Dear John:
I'm trying to send this Email and all the line endings are all messed
up. I've noticed the same phenomenon with other Emails that have been
sent to the group. I usually don't have this problem but now, it seems,
I do. Any quick fix?
Your comments are a perfect example of why it is imprudent to draw conclusions
before all the facts are in. Thanks for reminding me. Mea Culpa.
Some of us hear the word "farmer" and we automatically think, as I did,
"up at
the crack of dawn to stand behind a plough drawn by a single mule; few
to help
you besides your immediate family; possible next-year's victim to a
fickle Mother
Nature"--things like that. You forget that some farmers are more successful
farmers--hired hands to stand behind the plough or plant next year's
promise in
the ground--who can sleep much later in the morning than the people they pay.
They may have been strict, even cruel, with the workers who ploughed
their fields
but, chances are, when the family histories are written, it's just the
good stuff
that survives the test of time.
I, and you it seems, are here to see that that's not done. I think
that's a good
thing.
Take a colonial big farmer to the enth degree and, I guess, you might
get a big
multinational farmer like the Dole Corporation or, to step down the
ladder a rung
or two, the rich Mexican landowner who "acquiress" the lands of the
poorer to
grow the cut flowers for North American graves I mentioned in a previous post.
The bigger any sort of business concern gets, the more diffuse the sense
of guilt
gets. If you are the sole owner of a business or a farm, all decisions are
yours--and the resultant responsibility for those decisions are your's, too.
When a "board of stockholders" is called to decide, well, the majority rules--"I
tried to do the right things, but I was outvoted--what could I do?"
I still like the idea that some people left the Salem area in disgust.
And I
would like MORE to believe that they left partly in disgust of their own actions,
or inactions. But who knows? I would really like only to be sure that
what I
believe is the Truth, no matter what that turns out to be.
I think that it was an heroic act for some of the accusers to eventually
apologize, on record, for the deaths they caused. But again, who knows?
Perhaps
they had just been told that it was only a more prudent time to do so.
Maybe they were finally just more concerned
about the ultimate salvation of their own immortal souls, than the
people they
had already helped sentence to death and eternal damnation.
All Best!
Jeff
PS: I know that all but one of the Salem witches was hanged. The other was
"pressed" to death. Any idea why? I seem to recall reading that as the weight
that would eventually kill him got to a certain point his tongue popped
out of
his mouth, and someone pushed it back in with the point of his walking stick.
Was that the Reverend Parris, or was that someone else?
"John S. Quarterman" wrote:
> >Dear Susan:
> >
> >Your husband's ancestor was a TRUE hero, a word much bandied about
> >nowadays but not much understood. Aaron Way was a farmer who could've
> >joined the flock, pointed the finger, and watched the witch die.
> >Nobody would have blamed him. Things were tough back then, and Aaron
> >and his relatives still found the backbone to stand up and argue for
> >reason--even tho' Aaron's own infant daught er was the supposed victim.
> >That's the sort of courage that brings a lump to my throat, and reminds
> >me what a true hero is. Aaron and his family, as did most early settlers
> >who dug their hands in the dirt or cast their nets upon the sea, lived
> >on the knife-edge of survival. The fact that he and his family were
[ Excess quotations omitted. ]
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