Possum Philosophy: The inspiration of history

By ROBERT CAHILL/Columnist

Writing a column is not as easy as it may look, especially when you’ve been doing it weekly for several years. Sometimes there just isn’t much interesting going on about which you wish to have your opinion known. Sometimes you may feel like you’ve covered almost every single idea you’ve had for a column. But, the worst case scenario is the proverbial “writer’s block.” This is a genuinely real malady. Unfortunately, when I started this particular column, I was struck down by this very difficulty.
It usually goes like this. You have something about which you wish to write, maybe even a number of different topics. You sit down at the keyboard, make yourself comfortable, sign in or whatever procedure is required, look at the monitor and—nothing. You may start a paragraph get a few words or even a sentence or two down, and that’s it.
You decide, “Well, this wasn’t that interesting anyway.” You hit delete, then start another subject. Maybe you get a few words down and—nothing. I have on rare occasions gone through four or even five starts with nothing. It is extremely frustrating.
You see when a writer is really in the “zone,” words roll like spring water, cool, smooth and easy. As Jerry Reed said in his hit song, “When you’re hot, you’re hot.” When everything is going good, the problem is not getting started, it is stopping. When it’s working as it should, you have to cut stuff out to keep from running too long. Sadly, when “writer’s block” strikes, none of that happens. As Reed also said in the same song, “When you’re not—you’re not.”
Different writers have different methods for coping with this. Some say just walk away. In other words, get away from your desk for awhile and do something else. However, when you have stared at a blank or almost so screen until deadline time that isn’t a viable option.
Some try something much like meditation, wherein they relax, close their eyes and try to empty their minds to make room for new thoughts. This doesn’t work really well for me either. A few minutes of eyes-closed, mind-cleared relaxation and I am straight into a nap. Now a good nap can be refreshing and provide a fresh start, but again with time running out that won’t work either. Writer’s block is something each writer must work out on his own.
Although no one thing works for me each and every time, I have found something that generally works and can actually provide the fodder for a fairly interesting piece. I hit the Internet. Usually I pull up one or two of the news sites. These are updated constantly, so I check to see if anything interesting or exciting has happened since my writing struggles began.
If there is nothing there that catches my eye, I have a site I can almost always depend on to provide something interesting. Being a history buff, I usually drop in on the Web site, http://www.History.com. This site has several categories of historical data. One of my favorites is a section called This Day in History. On this site one can type in a date (such as Aug. 9) and learn numerous interesting events that took place that day. For example, this column will appear in the Smyth County News & Messenger on Aug. 9, 2008. Want to know what if anything interesting happened on that date? I surely hope you do.
Aug. 9, 1862 was the date of a rare occasion in the Civil War. Confederate General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson made a serious miscalculation. Jackson had been sent to northern Virginia by Gen. Robert E. Lee, who was becoming concerned about a growing Yankee presence in that region of Virginia. Jackson came upon Union troops at Cedar Mountain. Although Jackson’s troops had the Union troops heavily outmanned, his miscalculation in battle that day nearly brought him a major defeat and only the arrival of more Confederate troops later in the day helped him avoid a serious downfall. Such an event was rare for Jackson who was one of Lee’s top commanders and military strategists.
As this is an Olympics year, I found this bit of Olympics history interesting. In 1936, Germany, already under the rule of Adolph Hitler and his Nazi Party, hosted the XI Olympiad. Hitler hoped to politicize the games. He planned on his hand-picked German athletes dominating the games and proving the Nazi theory of Aryan Superiority. The German team which far exceeded other nations’ teams in size (with 348 athletes) did win the most medals overall.
However, thanks to Jesse Owens (and 16 other African American athletes), things didn’t go quite so well for old Adolph. Owens won four gold medals that year and was the star of the Olympics in all the media of the day. His last medal came on Aug. 9, 1936. According to History.com, “African American track star Jesse Owens wins his fourth gold medal of the Games in the 4x100-meter relay. His relay team set a new world record of 39.8 seconds, which held for 20 years. In their strong showing in track-and-field events at the XIth Olympiad, Jesse Owens and other African American athletes struck a propaganda blow against Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, who planned to use the Berlin Games as a showcase of supposed Aryan superiority.”
On Aug. 9, 1969, one of the most infamous crimes in our country’s history took place. It was on that date that followers of cult leader Charles Manson slaughtered five people at the home of movie director, Roman Polanski. Among those killed was Polanski’s wife, actress Sharon Tate, who was pregnant at the time. The group killed a husband and wife two days later in the same manner.
Manson, a White Supremacist (much like the Nazis), planned the murders to try and convince the public that they had been committed by “black radicals” in hopes that he and his followers could instigate a “race war.” In my considered opinion, having followed the news and events of the Manson trial, this was perhaps the craziest group of people it was ever this country’s misfortune to have come together at one time.
Doubtlessly, the most historically significant event of Aug. 9 to date is in the realm of governance. It was on this date in 1974 that Gerald R. Ford was sworn in as President of the United States. Ford’s presidency was unique in several aspects. He was the first person to be sworn in as President due to his predecessor’s resignation. He was also the first non-elected vice president (later president) as he replaced Spiro Agnew who resigned in 1973.
According to Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia (http://www.wikipedia.org), Agnew had been under investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s office in Baltimore, Maryland. He was accused of tax evasion, bribery, extortion and conspiracy to commit these crimes. Authorities formally charged the vice president in October of 1973, with having accepted bribes of over $100,000, while holding office as Baltimore county executive, governor of Maryland, and vice oresident of the United States. Agnew was finally allowed to plead no contest to a single charge that he had failed to report $29,500 of income received in 1967, with the condition that he resign the office of vice president).
So there you have it, some of the more interesting and at one time newsworthy events in history that took place on Aug. 9. The next time you get bored, and have nothing better to do, pick a date, your birthday, an anniversary or just a date at random and look up historical events on that date. You will probably be surprised and quite interested by what you find.

A freelance journalist, Robert “Rocky” Cahill writes regularly for the News & Messenger. His Possum Philosophy column appears in each Saturday edition.