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Johnny Reb and Gus Yank Berryvillin’: Veterans

11/11/2020

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PictureJohnny Reb and Gus Yank Berryvillin': Veterans






​Part III of XIII
 
“… What day is today Reb?”
“Veterans Day, 11 November 2020.”
“A day to honor veterans?”
“Yes.”
“Well then, a good Veterans Day to you Johnny.”
“Uh …”
“What?”
“Not all of me is …”
“Reb, you a composite spirit you said.”
“I am.”
“That is all of you then, and a lot of you Johnny Rebs served in the US Army.”
“Of course, but -”
“- But nothing.”
“Feels weird Yank.”
“Lee and Longstreet.”
“Served and rebelled.”
“They came back to the Union.”
“They came back.”
“We’re gonna need all your composite parts Reb, to end the usurpation.”
“You have flexible thoughts Yank.”
“Thanks.”
“And a good Veterans Day to you Gus.”
“Johnny, I was wondering.”
“You were?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay.”
“I was wondering about the thirty Thousand and Knowbody’s time."
“Go on.”
“I was wondering if it was only the one time or if it could be another time as well?”
“It can be any time.”
“There’s just one you know for sure.”
“The one Knowbody meant.”
“So Tell-Lie-Vision, for example, could report the thirty Thousand today.”
“Or tomorrow.”
“And then there’s also Knowbody’s time.”
“Yes.”
“Well Johnny …”
 
Next Up: 20 January 2021 and part IV of the series Johnny Reb and Gus Yank Berryvillin’: Inaugurations.
 
Posted by Bryan W. Brickner

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Christmas Eve Laments 1944: No Silent Night in Bastogne

12/23/2014

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PictureSilent Night Memorial Chapel Oberndorf (Austria)








Part I: Lamentations

Silent night, Holy night

A replica Austrian chapel depicts the place of the initial 1818 performance of Stille Nacht (Silent Night). Two pious dudes had an idea for a Christmas Eve show; one had words, the other beats. The wordsmith was Josef Mohr, the man with the beats, Franz Xaver Gruber, played church organ. Stille Nacht was put together like most great things (out of necessity); Mohr had a midnight Christmas Eve performance and needed something new. Including guitar and choir accompaniment, the two crafted the performance that evening – and the show went on at midnight. In 2011, UNESCO declared Stille Nacht part of our intangible cultural heritage.


All is calm, all is bright,
Round yon Virgin Mother and Child


No Silent Night: The Christmas Battle for Bastogne, written by Leo Barron and Don Cygan (2012), is the story of a fulcrum battle in the German siege of Bastogne, Belgium, 20-27 December 1944. This German siege within the American Ardennes Counteroffensive hinged on a Christmas Day battle between US infantry, with the 101st Airborne on point, against German tanks, specifically, the feared Panzer and its three inches of steel plating. Tomorrow we’ll view the Christmas Day battle from one officer’s perseverance and patience, Lt. Colonel John T. Cooper. The colonel has a soldier’s day like Lt. James Monroe did in 1776 at the New Jersey Battle of Trenton. In 1776 it was German Hessians hired as mercenaries for the King of England to fight the Yankee Doodle Dandy rebels; in 1944 it was the last of Germany’s Jerries against more of those US rebel Yanks.

PictureArdennes American Cemetery and Memorial (Belgium)
In Belgium (and not far from Bastogne) the Ardennes American Cemetery and Memorial is the final resting place for 5,329 WWII US vets: 792 are buried as Unknowns. The memorial itself is grand; the rows of headstones providing background for an emboldened American eagle accompanied by three goddesses: Justice, Liberty and Truth. There are also thirteen stars for America’s founding, when thirteen independent states united to become one nation.

Holy infant, so tender and mild,
Sleep in heavenly peace,

Sleep in heavenly peace.

Lamentations are passionate expressions of grief or sorrow; they are illuminated wails. Barron and Cygan show their spirit, and the spirit of their book, by prefacing No Silent Night with a German officer’s Christmas night lamentation; the sorrow was chalked in a school after tomorrow’s 1944 Christmas Day battle. Seventy years on and the German’s sorrow rings eternal in its human, all too humanness: besieged by ruins, blood and death, the human nonetheless cries for – laments for – a vision of universal fraternity:

“Let the world never see such a Christmas night again!
To die, far from one’s children, one’s wife and mother, under the fire of guns, there is no greater cruelty.
To take away a son from his mother, a husband from his wife, a father from his children, is it worthy of a human being?
Life can only be for love and respect.
At the sight of ruins, of blood and death, universal fraternity will rise.”

This evening, pause in Peace for that holy infant, so tender and mild … in all of us.
~
Posted by Bryan W. Brickner

Part II Tomorrow: 70 years from Christmas Day 1944 ~ Perseverance, Patience and Victory in Bastogne.

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Publius’ PTSD Re-Homeostasis ~ A Veterans Day Update

11/8/2014

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PictureThe Cannabis Papers by Publius (2011)







The Cannabis Papers: A citizen’s guide to cannabinoids (2011)
By Publius

Keith Marker / PTSD Edition

Publius’ Veterans Day cannabinoid science PTSD edition notes four 2014 PubMed articles on the cannabinoid system (CS) modulating re-homeostasis, our ability to heal. Today’s Re-Homeostatic line-up links to CS PubMed articles discussing: brain injury combined with depression, diet and PTSD cues, facilitating fear extinction (and its recall), and a music therapist for World War I Shell Shock, Paula Lind Ayers.

PictureKeith Marker, Albuquerque, NM, US Military Veteran

With healing in mind, we highlight and honor US veteran Keith Marker; Marker served in Afghanistan, suffered suicidal PTSD upon returning home, and found CS relief via New Mexico’s Medical Cannabis Program.



I. Re-Homeostasis (Brain Injury and PTSD) and the CS
“United States Veterans of the Iraqi (Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF)) and Afghanistan (Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF)) conflicts have frequently returned from deployment after sustaining mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) and enduring stressful events resulting in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). A large number of returning servicemembers have been diagnosed with both a history of mTBI and current PTSD. … These findings suggest Veterans with mTBI+PTSD perform significantly lower on neuropsychological and psychiatric measures than Veterans with mTBI-o or PTSD-o. The results also raise the possibility of persisting cognitive changes following mTBI sustained during deployment.”
The Effects of Mild TBI, PTSD, and Combined Mild TBI/PTSD on Returning Veterans.
Combs HL, Berry DT, Pape TL, Babcock-Parziale J, Smith B, Schleenbaker R, Shandera-Ochsner A, High WM.
J Neurotrauma. 2014 Oct 28. [Epub ahead of print]
PMID: 25350012 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Related citations

II. Re-Homeostasis (via Diet) and the CS
“The etiology and pathophysiology of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) remains poorly understood. The nutritional deficiencies associated with the altered metabolic processes of PTSD have not previously been studied in detail. … The results of this initial study demonstrate that addressing the increased dietary requirements of PTSD can improve symptoms of the disease while eliminating significant side effects. A larger, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial is warranted.”
Administration of an amino Acid-based regimen for the management of autonomic nervous system dysfunction related to combat-induced illness.
Shell WE, Charuvastra M, Breitstein M, Pavlik SL, Charuvastra A, May L, Silver DS.
J Cent Nerv Syst Dis. 2014 Oct 8;6:93-8. doi: 10.4137/JCNSD.S13793. eCollection 2014.
PMID: 25336998 [PubMed] Free PMC Article
Related citations

III. Re-Homeostasis (Anxiety Disorders/Fear) and the CS
“Anxiety disorders, such as post-traumatic stress (PTSD), panic, and phobic disorders, can be conceptualized as a failure to inhibit inappropriate fear responses. … How might the cannabinoid system effect fear extinction? Collectively, translational evidence suggest that enhancing cannabinoid transmission may facilitate extinction learning and its recall, and that the cannabinoid system is a potential pharmacological target for improving the active learning that occurs during exposure-based behavioral treatments prompting future research in terms of mechanisms research, novel treatment approaches ('cognitive enhancers'), and pharmacotherapeutic drug discovery.”
Cannabinoid modulation of fear extinction brain circuits: a novel target to advance anxiety treatment.
Rabinak CA, Phan KL.
Curr Pharm Des. 2014;20(13):2212-7.
PMID: 23829364 [PubMed - in process]
Related citations

IV. Re-Homeostasis (Music Therapy/Shell Shock) and the CS
“Little is known about the therapeutic uses of music during the First World War. This historical study provides a biography of Paula Lind Ayers (1891-1974), a vocalist, actress, and YMCA Entertainer who became known as ‘the girl who could sing away shell shock.’ … Understanding Paula Lind Ayers' contribution to music therapy provides a deeper awareness of past therapeutic uses of music with soldiers who experienced shell shock. Such understanding helps shape the way we view the present conception of music therapy with veterans and how we might answer questions that will affect the future of the field.”
Paula Lind Ayers: "song-physician" for troops with shell shock during World War I.
Reschke-Hernandez AE.
J Music Ther. 2014 Fall;51(3):276-91. doi: 10.1093/jmt/thu022.
PMID: 25316916 [PubMed - in process]
Related citations

*Publius thanks Otto Snow for the science reports on PTSD and, especially, for the Keith Marker story.
~
*Ew Publishing’s Veterans Day Run continues tomorrow (Monday 10 November), with a review of Muhammad Ali’s greatest fight, Cassius Clay v. United States, by William Abens on the BWB Blog.
~
Posted by Bryan W. Brickner

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    Author

    Brickner has a 1997 political science doctorate from Purdue University, cofounded Illinois NORML in 2001, and was a 2007 National NORML Cannabis Advocate Awardee. He is also publisher and coauthor of the 2011 book banned by the Illinois Department of Corrections – The Cannabis Papers: A Citizen’s Guide to Cannabinoids.

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