OH MARY DON'T YOU WEEP ...

I remember the day it was time for me to report to the U.S. Air Force induction depot.  That was so very long ago.  I knew there was quite a trip ahead of me to the training base so I had some reading material in my pockets:  a New Testament, and "The Fire Next Time" by James Baldwin. 

"The Fire Next Time" is really two essays - "My Dungeon Shook — Letter to my Nephew on the One Hundredth Anniversary of Emancipation," and "Down At The Cross — Letter from a Region of My Mind."  In the book, Baldwin says “A vast amount of the Negro problem is the white man’s profound desire not to be judged by those who are not white, not to be seen as he is."  That rang a bell with me.

We've talked before about how it could be dangerous in those days to admit one's Croatian ancestry.  I could easily substitute in my head the words "A vast amount of the Croat problem is the anglo's profound desire not to be judged by those who are not anglo, not to be seen as he is."  Hmmmm, different but similar life experiences. 

Baldwin also said "We are controlled by our confusion, far more than we know, and the American dream has therefore become something much more closely resembling a nightmare, on the private, domestic, and international levels. Privately, we cannot stand our lives and dare not examine them; domestically, we take no responsibility for (and no pride in) what goes on in our country; and, internationally for many millions of people, we are an unmitigated disaster."  I didn't see that as a "Black" issue, but a wide spread issue becoming woven deep into the fabric of the country.

I was almost finished with the book when the bus arrived at the training facility.  The sergeant was Black and he was so very courteous at first.  "Empty your pockets please gentlemen," the man said, so I did.  Everyone did.  Men who had brought pocket knives and such were promptly relieved of those things.  The sergeant stopped and looked at my New Testament and my James Baldwin book and a frown furrowed on his forehead.  He looked me up and down.  "I'll have to take these," he said, "You are a thinker and that's not allowed here," and that was that. 

A line from the song "Oh Mary don't you weep, don't you mourn" was the source of the title of Baldwin's book.

God gave Moses the rainbow sign
No more water, but fire next time.
The title of his first essay came from another couplet
The very moment I thought I was lost
The dungeon shook and the chains fell off.

I was familiar with the song because me and my friends we sang the song in the fields and in the churches.  The choir at Riverside Baptist over on Wheeler Avenue in Houston, Texas could really belt it out all swaying with the music and everything.

Oh Mary, don't you weep, don't you mourn
Oh Mary, don't you weep, don't you mourn.
Pharoah's army got drownded
Oh Mary don't you weep.

If I could I surely would
Stand on the rock where Moses stood.
Pharoah's army got drownded
Oh Mary don't you weep.

Mary wore three links of chain
Every link was Jesus' name.
Pharoah's army got drownded
Oh Mary don't you weep.

One of these nights about 12 o' clock
This old worlds going to reel and rock.
Pharoah's army got drownded
Oh Mary don't you weep.

God told Moses what to do
To lead the Hebrew children through.
Pharoah's army got drownded
Oh Mary don't you weep.

Moses stood on the red sea shore
Smotin' the water with a two by four.
Pharoah's army got drownded
Oh Mary don't you weep.

God gave Moses the rainbow sign
No more water, but fire next time.
Pharoah's army got drownded
Oh Mary don't you weep.

Mary wore three links of chain
Every link was Jesus name.
Pharoah's army got drownded
Oh Mary don't you weep.

The very moment I thought I was lost
The dungeon shook and the chains fell off.
Pharoah's army got drownded
Oh Mary don't you weep.

Anyway, "The Fire Next Time" came to mind today when the Texas Forest Service revealed this morning that as of today 3.8 million acres of land had been burned so far in the fires in Texas this year.  Let's work out what this means.  Montenegro has about 3.4 million acres.  More land in Texas has been burned away than a whole country.  Croatia has a little over 13 million acres so a space equivalent to thirty six per cent of Croatia has been burned away in Texas.  That's about thirteen percent of Serbia including the Vojvodinja which has been burned away.  If you just look at the Vojvodinija by itself that's about 60 percent of that place up in smoke and its a space about half the size of Bosnia or Kosovo more or less.  Got the picture?  The fires in Texas have burned vast areas this year.Pick a Balkan country - any Balkan country and fires of this magnitude would have be devastating.     Aren't you glad I didn't pick Cheech and Chong's "Up in Smoke" to illustrate my thoughts and feelings about all this?  Here is some one's version of "Mary Don't You Weep"

do sljedeći put, blagoslov - until next time, blessings,

Canovals a.k.a. Slavonac

30  Rujan 2011

He is dead. Thanks God.

He is dead. Thanks God.  

As for me, I doubt that I should much look forward to such an epitaph, yet there it is:  On je mrtav. Hvala Bogu.

There is a small fact most Croatians who live in Croatia do not know.  Perhaps most Croatians in the world don't know this either.  Most Croatians do not live within the borders of  Croatia.  We probably never have.  There are rather a lot of us and the greater number live in North America, especially in the United States. Dear reader, if you are not Croatian, the chances are that you have met one of us.  If you go to church at all you know some of our music.  Bach was one one of us.  He was a Croat - a Croat in the diaspora.  Earlier, in another blog, I related my response to the Croatian Embassy noting that " identifying one-self as Croatian, could be dangerous, not only in Yugoslavia, but even in the United States."  Until perhaps a decade or so after Croatia became independent, for the most part, we remained silent and invisible.  There was often a price to pay if you did not keep your mouth tightly sealed.  None-the-less Croatia is dear to us.  It is Home.  

And, as much as Hrvatska is Home, so is Texas, so is San Francisco, so is New Orleans, so is Madison, so is Seattle, and so is the United States - home.  We see little, if any, conflict in that matter.  For the Croatian-Texan, the notion is easy to see.  Alone, unique among the States of the United States, the proper manner in which to fly the red, white, and blue of the Texas flag is side by side as an equal nation with the red, white, and blue of the United States flag.  Teksikans serve in the United States military and see no problem with that.  

Now that you have a glimmer of understanding about that, bear in mind that several administrations in Washington past, the Federal Bureau of Investigations uncovered a plot for an "insurrection in Texas" and promptly dispatched a horde of armed agents to to deal with the matter probably as efficiently as they had dealt with such a matter earlier near Waco resulting in the deaths of women and children. As much as Texans did not like what was going on in the compound in Waco, when the children died we felt mighty grim.  Just don't go killing our babies.  Just don't.  We don't like it none.  When the matter of this "insurrection" came up, the Governor of Texas requested that the FBI withdraw and let him handle the matter.  I believe what the Governor said was something like "Go 'way, go way fast," and they went away fast.  They had crossed that invisible boundary line into the sovereign business of the State of Texas.  The Governor sent a single unarmed ranger up to the hills to talk to the old man who was at the helm of the "insurrection."  The fellows drunk some whiskey and they drunk some coffee.  Don't go tellin' me that I should have written "the fellows drank ,,,"  Unh uh, they drunk it.  Trust me, they drunk it and they threw the tin cans they drunk out of into the camp fire and the matter was settled.  It used to be that pert near every one's pickup truck had a "Republic of Texas" bumper sticker.  Now you can't find those bumper stickers no more, dang it!  Even so, the red, the white, and blue flies side by side with the red, the white, and the blue.  That's how it is.  

We Croatian - Americans have in our hearts the red, the white, and the blue flying side by side with the red and the white and the blue.  We stand at attention when the "Star Spangled Banner" is played and a tear might leak from our eyes while we sing it.  We stand at attention when the Lijepa naša domovino is played and a tear might leak from our eyes while we sing it.  God help us if there is ever an important soccer match between the Croatian team and the American team.  The whole stadium would probably cheer for both sides all during the game.  Can you imagine the noise?

In the first session of the 102 Congress, on September 19, 1991, Mr. D'Amato, Mr. Dole, Mr. Glenn, Mr. Pell, Mr. Gore, Mr. Nickles, Mr. Pressler, Mr. Riegle, and Mr. Seymour introduced a bill into the Senate of the United states entitled "To restrict United States assistance for Serbia or any part of Yugoslavia controlled by Serbia until certain conditions are met, and for other purposes."

The bill cites: 

"The Congress makes the following findings: 

(1) In 1990, the republics of Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia, and Bosnia-Hercegovina held free and fair elections.

 (2) In 1990, the republics of Serbia and Montenegro held elections which were not free and fair.

...

(4) Since the Declaration of Independence by the Republic of Slovenia on June 25, 1991, more than 100 people have been killed, including civilians, by the Serbian-controlled Yugoslav federal army.

 (5) Since the Declaration of Independence by the Republic of Croatia on June 25, 1991, more than 500 people have been killed, including many innocent civilians, by the Serbian-controlled Yugoslav federal army and Serbian guerrillas.

(6) The Serbian-controlled Yugoslav federal army is actively using both ground and air forces in Croatia to attack the citizens that they are constitutionally bound to protect.

(11) The Serbian-controlled Yugoslav army's invasion into Croatia constitutes an illegal effort to alter the borders of Yugoslavia by force.

 (12) The leaders of the Serbian republic and the Serbian-controlled Yugoslav army are pressing an unacceptable agenda in an effort to hold onto power and privilege."

The bill was was read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations where it mouldered for a long long time.  We wondered why the American government didn't seem to mind that thousands of Croatian men, women, and children were being slaughtered and that did create a conflict in our hearts because our lady who wears a blue skirt and red blouse with a white sash and her children are dear to us.  Don't go killing our babies.  We don't like it.  We don't like it none.

The answer is simply that "Lawerence of Serbia" was at work.  According to Wikipedia "Lawrence Sidney Eagleburger (August 1, 1930 – June 4, 2011)[2] was an American statesman and former career diplomat, who served briefly as the United States Secretary of State under President George H. W. Bush. Previously, he had served in lesser capacities under Presidents Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and George H. W. Bush. Eagleburger is the only career Foreign Service Officer to have served as the United States Secretary of State."  Under Nixon he was assistant to Henry Kissenger.  Under Carter he was ambassador to Yugoslavia.  He was advisor to Bush for south east European matters.  When Eagleburger denied that Serbian paramilitaries and the Yugoslav National Army had committed atrocities in the breakaway republic of Croatia, the European Press nicknamed him Lawrence of Serbia.

Lawerence of Serbia also served on the International Commission on Holocaust Insurances Claims. According to Jweekly.com which covers Jewish matters in the San Francisco area, on June 8, 2001, Waxman, congressman from Los Angeles said the commission was poorly managed.  Lots of money was flowing, but not to the survivors of the Holocaust.  

Does it surprise you to know that Eagleburger, Brent Scowcroft and former Ambassadors to Belgrade John Scanlon, along with Ambassador Warren Zimmerman spoke Serbian among each other in US Security Council meetings?  Does it surprise you that Eagleburger knew Slobodan Milošević when Milosevic was still a banker?  House Banking Committe Chairman Henry Gonzales from Texas, pointed out the connections between Eagleburger and the Serbs.  First there is Ljubljanska Banka, and Global Motors/Yugo of America, a subsidiary of the Yugoslav arms maker Zavodi Crvena Zastava on whose boards Eagleburger served and, acting as a consultant for them was compensated millions of dollars.  Milošević tells us that he became friends with his buddy Eagleburger while he served on the board of Beobanka in Belgrade.   Now does it surprise you to learn that Eagleburger testified against the bi-partisan bill introduced into the Senate?

Does it surprise you that this same fellow wrote in the Washington Times on 8 December 2008 "We believe U.S. policy on Kosovo must be re-examined without delay, and we urge the Bush administration to make it clear that pending the results of such re-examination it would withhold recognition of a Kosovo independence declaration and discourage Kosovo’s Albanians from taking that step."  I was ambivalent toward the Kosovo Albanians until I read who was opposing it.  Now I know and now I pray that God help my brothers in Kosovo to achieve their dreams of freedom.  The Amerikanski press often portrays the Kosovo matter as a conflict between Muslim Albanians and Christian Serbs.  This year I met a Christian Albanian who lives in Great Britain so guess what?  This is not about some wild haired jihad after all, is it?  Croatian troops are in Kosovo as part of the NATO force there.  I have a video on YouTube honoring Croatian forces who served in Afghanistan.  Several comments on my video wonder why Croatian soldiers are somewhere not Croatian.  When I first read those comments I understood them as being simply xenophobic like many Americans were during the Viet Nam matter.  I went back in the wee hours this very morning  and looked at those comments again, at who wrote them, and now I understand. Do I have to spell it out or do you understand too?  

Eagleburger claimed to be a "moderate" Republican.  Some Teksikan Republican commented one time that "moderate" usually means they do not believe anything.  Lawrence of Serbia seems not to have believed in anything but his bank account.  

Because of Eagleburger, the Americans did not step in decisively to assist Croatia until after the massacres at Vukovar, until after the massacres at Srebenica, until after the siege of Dubrovnik and other atrocities came to light.  If he were yet alive, I would say that Eagleburger should stand trial for the deaths of all these people - hundreds of thousands of them, but alas, he is dead.  Lawrence of Serbia is dead.  On je mrtav. Hvala Bogu.

do sljedeći put, blagoslov - until next time, blessings,

Canovals a.k.a. Slavonac

14 Rujan 2011