Memorial

Ok, here's my weird 9/11 moment. I took a shortcut through downtown Kennesaw, GA to avoid some traffic today. Kennesaw's main claim to fame is as the town where gun ownership is mandatory, but it's not really enforced. The town is actually your everyday suburb more known for the Mall than for guns.

The downtown area focuses on their Civil War history to bring in the tourists. The commissioner is named after the battle there where his father lost a leg fighting for the Union army. The most interesting event to happen during the war in Big Shanty as it was called at the time was the Great Locomotive Chase. The General, a Confederate locomotive, was swiped by Union spies who ran to Chattanooga, tearing up the track all the way. The event is memorialized by a Civil War and Locomotive museum in Kennesaw (as well as a fantastic Buster Keaton film) where the train was first hijacked. The museum has typical civil war relics and features the actual restored General as a centerpiece.

So I'm passing the museum and I look up and see a flag flying at half mast. I do a double take and then realize what day it is. Ok, understandable. I can see why the flag is flying at half mast today. Here's the surreal part: The flag I saw at half mast was a Confederate flag. Never forget, indeed.


Also, watching Orlando Hernandez get shelled while wearing an FDNY cap was pretty surreal as well, but I'm not complaining.