Thread by @BrooksDSimpson

Although I did not watch the #SHEAR2020 plenary live, my Twitter feed alerted me to a vibrant discussion about it.

I did watch parts of it until it was taken down.

There are a lot of questions to be answered. Let me raise a few that haven't been so extensively discussed.

Whether or not one wants to classify Andrew Jackson as a military hero, there is little doubt that his exploits in uniform against Native Americans, the British at New Orleans, and his invasion of Florida gave him a high profile.

There were other military notables: Winfield Scott and Oliver Hazard Perry ... and Old Tippicanoe himself, William Henry Harrison and ichard M. Johnson. In the case of Jackson, Harrison, and Johnson, a large part of that reputation was made fighting indigenous peoples.

So it's interesting to think about what made someone a "hero" at this time.

Dan Feller (the "hero" of the hour, according to much commentary about #SHEAR2020), strenuously objected to the use of the word "slaughtered" regarding the Battle of New Orleans. He seemed to think it implied some sort of war crime, whereas Jackson was just doing his job.

I remember thinking that this seemed to make a great deal out of very little and was perhaps a little too defensive, but that Feller was showing us that he was well aware of the implications of words people used.

In light of other events at the plenary, that was ironic.