{"id":2810,"date":"2008-07-03T09:40:33","date_gmt":"2008-07-03T14:40:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=2810"},"modified":"2008-07-03T09:40:33","modified_gmt":"2008-07-03T14:40:33","slug":"forgetful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=2810","title":{"rendered":"Forgetful"},"content":{"rendered":"

The MinnPost, in observance of Minnesota’s 150th birthday, is compiling a list of Minnesota events they’d just as soon forget.<\/p>\n

And some of them, to be honest, make me wonder.\u00a0 I mean, I know, I know – you don’t dare <\/em>insult anyone’s patriotism, yadda yadda – but:<\/p>\n

1943<\/strong>
\nThe Minnesota Legislature asks the federal government to set up a prisoner-of-war camp to replace the droves of workers joining the military in World War II. About 3,000 POWs were held in 21 camps between 1943 and 1945, according to “Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Plunges into Minnesota.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Why would we want to “forget” that?\u00a0 For starters, it was a fact – the war left Minnesota’s farms drastically short of labor.<\/p>\n

Beyond that?\u00a0 It was a huge success.\u00a0 The father of a German friend of mine from college had a father who was captured during the war, and spent time at a camp near New Ulm.\u00a0 The treatment he received at the hands of his captors convinced him that the American way was the right one.\u00a0 Steven Ambrose in Citizen Soldiers <\/em>mentions other German Kriegsgefangene <\/em>who, after spending time “incarcerated” in the New Ulm area (where many people spoke and still speak German), decided to immigrate.\u00a0 It’s exactly the sort of thing Michael Yon talks about<\/a> as America’s greatest strength in the global war of ideas.<\/p>\n

Forget it?\u00a0 We oughtta celebrate it.<\/p>\n

Of course, one person’s “thing to forget” is another person’s “reason to celebrate”, I suppose:<\/p>\n

1984<\/strong>
\nNov. 6 \u2014 Democratic presidential candidate Walter Mondale of Minnesota loses 49 states, and the election, to Ronald Reagan.<\/p>\n

\"Walter<\/p>\n
Courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society<\/span>Walter Mondale and Geraldine Ferraro campaigning in 1984.<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I always save a few extra fireworks for election day, just to celebrate the landslide.\u00a0 But I guess I can see why the MinnPost doesn’t.<\/p>\n

And there’s this other one that pops up several times:<\/p>\n

1865<\/strong>
\nBy the end of the Civil War, 1,800 Minnesotans lose their lives in the war between the North and the South.<\/p>\n

1918<\/strong>
\n2,716 Minnesotans lose their lives in World War I by its end in 1918.<\/p>\n

1945<\/strong>
\nBy the end of World War II, 6,278 Minnesotans lose their lives serving in the war effort.<\/p>\n

1953 \u00a0 <\/strong>
\nBy the end of the Korean War, 688 Minnesotans have died in the fighting.<\/p>\n

1975<\/strong>
\nBy the end of the Vietnam War, 1,072 Minnesotans lose their lives.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Nah.\u00a0 Not forgetting anything.<\/p>\n

Of course, some things unite Minnesotans across most divides:<\/p>\n

1919<\/strong>
\nMinnesota Congressman Andrew Volstead fashions legislation, called the Volstead Act, to criminalize booze. He is later tossed out of office and spends years heading prohibition enforcement for the Midwest out of offices in what is now Landmark Center in St. Paul. The Women’s Christian Temperance Union built a monument to him in Rice Park, which for some reason has disappeared.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Atomizer?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The MinnPost, in observance of Minnesota’s 150th birthday, is compiling a list of Minnesota events they’d just as soon forget. And some of them, to be honest, make me wonder.\u00a0 I mean, I know, I know – you don’t dare insult anyone’s patriotism, yadda yadda – but: 1943 The Minnesota Legislature asks the federal government […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-midwest","category-history-and-its-making"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2810\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}