By William H. Benson
The Parallel Lives
Of The NOBLE AMERICAN RELIGIOUS THINKERS AND BELIEVERS:
Roger Williams VS. Cotton Mathers
NEW ARTICLES
Mexico’s Revolution, Part 2
Last time, I discussed the first phase of Mexico’s Revolution, when Francisco Madero challenged the three decades-long dictator, Porfirio Díaz, in the 1910 election.
Díaz won the election, but Madero called for a revolt against Díaz on November 20, 1910. Madero’s forces defeated the army’s forces, causing Porfirio Díaz to resign and flee to Paris.
Because Madero failed to hold together a strong government, a power vacuum spread across Mexico that lasted for the next ten years. Mexico’s Revolution turned violent and bloody.
Strong personalities, powerful warlords, vied and jockeyed for top position. Among others, there was Victoriano Huerta, Pascual Orozco, Pancho Villa, Emiliano Zapata, Venustiano Carranza, and finally Álvaro Obregón.
It helps to contrast Mexico’s Revolution to the United States Civil War.
Whereas the U.S. Civil War was fought between North and South, Mexico’s Revolution had a number of competing generals, each with an army, and each attacking another army.
Whereas the U.S. Civil War had two functioning governments, with Lincoln presiding in the North and Jefferson Davis in the South, Mexico’s Revolution lacked a functioning government.
Whereas the U.S. Civil War battles were fought between soldiers, Mexico’s Revolution massacred civilians en masse, without hesitation, no mercy.
Whereas the U.S. Civil War caused the deaths of some 600,000 soldiers, from both North and South, historians hesitate to fix a number for the Mexican Revolution, due to a lack of statistics.
Best estimates place the number between one million on the low side, and two and a half million people on the high side.
Whereas the percentage of casualties in the U.S. Civil War was about 2%, from a population of 30 million, the percentage of casualties in the Mexican Revolution was almost 7% on the low side to almost 17% on the high side, from a population of 15 million, per the 1910 census.
Whereas the U.S. Civil War lasted for four years, April 1961 to April 1965, Mexico’s Revolution lasted for ten years, from November 20, 1910, until near the day, November 30, 1920, when Álvaro Obregón was inaugurated President, and the fighting began to subside.
The Mexican people endured an immense amount of pain, death, and bloodshed.
Historians believe that between 1 and 2 million of Mexico’s citizens immigrated north into the U.S. during Mexico’s Revolution, near 10% +/- of its population. Again, statistics are difficult to determine. Some migrated north in a given year but then returned months later.
Migration north did not cease once the fighting subsided. In one year alone, 1923, some 1000 people crossed the border everyday throughout the year.
This migration into the U.S. was due to the Revolution’s bloody violence, devastation, severe unemployment, plus economic and political collapse.
Peace began to appear a possibility in 1920, when a Constitutional faction led by Venustiano Carranza called for a new constitution. Delegates from across the country arrived in Querétaro in November 2016, and on February 5, 1917, delegates voted for a new Constitution for Mexico.
Article 27 insisted upon land reform, Article 123 spelled out labor rights for factory workers, and Article 3 called for a secular state that restricted the Catholic church and provided for free, mandatory, and secular education.
Although an assassin’s bullet ended Carranza’s life and his presidency, on May 21, 1920, his death is considered close to the end of the Revolution’s violent phase.
My vote for best quote on the Mexican Revolution, “the proud country’s citizens endured a horrible present to escape an intolerable past to forge a better future.”
War and peace in Ukraine
On February 17, 2023, David Remnick of the New Yorker podcast interviewed Steven Kotkin, history professor at Stanford, and biographer of Joseph Stalin.
Kotkin said, “Let’s think of a house with ten rooms, and let’s say I barge in and take two of those rooms. I wreck those two rooms, and I also wreck your other eight rooms. You try to evict me, but I’m still there wrecking your entire house. An excerpt about war and peace in the Ukraine.
St. Valentine’s Day / Presidents Day
We celebrated St. Valentine’s Day yesterday, February 14, a day when we reflect upon our good fortune that we have that special person in our life, our Valentine.
Next Monday, February 20, government officials grant us a holiday to consider the forty-five Presidents, all men. Because Grover Cleveland served two non-consecutive terms, officials count him twice, as #24 and #26. Thus, we give honor to forty-four men.
Groundhog Day
On February 4, 1977, the band Fleetwood Mac released their record-selling “Rumours” album. Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie sang one of its songs, “Don’t Stop.” “If you wake up and don’t want to smile. If it takes just a little while. Open your eyes and look at...
Profiles in Courage
Kennedy showed that quote from Herbert Agar’s book to his speechwriter Ted Sorensen, and asked him to find other examples of Senators, who had displayed unusual political courage at crucial times in their careers. Sorensen came back with eight examples.
In addition to John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts, Sorensen included Daniel Webster also of Massachusetts, Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri, Sam Houston of Texas, Edmund G. Ross of Kansas, Lucius Lamar of Mississippi, George Norris of Nebraska, and Robert Taft of Ohio.
Shortcuts to winning
Shortcuts to winningHow does a player cheat at chess? When playing online chess at home, on his or her computer, a cheater receives instructions, hints, and directions from a second computer, standing beside the first, that contains chess analysis software. But how…
White Christmas
White ChristmasThe crooner Bing Crosby first sang “White Christmas” live on the “Kraft Music Hall” radio show on December 26, 1941, nineteen days after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. It was a frightening time, one of our country’s darkest moments. The nation felt...
Older Posts
Two weddings
Twenty-eight-year-old Naomi Biden married twenty-five-year-old Peter Neal on the south lawn, at the White House, on Saturday, November 19, 2022, beginning at 11:00 a.m. Eastern time.
Because there was no tent, and because the temperature was a chilly 39 degrees, some 250 guests received shawls, hand-warmers, and blankets once they arrived. They also checked in their cell phones.
Thoughts on Thanksgiving
Elias Boudinot, a member of Congress in the new Federal Government, introduced a resolution in 1789, to form a joint committee that asked President George Washington to call for a day of prayer and thanksgiving. That joint resolution passed both Senate and House. Washington chose to respond.
On October 3, 1789, he called for a day of “Public Thanksgiving and Prayer,” that he set for Thursday, November 26, 1789. Washington celebrated that early Thanksgiving, by attending services at St. Paul’s Chapel, and giving beer and food to those in jail for failing to pay their bills.
Two Veterans
Two VeteransDavid McCullough, biographer and historian, passed away on August 7, 2022, at age 89. His biographies—on Harry Truman, John Adams, and Theodore Roosevelt; and his histories on the Johnstown Flood, the Panama Canal, and the Brooklyn Bridge—earned him prizes...
Phantom of the Opera
Phantom of the OperaGaston Leroux published his novel, “Le Fantome de l’Opera,” or “Phantom of the Opera,” in 1911. Earlier he had worked as a theatre critic for a French newspaper, the “L’Echo de Paris,” and had heard talk of a chandelier, fastened above the crowd,...
Tact
TactNews broke early this month that school officials at New York University fired an adjunct organic chemistry professor named Dr. Maitland Jones, after 82 of his class of 350 students signed a petition, that charged Jones with making the class too hard. The mean...
‘On Writing’ and ‘Why I Write’
n the year 2000, the horror fiction writer Stephen King came out with a different kind of book, a nonfiction book that he entitled, “On Writing: a Memoir of the Craft.” He begins with a series of scenes from his childhood, and explains how he launched his career of writing popular fiction.
King uses a metaphor, that of a toolbox, to describe how he works when he writes. At the bottom of the toolbox lie the fundamentals: appropriate vocabulary, sticking with accepted grammar, the use of active verbs rather than passive, and avoiding adverbs.
One of University of Northern Colorado’s 2020 Honored Alumni
William H. Benson
Local has provided scholarships for history students for 15 years
A Sterling resident is among five alumni selected to be recognized this year by the University of Northern Colorado. Bill Benson is one of college’s 2020 Honored Alumni.
Each year UNC honors alumni in recognition for their outstanding contributions to the college, their profession and their community. This year’s honorees were to be recognized at an awards ceremony on March 27, but due to the COVID-19 outbreak that event has been cancelled. Instead UNC will recognize the honorees in the fall during homecoming Oct. 10 and 11……
Newspaper Columns
The Duodecimal System
For centuries, the ancient Romans calculated sums with their clunky numerals: I, V, X, L, C, D, and M; or one, five, ten, 50, 100, 500, and 1,000. They knew nothing better.
The Thirteenth Amendment
On Jan. 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, and by it, he declared that “all persons held as slaves” within the rebellious states “are and henceforward shall be free.” Lincoln’s Proclamation freed some 3.1 million slaves within the Confederacy.
The Fourteenth Amendment
After Congress and enough states ratified the thirteenth amendment that terminated slavery, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866. This law declared that “all people born in the United States are entitled to be citizens, without regard to race, color, or previous condition of slavery or involuntary servitude.” The Act equated birth to citizenship.
The New-York Packet and the Constitution
Jill Lepore, the Harvard historian, published her newest book a month ago, These Truths: A History of the United States. In a short introduction, she describes in detail the Oct. 30, 1787 edition of a semi-weekly newspaper, The New-York Packet.
Mr. Benson’s writings on the U.S. Constitution are a great addition to the South Platte Sentinel. Its inspiring to see the history of the highest laws of this country passed on to others.
– Richard Hogan
Mr. Benson, I cannot thank you enough for this scholarship. As a first-generation college student, the prospect of finding a way to afford college is a very daunting one. Thanks to your generous donation, my dream of attending UNC and continuing my success here is far more achievable
– Cedric Sage Nixon
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– Extra Times
FUTURE BOOKS
- Thomas Paine vs. George Whitefield
- Ralph Waldo Emerson vs. Joseph Smith
- William James vs. Mary Baker Eddy
- Mark Twain vs. Billy Graham
- Henry Louis Mencken vs. Jim Bakker
