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Tags: Articles, Blogroll, Digital History
Categories : Articles, Civil War Blogroll, Civil War On the Web, Digital History
Manassas Events for 150th21 07 2010
On this the 149th anniversary of First Bull Run, we keep in mind that it's never too early to make plans for celebrating the sesquicentennial in 2011. Here's an article with some info on planned events in Manassas next year.
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Tags: Articles, Manassas, Sesquicentennial
Categories : Articles, Field Trips, News
Lincoln as Strategist21 07 2010
Another comment I made on Facebook the other day:
I saw a new book in the store today, The Grand Design: Strategy in the Civil War by Donald Stoker. Since the title has a colon in it, it must be a serious book ;-)
Anyway, this one quote from the jacket bothered me:
Lincoln, in contrast [to Jeff Davis], evolved a clear strategic vision, but he failed for years to make his generals implement it.
Here's where I'm bothered: the statement implies that this vision of Lincoln's evolved quickly relative to his attempts to get his generals to do what he wanted. And also implicit is the notion that he clearly and effectively communicated this vision to those same generals. I'm not sure I'm in agreement. Has anyone read this yet?
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Tags: Abraham Lincoln, ACW Books, Articles, Donald Stoker
Categories : Abraham Lincoln, Articles, Books
Jomini at the Point20 07 2010
The other day I posted an observation on Facebook. It didn't generate much conversation, so I thought I'd see what it attracts here:
I was watching Dr. Carol Reardon on PCN [Gettysburg College Civil War Institute talks from Summer 2010 Conference] talk about West Point in 1860. Glad to see her confirm what I've long suspected – that Jomini was not as respected or preferred at the Academy as we have been led to believe. After I finished his book [The Art of War used as a textbook] all I could think was "What's the rumpus?"
The faculty at West Point had problems with Jomini. In fact, one of the reasons they used his textbook was that they already had it, and getting a different one was not in the budget.
Another interesting point raised in the 1860 study conducted by Jefferson Davis' War Dept was that that cadets rarely continued study of military theory after graduation – almost never, actually. So, were grads – like Lee – who were not students when Jomini was being studied very familiar with him?
I feel like historians spend way too much time considering the influence of Jomini and far too little considering the writings/teachings of Halleck and Mahan. But what do I know?
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Tags: Articles, Carol Reardon, Jomini, The Art of War, United States Military Academy, West Point
Categories : Articles
Interview: Larry Tagg, "The Unpopular Mr. Lincoln"18 07 2010
Larry Tagg is the author of 2009's The Unpopular Mr. Lincoln: The Story of America's Most Reviled President. Recently he took time to respond to some questions for Bull Runnings.
BR: Larry, your background has been a topic of discussion due to its unique character.
LT: I was born in Lincoln, Illinois. After living in the Land of Lincoln for eight years, my family moved to Dallas, Texas, where my father was Minister of Music at the Highland Park Presbyterian Church. As a high school senior, I won the city-wide high school extemporaneous writing contest. (I was lucky. The prompt was "Describe a concert," and just the week before I had seen Jimi Hendrix for the first time, just after the release of Are You Experienced? Security was lax at the State Fair Music Hall in those days, and after the show I jumped onstage and walked backstage to Jimi's dressing room, where I talked to his drummer, Mitch Mitchell. Jimi was across the room talking to someone else.)
I attended the University of North Texas, graduating cum laude in Philosophy in two years, and I was awarded a teaching assistantship at the University of Texas. After one semester of graduate school I knew academia was not for me. I was more a musician—a bass player, singer, and songwriter.
I moved to California in 1978 with an excellent band, Uncle Rainbow, to record under the aegis of Michael Hossack, one of the Doobie Brothers. In 1985, my band Bourgeois Tagg—with Brent Bourgeois, Michael Urbano, Lyle Workman, and Scott Moon—was signed to Island Records. We recorded two albums and had two hits, Mutual Surrender and I Don't Mind at All. We toured Europe and America with Robert Palmer, Heart, Belinda Carlisle, and others.
After Bourgeois Tagg broke up in 1989 during the making of our third album, I toured as a bass player and singer with Todd Rundgren and Hall and Oates. (My audition gig with Hall and Oates was in front of a million people at the Great Meadow in Central Park on the 20th anniversary of Earth Day.) During the 1990s I was signed as a staff songwriter by Warner Chappell Music. My songs were recorded by Eddie Money, Kim Carnes, Cliff Richard, and others. I released two solo albums—With a Skeleton Crew and Rover—in Europe and America.
By the mid-90s I had a family, and the road had lost much of its allure. I became in English and drama teacher and Lead Teacher of the Arts Academy at Hiram Johnson High School in Sacramento, California. While I taught I began writing in my spare time. My first book, The Generals of Gettysburg, was published in 1998 by Savas Publishing, and the paperback edition appeared a couple of years later on Da Capo.
The Unpopular Mr. Lincoln, my latest book, took me about 7 years to research and write. It was a labor of love, of course. I love the scavenger hunt that is research, and I love trying to make the words come out right.
BR: How long has Abraham Lincoln been a focus of your studies?
LT: Lincoln has been the focus of my studies since about 2001, when I was working on a follow-up to my book The Generals of Gettysburg. Since I hadn't seen a good history of the Army of the Potomac since Bruce Catton, I was working on a new history of that army that would take advantage of all the research that's been done in the last 50 years, and which would concentrate more on the effects that the relationships between its generals had on the battles it fought. I was starting at the very beginning, with Winfield Scott and Charles Stone and the District of Columbia militia during the Secession Crisis.
BR: What first got you interested in tackling his "unpopular" side?
LT: Right away, I started turning up an alarming number of disparaging references by the generals to their Commander-in-Chief, Abraham Lincoln. It seemed like none of them took him seriously, or worse, thought he was an ignoramus, totally overmatched by the crisis. That jarred me, since it didn't square with my education on The Great Emancipator, and it made me curious. The more I looked into opinion on Lincoln, both within the army and without, the more incredibly poisonous stuff I found. I thought, "Here's the story!"
BR: What challenges did the project present?
LT: The most serious challenge in writing The Unpopular Mr. Lincoln was not to find material. That abounded—I ended up including in the book only the "10s" on a 1-to-10 scale of slurs I found on Lincoln. The hard part was walking the line between including enough examples of the violent criticism of Lincoln to make the book a good resource on one hand and writing a good narrative on the other hand. I had to go to the University of California to send for microfiche of Democratic newspapers, then wade through those for hours sitting at a microfiche reader. I had to be careful to balance those obviously biased sources with neutral observers that were more valuable as indicators of the lack of political support Lincoln had during almost his entire time in office. I am also careful, on any Civil War topic, to take with a grain of salt any reminiscences written by the participants later in the century—these were so clouded over, after hundreds of dinner speeches and rose-colored retellings, that they're not worth much.
BR: Tell us about The Unpopular Mr. Lincoln.
LT: The thesis of the book is that Abraham Lincoln accomplished more with less political capital than any other figure in American history. I think the book is particularly valuable where it discusses the context of his presidency, the tenor of the times—I am particularly grateful to reviewers who appreciate these chapters of the book. Lincoln was president when respect for all authority was at low ebb, and when respect for the presidency as an institution was at its lowest point. (Just last week, I saw a new poll on presidents, and, as usual, the four presidents preceding Lincoln were in the bottom ten. The low quality of presidents was the result of the same boss-run party system that produced Lincoln, and Americans of that time were increasingly horrified by the quality of the presidents produced by the system. Lincoln seemed to many to be the worst of the lot. As a result of the seeming capriciousness of his nomination by the Republicans in 1860, wags titled Lincoln "His Accidency.") Once he took office, he inherited a political milieu so overheated that everyone had flown to extremes right and left, which soon left Lincoln, a moderate, alone in the middle. I think that the more one knows about this context, the more one appreciates what he was able to accomplish.
The audience for the book was not academia, although I am a teacher myself. I was extremely scrupulous with my research and my conclusions so that my book would stand up to academic scrutiny, but I wrote for an intelligent general audience. I have to say I continue to be amazed that this book had not been written before. (As a songwriter, I knew a great song when I heard it and thought, "Why didn't I think of that?") I think the "angle" I took in The Unpopular Mr. Lincoln is a particularly powerful one for studying Lincoln the President, the mood of the North, and the politics of the Civil War. I recommend it as a primer on those closely related subjects. Besides my effort as a historian, I also put in a lot of effort as a writer. It is a great story—a wild ride.
BR: Did you find out anything while researching The Unpopular Mr. Lincoln that changed – or reinforced – any opinions you already had?
LT: It's funny that in researching a book about how little people thought of Lincoln at the time, I can't remember anything I found made me think less of Lincoln—the experience only added to my esteem for him. Politician is so often used as an epithet, and Lincoln, who was an unapologetic, bare-knuckles fighter of a politician—reminds us how a great politician can be a crucial asset to the American people. As a writer, I loved reading what Lincoln wrote; even his everyday notes to generals and politicians had a sinewy quality to them, a unique ability to see to the heart of a problem, small or large. Along with the rigor of his logic, there was a gentleness and a humor in his writing that is the most incontrovertible testimony to his character. However, I am not among those who think Lincoln was a military genius. Although he was an excellent student of military principles, his lack of knowledge about logistics and the friction of war made him a poor general-in-chief, which he was for the four months that ended with the disaster of the Peninsula Campaign. Also, he had inherited the racial prejudices of his place and time, and his flirtations with projects to deport African-Americans are embarrassing to us now. However, they were serious attempts to solve monumental, centuries-old national problems, and it was with regard to race that he showed the most growth as a man and leader.
BR: Considering Lincoln's continuing unpopularity with Congress after Lee's surrender, what's your opinion of his prospects of successfully achieving a "soft" peace with the former Confederates and implementing the details of emancipation, while at the same time satisfying the Radicals?
LT: Yes, Lincoln was still considered an enemy by the Radicals who controlled Congress, and his prospect of pleasing them, while he tried in his usual gentle way to make Southern governments out of nothing, were nil. Andrew Johnson at least had a honeymoon period with the Radicals, while Lincoln had never been their man. However, Lincoln was without a doubt the best man to establish a "soft" peace with the former Confederate states. I consider the next hundred years, the hundred years of Jim Crow rule in the South, to be the biggest what if in American history: I think Jim Crow might have been avoided if Lincoln had lived. He was the one man who best knew how to navigate on the race question, and a president not squeamish about using presidential power to advance Jefferson's principle that "all men are created equal."
BR: How has the book been received? [Tagg's response here is brief and modest. Personally I've noticed a profound silence from the Lincoln "establishment" on this, in my opinion, very important book, which gives us a rare look at Lincoln as he was viewed without the prism of martyrdom.]
LT: The response to the book by those who have read it has been all I could have hoped. However, not very many people have read it.
BR: What's next for you?
LT: I look around for quite a while to find a great subject before I start writing. So I'm in the "read, read, read" phase right now, which precedes the research phase of my book writing. Two subjects have struck me. One is the two-week period after Fort Sumter when Maryland teetered on secession and Washington—with the entire government apparatus—was surrounded by rebellion and almost totally unprotected. I think that could be a "cinematic" narrative, and tramping around Maryland to find primary sources on those two weeks would be fascinating (though not easy; I live in California). The other subject is Lincoln and the Thirteenth Amendment, an act in which, unlike the Emancipation Proclamation, he did not take the initiative. I think there's probably a good story there—he was trying to get re-elected at the same time, and his feelings toward a constitutional amendment to abolish slavery were complicated. I've got about six books next to my bed on that subject right now (though none specifically treats Lincoln's role, which is good). I may also write a book on statistical research on Civil War battles, a subject I've been gathering material on for about twenty years, especially since I'm now working with the company that has produced Scourge of War: Gettysburg, an excellent computer strategy game on the Battle of Gettysburg.
These would be smaller books than The Unpopular Mr. Lincoln—I'm in the mood to concentrate on a smaller subject. I think, however, that The Unpopular Mr. Lincoln will be the "big book" to which people will return.
Thanks to Larry for taking the time to share his thoughts with us all, and we look forward to his future work. I'm intrigued by anyone who has an interest in exploring the numbers of the Civil War – it's decidedly un-sexy but can be enormously enlightening. Remember back when folks thought Lee was outnumbered by McClellan during Seven Days?
Pick up a copy of The Unpopular Mr. Lincoln and give it a read. You'll be glad you did.
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Tags: Abraham Lincoln, ACW Books, Articles, Interviews, Larry Tagg, The Unpopular Mr. Lincoln
Categories : Abraham Lincoln, Articles, Books, Interviews
Speaking Update16 07 2010
I've updated my speaking engagement page (aka Book Me, Dano!, where you can contact me about speaking to your group) to indicate I will be making an appearance before the good folks at the Rufus Barringer Civil War Roundtable in Pinehurst, NC, on May 19, 2011. Tentatively, I will be giving a presentation based on my Civil War Times magazine column that is now called Collateral Damage, though I think I will be sticking with the original title In Harm's Way. If you're in the area, stop in. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone there.
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Tags: Articles, Speaking
Categories : Articles, Field Trips, Speaking
Interview: Dr. Thomas Clemens, "The Maryland Campaign of September, 1862 Vol.I"15 07 2010
Dr. Thomas Clemens (pictured below) of Keedysville, MD is the editor of The Maryland Campaign of September, 1862 Volume I: South Mountain. I've known Tom for a few years, and serve with him on the board of the Save Historic Antietam Foundation (SHAF). He recently sat down (virtually) for an interview with Bull Runnings.
BR: Tom, before we get started can you tell the readers a little bit about yourself?
TC: I have Bachelor's and Masters' degrees in history from Salisbury State College, now Salisbury University. In 1990 I went to grad school at George Mason University in Fairfax VA where I met Dr. [Joseph L.] Harsh. I graduated in 2002 with my doctorate, and also a firm foundation in the Civil War thanks to Joe Harsh. I have been at Hagerstown Community College for almost 32 years, mostly teaching U.S. History, but occasionally I get to teach a class in Civil War.
I also became involved in battlefield preservation in 1985 when Dennis Frye, John Schildt and a lot of other people formed Save Historic Antietam Foundation, Inc. I have been president of the group since 1989, and it is a great experience.
I have been a volunteer at Antietam National Battlefield since 1979, doing everything from cannon firing demonstrations to scene restoration work. Living within cannon-shot of the battlefield allows me to walk the ground on a regular basis. That allows me to better understand some of the details of the action of the battle.
BR: What first got you interested in Ezra Carman's papers?
TC: Joe Harsh was the person who most inspired me to focus more attention on the Maryland Campaign, something I'd been interested in for years, but not in a serious fashion. I spent a lot of years traveling to battlefields and reenacting with some great folks, including the incomparable Brian Pohanka, but Joe Harsh had so much enthusiasm and so much knowledge, and an incredible ability to ask the right question and do the research to answer it. He became a friend and mentor, in that order. One night sitting in a bar with Joe he asked me what I had in mind for a dissertation. He suggested editing the Ezra Carman manuscript, which he had been using to write his splendid trilogy on the Maryland Campaign. He had typed a lot of it, and I finished the job. He had thought about editing it, but it was too time-consuming. Beware of "gifts" from friends! The size and complexity of the project was unknown to me then, and I thought it would be a relatively simple job. Little did I know how many years it would take to finish the job.
BR: How long have you been working on Carman?
TC: I began editing Carman's manuscript in the 1990's, completed several early chapters to get my degree, but got much more focused after Ted Savas approached me about publishing my work. He has been very supportive.
BR: What particular challenges did editing Carman's manuscript present?
TC: What makes the editing so difficult is that I am working backwards compared to the way an author usually works. Instead of obtaining source material and using it to create a narrative, I am tied to a narrative written over 100 years ago, and trying to figure out what source material Carman used to create it. Sometimes he cited sources directly and then it is simply a matter of tracking down old books to verify his work. Far more often he did not cite sources and then it becomes something of a detective game. Tracking down the sources for his work in many instances led to the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies in the War of the Rebellion. These books, known as the ORs, were being compiled in the 1880s and Carman had access to them. He also had access to captured Confederate government records, allowing him to cite Muster Rolls and diplomatic correspondence. A few regimental histories were available then and Carman used them on occasion. He also referred to early biographical works on Lee, Jackson and others. For better or worse, Carman also relied on McClellan's Own Story, and he made much use of the Century Magazine's Battles and Leaders of the Civil War. If he had only used published sources this work would be simple. But even before Carman was hired on the Antietam battlefield Board they had been soliciting memoir accounts from veterans of both sides. These letters provided many otherwise unpublished material which Carman used liberally. To accurately determine which letters Carman used and how reliable they are it became necessary to organize all the letters into one database. There are over 1,000 letters in the National Archives and Library of Congress Manuscript Division. More letters exist in the New York Public Library and others were scattered into private hands. John M. Gould of the 10th ME Infantry gathered even more letters regarding the fighting in the East Woods and Cornfield area. Carman and Gould swapped information, so it became necessary to add Gould's letters to the database. Currently there are over 2,200 entries in the file, and I am still adding more. So gathering source material, checking it against current scholarship, and then finally writing a footnote is the bulk of my work. In the first volume there are over 850 footnotes; do you see what I mean about time consumption?
BR: What can you tell us about Carman and his project?
TC: It is a testament to his thoroughness that Carman created the manuscript at all. He was hired in 1894 to be the "Historical Expert" on the Battlefield Board. He was to layout the field and tour roads, create and place plaques, and monuments and map the field. He also was charged to write a "pamphlet" to advise future leaders in developing the battlefield. This "pamphlet" became the 1,800 page manuscript that has kept me busy for over 18 years. He began writing the manuscript in the late 1890's and completed it shortly after the turn of the century. I have found notes scribbled in the margins that came from material dated 1905, but most of the work was complete by 1902 or 1903.
Mostly what Carman wanted to know was the positions on the field and the identity of opposing forces. This knowledge helped him create the extremely detailed time-sequenced maps to place the combat on the proper locations in the field. In doing that he overlooked or ignored many fascinating details, humorous stories and anecdotes which provide so much richness to our understanding of the battle today. I am constantly fascinated by reading these letters, although their memories may be hazy 30 years after the war, their stories are still captivating.
Carman was in many ways the creator of the field as it appears now and the interpretation of it we still recognize today. This is a good thing, and in some ways a bad thing. Carman had his limitations and his prejudices, and they carry over into his manuscript. For example, Carman unabashedly admired Lee and Jackson, often criticized McClellan and positively loathed Halleck. That amazes me when you think that Carman fought through the war in the Union army, and suffered all his later life from Confederate-inflicted battlefield injuries. He clearly did not hold any grudge against his former enemies.
BR: What will Carman's manuscript – and your annotations – tell us about the Maryland Campaign that we don't already know?
TC: For many years Carman's manuscript languished in the Library of Congress. A few people read parts of it, the battlefield had a copy, and built their interpretive plan around it, but that was about it. A few historians looked at it, but the writing is quite small and difficult to read. That is a shame because Carman had the "correct" story about a lot of things that several historians botched in their books. For example, Carman correctly stated that the staff officer who verified Chilton's handwriting on S.O. 191 knew Chilton through a business relationship. Other accounts mistakenly say they were in the U.S. army together. These mistakes happened because Carman did not document how he knew things, and people weren't sure he was right. That is exactly what I am trying to do; inform the reader about where Carman is correct, and where he is questionable.
There were also several "stories" that Carman included in his manuscript that had no known source other than him. I am especially thrilled to say that by careful attention to the letters I have solved several of these "Carmanisms," as I call them. For example, there is a story in the early part of the campaign where Jackson, reaching the vicinity of Buckeystown on September 6, asked Col. E. V. "Lige" White to ride with him. Together they rode almost back to the Potomac and then returned to camp, Jackson never speaking during the entire ride. Nobody ever knew where that story came from until I discovered the letter from White in one of the letter collections.
BR: What is unique about your edition of Carman's manuscript?
TC: It is the attention to the letters and the analysis of Carman's historical method that make my edition much different from the other published version of the manuscript. While the [Joseph] Pierro edition has almost as many footnotes, he was content to identify sources; I go the next step in analyzing them. For instance, Carman relied on Battles and Leaders for much information, especially in the early part of the campaign. Pierro correctly noted that fact, but I go on to point out that many writers in that work are embellishing or fabricating what they wrote. Confederate General John Walker is a good example: he claims to know much of the strategic aspects of Lee's plans in 1882, but in his after-action reports in 1862 he seemed not to know much at all.
I also believe that maps are critical to understanding the narrative and so there are 22 detailed maps in my edition. In fact, I am thrilled with the maps – Gene Thorp did an outstanding job creating them. Some pictures are included too, but not the usual Gardner photos of the battlefield. I included some lesser-known photos mostly from the time that Carman was writing. It seemed logical to use pictures that showed the sites as they looked to Carman.
Because of the in-depth footnoting and more readable format in my version the book runs a bit longer in total pages. The publisher and I decided to break it into two volumes for the convenience of the reader. The price [of both volumes combined] will still be less than the earlier all-in-one volume.
BR: What's next? Any plans to go beyond the second volume, like editing the papers?
TC: What's next? – Right now I am working on Volume II, as well as reading collating and categorizing letters from the John M. Gould collection and also some from the New York collection into my database. All of this work is very time-consuming so you won't see the second volume anytime soon. Ultimately there are a lot of other things I'd like to see published. Some of the letters are absolute gems and it would be nice to see them in print. The database I am creating would allow readers to see who wrote to Gould or the Battlefield Board. I also am creating a biographical register with a brief bio of every person mentioned in the manuscript. Whether Savas-Beatie will want to do that is unclear at this time, but these things are on my wish list.
Thanks Tom. We look forward to seeing more of your ground-breaking work in print soon.
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Tags: ACW Books, Antietam, Articles, Interviews, Thomas Clemens
Categories : Articles, Books, Interviews
Presidents Gotta Eat, Too!14 07 2010
I received a note from Suzanne Evans, who maintains the blog The History Chef. Some pretty cool stuff that so far seems to focus on eating habits and favorite recipes of the POTUS through the years. From the site:
Hi there! My name is Suzy Evans and I live in Southern California with my husband and our four young kids. I received my Ph.D. in history from UC Berkeley in 2008 and began this blog last year while writing a cookbook about the presidents' favorite foods. My goal is to help parents and kids learn how to cook together, learn about history together, and hopefully help them create many great memories and meals together. Welcome!
Check it out.
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Tags: Articles, Blogroll, Digital History, Food
Categories : Articles, Civil War Blogroll, Civil War On the Web, Digital History
Interview: Dr. Victoria Bynum, "The Long Shadow of the Civil War"13 07 2010
Dr. Victoria Bynum is the author of several books on southern society during the war, with a focus on dissent and Unionism in the Confederacy. She kindly agreed to an interview with Bull Runnings.
BR: So, who exactly is Vikki Bynum – inquiring minds want to know?
VB: I became a fulltime college student at age 26. As a single mother with two children to raise, I enrolled at San Diego City College in hopes of becoming a commercial artist. I soon became interested in American literature and history, and eventually changed my major to history after transferring into the California state college system. In 1978, I received my B.A. from Chico State University. By then, I had begun to research free people of color in the Old South and was eager to enter a graduate program that would enable me to continue research in Southern court records. I was accepted into the history program of the University of California, San Diego, where I earned a PhD in 1987. By then, I was teaching fulltime at Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas. I retired from Texas State this past January, shortly before the release of The Long Shadow of the Civil War: Southern Dissent and Its Legacies (Chapel Hill, 2010).
BR: How long have you been working on Southern Unionists, southern dissent, and Jones County, and in what forms?
VB: I became interested in Southern Unionists in 1983 while researching the doctoral dissertation that became the basis for my first book, Unruly Women: The Politics of Social and Sexual Control in the Old South (Chapel Hill, 1992). I had originally intended to confine that study to racial and class differences among women in a slaveholding patriarchy, but quickly discovered that women played an enormously important role in Civil War home front conflicts. The Randolph County region of North Carolina, including portions of Montgomery and Moore Counties, was a major area of Unionism, much more so even than Jones County, Mississippi. Particularly in the NC Governors' Papers, the voices of women and Unionists came alive.
Writing Unruly Women stimulated me to begin researching the history of Mississippi's legendary "Free State of Jones," another region of strong Unionist allegiances, in 1992. My own Bynum ancestors had lived in Jones County, and, I soon discovered, were deeply involved in that region's inner civil war. Although my ancestors' history made the topic all the more interesting for me, my larger goal was to uncover the factual history of an important Civil War uprising shrouded in legend. In the study that resulted, The Free State of Jones: Mississippi's Longest Civil War (Chapel Hill, 2001), I focused extensively on the roots and legacy of political dissent and Unionism in piney woods Mississippi. An important tool for accomplishing that was my tracing of the frontier migrations and experiences of key families backward through Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina, and forward to Texas.
To my amazement, while researching the migration of several Jones County families to Texas, I encountered another Unionist uprising in the Big Thicket region of East Texas, where, I discovered, several of the outliers were brothers of band members of Mississippi's Free State of Jones! It was at this point that I decided to combine my research on Southern anti-Confederate dissent in a single volume, where I could show the links between these communities, and also compare and contrast them in a broader historical context. The result was my third book to explore Southern Unionism (among other forms of dissent), The Long Shadow of the Civil War: Southern Dissent and its Legacies.
BR: Tell us about The Long Shadow of the Civil War.
VB: Long Shadow provides a comparative analysis of three Civil War areas of dissent: the Quaker Belt of the North Carolina Piedmont, the Jones County area of piney woods Mississippi, and the Big Thicket region of East Texas. The volume features six distinct but related essays, each of which centers around a particular story. Some essays combine the regions for comparative purposes; others focus on a single topic in a single region, such as women's resistance to Confederate forces in the North Carolina Quaker Belt, the Ku Klux Klan during Reconstruction, or Newt Knight's thirty-year effort to gain federal compensation for his Mississippi band of guerrillas. All the essays reveal the varying importance of community norms, kinship networks, religion, and attitudes toward slavery in stimulating Southern resistance to secession and the Confederacy.
By approaching Unionism as a community issue, I avoided a Great Man approach toward the study of movements of resistance in which a single individual, such as Newt Knight [the central figure of The Free State of Jones] of Mississippi or Bill Owens of North Carolina, overshadows the complex societal forces that stimulated and sustained such movements. So, while Long Shadow identifies key similarities among regions of dissent, it also pinpoints important differences between them.
BR: Did you find out anything while researching Long Shadow that changed—or reinforced—any opinions formed during The Free State of Jones?
VB: The new materials cited in Long Shadow enriched my knowledge of Jones County, Mississippi's Civil War uprising, and enabled me to expand on the story. They did not, however, refute the essential arguments I made in The Free State of Jones. In both works, I maintain that Newt Knight's anti-Confederate views accelerated during and after the Civil War. For example, in 1861, Newt volunteered for Confederate service before passage of the South's first conscript act (in contrast to men who later formed the Unionist core of his guerrilla band, The Knight Company).
Also expanding the story of the Jones County uprising is Newt's second federal claims file, 1887-1900, which I obtained a copy of just before The Free State of Jones went to press. The file was rich with depositions that quote directly from aging former Knight Band guerrillas (including Newt), enabling me to include their voices in Long Shadow.
New research materials also allowed me to discuss in far greater depth in Long Shadow the extent to which dissent among certain Knight Band members extended into the New South era. Like Warren J. Collins in Texas and Jasper Collins in Mississippi, Newt Knight displayed far greater political militancy in his later years than during the war, or even during Reconstruction when he served the Adelbert Ames Administration. Newt's remark around 1894 that plain southern farmers should have risen up and killed the slaveholders rather than fight their war for them reflected his disappointment with wartime governments, both North and South. Viewed in historical context during periods of dizzying change and violence, ordinary people (like Newt) responded to and helped to shape those times. By 1894, the experiences of war, Reconstruction, and New South politics had reshaped Newt Knight's beliefs significantly. The man who volunteered for Confederate service in 1861, led an anti-Confederate guerrilla band in 1863, and served the Union government during Reconstruction, was now advocating internal class revolution as the best way to have defeated slaveholders .
Long Shadow presents a wider and longer view of the multiracial community founded by Newt, his white wife Serena, and Rachel and George Ann Knight, the mixed-race former slaves of his grandfather, than did The Free State of Jones. As a result of additional research and wider communication with present-day Knight researchers, Long Shadow also provides a more nuanced view of racial identity among mixed-race Knights. We are unlikely ever to know the exact nature of Newt Knight's racial views, or, for that matter, those of the three women with whom he fathered children. While there is evidence that Newt and his parents may have disliked slavery, as did a fair number of non-slaveholders, there is no evidence that they were abolitionists, or that Newt Knight ever advocated equal civil rights for freed people of African ancestry. Rather, some Knight descendants insist that Newt considered his children by Rachel and, later, her daughter George Ann, to be white and that he encouraged them to identify themselves as such. This is certainly plausible given their physical appearance, small degree of African ancestry, and the fact that many did self-identify as white.
BR: How has the book been received?
VB: It's a bit too early to tell, but so far I'm pleased with Long Shadow's reception. It has been favorably reviewed by an academic historian (Paul Escott for H-Civil War), by a Civil War blogger (Brett Schulte, TOCWOC), and by a newspaper editor (Joe L. White of the Jackson Clarion-Ledger). Privately, individuals have emailed me to tell me how much they enjoyed the book.
BR: What's next for you?
VB: I'm not sure what's next for me, but am reasonably certain it will not be another academic history. I remain fascinated by the lives and struggles of ordinary people, but hope in the future to tell stories in a new way, perhaps through a different writing genre or medium of art.
That last bit is tantalizing, if cryptic. I'll be curious to see what Dr. Bynum comes up with.
Comments : 1 Comment »
Tags: ACW Books, Articles, Interviews, Southern Dissent, Southern Unionists, Victoria Bynum
Categories : Articles, Books, Interviews


text:
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Allagash Musette - Allagash Brewing Company
Displayed for educational use only; do not reuse.
Ratings: 187 | Reviews: 160 | Display Reviews Only:
Reviews by allengarvin:
4.43/5 rDev +9.9%
$24 bottle of beer.... but hey, I'm always willing to spend good money on a beer named for the genteel French bagpipes. Maybe a hurdy-gurdy beer could be next? The picture looks like a woodcut from Praetorius's Syntagma musicum, with a fontanelle covering a lower key; it's mouthblown rather than most later musettes which were usually bellow-powered.
Pours out a hazy bright ruby color with a smallish head. Aroma is truly oaky, far woodier than any other wood-aged beer I've had. There's a fruity underlying malt as well, but the wood dominates the nose. The wood is, thankfully, less dominant in the flavor. It's still there, but there's a strong sweet malt and a wonderful dark-fruit yeast character that one finds in the best of Belgian-style beers. Hops are restrained but the character is never cloying. Alcohol character blends with a last hint of wood at the finish.
A complex and interesting beer! And a nice concept too. For some nice mid-18th century musette music, seek out Michel Courette or Joseph Bodin de Boismortier!
02-05-2007 03:02:51 | More by allengarvin
More User Reviews:
4.18/5 rDev +3.7%
2008 vintage
Amber with a frothy tan head and great retention.
Aromas of oak and vanilla, toasty malt.
Tastes quite a bit different than it smells. Imagine one of those peanut butter toffee halloween candies that come in the black or orange wrapper, soaked in mollasses. Also, some vanilla and raisin notes with woody cherry.
I really enjoyed this beer. It's rich, soft, and very smooth with the 10% very well hidden. I would definately buy this if I saw it again.
12-13-2009 00:04:26 | More by brownbeer
4.22/5 rDev +4.7%
I am of the opinion that Allagash can do no wrong, and this beer does nothing to dissuade me. I had a 750ml bottle, purchased at Tully's, that stated it was bottled May of 2006. It was a medium brown color, with a thin white, sticky head. It had a sweet, oaken aroma, with some maltiness. It tasted fruity, some vanilla, and fairly big malt that lingered a long time. Good mouthfeel, and very drinkable, as long as you remember to sip and not guzzle.
08-02-2006 01:27:17 | More by lordofthewiens
3.85/5 rDev -4.5%
August 2006 bottling. Pours a clear and radiant mahogany body with a small beige head that leaves ample patch lacing. Aroma of oak, caramel, vanilla, and faint tropical fruits. Medium body with some obtrusive alcohol. Taste is malty sweet caramel, bubblegum, and candied pineapple with some subtle oak tones and a hint of vanilla and spicy pepper. Some boozy alcohol again intrudes. Not my favorite Allagash by a long shot and much more Belgian than Scotch.
08-27-2007 19:06:34 | More by merlin48
New York
4.5/5 rDev +11.7%
Large Belgian bottle, caged and corked, "bottled August 2006" Pours cloudy, dull dark brown, typical tan head showing fine retention and leaving nice, fine and also blotchy lacing. Nose is musty,malty and sweet. Notes of more malt, light raisins and a hint of wood and rum. Fine, fine stuff, very smooht and enjoyable mouthfeel. Go get some! Thanks to my beer bud, Daver, for bringing this fine brew over..
11-16-2006 03:08:33 | More by Billolick
3.5/5 rDev -13.2%
Beer poured from a corked bottle 1pint 9.4 fluid oz
Bottled December 2006. Aged 1 year in cellar conditions.
Poured a hazy copper with a thin white head slowly disapearing and leaving a light Belgian lace on glass (snifter).
Smell is lighter then I expected from an oaked aged ale slight sherry aroma, and light caramel and citrus undertones.
flavors of caramel, alcohol, and slight bitterness from the hops, finishes with a slight hint of charred oak.
very full and smooth in the mouth.
This beer is a little thinner than I expected from the oaked aged series from ALLAGASH. Complex but not all that interesting to me especially for the price.
01-22-2008 01:01:40 | More by djwilson
4.03/5 rDev 0%
Appearance: Clear burgandy. Mild cloudiness. Plenty of carbonation. Beige head. Mild lacing and retention.
Aroma: Caramel, oak, yeast, apples, and cherries.
Taste: Nice caramel candy malt. There is some apple tartness and sweet cherries. Tastes vaguely Belgian. The oak comes through during the finish.
Mouthfeel: Manages to be light but complex. It just evaporates in the mouth.
Drinkability: Nicely integrated alcohol. I will definitely try to get another of these.
07-06-2007 22:35:26 | More by stereosforgeeks
3.98/5 rDev -1.2%
Tried this courtesy of daryk77 - thanks!
Pours a cloudy red-orange color with a large off-white head. The head slowly dissipates into a thin pancake on top leaving decent lacing.
Smells of fruits mostly - pears, raisins, and lightly tart apples, with some caramel malt and earthy aromas coming out as well - definitely not the Wee Heavy aroma I was expecting.
Tastes similar to how it smells. The fruit flavors are front and center, with malt flavors that are middle and slightly left. A slight earthy flavor is back and far right, but still contributes.
Mouthfeel is good. It's got a good thickness with soft carbonation that make this go down smoothly.
Drinkability is good. I had no problem finishing my glass, but unlike most other offerings from Allagash I'm not sure I'd be down with drinking the entire bottle.
Overall this is a very interesting beer, but I'd rank a few other Allagash beers ahead of it. Worth a shot, just don't expect a Wee Heavy.
02-04-2009 18:53:27 | More by glid02
4/5 rDev -0.7%
(Served in a snifter)
Bottled May 2006
A- This beer has a warm brown crystal clear body with a sea of tiny bubbles racing toward the surface. There is a thick rocky tan foam that holds for a good bit.
S- The light toasted sweet malt note have strong notes of oak and some green wood qualities. There is a soft sherry alcohol smell in the finish.
T- This beer has a caramel sweet malt flavor with some alcohol taste that is mellow but definitely present. There are some strong notes of oak, and green wood in the finish of the taste also.
M- This beer has a medium mouthfeel probably from the strong carbonation and a light alcohol heat in the finish which cuts down the sweetness nicely.
D- This beer is complex but still pretty chaotic. With some more age it should really mellow and when all the flavors blend it should be amazing.
09-22-2006 23:07:56 | More by rhoadsrage
4.1/5 rDev +1.7%
Just had a bottle of this on my 31st birthday at UJ's on the Manatawny. Tom, the owner, was gracious enough to give my wife and I this bottle complementary for my birthday. What a great guy and what a great bar. Can't say enough about UJ's but on to this beer.
We poured the 750 ml bottle partially into 2 goblets. The beer poured a medium amber color with a think off white head that didn't last very long. The bottle states that it is an "ale aged in oak barrels" and you get some of that in the aroma. The nose is a bit earthy with some definite caramel tones. The taste is a bit fruity, some raisins and banama but also good notes of a toasted caramel character and a bit of hops. Overall this is a very enjoyable beer on par with the Victoria that I believe came before this treat.
Thanks again to Tom at UJ's for this fine brew!
06-23-2006 04:30:33 | More by ggaughan
3.65/5 rDev -9.4%
This pours a clear deep ruby red with a giant tan foamy head. This is a impressive looking beer. The smell is a strong "bisquity" aroma with toasted almond,vanilla, bourban, and malt. The taste is crisp with malt,smoked oak,vanilla, and bourban, although the bourban flavor isn't too strong. The many flavors don't quite mix right making this beer alittle off flavored. The m/f is light and not balanced well. This is a damn good beer,but it's not as good as I hoped. Stick to the Alagash Curieux for the burban oak flavored beer.
07-28-2006 05:36:38 | More by jmz62565
Rhode Island
4.22/5 rDev +4.7%
On tap at Publick House in Boston. Pours dark amber with minimal light tan head. Aroma of caramel, brown sugar, and whisky. Really nice taste. The flavor has real complexity, with notes of chocolate and dark fruits in addition to the caramel and whisky. The whisky is present throughout, but adds to, rather than dominates the flavor. Warming alcohol on the finish. Excellent offering.
04-17-2008 01:35:08 | More by RomanW70
North Carolina
4.5/5 rDev +11.7%
Corked and caged 750 mL, bottled as one of 419 in August 2006. "Ale Aged in Oak Barrels."
Hazy amber in color with an off-white, two finger head. Aroma of Belgian-ish yeast and smooth sugars like maple syrup and caramel. Taste is very smooth, with some hoppy bite and smooth, sugary malts. Very easy to sip, and finishes clean despite the sweetness.
Very, very good.
10-21-2006 23:53:59 | More by RockyTopHeel
Ontario (Canada)
4.13/5 rDev +2.5%
Mahogoney brown with loyal significant white head. Masterful Scotch ale, with an impressive sourness not necessarily too much bourbon taste, and significant pleasant woodiness. Altogether mastery as they all work together for a successful replacement at dinner of a more expensive, wine. A good cross blend Scotch with Belgian yeast.
06-24-2007 04:13:36 | More by Sammy
4.5/5 rDev +11.7%
750 ml bottle, corked and caged. The cork released easily. Bottled August 2006. I had no idea what this beer was until just now, and I found the drawing on the label curious (or is that curioux?), but now I see it's a bag pipe. Great name. Great label. Great beer.
Poured into a wide goblet, it's a very hazy deep chestnut with a ruby cast. A short head of creamy ivory froth rests atop, slowly settling into a wide collar with islands, peninsulas, and a single isthmus of lace across the surface. Creamy walls of lace rise from the surface along the glass, and as you sip and disturb the beer, it's roused to form a solid, silky veil across the surface. Very fine bubbles rise from below, helping to maintain the creamy collar and whispy surface covering. Very nice appearance.
In the nose it's lightly smokey and oak-like... not just woody, but woody and oak-like. Maltiness lies still beneath, not in any hurry to truly reveal itself, and a bit of yeasty fruitiness (chalky tangerine) seems to be up to the same game.
The flavor initially offers a strong note of vanilla with the wood, but with subsequent sips that disappears into the lush, smokey and deeply caramelish - scorched sugar maltiness. Yeasty fruitiness does make an appearance, but it's still restrained. It displays apple, pear, apricot, subtle cherry, and some mild dark skinned fruits. Alcohol hits the palate midway with a splash of spiciness, and leads into dry and oaky finish. Even cedar-like? The combination of fruit and burnt sugar and wood is quite remarkable. It's rich and flavorful but far from overwhelming... more like 'refreshing'... and it's perfect for cold weather! It finishes dry with a wash of sm-oak-iness, and lays on the palate with a touch of smoked meat character.
A really nice, very interesting Scottish style Ale. Solidly flavored with lots of complexity. A beautiful sipper.
01-14-2007 21:33:27 | More by NeroFiddled
3.85/5 rDev -4.5%
750ml split with Blackie, bought at Riley's, $13.99
appearance: poured into a snifter...glowing dark garnet body, light beige head with pretty much no retention, lacing around the rim...pretty clear body and a nice looking pour
smell: strong vinous aroma, brown sugar, fig, dates, a bit boozy, sweet malt, yeasty, a touch peppery, raisins, pruins, nice woody nature, vanilla...nice ale
taste: First of all, this is not a scotch ale and should be reclassified because that is an extremely misleading classification. What it is is a nice Belgian Strong Ale. flavour is dominated by malt sweetness, strong belgian yeast presence, vinous alcohol bite, big dark fruit flavours - plum, raisin, prune, red apple...biscuity, oak woodyness, vanilla, toffee
mouthfeel: spicy pepper feel is a tad distracting, moderate carbonation, medium body
drinkability: about average, good opener
08-16-2006 23:36:59 | More by dirtylou
3.65/5 rDev -9.4%
Bottled May 2006
Corked and caged 750ml bottle. Pours a dark brown with a bit of orangish hues when held up to the light. Aroma is sweet fruity malts with a bit of spice and smoked oak. Taste starts out malty but quickly turns a bit spicey. There is also a large presence from the belgian yeast in the taste as well. Overall, this is a pretty good brew but I cannot help but be dissapointed in it from the steep price tag.
09-13-2006 03:22:06 | More by cjgator3
3.75/5 rDev -6.9%
12-23-2012 07:42:00 | More by cliff1066
4.68/5 rDev +16.1%
Thanks to whoever tweeted that the Saucer had afew bottles of this stashed. Had the 2008 vintage poured into goblets, shared with new friend over beer stories.
A: heavenly color, cloudy brownish red with little head and light lacing. Nice carbonation for being 3 years old.
S: OMG. Caramel, slight nuttiness, malts.
T: As good if not better than the smell. At 10% the alcohol was just present enough to remind you its a scotch ale. The spice and malts were amazing. Got so much better as it warmed. It was such a shame to finish it.
Mouthfeel, being it was the end of the night my mouth was kinda wrecked so not sure exactly of the real mouthfeel, was pretty cotton mouth by then
Overall I'd have this again and again if I could, sad that its retired, may have to go back for another bottle. It was hard enough deciding on this or Curieux!.
08-21-2011 12:51:49 | More by shoky01
North Carolina
3.68/5 rDev -8.7%
Pours a very murky brown with a nice tan head that retains impressively for a beer this strong. The aroma has big caramel and molasses character upfront, along with some dark fruits (fig, date, plum, cherry), belgian yeast, and some slight oak and vanilla notes. The flavor is initially sweet with caramel and molasses notes, as well as dark fruits (cherry, fig, plum), belgian yeast, oak, toasted bread and alcohol. The mouthfeel is medium and drinkability is descent at best. An intersting beer, by no means a traditional scotch ale...a bit cloying for my taste and quite expensive but solid.
07-25-2006 04:57:06 | More by silver0rlead
4.63/5 rDev +14.9%
Poured a deep dark copper with a huge thick and pillowy head, super sticky lacing all the way down the glass.
Smell had a big caramel malt odor with a bit of oak and vanilla.
Taste is outstanding! Big slightly sweet malts with great oak, vanilla, smoke, and peat flavors. Very much a superb wee heavy with oak! Has a lightly bitter earthy and smokey finish with a touch of mint.
Mouthfeel is warm and full with a crisp dry finish.
Super drinkable 10% Wee heavy. Only wish it was cheaper and more readily available it would become a staple in my fridge.
04-12-2008 21:16:01 | More by bashiba
3.75/5 rDev -6.9%
03-08-2014 04:19:25 | More by GRG1313
3.6/5 rDev -10.7%
Poured into a tulip glass. Deep brown with a two-finger whipped egg white head that lasts forever. Smells of caramel malt; sweet and dry. Tastes of dark fruits, vanilla, caramel malt, slightly metallic. Mouthfeel is medium bodied with aggressive carbonation on the tongue. Not bad, but not the best example of the style either.
09-16-2008 03:31:44 | More by Rzzzzz
Quebec (Canada)
3.6/5 rDev -10.7%
Thanks Clark for suppling this bottle!
Appearance: Caramel brown, with quite an enjoyable bubbly head.
Smell: Interesting tapestry of oak, yeasty spices, and prunes. The bourbon comes through nicely, much better than the Curieux I had a year or two ago IMHO.
Taste: The boozy presence takes center stage, which tries to hide the body lost by the barrel aging process and does a relatively good job of it, giving it more girth than width, if that makes any sense. Like a girl stuffing her bra with kleenex to drag attention away from the zit on her forehead. Maybe the "magician making you look to the left while he stuffs the rabbit in the hat on the right" analogy would fit it better, but it just wouldn't be as funny. Anywhoo, the belgian yeast strain sort of takes this beer on a tangent a little too far from the style, but that's not a bad thing at all. The bready, almost peppery yeast flavors give it a richness the weakend malt wouldn't have been able to give on it's own. I'm glad I've secured a bottle of this, it's going to be a very interesting cellaring experiment.
08-31-2006 00:53:09 | More by Goldorak
3.68/5 rDev -8.7%
Bottled in August '06
Pours out the color of dates with an off-white frothed milk head that maintains well throughout the glass. Smell is extremely faint for me, but I pick up some toasted malts, caramel, and some Belgian yeast character. Flavor is of roasty malts, fruity esters, spicy phenols, and bittering hops in the finish. Where is the wood in this. Ends rather dry. Mouthfeel is smooth, but is seriously lacking in body. Kind of washes off the palate easily. A good drinker, overall. Reminds me of a toastier/roastier dubbel.
12-31-2006 19:59:15 | More by goochpunch
Allagash Musette from Allagash Brewing Company
90 out of 100 based on 187 ratings.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Let's not forget Nancy Moffat
Ottawa resident Henry C. Armstrong, Sc'49, says we shouldn't forget his classmate Nancy Moffat in any discussion of pioneers in Applied Science at Queen's.
Re: A Wave of the Future - Issue #2 – 2011, p. 20
This was an excellent article, but I was surprised not to find any mention of my Sc'49 classmate Nancy (Moffat) Scarth, who was the first woman engineering graduate to do all four years at Queen's. Nancy, then age 16, turned up in the fall of 1945 and joined a class that consisted of mostly veterans. She graduated in Engineering Physics four years later.
Nancy was very active in extracurricular activities, being on the Swim Team and the Aquacade, and eventually became permanent Secretary of Sc'49. Nancy has been very much involved in organizing all our class reunions.
In 1997, she earned a BA in Slavic Studies from the University of Ottawa and has visited Russia at least 10 times. Nancy now has friends in Siberia. She has spoken to the Ottawa Branch of the Queen's Alumni Association on Russia with representatives of the Russian Embassy in attendance. Nancy has also been very much involved in dressage, the Canadian Equestrian Federation, and the Girl Guides.
A few years ago when she attended a seminar at Queen's on "Women in Engineering," Nancy brought along her ancient slide rule which most current students has never seen. They were suitably impressed.
The Editor replies: Nancy Scarth, now in her 83rd year, lives at Osgoode, ON, a suburb of south Ottawa, with her husband Lloyd, who is 98.
Nancy reports that while she recently retired after 28 years as a telephone call answering volunteer with the Ottawa Distress Centre, she is keeping busy swimming, gardening, and corresponding by email with a Russian friend who lives in Siberia. Nancy and Lloyd no longer travel to Russia, but they are planning a trip to Iceland in September. Otherwise, she says they are sticking close to home these days.
In a brief article for the on-line edition of Issue #3-2010 of the Review, Nancy recalled that during her student days at Queen's her favourite professor was Harold Harkness, BSc'13, BA'15, MSc'29, of the Physics Department – despite what she describes as "a very shaky start in my first class in the Engineering faculty." Wrote Nancy, "I was one of only two females in the large class, and I dared to ask a question about something I didn't understand. Well, Professor Harkness proceeded to tear a strip off me, and he railed about a woman taking up valuable space at the University. Fortunately my colleagues, mostly mature men who were veterans, gave me a vote of support in the smoke break.
"Anyway, when I proved to Harkness that I was a capable student, he went out of his way to help me. The other female student never returned to classes."
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text:
The Diagnostic Radiology Residency at John Peter Smith Hospital is an accredited program leading to certification by the American Osteopathic Board of Radiology. The program requires an initial year of transitional internship followed by four years of dedicated training in radiology. Radiology residents are exposed to a high volume of studies in a busy county hospital and trauma center. Residents rotate through all basic areas or radiology sub specialization under the guidance of radiology staff and senior residents. A few rotations are done outside of the main facility to provide better exposure in areas such as Pediatric radiology.
FACULTYOur core faculty members are certified in diagnostic radiology by either the AOA through the American Osteopathic Board of Radiology (AOBR) or by the American Board of Radiology (ABR).
2011 - 2012 Residents
The Residency Support Alliance was created to give residents and their families the resources, support and fellowship they need to help them through the stress of the residency years. We encourage all our resident families to get involved in the activities and social events created by the RSA's many programs.
JPS Resident Support Alliance organizes the following activities annually:
The goals of a diagnostic radiology residency training program are to:
The curriculum follows a four year program of progressive learning and responsibility in the various areas of radiology. There are 40 months of training in areas of radiology as specified by the American College of Osteopathic radiology. There is an additional 7 months of selective time as approved by the program director and director of medical education. One month is spent at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology.
The residency training program is 48 months in duration and includes training in the following areas:
Applicants must submit the following information through ERAS:
Complete applications are reviewed by the Program Director and Residency Selection Committee. Selected candidates are invited to travel to Fort Worth to be interviewed, tour the campus and meet with members of the faculty, staff and resident physicians currently in the residency training program.
The Radiology Residency is not currently accepting applications for the 2011-2012 academic year.
Applications are accepted Applications are accepted through ERAS from Aug. 1 - Dec. 1. Interviews are scheduled from October through December.
For more information about the JPS Health Network residency programs, please contact:Christine email@example.com


text:
Marshall was cited for possession of less than an ounce of marijuana days before SEC Media Days.
A new documentary, detailing Georges St-Pierre's life in the build up to fighting Nick Diaz has been released. Takedown: The DNA of GSP is a great, behind the scenes look at one of MMA's greatest...
After suffering partially torn ACL/LCL ligaments, SB Nation Medical expert, Dr. Ali Mohamadi, gives the diagnosis for the Quarterback's road to recovery.
Medical doctor Jonathan Gelber looks at the UFC 154 bout between Georges St. Pierre and Carlos Condit and analyzes the role GSP's recent ACL injury and surgery may have played in the fight.
Ralton, Perovic and Sene these are all players who have torn knee ligaments playing upon the rough, hard surface of Gillette Stadium. When is enough, enough? It's time to get ride of the turf Bob.
sux. please stay healthy eagles!
It ruled me out for five-plus months of play just four years ago. Now it's taken The Bison off the field for at least six. Sky Sports obviously had some bum news over the weekend when it reported...
In which BracketCat counts down the 28th day until kickoff with a profile of running back Jarvis Leverett.
UFC president Dana White says that the UFC has 'penciled in' a welterweight title fight between GSP and Carlos Condit for UFC 154 in Montreal in November.
In which BracketCat counts down the 93rd day until kickoff with a profile of defensive lineman Sam Harvill.
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text:
A matter of life and death
by Dorsey Nunn
Prisoners in Pelican Bay have not eaten in 18 days. I have been told that the prison hospital is full with prisoners who are being hydrated intravenously because some have started to refuse water. Others are having a problem just keeping their water down at this point. Members of the prisoner negotiation team have lost between 20 and 35 pounds. It is truly a matter of luck and or untiring spirit that nobody has died so far.
During the last conversation that I had with the prisoner negotiation team, they told me that nothing substantial was being offered. They felt disrespected but are staying committed to this course of action until CDC stops the torture. Some of them have been in solitary lockup for multiple decades with no possibly of getting out of the hole. They would rather die or continue to be tortured before they'd surrender their soul.
Many of them have been committed to their terms of segregation because of alleged gang labels or prison associations. Many of them are there because someone said something about them in an effort to avoid a similar fate of torture. Many of them are there because they took the courageous stance to demand their humanity back and to organize with others to reclaim their human rights by demanding the CDC transform the conditions of confinement for the next generation.
Many of them are there because they took the courageous stance to demand their humanity back and to organize with others to reclaim their human rights.
The people who are leading this action in prison are surprisingly old. The prison officials demand that they betray fellow inmates by declaring their "gang activity" as a sign of their disassociation. Many of them have elected not to betray other prisoners or have simply not had any information to give prison officials.
Just imagine if someone demanded that you surrender that core light in you. Some of you may not be able to denounce your sexual orientation, some of you may not be able to denounce your race, some of you may not be able to denounce your family or your god, and you certainly would not be able to betray people you know.
Many of us have been told for years and years that Pelican Bay is where they house the worse of the worst, but I ask how much worse than you or I do you have to be to merit torture? Imagine yourself losing your color because of lack of sunlight, imagine the artificial light being left on in your bathroom-sized space 24 hours a day, making sleeping difficult. Imagine the insulation in your cell was there to stop the sound of human voices and your only human touch was during the course of a search or the process of handcuffing you. What makes these accumulated acts over the course of decades not acts of violence, not acts of torture?
Many of us have been told for years and years that Pelican Bay is where they house the worse of the worst, but I ask how much worse than you or I do you have to be to merit torture?
Imagine that you can't imagine when you will be released. I was on Democracy Now a couple of days ago and when I looked at the video I could see how much this situation has weighed me down. I am only sending this email to people who know me, and I think you can see the worry and the sadness in my face in this video.
I do not want people to die, but a handful of people can't stop the state. This is one of the few times that I have seen prisoners in the state of California put their differences aside in order to stop the torture. Prisoners have had the audacity to try to change their conditions through peaceful means. I am afraid that the only one who can stop people from dying at this time is the governor.
The only one who can stop people from dying at this time is the governor.
If you are a minister, I am asking you to pray. I am asking you to ask other ministers to pray and possibly consider participating in an act of civil disobedience. If you are a person who knows the governor, I ask you to make contact on behalf of the mediation team. I don't know that the prisoner negotiation team will not have disappeared or if they have not been disappeared already.
If you are a civil rights leader, I am asking you to insert yourselves in this struggle of life and death. If they break the hunger strike, I ask you to engage in stopping the program of torture at Pelican Bay. If you are an activist, I hope you joined us in Sacramento on Monday. We need the governor to intervene because the prisoners no longer trust the courts or their guards to stop the torture.
It is absolutely shameful that when we thought enemy combatants where being tortured in Guantanamo Bay, politicians flocked to Cuba. But politicians are ignoring the torture on our shores, in our front yard and in Pelican Bay.
When we thought enemy combatants where being tortured in Guantanamo Bay, politicians flocked to Cuba. But politicians are ignoring the torture on our shores, in our front yard and in Pelican Bay.
Where are our civil and human rights leaders at this most critical time? If we are not convinced that certain people deserve their humanity based on their past actions, does that strip us, world citizens, of our responsibility as humans? In other words, do the actions or perceived actions of others determine our inhumanity?
My last request is that you pray for the team of mediators and their organizations, which includes me. We are not in prison, but we know that the state will come.
Dorsey Nunn is co-founder of All of Us or None, executive director of Legal Services for Prisoners with Children and one of the mediators between the prisoners on hunger strike and the California Department of Corrections. He can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com.
5 thoughts on "A matter of life and death"
Mesepa Edwards
WOOOOOOOH……of all the days i decide to click on one of the postings sent to me on face book and it was this one……..Its hard to believe that human beings can be more than monsters……its just evil.
My comments may not change the mind of the Governer but my efforts to inform others about what is happening is the least i can do…..my prayers for the prisoners to not give up on their dignity, their inner soul, their spirit to live…..our bodies will fade but the spirit is eternal. I pray for true justice for the men who are tortured that they be freed of this. GOD BLESS.↓
carol radous
its 19 days into the pbsp shu hunger strike.i am literally sick nnot knowing how my son is. i have not recieved any correspondence since the onset of this event.my prayers go out to all inmates and families involved.can anyone tell me how i may be able to find out the status of my son's health? i've been calling the prison and trying all extensions, but no answers. dont know how much more of this i can handle. any comments please. carol radous avery concerned mother. firstname.lastname@example.com↓
Pat Foley
Flood Brown's office with phone calls, faxes, emails and postcards telling him to make CDC negotiate with the prisoners before someone dies.↓
Ann-Belinda Honablezh
My son is in the SHU at Tehachapi, he is a participant in the "Hunger Strike." I received a letter from him dated July 10, 2011….He told me that he now weigh 196 pounds, which is down from 225 pounds. There is another inmate in the cell with him.
I do feel that a news conference needs to be brought, in order for the public to be enlightened as how these inmates end up in the SHU. Basically, it is because of the guards, and prison administration that one is there: which in reality it means they could have not done anything.
From my perspective I see the SHU as nothing more than a violation of the eighth Amendment, which is centered around cruel and unusual punishment, which need to be cancelled.↓


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Tragedies remind us to pay attention and share the roads
A pair of tragic news items involving bicyclists in San Francisco — one cyclist a victim, another a perpetrator — illustrates the need for all of us to slow down, pay attention, and safely and respectfully share the roadways of this crowded city.
The victim of yesterday's fatal collision between a truck and bicyclist at Folsom and 6th Streets — in which the motorist turned right across the path of cyclist in a bike lane, but was inexplicably yet not surprisingly not cited by police — was today revealed to be 24-year-old Amelie Le Moullac.
Meanwhile, 37-year-old cyclist Chris Bucchere was today sentenced to 1,000 hours of community service and three years probation after pleading guilty to felony vehicular manslaughter after last year trying to beat a red light at Castro and Market streets and fatally striking elderly pedestrian Sutchi Hui.
"Motorists, pedestrians, and bicyclists must share the road in a responsible way because there are dire consequences when traffic laws are disregarded," District Attorney George Gascon said today after Bucchere's sentencing.
Both of these incidents were sad for all concerned, and they should remind us to be responsible and attentive travelers, a lesson that we could all use. Everyday on my bike commute home, I see motorists running red lights or darting heedlessly around obstacles, risking people's lives to save seconds of their days; cyclists impatiently edging their way past pedestrians; and pedestrians stepping out into traffic without looking around them, often because they're absorbed by their smartphones.
We're all guilty of bad behavior on the roadways at times, myself included, so I'm not going to presume to stereotype any particular group of road users (I'll leave that to the trolls). But when we hear about terrible tragedies like these, it's good to take a moment to reflect on our own behavior and do what we can to civilly share our civic spaces, particularly when wielding the deadly weapons of a fast-moving bicycle or an automobile moving at any speed.
100% of cyclists who hit and kill pedestrians are prosecuted, both of them over my 24 years here. How many motorists have been prosecuted for anything other than in infraction? 1, 2? Have 100 cyclists been killed during my time here, 50?
This is a civil rights emergency.
I think we should recognize their magnanimity in this case. They chose the path of forgiveness rather than vengeance - that's a hugely positive thing.
That might be true, and if so is a good thing, but the DA stated that he did not think that he could secure a conviction in a SF jury. My understanding is that there was photo evidence that showed him in the intersection during the yellow phase of the signal. Like so many innocent criminal defendants, it is often wiser to cut a deal than to see one's day in court.
read your comment as farce.
to respond.
I was merely pointing out the ridiculousness of you --with your long history of vicious and contemptuous posts here-- writing that we should all "recognize their magnanimity in this case" and that it is "a hugely positive thing".
The article you linked to says this:
"And this source said he was able to use the site to determine that Bucchere was traveling through the intersection – which is at the bottom of a steep hill – at approximately 35 mph at the time of the collision."
The 35 mph speed is laughable. It's impossible to get through that intersection at that speed without crashing because of the street car tracks which are at an angle and the extremely rough, rutted pavement. It would throw the cyclist off the bicycle at that speed. I've ridden through that intersection at nearly a fast walking-pace and have almost been thrown off my bicycle at just that speed. So whoever came up with this 35 mph is loco and has an anti-cyclist agenda. The maximum one can pedal on a bicycle is between 13-18 mph. And at that speed, that's fast and feels unstable. Not too many bicyclists can do it. So I don't believe he was going 35 mph based on my own experience. I don't believe he was going 25 mph.
Glad you mentioned the smartphones. It's the strongest addiction I've ever seen. It's a wonder that more people aren't mugged while texting and hit by a vehicle because they are oblivious to their surroundings in a major city and just blindly walk out in the street without looking. When they walk on the sidewalk (if they are not paralyzed in the middle of the sidewalk with texting), a person is responsible for not running into them because they refuse to take their eyes off their screen. There's nothing "social" (as in "social media networks") about typing to people. Talking is social. Do these textbots have any social skills at all?
Adding to that...
The thing I find really sad is the many people I see walking their dogs and texting. The people are at work all day and their dog is home alone and often stuck in a dark garage. Their dog remains alone when being walked because the dog's guardian is still on the gadget and texting. The gadget is getting the love and attention that the dog is missing. Some people really should not have animals especially when the dog is being walked by a clueless textbot. The dog's tail is down and the dog looks bored or unhappy. I feel sorry for the many dogs I see in this situation. We have really created one hell of a society. Oh, is that a tech-bubble I'm hearing breaking? Let's hope so! Then maybe people can start talking again and giving much-needed affection to their dog.
I could not agree more! I think we could all benefit from being fully present as we are going about our day. Dogs are a delight - funny, and always in the moment with you. So leave the phone in your pocket, folks, and enjoy the walk with dog, child, partner, whomever.
My 27" wheel road bike (48 tooth chainwheel, 14 tooth smallest driven sprocket) travels .005 miles with every turn of the crank. That means when the bike is moving too fast to keep up pedaling (my top effective rate seems to be around two turns per second) I am traveling close to 34 mph.
It doesn't take super human skill to pass over tracks at an angle either. Anyone who could do a standing hop over the tracks could jump them on a bike as well. It is simply a matter of jumping up on the pedals and taking one's weight off the tires as you pass over them and keeping a firm grip on the handlebars.
There is unequal prosecution of bicyclists versus cars. The police and prosecutors have a tendency to lie to bolster their cases. All that is true, but you can't assert that Bucchere's 35 mph reported speed is "laughable." The Tour de France speed average is 25 and that includes steep terrain and distance riding.
@Guest - The 35mph figure is supposedly from GPS fixes on his iPhone, sent to Strava. This is not a reliable source, though, and at one point the D.A. said as much. Instead they used surveillance video from the Twin Peaks Cafe to estimate a speed of 32mph. Make of it what you will ...
was out of control. And, worse, he showed little remorse afterwards.
@anon - Well, I wrote "Make of it what you will." You made it into a ranting refutation of something that nobody argued. I hope that makes you feel better.
cyclist killing a pedestrian. Quit while you are only a little behind.
I own six bicycles and I have traveled in many countries with loaded panniers. I've only clocked myself a few times in race situations, but I know that racing speeds in time trials are always well over 20 mph.
Even an ordinary cyclist on an ordinary bicycle can easily achieve 35 mph on a downhill stretch such as southbound at the intersection of Castro and Market. I have clocked myself on a downhill (in an unpopulated area) at 48 mph. The tracks at this intersection are not that difficult, but any responsible cyclist in San Francisco knows that many of the city's streets are poorly maintained, and that 35 mph is too fast for any urban street in a densely populated area.
The real point is that there is no defensible speed for a cyclist or motorist who has hit and killed a pedestrian in a crosswalk, which is exactly where the pedestrian was supposed to be. Just riding too fast for conditions, which by definition was true in this case, is a crime that jeopardizes safety.
I am a bicycling activist and advocate, but I am disappointed that this cyclist didn't do jail time.
Howard Metzenberg
Former San Franciscan
His speed was out of control, and the collision would have been his fault even if it had not been on a crosswalk. His lack of remorse just makes it worse and screams for a custodial sentence.
The truck driver in the most recent case had as far as we know, committed no traffic violation and, moreover, the point of impact was beyond where the bike lane ended, so the situation is quite different, and SFBC shrieks for punitive action seems prejudicial and unreasonable.
Why do you claim that the truck driver committed no violation? How do you know where the point of impact was? Are you the cop who bungled the investigation?
hit the truck at the intersection. Bike lanes stop some 20 feet in front of intersections.
This is the one who is also has become known as "Bold Lying Guest" in some circles.
The chances of some fact being folded into anon's usual deposits here has no bearing on the overall validity of such comments. This anon is a habitual, compulsive, liar.
When anon writes of "accounts of this accident that I read", anon is referring to the deposits of like-minded trolls but hopes to suggest these accounts are evidence-based accounts by journalists.
We know that a truck killed a bicyclist. We know that security camera video was available of the incident, but that the SFPD was uninterested in finding out what it revealed.
We know that this anon is a vicious lying troll.
every poster here who signs off as "Guest", "anon" or something similar is part of a vast right-wing conspiracy. The truth is that many people here post anonymously, and that they usually speak for the silent moderate majority who have drank the progressive koolaid.
Nobody killed anyone here. There was an accident and there is no evidence that anyone was at fault. The SFBC are desperate to paint the truck driver as the villain, to the point of purloining some alleged tape, but their self-serving agenda invalidates anything that has their smell on it anyway.
The only known troll here is you, as you have been banned from comment sites.
The problem is everyone thinks they have the right of way in this city drivers, pedestrian, and cyclist. TRAFFIC IS NOT ENFORCED IN THIS CITY AT ALL.
CARS MAKE RIGHT TURNS INTO CYCLIST AND DOUBLE PARK ON SHARE ROADS, PEDESTRIANS CROSS ON RED AND CYCLIST OFTEN TRY AND ESCAPE DANGEROUS TRAFFIC BY GOING THROUGH STOP SIGNS. Maybe if the city started enforcing laws we could get to work safely and the open drug market that is the TL would be shut down.
LOL.....the SF bike Nazis (at least half the biking population) have ZERO RESPECT FOR STOP SIGNS 100% OF THE TIME.
I don't "respect" inantimate objects -- or even laws not written with this mode of transportation in mind -- but I do respect the rights-of-way of other road users at intersections and try not to infringe upon them.
This is why everyone else hates you.
you personally do not happen to agree with?
have a sense of entitlement to park their cars.
that they clearly do not like, when Jones admits that he has no "respect" for the laws that he doesn't personally like.
thinks it doesn't apply to him when he is on his bike.
Jones has an entitlement to ride around picking and choosing his way through the cities laws, drivers need more laws to correct their behavior.
cyclists, strikers or occupiers then he fully supports their law-breaking.
When I ride up to an intersection I slow down and look both ways, if there is no one ahead of me I go, when I'm ahead of other riders I go just as if they were cars. They behavior on my part gets me almost run into by other bike riders, while car drivers are seldom a problem. They probably are thinking along the Jones line of reasoning, "me me me me"
Steven Jones writes:
'I don't "respect" inantimate objects -- or even laws not written with this mode of transportation in mind'
But of course, laws concerning AirBNB, written 35 years before the internet, should be applied without any question.
So to summarize:
Changes in bicycling: Significant development that invalidates certain laws.
The internet: What's that? Obey existing laws without questioning them.
I'm just clarifying for those of you grappling to understand Steven.
While I know that being honest about how I and most other bicyclists ride causes some people's heads to explode, let me briefly address some of these criticisms (but not Matlock's, because I ride in the same way he describes, so clearly he's just trolling here).
First of all, nobody follows all the laws of the road, all the time, as I wrote in this story, so you should all get off your high horses. Momentum matters with cyclists, who can also see and hear far more at intersections than drivers, and we aren't a danger to anyone but ourselves if we're moving slowly, so it's just not a big deal if we ride through an intersection and don't take anyone's right-of-way. It's how everyone rides anyway, even police officers on bikes, and the laws in Idaho and other places have been modified to reflect that. In a perfect world, laws would be written in ways that reflect people's behaviors, thus cultivating a greater respect for the law, but oftentimes governments lag behind the will of the public (drug laws are another obvious example of this). We can all be courteous and respectful of other road users and still not follow every traffic law down to the letter.
As for the Airbnb comparison, that's just ridiculous. For one thing, the city's tax laws and last year's interpretation that the TOT applies to Airbnb does take into account how people behave. Visitors to SF choose between hotels and other options like Airbnb, so they are direct competitors and I haven't heard any good arguments for why Airbnb should be given a competitive advantage. Airbnb made its arguments, it lost, and now it is simply a scofflaw. Anyone who wants to draw a moral equivalence between the law-breaking of a billion-dollar corporation to pad its profit margins and the decision a bicyclist makes at an empty intersection is probably running afoul those drug laws that I mentioned, or maybe they're under the influence of the most powerful drug of all: money.
a high density of autos, bicycles, and pedestrians, too many bicyclists are not "courteous and respectful" of pedestrians. Riding on the sidewalk is considered normal. Running stop signs and lights when pedestrians are present is commonplace.
Of course, many bicyclists ride appropriately. But all too many have a self-righteous attitude that because they ride bikes (and because motorists behave badly towards them), they can ride however they want vis-a-vis pedestrians. Dodging bicyclists at intersections is almost a daily occurrence for many pedestrians.
they are some of the most aggressive and inconsiderate road users out there.
It was momentum that carried that cyclists into a pedestrian and killed him at Castro and Market. All vehicles have momentum but that doesn't mean we should have different laws for them.
Yes, it's a PITA to accelerate after stopping but then if you choose to bike, you accept it takes a lot of physical effort.
And the AirBnB analogy holds too. You are happy for bikes to break the law because you like bikes. You are not happy for AirBnB to break the law (not that I agree that they are, but you clearly think so) because you don't like AirBnB.
Likewise you want zero tolerance for landlords who break the law but if an Occupier does that then somehow that is justified in your hopelessly baised mind.
Than you, Steven, for your honesty and clarity about how and why most bicyclists actually ride through stop sign posted intersections without coming to a complete stop. I agree completely that yielding to others' rights of way, being considerate, and making safety the first priority are what's important and what the Idaho stop law reflects. I hope eventually we will change our Calif vehicle code to reflect this reality of cycling. In this respect, riding a bike is much more like walking. Everybody wants pedestrians to look both ways before crossing and not enter a stop signed intersection that already has a vehicle in it, but the idea of having to come to a standstill at each corner of an empty intersection would be absurd. The bicycle riding police do what nearly all other riders do at stop signed intersections -- coast through empty ones or ones the are clearly at long before other users -- because it reflects common sense. Looking forward to wen,not if, we change our laws to reflect this common sense practice.
typically use in California, for much the same reasons?
That said, I'm not so concerned with cyclists rolling through stop signs and lights since usually when they do, it is their life that is on the line and not those of others.
I am much more at a loss to understand why cyclists in SF do things like go the wrong way down a one-way street, ride on the sidewalks, and weave through pedestrians crossing at speed.
It seems unlikely that cyclists will feel the love as long as they act entitled and dismissive of the law.
"Guest" -- ah, the beloved moniker of every troll at the bay guardian comments section! Yes, "Guest", you lie in wait of each and every comment that supports bicyclist safety or good sense, then pounce within minutes to make some specious comparison between riding a bike and driving a car. Then you finish with some aside about law-breaking cyclists in SF, how obnoxious their attitudes,etc. Do you know how predictable you are? And how predictably your untraceable anonymity leads to a spiraling down of discussion into demagoguery? More importantly, how little impact you have as Bay Areans and Americans go about slowly changing their cities and roads to accommodate and keep safe all users? Your hatred for a subset of road users -- those who ride bikes for some of their outings -- is no substitute for intellectual honesty in figuring out the best ways to reform our roadways to meet all users' needs.
You are as anonymous as anyone else here, and yet you pretend that you are not just because you adopt the moniker of a philosopher's concubine?
If you are serious about advancing the rights and safety of cyclists as a group, why not start with an acknowledgment of the current situation, which is that many residents of this city see cyclists as a (mostly white and young) group of arrogant lawbreakers with a self-absorbed sense of entitlement?
Then work from there to how you can improve your polish. and that could start with resisting crying out "Troll" every time someone refutes you in public.
I use the same pen name on every post across various local and national papers so that people can respond to me and keep track of whatever I'm discussing on a particular article. (I don't imagine anyone "follows" anyone on Internet forums, just on particular threads.). I chose that pen name to be easily recognizable and to take responsibility for my views. It keeps me from engaging in profanity, etc. it also seemed kind of funny and self-deprecating. Afterwards I found out Voltaire did have a mistress, the wife of a nobleman. Voltaire and she were both writers, lived together, kept a salon for intellectuals, etc. So I guess she turned out to be a more serious and respectable person than I had first imagined when I chose the pen name for a laugh. I don't sign my legal name, because I do not want to have deal with difficulties with employers or hassles from unstable individuals. I think you would benefit self and fellow readers if you chose a consistent Internet presence/name too, maybe register with Disqus, etc. I think it makes for more civil and intense discussions.
could be anyone.
Moreover, anyone can post as anyone here so there is no persistence or uniqueness to any of your posts.
Which is why I slapped you down for claiming that I was more anonymous than you. It's a myth and, if you do not believe me, I will post from now on as voltairesmistress just to prove you wrong.
Oh, and p.s.: I called whoever the multiple "guests" are a troll, because I watched how he/she answered a serious post within seconds and added only unsubstantiated aspersions on people who ride bikes. So predictable. He/she provided no refutation, just invective, per usual.
voltairesmistress is?
That's very clever of you.
The answer is obvious - he wasn't guilty of a crime. Accidents are exactly that - they only rise to the level of a crime is the collision was deliberate i.e. vehicular homicide like road rage, or gross negligence like being drunk.
The cyclist who was charged was riding at excessive speed in a pedestrian-heavy area. Probation for that is hardly onerous. But nobody is suggested that the truck driver here had criminal intent even if, technically, his insurance company may accept blame.
What we don't know here is how culpable the cyclist was. She was young, perhaps in a hurry to get to work, and may not have rode cautiously. Cyclists have gotten a bad rep for their aggressive and often illegal riding habits, and that bites them in the butt when they need our support and sympathy.
While it's true that we don't know all the facts of the incident where the motorist killed the cyclist, it's also true that the motorists routinely escape punishment when they kill cyclists or pedestrians through negligence and inattention, as the Bay Citizen investigation that I linked to shows. Prosecutors and juries rarely even suspend driving privileges even in extreme cases, under the preposterous argument that driving is a necessity in modern society.
I have condemned Bucchere's actions (even though he clearly didn't have criminal intent either) and I believe that he deserved to be punished, but so do drivers who kill and maim through their own inattention or bad decisions. Cyclists have a right to their space on the roadways, and if a motorist crosses that bicyclist's right-of-way when making a right turn and there is a collision then, barring some extenuating circumstance I'm not aware of, that driver is to blame and should at the very least be cited. It sends a terrible message when a driver can run over someone and end her life and then nothing happens.
I don't know what SF's track record is with prosecuting criminally negligent/reckless drivers, though I could ask my friend who is a SF DA. But, I do know in Santa Clara County where my spouse is a DA, criminally culpable drivers are routinely prosecuted and often convicted and sentenced to substantial jail time. Of course, while getting a conviction in Santa Clara County is difficult, it is not the nearly impossible task it is in SF. True, Santa Clara County has plenty of guilt-ridden "limousine liberals" (i.e. pretend liberals who are completely out-of-touch) who will acquit DV offenders, rapists, and reckless drivers, but at least almost half the time they act sensibly. But, SF is known for generally having completely crazy juries (I served on one and saw it hang when most jurors, except for me and two others, voted to acquit a jackass driver who hit a pedestrian leaving him with permanent severe brain damage) and a very lenient DA's office (because that is what the community wants).
Ultimately, local residents determine community values and what message is sent about them. So, if SF drivers get away with recklessly killing pedestrians or cyclists, then the blame rests not just with the individual drivers, but also with the entire community.
Does anyone here think the driver intended to kill the cyclist? Or was drunk? Or left the scene of the accident? No.
There are only three reasons to try and convict:
1) Rehabilitation of the offender. Nobody is suggesting this driver is a habitual criminal. Or
2) Punitive sense of revenge. Hardly noble or appropriate here. Or
3) To deter other drivers from killing cyclists. But does any driver refrain from crashing into cyclists only because they might go to prison? Of course not.
Civil liability for an accident is much easier to prove to a jury than criminal intent beyond a reasonable doubt.
It's really horrible to suggest that some cyclists riding recklessly lessens the tragedy of cyclists dying on the road. Would you also say that reckless driving - texting, speeding, tailgaiting, drunk driving - lessens your sympathy for car crash victims because some drivers give all drivers a bad name? Both are equally reprehensible suggestions, but because most people are drivers, they sympathize with the driver's mistake rather than the cyclist's right to be on the road safely.
I drive more often than I bike, and because I've biked extensively in the city, I can sympathize with both sides. Some cyclists break laws, and it's easy to forget to look in your right mirror or check before opening your door. But ultimately, drivers must be held accountable for "faultless" collisions, because our small mistakes end lives.
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