It''s a good day to die

There's not another human being in the history books that I admire more than Crazy Horse. There are some others that are close, but Crazy Horse is definitely my favorite.
I suppose I'm not the only one that admires him because there is a memorial built to honor him and his people in South Dakota.



He was credited with saying 'it's a good day to die' to motivate his warriors to fight. Seemed to work pretty well for him.





Tašunka Witko was his Lakota name. He was a member of the Oglala band of the Lakotas otherwise known by you white eyes as the Sioux.












Crazy Horse never wanted leadership. It just fell on him and a leader he was, one of the best ever.


He was a bit of a mystic and he never lost a battle. Against other native American peoples or against the great US Calvary he went undefeated which is quite an accomplishment.
He only lived to be about 30 to 35 years old, depending on who you talk to, and there is controversy over who killed him. Some say it was a US soldier, others say it was one of his own people. Either way, he was stabbed in the back while in captivity.

As I wrote in another blog, I have always been obsessed with the Vietnam War and I always believed I would have gone. One thing I do know about war is that you never how you will react to battle until you are actually in one. Bullets start flying and you pretty quickly know just how brave you really are.

Audie Murphy was one of the bravest soldiers of all time. Highly decorated in WWII and one of the more decorated soldiers of all time. He was rejected by the Marines and the paratroopers because he was too slight of build. In his prime, he stood all of five foot five.
But, like Crazy Horse, he displayed bravery that was rare in a man.
They say we are all afraid and that the only difference between a brave man and a coward is how they react to that fear.

What I don't know and may never know about myself is how I would react when the bullets start flying. Guess I will never know whether I am a warrior like a Crazy Horse or an Audie Murphy.
All I do know for sure is that Crazy Horse was a hero and in spite of what he said to excite his people to fight, today is not a good day to die.