Tuesday Ghosts

Good morning from the lower Hudson Valley, about 30 minutes up the river from New York City. Spring has not quite sprung here. The leaves have yet to bud, and the air still has a touch of winter bite to it. For those not in the know, these are the highlands. We write this from our late mother's living room, where we used to set up our tabletop wargames. The coffee is tolerable. 

We sit in our childhood home, engaging in pointless nostalgia and otherwise communing with long faded memories. Last night we found our high school graduation cap, Hendrick Hudson, class of 1992! Before dinner yesterday we took 2/3rds of the girls for a walk up the street (it's a quarter of a mile long on an incline). At the top of the street is the old bus stop, where almost nothing has changed since we last waited for a bus there 30 + years ago. The knot on the tree where we broke off the branch in the early 80s is still there. 

A long and interesting article on the attempted resumption of Israeli school trips to Auschwitz, et al in Poland. The Israeli/Polish relationship is complex. The Poles have historically been a very antisemitic people. Many, many Poles were complicit in the German genocide (we don't say Nazi, we're not letting the bastards off the hook).  Many, many Poles also helped Jews. Poles and Jews have been trying to sort things out ever since. 

We'll massively oversimplify the school trip controversy by stating that the Polish government wants these school groups to visit other sites, such as the Katyn Wood massacre memorial. What's wrong with that? But the Poles are also suggesting tour sites that commemorate anti-German fighters who killed Jews. The Poles are not wrong to point out that, 'Hey we suffered too.' Again, the relationship is complex. 

As noted previously Holocaust education will often segue into the pet cause of the teacher. One minute a teacher is talking about the Nuremburg Laws, the next minute the teacher is comparing said laws to Augusto Pinochet, who Stroock's Books reader(s) don't need to be told saved Chile from communist scumbags.

We urge reader(s) to click on over and read the entire article. 

Speaking of pointless nostalgia, (we kid, we kid). We have stumbled upon an interesting Civil War sub culture on Twitter, in which dozens, hundreds of accounts, are named after Confederate generals and politicians for the purpose of discussing the War Between the States. Needless to say, these accounts have a pro-Confederate bent. We're pretending to be a fake Israeli general on Twitter, so....

We have to admit all this Confederate talks is sparking, ever so slightly an urge to read about the Civil War again. But what's the point? We've already delved deeply into this topic. Must we really read about the Vicksburg campaign again? We've done Jeff Davis and the Confederate government. We know the 1864 campaigns by heart, from both sides! I dunno, bios? Nathan Bedford Forrest (one of those accounts we mentioned) seems like an interesting man. Bahhh...we swipe at the air and swig our grog.