"Loving the Unlovable," by CD Burr

  

Chopper hopped into my suitcase when he was a puppy (2012)

My 8-pound Yorkshire terrier, Chopper, turned 13 on March 2025 and is my constant companion. He is nearly blind now and can't hear me when I stand behind him and call his name. His personality, however, hasn't changed much since I wrote the following essay in 2017.

For over forty years, our family has raised loyal dogs that we have adored. One would bring us the newspaper early in the morning, and another dog played the piano, fetched balls and frisbees, and prayed. We've been companions with a Shetland Sheepdog, two mixed breeds, a Keeshond, an Irish Setter, and three Schnauzers. All of them were obedient and well-behaved. 

Our current dogs are two Yorkshire terrier littermates, . . . and one of them has broken our record of trainable dogs. 

At ten pounds, Clark W. Griswold "Grizzy" is obedient and cuddly. However, his eight-pound littermate brother, Chopper, detests cuddling and has won the title of "most untrainable and stubborn dog" we have ever loved.  He constantly tests our patience.   The jury is out on whether he is cute, with his enormous ears that spread out, turning him into a Yoda-looking creature with tufts of hair on the pointed ends.  

After five years of us tempting Chopper with doggy treats, chicken, and steak, he refuses to go outside through a perfectly lovely doggy door that swings open to a perfectly lovely grass yard.  He won’t do it.   He prefers a pad indoors or the carpet in the basement.  Grizzy has no problem with the doggy door, popping in and out all day.  

On a summer day, Chopper often sits down before we leave our driveway, creating tension on the leash. Like a furry, long-eared mule, this tiny critter with two-inch legs pulls on his harness, refusing to continue our walk.   He most likely heard a locust, and we wait patiently while he hunts through the grass for his favorite snack.  After clamping his teeth together and imprisoning his prey, Chopper proudly holds up his head and allows us to continue, the insect madly buzzing inside his mouth. At some point, he chomps down and finishes his snack.   Later, I find lacy, iridescent locust wings that he coughed up on the kitchen tile.  

Chopper’s independent, stubborn nature also creates a challenge with commands.  He ignores “stay” when I open a door to the basement and soars down the steps, yipping and running wildly around the pool table like a mad monkey and charging off into the downstairs bedroom—another preferred, adopted bathroom of choice.  He doesn’t cease barking on command and yips and yaps at squirrels, birds, joggers, bicyclists, my piano playing, the doorbell, the garbage trucks, and the neighbors when they are trying to enjoy their pool.

Chopper is also bipolar—sweet one moment, grooming his brother’s ears, and then later, without warning, he begins a deep-throated growl.  He dons a demonic, red-eyed glare and begins creeping toward his brother, snarling with vampire-bat fangs, and then attacks Grizzy, who was sleeping peacefully on the sofa.

And yet, on my most unlovable, ugly days, he greets me with a multitude of kisses on my toes and ankles when I walk into a room, teaching me the importance of loving the unlovable.  During his calm moments, I often look into the adoring brown eyes of my Yoda-mule-monkey-vampire-bat of a dog, pat him on the head, and say, “Good boy.”

CD Burr

First published on Elders Speaking Group blog   10/17/2017; edited on 05/07/2025 

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Child Labor--An Egregious Business Practice of the Past?

Library of Congress photo and description:   "Manuel, the young shrimp-picker, five years old, and a mountain of child-labor oyster shells behind him. He worked last year (1911). Understands not a word of English. Dunbar, Lopez, Dukate Company. Location: Biloxi, Mississippi." photographer Lewis Wickes Hine, 1874-1940.

Is child labor an egregious business practice of the past, where children work long hours without breaks or work in hazardous conditions?  

While much better than a hundred years ago, child labor continues in my grandchildren's lifetime. 

Consider the following quotes from the Department of Labor website: 

"Since 2019, the U.S. Department of Labor has seen an 88 percent increase nationwide in children employed illegally. In fiscal year 2023, federal investigators identified 955 child labor violations nationwide with 5,792 children at risk – including 502 working in hazardous occupations illegally – and assessed more than $8 million in penalties for employers found in violation." 

"In fiscal year 2024, we concluded 736 investigations that found child labor violations, a 23% decrease from the previous year. We found 4,030 children employed in violation of the law, a 31% increase since 2019, and assessed more than $15.1 million in penalties, an 89% increase from the previous year."

The violations include children under 18 working six days a week, running hazardous machinery such as meat-processing machines, 14-year-olds driving forklifts or vehicles, and breaks only if the child works an eight-hour shift. 

According to the EPI (Economic Policy Institute), six states have tried to weaken child labor laws, but advocates are fighting back.   The Guardian reported that in March 2025, the Trump administration abolished US funding for nearly 70 programs that fought to end trafficking and child labor in other countries.

The lure of cheap child labor is greater than ever.  

Find your cause and demand decency.

CD Burr

This essay also appears on Elder Speaking

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Grandma Burr warned “Never Trust Russia!” by C.D. Burr

 

 Grandma Marie Burr's brothers: Gottfried and Friedrich Bamesberger, 1896 

Until she died in 1967, my husband's Grandma Marie Burr occasionally shared old photos of her handsome brothers in their Russian uniforms. She described her anguish at their disappearance around 1913 and the hard times she experienced as a young mother in Russia (now Ukraine).  She recalled the tensions of the early 1900s -- how the Russians took their land, dissolved their German community of Klein Neudorf, and sent her brothers to the salt mines with life sentences. 

In the early 1800s, Russia promised hundreds of German immigrants free farmland, autonomy, and no compulsory military service.  However, several generations later, after the 1905 Russian revolution, updated policies displaced thousands of families like the Burrs and Bamesbergers. In a heavy accent, Grandma Burr ended her stories of life in southern Russia with a warning:  "Never trust Russia!"

Marie was pregnant when she immigrated to the United States in 1913, debarking on a ship from Hamburg, Germany.  Accompanying her were her husband, Michael, and six children--a seventh deceased child remained behind in a grave.  Six more children were born in Cheyenne County, Kansas, including my father-in-law, Albert, and her last child, a son who died in infancy.  Marie was a widow in February 1925 when she buried the infant on a windswept hill in a cemetery next to the Salem Lutheran Church. Michael had died four months earlier. 

Twenty years before the Burrs arrived, my Zimbelman ancestors, with four sons and three daughters, emigrated from Rohrbach, Russia/Ukraine. Michael and Katherina had buried seven children on Russian soil and moved before their oldest son turned 21, the age for conscription into the Russian army.   The Zimbelmans settled in Cheyenne County in 1893-- each son eventually cultivating substantial farmland with Russian wheat seeds.  

I am grateful for the sacrifices of our ancestors, immigrants from a hostile land that is once again filled with people suffering from Russian aggression.

I pray  . . .

            --for peace in Ukraine, home of our ancestors, Michael and Marie Bamesberger and Michael and Katherina Zimbelman,

            -- for all displaced persons who have emigrated from violent homelands,

            -- for compassionate government immigration policies because, through our ancestors, “we were once strangers in a strange land.”  (Leviticus 19:34)

--Gratefully submitted by CD Burr

This essay first appeared on Elders Speaking 8/27/2024   Grandma Burr Warned

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Foreword to Bad Boys on the Family Tree by CD Burr

Buried three wives; the second one was killed by a shotgun wound to the chest  in 1833.  No one was arrested.

Known for a silver plate attached to his skull; arrived home unconscious and slumped over on the back of his horse in 1857.  He was 33 years old.

Robbed two banks in Stewart and Houston Counties of Tennessee in the 1930s; refused to blame or name others involved. Made skillets in prison and gave one to his mother.

Bad Boys on the Family Tree

and the

1861 Courtroom Murder in Dover, Tennessee

Foreword

For decades, I was equally fascinated and repelled by family stories of antebellum gun-toting, slave-owning patriarchs. They were Tennessee bad boys—rough, tough, independent.  Then, during a Daniel family gathering, a cousin’s spouse, Dan Covington, recounted two tales of murder that involved my Daniel and Sexton ancestors, stories that were so violent and brutal, I wanted to erase the patriarchs’ names from my mother’s 1960s pedigree chart. 

The first murder was a horrendous account of a stepmother who was shot and killed in her rural home around 1833 in front of her toddler.  Imagine the scene in Dexter when he remembers his mother’s brutal slaying. Some descendants speculate that a stepson murdered her, possibly my great-great-great-grandfather, Simon Daniel, who was undoubtedly skilled with lethal weapons by age ten. I kept the stepmother’s murder in the back of my mind while rummaging through antebellum court records. I didn’t even know her name and court records regarding her killing seemed nonexistent. On the other hand, there were plenty of handwritten records on an 1861 courtroom murder.

 The second murder described by Dan Covington was just as bloody and even more audacious than the stepmother’s killing. Allegedly involving two of my kinsmen with the last names “Daniel” and “Sexton,” the assassination occurred during an 1861 hearing before a magistrate and dozens of spectators. After Daniel’s gun misfired, Sexton shot and killed a man on the witness stand. Their arrogance and flagrant disregard for the law appalled me. I wondered who were these people?  Who were these men who executed a woman in her home and a witness in a courtroom? As chilling as the prospect was, I wanted to know if I was truly related to the murderers with surnames that land on two branches of my family tree.  

Those questions compelled me to investigate the antebellum courtroom murder by gathering court documents and sorting through family stories that were sometimes flimsy and unreliable. I researched my Tennessee ancestors' court records, culture, and genealogy for five years, absorbing facts, dissecting stories, and discovering lives lost to history.  A true-crime narrative evolved during the investigation, with intriguing questions and details about my ancestors and their Southern backgrounds.  Bad Boys on the Family Tree and the 1861 Courtroom Murder in Dover, Tennessee, however, did not develop into just another book about murder and entertaining bad-boy stories.  It also expanded into personal discovery and reflection as I unraveled mysteries surrounding these ostensibly brutal backwoodsmen.

Bad Boys on the Family Tree and the 1861 Courtroom Murder in Dover, Tennessee

Because of its many facets, my nonfiction book about bad boys and an 1861 murder appeals to a diverse audience by blending true crime, genealogy, memoir, and historical investigation.  I occasionally use various fonts to help the reader navigate through personal reflections and citations of printed and handwritten documents.

Calibri italics designates creative storytelling in the chapter introductions and musings in the body of the work. Italicized passages are my words to help tell the story.

Times New Roman indicates nineteenth-century printed documents, such as newspapers.

Lucida Calligraphy conveys hand-written testimony, letters, and other documents.

To build excitement and intrigue, the book introduces most chapters with creative storytelling, borrowing details from 1861 court documents, including over sixty pages of witness testimony. Three chapter introductions display transcriptions of original, hand-written court documents, which often reveal the defendants' signatures and names of attorneys and judges.

The chapters following these introductions chronicle my mother’s family history, immersed in the Southern culture of bad boys.  By the third chapter, the narrative expands into facts surrounding the 1861 courtroom murder. Witness testimonies provide crime details, including the victims' and defendants' identities and personalities, and why their quarrels ignited a deadly “difficulty.” 

Knowing that Daniel family storytellers often sacrifice facts for entertainment value, I began digging for realities behind the courtroom murder story.  My initial questions involved the fates of Daniel and Sexton as described by family raconteurs.  Did Sexton shoot the witness in the head in front of a judge and gallery? Did the absconders—Daniel and Sexton--flee out the front door of the courthouse, run down the streets of Dover, jump into the Cumberland River, and escape to Mexico? Or were they conscripted by the Confederacy to fight and die in the Civil War? 

Among documented facts that answer those questions, Bad Boys on the Family Tree and the 1861 Murder in Dover, Tennessee offers a Midwestern exploration of my contempt for antebellum ancestors who enslaved individuals and revered violence—a contempt often energized by embellished family stories that exacerbated my stereotypes of the aggressive, “redneck” Southern male.   

As the narrative progresses, I make note of my mother’s continued enthusiasm for the South and the Confederate Flag, which clashes with my championship of the North’s causes. I wrestle with biases and try to understand my Southern roots. Curiously, my exploration evolves into something unpredictable. As I gather data and transcribe witness testimony, I become acquainted with antebellum souls whom I had judged to be misogynistic, racist, ignorant, and cruel.  I discover voices of the past-- justices of the peace and murderers, jailers and gentleman farmers, and mothers, sisters, and daughters.

Bad Boys on the Family Tree and the 1861 Courtroom Murder in Dover, Tennessee thrives on those voices.

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A Must-Read Book: The Dragon from Chicago: The Untold Story of an American Reporter in Nazi Germany (2024)

My fifth-grade teacher gave us an assignment on Friday afternoons:  listen to TV news or read newspaper articles over the weekend and share a current event on Monday morning.  It was 1965, with plenty of civil rights news, which helped us understand the importance of a free press in a democracy.   By the time I was thirteen and toured communist East Berlin in 1968, I realized, with a deep sense of injustice, that countries behind the Iron Curtain—including East Germany and the Soviet Union—controlled the news and considered a free press as the enemy of the state. 

These days (2025), I support the press by buying subscriptions to newspapers and recommending books that highlight freedom of the press, such as The Dragon from Chicago: The Untold Story of an American Reporter in Nazi Germany (2024) by historian Pamela D. Toler.

Within a week of my request, my local library purchased Toler’s nonfiction book about a female European correspondent in Berlin during Hitler’s rise to power.  The author explains on her website that her writing and research travel “beyond the familiar boundaries of American History” by introducing historical figures who have faded from attention but have powerful stories. 

The Dragon from Chicago surpassed my expectations in content, style, and pertinence to our time.  

Toler resurrects the story of Sigrid Schultz, a young American-born female reporter living in Berlin spanning two world wars. Toler’s scholarly book is well-documented but not overly pedantic or lengthy.  At 288 pages, it reads like a novel, featuring a beguiling female protagonist, infamous villains, entertaining plot twists, and cited facts that Toler deftly weaves into the story’s fabric.  An occasional author’s comment distracts from the narrative but does not occur often enough to dismiss Toler as a trustworthy historian.

Similar to many World War II histories and novels, The Dragon From Chicago mentions Nazi atrocities, however, it does not overwhelm the reader with numerous detailed examples. The focus is on  Schultz and her reactions to events leading up to Hitler’s rise to power in Berlin, the escalating war, and her undaunted determination to report the truth in a male-dominated profession while embedded among some of the most ruthless leaders in history.

Fluent in Five Languages, Schultz becomes Chief Correspondent

Schultz is portrayed as an articulate, engaging, and ingenious journalist.  Fluent in five languages (German, French, Italian, English, and Norwegian), she became an asset to the Chicago Tribune’s Foreign Press (Berlin Bureau) in the 1930s and eventually convinced her male editors in the U.S. to name her Chief Correspondent.  She broke through a male-dominated profession and culture by socializing and drinking hard liquor with male informants and journalists at bars and state-sponsored events.  Although her health suffered, she continued to work nonstop, always seeking a scoop.  Nazis took notice of this petite woman who “dropped the working girl meekness” and asked brazen questions at press conferences. Hermann Göring, a powerful Nazi leader, enjoyed verbally sparring with Schultz and dubbed her “the Dragon from Chicago.”

Toler’s research reveals more than Sigrid Schultz, the foreign correspondent; we also learn about Schultz the woman: her fascinating parents, social and love life, personal hardships of war, and the determination to host modest, cheerful dinner parties.  

The appearance of a “normal” life was essential to Schultz as she honed her journalistic prowess and honored a self-imposed censorship. The Dragon often feared for her life, understanding that the Nazis could charge her with treason and sentence her to be hanged for reporting anything offensive to Hitler. She complained to her editors about being stalked, interrogated, and “muzzled.”  Nazis questioned her several times about Judaism in her maternal line, which she denied.  Through hardships of war, such as near starvation during severe rationing and bombs exploding near her office, she never wavered in her task to get the news out.  She understood the value of her job—the value of a "foreign" free press.

Covering Hitler's Abuse of Power

Early in her career,  Sigrid Schultz broke story after story about Hitler’s abuse of power, hoping the United States would help curb the spread of fascism. Based on trusted informants,  she revealed the “Euthanasia story”—Hitler’s plan to save the state money by killing 80,000 insane and crippled people.  She also wrote an article titled “Hitler Gazes at Stars to Guide His Decisions.”   She often found herself in a stressful balancing act as she zeroed in on German interest stories directed at her escalating American readership.  On one hand, her editor was an isolationist and feared her stories might be war-mongering; on the other hand, she was compelled to tell as much truth as she could about Nazi terrorism. 

One of the First Women Reporters on the Front Line

 Near the war’s end, the Tribune and  McCall’s women’s magazine hired her to report from the frontline of the war and gather personal interest stories with a German angle.  She was with the American soldiers when they discovered the horrors of a death camp and interviewed the captured Nazi war criminal Göring, who remembered the petite dragon’s fierceness and honesty.  After the war, Sigrid Schultz lost her job and fame, but always feared a resurgence of fascism.  She wrote a book, published in 1944: Germany Will Try It Again. Will the U.S. heed her warning about fascism eighty years later?

 

 --CD Burr

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"Books that Shifted My Thinking" by CD Burr

Opening a book for the first time often fills me with a subtle wave of adrenaline, similar to the excitement I feel hours before my team's first game of the season.  Unlike a sporting event, my book and I are alone as I cozy into a chair and focus on the first sentence. I'm eager to establish a new relationship with the author, someone who has dedicated years and sometimes decades to write and publish ideas, descriptions, and storylines.  I learn something from nearly every genre — ranging from the classics and entertaining mysteries to poetry and nonfiction tomes with extensive footnotes. 

Occasionally, a book will cause a major shift or transition within me, and I can no longer hold on to an old way of thinking.  Although dozens of books have created shifts, the five books below (three pictured) have firmly established themselves in my psyche.  I often think of these books while writing or making everyday decisions, even though I read two of them over forty years ago.

LET'S HAVE HEALTHY CHILDREN By Adelle Davis. I read this book in 1979 when I was pregnant with my first child.  Davis, described as a "food expert," provides "the vital nutritional dos and don'ts for expectant mothers, babies, and growing children" (1972). I never adhered to Davis's stringent focus on supplements; however, I was impressed with her evidence that sugar caused many health and psychological problems. To the dismay of my grandparents and other relatives, I shielded my toddlers from candy and sodas, allowing a small cookie after meals. I also avoided buying foods containing dyes and preservatives as much as I could. By my third baby in 1986, I occasionally caved to my three children's love of boxed mac and cheese and fruit roll-ups. Davis's premises continue to instill in me a decades-long mindset to observe my body's reaction to foods and to read labels.

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD by Harper Lee (1960).  I saw the movie in 1964 and read the book three times since 1980. (Not pictured.) This novel laid the foundation for my interest in social justice issues when I was nine.  I could relate to the little girl Scout's curiosity, but it was her father Atticus's courage in confronting racism that continues to inspire me to advocate for equality and justice.

THE NEW INTERNATIONAL STUDY BIBLE (1985). I  have read, studied, and contemplated scriptures and notes in the NIV since I bought it in 1985. (Pictured.) This study bible introduced me to the power of scholarly notes accompanying Judeo-Christian scriptures.  Notes by an ecumenical group of theologians provided me with a deeper understanding of the original meanings. After nearly four decades, I have discovered diverse lenses through which I might interpret the words of numerous biblical voices and writers.  The lens I choose to uphold is that God is the god of love, social justice, healing, and inclusion--connecting with each of us -- rather than a god of retribution who glorifies hate and the killing of innocents.  The Love-Thy-Neighbor lens becomes not only a litmus test for the soundness of a Biblical verse but also the way I want to live my life.  

QUIET: THE POWER OF INTROVERTS IN A WORLD THAT CAN'T STOP TALKING by Susan Cain (2012).  I read this book in 2017. (Pictured.) One powerful cultural message I received growing up was that only extroverts can succeed socially and professionally.  This book allowed me — an introspective, rather timid, and sensitive woman who has never been able to tell a joke in a crowd of friends — to embrace my quiet nature.  After reading this book, I've become more accepting of my innate tendencies to embrace solitude and live a simple, peaceful life. Interestingly, acknowledging the power of my introversion has also made me more comfortable conversing with others. 

THE POWER OF NOW by Eckhart Tolle (2004 edition).  I first read this book in 2002 when I was suffering from a debilitating illness.  (Pictured) I found it interesting but too elementary for my needs. However, twenty years later, in 2022, as I listened to the book while walking on a nature trail, the message created a profound shift in my awareness.  It offers a practice that calms me when the world seems on fire and placates my chattering monkey brain.  For the first time in years, I no longer need a sleep aid. Being present has created awe-filled moments during my nature walks. I listen more attentively when others speak.  The beauty of this practice is that it can coexist with my deeply rooted-Christian faith.   

These five books have influenced my spiritual, physical, and intellectual development. However, I learn from every book I read -- nonfiction or novel. Even when the writing is shallow or challenges my stubborn ideas, specific phrases or words might cause a subtle shift or an awakening.  I do not adopt every attitude, platitude, and idea I come across. 

The awakening is like a crack that allows unique perspectives, ideas, criticisms, and lessons that might bolster my own soulful "knowing" or simply educate me. The more I read, the more I realize I have a lot to learn.  

--C. Burr

This essay appeared in an Elders Speaking blog post in June 2024

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Before childhood vaccines: "Our Darling" Cemetery marker (1924)

 

                                                    "Our Darling" Inez Pearl Daniel

My great-grandparents--Alonzo and Evie Daniel--buried three children who might have lived if vaccines and antibiotics had been available. My grandpa's baby sister Inez died during one of the epidemics raging through Tennessee that year (influenza, measles, malaria).

Most healthy kids today might survive these diseases without vaccines, but why risk extremely high temperatures, encephalitis, and pneumonia? Or spread a potentially deadly virus to others with compromised immune systems?

                                               "We Will Meet Again"  Anita Ann Daniel

According to the United States Mortality Statistics of 1926, rural Tennessee recorded the following deaths among white men, women, and children:

Five-year-old Anita Ann Daniel was one of them.

• 362 deaths......Typhoid and Paratyphoid fever
• 86 deaths........Malaria
• 3 deaths..........Smallpox
• 218 deaths......Measles
• 24 deaths........Scarlet Fever
• 226 deaths......Whooping Cough
• 205 deaths......Diphtheria
• 1090 deaths....Influenza
• 26 deaths........Erysipelas (bacterial skin infection usually caused by Streptococcus pyogenes)
• 15 deaths........Meningococcus meningitis
• 1658 deaths....Tuberculosis (respiratory)
• 48 deaths........Tuberculosis (Meninges)
• 150 deaths......Tuberculosis (Other)
• 742 deaths......Cancer
• 60 deaths........Rheumatism

Why so few Smallpox deaths? There was a vaccine for it.

"In heaven there is one angel more" Bobbie H. Daniel

Penicillin and antibiotics might have saved Bobbie, my grandpa's 12-year-old brother, who suffered from a series of kidney infections and "bad tonsils."

What about autism and vaccines?  My 39-year-old daughter has mild autism, which wasn't diagnosed until she was an adult.  When she was a child, psychologists diagnosed only the most severe forms of autism.  Nevertheless, I suspected autism and despite what special ed teachers and school psychologists surmised, I did not think she would "grow out" of the social awkwardness and learning disabilities.  

Thirty-five years ago, I listened to rumors about vaccines and autism and wondered if all of those childhood vaccines may have contributed to her delays.  But I was hesitant to embrace those rumors: My little girl had shown signs as an infant--long before her series of vaccines.  I observed other children in our family, neighborhood, and classrooms who were required to have childhood vaccines to enter the public school system. I thought they all seemed "normal."  As science debunked the theories of vaccine-induced autism, I dismissed those theories and continued immunizing my children.   

From my own experience raising an undiagnosed autistic child in the late 1980s and early 1990s, I am convinced the rise in autism is due to an increase in diagnoses over the past twenty years.   

A shorter version of this essay appears in the  Elders Speaking group blog.

All photos taken at Cedar Valley Cemetery (TN) by CD Burr

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