Hope

Despite what they're reporting in the news these days, hope is not dead. Reverse side of a tombstone, Arlington National Cemetery, July 2009. (For more Arlington tombstones, click the "Arlington" tag below or on the right side of this page.)

E Pluribus Unum, Arlington Memorials

E Pluribus Unum (Latin = "out of many, one"). The people interred at Arlington National Cemetery may come from many different origins, but all occupy a shared place of honor in the collective memory. Here, a rose garden monument bears the motto from the Seal of the United States.

Above, men from different backgrounds take neighboring grave plots: Gallagher is a surname of Irish origin (from Gaelic Ó Gallchóbhair); Cohen (‫כֹּהֵן‬) is a common Jewish surname.

For more Arlington cemetery tombstones, see here and here; see also the following posting.

Translingual Name Convergence

Arlington National Cemetery, July 2009. Lt. Gen. Claire Lee Chennault (b. Commerce, TX) led the "Flying Tigers" division against the Japanese in WWII. He later adopted the Chinese name Chen Na-De (陳纳德), a phonetic approximation of "Chennault" which appears on the reverse of his tombstone (right-hand photo, above).

It just so happened Chennault married a Beijing-born woman named 陳香梅 (Chen Xiang-mei), who was later known as Anna Chen Chennault. In this case the wife took her husband's name (Chennault), but one could equally say that the husband took his wife's (陳 = Chen).

Arlington Tombstone

Did he support pork-barrel spending? Arlington National Cemetery, July 2009.

P.S. From The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd Edition (1989): bacon, v. 1890 Congress. Rec. Aug. 8887/1 "We consumed or sold our own pork, and we baconed it ourselves." In case you are interested, here's this congressman's official biography.