The Buffalodown, Vol. 3, Issue 8
Stories & Events for Social Connection
- Memorial Day, BTPM State of the Stations
- Musings on Music: Here come the free summer concerts!
- Featured Events: 21 this issue, always encouraging submissions!
- Links to the Deep End: I-Post, BTPM NPR & PBS, Buffalo Rising, TechXY
Thank you for your attention!
Please forward this to kindred souls, and subscribe here if you haven’t yet!
Hoping everyone has a meaningful Memorial Day. Ironically, this hope I offer each year for a “meaningful Memorial Day” is exactly how historian Heather Cox Richardson closed her latest edition of “Letters from an American,” which I read as one way to pay respect to the ultimate sacrifice made by some 360,000 Union soldiers in the Civil War, which inspired the creation of this holiday in 1868, originally called Decoration Day.
Richardson noted that what is now Arlington National Cemetery was built around what had been the home of leading traitor Robert E. Lee. She wrote: “The National Republican newspaper called it, along with the establishment of a village of formerly enslaved Americans, ‘righteous uses of the estate of the rebel General Lee.’
“By August 1864 the government had buried the bodies of twenty-six U.S. soldiers around the perimeter of Mrs. Lee’s rose garden, and it continued to bury bodies around the house to make sure Lee would never again be able to live there. By the end of the war, more than 16,000 Civil War soldiers were buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
“It was there, on May 30, 1868, that the first official Memorial Day ceremony took place. In those days the observance was called ‘Decoration Day’ and was widely celebrated after the war as people put flowers on the graves of the war dead. At the 1868 event, the newly organized Grand Army of the Republic honored the occasion with a speech by then-congressman James Garfield, who had served as a major general and seen action across the war, including at the battles of Shiloh and Chickamauga.
“Garfield, who would later be elected president and lose his life to an assassin, told his comrades that the men buried at Arlington had ‘summed up and perfected, by one supreme act, the highest virtues of men and citizens. For love of country they accepted death, and thus…made immortal their patriotism and their virtue.’
“They had fought, he said, to defend the fundamental principle of the United States. Before the war, Garfield said, ‘[t]he faith of our people in the stability and permanence of their institutions was like their faith in the eternal course of nature. Peace, liberty, and personal security were blessings as common and universal as sunshine and showers and fruitful seasons; and all sprang from a single source, the old American principle that all owe due submission and obedience to the lawfully expressed will of the majority. This is not one of the doctrines of our political system—it is the system itself. It is our political firmament, in which all other truths are set, as stars in Heaven…. Against this principle the whole weight of the rebellion was thrown. Its overthrow would have brought…ruin.’”
Another way to pay respects on Memorial Day is to visit and support the Buffalo & Erie County Naval & Military Park on our Inner Harbor.
Beyond reflection, another way to honor those who gave their lives for love of our country is to defend our freedoms when and where they’re under attack, such as the ongoing assaults from the current federal administration on the freedoms enshrined in the First Amendment of our Constitution. From the defunding of public media, to the pressuring of corporate media into canceling programs that air criticism of the administration, to the investigations and threatening of the legal status of certain nonprofit organizations and much more, our freedom of speech is in grave danger.
This is why I’ve increased my monthly giving to Buffalo Toronto Public Media, and why I’ll be tuning in this Wednesday to their second installment of the “State of the Stations” discussion this Wednesday, May 27th, at 7:30pm on BTPM PBS, BTPM NPR, BTPM Classical and the BTPM YouTube channel. In a mass email, they wrote: “BTPM has sought new and diverse revenue sources since losing $2.2 million in federal funding. Hosted by John Di Sciullo from WBBZ-TV, hear from the organization’s key decision-makers about the present and future status of your public media stations.
“This critical conversation will expand on the most important issues facing BTPM and how the organization will remain sustainable, as well as share the first few steps of what comes next.
Key Points:
- What is at stake
- What the future holds
- How BTPM will remain sustainable with ongoing federal funding cuts that significantly affect its annual budget”
As media reporter Alan Pergament noted in The Buffalo News, BTPM has delayed implementation of major format changes announced recently (You needn’t be a subscriber to read the article through that link, since BN is now providing “gift links” for subscribers to share articles with non-subscribers, as I’ve been doing here with articles from The New York Times), which upon the initial announcement left myself and many in my orbit confused – I brought my confusion to them directly and was referred to the FAQ about the announcement and to stay tuned for a campaign over the coming months. I’ll be tuning in on Wednesday in search of clarity, confidence in the future of the stations, and ways to support this essential community service beyond sustaining membership.
If you have a burning issue to bring to BTPM leaders, you can visit this link.
Become a paying member to support social connection!
Musings on Music
Here come the free summer concerts!
I’ll leave below the lineups for free summer concerts in Larkin Square that I shared in the previous edition along with reflections on my role in booking them – these events start next week!
And in the time since the previous edition, more free summer concert series lineups have been announced – see below and please let me know if I’m missing any more in Buffalo! I’ll be including individual concerts in upcoming event listings.
Props to all involved in presenting these free events – we’re fortunate to be offered such an abundance of live music at no cost, especially outdoors over the summer.
Become a member to help us present and promote more music!
Upcoming Events
Thanks to all who’ve submitted their events! Click the flyers for more info!
Welcoming submissions with a flyer and link to seamus@reconnecter.org.
Kindred calendars:
Choose Your Own Adventure (CYOA)
Become a member to help us promote community events!
Links to the Deep End
- Among the latest from Investigative Post are From a prison cell to an unlicensed boarding house, Feds tried to deport Tibetan migrant to Uganda, Under Trump, courts stacked against immigrants, and “Acting time” and the $6 million settlement with firefighter’s widow. I recommend subscribing to their two weekly newsletters for these and much more.
- Another gift link for those who aren’t subscribed to The Buffalo News – reporter Jonathan Epstein is covering the turmoil around the Ralph Wilson Foundation’s stewardship of the Ralph Wilson Park Conservancy and other nonprofits it supports. As a former(?) ambassador for the conservancy – I question that status since haven’t received any direct communication about any of this from current conservancy or foundation reps – I remain troubled by this instability beneath such a brilliant opportunity for our city to have a wonderfully inclusive waterfront park, as well as the ongoing dependance of so many local nonprofits on a foundation whose leadership is treating them in the ways described in the article.
- While I’m concerned about the acquisition of Vox Media by James Murdoch – the youngest son of Fox News founder Rupert – this was preceded by an episode of their their often excellent Today, Explained podcast breaking down “The Supreme Court’s greeymaxxing” in the wake of the court’s inflammatory gutting of the Voting Rights Act.
- A gift link to The New York Times for their continued coverage of the tragic case of Nurul Amin Shah Alam, the refugee-turned-Buffalonian who died here in February after being left out in the cold barefoot by agents of the Border Patrol, after being incarcerated for a year here in legal limbo. Written by NYT reporter Dan Berry, with photographs by Reconnecter subscriber Brendan Bannon including one below of Nurul’s wife Fatimah and youngest song Yassin. May they find peace after we achieve justice in Nurul’s honor.
Thank YOU for reading this far and being part of it all – extra thanks to everyone supporting this work with a membership at www.reconnecter.org!
Please share with friends to sign up for the next Buffalodown, and reach out with any feedback, all ideas welcome!
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