Statues are coming down of my distant Uncle Andrew Jackson. Recently his statue in the park across from the White House was defaced last week.
There are laws on the books to protect and remove statues and relocate them but certainly not with mob frenzy and violence. No one can change their past and I would not ever want to change mine for anybody. I’m proud to have had brave ancestors at the Battle of Waterloo, The American Revolution, The War of 1812, The Texas Revolution & early Republic, Civil War (my relative was captured by Union soldiers in Missouri and put in a prisoner-of-war camp), World War I, World War II, The Korean Conflict and the Cuban Missile Crisis naval blockade.
At least I’m looking more now like my Dad than I did in my early days of 20 years old at CBS. My father was a consultant to the Surgeon General when he went to the Mash 406 hospitals in Korea in 1953 and the interesting result was the first civillian triage during the Texas City Disaster, the first Blood Bank, tasking Dr Red Duke to form the first LifeFlite at Herman Hospital, the development and rapid deployment of mobile hospitals, bringing 5 Burn Treatment Centers to the US including the first one to Galveston and much more. His goal was to put Texas and Galveston as an equal in innovation and training to the medical centers at UCLA and Harvard and he succeeded with the help of my mother, Virginia Blocker, MD.
Obtaining generous grants for the University of Texas Medical Branch and recruiting some of the finest doctors, administrators and researchers from all over the World to locate on our tiny Island, they made outstanding progress. Just look at the Campus of UTMB now. I know who most of my ancestors all were. Had I been called for Vietnam, I would have gone out of love for country and it's diverse people and culture. While it is the right of everyone to peacefully protest, we can never take our history for granted nor rewrite it and we should never try to change our American history, judged right or wrong. It is normal to have many faliures. We learn from failures and only achieve success in our lives by failing may times ourselves. And we do fail until we find workable solutions. We can learn great lessons from those that came before us!
My Canadian Grandfather, Dr. Howard Irvine, was a victim of the Spanish Flu Pandemic of 1918 and survived without vacines or any other established medical protocols. That H1N1 type virus infected 500 million people and killed 50 million people or about 1/3 of the World population and in the United States about 675,000 deaths. As of today, 10-14-2021, we now stand at 721,000 deaths that started with Covid 19 in the United States. Many of those that have died today develop severe complications including pnuemonia and other complications due to a compromised immune system or pre-disposition due to a compromised at-risk lifestyle. Statistical research will determine years from now, to verify just how many of those actually died from Covid or perhaps another disease or immune complication.
We’ve arrived at a point in time where each of us should learn about and reflect on how the greatest country on Earth came to be. Stand unified and tall, respectful of a complex process. Every single generation is presented with great political, scientific and medical challenges and we typically always move together to find workable and effective solutions. There is way too much anger and political discourse in our lives right now and we fight for our medical and financial survival. All we really have is each other. We will get through this and learn from it but effective action and cooperation, even just simple human kindness. is critical. An older black woman who I loved and was my great friend for 38 years used to say “If it don’t come out in the washin, it’ll come out in the rinsin”. We are on our way to solving the critical issues that we all face. We measure time in slow-motion with each tweet. news report, political move....we all want harmony, peace and a respect for the system our constitutional democracy defined and created.
Galvestonians always, as a unique and diverse people, rise to work together and this is how we face our latest metaphoric Category 6 Hurricane! We are a diverse multi-cultural Island society and God would not give us something that is so challenging if he didn’t think we had the means and tools to understand it, cooperate and solve it. Each one of us can do a small part but we must use love to accomplish it. Each one of use can use our leadership skills. Just remember to be very careful - our words can kill and real human kindness heals. Isn't that our goal?
#Statues #BlockerPublishing #GordonBlocker #MagicOfGalveston #TrumanBlocker #HowardIrvine
#BloodBank #DrRedDuke #LifeFlite #TexasCityDisaster #Hurricane #BlockerBurnUnit #HermannHospital
#1918SpanishFlu #Covid-19