FORWARD, MARCH!!!

By Edwin Cooney

Okay, make of this what you will! Every day of every month of every year is transitional, but to me, there’s something special about the month of March. Up until 1752, March 25th was the first day of the New Year in the British colonies – and that, of course, included us. In 1751, the government of King George II subtracted eleven days from the calendar and made New Year’s Day on January 1, 1752 instead of on March 25, 1752.

What’s so attractive to me about March is that it seems that so many world transitioning leaders have been born in March or have conducted transitional events during the month. Let’s take a chronological trip through March from the 1st to the 31st rather than by year.

On Thursday, March 1st, 1945, FDR sat in his wheelchair before the 79th Congress and reported on his recent trip to the Yalta Conference with Churchill and Stalin. It was his last speech before that body thus ending the New Deal era in American history.

On Sunday, March 2nd, 1931, Mikhail Gorbachev, the leader who brought Russia and its fifteen other republics out of Communism, was born in the Soviet state of Georgia.

On Wednesday, March 4th, 1801, Thomas Jefferson became the first president to be inaugurated in Washington, D.C.

On Saturday, March 4th, 1933, FDR was the last president to be inaugurated on the fourth of March. His inauguration, the first of four for the people’s aristocratic patrician president, ushered in “The New Deal,” bringing about a new relationship between the government and the people.

On Thursday, March 5th, 1953, Joseph Stalin, perhaps historically the most notorious practitioner of brutal repression, died near Moscow thus ending the darkest era in Soviet history.

On Sunday, March 7th, 1965, “Bloody Sunday,” John Lewis of SNCC (The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) and the Rev. Hosea Williams of SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference) guided about six hundred people across the Edmund Pettus Bridge just east of Selma. Dallas County Sheriff Jim Clark led local law enforcement officials who successfully blocked civil rights advocates on their first attempt to march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.

On Tuesday, March 9th, 1965, the second march from Selma to Montgomery was also halted by Sheriff Jim Clark and the Rev. James Reeb was beaten to death.

On Wednesday, March 12th, 1947, President Harry Truman ushered in a new era in foreign policy by asking Congress to provide aid to starving people and nations otherwise threatened by anarchy or Communism.

On Thursday, March 12th, 1970, President Richard Nixon signed legislation lowering the voting age from 21 to 18.

On Sunday, March 15th, 1767, President Andrew Jackson, the president many historians credit with largely democratizing American politics, was born in the Waxhaws Region which straddles the border between North and South Carolina.

On Monday, March 15th, 1965, President Lyndon Baines Johnson in one of his most eloquent speeches delivered his Voting Rights address before the 89th Congress.

On Tuesday, March 16th, 1751 (or Friday, March 5th, 1751 using the “old style” date), James Madison, father of the American Constitution, was born at Port Conway, Virginia of King George County.

On March 17th, St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated annually to honor the life of the man who brought Christianity to Ireland.

On Sunday, March 21st, 1965, the third and ultimately successful march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama began.

On Thursday, March 25th, 1965, civil rights leaders brought their grievances to the steps of the state capitol at Montgomery, Alabama.

On Thursday, March 26th, 1979, President Jimmy Carter, Egyptian President Anwar El Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin signed an Israeli/Egyptian Peace Treaty in Washington D.C. to bring to an end 30 years of war between the two states.

On Sunday, March 31st, 1968, President Lyndon Baines Johnson announced at the end of an address on Vietnam that he would not seek or accept renomination as President of the United States of America. Many historians mark that announcement as the close of “the old politics” and the beginning of “the new politics!”

Aside from significant dates, the month of March brings Spring to northern latitudes and Fall to southern latitudes between the 19th and the 21st. March is the month Christians often celebrate the resurrection of Christ. The “Ides of March” (March 15th) marks the murder of Julius Caesar by Brutus and Cassius. Here in the United States, March marks the beginning of spring training for professional baseball and the close of the college basketball season, “March Madness,” a tournament that includes 68 top college teams.

Since everyday is the first day of the rest of all our lives, you may legitimately argue that what you’ve just read is a lot of fluff -- and I wouldn’t argue too vigorously with you. Still, March, which was once primarily known as the month named after Martus, the Roman God of War, has “come a long way baby!”

As for this particular piece of writing, you may, if you like, legitimately paraphrase the cowboy, who said, after being shown all of the fancy “doo-dads” at the Neiman Marcus Department Store in Dallas, Texas:

“I ain’t never in my life read so much information I could do without!”

My only defense is that I had a hell-of-a-good time giving it to you.

Oh, one more thing: “company, halt!” Who says I never give the reader a break?

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY