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It’s the End of the World As We Know It, And I LOL’d

August 11, 2026 by Barky

Minuteman Missile National Historic Site, near Philip, South Dakota

On the plains of South Dakota, just off Exit 127 on I-90, north of Badlands National Park, sits a building whose most flattering description would include the words “tan” and “bland”. The only thing vaguely interesting about it are the satellite dishes in the yard and the chain-link fence with “Restricted Area” in a barely-readable font. You might be surprised by its purpose, but probably not, because the only reason you’d even be on this empty road, avoiding the occasional pronghorn antelope, would be to visit the Delta-01 control facility for the 66th Strategic Missile Squadron, 44th Missile Wing. This is one of many places that had a very simple task: be prepared to end the world. You’d expect visitors to such a place would be met with a sense of fear, or perhaps awe, or maybe a little megalomania.

I found it hilarious.

Finger of Death

Highly-trained personnel lived in this oversized, vinyl-sided, ranch house, trained to turn two keys, in tandem, in order to launch Minuteman II missiles, each with 6,300 mile range, and topped with a 1.2 megaton (at least) warhead. These death machines were part of a “countervalue” attack strategy: designed to eliminate 30% of the population, and 50% of the industry, of the U.S.S.R. The term we used was “mutually assured destruction”, a truly horrific concept.

Yet, still, I found it hilarious.

There are multiple reasons for this, including the possibility that I’m simply a sick son of a bitch. It could also be that the entire concept is ludicrous: two world powers spent billions of dollars convincing the other that we’d blow you to hell if you try to blow us to hell. Yeah, let’s do that, instead of trying to figure out how to get along, or simply letting each other do our own thing. Well, at least we’d all be in hell together, I suppose. Maybe then we’d get along, amongst the brimstone, sulfur, and endless HOA meetings.

Behold the Three-Phase Toaster!

There’s some psychology at work here. People can respond to unfathomable terror in at least two ways: cower in fear, or laugh at the inanity of it all. It’s not just a coping mechanism, but it also helps in problem solving. If one can laugh at something, it diminishes the magnitude, allowing one to redirect the energy eaten up by stress to the analytical part of the brain. Of course, as we’ve seen by the state of our political discourse, the analytical part of the brain is a rarely-used resource. There’s no doubt as to why we were never able to resolve our Cold War differences.

Our tour guide at Minuteman NHS leaned into the hilarity, pointing out the cathode-ray tube computer displays; analog rotary-dial telephones; the collection of 70’s boardgames to help airmen fight boredom; an armored vehicle — looking more like a torture device than a truck (a clear inspiration for Elon Musk) — for patrolling missile sites; and the rusty Weber grill and charred coffee can used to burn paper cypher keys, all considered “historical artifacts” by the National Park Service. I lived through the 70’s & 80’s, the idea that any of it comprises a “historical era” is hilarious by itself. The only things missing are the avocado green bathroom fixtures ….

Satellite TV and a Prototype Death Trap Cybertruck

All joking aside, it is frustrating that we lived through those years of nuclear testing, duck-and-cover drills, shoe-banging U.N. speeches, state-sponsored coups, and proxy wars, all for nothing. We still have madmen at the helms of the largest world powers, we’re still arguing with each other instead of working together, we’re still not stepping out from behind our own patriotic flag-waving and media-fueled rage to look and see that most of our differences are simply tropes used to manipulate public opinion.

Yet, regardless of any of that, we still have our ability to laugh at the inanity of it all, and redirect our energy to solving the problem. If only we would.

Guaranteed

[AI was not used to research or write any part of this essay. Pictures are mine and thusly copyrighted].

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Links:

Minuteman Missile National Historic Site

Timeline of the Cold War

Comedy in Combat Culture

Google map to Minuteman Missile

Flickr page

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Liberty, Patriotism, and the Minutemen Bowling League

June 22, 2026 by Barky

Minuteman National Historical Park, Lexington & Concord, Massachusetts

I was eleven years old for America’s bicentennial in 1976. That’s an incredibly impressionable age, and the festivities left a significant mark on me that lasted my whole life. I remember the Tall Ship parades in New York and Boston harbors; the bicentennial parade in Washington; and the general feeling of pride and patriotism across the nation. A field trip took us to see “1776” in our local cinema, and being good Massachusetts boys & girls, we applauded when William Daniels as John Adams rose to sign the Declaration during the final, climactic moment. I even lobbied to rename our candlepin bowling team to “Minutemen”, although I was heavily outvoted (being the worst bowler in the entire league didn’t give me any cred).

The Battle of Lexington and Concord reached mythic levels in my home state, the “shot heard ‘round the world” even hit Schoolhouse Rock. For natives, it’s second only to the Battle of Bunker Hill, which is actually the Battle of Breed’s Hill (if anyone from Massachusetts fails to correct this in conversation, they might be an extraterrestrial). What they might not correct, for many still misunderstand, is who the famed Minutemen actually were.

Ancient Massachusetts

The great misconception is the Minutemen were a ragtag bunch of citizen soldiers. That does them a great injustice. First of all, many of these men were veterans of the French & Indian War (aka the Seven Years’ War in European parlance). They knew how to fight, knew how to respond quickly to tense situations, and (being on the receiving end many a time), understood guerrilla tactics. They continually trained in their home towns, keeping their muskets ever at the ready. They were also readying for conflict with the British regulars, having established many caches of weapons and ammo throughout New England. Meanwhile, the British Regulars (the “Redcoats”) weren’t as seasoned. The European theater of the Seven Year’s War took a significant toll on the British army, most Regulars serving in North America were new recruits, or even victims of impressment. They had little, if any, personal commitment to the causes of Britain, especially regarding a foreign land across an ocean. The Minutemen, however, knew the stakes.

The Colonials weren’t just sparring over Stamp Acts and Intolerable Acts and tea parties, there was another existential threat hovering out there, driving them towards rebellion. Another British colony, fully subjugated, treated it’s citizenry as no better than serfs. No property rights, the results of their labor exported to the mother country, and beset with near-famine conditions that took nearly 400,000 lives in the 18th century. Ben Franklin learned of the conditions in Ireland, and made it his mission to inform everyone in the Colonies of those travesties.

Doolittle Engraving Plate III: The Engagement at the North Bridge in Concord (1775, New York Public Library Digital Collections)

Franklin’s missives did not sit well in Massachusetts: with its shipbuilding and mercantile industries, it was the wealthiest colony per capita. Most of the population were property owners, owning the land on which they farmed, and keeping or selling the fruit of their labors as they saw fit. These Minutemen, therefore, had everything to lose if King George had his way. It’s no surprise that when the word spread to the surrounding towns and farms that the Redcoats were on the move, 4,000 Minutemen showed up to defend the town of Concord. Thousands more were on their way, from the western counties as well as neighboring Connecticut and Rhode Island. New Englanders were dead serious about defending their rights, that’s for damned sure.

With stories like that, it’s no surprise this Massachusetts boy would grow up with a strong sense of patriotism. I’ve held onto the presumed American ideals as best as anyone can into adulthood. The principles of liberty, freedom, equality, perseverance, and the continual effort to make things better for all have been more important in my life than anything I picked up in parochial school. I have to admit, though, the events of the past ten years are straining these principles, and draining that sense of patriotism.

Lexington Monument

It’s been said that a country is only as good as its people, and in a democracy, that’s doubly, or even trebly, so. We can complain about the process, or the back-room dealings limiting our choices, or the oligarchs using their financial abundance to hold their thumb on the scale, but in the end, we still have choices, quite likely the most choice any people has ever had in determining their country’s direction in all of human history. Yet what did we do with this power of choice? Elect a twice-impeached, four-times-indicted former president; whose first term was the most corrupt administration of the modern era; who inspired a riot in Washington, D.C., where his followers attacked police officers with flagpoles and smeared their shit on the walls of the Capital.

The Minutemen marshaled to fight for their freedom and keep their families out of serfdom. Two hundred and fifty years later, MAGA fights for the “right” to strip jobs from minorities under an “anti-woke” agenda; to strip the right to control their own person from millions of women; and for masked men to beat up immigrants and shoot protestors dead in the streets. Oh the difference a couple of centuries makes ….

The Struggle at Concord Bridge (copy of engraving by W.J. Edwards after Alonzo Chappel, circa 1859. National Archives.)

Recently, I’ve felt some of my patriotism returning. I’ve been reminded the last election was won by a plurality of votes, not a majority, that provides a wee bit of comfort. Current presidential approval ratings are in the toilet, the worst of any president at this stage of their presidency since modern polling began. This is mostly because of the economy, of course, and not any of those high-fallutin’ concepts of “liberty”, but I’ll take it as a win. Cracks are certainly showing in the MAGA coalition, with some senators even showing some backbone by pushing back on the $1.8B MAGA slush fund. Maybe these are signs Congress might return to doing their fundamental check-and-balance duties.

I guess there’s some hope out there. Slim, I suppose, but better than none. I’ll take it.

[Sadly, I did not have a digital camera when I visited Minute Man National Historical Park. Pictures posted are not mine]

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Links:

Minute Man National Historical Park: https://www.nps.gov/mima/index.htm

1976 Boston Parade of Sail: https://youtu.be/1opx0W_PbBQ

“Sit Down, John!”: https://youtu.be/dYDxyIzPe98

Bliain an Áir, the Irish Famine of 1740-41: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Famine_(1740%E2%80%931741)

Lexington and Concord: The Battle Heard Round the World, George C. Daughan, 2018: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B073VX9CP1

The Exotic Mysteries of Candlepin Bowling: https://www.thesportofbowling.com/blog/candlepin-bowling/

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Let Her Works Praise Her

May 3, 2026 by Barky

Mary McLeod Bethune Council House National Historic Site, Washington, DC

In 1936, nearly 80% of Black voters cast their ballots for Franklin Delano Roosevelt. This represented a massive shift in the electorate: in 1932, Herbert Hoover won the majority, but four years later (thanks to Roosevelt’s popular social programs), they voted Democrat in a major way. Partly as a reward, and partly as an acknowledgement that even his programs weren’t addressing Black poverty as well as they could, he created the Federal Council on Negro Affairs, also known as the Black Cabinet, with Mary McLeod Bethune at the helm.

Born in 1875 in Mayesville, South Carolina, Mary Jane McLeod was one of seventeen(!) children of former slaves Sam and Patsy McLeod. She had a very typical childhood for second-generation ex-slaves: recipient of derogatory remarks from former slaveowners; witness of White mob violence against Blacks on thinly fabricated charges; and observant of the reality that Black communities had less material wealth and opportunity than their White counterparts. Always interested in educating herself, she attended seminary from the ages of 13 to 19, initially intending to become a Presyterian missionary in Africa, but eventually fated to serve her own countrymen. Mary McLeod — later Mary McLeod Bethune when she married Albertus Bethune — taught Black children for several years, eventually starting her own school, the Educational and Industrial Training School for Negro Girls, in Daytona Beach in 1904. She charged 50 cents for tuition, and raised more money selling sweet potato pie and ice cream to local workers. She eventually bought land from an adjacent dump, upon which she built Faith Hall, and over two years, enrollment increased from five to 250 girls.

Mary McLeod Bethune with a group of students in 1943
By Gordon Parks – image is available from the United States Library of Congress’s Prints and Photographs division

She learned from Booker T. Washington the importance of gaining support from White benefactors. In the process, she came to know several, like James Gamble (of Procter & Gamble), Ransom Olds (of Oldsmobile fame), and John D. Rockefeller. By far, however, her relationship with Eleanor Roosevelt was most beneficial. By 1923, with the help of these and other supporters, she merged the school with another Black institution to form what was eventually named Bethune-Cookman College (still in operation as the private Bethune-Cookman University).

As if running a college wasn’t enough, she tackled inequities in health care. Daytona Beach did not contain a single hospital that would take Black patients, regardless of the situation. After a close call with one student’s appendicitis, she was determined to build a hospital herself. She raised money to build a cabin near her school, opening the McLeod Hospital. It started with two beds, and eventually twenty. Black and White doctors worked there, along with student nurses from the school. Many Black lives were saved in the twenty years it operated, including the year of the 1918 flu epidemic. She also worked to open up library access, and was appointed as the only Black member of Daytona Beach’s housing board, successfully pushing for public housing. There was hardly an issue in racist Daytona that she didn’t personally work to resolve.

She didn’t stop there, of course. She joined the Equal Suffrage League, pushing for voting equality. Once the 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote, she worked to gain improved access for Black women voters. She raised money to pay poll taxes, tutoring for literacy tests, and mass voter registration drives. Despite threats from the KKK, she served as president of the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs; the organization eventually set up their headquarters on 1318 Vermont Ave in Washington, DC. Republican presidents Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover appointed her to positions regarding child health and welfare.

Bethune and Roosevelt (National Park Service photo)

I could go on and on about all her projects and appointments, but her biggest was quite likely being the Director of Negro Affairs for the National Youth Administration under Roosevelt’s WPA, she therefore became the first Black woman to lead a federal agency. She then became the nominal head of Roosevelt’s Black Cabinet, recruiting many of the members herself. This agency, formally called the Federal Council of Negro Affairs, was an advisory board to Roosevelt during the Depression. She also, of course, advocated for civil rights across the entire country; her words after the Brown v. Board of Education ruling (making school segregation illegal), still resound today:

“There can be no divided democracy, no class government, no half-free county, under the constitution. Therefore, there can be no discrimination, no segregation, no separation of some citizens from the rights which belong to all. … We are on our way. But these are frontiers that we must conquer. … We must gain full equality in education … in the franchise … in economic opportunity, and full equality in the abundance of life.“

I would wager that you, as I did before I visited the national historic site in Washington, DC, never even heard of Mary McLeod Bethune. It feels like that’s a real travesty, yet another failure of our public school system. She deserves better.

FDR wasn’t the perfect ally of Black America: he never supported a poll tax ban, nor did he make lynching a federal offense, nor did he desegregate the military. But in the long line of civil rights baby steps, the creation of the Black Cabinet and the appointment of Bethune were important ones. As for Mary McLeod Bethune herself, she always took anything but baby steps. If she were alive today, I’m sure she’d be appalled at the nation’s current backsliding on minority rights, and I’m certain she would be doing something about it.

Let Her Works Praise Her

[I did not have a digital camera when I visited Mary McLeod Bethune Council House National Historic Site. Pictures are not mine and no ownership is claimed.]

Links:

Mary McLeod Bethune Council House National Historic Site

The Role of FDR’s Black Cabinet

Bethune-Cookman University

Google Map link

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Maggie L Walker National Historic Site, Richmond, Virginia

January 5, 2025 by Barky

Grit, Savvy, and Determination

Maggie Walker was quite the character. 

In 1878, teenaged Maggie joined the Independent Order of St. Luke in Baltimore, a benevolent organization that tended to the sick and aged, and promoted humanitarian causes. By 1899, she was leading the organization to increased membership and financial solvency, with chapters spreading across the country, all while maintaining its core mission.

In 1903, she founded the St Luke Penny Savings Bank. The goal was to provide an institution for saving and lending for use by the underclass, served so little by traditional banks. She later served as chairman of the board for the Consolidated Bank and Trust Company, when Penny Savings merged with two other Richmond-area banks.

What’s most remarkable about Maggie Walker’s ambition and success wasn’t that she was a women in the business world in a Southern state at the dawn of the 20th Century. It’s that she was a Black woman in the business world in a Southern state at the dawn of the 20th Century. This is the Jim Crow era, and even if it was during a lull in Ku Klux Klan activity, it was still not a great time and place to be a Black man in the business world, much less a Black woman.

Maggie L Walker

Maggie Walker succeeded in the way most successful African-American businesspeople did in that era: she provided services to her own. The St Luke Penny Savings Bank served the Black community in Richmond, providing a safe place for savings, fair transactions, and financing for a variety of businesses endeavors. If the greater business community wouldn’t give them a fair shake, they would make their own fair shake. The Richmond African-American business community thrived due to their collective grit, savvy & determination.

This happened all across the country: New York City, Washington, Oakland, Tulsa, even Birmingham, Alabama. Richmond was known as “The Harlem of the South”, and the Jackson Ward area, which includes Maggie L. Walker’s home (protected by the National Park Service) and other landmarks (like the Hippodrome Theater). It’s a cool place to visit.

MLW National Historic Site

Tales of the Forgotten

I recently read A Black Women’s History of the United States by Daina Ramey Berry and Kali Nicole Gross. It recounts the struggle of Black women from the earliest days of colonialism. Isabel de Olvera came to the Americas so early, in fact, she was actually a free person. In 1600, she petitioned local officials in Mexico for affirmation of her rights. She was suspicious, and rightly so, that she would be subject to violence or captivity whilst on an expedition to New Spain. She demanded an affidavit proclaiming her status as a free person. The remaining 400 or so years has been a continuation of those demands, clearly with mixed results.

A Black Women’s History covers this entire era, from 1594, when a person described only as a “mulatto woman” made her way to present-day Kansas as part of the Francisco Leyva de Bonilla expedition (where they were all likely killed by the local Kitikiti’sh people) to Shirley Chisholm’s run for President in 1972. I shouldn’t have to say the history of Black women has been fraught with sadness, but it’s also full of grit, savvy, determination, and especially courage.

The worst part of it all, though, is the history of Black women is also full of forgetfulness, or, more accurately, inconsideration. Frankly, nobody cared, and nobody documented. Sure, figures like Rosa Parks and Harriet Tubman get their due, but beyond that, how many famous African-American women can you name (outside of entertainment figures like Oprah Winfrey or Billy Holiday)? Fortunately, A Black Women’s History is here to introduce us to many.

This is not just a collection of stories, however. The authors also describe the chain of oppression formed from the links of womanhood. Imagine a world where your own personal freedom defined the freedom of your children, where your own progeny could not have their escape because you were guaranteed to not have yours. Yet that’s what the colonial — and later national — policy of partus sequitur ventrem (‘that which is born follows the womb’) meant. Imagine being a mother and learning you’re pregnant under such a system.

If you have a fondness for American history, I suggest you add A Black Women’s History to your reading list. Otherwise, you’re missing a part of the story.

[I visited Maggie L Walker NHS before I had a digital camera. Pictures here are courtesy of the National Park Service.]

Links:

Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site

9 Historic Black Neighborhoods That Celebrate Black Excellence

The Story of the Chitlin’ Circuit’s Great Performers

A Black Women’s History of the United States (Amazon)

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