News & Views of Phillips Since 1976
Friday April 19th 2024
Tales from Pioneers and Soldiers Memorial Cemetary
By Sue Hunter Weir
186th in a Series
Annie Erwin: She Loved Not Wisely
Annie Erwin is one of the more intriguing stories in the cemetery although it”™s hard to judge how much of it is true. The source of much of the information about her was an unnamed man who claimed to have been told about Annie by her former lover. This unnamed man, in turn, shared that story with the press. His third-hand account was picked up by the Chicago Tribune on October 21, 1866, two weeks after Annie died.
annual opening (weather permitting) around April 15th. The
marker in the forefront of the photo belongs to Magnus Norquist (1822-
1901) and his wife Kiasa (1822-1910).
PHOTO BY: TIM MCCALL
According to Annie”™s lover she was born in England where her family had become members of the Latter-day Saints (Mormons). Annie appeared to be losing faith in her religion so her family sent her to the United States with another Mormon family which was headed to Salt Lake City. Annie reportedly told her lover that when she reached Utah she was “compelled to marry a hoary-headed old saint, who had already seven wives.”… Read the rest “Tales from Pioneers and Soldiers Memorial Cemetary”
Letter to the Editor
How the Militant Right Are Destroying Our Nation and the Anarchist Left Are Destroying Our City
My hope and prayer is that our nation is learning some lessons from forty years of unfettered Republicanism that ended up creating unfettered Capitalism. This year it culminated in what we witnessed in Texas, where from the time of the George W. Bush governorship to the present, the Republican Texas state lawmakers put their trust in the “hidden hand of the market” to provide their citizen”™s utilities, just one of the many human disasters caused by far-right Republican policies, leading to the unfettered Capitalism that will destroy our nation.
For several years Donald Trump with the help of news networks like Fox has continued to perpetuate an alternative reality to his base that has strengthened and sustained a militant far-right constituency. The nation looked on in horror as this far-right, militant, terrorist movement reached its pinnacle with the storming of the Capital in a violent attempt to over-throw our government and kill legislators. It is dangerous and if not vigorously checked, will destroy our nation.
In so many categories our city and state have been rated at the top due to the foresight of those who have governed through the years and the progressive policies they put forth.… Read the rest “Letter to the Editor”
Keep citizen journalism alive!
“Judas and the Black Messiah” and “Free Angela and All Political Prisoners”
SOMETHING I SAID
By DWIGHT HOBBES
There are times you have to question how seriously black folk take our own history. Two examples are the films currently arching eyebrows, turning heads and topping just about everyone”™s must-see list, “Judas and the Black Messiah,” and 2012”™s “Free Angela and All Political Prisoners” (LionsgateDVD). When you consider what Fred Hampton, chair of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense Illinois Chapter and iconic activist Angela Davis went through so the bourgeoisie could blithely change its tune from “We Will Overcome” to “I have overcome” it truly is saddening.
The plain facts are that even in the 60”™s, while even middle class blacks rallied around Martin Luther King”™s social protest, freedom fighters like Hampton, Davis and Malcolm X weren”™t socially acceptable. They were too angry for assimilationists. Today, scores of African Americans less interested in the African as anything but a way to look cool around white liberals, are no longer interested in struggles, period. They have their equality, content that some black men, women, and children are more equal than others.
The Panthers, no less than the hallowed American Revolutionaries, battled to throw off the yoke of oppression. An aspect you never hear much about is part and parcel of that war against the white system was not race hatred but simple self-empowerment, which included by the end of 1969 setting up kitchens across this country, sending impoverished kids to school mornings with a hot meal in their stomachs.… Read the rest ““Judas and the Black Messiah” and “Free Angela and All Political Prisoners””