A year or two ago, I listed to an audio book called “The Battle of Shiloh: Personal Recollections from Generals to Privates.” What struck me most, oddly, came in the last few minutes. Describing a reunion taking place nearly a half century after the epic battle, two former soldiers, one from each side, gave the closing speeches at the Sunday service:

After many a joke and story of the battle, the people adjourned to the church for services, the church being filled.

General Basil Duke, one of the Shiloh Park Commissioners, gave a fine address, giving his experience in the Battle of Shiloh where he was wounded. He was in Morgan’s command of the Confederate Army. Among other things, he said, “We fought in the Civil War for the cause we thought was right. We believed the rights given to us under the Constitution were being taken away from us.And you must admit that our love for our homes and property is as dear to us of the South as it is to you of the North.The people of the North believed that to divide the United States would destroy this nation. Time has proved under the providence of God that the judgement of the North was correct.For had we succeeded in establishing the Confederate States of America, no doubt later on other states would have felt aggrieved on some question and would have seceded and in time, had our cause won, this nation would have been divided into a great many small principalities governing themselves. Now the issues for the will of this great nation are as dear to us of the South as you of the North. General Duke closed his address by saying that, “we all rejoice at the fraternal feelings now existing between the North and the South and hope that ever these bonds of love and goodwill between us may grow and cement us together, stronger and stronger. And we shall continue to prosper and enjoy the rights and privileges of this great nation.”

W. F. Crummer of Chicago Illinois, on behalf of the boys in blue and their friends responded, contrasting the scenes of forty seven years ago with those of today. He said in part, “It was a beautiful Sabbath morning, April 6th, 1862. The birds were singing among the trees, and nature was putting forth her verdure of green when suddenly the boom of cannon, the shrieking of shells and the rattle of musketry heralded the beginning of one of the most terrible battles of the Civil War. I will not take the time to relate all my experiences of that battle, but simply say this: that when on Monday evening, we had regained our camp, we found a few Sibly tents all riddles with shot and shell and while you ex-Confederates here had possession of our camp, you took my knapsack, my blanket, the Testament my mother gave me, which I hope you read and profited thereby. You are welcome to that. But one thing you took made me feel badly and that was the picture of the girl I left behind. And I am here today to ask you to return that picture. The scene of that awful field of carnage and bloodshed changes, Today, after forty seven years have rolled by, the birds are singing in the trees and nature is putting forth its green as then. And all is peaceful. And instead of cannons and bullets greeting us, you meet us with open hands and extend to us a cordial greeting and your boundless hospitality. Our hearts are moved and we thank you most heartily. We rejoice with you that today we know no North or South or East or West, but one country reunited country with one flag and one nation, the grandest nation on the Earth. We trust that we shall always remain a happy and prosperous people, both North and South working together for the good of the entire country. …”

I find it interesting that those who actually witnessed the spilling of blood, including their own, were able to come together afterwards. But with the Southern Strategy, Nixon was able to dredge up the vestiges of “Lost Cause” mythos and its accompanying racism to achieve the phenomenal success of duping the victims of economic attack into supporting the same economic attack by covering it in a veneer of “States’ Rights” along with a gentle wink and nudge and whispered reference to “those people.”

An Asian acquaintance recently mentioned the appalling lack of Asian representation in polls regarding race. My first thought was that that is terrible. But next, I wondered why “mixed race” is an option in so few government forms. This, despite the explosion in “mixed race” citizens that has occurred in each of the last two places I have lived. For that matter, I know that my last previous home and current home (Hawaii and New Mexico) are both non-majority-white states. I’m interested in finding out more on these statistics, but the Census Bureau doesn’t seem particularly interested in this growing trend. Odd.

Twitter is interesting in that most of it is mindless garbage. Occasionally, however, I add to the festering pile. A selection of my recent contributions:

• There’s a reason most people are loath to leave their children unattended around gun nuts.
• Ronald Reagan died for your sins. Repent, liberal!
• At press conferences, sartorial choices are far worse than, say, using disproven reports as justification to invade a country.
• If a corporation is a person and it possesses a fundamental inability to feel empathy or remorse, isn’t it a psychopath?
• In my state, ‘alleged manhandling’ isn’t a ‘summary execution’ offense.
• If Obama had a pretend ranch, RWNJs would call him a poser and not a real cowboy like terrified-of-horses Bush Jr.
• If the computer evolved from the calculator, why are there still cash registers?
• I thought the armed wing of the John Birch Society called themselves the “Tea Party.”
• The human brain only uses 10% of it gullibility inhibitor.
• It sounds like the Socialist Takers don’t even want the US to become a tax-free capitalist paradise like Somalia.
• It’s telling that only three of the last three US Presidents are known to have smoked pot.
• Tea Party 1773: “No taxation without representation!” Teap Party 2009: ” No taxation if the guy I voted for lost!”

And, regarding the inexplicably “hero-to-anti-government-loons” pile of excrement Snowden:

• I’m so old I remember when stealing secret documents and absconding to Russia was considered espionage.

I remember a word for people who require a mere 140 characters to express themselves, but what was it?

Oh, right. Simpletons.

Perhaps I have reached old-fuddy-duddy-hood. Or perhaps being on the downward slope on the “years remaining” hill has altered my view on these things. I spent several hours yesterday evening attempting to purchase some software. As is often the case these days, one must create an account. To create an account, enter a value in each box. An appropriate value (say, “John” for “First Name”) will result in a green check mark next to said box. Alternatively, a red “X” indicates an error. So once each box has a green check mark, you hit the “Create Account” button.

Each of the first several dozen attempts (not exaggerating) resulted in the message: “There was an error in creating your account. Please try again.”

Really. That was the extent of the message. Randomly iterating through combinations of several email accounts, varying passwords such that each meets the stated standards, and changing Username each time, I eventually succeeded. This was after no less than 30 attempts. Actually, the number may have been closer to one hundred, as it took me from about seven at night to probably eleven.

I then spent time last night and this afternoon into the evening downloading the software. Apparently, the fact that many people get IP addresses dynamically is a secret to the developers, since each new IP address triggers an anti-fraud protection. This requires typing a code received by email. So I had to retrieve a new passcode from an email address I never use each time I was spontaneously kicked during the download process.

This morning, I attempted to continue the process, but the log in page showed that the servers were all down.

So this afternoon, I finished the process in a mere three hours. When the download finally completed, I hit the “Play” button.

A cinematic appeared. Actually, half a cinematic appeared. My monitor showed a lovely animation in the upper left hand portion. The bottom right hand portion of the screen, however, was black. A line from the top right corner to the bottom right corner separated the visible animation from a black screen. I imagine that was not intentional. After the cinematic played (or half played), a log in screen appeared. This came despite the fact that I had arrived at this screen from a place that had already required the user to be logged in.

Attempting to log in prompted the message that there was no account associated with the email address and password I had used (that I never wanted to use in the first place). After submitting a support ticket, I received a response stating that I had not done some additional step about which I had never been informed. Assuming this instruction was among the 18 emails I have received so far, I don’t care. I decided that the level of effort required was beyond what I was willing to put in.

I asked for a refund.