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Richard G. Scott

Richard Gordon Scott (November 7, 1928 – September 22, 2015) was an American scientist and religious leader who served as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church).

Scott was born in Idaho in 1928 and grew up in Washington, D.C. He attended George Washington University as an undergraduate, graduating in 1950 with a B.S. degree in mechanical engineering. He then served a full-time LDS mission in Uruguay from 1950 to 1953, achieving fluency in Spanish. Upon his return in 1953, Scott married Jeanene Watkins, his college girlfriend and the daughter of U.S. Senator Arthur Watkins, and began working as a nuclear engineer for Naval Reactors under the leadership of Admiral Hyman Rickover. Scott worked for the U.S. government until 1965, when the LDS Church selected him to serve as a mission president in Argentina. He completed his service in 1968 and returned to Washington, D.C., where he worked for a private nuclear engineering consulting firm. Scott's scientific career ended in 1977 when the LDS Church called him to serve as a general authority. Following the death of Marion G. Romney in 1988, Scott was chosen to fill the subsequent vacancy in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and served in that position until his death in 2015.

Background and education
Scott was born in Pocatello, Idaho, to Kenneth Leroy Scott and Mary Eliza Whittle. When he was five years old, the family moved to Washington, D.C., where his father worked in the U.S. Department of Agriculture. His father was not a member of the LDS Church at the time, and his mother was marginally active, until the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture in the Eisenhower administration, church apostle Ezra Taft Benson, named Kenneth Scott as Assistant Secretary of Agriculture. Benson's influence led to his father's conversion and the reactivation of his mother. In 1988, as church president, Benson appointed Richard as a church apostle.

Encouraged by his bishop and home teachers, Scott had attended church sporadically at times during his youth but felt out of place. He lacked confidence socially and athletically at school, although he excelled academically, was a class president, played the clarinet in the band, and was a drum major in the marching band.

During his high school summers, Scott worked various jobs to earn money for college. Working on an oyster boat off the coast of Long Island, New York, during one summer, the hardened fishermen mocked him for not drinking alcohol. When a man went overboard and 17-year-old "Scotty" was the only sober man on board, he was sent overboard to look for him. In other summers, Scott cut down trees in Utah for the forest service and repaired railroad cars; he also worked as a dishwasher and assistant cook for a logging company in Utah.

Scott graduated from George Washington University with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering. At the time, he was dating Jeanene Watkins, the daughter of U.S. Senator Arthur V. Watkins. When she categorically stated that she would only marry a returned missionary in an LDS temple, Scott's career plans changed and he applied for missionary service. He was called to serve in the Uruguay Montevideo Mission. It was during his missionary service that Scott was able to fill "all the voids of loneliness" he had felt since his youth. Jeanene graduated in sociology and left the day after graduation for a mission to the northwestern United States. After they both completed their missionary service, they married in the Manti Temple on July 16, 1953.

The Scotts had seven children, five of whom reached adulthood. Their first son died after an operation to correct a congenital heart condition. Their second daughter lived only minutes and died six weeks before the death of their first son. Jeanene Watkins Scott died on May 15, 1995, after a short battle with cancer.

Career
A few weeks after returning from Uruguay, Scott was interviewed by Hyman G. Rickover, "father of the nuclear Navy". The interview seemed to go poorly since, when Scott mentioned his recent missionary service, the volatile Captain snapped, "and what do I care about your mission?" When asked what was the last book he read, Scott had to answer truthfully that it was the Book of Mormon. When all seemed lost to Scott, he stood to leave, but Rickover told him to wait, saying that he had only been testing his confidence and whether he would be true to what he believed, since this would be a difficult project. Scott was then offered the job working on the design of the nuclear reactor for the Nautilus, the first nuclear-powered submarine of the U.S. Navy. While working for Naval Reactors, Scott reported to Harry Mandil, reactor engineering branch director and became one of Mandil's key reactor material engineers. Scott later completed what was an equivalent to a doctorate in nuclear engineering at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, but due to the classified nature of the work, a formal university degree was not awarded. He also worked on the development of the Shippingport Atomic Power Station—the first commercial land-based nuclear power plant. He worked with Rickover until 1965 when he and his family moved to Córdoba, Argentina, when he was called as president of the church's Argentina North Mission. One of his missionaries was D. Todd Christofferson, who would later be called to serve in the Quorum of the Twelve with Scott.

After his return from Argentina, Scott joined other former Rickover staffers at a private consulting firm specializing in nuclear engineering, working out of Washington, D.C. He worked there until his call as a church general authority in 1977.

LDS Church service
Scott served in the LDS Church in many capacities. His ability to speak Spanish aided him in many assignments. Apart from his 31-month mission to Uruguay, he served as a stake clerk and as a counselor in a stake presidency before his service as a mission president. He served as a regional representative in the Uruguay, Paraguay, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. areas. He was called as a general authority and member of the First Quorum of the Seventy in April 1977. In 1983, he was called to the Presidency of the Seventy.

As a seventy, Scott served as managing director of the Genealogical Department and Executive Administrator of the church for Southern Mexico and Central America.

On October 1, 1988, Scott was called to serve in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, filling the vacancy created by the death of quorum president Marion G. Romney. As a member of the Quorum of the Twelve, Scott was accepted by the church as a prophet, seer, and revelator.

After not speaking in the church's general conference earlier in the month, on April 23, 2015, Scott was hospitalized with gastrointestinal bleeding. The bleeding was brought under control within the next 24 hours, and he was released from the hospital on April 28. The bleeding was later determined to have been caused by an ulcer. The church reported that "Elder Scott, known for his gentle manner and devoted service, has experienced a fading memory incident to age, and is not fully able to participate in meetings of the Quorum of the Twelve at this time. Doctors consider his condition as stable."

Scott died on September 22, 2015, at age 86, due to causes incident to age. His death meant that there were three vacancies in the Quorum of the Twelve apostles. With the death of fellow apostles L. Tom Perry and Boyd K. Packer in the previous months, there had not been so many vacancies in the Quorum since 1906. The vacancies were filled in the next general conference in October.

Writings
Scott was a regular speaker at Church Educational System firesides and at the church's general conferences. In these settings he was known "for delivering compassionate talks ... looking directly into the camera, and pleading for repentance and improvements in the lives of members. He emphasizes the Savior's compassion and willingness to forgive past transgressions, and pleads for members to repent and move on with their lives."

In 2007, Scott wrote Finding Peace, Happiness and Joy, his first book written as an apostle. It carries on many themes from his talks such as repentance and finding happiness through the atonement of Jesus Christ.

Some of the addresses he has delivered in general conferences include:
 * "To Heal the Shattering Consequences of Abuse", April 2008 General Conference
 * "Truth, the Foundation of Correct Decisions", October 2007 General Conference
 * "Jesus Christ, Our Redeemer", April 1997 General Conference

title: Richard G. Scott


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Talk:List of Puerto Ricans

Add Rosario Bellber González to the List of Puerto Ricans
Consider adding Ms. Rosario Bellber González in the list. She was born in Puerta de Tierra, an urban ward of San Juan, PR, in 1881, and died in 1948 in her house in El Condado, a sector of Santurce, San Juan, PR. She was of Catalonian ancestry. Ms. Bellber was an educator, social worker, women's rights activist, suffragist, humanist and philanthropist. She was president of the "Social League of Suffragists" during the time (1920's and 1930's) when other Puerto Rican suffragists, like Ms. Ana Roque de Duprey, Ms. Beatriz Lasalle, Ms. Milagros Benet de Mewton, and Ms. Felisa Rincón de Gautier were fighting together with Ms. Bellber for the cause of women suffrage in Puerto Rico and as active members of the "Social League of Suffragists". Ms. Bellber, by her own initiative, also established (in 1944), managed, and supported the House of Health and Convalescence for Children with Tuberculosis (Sanatorio para Niños con Tuberculosis) in the rural town of Aibonito, PR. This "House of Health" was established for all children suffering TB and attending public schools from all around Puerto Rico in the 1940's and later, including many of her own students. Even today, many senior residents of rural towns and cities like Ponce, Coamo, Barranquitas, Aibonito, and Juana Díaz, still remember visiting or staying for a while in Ms. Bellber's "House of Health". In 2018, by act of US congress, the "House of Health" in Aibonito became a center for autistic and other special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) children, now known as Transitional Center Rosario Bellber (Centro Transicional Rosario Bellber). There are more contributions from Ms. Bellber to the women and children of Puerto Rico that can be mentioned here, but Puerto Ricans like her shouldn't be relegated or just be historically forgotten. Her contributions can be verified by references and sources in Spanish, like:

• Magazine: Revista published by the Puerto Rico Teachers Association, Vol. 8, Issue 5, September 1949, under a column written by Ms. Beatriz Lasalle, pp. 149 and 158. Spanish.

• Dictionary: Who is Who in Puerto Rico (Quién es Quién en Puerto Rico: Biographical Dictionary of Personal Records, Third edition 1941-42, editor: Asenjo, Conrado; published in San Juan Puerto Rico in 1942 by Cantero Fernández & Co.; page 33; Spanish.

• Encyclopedia: Encyclopedia Great Women of Puerto Rico (Enciclopedia Grandes Mujeres de Puerto Rico) Vol. IV, by Krüger-Torres, Lola; published in Hato Rey, Puerto Rico, in 1975, by Ramallo Bros. Printing, Inc.; pages 273-274; Spanish. 173.66.249.8 (talk) 01:42, 24 January 2023 (UTC)
 * You need to create a Wikipedia article for this person before they can be added to the list.Lawrlafo (talk) 05:32, 22 July 2023 (UTC)

adding famous actress
Nydia Rodríguez Terracina hosted a world-wide English Speaking Talk Show called The Minority Business Report for 10 years. She is a well-known actress with principal speaking roles in THE DARK KNIGHT, Code of Silence, Above the Law, Backdraft, Richie Rich, My Best Friends Wedding, Nothing Like The Holidays, Prelude to a Kiss (foreign version), Folks, The Breakup, Chain Reaction, and TV principal Roles in The Untouchables Part 1 and 2, Empire City, Unsolved Mysteries, First Edition, Hope, and more. Look her up in IMBD Nydia Rodríguez Terracina born in Puerto Rico. Active Member of the Screen Actors Guild and American Federation Radio and TV Artist since 1972 Nuestro Award for First Hispanic Local Actor in American Feature Film. 2601:248:104:8910:85CB:C898:FB7C:8670 (talk) 15:05, 11 February 2023 (UTC)

Adding Teodoro Vidal
I would like to add Teodoro Vidal to the list but not sure what category to include him under. Teodoro Vidal Santoni (1923–2016) was a Puerto Rican government official, art historian, and folklorist who collected Puerto Rican art.Lawrlafo (talk) 04:52, 22 July 2023 (UTC)

 * I will place him under List_of_Puerto_Ricans, but perhaps there is a better section?Lawrlafo (talk) 05:34, 22 July 2023 (UTC)

Jorge Otero Barreto
User:Marine 69-71 we have had this discussion: already at Talk:Jorge Otero Barreto he is not the "the most decorated U.S. soldier of the Vietnam War" whatever a few non-RS may say. You can restore my edit or change it to "the most decorated Puerto Rican soldier of the Vietnam War." Mztourist (talk) 02:56, 21 December 2023 (UTC)
 * It has by sources that he is the most decorated Vietnam War. However, I believe that your suggestion is a good and valet one.Tony the Marine (talk) 01:30, 22 December 2023 (UTC)
 * No RS say that he is the most decorated Vietnam War veteran, that issue is closed. Mztourist (talk) 04:20, 22 December 2023 (UTC)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Talk:List of Puerto Ricans


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Mesoamerican languages

Mesoamerican languages are the languages indigenous to the Mesoamerican cultural area, which covers southern Mexico, all of Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, and parts of Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica. The area is characterized by extensive linguistic diversity containing several hundred different languages and seven major language families. Mesoamerica is also an area of high linguistic diffusion in that long-term interaction among speakers of different languages through several millennia has resulted in the convergence of certain linguistic traits across disparate language families. The Mesoamerican sprachbund is commonly referred to as the Mesoamerican Linguistic Area.

The languages of Mesoamerica were also among the first to evolve independent traditions of writing. The oldest texts date to approximately 1000 BCE (namely Olmec and Zapotec), though most texts in the indigenous scripts (such as Maya) date to c. 600–900 CE. Following the arrival of the Spanish in the 16th century, and continuing up until the 19th century, most Mesoamerican languages were written in Latin script.

The languages of Mesoamerica belong to 6 major families – Mayan, Oto-Mangue, Mixe–Zoque, Totonacan, Uto-Aztecan and Chibchan languages (only on the southern border of the area) – as well as a few smaller families and isolates – Purépecha, Huave, Tequistlatec, Xincan and Lencan. Among these Oto-Manguean and Mayan families account for the largest numbers of speakers by far – each having speakers numbering more than a million. Many Mesoamerican languages today are either endangered or already extinct, but others, including the Mayan languages, Nahuatl, Mixtec and Zapotec, have several hundred thousand speakers and remain viable.

Language vs. dialect
The distinction between related languages and dialects is notoriously vague in Mesoamerica. The dominant Mesoamerican socio-cultural pattern through millennia has been centered around the town or city as the highest level community rather than the nation, realm or people. This has meant that within Mesoamerica each city-state or town community, called in Nahuatl an altepetl, has had its own language standard which, in the typical case, has evolved separately from closely related but geographically remote languages. Even geographically close communities with closely related, mutually intelligible languages have not necessarily seen themselves as being ethnically related, or their language as being a unifying factor between them. The relative endogamy of the town community has also resulted in a large linguistic diversification between communities despite geographical and linguistic proximity, often resulting in a low intelligibility between varieties of the same language spoken in adjacent communities. The exception to this rule is when a common “lingua franca” has evolved to facilitate communication between different linguistic groups. This has been the case for Classical Nahuatl and Classical Maya, both of which, at different times in history, have been used as a common language between different ethnic groups. Further complicating matters are the semi-nomadic lifestyle of many Mesoamerican peoples, and political systems which often have used relocation of entire communities as a political tool. Dialect or variant “chaining” is common, where any adjacent two or three towns in a sequence are similar enough in speech to understand each other fairly well, but those separated more widely have trouble understanding each other, and there are no clear breaks naturally separating the continuum into coherent sub-regions.

All of these factors together have made it exceedingly difficult to distinguish between what constitutes a language or a dialect in Mesoamerica. Linguistic isoglosses do not coincide often or strongly enough to prove very useful when trying to decide, and sociological factors often further cloud the picture. The significance of measurements of intelligibility (which is itself difficult to measure) depends very much on analysts' purposes and theoretical commitments. In Spanish the word dialecto has often been used generically about indigenous languages in order to describe them as inherently inferior to the European languages. In recent years this has caused an aversion to the term “dialect” among Spanish-speaking linguists and others, and the term variante has often been applied instead.

Many Mesoamerican linguistic groupings have not had different names in common usage for their different languages and some linguistic groups known by a single name show a sufficiently significant variation to warrant division into a number of languages which are quite low in mutual intelligibility. This is the case for example for the Mixtecan, Zapotecan and Nahuan linguistic groups, which all contain distinct languages that are nonetheless referred to by a single name. Sometimes a single name has even been used to describe completely unrelated linguistic groups, as is the case with the terms "Popoluca" or "Chichimeca". This shortage of language names has meant that the convention within Mesoamerican linguistics when writing about a specific linguistic variety is to always mention the name of the broad linguistic group as well as the name of the community, or geographic location in which it is spoken, for example Isthmus-Mecayapan Nahuatl, Zoogocho Zapotec or Usila Chinantec. Some language groups however have been more adequately named. This is the case of the Mayan languages, with an internal diversity that is arguably comparable to that found between the Nahuatl dialects, but many of whose linguistic varieties have separate names, such as Kʼicheʼ, Tzotzil or Huastec.

Geographical overview
Mesoamerica can be divided into smaller linguistic subareas wherein linguistic diffusion has been especially intense, or where certain families have extended to become predominant.

One such subarea would be the Maya area, roughly covering the Yucatán Peninsula, Guatemala, Belize, Chiapas and Tabasco, where Mayan languages have been highly predominant. The fringes of the area have been home to Xincan (in the southeast) and Mixe-Zoque (along the Pacific coast) speakers, in addition to Nawat (also along the Pacific coast) and the Oto-Manguean Chiapanec language (in the southwest) following postclassic migrations.

Another linguistic area is Oaxaca, which is dominated by speakers of Oto-Manguean languages, mainly Mixtec and Zapotec, both of which are extremely internally diverse. Non-Oto-Manguean languages include Mixe, Tequistlatecan, Huave, and the Nahuan Pochutec language. Huave was the original language of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, but lost territory to Zapotec. Oaxaca is the most linguistically diverse area of Mesoamerica and its 36820 sqmi contain at least 100 mutually unintelligible linguistic variants.

The subarea commonly called Central Mexico, covering valleys and mountainous areas surrounding the Valley of Mexico, originally was mainly host to Oto-Pamean languages; however, beginning in the late classic these languages were largely gradually displaced by Nahuatl, which was henceforth the predominant indigenous language of the area. Otomi, Matlatzinca, and Mazahua retained significant presences.

The Western area was inhabited mostly by speakers of Purépecha in Michoacán, Huichol and Cora in Nayarit, and Western Peripheral Nahuatl in Jalisco and Colima. A host of small undocumented languages were spoken in Colima and southern Jalisco, such as Jalisco Otomi and Jalisco Zapotec.

The Northern Rim area has been inhabited by semi-nomadic Chichimec speakers of Uto-Aztecan languages (probably related to the Tepiman and Corachol groups) as well as Pame (Oto-Mangue), and other undocumented languages that are now extinct, such as Jalisco Otomi.

The Gulf area is traditionally the home of speakers of Totonacan languages in the northern and central area and Mixe–Zoque languages in the southern area. However, the northern gulf area became home to the speakers of Huastec in the preclassic period, and the southern area began speaking Isthmus Nahuatl in the post-classic period.

The areas of Central America (excluding the Maya areas) that formed part of Mesoamerica during the preclassic were dominated by Lencan speakers. Based on toponymy, it is possible that Xincan languages were originally spoken in western El Salvador, but were replaced by Nawat after postclassic migrations. The migrations of Subtiaba and Mangue speakers, possibly also during the postclassic period, expanded the realm of Mesoamerican cultural influence to include the Pacific coast of Nicaragua and the Nicoya Peninsula, which were previously part of the Isthmo-Colombian area and probably inhabited by Misumalpan and Chibchan speakers.

The Guerrero subarea has been home to the Oto-Manguean Tlapanec and the unclassified Cuitlatec, and later Nahuatl, as well as a handful of undocumented languages along the Costa Grande.

Linguistic prehistory
The linguistic history of Mesoamerican languages can roughly be divided into pre-Columbian, colonial and modern periods.

Pre-Columbian period
The first human presence in Mesoamerica is documented around 8000 BCE, during a period referred to as the Paleo-Indian. Linguistic data, however, including language reconstruction derived from the comparative method, do not reach further back than approximately 5000 years (towards the end of the Archaic period). Throughout the history of Mesoamerica, an unknown number of languages and language families became extinct and left behind no evidence of their existence. What is known about the pre-Columbian history of the Mesoamerican languages is what can be surmised from linguistic, archeological and ethnohistorical evidence. Often, hypotheses concerning the linguistic prehistory of Mesoamerica rely on very little evidence.

Archaic period (–2000 BCE)
Three large language families are thought to have had their most recent common homelands within Mesoamerica. The time frames and locations in which the common ancestors of these families, referred to by linguists as proto-languages, were spoken are reconstructed by methods of historical linguistics. The three earliest known families of Mesoamerica are the Mixe–Zoquean languages, the Oto-Manguean languages and the Mayan languages. Proto-Oto-Manguean is thought to have been spoken in the Tehuacán valley between 5000 and 3000 BCE, although it may only have been one center of Oto-manguean culture, another possible Oto-Manguean homeland being Oaxaca. Proto-Mayan was spoken in the Cuchumatanes highlands of Guatemala around 3000 BCE. Proto-Mixe–Zoquean was spoken on the gulf coast and on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and on the Guatemalan Pacific coast around 2000 BCE, in a much larger area than its current extension. Totonacan languages, Purépecha, Huave and the Tequistlatecan languages can also be assumed to have been present in Mesoamerica at this point although it is unknown.

Preclassic period (2000 BCE – 200 CE)
The first complex society in Mesoamerica was the Olmec civilization, which emerged around 2000 BCE during the Early Preclassic. It is documented that around this time many Mesoamerican languages adopted loanwords from the Mixe–Zoquean languages, particularly loanwords related to such culturally fundamental concepts as agriculture and religion. This has led some linguists to believe that the carriers of Olmec culture spoke a Mixe–Zoquean language and that words spread from their language into others because of their potential cultural dominance in the Preclassic period, though the relationship between the Olmec and other Preclassic groups is still debated (see Olmec influences on Mesoamerican cultures). During this time the Oto-Manguean languages diversified and spread into Oaxaca and central Mexico. In the Valley of Oaxaca, the Oto-Manguean Zapotec culture emerges around c. 1000 BCE. The splitting of Proto-Mayan into the modern Mayan languages slowly began at roughly 2000 BCE when the speakers of Huastec moved north into the Mexican Gulf Coast region. Uto-Aztecan languages were still outside of Mesoamerica during the Preclassic, their speakers living as semi-nomadic hunter-gatherers on the northern rim of the region and co-existing with speakers of Coracholan and Oto-Pamean languages.

Classic period (200–1000 CE)
During the Classic period the linguistic situation simultaneously becomes both clearer and more obscure. While the Maya actually left examples of their writing, researchers have been unable to determine the linguistic affiliations of several important Classic civilizations, including Teotihuacan, Xochicalco, Cacaxtla, and El Tajín. During this time it is well established that Mixtec languages were spoken at Tilantongo and Zapotec at Monte Albán (in the Valley of Oaxaca). The linguistic situation of the Maya area is relatively clear – Proto-Yucatec and Proto-Cholan were established in their respective locations in Yucatán and in the Tabasco area. Around 200 CE speakers of the Tzeltalan branch of Proto-Cholan moved south into Chiapas displacing speakers of Zoquean languages. Throughout the southern part of the Maya area and the highlands the elite of the Classic Maya centers spoke a common prestige language based on Cholan, a variant often referred to as Classic Ch'olti'an.

An important question that remains to be answered is what language or languages were spoken by the people and rulers of the empire of Teotihuacan. During the first part of the Classic period Teotihuacan achieved dominance over central Mexico and far into the Maya area. Possible candidates for the language of Teotihuacan have been Nahuatl, Totonac or Mixe–Zoque. Terrence Kaufman has argued that Nahuatl is an unlikely candidate because Proto-Nahuan did not enter Mesoamerica until around the time of the fall of Teotihuacan (c. 600 AD), and that Totonac or Mixe–Zoque are likely candidates because many Mesoamerican languages have borrowed from these two languages during the Classic period. Others find Mixe–Zoque an unlikely candidate because no current Mixe–Zoque settlements are found in central Mexico. Around 500–600 CE a new language family entered Mesoamerica when speakers of Proto-Nahuan, a southern Uto-Aztecan language, moved south into central Mexico. Their arrival, which coincides with the decline of Teotihuacan and a period of general turmoil and mass migration in Mesoamerica, has led scientists to speculate that they might have been involved somehow in the fall of the Teotihuacan empire.

What is known is that in the years following Teotihuacan's fall Nahuan speakers quickly rose to power in central Mexico and expanded into areas earlier occupied by speakers of Oto-Manguean, Totonacan and Huastec. During this time Oto-Manguean groups of central Mexico such as the Chiapanec, Chorotega and Subtiaba migrated south some of them reaching the southern limits of Mesoamerica in El Salvador and Nicaragua. Also some speakers of Nahuan moved south, some settling on the coast of Oaxaca where their speech became the language Pochutec, and others moving all the way to El Salvador, becoming the ancestors of the speakers of modern Pipil.

Postclassic period (1000–1521 CE)
In the Postclassic period Nahuan languages diversified and spread, carried by the culture commonly known as Toltec. In the early Postclassic period feuds between royal lineages in the Yucatán Peninsula caused the forefathers of the Itza' to move south into the Guatemalan jungle. In northwestern Oaxaca speakers of Mixtec and Chocho-Popolocan languages built successful city-states, such as Teotitlan del Camino, which did not fall under Nahuan subjugation. Speakers of Otomian languages (Otomi, Mazahua and Matlatzinca) were routinely displaced to the edges of the Nahuan states. The Otomi of Xaltocan, for example, were forcibly relocated to Otumba by the early Aztec empire.

As Nahuatl, carried by the Toltec and later the Aztec culture, became a lingua franca throughout Mesoamerica even some Mayan states such as the Kʼicheʼ Kingdom of Qʼumarkaj adopted Nahuatl as a prestige language. In Oaxaca Zapotec and Mixtec peoples expanded their territories displacing speakers of the Tequistlatecan languages slightly. During this time the Purépecha (Tarascans) consolidated their state based at Tzintzuntzan. They were resistant to other states of Mesoamerica and had little contact with the rest of Mesoamerica. Probably as a result of their isolationist policy the Purépecha language is the only language of Mesoamerica to not show any of the traits associated with the Mesoamerican Linguistic Area. In Guerrero the Tlapanecs of Yopitzinco speaking the Oto-Manguean Tlapanec language remained independent of the Aztec empire as did some of the Oaxacan cultures such as the Mixtecs of Tututepec and the Zapotec of Zaachila. In the late postclassic around 1400 CE Zapotecs of Zaachila moved into the Isthmus of Tehuantepec creating a wedge of Zapotec speaking settlements between the former neighbors the Mixe and the Huave who were pushed into their current territories on the edges of the Isthmus.

Colonial period (1521–1821)
The Spanish arrival in the new world turned the linguistic situation of Mesoamerica upside down. And from then on the indigenous languages have been subject to varying policies imposed on them by the colonial rule. The first impact came from the decimation of the indigenous population by diseases brought by the Europeans. Within the first two centuries of Spanish rule Mesoamerica experienced a dramatic population decline and it is well documented that several small linguistic groups became completely extinct already during the 16th century. The policies that contributed most to a change in the linguistic situation of Mesoamerica were the policies used for conversion of Indians to Christianity. The first victim of this process was the native writing systems which were banned and prohibited and the existing texts destroyed – the pictorial scripts were seen as an idolatry by the Catholic Church. At first missionaries favoured the teaching of Spanish to their prospect converts but from 1555 the first Mexican Council established the policy that the Indians should be converted in their own languages and that parish priests should know the indigenous language of their parishioners. This called for a massive education of clergymen in native languages and the church undertook this task with great zeal. Institutions of learning such as the Colegio de Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco which was inaugurated in 1536 and which taught both indigenous and classical European languages to both Indians and priests were opened. And missionary grammarians undertook the job of writing grammars for the indigenous languages in order to teach priests. For example, the first grammar of Nahuatl, written by Andrés de Olmos, was published in 1547 – three years before the first grammar of French. During this time some literacy in indigenous languages written in the Latin script began to appear. In 1570 Philip II of Spain decreed that Nahuatl should become the official language of the colonies of New Spain in order to facilitate communication between the Spanish and natives of the colonies. Throughout the colonial period grammars of indigenous languages were composed, but strangely the quality of these were highest in the initial period and declined towards the ends of the 18th century. In practice the friars found that learning all the indigenous languages was impossible and they began to focus on Nahuatl. During this period the linguistic situation of Mesoamerica was relatively stable. However, in 1696 Charles II made a counter decree banning the use of any languages other than Spanish throughout the Spanish Empire. And in 1770 a decree with the avowed purpose of eliminating the indigenous languages was put forth by the Royal Cedula. This put an end to the teaching of and writing in indigenous languages and began a strict policy of hispanization of the Indians. However the fact that today around five million people in Mesoamerica still speak indigenous languages suggest that this policy wasn't as effective after all. The most important factor towards the decline of indigenous languages in this period has probably been the social marginalization of the native populations and their languages – and this process has been particularly effective during modern times.

Modern period (1821–)
In the modern period what has affected the indigenous languages most has been the pressure of social marginalization put on the indigenous populations by a growing mestizo class, a growing institutionalization of Hispanic society, and, in some cases, instances of violent suppression and mass murder against indigenous groups in a concerted effort as recorded in El Salvador in 1932. Indigenous languages have been seen by the governing classes as a hindrance to building homogeneous nation states and as an impediment to social progress. These viewpoints sparked a renewed interest in the hispanization of indigenous communities and the introduction of compulsory education in Spanish resulted in a great decline of indigenous languages throughout the 20th century. In a number of indigenous communities it has become practice to learn Spanish first and the indigenous language second. Parents have refrained from teaching their children their own language in order not to subject them to the social stigma of speaking an Indian language – and youths have learned their languages only when they came of age and started taking part in the adult society.

Within the last 20 years there has been an overt change in the policies of governments of Mesoamerican countries towards the indigenous languages. There has been official recognition of their right to existence and some kind of governmental support, to the point of recognizing them as national languages. Bilingual (rather than monolingual Spanish) education has been recognized as desirable even if not always actually achieved in practice. In Guatemala the recognition of the indigenous languages as official languages and a valuable part of the country's identity came after the Civil War which ended in 1996. In Mexico shifting governments had talked about the value of the country's indigenous heritage but it was not until 2003 that the Ley General de Derechos Lingüísticos de los Pueblos Indígenas established a framework for the conservation, nurturing and development of indigenous languages.

Despite these official changes, old attitudes persist in many spheres, and indigenous languages are not in any practical sense on a par with Spanish. At present the linguistic situation of Mesoamerican languages is most difficult in the Central American countries like Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua where indigenous languages still do not enjoy the rights or privileges now granted them elsewhere, and are still subject to social stigmatization.

Writing
Mesoamerica is one of the relatively few places in the world where writing has developed independently throughout history. The Mesoamerican scripts deciphered to date are logosyllabic combining the use of logograms with a syllabary, and they are often called hieroglyphic scripts. Five or six different scripts have been documented in Mesoamerica but archaeological dating methods make it difficult to establish which was earliest and hence the forebear from which the others developed. Candidates for being the first writing system of the Americas are Zapotec writing, the Isthmian or Epi-Olmec script or the scripts of the Izapan culture. The best documented and deciphered Mesoamerican writing system, and hence the most widely known, is the classic Maya script. Post-Classic cultures such as the Aztec and Mixtec cultures do not seem to have developed true writing systems, but instead used semasiographic writing although they did use phonetic principles in their writing by the use of the rebus principle. Aztec name glyphs for example do combine logographic elements with phonetic readings. From the colonial period on there exists an extensive Mesoamerican literature written in the Latin script.

Literary traditions
The literature and texts created by indigenous Mesoamericans are the earliest and well known from the Americas for two primary reasons. First, the fact that native populations in Mesoamerica were the first to interact with Europeans assured the documentation and survival of literature samples in intelligible forms. Second, the long tradition of Mesoamerican writing contributed to them readily embracing the Latin script used by the Spanish and resulted in many literary works written in it during the first centuries after the Spanish conquest of Mexico. Some important literary works in Mesoamerican languages are: The mythological narrative of the Popol Vuh and the theatrical dance-drama the Rabinal Achí both written in Classical Kʼicheʼ Maya. The ethnographical work in the Florentine Codex and the songs of the Cantares Mexicanos both written in Classical Nahuatl. The prophetical and historical accounts of the books of Chilam Balam written in the Yucatec Maya language. As well as numerous smaller documents written in other indigenous languages throughout the colonial period. No true literary tradition for Mesoamerican languages of the modern period has yet emerged.

Mesoamerican Linguistic Area
Throughout the millennia in which speakers of different Mesoamerican languages were engaged in contact the languages began to change and show similarities with one another. This has resulted in Mesoamerica evolving into a linguistic area of diffusion, a "Sprachbund", where most languages, even though they have different origins share some important linguistic traits. The traits defining the Mesoamerican sprachbund are few but well established: the languages use relational nouns to express spatial and other relations, they have a base 20 (Vigesimal) numeral system, their syntax is never verb-final and as a consequence of this they don't use switch reference, they use a distinct pattern for expressing nominal possession and they share a number of semantic calques ]. Some other traits are less defining for the area, but still prevalent such as: the presence of whistled languages, incorporation of bodypart nouns into verbs, the derivation of locatives from bodypart nouns, grammatical indication of inalienable or intimate possession. Terrence Kaufman has worked with documenting the process of this linguistic convergence and he argues that the most probable donor languages of the borrowings into other Mesoamerican languages are the Mixe–Zoquean and Totonacan languages, this supports a theory of either or both of these cultures having a prominent role as a dominating power in early Mesoamerican history.

Uto-Aztecan
(Other branches are outside Mesoamerica.)
 * Corachol • Nayarit, Jalisco
 * Huichol • 20,000 native speakers
 * Cora • 15,000
 * Aztecan
 * Nahuan • 1,380,000
 * Pochutec • Coast of Oaxaca  • EXTINCT
 * General Aztec (Nahuatl)
 * Western periphery • Michoacán, Durango, Guerrero
 * Eastern periphery • S Veracruz, N Oaxaca, Tabasco
 * Huasteca • N Veracruz, Puebla, Hidalgo
 * Center • México (state), Morelos, Tlaxcala, Puebla, Hidalgo
 * Pipil • Pacific coast of Chiapas, Guatemala, El Salvador

Oto-Manguean

 * Otopamean
 * Otomian
 * Otomi • Hidalgo, Guanajuato, N México (state), Querétaro  • 350,000
 * Mazahua • Michoacán, W México (state)  • 150,000
 * Pamean
 * Chichimec • Guanajuato
 * Pame • San Luis Potosí, NW Hidalgo  • 4200
 * Chichimeca Jonaz
 * Matlatzinca-Ocuilteco
 * Matlatzinca • SW México (state)  • 3,000
 * Ocuilteco
 * Chinantecan (perhaps closest to Otopamean)
 * Chinantec • N Oaxaca  • 100,000
 * Supanecan
 * Tlapanec (Yopi) • Guerrero  • 44,000
 * Subtiaba • Nicaragua, El Salvador  • EXTINCT
 * Manguean (perhaps closest to Supanecan)
 * Chiapanec • Chiapas  • EXTINCT
 * Chorotegan • Honduras  • EXTINCT
 * Mangue • Nicaragua  • EXTINCT
 * Nicoyan • Costa Rica  • EXTINCT
 * Popolocan
 * Mazatec • SE Puebla, N Oaxaca  • 145,000
 * Ixcatec
 * Popoluca • SE Puebla, NW Oaxaca  • 37,000
 * Chocho
 * Zapotecan languages (perhaps closest to Popolocan)
 * Zapotec • Oaxaca  • 500,000
 * Chatino • SW Oaxaca  • 28,000
 * Soltec • Elotepec Oaxaca  • EXTINCT
 * Papabuco • Elotepec Oaxaca  • EXTINCT
 * Mixtecan
 * Mixteco-Cuicateco
 * Mixtec • E Guerrero, S Puebla, W Oaxaca  • 500,000
 * Cuicatec • NE Oaxaca  • 20,000
 * Trique • W Oaxaca  • 19,000
 * Amuzgo (perhaps closest to Mixtecan)
 * Amuzgo • E Guerrero, W Oaxaca  • 20,000

Mixe–Zoquean

 * Mixean
 * E & W Mixe • E Oaxaca  • 75,000
 * Olutec& Sayultec • S Veracruz  • EXTINCT?
 * Tapachultec •  SE Chiapas  • EXTINCT
 * Zoquean
 * Zoque languages • Tabasco, Chiapas, E Oaxaca  • 35,000
 * Sierra Popoluca & Texistepec Popoluca • S Veracruz  • 25,000
 * Chimalapa

Totonacan

 * Totonac • Puebla, Veracruz  • 250,000
 * Tepehua • Hidalgo, Veracruz  • 10,000

Tequistlatecan (Chontal)

 * Huamelultec (Lowland Oaxaca Chontal) • SE Oaxaca • 1000
 * Tequistlatec • EXTINCT ?
 * Highland Oaxaca Chontal • 3600

Mayan

 * Huastecan
 * Huastec • N Veracruz, San Luis Potosí, NE Hidalgo  • 120,000
 * Chicomuceltec • S Chiapas  • EXTINCT
 * Yucatecan
 * Yucatec • Yucatán, Campeche, Quintana Roo, Belize, N Guatemala  • 750,000
 * Mopán • N Guatemala, Belize  • 11,000
 * Itzá • N Guatemala  • EXTINCT?
 * Lacandón • Chiapas  • 1000
 * Western
 * Greater Tzeltalan
 * Cholan
 * Chol • Tabasco, Chiapas  • 135,000
 * Chontal • Tabasco  • 55,000
 * Chorti • Honduras, E Guatemala  • 30,000
 * Tzeltalan • Chiapas
 * Tzeltal • 215,000
 * Tzotzil • 265,000
 * Greater Kanjolabalan • NW Guatemala, Chiapas
 * Chujean
 * Chuj • NW Guatemala  • 50,000
 * Tojolabal • Chiapas  • 35,000
 * Kanjolabal (Q’anhob’al) • NW Guatemala
 * Solomec • 80,000
 * Acatec • 60,000
 * Jacaltec • 100,000
 * Mochó (Cotoque) • SE Chiapas
 * Motozintlec • EXTINCT?
 * Tuzantec • EXTINCT?
 * Eastern
 * Greater Mamean
 * Mamean
 * Mam • W Guatemala  • 535,000
 * Tektiteco •  Chiapas-Guatemala border  • 2300
 * Ixilan • NW Guatemala
 * Ixil • 70,000
 * Aguacatec (Awakateko) • 18,000
 * Greater Quichean
 * Quichean • C Guatemala
 * Quiché • 2,420,000
 * Cakchiquel • 450,000
 * Tz'utujil • 85,000
 * Sacapultec • 35,000
 * Sipacapan • 8000
 * Kekchi • C & E Guatemala  • 420,000
 * Pocom • C & E Guatemala
 * Pocomchi • 90,000
 * Pocomam • 50,000
 * Uspantec • NW Guatemala  • 3000

Chibchan
(other branches are outside Mesoamerica)
 * Paya (Pech) • N Honduras  • 1000

Misumalpan

 * Miskito • Nicaragua  • 185,000
 * Sumo • 7000
 * Matagalpa • EXTINCT

Isolates

 * Purépecha • SW Michoacán  • 120,000
 * Cuitlatec • Guerrero  • EXTINCT
 * Huave (Wabe) • SE Oaxaca  • 14,000
 * Xinca • SE Guatemala  • EXTINCT
 * Lenca • SW Honduras, El Salvador  • EXTINCT?

Proposed stocks

 * Hokan
 * Penutian
 * Macro-Mayan
 * Mayan
 * Mixe–Zoque
 * Totonacan
 * Huave
 * Macro-Chibchan
 * Chibchan
 * Misumalpan
 * Xinca
 * Lenca
 * Tolatecan
 * Tequistlatecan
 * Jicaque
 * Totozoquean
 * Mixe–Zoque
 * Totonacan

title: Mesoamerican languages


text:
M. Russell Ballard

Melvin Russell Ballard Jr. (October 8, 1928 – November 12, 2023) was an American businessman and religious leader who served as the Acting President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) from 2018 until his death in 2023. He had been a member of the church's Quorum of the Twelve Apostles since 1985. As a member of the Quorum of the Twelve, Ballard was accepted by church members as a prophet, seer, and revelator. At the time of his death, he was the third most senior apostle in the church.

Biography

Ballard was born in Salt Lake City, Utah to Melvin Russell Ballard and his wife, Geraldine Smith. As a young man, Ballard served as a missionary in England from 1948 to 1950, during which he was a counselor in the mission presidency. He met his wife while they were studying at the University of Utah. Over the following years, Ballard served in multiple positions in the LDS Church, including twice as a bishop. In 1974, Ballard was called as president of the church's Canada Toronto Mission. While serving as a mission president in 1976, he was called to the First Quorum of the Seventy; he completed his three-year term as mission president as a member of the seventy. Among other assignments as a seventy, he was the editor of the church's magazines from the start of 1980 until the end of 1984. He was a member of the Presidency of the Seventy from 1980 until 1985. As a general authority, Ballard was also president of the church's International Mission and the executive director of the church's missionary department.

Following the death of apostle Bruce R. McConkie, Ballard was sustained to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles on October 6, 1985 and ordained an apostle on October 10, 1985.

Ballard was the grandson of apostles Melvin J. Ballard and Hyrum M. Smith. Through Hyrum M. Smith, Ballard was a descendant of Hyrum Smith, brother of church founder Joseph Smith. Among other assignments as an apostle, Ballard oversaw the church's celebration of the Pioneer Sesquicentennial in 1997.

Following the January 2018 death of church president Thomas S. Monson, the church's First Presidency was reorganized with Russell M. Nelson as president. Nelson selected Dallin H. Oaks, the next senior apostle and new quorum president, as First Counselor in the First Presidency. As the next senior apostle not in the First Presidency, Ballard became the quorum's acting president.

Death
In late October 2023, Ballard was briefly hospitalized for respiratory problems. He died less than a month later at his home in Salt Lake City on November 12, 2023, at age 95.

Business activities
Professionally, Ballard was involved in several enterprises, including automotive, real estate, and investment businesses. He was the top-selling salesman for his father's Nash car dealership when he left it in the early 1950s to pursue other business interests. In 1956, Ballard returned and took over the Ballard Motor Company from his father. During this period, he also served in the United States Army Reserve, resigning his commission as a First Lieutenant in 1957.

During the late 1950s, Ballard was recruited by the Ford Motor Company to become the first Edsel car dealer for Salt Lake City. According to Ballard, after praying for guidance, he had the "clear impression" not to sign the franchise. He did anyway and incurred a huge loss, "without doubt the darkest period" of his business career.

One highlight of Ballard's business career was his presidency of the Valley Music Hall in Bountiful, Utah, which offered family entertainment. There Ballard worked with Art Linkletter, Danny Thomas, Bob Cummings, and other Hollywood celebrities who were advisers to the enterprise. Although the music hall failed financially, investors recovered their money when the LDS Church purchased the building.

Keystone Securities Corporation
In 1961, Kay Stoker, a business partner of Ballard's, created a mining company called Shasta Mineral and Chemical Corporation and filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) declaring intent to offer public stock for the company. While processing the request, the SEC recommended that a separate company be created to handle issuance of stock, so Keystone Securities Corporation was established with Ballard as president. In November 1961 the SEC charged Shasta with fraud. Ballard attempted to withdraw Keystone Securities from the issue because he "could not be affiliated with anything that was having this claim of 'fraud' and 'misleading statements' associated with it." The SEC subsequently charged Keystone and Ballard with violating the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and the Securities Act of 1933. The investigation centered around "manipulation and fraud."

The SEC completed its investigation in 1963 and withdrew its original charge of fraud but charged Keystone and Ballard with "aiding and abetting" fraud in Shasta. Without admitting or denying the charges, Keystone and Ballard settled the case by stipulating that the SEC could find them as having violated the acts through aiding and abetting Shasta. The SEC revoked the broker-dealer registration of Keystone as a result. In 1964 the SEC dropped the charges against Shasta. In a testimony before a Senate subcommittee in 1965, the lawyer for Keystone and Ballard asserted that the SEC charges against Ballard were solely "to determine whether an underwriter can be charged vicariously with any wrongdoing of the issuing company," even though "Keystone had not participated in the preparation of the registration statement or sold any stock pursuant to the proposed public offering" of Shasta. In 1966, a U.S. district court found the SEC guilty of acting in an arbitrary and capricious manner by announcing their charges against both Shasta and Keystone.

Family

On August 28, 1951, Ballard married Barbara Bowen in the Salt Lake Temple; they were the parents of seven children. One of their daughters, Brynn, is married to Peter R. Huntsman, who is the son of late billionaire industrialist Jon Huntsman Sr. and brother of Jon Huntsman Jr., former United States Ambassador to Russia and China and former Governor of Utah.

Barbara Bowen Ballard died on October 1, 2018.

Works

 * Books

title: M. Russell Ballard


text:
Talk:Collapse of the World Trade Center

Timestamps
The structural failure first being observed at the last second of 09:58 does not mean it was first observed at 09:59. NIST also didn't explicitly state that they rounded off the 09:58:59 collapse initiation; 09:59 could very well be a reference to everything that came immediately after (i.e., if it commenced at 09:58:59, it would still have been collapsing at 09:59; doesn't change the fact that the process kicked off while it was still 09:58).

Similarly, the 9/11 Commission indicated that 17 minutes passed between the two impacts, despite reporting 08:46:40 and 09:03:11 for each one (16 minutes and 31 seconds; quite a way off from 17), and claimed the towers burned for 102 and 56 minutes before collapsing, even though the precise timestamps they gave (08:46:40–10:28:25 and 09:03:11–09:58:59) say otherwise.

One of the fundamental principles of Wikipedia is that "all articles must strive for verifiable accuracy, citing reliable, authoritative sources, especially when the topic is controversial." It goes without saying that the September 11 attacks remain a highly sensitive topic 22 years later. Both agencies made it a point to state that the South Tower did not begin collapsing at 09:59; it commenced while it was still 09:58, regardless of any colloquial language used later on. Intentionally misrepresenting numbers out of convenience is, by definition, inaccurate, and the footnotes in the article were created to dispel certain misconceptions about the times at which certain events happened. Hmm1994 (talk) 22:21, 12 September 2023 (UTC)

 * First of all, assume good faith. Claiming other editors are [i]ntentionally misrepresenting numbers is not a great way to start your argument.
 * We also need to maintain readability. That means rounding the numbers can sometimes be beneficial for our readers, especially since the exact times are already cited for them to inspect when they want precision. —  The Hand That Feeds You :Bite 22:33, 12 September 2023 (UTC)

I do know it's a good faith edit, but I consider it as an intentional misrepresentation of the South Tower's moment of collapse initiation not carried out for any underhanded reasons, just simply because people feel 09:58:59 is a mouthful (and, yes, that's a sentiment I can get behind). My suggestion was not that it be changed to "09:58:59", "the last second of 09:58" or "one second before 09:59". Rather, that the time be changed back to 09:58, because that's just as easily read and it was the minute in which the collapse verifiably began; the footnote serves to clarify that it continued into 09:59. Hmm1994 (talk) 23:29, 12 September 2023 (UTC)

Also, NIST's official website states that the South Tower was hit at 9:02 and collapsed at 9:58, so the 9:59 wasn't a round up from 9:58:59; it was when almost all of the death and destruction would've occurred. I'm not sure the impact time should be changed since there is a lot of disagreement over what time the South Tower was hit at, but we have two government sources saying the collapse began at 9:58, neither of which rounded the collapse initiation to 9:59. Hmm1994 (talk) 09:47, 18 September 2023 (UTC)
 * The exact times are disputed. See explanatory notes d, e, f, g, and h.  -Jord gette  [talk]  15:58, 18 September 2023 (UTC)

 * The exact time of the South Tower's collapse initiation is not disputed per explanatory note h: "NIST and the 9/11 Commission both state that the collapse initiated at 9:58:59 a.m., which is rounded to 9:59 for simplicity." NIST never claimed that they rounded the tower's collapse initiation time to 9:59; the 9:59 is in reference to the fact that the tower was still collapsing at 9:59. To the contrary, they logged the collapse initiation as having taken place at 9:58. Hmm1994 (talk) 16:32, 18 September 2023 (UTC)
 * When they say 102, 56, or 17 minutes they're just rounding to the nearest whole minute. The exact durations from the timestamps in minutes are 101:45, 55:48, and 16:31. The rounded figures are fine. MiguelMunoz (talk) 00:44, 26 November 2023 (UTC)

Time to collapse explanation
The fact that the South Tower was hit lower does NOT mean there was double the pressure on the columns. You can verify this by comparing the strains in NCSTAR 1-6D fug 4-72 with 121 Abdullah Ali 4z5 (talk) 02:31, 27 November 2023 (UTC)

 * Comparing the numbers ourselves is original research, which is not allowed on Wikipedia. You'd need a reliable, secondary source making the claim. —  The Hand That Feeds You :Bite 13:02, 27 November 2023 (UTC)
 * The at least let's leave the dubious tag up. Abdullah Ali 4z5 (talk) 13:18, 27 November 2023 (UTC)
 * I don't see any reason to. —  The Hand That Feeds You :Bite 13:50, 27 November 2023 (UTC)
 * I agree that we should remove the dubious tag. But also change "double" to simply "more". The source (NYT) reads "Ultimately, it was the combination of structural damage and the fires, fueled by thousands of gallons of jet fuel, that brought the buildings down. The south tower was also hit at a lower point, meaning there was more weight bearing down on the damaged floors." Thomas B (talk) 13:56, 27 November 2023 (UTC)
 * I'd be fine with that change.
 * Abdullah Ali 4z5, I reverted your most recent change for several reasons:
 * 1. Changing "46 minutes later" to "70% longer" is not helpful for the average reader.
 * 2. The changes read more like a school essay than an encyclopedic entry
 * 3. Removing the NYT article in favor of the NIST report, when we generally prefer secondary sources.
 * I think Thomas B's suggestion is the better solution. —  The Hand That Feeds You :Bite 15:38, 27 November 2023 (UTC)
 * It's not good having such a blatant falsehood there. Abdullah Ali 4z5 (talk) 15:58, 27 November 2023 (UTC)
 * I have implemented the change ("double" -> "more") and removed the dubious tag (since that doesn't seem doubtful, based on the source). What blatant falsehood remains? Thomas B (talk) 16:45, 27 November 2023 (UTC)
 * It's a blatant falsehood that the greater weight above impact contributed to the collaose. That is because the size of the columns also scales with their load. Indeed, because of this, the lower impact actually reduced the impact damage. Abdullah Ali 4z5 (talk) 03:34, 28 November 2023 (UTC)
 * No, it's not a blatant falsehood. Perhaps it's an oversimplification. In an intact building, the load per unit area of supporting structure would be more or less consistent (factoring in differing steel grades and allowable loads) as you assert. That would not necessarily be the case for an impaired structure. You're making a lot of assumptions concerning redistribution of forces in a compromised structure. However, I would prefer the detailed NIST analysis over the Times as a basis for any assertions concerning structural engineering and failure modes.  Acroterion   (talk)   04:10, 28 November 2023 (UTC)
 * I would also prefer NIST's statement (or at least something better than NYT). Do you know where they addressed this? Thomas B (talk) 06:22, 28 November 2023 (UTC)

Remove Infobox and change back to previous photo.
Like the September 11 attacks article, the previous photo which had been used from 2008–2023 was suddenly changed and a Infobox added without any discussion. I don't believe we need a picture of the actual collapse taking place as the previous photo illustrates that one tower had collapsed. I would like to get editors HandThatFeeds and Butterscotch5 involved and hear there opinions since they made great points on the September 11 talk page. Cena332 (talk) 22:28, 7 June 2024 (UTC)

 * I'm actually leaning towards the new photo for this article, since it's specifically about the collapse itself. —  The Hand That Feeds You :Bite 12:27, 8 June 2024 (UTC)
 * I like the current one better because it shows one of the towers has already collapsed. Butterscotch5 (talk) 18:03, 8 June 2024 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 20 June 2024
The plane crashed to the North Tower at 8:46:30 a.m., not at 8:46:40 a.m.. 2600:1002:B156:7EEE:10D9:1AC0:BF4:B2E7 (talk) 20:44, 20 June 2024 (UTC)

 * Please see the note attached in the lede, reproduced as follows:
 * "The exact time is disputed. The 9/11 Commission Report states that Flight 11 struck the North Tower at 8:46:40 a.m., while NIST reports 8:46:30 a.m."
 * We're aware of the discrepancy, but there's no point changing it. —  The Hand That Feeds You :Bite 20:50, 20 June 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Collapse of the World Trade Center


text:
Joseph B. Wirthlin

Joseph Bitner Wirthlin (June 11, 1917 – December 1, 2008) was an American businessman, religious leader and member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). He was sustained to the Twelve on October 4, 1986, and ordained an apostle on October 9, 1986, by Thomas S. Monson. He became an apostle following the death of church president Spencer W. Kimball. As a member of the Quorum of the Twelve, Wirthlin was accepted by the church membership as a prophet, seer, and revelator.

Biography
Born in Salt Lake City, Utah, Wirthlin was the son of Madeline Bitner and Joseph L. Wirthlin, who was also a general authority of the LDS Church, serving as Presiding Bishop from 1952 to 1961. Wirthlin was a half-first cousin of Gordon B. Hinckley, who became president of the LDS Church; the two cousins attended the same congregation as children.

As a young man, Wirthlin earned the rank of Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts of America. As a standout high school quarterback, Wirthlin was offered a football scholarship at the University of Utah, but deferred it and served as a missionary in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland from 1936 to 1939, returning to Utah just before the outbreak of World War II. Wirthlin played football as a running back for the University of Utah following his mission. Wirthlin's career was spent as a prominent business leader in Salt Lake City. He was also president of a trade association in Utah.

Wirthlin served in the LDS Church as bishop of the Bonneville Ward in Salt Lake City from 1955 to 1964. The day he was released as bishop he was called to serve in the stake high council and was set apart by Joseph Fielding Smith. On December 6, 1964, Wirthlin was set apart by LeGrand Richards as second counselor to Russell M. Nelson in the presidency of the Salt Lake Bonneville Stake; Wirthlin served in that capacity until Nelson's release in 1971. Wirthlin became a general authority of the church in 1975, when he was called to serve as an Assistant to the Twelve. He was the last individual called to this position before it was discontinued in 1976. In 1984, when the LDS Church first organized areas with area presidencies, Wirthlin was the first president of the Europe Area. The area was headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany and covered all of Europe and Africa. Wirthlin's call to the Quorum of the Twelve came shortly after his call to serve in the church's Presidency of the Seventy.

Wirthlin married Elisa Young Rogers on May 26, 1941, in the Salt Lake Temple; they had eight children. She died in August 2006 of causes incident to age.

On December 1, 2008, Wirthlin "had gone to bed at his Salt Lake City home, and died peacefully at about 11:30 pm of causes incident to age." At the time of his death, Wirthlin was the oldest apostle among the ranks of the church. He was buried at Salt Lake City Cemetery.

Shortly after his death, the University of Utah announced that the Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin Family Scholarship, an endowed scholarship benefiting the Utah football program, would be named in his honor. On January 2, 2009, when the Utes won the Sugar Bowl, all of the Utah players wore a commemorative sticker on their helmets with the initials JBW in his honor.

title: Joseph B. Wirthlin


text:
Bayou Lafourche

Bayou Lafourche, originally called Chetimachas River or La Fourche des Chetimaches, (the fork of the Chitimacha), is a 106 mi bayou in southeastern Louisiana, United States, that flows into the Gulf of Mexico. The bayou is flanked by Louisiana Highway 1 on the west and Louisiana Highway 308 on the east, and is known as "the longest Main Street in the world." It flows through parts of Ascension, Assumption, and Lafourche parishes. Today, approximately 300,000 Louisiana residents drink water drawn from the bayou.

History
The name Lafourche is from the French for "the fork", and alludes to the bayou's large outflow of Mississippi River water. The first settlements of Acadians in southern Louisiana were near Bayou Lafourche and Bayou des Écores, which led to a close association of the bayou with Cajun culture.

It was formerly a Mississippi River outlet (distributary), but was dammed at Donaldsonville in 1905. The dam cut off nourishment and replenishment of a huge wetland area of central Louisiana. It changed the formerly flowing bayou into a stagnant ditch.

The Bollinger Shipyards, founded by Donald G. Bollinger, was launched on Bayou Lafourche in 1946.

On August 29, 2021, Hurricane Ida made landfall in Lafourche parish. Dam walls at the end of the bayou were closed to prevent a storm surge of salt water from entering.

Mississippi River reintroduction
A long-term project to revitalize Bayou Lafourche with an increased flow of fresh water from the Mississippi River and halt the accelerated loss of land down the bayou is currently in progress.

In 2016, Bayou Lafourche was dredged from Donaldsonville to Napoleonville of vegetation and sediment that constricted the surface area of the water. In Lockport, a water gate was constructed on Bayou Lafourche to mitigate the amount of salt water invading the bayou during periods of low tide. In 2021, a weir was removed in Thibodaux, allowing recreational boating passage through the entire bayou.

By 2025, a $96 million pumping station is set to be completed in Donaldsonville, next to the original that was constructed in 1950. The new station will be able to pump three times the amount of fresh water from the Mississippi River than the original and, in turn, return the flow of water throughout the bayou during low tides.

Crossings
From north to south, the following roads and railroads cross the bayou (almost all connecting LA 1 to LA 308):
 * LA 3089 (Albert Street) in Donaldsonville
 * Union Pacific Railroad Livonia Subdivision in Donaldsonville
 * Rondinaud Road in Donaldsonville
 * LA 943
 * LA 998 at Belle Rose
 * LA 70
 * LA 403 at Paincourtville
 * LA 70 Spur
 * Bridge Street at Plattenville
 * LA 402, Hospital Rd. at Napoleonville
 * former Texas and Pacific Railway (now open to non-motorized traffic)
 * LA 1008 at Napoleonville
 * LA 1010 at Ingleside
 * LA 1011 at Supreme
 * LA 1247 at Labadieville
 * St. John Bridge
 * LA 3185
 * Tiger Drive
 * former railroad in Thibodaux
 * LA 20 (St. Patrick Street) in Thibodaux
 * Canal Boulevard in Thibodaux
 * Banker Drive (no motor vehicles) in Thibodaux
 * Audubon Avenue
 * LA 648
 * Lafourche Crossing, BNSF Railway/Union Pacific Railroad Lafayette Subdivision at Lafourche
 * LA 649 (St. Charles Swing Bridge) at St. Charles
 * Raceland Lift Span Bridge
 * LA 182 (Raceland Lift Bridge) at Raceland
 * US 90
 * former LA 364
 * LA 654 (Champagne-Harrelson Memorial Bridge)
 * LA 655 (Rita Bridge) at Lockport
 * LA 3220 (Bollinger Bridge)
 * Valentine Bridge at Valentine
 * T-Bois Bridge
 * Former LA 310 Pontoon Bridge at Larose
 * LA 657 Vertical Lift Bridge at Larose
 * Le Pont D'or Bridge at Larose
 * Cote Blanche Bridge at Cut Off
 * LA 3162 (South Lafourche Bridge) at Galliano, southern terminus of LA-308
 * Galliano Pontoon Bridge at Galliano
 * LA 308 (Golden Meadow Lift Bridge) in Golden Meadow
 * LA 1 (Gateway to the Gulf Expressway) at Leeville

In popular culture
The film Southern Comfort is set on Bayou Lafourche.

At the end of the novel Post Office by Charles Bukowski, protagonist Henry Chinaski quits his job at the Los Angeles post office to "pick up 10 or 20 grand for 3 months trapping at Bayou La Fourche. [...] Muskrats, nutria, mink, otter... coon. All I need is a pirogue."

In The CW Network's supernatural-fantasy series, The Originals, the Bayou Lafourche is a major setting and has acted as the home of the Werewolf encampments for decades after the Vampires exiled them from the city of New Orleans.

In the film Hard Target, the lead character Chance Boudreaux, played by Jean-Claude Van Damme, is a Cajun from Bayou Lafourche in Southern Louisiana.

title: Bayou Lafourche


text:
User talk:Dargonlord

Welcome to the Wikipedia
Here are some links I thought useful:

 * Tutorial
 * Help desk
 * Foundation issues
 * Policy Library
 * Utilities
 * Cite your sources
 * Verifiability
 * Wikiquette
 * Civility
 * Conflict resolution
 * Brilliant prose
 * Neutral point of view
 * Pages needing attention
 * Peer review
 * Bad jokes and other deleted nonsense
 * Village pump
 * Boilerplate text
 * IRC channel
 * Mailing lists
 * Current polls

Feel free to ask me anything the links and talk pages don't answer. You can sign your name by typing 4 tildes, like this: ~.

Be Bold!

Sam [Spade] 05:25, 3 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Copyright status
Please leave a note about the copyright status of Image:Anger.jpg on the image page. Thank you. --Ellmist 03:12, 5 Mar 2005 (UTC)

title: User talk:Dargonlord


text:
Talk:A Cinderella Story

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 13 January 2020 and 20 April 2020. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Maddiemac800.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 13:09, 16 January 2022 (UTC)

Untitled
Sorry princess, but a giggly girl review is not what Wikipedia is all about.

 * Perhaps, but remember: Please do not bite the newcomers. I have made an attempt to restore some useful NPOV information from the "giggly girl review" you deleted; it is often worth trying to NPOV, even when it seems impossible, rather than just reverting. Glenn Willen (Talk)   05:41, 3 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Hear hear. No-one wants to be intimidated and seeing one's work deleted is off putting and surely unecessary. XCSDDFSGCAitlin —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.75.63.232 (talk) 19:45, 26 November 2008 (UTC)

 * The plot was over detailed and subjectivley writen.

Once again: The plot is still (or again) incredibly unobjective, juvenile and unneeded bloated! Please remove the plot and leave a remark!

working to improve this page
I am a student who will be working on this page for the next few weeks as a part of a class assignment. I will be attempting to primarily improve the plot summary, in terms of length and objectivity.I will also attempt to introduce new information about the film to this page. Feedback is welcome to any of my edits or additions, as I am learning the platform and doing the best I can. Thanks Maddiemac800 (talk) 17:07, 19 February 2020 (UTC)

title: Talk:A Cinderella Story


text:
Notre-Dame school

The Notre-Dame school or the Notre-Dame school of polyphony refers to the group of composers working at or near the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris from about 1160 to 1250, along with the music they produced.

The only composers whose names have come down to us from this time are Léonin and Pérotin. Both were mentioned by an anonymous English student, known as Anonymous IV, who was either working or studying at Notre-Dame later in the 13th century. In addition to naming the two composers as "the best composers of organum," and specifying that they compiled the big book of organum known as the Magnus Liber Organi, he provides a few tantalizing bits of information on the music and the principles involved in its composition. Pérotin is the first composer of organum quadruplum—four-voice polyphony—at least the first composer whose music has survived, since complete survivals of notated music from this time are scarce.

Léonin, Pérotin and the other anonymous composers whose music has survived are representatives of the era of European music history known as the ars antiqua. The motet was first developed during this period out of the clausula, which is one of the most frequently encountered types of composition in the Magnus Liber Organi.

While music with notation has survived, in substantial quantity, the interpretation of this music, especially with regard to rhythm, remains controversial. Three music theorists describe the contemporary practice: Johannes de Garlandia, Franco of Cologne, and Anonymous IV. However, they were all writing more than two generations after the music was written, and may have been imposing their current practice, which was quickly evolving, on music which was conceived differently. In much music of the Notre-Dame School the lowest voices sing long note values while the upper voice or voices sing highly ornamented lines, which often use repeating patterns of long and short notes known as the "rhythmic modes". This marked the beginning of notation capable of showing relative durations of notes within and between parts.

Notre-Dame motets
The earliest motets are the Notre-Dame motets, written by composers such as Leonin and Perotin during the 13th century. These motets were polyphonic, with a different text in each voice, and employed the rhythmic modes. An example of a Notre-Dame motet is Salve, salus hominum/O radians stella/nostrum by Perotin, composed between 1180 and 1238.

Contemporary accounts
With polyphony, musicians were able to achieve musical feats perceived by many as beautiful, and by others, distasteful. John of Salisbury (1120–1180), philosopher and Bishop of Chartres, who taught at the University of Paris during the years of Léonin but before Pérotin, was one of the latter. He attended many services at the Notre-Dame Choir School. In his Policraticus he offers a first-hand description of what was happening to music in the High Middle Ages, writing:

"Bad taste has, however, degraded even religious worship, bringing into the presence of God, into the recesses of the sanctuary a kind of luxurious and lascivious singing, full of ostentation, which with female modulation astonishes and enervates the souls of the hearers. When you hear the soft harmonies of the various singers, some taking high and others low parts, some singing in advance, some following in the rear, others with pauses and interludes, you would think yourself listening to a concert of sirens rather than men, and wonder at the powers of voices … whatever is most tuneful among birds, could not equal. Such is the facility of running up and down the scale; so wonderful the shortening or multiplying of notes, the repetition of the phrases, or their emphatic utterance: the treble and shrill notes are so mingled with tenor and bass, that the ears lost their power of judging. When this goes to excess it is more fitted to excite lust than devotion; but if it is kept in the limits of moderation, it drives away care from the soul and the solicitudes of life, confers joy and peace and exultation in God, and transports the soul to the society of angels."

title: Notre-Dame school


text:
John B. Gordon

John Brown Gordon (February 6, 1832 – January 9, 1904) was an attorney, a slaveholding planter, general in the Confederate States Army, and a politician in the postwar years. By the end of the Civil War, he had become "one of Robert E. Lee's most trusted generals."

After the war, Gordon strongly opposed Reconstruction during the late 1860s and into the 1870s. A member of the Democratic Party, he was twice elected by the Georgia state legislature as a US Senator (as was the practice at the time), serving from 1873 to 1880, and again from 1891 to 1897. He also was elected as the 53rd Governor of Georgia, serving two terms, from 1886 to 1890.

Early life
John Brown Gordon was of Scots descent and was born on the farm of his parents Zachariah Gordon and his wife in Upson County, Georgia; he was the fourth of twelve children. Many Gordon family members had fought in the Revolutionary War. His family moved to Walker County, Georgia by 1840, where his father was recorded in the US census that year as owning a plantation with 18 slaves.

Gordon was a student at the University of Georgia, where he was a member of the Mystical 7 Society. He left before graduating to "read the law" in Atlanta, where he passed the bar examination.

Gordon and his father, Zachariah, invested in a series of coal mines in Tennessee and Georgia. He also practiced law. In 1854 Gordon married Rebecca "Fanny" Haralson, daughter of Hugh Anderson Haralson and his wife. They had a long marriage and six children.

In 1860, Gordon owned one slave, a 14-year-old girl. His father owned four slaves in that same census year.

American Civil War
Although lacking military education or experience, Gordon was elected captain of a company of the 6th Alabama Infantry Regiment. He was present at First Manassas, but did not see any action. During a reorganization of the Confederate army in May 1862, the regiment's original colonel, John Siebels, resigned and Gordon was elected the new colonel. Gordon's first combat experience happened a few weeks later at Seven Pines, when his regiment was in the thick of the fighting. During the battle, Gordon witnessed his younger brother, Augustus Gordon, lying among the Confederate casualties, bleeding profusely with what appeared to be a fatal wound to the lungs. Augustus survived, but was killed a year later at the Battle of Chancellorsville. Toward the end of the two-day Battle of Seven Pines, Gordon took over as brigade commander from Brig. Gen. Robert Rodes when Rodes was wounded. Shortly after the battle, the 26th Alabama was transferred to Rodes's Brigade as part of an army reorganization. Its commander, Col. Edward O'Neal, outranked Gordon and thus took command of the brigade until Rodes resumed command just before the Seven Days Battles. Gordon was again hotly engaged at Gaines' Mill, and he was wounded in the eyes during the assault on Malvern Hill. On June 29, Rodes, still suffering from the effects of his wound, took a leave of absence; O'Neal commanded the brigade once again. During the Northern Virginia Campaign, Gordon and his regiment were kept in the Richmond area.

Assigned by General Lee to hold the vital sunken road, or "Bloody Lane", during the Battle of Sharpsburg, Gordon suffered new wounds. First, a Minié ball passed through his calf. A second ball hit him higher in the same leg. A third ball went through his left arm. Gordon continued to lead his men, despite the fact that the muscles and tendons in his arm were mangled and a small artery was severed. A fourth ball hit him in his shoulder. Ignoring pleas that he go to the rear, Gordon remained on the front lines. He was finally stopped by a ball that hit him in the face, passing through his left cheek and out his jaw. He fell with his face in his cap, and might have drowned in his own blood if it had not drained out through a bullet hole in the cap. A Confederate surgeon thought that he would not survive. After being returned to Virginia, Gordon was nursed back to health by his wife.

Impressed with Gordon's performance, Lee requested a promotion to brigadier general on November 1, 1862; however, this was not confirmed by the Confederate States Congress due to his being wounded. After months of recuperation, Gordon returned to service, receiving the command of a brigade of Georgians in Jubal A. Early's division. When he returned to duty, Lee requested a promotion again, which was approved by the Confederate Congress, ranking from May 7, 1863.

During the Confederate invasion of Pennsylvania, Gordon's brigade occupied Wrightsville on the Susquehanna River, the farthest east in Pennsylvania that any organized Confederate troops would reach. Union militia under Col. Jacob G. Frick burned a mile-and-a-quarter-long covered wooden bridge to prevent Gordon from crossing the river, and the fire soon spread to parts of Wrightsville. Gordon's troops formed a bucket brigade and managed to prevent further destruction to the town.

At the Battle of Gettysburg on July 1, Gordon's brigade and other units drove the Union XI Corps from Barlow's Knoll. There, he aided the opposing division commander, Francis Barlow, who was wounded. This incident led to a story about the two officers meeting later in Washington, D.C., Gordon unaware that Barlow had survived the battle. The story was told by Barlow and Gordon and published in newspapers and in Gordon's postwar memoir.

"Seated at Clarkson Potter's table, I asked Barlow: 'General, are you related to the Barlow who was killed at Gettysburg?' He replied: 'Why, I am the man, sir. Are you related to the Gordon who killed me?' 'I am the man, sir,' I responded. No words of mine can convey any conception of the emotions awakened by those startling announcements. Nothing short of an actual resurrection from the dead could have amazed either of us more. Thenceforward, until his untimely death in 1896, the friendship between us which was born amidst the thunders of Gettysburg was greatly cherished by both."

Barlow returned to service in April 1865 and pursued Gordon and his troops during the Battle of High Bridge.

At the start of the 1864 Overland Campaign, in the Battle of the Wilderness, Gordon proposed a flanking attack against the Union right that might have had a decisive effect on the battle had Gen. Early allowed him freedom to launch it before late in the day. Gordon was an aggressive general; in a letter to Confederate President Jefferson Davis, Gen. Robert E. Lee said Gordon was one of his best brigadiers, "characterized by splendid audacity". On May 8, 1864, Gordon was given command of Early's division in Lt. Gen. Richard S. Ewell's (later Early's) corps, being promoted to major general on May 14. Gordon's success in turning back the massive Union assault in the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House (the Bloody Angle) prevented a Confederate rout. His division was held in reserve at the Battle of North Anna and was positioned in the Magnolia Swamp, north of where the major fighting occurred at the Battle of Cold Harbor.

Gordon left with Early for the Valley Campaigns of 1864, participating in the Battle of Lynchburg and in Early's Invasion of Maryland at the Battle of Monocacy before being wounded August 25, 1864, at Shepherdstown, West Virginia after they returned across the Potomac. After having a wound over his right eye dressed, Gordon returned to the battle. Confederate cartographer Jedediah Hotchkiss's official report of the incident stated, "Quite a lively skirmish ensued, in which Gordon was wounded in the head, but he gallantly dashed on, the blood streaming over him."

At the Third Battle of Winchester, Gordon's wife, Fanny, accompanying her husband on the campaign as general's wives sometimes did, rushed out into the street to urge Gordon's retreating troops to go back and face the enemy. Gordon was horrified to find her in the street with shells and balls flying about her. Gordon continued to lead a division in Early's Army of the Valley, fighting at Fisher's Hill and Cedar Creek, where he led an overnight flanking maneuver around the northern base of Massanutten Mountain, followed by an early morning assault that he had devised while previously surveying the Union position from Signal Knob. The assault nearly crushed the Federal line at the Belle Grove Plantation before a "fatal halt" turned the tide of battle and doomed Gordon's successes made earlier in the day.

Returning to Lee's army around Richmond after Early's defeat at the Cedar Creek, Gordon led the Second Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia until the end of the war. In this role, he defended the line in the Siege of Petersburg and commanded the attack on Fort Stedman on March 25, 1865. There he was wounded again, in the leg.

In April 1865, he was pursued by Francis Barlow, who had returned to service just days before, during the Battle of High Bridge in Virginia. At Appomattox Court House, Gordon led his men in the last charge of the Army of Northern Virginia, capturing the entrenchments and several pieces of artillery in his front just before the surrender.

On April 9, 1865, Gordon's cavalry unit drove a brigade of Union infantry from a high ridge near Appomattox; Gordon looked around and realized that Lee`s embattled army was surrounded on three sides by masses of Union infantry. When Lee got word of the situation, he knew that escape was impossible and made up his mind to surrender to Grant that same day. On April 12, Gordon's Confederate troops officially surrendered to Bvt. Maj. Gen. Joshua Chamberlain, acting for Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. Chamberlain recorded this event in detail:

"The momentous meaning of this occasion impressed me deeply. I resolved to mark it by some token of recognition, which could be no other than a salute of arms. Well aware of the responsibility assumed, and of the criticisms that would follow, as the sequel proved, nothing of that kind could move me in the least. The act could be defended, if needful, by the suggestion that such a salute was not to the cause for which the flag of the Confederacy stood, but to its going down before the flag of the Union. My main reason, however, was one for which I sought no authority nor asked forgiveness. Before us in proud humiliation stood the embodiment of manhood: men whom neither toils and sufferings, nor the fact of death, nor disaster, nor hopelessness could bend from their resolve; standing before us now, thin, worn, and famished, but erect, and with eyes looking level into ours, waking memories that bound us together as no other bond;—was not such manhood to be welcomed back into a Union so tested and assured? Instructions had been given; and when the head of each division column comes opposite our group, our bugle sounds the signal and instantly our whole line from right to left, regiment by regiment in succession, gives the soldier's salutation, from the 'order arms' to the old 'carry'—the marching salute. Gordon at the head of the column, riding with heavy spirit and downcast face, catches the sound of shifting arms, looks up, and, taking the meaning, wheels superbly, making with himself and his horse one uplifted figure, with profound salutation as he drops the point of his sword to the boot toe; then facing to his own command, gives word for his successive brigades to pass us with the same position of the manual,—honor answering honor. On our part not a sound of trumpet more, nor roll of drum; not a cheer, nor word nor whisper of vain-glorying, nor motion of man standing again at the order, but an awed stillness rather, and breath-holding, as if it were the passing of the dead!"

In his book Hymns of the Republic: The Story of the Final Year of the American Civil War, S. C. Gwynne states that this account is "one of the most cherished of the bogus Appomattox stories ... [but] ... there is no convincing evidence that it ever happened ... [N]one of the thirty thousand other people who saw the surrender noted any such event". According to Gwynne, Chamberlain was, in his later years, "one of the great embellishers of the war".

"[Chamberlain's] memoirs ... often reflect[ed] the world as he wanted it to be instead of the way it was. For one thing, he did not command the troops at the ceremony, as he claimed, and thus couldn't order the men to salute. His story, moreover, changed significantly over the years. ... Its staying power was mostly rooted in the fact that Gordon never refuted it. The rebel general apparently liked it, and it reflected well on him, as the time went by Gordon added his own liberal embellishments, including the suggestion that Lee himself had led the Army through town. The two generals would clearly have preferred this distinctly Walter Scott-like sequence, described in countless books and memoirs, to the decidedly less romantic one that actually took place."

Though Gordon often claimed he was promoted to lieutenant general, there is no official record of this.

Postbellum career
As the government of the State of Georgia was being reconstituted for readmission to the Union, Gordon ran as the Democratic candidate for governor in 1868, but was defeated by Republican Rufus Bullock in a vote of 83,527 to 76,356. He was a presidential elector in 1868.

Gordon was elected by the state legislature to the US Senate in 1873, as Democrats regained their power in Georgia. In 1879, he became the first ex-Confederate elected to preside over the Senate. He was a strong supporter of the "New South" and industrialization, and he was a part of the Bourbon Triumvirate.

Gordon resigned as senator on May 19, 1880. After his unexpected resignation, Governor Alfred H. Colquitt quickly appointed Joseph E. Brown to succeed Gordon. There were allegations of corruption when it was discovered Gordon resigned to promote a venture for the Georgia Pacific Railway.

He was elected Governor of Georgia in 1886 and served the two-year term. He later returned to national politics, elected by the state legislature to the U.S. Senate in 1890 and serving from 1891 to 1897.

Gordon published memoir of his Civil War service entitled Reminiscences of the Civil War.

He engaged in a series of popular speaking engagements throughout the country. These lectures, entitled "The Last Days of the Confederacy", were very well received in both the North and South. He tended to focus on anecdotes and incidents that humanized soldiers from both sides. This was a period of reconciliation among the soldiers of the North and the South.

General Gordon was the first Commander-in-Chief of the United Confederate Veterans when the group was organized in 1890. He held this position until his death. He died at the age of 71 while visiting his son in Miami, Florida. His body was returned to Georgia, where he was buried in Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta. Upwards of 75,000 people viewed and took part in the memorial ceremonies.

Racial views
Gordon, a former planter, slaveholder and Confederate general, held white supremacist views on race, which he retained for his lifetime. He opposed Republican efforts at Reconstruction and endorsed measures to preserve white-dominated society, including restrictions on freedmen and the use of violence against them.

Author Ralph Lowell Eckert concluded that Gordon was a member of the postwar Ku Klux Klan based on the former general's evasive answers during an 1871 hearing. During congressional testimony in 1871, Gordon denied any involvement with the Klan but acknowledged that he was associated with a secret "peace police" organization, whose sole purpose was the "preservation of peace." Gordon was thought to be the titular head of the Ku Klux Klan in Georgia, but the organization was so secretive that his role was never proven conclusively. In the midst of Reconstruction, a variety of organizations cropped up in the South, which existed to defy reconstruction (i.e. the Ku Klux Klan, White League, and Red Shirts). As many of these groups feared reprisals while the states were occupied by Federal troops, they generally operated in secret.

In 1866, Gordon made substantial contributions in the form of money and materials to help build churches and schools for blacks in Brunswick, Georgia. He advised them to:

"educate themselves and their children, to be industrious, save money and purchase houses, and thus make themselves respectable as property holders, and intelligent people. With submission to the laws, industry and economy, with union among yourselves, and courtesy and confidence toward the whites, you will reach these ends, and constitute an important element in the community."

Gordon hoped to ease the tensions between the blacks and whites in coastal Georgia, which had a long history of enslaved African-American workers on plantations.

Gordon seems to have been most concerned with incidents such as black Federal troops mistreating white Georgians, or alleged activities by members of the Union League and Freedmen's Bureau who were reported to have been inciting newly freed slaves to use violence against whites. Historian Ralph Eckert notes that Gordon was willing to support blacks as long as they submitted to being in a subordinate social and political position. Eckert says that Gordon clearly did not believe in racial equality. He notes an 1868 speech in Charleston, South Carolina (a black majority city), in which Gordon said to the blacks in the audience, "If you are disposed to live in peace with the white people, they extend to you the hand of friendship" but "if you attempt to inaugurate a war of races you will be exterminated. The Saxon race was never created by Almighty God to be ruled by the African."

Legacy and honors

 * Fort Gordon, a U.S. Army installation, and the adjacent Gordon Highway in Augusta, Georgia, were named for Gordon. The fort was renamed Fort Eisenhower as of October 27, 2023, as part of an effort to end naming of US forts after Confederate officials.
 * The John Brown Gordon statue on the grounds of the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta is the only public equestrian statue in the city.
 * U.S. Highway 19 in Gordon's native Upson County, Georgia, is named in his honor.
 * John B. Gordon Road in Gordon's 2nd home Taylor County, Georgia, is named in his honor.
 * A statue dedicated to Gordon stands on the lawn of the Thomaston, Georgia, courthouse.
 * Gordon State College (Georgia) in Barnesville, Georgia, is named for him.
 * John B. Gordon Hall in LaFayette, Georgia is named for Gordon.
 * John B. Gordon Elementary School in Atlanta was named for Gordon.
 * John B. Gordon High School in Decatur, Georgia was also named after him. It operated from 1958 until 1987; Gordon was changed to a middle school and renamed as McNair Middle School.

title: John B. Gordon


text:
Dramatis Personæ (poetry collection)

Dramatis Personæ is a poetry collection by Robert Browning. It was published in 1864.

Background
Browning wrote the collection in London, where he had returned with his son after the death of his wife, Elizabeth Barrett Browning. It was his first publication after a nine-year hiatus. During this time, Browning's reputation was fluctuating, and Dramatis Personae along with The Ring and the Book, which is widely considered his greatest work, were enough to begin a critical re-evaluation of the writer.

The poems
The poems in Dramatis Personae are dramatic, with a wide range of narrators. The narrator is usually in a situation that reveals to the reader some aspect of his personality. Instead of speeches that are intended for others' ears, most are soliloquies. They are generally darker than the poems found in Men and Women, his previous collection, and along with The Ring and the Book these poems embody a turning point in Browning's style. Browning's poetry after this point most notably touches on religion and marital distress, two potent issues of his time period.

This new style was appreciated, as Dramatis Personae sold enough copies for a second edition to be published, which was a first in Browning's career. However, though he gained respect, Browning didn't have much commercial success as a poet. The sales of this work and most notably his Collected Poems were helped by public sympathy after the death of his wife.

Poems in the collection

 * James Lee’s Wife
 * Gold Hair: A Story of Pornic
 * The Worst of It
 * Dîs Aliter Visum
 * Too Late
 * Abt Vogler
 * Rabbi ben Ezra
 * A Death in the Desert
 * Caliban upon Setebos
 * Confessions
 * May and Death
 * Deaf and Dumb
 * Prospice
 * Eurydice to Orpheus
 * Youth and Art
 * A Face
 * A Likeness
 * Mr. Sludge, "The Medium"
 * Apparent Failure
 * Epilogue

title: Dramatis Personæ (poetry collection)


text:
Southeastern University (Washington, D.C.)

Southeastern University was a private, non-profit undergraduate and graduate institution of higher education located in southwestern Washington, D.C. The university lost its accreditation from the Middle States Commission on Higher Education on August 31, 2009. The Commission reported that the college lacked rigor and was losing faculty, enrollment, and financial stability. The 130-year-old school ceased offering classes after an extended summer session in 2009. The closure was very likely linked to the Great Recession.

Southeastern University was established by YMCA and chartered by an Act of Congress in 1879. It had degree programs in Criminal Justice, Child Development, Public Administration, Business Management, Accounting, Finance, Liberal Studies, Computer Science, and Allied Health, a program initiated in 2006 at Greater Southeast Community Hospital. There were also certificate programs in entrepreneurship, property management, real estate, Web development, and others. It was a member of the Consortium of Universities of the Washington Metropolitan Area but lost this affiliation after the Fall 2009 semester.

Through the spring of 2009, Southeastern University had a total enrollment of about 870 students, with 222 of those students pursuing postgraduate degrees. About 77% were locally based, and a majority (60%) were female, but there was also a significant international enrollment. International enrollment had been in decline after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, when the student population shifted from international students to primarily low-income District residents. The university employed approximately 140 faculty and staff before the university was notified of its loss of accreditation.

History
Southeastern began as a series of classes offered by YMCA of the District of Columbia in 1879. The Washington School of accountancy was added in 1907. In 1923, the university incorporated under the authority of the District of Columbia as "Southeastern University of YMCA of the District of Columbia". An August 19, 1937 federal charter from Congress renamed the institution "Southeastern University". The university afterward added other colleges. In 1977, the university received accreditation from the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. During the 1980s, two university officials were fired due to misappropriation of funds, and SEU's student loan default rate reached 42% by 1987. In 1989, the federal government temporarily cut off the university's loan funds. Enrollment declined from 1800 to 500 in the early 1990s.

Closure
Three months before the university was notified it would lose accreditation, Southeastern received $1.5 million from the District of Columbia to fund improvements intended to prevent the school's loss of accreditation. Efforts by the D.C. government to recover the funding after the school lost accreditation were unsuccessful.

Elaine Ryan replaced Charlene Drew Jarvis as university president on March 31, 2009 after Jarvis had been president for 13 years. Prior to losing accreditation, the university was negotiating a merger with Graduate School USA (formerly Graduate School, USDA), also based in Washington, D.C.

In May 2014, the Shakespeare Theatre Company announced plans to redevelop the former site of Southeastern University at 501 Eye Street SW into an actors' campus. These plans fell through. The campus building was demolished and the space became a vacant lot.

Notable alumni

 * Tolulope Akande-Sadipe (born 1966), Nigerian Congresswoman
 * Mohammed Barkindo (1959-2022), Secretary General of OPEC
 * William Ralph Basham (born 1943), Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Director of U.S. Secret Service
 * William C. Bilo (born 1944), United States Army Brigadier General, Deputy Director of the Army National Guard
 * Howard Carwile (1911–1987), Virginia attorney and politician
 * Apirat Kongsompong (born 1960), Commander in Chief of the Royal Thai Army
 * Hervey Gilbert Machen (1916–1994), Maryland Congressman
 * Faisal Shahzad (born 1979), terrorist convicted of the 2010 Times Square car bomb attempt