Bro. David Barrett, Civil War historian, passes away

A brother Georgia Freemason died on Friday.

I never met him. I'd never even heard of him. I'm sorry I didn't know him. It sounds like he was an interesting man.

Bro. David Barrett, 69, was well-known by thousands of metro Atlanta school children as "Soldier Man."

Called a "walking Civil War history lesson," Bro. Barrett spoke at elementary and middle schools throughout the area, and taught at the Gwinnett History Museum's Civil War Camp.

"He was interested in teaching them about the common life of the soldier," said his wife, Brenda Barrett. "He portrayed both sides. Lots of times he would do a Confederate soldier, then switch right over and do federal."

Bro. Barrett was a retired plumber. He was a member of Clarkston Masonic Lodge No. 492.

For the past 25 years, he had taken part in numerous Civil War re-enactments.

And now, just as we all will one day become, he is one of The Passersby on the road home.

Image: Bro. David Barrett

Masons | David Barrett | American Civil War | Freemasonry | Grand Lodge of Georgia | Burning Taper | BurningTaper.com

Preacher offended by Hooker Street's name

Say you're the minister of a tiny Lutheran church in a small town in a state few can even recall the capital of. How do you get your name not only in the local paper, but picked up by the news networks and have it published and broadcast all over the country?

For Rev. David J. Baer of Whitewood, South Dakota, the answer came to him as if a message from God.

Complain to the town council about the name of a street, and demand the name be changed.

"Hooker Street doesn't quite lend itself to a family atmosphere and is offensive to some residents in the town of about 800 people, according to Baer," news sites across the world proclaimed today.

The street was named for Gen. Joseph "Fighting Joe" Hooker, a Union general during the American Civil War.

Even changing the name to "General Joseph Hooker Street" wouldn't satisfy the reverend, the article says.

The article doesn't actually go into why the word "hooker" bothers Baer so much. Hooker, of course, is another word for prostitute.

Perhaps he fears the street will become a red light district, or maybe Baer just believes the myth that Gen. Hooker is the etymological source of the slang term hooker for prostitute. Dictionary.com dispels this story thusly:

In his Personal Memoirs Ulysses S. Grant described Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker as "a dangerous man... not subordinate to his superiors." Hooker had his faults. He may indeed have been insubordinate; he was undoubtedly an erratic leader. But "Fighting Joe" Hooker is often accused of one thing he certainly did not do: he did not give his name to prostitutes. According to a popular story, the men under Hooker's command during the Civil War were a particularly wild bunch, and would spend much of their time in brothels when on leave. For this reason, as the story goes, prostitutes came to be known as hookers. However attractive this theory may be, it cannot be true. The word hooker with the sense "prostitute" is already recorded before the Civil War. As early as 1845 it is found in North Carolina, as reported in Norman Ellsworth Eliason's Tarheel Talk; an Historical Study of the English Language in North Carolina to 1860, published in 1956. It also appears in the second edition of John Russell Bartlett's Dictionary of Americanisms, published in 1859, where it is defined as "a strumpet, a sailor's trull." Etymologically, it is most likely that hooker is simply "one who hooks." The term portrays a prostitute as a person who "hooks, or snares, clients."

While just 35 miles away in Rapid City, an 18-year old man is charged with brutally raping a 3-year old boy, Rev. David "Family Values" Baer is using his pulpit to demand the town protect its 800 residents from being offended by a man's last name. I think he's got his priorities a little, uh, screwed up. There are those who obviously could have used some ministerial services nearby.

What's next for Baer (whose own last name is both an anagram and a homonym — uh oh... homo!? — of "bare," which means "naked")?

Rumor has it the next windmill he tilts with will be the nearby state of Idaho, which is, as is so blatantly obvious as to offend even me, Ebonics for "I am a whore."

Image: The Red Light district in Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Whitewood, South Dakota | Joseph Hooker | Rev. David J. Baer | Offensive | Christians | Burning Taper | BurningTaper.com

Friend to friend: Freemasonry lives in the heart

Two Masonic articles, both about lecturers, hit my radar screen this morning.

The first began with a probable crackpot, Bill, who gives weekly talks on how Freemasons rule the world. His proof? The eye in the pyramid on the dollar bill.

To my relief, Bill's story isn't what the article is really about. It's about power and money and American politics, about how corporations funnel through "campaign contributions" just enough money to "underpaid" politicians to get them elected, who then grant favors to the corporations. This is nothing we don't already know, but it's interesting to read about it from the point of view of someone writing a blog in Singapore.

So... if some of the CEO's of the Fortune 500 happen to also be "high level" Freemasons, then I guess you could technically say, "Freemasons rule the world!"

The second article is about Dr. Kendall Wilson, who will give a talk titled "Freemasonry During the Civil War — How Each Affected the Other," on Saturday, May 19, 2007, in the auditorium of the Greenbrier Valley Campus of the New River Community & Technical College in Lewisburg, West Virginia as part of the Battle of Lewisburg Living History and Reenactment, May 18-20, 2007.

We've probably all heard that during the Civil War, Freemasons from the North and the South laid down their weapons on occasion to sit in lodge together, then went out the next day and continued to try to kill each other.

The article relates a story of brotherly love on the battlefield, quoting an uncited Justin Lowe:

As the battle (Gettysburg) waned, it became clear that Armistead's injuries were fatal. Knowing that his old friend was somewhere behind the Union lines, Armistead exhibited the Masonic sign of distress. This was seen by Captain Henry Harrison Bingham, the Judge-Advocate of Hancock's Second Corps (Chartiers Lodge #297, Canonsburg, Pa.). He came to the fallen Armistead, and declared that he was a fellow Mason.

The two men spoke for a time, and when Armistead realized that Bingham had direct access to Hancock, he entrusted some of his personal effects to him. Among them were his Masonic watch, the Bible upon which he had taken his obligations, and a number of other items. Bingham said his farewells, and then returned to the Union camp to deliver the items.

Armistead died two days later.

The fact that Armistead chose to use the Masonic sign of distress signified that his war was over, and that there was another, more pressing matter on his mind, even on the field at Gettysburg. What could lead one of the highest ranking and most intelligent officers in the Confederacy to lay aside all of the ideology of the war and call for a brother of the Craft from the other side?

In a world where civility is woefully lacking, among profanes and Masons alike, this story is a reminder of what Freemasonry is about: Brotherly love of and between all God's children. We should all take a lesson here.

Masons | Politics | Civil War | Freemasonry | Battle of Gettysburg | Burning Taper | BurningTaper.com