Spanish Flu Pandemic
As the man who is, to our everlasting shame, president of the United States makes a mockery of the concept, I thought I’d start a discussion of actual national emergencies from our history.
It’s not that easy. I’m sure I’m forgetting something big, but just to get the ball rolling, here’s my quick-and-dirty list of Top Five Actual National Emergencies:
- Civil War — I could have said Secession or the Dred Scott decision or the Nullification Crisis, but I’m just wrapping it all together under one heading.
- Cuban Missile Crisis — An alternative might be “Berlin Wall Crisis,” but this seems to be the one when a nuclear exchange seemed most likely.
- World War II — Not sure whether this should make the short list because the United States’ existence wasn’t threatened the way Britain’s and France’s and so many other countries’ were. But for those living through it, things looked pretty dark in December 1941. In terms of response to a crisis, the nation rose to this one as it did in the 1860s.
- Spanish Flu Pandemic — Exactly a century ago, it killed more people than there were military deaths in both World War I and II. Of course, it was worldwide, and not just national, but I included it anyway.
- Stock Market Crash, 1929 — I know it was just about money and all, but it was a biggie.
Honorable mention:
- Burning of Washington, 1814 — Kind of a low point — I mean, the president fled and the Brits burned the White House — but I went back and forth as to whether it should make the list.
- 9/11, 2001 — We’re still kind of reeling from this one.
- Watergate — The Constitution withstood a test, and we passed with flying colors. But Americans’ trust in their government has continued to wither.
The burning of Washington.
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Honestly, I’m thinking it really might be outdated. Eros requires “the spark” and unfortunately “the spark” is not rational.
TBH, it has too much of a whiff of biological determinism, and biological determinism is a notion that undermines far too much in a society that is moving beyond concepts like Freedom and Equality towards a more just society of Equity and Liberation.
That combined with economic inequality and the cultural acceptance of non-Eros based love (sapiosexuality, asexuality, etc.), means that it might be best for concepts like Eros to go underground for a few generations. It’s better to have a marriage based on mutual socioeconomic struggle that smashes an unfair system, than something based on chemical attraction.
Like Byron said, “For the sword outwears its sheath, and the soul wears out the breast, and the heart must pause to breathe, and love itself have rest.”
I don’t believe it. Somehow, when I post this one on Top Five ACTUAL National Emergencies, the post on Romantic Love — to which this was a response — disappeared. And I can’t recover it!
Sorry, folks…
God is love but love isn’t God
https://sunramusic.bandcamp.com/album/god-is-more-than-love-can-ever-be-cd-lp-digital
I don’t believe it. Somehow, when I post this one on Top Five ACTUAL National Emergencies, the post on Romantic Love — to which this was a response — disappeared. And I can’t recover it!
Sorry, folks…
Dang, I thought more of you would engage on this one. I guess I should have put “sex” in the headline.
At least Calvin joined the discussion:
I don’t believe it. Somehow, when I post this one on Top Five ACTUAL National Emergencies, the post on Romantic Love — to which this was a response — disappeared. And I can’t recover it!
Sorry, folks…
yeah,well-president digging his own grave and he’s a national emergency-worse than 9/11,JFK assassination,and AIDS combined;need to be put away…
https://thepeteanderson.bandcamp.com/track/still-in-love-featuring-bekka-bramlett
I am calling on the White House to declare a national emergency over …
AMERICA’S STRATEGIC SHORTAGE OF VANILLA ICE CREAM !
There simply isn’t enough vanilla ice cream to go around.
This crisis must be addressed! NOW!!
And I mean at the very highest levels!
Congress clearly doesn’t have the will to deal with it.
The media is covering it up.
And George Soros somehow has his hands in it !
Without an adequate supply of vanilla ice cream, America as we know it will not survive!
You, I, we ALL must scream for ice cream!