When I was in my 40’s I learned that my great Uncle Thomas McLamb was a soldier in the Army of Northern Virginia lead by Robert E. Lee.  The War of Northern Aggression did not go well for Thomas.  He was greviously wounded by a spent minié ball at Kelly’s Ford, Virginia.   Uncle Thomas passed the last bit of his life as an invalid.  He was a young man when he joined the cause.

These facts gleaned through a request of Confederate records from the archive of North Carolina sparked my interest in the War to End Slavery.  In the course of several years I visited several battle grounds, including Gettysburg.  In my opinion one of the worst consequences of battlefield conflict is the possibility that the soldier will be felled by a bullet that impacts, and shatters a bone.  This happened frequently, as testified by the number of amputations that were performed in the aftermath of a battle.  — No anesthetic as we know it, just laudanum, a tincture of opium, extremely bitter to drink.

Today, election day I feel as if I were a 19th century soldier anticipating, waiting the onset of battle.  I wait without knowing what the future holds, but acutely aware of the effect when a minié-ball hits a bone.

I do not plan to tune in to the election returns tonight.  I will wait until later should the winner be announced in the late evening.  The announcement is  likely to come sometime the next morning.  As with the course of a great battle the outcome is subject to the influence of a myriad of factors, and is beyond any prediction.  What is certain is that the struggle will be prosecuted beyond the closing of the polls into the coming months, and possibly years.  The contrasting visions of American are starkly opposed.  There is no reconciliation between an imagined country ruled by the whim of a single man and a party shaped by the basest, most racist aspects of the American psyche.  The opposing vision is that of a more diverse society, where economic and political power, — is shared broadly, inclusive of females, Blacks, Hispanic immigrants.  According to this vision, to be achieved is a society that honors the findings of science, under girds education, and directs the economy to fight global warming.   The opposition is sharply defined.  I do not expect that any quarter will be given, and surrender is not expected.  There will be a winner of the election today, but as with most battles of the Civil War the armies limped away, too decimated to do more than slowly prepare for the next phase of the conflict.

I will not be viewing the returns tonight.  I hope to be with a circle of good friends via virtual video to discuss the work of Martin Buber.  Buber explored the nature and consequence of regarding others as human subjects, rather than as inanimate objects, a resource at our command.

Could there be a more relevant subject to be considered for these times?

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This tune is apropos to this election day.  Will this day be a pivot for a better country?  Or will we continue for four more years, down this road of racist oppression of non-white citizens, and the economic deregulation of global corporations to the continued degradation of Nature?

Help I’m steppin’ into the twilight zone
Soon you will come to know
When the bullet hits the bone

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VG7w6Nzx7hU

Twilight Zone
By Golden Earring

Somewhere in a lonely hotel room there’s a guy starting to realize that eternal fate has turned its back on him.
It’s two A.M.

It’s two A.M., it’s two A.M
The fear has gone, the fear has gone
I’m sittin’ here waitin’, the gun’s still warm
Sittin’ here waitin’, the gun’s still warm
Maybe my connection is tired of takin’ chances
Yeah there’s a storm on the loose, sirens in my head
Wrapped up in silence, all circuits are dead
Cannot decode, my whole life spins into a frenzy

Help I’m steppin’ into the twilight zone
Place is a madhouse, feels like being cloned
My beacon’s been moved under moon and star
Where am I to go, now that I’ve gone too far
Help I’m steppin’ into the twilight zone
Place is a madhouse, feels like being cloned
My beacon’s been moved under moon and star
Where am I to go, now that I’ve gone too far

Soon you will come to know
When the bullet hits the bone
Soon you will come to know
When the bullet hits the bone

I’m falling down the spiral, destination unknown
Double-crossed messenger, all alone
Can’t get no connection, can’t get through, where are you

Well the night weighs heavy on his guilty mind
This far from the borderline
When the hitman comes
He knows damn well he has been cheated
And he says

Help I’m steppin’ into the twilight zone
Place is a madhouse, feels like being cloned
My beacon’s been moved under moon and star
Where am I to go, now that I’ve gone too far

Help I’m steppin’ into the twilight zone
Place is a madhouse, feels like being cloned
My beacon’s been moved under moon and star
Where am I to go, now that I’ve gone too far

Soon you will come to know
When the bullet hits the bone
Soon you will come to know
When the bullet hits the bone

Help I’m steppin’ into the twilight zone
Place is a madhouse, feels like being cloned
My beacon’s been moved under moon and star
Where am I to go, now that I’ve gone too far

Help I’m steppin’ into the twilight zone
Place is a madhouse, feels like being cloned
My beacon’s been moved under moon and star
Where am I to go, now that I’ve gone too far

Soon you will come to know
When the bullet hits the bone
Soon you will come to know
When the bullet hits the bone

Soon you will come to know
When the bullet hits the bone
Soon you will come to know
When the bullet hits the bone

When the bullet hits the bone
When the bullet hits the bone
When the bullet hits the bone
When the bullet hits the bone
When the bullet hits the bone
When the bullet hits the bone
When the bullet hits the bone
When the bullet hits the bone

Just in case you are wondering….

“Twilight Zone” is a 1982 hit by Dutch band Golden Earring. It was written by the band’s guitarist George Kooymans, who got the inspiration from a book by Robert Ludlum, The Bourne Identity.