Since sunset last night, and until sunset tonight, is Eid-ul Adha, one of the major feasts of the Islamic calendar. There are no Saints to honor today, but on this date in 1775 the Battle of Bunker Hill took place during the Siege of Boston early in the American Revolutionary War.
In the lunar Islamic calendar Eid al-Adha falls on the 10th day of Dhu al-Hijjah and lasts for four days. In the international Gregorian calendar, the dates vary from year to year, drifting approximately eleven days earlier each year. Islamic tradition holds that after Abraham had dreams in which he was ordered to slay his son Ishmael, he consulted his son, who unhesitatingly agreed that his father should follow his dreams. When Abraham attempted to cut his son’s throat upon the altar, he found that a ram had been substituted for his son. Abraham had shown that his love for God superseded all others: that he would lay down his own life or the lives of those dearest to him in submission to God’s command. God then rewarded him by announcing the birth of his second son, Isaac. Muslims commemorate this ultimate act of sacrifice every year during Eid al-Adha by sacrificing their best halal animals. The sacrificed animals have to meet certain age and quality standards or else the animal is considered an unacceptable sacrifice. This tradition accounts for more than one hundred million animals slaughtered during the Eid, with some ten million being sacrificed in Pakistan. (For those wondering, I use the calendar provided by the Fiqh Council of North America (FCNA); if I am off by one day or so, forgive me.). On June 13th, 1775, the leaders of the colonial forces besieging Boston learned that General Thomas Gage was planning to send troops out from the city to occupy the unoccupied hills surrounding the city. In response to this intelligence, some twelve hundred colonial troops under the command of William Prescott stealthily occupied Bunker Hill and Breed’s Hill, constructed an earthen redoubt on Breed’s Hill, and built lightly fortified lines across most of the Charlestown Peninsula. When the British were alerted to the presence of the new position the next day, they mounted an attack against the colonials. After two assaults on the colonial lines were repulsed with significant British casualties, the British finally captured the positions on Breed’s Hill on the third assault, after the defenders in the redoubt ran out of ammunition. The colonial forces retreated to Cambridge over Bunker Hill, suffering their most significant losses on Bunker Hill. While the result was a victory for the British, they suffered a large amount of losses: over eight hundred wounded and two hundred and twenty-six killed, including a notably large number of officers. The battle is seen as an example of a Pyrrhic victory; while their immediate objective (the capture of Bunker Hill) was achieved, the loss of nearly a third of their forces did not significantly alter the state of siege. Meanwhile colonial forces were able to retreat and regroup in good order having suffered few casualties. Furthermore, the battle demonstrated that relatively inexperienced colonial forces were willing and able to stand up to regular army troops in a pitched battle. The first Bunker Hill Monument was erected in 1794 on the site where most of the fighting took place. On June 17th, 1825, the fiftieth anniversary of the battle, the cornerstone of the current monument was laid by the Marquis de Lafayette and an address was delivered by Daniel Webster. (When Lafayette died in 1834, he was buried next to his wife at the Cimetière de Picpus in Paris under soil from Bunker Hill, which his son Georges Washington de La Fayette sprinkled over him.) The capstone was laid on July 23rd, 1842 with the monument being dedicated on June 17th of the following year, again with a Daniel Webster oration. The Bunker Hill Monument Association maintained the monument and grounds until 1919, when it was turned over to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The monument was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1961, in part for its architectural significance as a major early war memorial, and as the nation’s largest-scale memorial prior to the construction of the Washington Monument. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1966, In 1976 the monument was transferred to the National Park Service and became a unit of Boston National Historical Park. and was included in the Monument Square Historic District in 1987 – and the monument is, of course, on Breed’s Hill.
Last night I continued reading The Leper of Saint Giles by Ellis Peters.
Richard fed the cats, went to drink coffee, and came home. I did not wake up until 9:00 am. I did my Book Devotional Reading, ate my breakfast toast and read the Acadiana Advocate out on the porch, and did my Internet Devotional Reading. I then started my bread, and at intervals I continued reading Islam: A Short History by Karen Armstrong. Once I finished my bread, I left the house at 2:15 pm, picked up one of my prescriptions at Walmart Pharmacy, and got household items and groceries at Walmart. I arrived home at 3:00 pm. I wrapped up my bread for the freezer, we watched Jeopardy!, and I gathered up the trash and Richard wheeled the trash bin out to the curb. We watched News, and for dinner we ate Three Cheese Spinach Shells with garlic bread, and watched Murdoch Mysteries S17E22 “Why is Everybody Singing?” (2024) and Northern Exposure S4E19 “Family Feud” (1993). And I will now finish this Daily Update, do some reading, and go to bed.
We have no Saints to honor today, but on tomorrow’s date in 1812 An Act Declaring War between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the Dependencies Thereof and the United States of America and Their Territories was passed by the United States Congress and signed by United States President James Madison, thereby beginning the War of 1812. Depending on how hard it might rain, I will water and shower the plants. I will, though, replace the solution in the hummingbird feeders. Aside from that I have nothing planned.
Our Parting Quote this Monday evening comes to us from Clementa Carlos Pinckney, American minister and legislator (died 2015). Born in 1973 in Beaufort, South Carolina, his mother named him in honor of the baseball player Roberto Clemente of the Pittsburgh Pirates, and his first name was thus pronounced “Clemen-tay”. His father was an auto mechanic, and may have been descended from the slaves owned by Charles Cotesworth Pinckney (died 1825), and his mother was an early childhood development educator. His mother’s family had a long history of providing pastors for the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AMEC). Pinckney began preaching at his church at age thirteen, was elected class president for two years in high school, and, by age eighteen, he was appointed pastor. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Allen University in 1995 and went on to obtain a Master of Public Administration degree from the University of South Carolina in 1999. Pinckney was first elected to the South Carolina General Assembly in 1996 at the age of twenty-three, becoming the youngest African American elected as a South Carolina state legislator. He served in the South Carolina House of Representatives until being elected to the South Carolina Senate in 2000. He married in 1999 and had two daughters. Pinckney was a Democrat and was a member of the South Carolina Legislative Black Caucus. Pinckney represented Allendale, Beaufort, Charleston, Colleton, Hampton, and Jasper Counties in South Carolina. He then received a Master of Divinity degree from Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary. Pinckney preached in Beaufort, Charleston, and Columbia. He became pastor of Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2010. As a state senator, Pinckney pushed for laws to require police and other law enforcement officials to wear body cameras after Walter Scott, an unarmed black man, was shot eight times in the back by a police officer in North Charleston on April 4th, 2015. In April 2015, Pinckney gave an impassioned speech on the topic at the South Carolina Senate, citing the fact that national news had come to North Charleston because of the video tape of the incident. By June 2015 he was a senior pastor at Mother Emanuel A.M.E. in Charleston, and was pursuing a Doctor of Ministry degree at Wesley Theological Seminary. On June 17th, 2015 he campaigned with Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in Charleston. That evening, he led a Bible study and prayer session at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, where he was senior pastor. A young white man came in, asked for Pinckney, and sat down next to him, initially listening to others during the study. He started to disagree with the others when they began discussing Scripture. Eventually, after waiting for the other participants to begin praying, the young man stood up, pulled a gun from a fanny pack, and began shooting, killing eight of the twelve people (not counting himself) in the room, reloading five times, shouting racial epithets, and killing Pinckney. While the FBI investigated the mass shooting as a hate crime, many others considered the attack a racially motivated act of terrorism, and criticized law enforcement and the media for not labeling it as such. On June 24th, 2015, there was a public viewing of Pinckney’s casket in the rotunda lobby of the State Capitol Senate Chamber where Pinckney served in the South Carolina legislature, and where his body lay in state. Public viewings were held at St. John AME Church in Ridgeland, South Carolina, and Mother Emanuel in Charleston, South Carolina. A funeral was held on June 26th, 2015, at the College of Charleston in TD Arena, which was filled up to maximum capacity, necessitating a viewing center with a video feed at the Charleston Museum. President Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, and Jill Biden, among many other politicians and public figures, attended the funeral, with Obama giving the eulogy. During the eulogy, Obama sang the opening stanza of “Amazing Grace”, which was later sampled in the Coldplay song “Kaleidoscope”. In June 2015, the family of Pinckney established the Clementa C. Pinckney Foundation to support poor families in the South Carolina Lowcountry region. In July 2015, the South Carolina Legislature enacted legislation to take down the Confederate flag flying in front of the South Carolina State House and move it to the Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum (the shooter had previously posed in front of and posted images of a similar flag on his website). Pinckney’s widow attended the legislative session during the final vote to thank her husband’s colleagues for their support. On January 11th, 2017 the shooter was sentenced to death by lethal injection after being convicted on thirty-three Federal counts, and on April 10th, 2017, the shooter was sentenced to nine consecutive sentences of life without parole after formally pleading guilty to state murder charges (died 2015): “I see everything I do as an extension of the ministry. It’s all about service.”
From The Recamier 