Another first....

A prominent member of the community, (Tyrell county) Col. Edward Buncombe acted as Justice of the Peace and commander of the local militia regiment. When the Revolutionary War began to threaten Buncombe hosted a meeting between John Harvey, Samuel Johnston, and Buncombe. The three men agreed to call an assembly in defiance of the royal governor. This was the first such illegal assembly in the American colonies.

Born in the Caribbean to wealthy parents and educated in England, he came to America when his uncle died and left him an estate.

Colonel Buncombe then joined the colonial militia, where he was "appointed a colonel of that branch of the service on the 9th of September, 1775, by the Provincial Congress at Hillsboro."

On April 17, 1776, Colonel Buncombe was transferred from the militia to the Continental Line, or regulars, and served as a colonel in the Fifth North Carolina Regiment. The Fifth North Carolina Regiment left in November of 1776 to join General Washington's troops, but before they reached Washington the troop was ordered to march to St. Augustine instead. However, their orders were changed again, and the regiment stayed near Charleston, South Carolina for the winter of 1776-77.

In March of 1777, the regiment was again ordered to join Washington. This time their orders were not changed, and they arrived at Washington's headquarters in Middlebrook, "where they were joyfully greeted by their compatriots with 'a salutation of thirteen cannon, each fired thirteen times.'" (1905. Ashe, Samuel. A Biographical History of North Carolina. Vol. I. p. 198).

On September 11, 1777, Colonel Buncombe's regiment was involved in the Battle of Brandywine. They also fought at the Battle of Germantown shortly afterward on October 4. This battle was Colonel Buncombe's last. "In the course of that action he was shot down and left for dead on the field. Being recognized by a British officer who had been his schoolmate in England, he was removed to Philadelphia (then occupied by the British) and paroled within the city limits. Here his condition began to improve, but owing to a fall while walking in his sleep (he being given to somnambulism), his wound opened afresh and he bled to death. This was in the middle of the month of May, 1778."

I think it is interesting to note that the urge for liberty emerges from people with some means like Col. Edward Buncombe. The pattern appearing is that the poor and oppressed have more to deal with than planning a revolution which is why poor and oppressed people exist to this day. Sometimes when you are stuck in the mud, you have to have assistance to stand back up on your own feet just to find health and subsidence.

Then what happens? The elite continue and the poor become less poor... or the elite are destroyed by avenging poor and the poor come under totalitarian government ....or the poor become middle class and regulate the elite which may be the best or... Well, I surely don't know.
And what if the "poor" aren't really poor, just different. Example, the Native americans of the 1700s.

And yesterday I discovered the Masai of Africa being driven from their lands in the same way by "an award-winning US eco-tourism company, Thomson Family Adventures" .

My brother went on safari to visit the Masai last year. I'm sure he did not understand the stresses they are under. And all that is created by an ecotourism business.

I used pictures of the Masai in a presentation to Nissan in 2004 because Red was not in the color palette and I felt it needed to come back. Heritage Red I called it because every culture has something brillant to intrigue us.

I just did not know what was happening to them. But, I believe it is probably important to recognise that.

If the poor and oppressed people left in Africa are pushed aside to make room in the great continent for the wealthy of the world in the name of preservation or recreation and ecology, have we really created something of value? Is this not the very same attitude of the British government in the 1700s, that the vast American continent was to exist just to send raw materials back to Europe?

Africa is HUGE and this is not shown completely by maps because of the problems fitting our round globe on a flat map. There is certainly potential there, but it should not lose its uniqueness. Let's not let happen the same mistakes in Africa we saw in North America.

And on the other side of the coin, the problems women face around the world in certain cultures are intolerable. Just as there are parts of white American culture we try to quietly avoid today because of the inhumane portrayal of black Americans because it is discouraging to children, there are parts of other cultures that oppress women which are also discouraging and at times deadly. I see the point that some aspects of a culture don't deserve to be celebrated or remembered.

Gee, it's just all hard. This is too much for a holiday. Have a good one. Hug your children and be thankful.