Fierce

So, 'fierce' is today's word, it seems. In one of my favorite books, Irving Stone's Those Who Love [an historical novel about the lives of John & Abigail Adams], I remember being touched by the story of Dr. Joseph Warren. He was a widower with 4 children, a passionate member of the Sons of Liberty, and the Adamses' family physician. He died on this day in 1775. at the Battle of Bunker Hill. Reserve troops were posted there that day. All night, the night before, patriot warriors were digging entrenchments for the battle next day, the fierce [truly, it had to have been] and bloody, hot, loud, miserable battle that occurred, primarily, on nearby Breed's Hill, north of Boston, on this day in 1775. Here is a handsome place at which you can read more about that tragic 17th of June: www.theamericanrevolution.org/battledetail.aspx?battle=5

According to Wikipedia, our present from the French people showed up at New York harbor on this day in 1885. Not everybody was entirely grateful for a so-called 'Statue of Liberty' especially as there wasn't any money in the budget for a pedestal for her to stand on. It seems to me that I remember from Ken Burns' splendid, splendid documentary about the S. of L. that Joseph Pulitzer, the publisher, organized a terrific fund-raiser for a pedestal. I could be wrong. I have been - often! And on this day in 1932 [exactly a year before there was a fierce shoot-out not far from here, at Kansas City's Union Station - http://www.fbi.gov/libref/historic/famcases/floyd/floyd.htm], a Bonus Army of out-of-work, down & out WWI vets + their dear ones massed around the U.S. Capitol. Do go to this amazing, brilliant site and read this heartbreaking chapter in our nation's history. A fierce species we are, seems to me, in every sense of the word. ... http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/snprelief4.htm Bonus Marchers