THINGS ARE BAD !!

And the case of Gerard P. Stuckey.

One hears the constant refrain in the USA today - like the ceaseless chirping of crickets - of how terribly BAD things are. “We’ve never seen anything like this.” “The USA may not survive this president.” “How did things get this bad?” “Everyone is so filled with ANXIETY.”

All true insofar as it goes … but also 100% historically ill-informed and void of context; both quintessentially American characteristics.

Newsflash: Things have ALWAYS been this bad.

You simply weren’t on the receiving end. Insofar as you are now - actually or potentially - THAT is why they seem bad to you.

Case in point: Gerard P. Stucky

On this day in 1918 (Apr. 14), Gerard P. Stucky died at Camp Funston in Fort Riley, Kansas.

Born on Oct. 30, 1892, Gerard was 25 years old and a Mennonite conscientious objector during WWI.

(Note: His name is spelled "Gerard" on his draft card, on his grave stone, and in his obituary, but many locals refer to him as "Gerhard.")

Gerard was born near Moundridge, Kansas, to Jacob L. and Elizabeth (Goering) Stucky, into a family of 10 boys (8 surviving).

Benjamin L. (1877-1933)
Valentine A. (1880-1977)
John D. (1883-1960)
Daniel J. (1887-1861)
Christian L. (1890-1977)
--Gerard P. (1892-1918)
Bernard J. (1892-1960) (Gerard's twin)
Jonas L. (1896-1980)

The Stucky family was part of the Hoffnungsfeld (Hopefield) Mennonite Church. When the church split in 1895, the family went with the group that became Eden Mennonite Church.

Gerard registered for the draft in June 1917, claiming exemption because he was a Mennonite. He reported to Camp Funston in August of that year. Oral history suggests that Gerard took a firm pacifist stance, refusing to wear a military uniform or cooperate with any orders. One account says that as punishment he was chained in a pit in the ground and subjected to a steady drip of cold water on his head for long periods of time.

COs endured solitary confinement, starvation diets of bread and water, painful stress positions, physical and psychological abuse, and inadequate healthcare. When the 1918 influenza pandemic spread across the country, the weak and malnourished prisoners were especially vulnerable.

Gerard's obituary reports that he contracted measles in March 1918 and recovered with treatment. By the next month, he came down with pneumonia and returned to the base hospital, where he died before his family could visit him.

Gerard's brother, Valentine, reported in an oral interview that the army sent Gerard's body home dressed in a military uniform with a flag draped over the coffin. "We didn't like that too much."

Gerard is buried in the Hoffnungsfeld (Hopefield) cemetery west of Moundridge, Kansas. His name is also included in a list of WWI veterans on a memorial located in McPherson, Kansas.

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This is history as it is.

There are SO MANY other cases that may be cited; 250 years of Black chattel slavery replete with rape, whippings, lynching, burning alive, and murder-by-cop; the Mexican-American War (1846-1848); the Sand Creek Massacre and 400 plus years of the genocidal slaughter, land theft, rape, torture, removal, and cultural erasure of Native American (First Nations) people; the Red Scare; the McCarthy Hearings and Black Lists; the School of the Americas and the slaughter of Guatemalan people; WMD and the butchery of a half million innocents in Iraq; the FULL funding and now the enforced support of the ethnic cleansing and slaughter of the people of Palestine.

And the beat goes on.

NONE of this is anything new.

Rule by insane sociopathic mad-men is nothing new. Injustice is nothing new. Betrayal is nothing new - remember the case of Thomas Paine. The USA has abandoned the Geneva Conventions that we ourselves wrote; we TORTURE people now and brag about it. Welcome to reality. Now … GROW UP. And get ready.

Self Portrait With A Phrygian Cap - by Anne Louis Girodet De Roussy Trioson By Anne Louis Girodet De Roussy Trioson (1767 – 1824).

Source of the Gerard P. Stucky story:

Written by Jason Miller for the Newton (Kansas) MMS page: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1687JwSevU/

~Find A Grave: www.findagrave.com/memorial/91576741/gerard-p-stucky

~"The Eden Peace Witness: A Collection of Personal Accounts," edited by Jeffery W. Koller

~McPherson Daily Republican, Apr. 17, 1918

~McPherson Weekly Republican, Apr. 26, 1918