Day 244: The Light of September

 

September 1st, 2011It’s a NEW MONTH, and what better way to celebrate it than by activating the light of an all night lamp, courtesy of Geetha. After going to EHS in the morning and scanning a hell of a ton of documents, it was time for a delicious lunch with Jonathan Chou off campus. Unfortunately, he had emergency office hours to go to in an hour, so we were forced to eat at TapEx on campus. I’m beginning to realize the food at the on-campus Tapex is better than the off-campus one (the drinks on the other hand is another story). After our brief chat, mostly about Sims related gaming activity, I went off campus and just chilled for the rest of the day. I talked to Tyler and Lauren for a bit, and then my eyes devoured television consumption in the form of the midseason finale of Degrassi (Goodbye Holly J!), and the newest Breaking Bad episode. [I made frozen pizza for dinner]. I took a picture of my new lamp that I got from Geetha and finally set it on up on my desk shining on a fancy mug Tyler made for me (because he has much more free time, being crippled and all). Metaphorically, it’s a symbol of the new age, a new dawn, and a new month. September will rock!

On this day in 1864, Union Army General William Tecumseh Sherman lays siege to Atlanta, Georgia, a critical Confederate hub, shelling civilians and cutting off supply lines. The Confederates retreated, destroying the city’s munitions as they went. On November 15 of that year, Sherman’s troops burned much of the city before continuing their march through the South. Sherman’s Atlanta campaign was one of the most decisive victories of the Civil War. William Sherman, born May 8, 1820, in Lancaster, Ohio, attended West Point and served in the army before becoming a banker and then president of a military school in Louisiana. When the Civil War broke out in 1861 after 11 Southern slave states seceded from the Union, Sherman joined the Union Army and eventually commanded large numbers of troops, under General Ulysses S. Grant, at the battles of Shiloh (1862), Vicksburg (1863) and Chattanooga (1863). In the spring of 1864, Sherman became supreme commander of the armies in the West and was ordered by Grant to take the city of Atlanta, then a key military supply center and railroad hub for the Confederates. GAH CIVIL WAR WAS SO STUPID.

Ten years after the September 11th terrorist strikes, Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul says that we haven’t changed a thing when it comes to understanding and fighting the causes of terrorism. “We’ve made things much worse, Paul said on NPR’s Talk of the Nation on Wednesday. Paul, R-Tex., was asked to reflect on his 2008 clash with Republican presidential primary opponent Rudy Giuliani over the cause of 9/11. Paul has repeatedly said that America’s policy of preemptive strikes encourages terrorism such as what occurred on 9/11. Paul pointed to America’s invasion of Iraq as another catalyst for terrorist acts. I REALLY HAVE TO AGREE…

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