Famine or Great Hunger?   Most of the world considers Ireland's horrific decade of 1845 to 1855 as a famine. – The Irish Famine, The Potato Famine, or even The Great Famine. In the Irish (Gaelic) language, that dark period is called An Gorta Mór, or The Great Hunger. Why not just call it a famine? The explanation seems simple: a fungus-like pathogen triggered a potato blight, leading to widespread death. Humans like to keep things simple and use neutral terms – famine feels less uncomfortable than hunger or starvation. According to Webster's, famine is "an extreme scarcity of food." The Cambridge Dictionary defines it as "a situation in which there is not enough food for a great number of people, causing illness and death." Undeniably, Ireland had plenty of food, and the term 'famine' doesn't fully capture the complexity of the crisis. The causes of the mass suffering and death were far more than just a potato infestation. Ireland produced more than enough food to feed its population throughout the Great Hunger. The British continued to export shiploads of cattle, sheep, pigs, wheat, barley, oats, butter, cheese, milk, chickens, eggs, and fish while the Irish starved. The exports were a 'money crop' and not a 'food crop' and could not be interfered with. The British government fiercely committed to laissez-faire economic policies and believed it should not interfere with the free market. In 1847, at the height of the famine, approximately 4,000 ships carrying food left Ireland while the Irish were dying of starvation and disease. The British government's priority was to maintain free trade and protect the profits of absentee landlords. Some international charitable efforts, such as grain shipments from Massachusetts and Mexico, were blocked and left to rot in storage. In less than a decade, between 1 million and 1.5 million people died from starvation and related diseases, representing 12% to 18% of the total Irish population.       After centuries of systematic brutality, subjection, and hatred, many British saw the famine as divine intervention to reduce Ireland's surplus population. Charles Trevelyan, the British official in charge of famine relief, famously said: "The Famine is the judgment of God upon the Irish. It is not for me to make it my business to interfere with the arrangements of Providence." Great Famine or Great Hunger? It depends on who writes the history.     My own country, the United States of America, has a lot of problems right now. Many issues have a far greater impact, but this story caught my eye. Last week, the Department of Defense removed a page about baseball legend Jackie Robinson from its website Instead searches landed on “404 - Page not found” with a link to DEI. DEI is a neutral, safe term. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, however, is difficult to be openly against. Let’s keep it simple DEI: DEI bad. Within a day, the public outcry was so loud that the page was restored. The same thing happened to content honoring the Tuskegee Airmen, the Navajo Code Talkers, and the history-making female fighter pilots. A DOD official told reporters that the website removals were a mistake and the content had been republished. Later that day, the Pentagon press secretary defended the decision to remove DEI-related content from the Department of Defense historical archives. In the statement, he referred to DEI as "Discriminatory Equity Ideology”, claiming that it “divides the force, erodes unit cohesion and interferes with the services' core warfighting mission." Curious, I checked the DOD website today and searched for Jackie Robinson. The only item in the "Sports Heroes Who Served" section was about Pee Wee Reese.           Reese was a solid player with a lifetime batting average of .269, but his legacy is tied to something greater. He is best remembered for standing by Jackie Robinson when Robinson faced relentless abuse from crowds and fellow players. A bronze statue commemorates the moment when Reese, a white man from Kentucky, put his arm around Robinson—Major League Baseball’s first African-American player—in a show of solidarity that helped quiet a hostile crowd. There are some questions about the complete veracity of the story, but there is no doubt that Reese was a true friend to Robinson and showed courage in the face of racial vitriol. He was an All-Star, a Hall-of-Famer, and a war veteran. In 1943, according to the DOD website, he enlisted in the Navy and served in Guam as the shortstop and assistant coach for the 3rd Marine Division baseball team. He also played baseball while stationed in Virginia and Hawaii. It took me 20 minutes to find the restored page about Jackie Robinson, one of the greatest and perhaps most influential baseball players of all time. Here is the entry about his military service:       Robinson was drafted and assigned to a segregated Army cavalry unit in Fort Riley, Kansas. In January 1943, Robinson was commissioned a second lieutenant. Robinson was then assigned to Fort Hood, Texas, where he joined the 761st "Black Panthers" tank battalion. On July 6, 1944, Robinson boarded an Army bus. The driver ordered Robinson to move to the back of the bus, but Robinson refused. The driver called the military police, who took Robinson into custody. He was subsequently court martialed, but he was acquitted.       This article popped up as I was writing the piece about the Great Hunger, and it hit me: Who writes our history?  I know, I know, there are more impactful things happening in our country right now but it feels symbolic - as symbolic as it does unjust.  The story, I believe, isn't that the DOD had republish web pages or they are hard to find. It’s that someone thought it would be a good idea to erase this history—and they have the power to do so. Elections have consequences, and the look-up feature on the website is "Powered by Search.gov".     The events of 1977 and my trip to Europe come flashing back. On a cold winter day in Munich, I took a public bus to Dachau, the concentration camp. Someday, I will have the courage to write about that experience. I can vividly recall exiting the horrific exhibits into a snow-covered field that held a single rectangular sign telling us: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."  – George Santayana   Thank you - F. Michael Sheehan Elbows Up!