Jan. 04, 2005 - 21:47 MST

THE WONDERING JEW

By Whose Dictionary ?

I read an article by Ed Quillen in The Denver Post of today that led me to put a thought or two in my own mind, that it did. In full it reads:

Playing the name game

"Last week, the Longmont City Council voted to put a new name on Chivington Drive. It was a sensible decision, since any other course would have prolonged a controversy that began in 1864 when Col. John Milton Chivington ordered the Third Colorado Volunteer Regiment to attack the Cheyenne and Arapaho camp near the Kansas border a few miles north of the Arkansas River."

"That action is now known as the Sand Creek Massacre, and Chivington's name is forever associated with the slaughter of women and children who had believed they were under government protection."

"That's not how most Coloradans saw it then, though. the Civil War was raging back East, and it took amost every Union soldier. Few were left out here to defend against Indians, so the locals had to organize militias for protection."

"Did they need it? In June 1864, Arapahoe raiders visited the Hungate ranch, 25 miles southeast of Denver, and killed Nathan, Ellen and their young daughters."

"Later that summer, Plains Indian raids were so frequent that freighters would no longer travel from civilization to Denver. Food prices soared, there was no mail, and Denver was essentially cut off from the world for months."

"There was talk, not entirely unfounded, that the Confederates had allied with the Indians to isolate and then capture the gold mines of Colorado. The Confederacy had once before marched toward Colorado, only to be defeated on March 28, 1862, at Glorieta Pass between Santa Fe and Las Vegas in New Mexico."

"The hero of that battle was John M. Chivington, who maneuvered his 430 volunteers around the main battle to destroy the Confederate supply train, thus forcing the Rebel army to retreat back to Texas."

"Chivington was a staunch abolitionist. Just about everybody is against slavery these days, but in the 1850s it was NOT a popular stance, and he demonstrated courage as he preached against slavery in Bloody Kansas."

"After Sand Creek, Chivington was hailed as a hero in Denver; the Rocky Mountain News reported that 'All acquitted themselves well, and Colorado soldiers again covered themselves with glory."

"So, are we applying, "presentism" when we now find Chivington's name offensive ? Are we judging him by the standards of our time, when he lived under the standards of a different time, when, as territorial Gov. John Evans later wrote, "the benefit to Colorado of that massacre, as they call it, was very great for it ridded the plains of the Indians"?"

"Even in Chivington's time, though there were standards that he violated. His men bashed babies to death, shot unarmed prisoners and took body parts as souvenirs. Two officers in his command, Lt. Joseph A. Cramer and Capt. Silas Soule, reported the barbarous massacre to Washington. Maj. Ned Wynkoop called Chivington an "inhuman monster."

"Congress launched an investigation, and in 1865 reported, "It is difficult to believe that beings in the form of men and disgracing the uniform of United States soldiers and officers, could commit or countenance the commission of such acts of cruelty and barbarity as are detailed in the testimony." The Army considered a court-martial, but there were jurisdiction problems that protected Chivington."

"So by the standards of his own time, Chivington was cruel and barbarous. We're not engaging in "presentism" if we find him so now, although we should also understand how frightened the people of Denver were in 1864 and 1865"

"And it isn't as though Chivington Drive in Longmont dates back to pioneer days. It dates only to 1977, when it was apparently christened by a developer and not challenged."

"So a new name for Chivington Drive is in order. I suggest Soule Drive, to honor the soldier who was murdered by Chivington's agents for telling the truth about Sand Creek."

"And if there's a renaming ceremony, it would be a good time to reflect on war crimes, from Sand Creek to Abu Ghraib, and how even when the government tries to do right by identifying and punishing those responsible, there's a substantial portion of the public that still wants to honor the criminal."

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Some of my opinions and thoughts follow.

I remember reading of the parade of soldiers returning from the Sand Creek Massacre, some of the soldiers carrying and displaying scalps taken, a few displaying sexual body parts of those slain in the massacre. I also remember reading of the big hooraw the media in Denver gave those gallant heros who had conquered those miserable savage oldsters, women and children.

Ed Quillen's last paragraph it appears to me should carry much weight in the thought processes of our present day population. I have a relative who thinks the preemtive action in Iraq is wholly justified, because, "Just imagine what they might have done."

My line of thought today before I read the article in a way paralleled what Ed Quillen wrote about. The way peoples thinking processes are often governed by misconceptions of the powers that be.

For some time there is a word that has been bothering me. A word that it seems just recently began to be used for most any occasion.

PROACTIVE is the hummer. My little Franklin electronic Merriam Webster defines proactive as, "acting in anticipation of future problems, needs or changes." PREEMPTIVE is defined by that same monstrous word storehouse is, "Marked by the seizing of the initiative: initiated by onself (preemptive attacks)."

So, now in the process of democratizing a country that has had warring factions from almost the beginning of time, are we proactively supporting an administration who is preemptively chasing its own tail ? We are always being inundated in words whose definitions are changed at will by those who are trying for - - - - - what ? And I do wonder at the text they follow, definitions By Whose Dictionary ? . . . . . . . . . .