Sunday, September 11, 2011

Video Obama Reads Psalm 46 at 9/11 ceremony/The Treaty of Ghent

The Rising Springsteen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOm-uIPzqpI
The Rising, Bruce Springsteen

Can't see nothin' in front of me
Can't see nothin' coming up behind
I make my way through this darkness
I can't feel nothing but this chain that binds me
Lost track of how far I've gone
How far I've gone, how high I've climbed
On my back's a sixty pound stone
On my shoulder a half mile line

Come on up for the rising
Com on up, lay your hands in mine
Come on up for the rising
Come on up for the rising tonight

Left the house this morning
Bells ringing filled the air
Wearin' the cross of my calling
On wheels of fire I come rollin' down here

Come on up for the rising
Come on up, lay your hands in mine
Come on up for the rising
Come on up for the rising tonight

Li,li, li,li,li,li, li,li,li

Spirits above and behind me
Faces gone, black eyes burnin' bright
May their precious blood forever bind me
Lord as I stand before your fiery light

Li,li, li,li,li,li, li,li,li

I see you Mary in the garden
In the garden of a thousand sighs
There's holy pictures of our children
Dancin' in a sky filled with light
May I feel your arms around me
May I feel your blood mix with mine
A dream of life comes to me
Like a catfish dancin' on the end of the line

Sky of blackness and sorrow ( a dream of life)
Sky of love, sky of tears (a dream of life)
Sky of glory and sadness ( a dream of life)
Sky of mercy, sky of fear ( a dream of life)
Sky of memory and shadow ( a dream of life)
Your burnin' wind fills my arms tonight
Sky of longing and emptiness (a dream of life)
Sky of fullness, sky of blessed life ( a dream of life)

Come on up for the rising
Come on up, lay your hands in mine
Come on up for the rising
Come on up for the rising tonight

Li,li, li,li,li,li, li,li,li

http://news.yahoo.com/obama-reads-psalm-46-at-9-11-ceremony.html
Video Obama Reads Psalm 46 at 9/11 ceremony.

Battle of New Orleans
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxB42cjHTGg

http://american_almanac.tripod.com/russcwar.htm
Excerpt:
The foundation of U.S.-Russian collaboration was laid in the 1763-1815 period. It was the product of the political influence exerted within Russia by the networks organized by Benjamin Franklin in the Russian Academy of Science (whose leading members were followers of the tradition of technological progress established by the collaboration of Gottfried Leibniz and Peter the Great) and through the American Philosophical Society.
In the period from 1776 to 1815, Russia


http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/197157/the_treaty_of_ghent_nothing_ventured.html?cat=37
Excerpt:

The Treaty of Ghent: Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

Timothy Sexton
On Christmas Eve of 1814 the Treaty of Ghent was signed, creating what amounted to an armistice where American and Britain stopped fighting and agreed to a restoration of all conquered territories following the War of 1812. Interestingly, the Treaty of Ghent studiously avoided addressing the American grievances that acted as ignition for the war in the first place, such things as controlling the aggression of certain Indian tribes and search and seizure laws on the high seas. If the War of 1812 was itself an exercise in how meaningless a war can be, the peace treaty was equally an exercise in the mediocrity of treaty drafting.
Strangely enough, the genesis behind the Treaty of Ghent was the Tsar of Russia. Tsar Alexander I was hardly what you would call eager to have his country square off against the might of Napoleon alone and wanted nothing less than to see England stretching its power overseas in a war almost guaranteed to go on too long and accomplish little. For purely personal political reasons, Tsar Alexander I sent a mediator to discuss drafting a peace treaty. Eventually American sent a party of five to Ghent, Belgium, headed up by John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay.
What the Americans faced in Ghent were British counterparts riding a wave of confidence following their surprising military victories. The British contingent went so far as to demand a neutral buffer state for Indians around the Great Lakes as well as control of the Great Lakes themselves. (You call a country a naval power and it's only to be expected that they think they control all the waters in the world, I guess.) Even worse for the America, the British were also insistent on claiming conquered parts of Maine for themselves. Needless to say, John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay and the rest of the gang instantly rejected the British offers. The Treaty of Ghent appeared headed for a Mexican standoff; or at least a Belgian standoff.
Things might well have turned out significantly different if American troops hadn't made some decisive turnarounds at home. Word began to reach the British envoys that their boys were not doing too well in New York and Maryland. Combined with the fact that the folks back home were tiring of the war and the bad news from the front, the British suddenly became much more attuned to compromise. Also helping to change their minds was the Congress of Vienna and the uncertainty surrounding France. The only reason left to push their demands was to exert a measure of revenge on America for showing them up during the Revolutionary War. But revenge was simply too expensive a dish for the British to go forward. In a sense, then, the real reason that America came out on top of the War of 1812 was due to the upheaval taking place in Europe.
Following the signing of the Treaty of Ghent, the Americans back home were overjoyed. John Quincy Adams and the gang had left when things were still looking quite bleak. Nobody expected to see a treaty signed that wouldn't result in the loss of some territories. Despite the fact that America looked absolutely no different following the treaty, Americans were quite happy. It is a testament to the utter neutrality of the Treaty of Ghent that the slogan of the time was the less than inspiring "Not One Inch of Territory Ceded or Lost."

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