Patriot Realm

" We need to preserve wild spaces. Outside in the environment, but also within ourselves. The opposite of control isn’t chaos, it is reality" 

I read this quote recently and it got me pondering. 

What a profoundly wonderful piece of truth.

When our lives are controlled, we are meaningless. We drift from task to task, seemingly blind in achieving our objective which, ultimately, is to stay ahead of the Boss Hogs, Weasels, and Snakes. 

The Battle of Long Tan took place on August 18, 1966, in the Phuoc Tuy Province of South Vietnam. It was part of Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War as part of its commitment to the United States' efforts to counter the spread of communism in Southeast Asia. The region's dense jungles, muddy terrain, and unpredictable weather added to the complexity of the conflict. The Australian soldiers were part of the 6th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, and were led by Major Harry Smith.

On that fateful day, a small Australian company of 108 men  - 105 Australians and 3 New Zealanders - found themselves vastly outnumbered by a determined North Vietnamese force estimated to be around 2,500 strong. The Australians were based at a rubber plantation in Long Tan, surrounded by thick vegetation that hindered visibility and movement. The North Vietnamese launched an intense assault, employing small arms, mortars, and artillery fire.

I publish this piece as a tribute to all of the modest men and women who reach their own summit ... that of surmounting the challenge to raise a family, survive the avalanche of MSM and governmental indoctrination and rise triumphant at the sunset hours and say, as Sir Edmund Hillary said " What a fortunate man I have been. " 

To be able to say, as he said, " I have had much good fortune, a fair amount of success and a share of sorrow, too. Ever since I reached the summit of Everest … the media have classified me as a hero, but I have always recognised myself as being a person of modest abilities. My achievements have resulted from a goodly share of imagination and plenty of energy." 

In many respects, to live a life well and know that we have scaled metaphoric mountains to arrive at the pinnacle of our personal mountain, is no small feat. Many have survived war. Too many have survived hardship. Hunger. Homelessness and or helplessness. 

And you know what? We can all stand tall and know that a life worth living is a life worth having lived well. 

The Panama Canal officially opened on 15 August 1914. This date marked the completion of the canal's construction and the first successful transit of a vessel, the SS Ancon, which had been acquired by the Panama Railroad Company to haul freight, through the entire length of the canal, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

The Panama Canal stands as one of the most remarkable engineering achievements in human history, a testament to our ability to conquer nature's barriers and connect distant parts of the globe. 

However, it took a railroad to build the canal. 

The length of the Panama Canal from shoreline to shoreline is about 40 miles (65 km) and from deep water in the Atlantic (more specifically, the Caribbean Sea) to deep water in the Pacific about 50 miles (82 km). It shaved 8,000 miles or about 20,000 km off the Cape Horn route through much safer waters, and it was an immediate hit with the world's shippers at the dawn of the First World War.

The Panama Railroad played a crucial role in facilitating the construction of the Panama Canal. It provided essential transportation infrastructure that supported the movement of people, equipment, and supplies needed for the monumental task of building the canal.

For thousands of years, a diagnosis of leprosy meant a life sentence of social isolation. People afflicted with the condition now known as Hansen’s disease were typically taken from their families, treated with prejudice and cruelly exiled into a lifetime of quarantine.