The Wings of Doing the Right Thing

 On January 6, 2021, donald trump’s attempt to mount an insurrection against our Congress was not a victory for him. It backfired because of the steadfast integrity of one man, Vice President Mike Pence. 

Our Vice President, Mike Pence, did the right thing on January 6, 2023. Don’t let anyone tell you differently. In  so doing, he rescued our Constitutional Republic from disaster.

Later, when our US House of Representatives appointed a committee to investigate the insurrection of Jan6, many profound testimonies were heard. But there is one testimony that surpasses all of them in its importance. That was the testimony of Mike Pence’s Counsel, Greg Jacob. Mr. Jacob took hold of  the Lord's enabling to  do the right thing.

During the violent attack on our Capital and our Congress, dutiful defenders of Vice President Pence had hustled him down to a secure location beneath the main Capitol building. While our Vice President was getting extreme maga pressure to do the wrong thing— to join the confederacy of trumpian traitors— his Secret Service defenders shuffled Mike quickly down to that secure location. Months later, when Congress was conducting an investigation to find out who had mounted the insurrection, the US House Jan6 committee interviewed Vice President Pence’s lawyer/defender, Greg Jacob.

Mr. Jacob’s testimony presented an explanation of the ordeal that Mike Pence and his staff were forced to endure while waiting for the mob to be defeated and arrested.  His account of doing the right thing when it mattered the most represents the long history of Jacob's ladder providing a divinely-enabled ascent  to do the right thing.

Greg Jacob testified that, in that hour of peril and confusion, he turned to a divine source to find some direction about how they should endure and prevail in this extremely dangerous attack. 

Greg Jacob testified:

“. . . my faith really sustained me through it. Down in the secure location, I pulled out my Bible, read through it. . . took great comfort. Daniel 6 was where I went. . . Daniel had become second-in-command in Babylon. . .a pagan nation. But he completely and faithfully serves.   He refuses an order from the king that he cannot  (must not) follow . . . he does his duty in consistence with his oath to God. And I felt that that was what had played out that day.”

In that moment, Mike Pence grabbed hold of the ancient enablement to do the right thing:

Why did  Mike Pence and Greg Jacob accept the peril of trump's violent attack by resisting it and standing with our People and our Constitution to do the right thing? Greg Jacob explained it this way to the Jan6 committee:

“The Vice President did not want to take any chance that the world would see the Vice President of the United States fleeing the United States Capitol. He was determined that we would complete the work that we had set out to do that day—that it was his Constitutional duty to see through. . . and that the rioters who had breached the Capitol would not have the satisfaction of  disrupting the proceedings beyond the day on which they were supposed to be completed.”

Since that fateful day, many have commended Mike Pence for his courage in defending our Constitution, our Congress and our nation’s Rule of Law. But some people  criticize his Christian faith. 

We need to understand that it was Mike Pence’s faith in God that motivated him to do the right thing when it mattered the most.

The Bible teaches that Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. 

We are fortunate today that Vice President Mike Pence’s fear of the Lord compelled him to ignore, and thereby defeat, the fear of trump and his band of murderous rebels. But he didn't do it all by himself. The Lord, Greg Jacob and a few other brave souls assisted our dutiful Vice President in doing the right thing when it mattered most.

Glass half-Full

The Gaza Dilemma

 What happened when the blimey Brits

sailed across  Atlantic waves?

They morphed to wily yankee twits,

forgetting how a Brit behaves.

 

But when Churchill made the call

to Roosevelt, back in ’41 or ’42

Sir Winston knew, above it all

what he and Franklin had to do,

 

Because that hitler asshole with depraved aggression 

had some ancient curse or grudge

You know the one: with the murd’rous obsession

that loudmouthed little mustachio’d sludge

 

who ordered all them murd’rous prison camps

to extinguish the Jews and other decent souls.

They gassed them and hauled ‘em out on ramps

and dumped them into big mass-grave holes.

 

Such depravity mankind had never seen

on such a massive scale they fell

Not even in our wildest dreams . . .

but only in that depraved sig heil hell.

 

Now we know that after that holocaust,

the Jews returned to their ancient land.

They forged a new Israel out of what had been lost.

Natives had to make room in that Palestinian sand.

 

As ancient tribes dwell again in close solemnity,

This would require a constant, peaceful Levity.

I pray Israelis don’t over-react to hamas enmity.

Lord let them not descend to third reich depravity.

Glass half-Full

A Special Child ls Born

  

An ancient story, but true. . . Just believe it:

  In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to their own town to register.

 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David.  He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child.  While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.

 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.  But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.  Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.  This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,  “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger.  When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.  But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.  The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

http://www.careyrowland.com

Serfin' on BuzzAntheum

  With apologies to William Butler Yeats, (1933)

This is no world for old folks. The young 

in ticking tock of imagery online

wiyle away their frickin’ time.

Caught up in  world wide web we all reflect;

viral streams void ancient intellect.

Our hallowed halls, those ancient wells of words

lollygag in digital neglect

while we stampede in viral herds.

 

A human mind is but a paltry thing

a dappled mass, a neuronic fling.

Oh Soul! do shout do sing, and louder ring

these clanging bells of bygone bling

Too far gone now’s the dusty study halls

those monuments of creeping ivy cover

these brickish ramparts, hollowed stalls

What’s our next diversion to discover?

 

O sages in God’s ancient flame

as in enlightened ages gone

Can we recall that Holy Name?

Can we cast off what before was on?

Do we twitter time away today

fastened in a frickin’ net?

I find it really hard to say

just what it is I came to get.

Once out of nature we shall never take

our identity from any natural thing,

But such a form as online denizens do make

of click’ed images and shiny bling

to make a citizen think he’s still awake

not just another online thing.

We summon images they come they go

as if we’re frickin’ Michelangelo.

Glass Chimera

Justice or Election Interference?

 Are our Courts of Law setting a path of Justice, or are they conducting a campaign of “election interference”?

We the People are now being divided over this question. 

Are we willing to let one man disable our Justice system?

Donald trump launched his campaign to disable our Justice system in December of 2021, when he gathered a team of his lackeys to devise a conspiracy to steal the election. 

He claimed that the election was stolen so that he could steal the election. The devil’s in the details. 

He summoned a mob to disrupt and disable our Congress, so they could not count the Electoral votes because our Representatives and Senators were being attacked by a violent mob.

Making appropriate use of our Constitution and our Courts, We the People having been trying, for three years, to determine precisely who was responsible for that Jan6 insurrection and to sentence the guilty people to appropriate punishment.

The path of Justice through our Courts is slow; that’s because we want to get it right. We want punishment for crimes to be administered only to guilty people. 

Our Justice system is determining who those guilty people are; it is a deliberate, carefully structured process, so that Justice will be correct and appropriate to the guilty offenders. 

While it seems obvious to me who is guilty of calling for the attack on our Capitol, the Courts need to make the decisions. 

Decisions, if done properly, according to lawful process, take time.

At this time, we have courts in Washington DC, in Georgia, in Florida and New York, whose job it is to determine who is guilty for the Jan6 crime of insurrection against our Congress and against We the People.

Justice would not be served if we were to terminate, or delay, those trials just because donald is calling our Judges and Judicial procedures . . . “election interference.” 

The election will take place in November of next year, 2024. We the People will decide at that time who is to be President, but We will not suspend our Justice process just for him, who has demonstrated no intent to abide by our Constitutional Rule of Law.

donald trump was interfering in the election of 2020; now he is already attempting to interfere with the next election.

But he is the one interfering. Don’t let him fool you. Don't let him steal our Justice.

Glass half-Full

Help from Hannah Arendt

The embers of World War and nazi destruction had cooled only six years prior when, in 1951, Hanna Arendt published her post-war historical opus, The Origins of Totalitarianism.

In chapter 12, Totalitarianism in Power, Arendt concludes section 1 of that chapter (page 418 of the Mariner Harper Collins paperback edition) with an analysis of Hitler’s use of organized power.

 Third Reich power had not been built up by wealth, worldly possessions or riches, but by organized military force. 

By the end of WWII, Germany itself had been laid upon the sacrificial pyre of highly organized SS Stormtrooper War. Hitler’s obsession with organized warfare propelled his highest priority into an organized SS war machine. That wehrmacht had driven Germany into its final, fiery destruction. Hitler didn’t give a damn about the German people. He used their nation to prepare his own funeral pyre. 

Hanna Arendt exposed the dictator’s absolute selfishness with this statement: 

“He did not consider the war lost when German cities lay in rubble and industrial capacity was destroyed, but only when he had learned that the SS troops were no longer reliable.”

Hitler’s self-induced, self-obsessed destruction of Germany was an historical prequel to Donald Trump’s self-induced, self-obsessed attempt to destroy our Constitutional Rule of Law.

Using Hannah Arendt’s quoted totalitarianism statement as a framework to explain what happened at our US Capitol on January 6, 2021, the outcome could be stated this way:

“Donald did not admit the election lost when our Constitutional Electoral process lay in rubble on the Capitol grounds, but only when the American people finally compelled him by Rule of Law in four courtrooms to shut his big mouth and go to jail. Do not pass Go; Do not count 200 fake Electors.”

Glass half-Full 

The so-called kristo-fascism

 What is being referred to as kristo-fascism by news reporters and commentators has nothing to do with the Prince of Peace who taught that peacemakers are to be blessed and the meek would inherit the earth. 

Jesus Christ told his right-hand man, Peter, to put away his sword when a crowd had come to take Jesus away. 

Neither violence, nor force of any kind, had any place in Christ’s demonstration to the world of his final acts. His greatest demonstration of divinity was found in his absolutely pacifistic willingness to be judged and suffer a criminal death even though he had committed no offence worthy of such punishment. 

Consider the Prince of Peace. Here was a man who taught that peacemakers are to be blessed, and that the meek would inherit the earth. 

Christ’s spoken wisdom and his gentle behavior bore no resemblance to the aggressive behavior of maga-fascists and the repulsive conduct of bullies who think they can terrorize the Congress of  our United States of America so they can illegally prop up their fat rich man dictator to take on the authority of Washington, Lincoln, Kennedy, Reagan and Joe Biden.

Christ suffered death on a cross in order to demonstrate to the world that he could, and would, conquer death itself so that we—all of us who identify with the Prince of Peace—could, ourselves, join him in that victory over death.

And victory over murder and hate and fascist manipulation of our Congress and our Presidency.

This Jesus, this Messiah for anyone who is willing to accept him, said: “I was hungry and you fed me; I was thirsty and you gave me drink; I was a stranger and you took me in, naked and you clothed me; I was sick and you visited me; I was in prison and you visited me.”

And when we, puzzled, reply. . . Say what? When did we do all that? Jesus responded: “Whenever you’ve done it to the least of my people, (it is the same as if) you have done it unto me.”

Now does that sound like the response of a fascist?

This present riotous, lawless movement to occupy by force our Congress of the United States and the corridors of  American power has nothing to do with the Prince of Peace.

If the trumpian fascists want a cross as their emblem, they’ll have to take the one that history assigned to them—the crooked one that hitler used, the one that our brave soldiers beat down into third reich ground 78 years ago.

Glass half-Full

Christian Faith

 Christian faith is about being redeemed from the limitations of this present life and being born into eternal life with Jesus Christ, the only man in history who died a criminal death and then lived to tell about it.

You believe that?

If you believe that, perhaps some day you’ll join us.

Christian faith is not about politics; it’s not about worldly influence or governmental ascendency, It’s not about media influence or domination. It’s not about what happens in Washington, or Jerusalem or Gaza or Hollywood or Silicon Valley or any pleasant valley on a Sunday. 

I’t about your life. Do you want to live forever? Or not? If you do want to live forever, you have an historical opportunity to join up with the  person who has proven that life goes on after death. 

How do I know? The message that I just delivered to you was delivered long ago by Jesus and those who followed him. It was written for posterity.

But be careful. The Christian life is no walk in the park.

Hear more about that in my song:

Follow 

 After He ascended into eternity, Christians kept the message going. That message of eternal life and salvation has been going on ever since, and will continue. You can read more about it in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. 

So now you know the real deal. It’s not about politics, clout or whose in charge of this present circus. It’s about you. What is your destiny in eternity?

Glass half-Full

The Evita Mystery

 Our media-saturated life is a roundabout. We go ‘round and round in our daily routines, in our weekly routines, and monthly and. . . year after year, decade after decade, until one fateful day. . .

Anyway, don’t know about you, but I’ve been on this merry-go-round since 1951; not that it was all that merry, but that it does go round and round and is perpetually decorated with memories.

For sure, there are the real memories, with real people. . . fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters, school chums, frieusnds, best friends.

Then there are the ever-present media memories that are always humming or gleaming in the background. For my generation that backdrop was Captain Kangaroo, Howdy Doody, Disney stuff, Walter Cronkite, Huntley and Brinkley, Kennedy, MLK, Saigon, blahblah. . .

AM radio. Elvis, Beatles, CSNY, Karen Carpenter. . .

Say what? Karen Carpenter?

Well, yes, there was Karen, who came along with her pianoforte’ brother, Richard.

The point of this blog is getting around to what I’ve been remembering for the last week or so:

the most beautiful voice that God ever put into a human, and now that that you mention it. . . Karen singing the  most beautiful song written during my lifetime.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76ZKihNCWWE

Don’t ask me how it happened. 

The song, Don’t Cry for Me Argentina, was sung in a musical opus called Evita, a so-called rock opera, by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice in 1976.

The story in that Webber/Rice rock opera is a musical depiction of the life of Evita Peron, wife of  historic Argentinian President, Juan Peron. You can learn more about her in this Wikipedia posting: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evita_(musical)

I don’t know how or why I got onto this song-memory thread . . . but I guess I just wanted you to hear it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76ZKihNCWWE

Music and Memory are two incredibly fascinating elements in this life. This is my way of sharing a very special moment in 20th-centiry music with you.

King of Soul

So what about the Jews?

 Like a disease, antisemitism flares up now and then in our world history and . . . now again, it seems, to be poking its hateful head  in our present Age. 

The Jewish people have been documenting human behaviour for thousands of years. Their history scrolls originated with a very smart man named Moses. He wrote the story of a wise man named Abraham who decided to improve his life and the life of his family, by leaving a bad situation and moving to a faraway place where he could do better for himself and his family.

But Moses’ historical opus wasn’t just about Abraham. Moses also documented the ancient story of how the Creator, YWHW for lack of a better word, who created our world and the first people in it. 

And if that wasn’t enough, Moses also wrote a list of laws that have enabled men and women to live productively and healthily in tribes and communities for thousands of years. 

Because Jews have been literate and morally conscientious longer than other people groups of the world, they have developed a culture that provokes jealousy and resentment from other people.

We humans have a very useful thing call Law. The Jews are more responsible than any other people group for the awareness of law and the proper use of it for establishing and maintaining a civil society.

You know what I’m talking about: Thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not steal; thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor, etc.  etc.

Their cultural insistence on doing the right thing gets them into trouble with people who don’t want to do the right thing. 

What happens is this: Some wise guy cranks up a human project or institution that victimizes other people. The wise guy and his lackeys know that what they want to do is wrong but they blast their way through their unjust or usurious program anyway.

And  what happens, historically, is that a Jew who knows and understands the moral Law comes along and says No you can’t do that; it’s not right!

In ancient times, for instance, a notable prophet, Daniel, served in the royal court of Babylon, similar to what Joseph had done in Egypt, many years prior. 

In elucidating a divine Law for the sake of improving human life and governance—instead of corrupt human laws that promote the hegemony of of powerful overlords—Jews such as Daniel have from time to time gotten themselves in trouble with the powers that be.

In ancient Babylon, Daniel came to understand the character and motivations of corrupt leaders. Daniel described, in those ancient times a type of leader who would do as he pleases—instead of doing rightly by promoting Justice, Mercy and Peace. 

Daniel described such a leader: 

“He will show no regard for the gods (or sacred values) of his fathers . . . for he will magnify himself above all.”

“He will honor a god of forces . . . with gold, silver and costly stones and treasures.”

That person whom Daniel described in ancient times indicates an archetypal leader who arises from time to time in human history. 

In the long trail of our human civiization, certain Jews who were aware, at the time, of such entities have gotten themselves into deep trouble because they were aware of the corruption that goes on among the movers and shakers of our civilizations.

And they were willing to expose that corruption so that the rest of us citizens would understand what the hell is going on.

The most recent manifestation of this historical dynamic was worked out in the Third Reich, dreamed up and actualized by adolf hitler, who imposed a massive holocaust on the Jewish people. But decent citizens of the world moved in to put a stop to those murderous auschwitz-camps and gulags and other despicable, unlawful imprisonments that men concoct to control other men and women.

In the world today, there are men who would strive to put themselves, improperly and unjustly, in positions of power for the sake of their own enrichment and authority.

 But for the sake of all mankind, as well as for the protection of Jews and other persecuted ethnicities, men who enforce their own wealth and power at the usurious expense and persecution of others should be brought under the mantle of Justice and legitimate Law.

May it never happen again!

Never again.

Glass half-Full

Days of Infamy and Signs of Hope

For my parents generation, the “greatest generation”, their terrible appointment with disaster came on December 7, 1941.

 President Franklin D. Roosevelt called it  a “day of infamy,” the unforgettable day that Japanese emperor Hirohito’s air force struck our Pearl Harbor. . . the day we entered World War II.

22 years later,  the date of infamy for my baby boomer g-generation arrived:  November 22, 1963—the day that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas.

That was the day Walter Cronkite removed his glasses and told us that President Kennedy had died at 1:00 pm, central standard time.

All of us baby boomers remember where we were when we first heard the terrible news. I was in a 7th-grade classroom. Our principal interrupted the class to deliver the news. She spent a few minutes recalling how the President had "had 'em backed up against the wall," referring to the Russians and the Cuban missile crisis.

There was no other day of such a tragic infamy until 9/11/2001, when we all remember where we were and what we were doing when we saw or heard the news of the World Trade Center collapsing. I was repairing some exterior siding on a friend's house when Mike rolled out in his wheelchair with the news that a plane had hit the World Trade Center in New York. My first imaginative image was of a small plane, like a Cessna, crashing into that skyscraper. But, of course, the disaster was much larger than I had first imagined. . .

But hey. . . even as I recall these tragic dates in American history, I do want to conclude this moment of reflection with a positive indicator for our future, 200 colorful images.

 Behold the hopeful graphic artworks of 200 child residents, on display in a public playground, Vacaville, California: 

 

Glass half-Full 

Bob Woodward's Legacy

 In ages past, a fervent interest in history required stacks of those ancient paper things called “Books.”

Now books are nice, and still essential for scholarship, but I would not trade internet access for any of them, except for the Greatest Story Ever Told, the Bible. But that’s another story for another day. 

Here’s my latest story hot off the press, so to speak. 

Watching Youtube, yesterday, I come across Carl Woodward being interviewed by Ari Melber. I had to listen in.

Here’s Ari prying into the mind of the reporter who broke the Watergate story. . . with a little help, of course, from his friend and fellow Washington Post reporter, Carl Bernstein. 

For such a time as that . . . 1973, those two guys were born. 

My mind wandered back to the summer of 1973. In my near-campus mini-apartment, I took every opportunity, while not working at the shoe store or attending my last two classes at nearby LSU. . . every opportunity to watch the Senate Watergate hearings on TV.

Those hearings, chaired by North Carolina Senator Sam Ervin, were similar to the recent House January 6th hearings, and just as informative, for an historical investigation and expose' on events that were, at that time,  history-changing events. 

You see. . . back in ’73, things were different. But you didn't have to be there to learn about it.

If ye young whippersnappers are not familiar with the Watergate saga, do a search for “All the President’s Men.” 

Long story short: Two Washington Post reporters tracked down enough evidence to convince a President to take his ball and go home.

I’ll not dredge up all the drama. Just check it out and see what you think:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E18UmgEvGJk

  A few years later, the story was told in cinema: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_the_President%27s_Men_(film)

While recommending the movie, I’ll not get into the lengthy story of President Richard Nixon’s ultimate withdrawal from the Oval Office. 

I will, however, commend Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein for opening the nation’s eyes to the inner workings. . . the “Plumbers’” view of what all the President’s men did in their attempt to cover up the Watergate Hotel break-in, a crime not unlike--though on a much smaller scale-- the recent trump insurrection attempt to overthrow our US government.

When you get to be my age, what is even more interesting is to hear, right out of the mouth of such an alert man as this . . . Bob Woodward, and discover his take on that history-changing investigation. . . how it impacted our nation and how it prompted Bob to persist in his lifelong search for journalistic truth, and then. . . and then explain it all to a highly qualified contemporary reporter, Ari Melber. 

Oh, and, as if all that were not enough, Bob did manage to, in between his many investigations and interviews, write a few more books. . . definitely worth the reading, or the watching.

King of Soul

The Tragedy of Verminizing Public Discourse

 I don’t know, but I been told (by Steve Schwartz), that a recent trump tweet referred to “Radical Left Thugs” as “vermin.”

The trump tweet, which Steve showed us in his “The Warning” blog, specifies who, in trump’s opinion, those vermin are: communists, marxists, fascists and radical left thugs who will do “anything possible” . . . to destroy “America and the American Dream.”

Apparently donald trump was not aware that he was including some of his own supporters, the “fascists”, in his vermin list.

If donald does intend to destroy fascists, then he should notify the proud boys and the the oathkeepers and the three-percenters and all those other radical thugs who were standing by awaiting his call to action on January 6 2021. He should warn them of his intent to destroy them in his campaign to extinguish “the vermin.”

Rodents, cockroaches, termites, bedbugs and lice are vermin.

Persons whose bodies typically host vermin are also sometimes derogatorily called vermin: beggars, vagrants, homeless people, poor people, even. . . immigrants! May it never be! The pilgrims were immigrants!

But Democrats, liberals, socialists, communists, BLM activists, LGBTQ people, marxists, leftists and Jewish people are not vermin. 

The former president’s derogatory name-calling does not establish their identities. In this free nation, each person establishes their own identity. Furthermore, each group establishes their own identity.

The former president’s use of that word to defile his political opponents places him in the same leadership category as adolf hitler.

George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Dwight D. Eisenhower would not/did not use that word to describe their fellow-citizens, or even their enemies. As dignified American leaders, they would not stoop so low as to insult their opponents by calling them “vermin.”

Even Richard Nixon did not use that word in referring to his political opponents. Nixon certainly never called Hubert Humphrey or George McGovern or Sam Ervin or Woodward, Bernstein or Ben Bradlee . . . “vermin.”

Only adolf hitler stooped so law as to calling his opponents “vermin.”

Now donald trump calls his opponents vermin. If he keeps insulting and deriding them at this rate, the magamaniacs will begin stretching out their arms in the maga salute: “Heil Trump.”

Or, as the witch hailed  Macbeth in Shakespeare’s tragedy play, “Hail MacTrump who shall be King hereafter!”

That royal destiny could only be accomplished by the dastardly shedding of blood that Lady Macbeth later regretted when she cried “Out damned spot!” 

And Burn’em Constitution Rule of Law doth move against Washington and Lincoln’s name!

May it never be! . . . although, methinks. . . dark, foreboding clouds of American tragedy do loom on our horizon, not unlike those that Romeo feared when he declared:

“For my mind misgives some consequence yet hanging in the stars shall bitterly begin. . ”

with these trump’s rebels!

Glass half-Full

Louisiana

I left Louisiana in broad daylight; back in ’73 it was. 

I was a clueless English major LSU grad, still wet behind the years with an untamed urge to experience the good life.

California, where everything was hap’nin, was too far away. I had hitchhiked there one time and found it to be a cool place.

But some family connections steered me to the South’s version of California, Florida.

So I did the Florida thing for about a year and half, selling life insurance and then newspaper advertising. But then a few days of jail time on a traffic violation—driving on a revoked license to get to work one morning, but then getting caught— I opted for leaving Florida in the broad daylight.  

Finally settled in the Blue Ridge mountains of North Carolina. Been there ever since. Destiny, I guess. At least I like to think so. 

Better yet. . . Providence, like Abraham.

Who’da thunk it that a Miss'ippi River boy, me, kinda like Sam Cooke, "born by the River" would end up living life as a mountain man?

But this is America, where a man can carve his own destiny out of whatever wood, stone, mountain, river or  storm gets in his way. 

When Katrina hit Louisiana in '05, I accompanied Pat and a bus full of nurses on a trip from our home in Boone NC down to Baton Rouge. I was quite impressed with the work that Red Cross was doing for hurricane victims who had been flooded or blown out of their owns. During that time, I remember hearing Randy Newman's song, Louisiana, about the great flood of 1927.

Listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGs2iLoDUYE

Long about 2005 or so, the ole Writerly urge—and the lame LSU English degree— finally kicked in and paid off, so to speak, haha!. I wrote and published my first novel, Glass half-Full. After that,  as a few more years rolled by the second and third novels somehow tumbled out of the laptop: Glass Chimera, Smoke.

And then the long-awaited novel, the fourth, a story that involved going home again (in my authorial memory and imagination) appeared, having been summoned  out of a million keystrokes, onto 258 KDP pages: King of Soul.

It's a story about what happened to our nation back in the days of the Vietnam War, while I was a student with a college deferment at LSU, until the lottery when my number came up 349.

Most of the story is centered on events at LSU,  although the last scene is in Kent, Ohio.

Go figure. In my mind,  it’s the great American novel, haha!. Thank God and my wife, RN Nurse Pat, for making that grand writing project possible while she was keeping patients alive in the ICU. 

What’s so fortuitous is that the creative urge had started to bloom in Asheville while Pat and I were meeting and falling in love.

Thomas Wolfe's famous 1929 novel was “Look Homeward Angel” which mostly happened in a guest house in Asheville that was just a stone’s throw from the printing company where I worked for a few years.

Thomas Wolfe also wrote another novel:   You Can't Go Home Again

Nevertheless, come Tuesday, I’ll be  "going home again," getting back to my roots,

flying out of Carolina in the broad daylight to Go "Home" Again, in that bayou state where I was born in '51. We’ll see what the ole home place has become since I left Louisiana many and many a year ago with a guitar on my knee, passin' through Alabama. . .  my true love, Pat,  for to see.

King of Soul 

Commemorating the War Dead

 This visitor from the Southland finds a reverent fascination while walking in Boston, a metropolis that exudes profound historicity across a New England land/city/scape expanding southward from Lexington and Concord down to Dorchester and beyond.

I mean, quite significant in the memory of this ole baby boomer was a certain unforgettable Senator/President from nearby Hyannisport, John Fitzgerald Kennedy. 

He’s the one who said “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” Later, after that inauguration speech, he went over to an ancient European region, Germany, and advised the people there “Ask not what we (Americans) can do for you, but what, together, we can do for the freedom of man.”

But of course, he said all that before the conspirators of that era, 1963, shot him dead.

But I digress. 

Strolling, yesterday, the perimeter of Boston Commons reveals an abundance of Monumental commemoration for past Americans who died defending our nation and our ideals of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

 Seems evident to me that the citizens of Massachusetts have done far more than their share of defending this nation against the destructive forces of tyrant kings, rebel slaveholders, bellicose nazis and fascist madmen..

On the uppermost corner of Boston Commons I find this monument to the 54th Regiment of Mass infantrymen who went down south during the war to liberate the captives of southern enslavement.

A few steps away and I am exiting the Commons, crossing the street and finding myself at the entrance to the Massachusetts State House, or, as we southerners call it, the State Capitol.

Having initiated our great American democracy experiment with a Tea Party back in 1774, the Bostonians have a longer history of collectively managing a gov. of the people—longer than us other kids on the American block. A stroll up and down and all around this Capitol opens up a vast array of fascinating historic paintings, portraits, documents, statues. Here’s the one I selected for you to see now: 

I chose this artistic portrayal of our American expeditionary force in Europe in 1918. It relates directly to the concluding chapter of my novel, Smoke, which is a story about the experiences of a young American businessman as he is traveling through western Europe in 1937.

Here’s the relevant paragraph from chapter __ of Smoke:

“       Now they were arriving at the battlefield. Jacques parked the car, leaned against the front fender, lit a cigarette. Mel and Philip walked through a stone arch, along a narrow, paved road lined with flowering linden trees, spring green with their large spadish leaves, sprinkled with small white blossoms. The sun was getting low behind them. Shadows of these trees had overtaken the narrow lane, turning it cooler than the surrounding fields, acres and acres neatly arranged with white crosses and gravestones, and continuous green, perfect grass between all. Having reached the end of the linden lane, the stepped slowly, reverently, along straight pathways, passing hundreds of silent graves on either side. The setting sun was still warm here, after their cool approach from beneath the trees. 

       At length, they came to the row that Philip had been looking for, the one he had read about in the army guidebook, where his father’s grave was nested precisely and perpetually in its own place in eternity:

 

Clinton Aaron Morrow

born July 13, 1895 in North Carolina, USA      died Oct 30, 1918

in defense of Oordenaarde, and the free world

Smoke

“. . .and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.”

Chicago!

 While visiting Chicago, I was inspired by Carl Sandberg’s classic poem, composed in 1916. Sitting on a bench, Chicago River in front of me, Chicago Tribune behind, surrounded by fellow travelers like me, I began pecking at the Sandberg inspiration, with maybe an idea for a poetic update. . .

Culture catcher for America middle,

Sheltering sojourners in midwestern winter,

From first founder, free black Jean Baptiste Point du Sable

and then a thousand journeymen later, strong and able

You became Gatherer of Lake to River glories:

Chicago! great Stacker of Stories,

in the Land of ancient Potawatami

later enabling a million settlers’ opportunity!

With peoples Kaskaskia, Illinois, LaSalle and Jolliet met;

Then Algonquin, Mascouten, Miami with Marquette.

A six-mile canoe portage between River and Lake

was no small chore,

Diverting pioneers’ smooth steerage in days of lore,

Until the Illinois canal came by blood, sweat and tears,

And then a jazzy brass section in latter years.

And if that wasn’t enough to stoke your stack

Those swamp-whippin’ Chicagoans turned the River back

so it flowed westerly through Illinois to the Mighty Miss’ip

carving out a great  waterway so any good ship

could navigate American hinterland from the Hudson 

through the Erie to Lake Erie to Huron and Lake Michigan

even making a turnaround and doin’ it all back again.

I mean, it’s My kind of Town! (as Sinatra later sang)

Westward ‘cross the prairie it rang,

Busy, bustling, bravissimo,

       Easterners came; some Westward go

Rolling by wagon and locos and boats

Breezin’ past the corn and the wheat and the oats.

And there they were on Lake Michigan shore

Hoisting up the American Dream more and more

Digging and hoisting and building and founding the Store

Enterprising rising made the first skyscraper ever!

when they raised up a steel beam with one hell of a lever!

American commerce from door to door 

Sears & Roebuck , Montgomery Ward, Marshall Field and more!

Next thing y’know they’re light’n up a World’s fair 

and  making elevators instead of stairs!

When Tesla told Edison that AC was the way to go

Then lit up Chicago World Fair just for show!

Showing off with that newfangled 1893 fair

In the midst of the new electrifying air

City of big, bustling Dreams

generator of winning teams.

Cubs and WhiteSox here

Bears and Bulls snorting opponents’ fear

Blackhawks on ice; no! they aint nice.

WhiteSox took World Series thrice!

Capone and Moody; both dwelt here

With gangster gear v godly fear.

’T’was both gang and Gospel  territory

Outlaws gunned down in clouds of glory!

Oh, thou coarse and strong and cunning city, 

piling load on load, job on job, smooth and gritty

tireless as a dog with tongue a-lapping

rising high as eagle flapping.

Soft seashore cities send their untamed to you

to be tested, unrested; in the busted sod you grew;

sodbuster hinterlands; plowman crops commands

harvesting, shipping to fulfil American demands.

"Oh! by the time we reached that Chi-town

Them Bears was a gettin’ smart." 

They're all Midwesterners with brains, brawn and heart!

Ramping up a real convoy of strength

In American heartland of Continental length.

I mean, only the Green Bay boys up the coast

had more NFL titles, but of  victories, Bears had most! 

King of Soul

Nowhere to Go!

 After hitler’s third reich had attempted to extinguish the Hebrew race, the Jews who had survived that Holocaust had nowhere to go. . . except their ancient homeland.

They had established an ancient homeland under the leadership of Moses, about 3000 years ago.

In the mid-1940’s, those European Israelites who had escaped or evaded hitler’s concentration camps, mid-1940’s—they truly had no choice, except to try to get to—to use an ole Beatles’  phrase—“get back to where you once belonged.”

So they got together and blasted and outlasted and cajoled and planted and supplanted  their way back into that land where they had started their long journey long, long ago—the land called Palestine. 

It was no walk in the park. I mean, they were between a rock and a hard place after hitler had tried to extinguish them from the face of the earth.

Truth be told, they had, as Prime Minister Golda Meir later told Senator Joe Biden in 1973, nowhere else to go. 

I mean . . . and I’m a post-WWII baby boomer, remembering that. . . Ringo had sung, back in the day, 1960’s-70’s— about having “nowhere to go” as . . . “oh, that magic feeling, nowhere to go.”

as if having nowhere to go were some blissful condition like nirvana or Tuesday afternoon with the Moody Blues or a walk in central park with Paul Simon talking to a lamppost. . . 

No, no, no. Those post-Holocaust escapees running for their lives in 1945 had, literally, nowhere to go. . . except back to where they had come from long ago.

And that’s why Golda Meir had told Joe Biden, back in ’73, that they had had nowhere to go . . . except where they did go.

And they called it Israel! just like the ole days, like it or not.

And that, my friends, is what, as  Paul Harvey used to say, “the rest of the story.”

And they sang, “We were like men who dreamed, filled with laughter, with songs of joy!”

Listen and you will hear the joy, from the Bridge Ensemble:

(http://micahrowland.com/carey/13 Itamar Freilach.mp3)

and furthermore as my friends Danny and Donna and David sang: Aliyah Yerushalayim

(http://www.micahrowland.com/carey/09 Aliyah Yerushalayim.mp3)

Glass half-Full

Nero's Fire Folly

 An old story has passed down from the history of the ancient Roman empire: while the ancient city of Rome went up in flames, the emperor Nero “fiddled while Rome burned.”

That may true; or it may not be. But we do know, according to the ancient Roman historian Tacitus,  it is not far from the truth.

Tacitus wrote a report on the disaster, an uncontrollable, raging fire that consumed the capital city of the Roman empire in the year 64.

Here are a few excerpts from his account:

Before the disaster started. . . 

“On the quays (wharfs) were brothels stocked with high-ranking ladies. Opposite them could be seen naked prostitutes, indecently posturing and gesturing.”

“Nero was already corrupted by every lust, natural and unnatural.  But he now refuted any further surmises that no further degradation was possible for him. . . a few days later he went through a formal wedding ceremony with one of the perverted gang called Pythagorus. The emperor, in the presence of witnesses, put on the bridal veil. Dowry, marriage bed, wedding torches, all were there. Indeed everything was public which even in a natural union is veiled by night.”

“Disaster followed. Whether it was accidental or caused by a criminal act on the part of the emperor is uncertain—both versions have supporters. Now started the most terrible and destructive fire which Rome had ever experienced. . .”

“First, the fire swept violently over the level spaces. Then it climbed the hills… when people looked back, menacing flames sprang up before them or outflanked them. . . . Nobody dared fight the flames.” . . .

 “. . . rumor had spread that, while the city was burning, Nero had gone on his private stage and, comparing modern calamities with ancient, had sung of the destruction of Troy.”

After the fire:

“Of Rome’s fourteen districts only four remained intact. Three were levelled to the ground. The other seven were reduced to a few scorched and mangled ruins.”

Such are the inflammatory destructions of a self-obsessed demagogue. Tacitus concluded his report with this statement about what the people thought:

“ People believed that Nero was ambitious to found a new city to be called after himself.”

It seems the self-aggrandizing control freak  was willing to destroy the whole city so that he could rebuild it with his own identity dominating it.

The above  selected excerpts were lifted from John Carey’s book, “Eye-witness to History.” published by Harvard University Press, 1988.

Later, much later, long after Nero and Tacitus had turned to dust,  an American observer of human history, Mark Twain, said:

“History doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes.”

Let us hope that there are no modern-day Nero-wannabes out there waiting to destroy our “city” for the sake of rebuilding it in their own image.

Glass half-Full

Tabernacle, Temple, Dome

Many, many moons ago, God spoke to Abraham; told him to leave the land of his birth and move to another place. By and by, the Lord directed Abraham to that special place.

After that, a lot happened. We’ve learned a lot about it from our ancient books, most notably the Genesis, which Moses wrote many years later. 

Moses wrote for prosperity an account of how Abraham’s descendants, generally known as Jews, followed Abraham’s great grandson Abraham to Egypt, where the Jewish people became enslaved and labored for about 400 years.

God raised up Moses to lead the Jews out of Egypt, and ultimately into a land of their own, a land generally known now as Israel. 

Before they were able to get established in that Promised Land, they wandered in the desert for forty years.

While there, put together a tabernacle, wherein they would worship God, known to them as YWHW (pardon my English) 

The tabernacle looked something like this:

They later built a temple, but invaders from the east tore it down. 

After many years, Nehemiah, Ezra, et al were able to get back to Jerusalem and rebuild their Temple.

Many years later, a Jewish Roman governor, Herod, saw to it that another Temple was built. 

Years later, the Romans destroyed that temple after a Jewish rebellion. Jesus had warned the people that something like that would happen.

After a few more centuries had passed, Mohammed established the Islamic faith as a way for Moslems to pray to Allah. 

For what it’s worth, I’ve always thought that “Allah” sounds mysteriously like “Elohim,” but that’s neither here nor there.

It seems to me they are praying to the same Deity, but only God knows what’s really going on behind all of that human religion.

Many years after that, a Moslem conqueror supervised the erection of the shrine, now known as the Dome of the Rock. 

Tradition has it that the Dome signifies the spot where Abraham had almost sacrificed Isaac. But God sent an animal to be sacrificed instead of Isaac. 

Islamic tradition holds that Mohammed was taken on a night journey to that sacred spot, where he was enabled to climb a rope or a ladder or something like that, up to the heavenly realm, to receive revelation. On his way back down, Mohammed met Moses, as the Muslims believe. I suppose we'll get more info about all that when we get to heaven.

Nowadays, you can visit the site:

In this picture I took, an edge of the Dome can be seen. To the right we see a large open area that would probably be of sufficient size for the Jews to build a new temple. And they all lived happily ever after. haha. Just sayin’. 

Anyway, I wrote a song about it all. In 1980, I was able, with a little help from me friends, to record the song. If you care to, listen to it here:  

http://www.micahrowland.com/carey/WeGottaSong.mp3

Glass half-Full 

Those Tricky Quantum Fields

Across several centuries of recent time, scientists and mathematicians  have discovered many facts about what our Universe is, how it works and even how it must have begun.

Using mathematical deduction and scientific experiments, physicists have projected back in time to theorize an event that has come to be known as the Big Bang. 

In a recent lecture at Cambridge University, professor David Tong stretches the knowledge base of his listeners to a new level of understanding about that Big Bang beginning.

David Tong's lecture

Through the scope of scientific analysis, scientists and mathematicians have gathered known data sufficiently to begin comprehending the conditions that preceded this present world.

In his lecture, David Tong presents an equation that he calls the Theory of Everything. The long string of math he displays is a combination of work done primarily by Albert Einstein, James Clerk Maxwell, Paul Dirac and Peter Higgs.

I find this fascinating, even though I can only begin to comprehend its meaning. But it must be something very important because Dr. Tong explains:

“This equation correctly predicts the result of every single experiment we have done in science.”

Wow!

Dr. Tong goes on to explain that mathematics is essential for analyzing and explaining the expanding universe. But it only takes us so far.

Some attributes of the Universe are beyond mathematical description. The interaction of quantum vacuum fluctuations after the Big Bang is beyond mathematics, as nearly as the searchers can figure so far. A mysterious “flickering” of the great post-Bang fireball is a feature of the expanding universe that still causes physicists to scratch their heads. 

In looking for patterns that give hint of the structure beneath . . . something deeper than just the elements, David Tong expresses a sudden uncharacteristic befuddlement:

“Maybe there’s not three forces in the universe, maybe just one force; the idea of grand unification. . . One that appears to be Three.”

. . . which reminded me of a snippet of ancient Scripture that I  discovered, Providentially, somewhere along my life journey:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him . . . in Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, but the darkness comprehended it not.”

But we do keep trying to explain it. That’s what humans do. And we do appreciate those teachers, such as David Tong, who continue to enlighten us about the mysterious workings of the Universe.

Glass Chimera 

Rising Above it All

 Beginning with an old piece of history  from a long time ago. . .

 Jacob came to a certain place and spent the night there, because the sun had set; and he took one of the stones of that place and put it under his head and laid down.

He had a dream: Behold, a ladder was set on the earth with its top reaching to heaven; and behold the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. . .

. . . and then . . . about 1800 years passed . . .

Jesus spoke into history: “I’m telling you, you will see the heavens opened and the angels of God  descending on the Son of Man.”

Explanation song:               Traveler’s Rest:  

King of Soul

Gone With the Win

The Donald called  down to Georgia and he was lookin’ for some votes to find.

But after a while he found himself in a bind

‘cuz the victory he sought was just his imagination.

Instead of votes he caught a bundle of allegations.

Coupl’a years later allegations morphed to litigations.

Litigations spun out indictments

pertaining to Jan6 incitements. 

Indictments spun out arraignments,

then the Donald mugshot in confinement

with trumpers caught in conspiring RICO.

Still yet the Donald’s puffing up his ego,

fearing that his Oval will be Gone with the Biden Wind,

the Donald sent down to Georgia some of his political friends

to falsify  Elector selections

thus scrambling the presidential election

in his direction.

So the Donald sent down to Georgia

lookin’ for some operatives to wheel and deal

in a RICO to Start-the-Steal.

They were expecting to find

a genteel, agreeable Tara clime,

with peaches prepared by some Aunt Jemima Mammy.

But instead they encountered a  DA  named Fani!

Now the trump hump is gone with the wind,

gone with the Biden win

never to be trumped-up again

as Georgians emphasize 

in their Rhett Butler disguise:

Frankly my dear donald we don’t give a dam!

even as the MakeAngryGangsAttackers still scam

to regurgitate their zombie prez

still yet doing whatever donald sez.

But down here in the DeepSouth, y’all,

 we conscientious objectors still say,

as Miss Scarlett did on that long-ago day:

“Tomorrow is another day!”

and “Donald, would you please just go away!"

Glass half-Full 

Dog Whistle Days

 In contemporary slang, “dog whistle” is a spoken message that carries a hidden meaning. donald trump utters them frequently to communicate improper messages to his gangs.

Dog whistle#1, spoken by donald trump while in a debate with Joe Biden : “Proud boys, stand back and stand by.”

Dogs’ active response: January 6, 2021. Proud Boys, after standing back for a few months, attacked and vandalized our US Capitol. Their intent was to assist their handler in stealing the Presidency.

Dog whistle #2, spoken by donald trump on Jan6, as his riotous gang of Proud boys, Oath-keepers and other rebels approached our US Capitol to steal the Presidency for their handler trump: 

“. . . you'll never take back our country with weakness . . .You have to show strength, and you have to be strong."

Dogs’ active response: At the Capitol insurrection on Jan6,  the “strength” mustered up by trump’s rebels was used to:

*defy our Constitution and our rule of Law.

* illegally disrupt the Congressional counting of Electoral Votes

*vandalize our US Capitol

*shit in the halls

*violently attack our Capitol Police and Metro DC Police

*kill a few of the brave Law officers who were defending our Republic and our Capitol

Dog whistle #? (there have been many), recently spoken in a radio interview when he was asked about the possibility of federal prosecutor Jack Smith sending him to jail: 

“I think it’ (prosecuting donald trump) ’s  a very dangerous thing to even talk about  because we do have a tremendously passionate group of voters. . . “ maybe 100 maybe 120. . . much more passion that they had in 2020 and much more passion than they had in 2016. I think. . . it would be very dangerous.”

Note 1: That word “passionate” in trump’s quote above is code for violent.

Note 2: “maga”  in a dog-whistle stands for make american gangs assault.

Note 3: “dangerous” means Somebody will probably get  killed.

Furthermore, We the People (which includes me) implore trump’s dogs of Rebel War  to stand back and stand down.  Fugedaboudit. A jailbird is not worth the hunt.

Now is the time for all good men and women to come to the aid of our country. Indict the insurrectionists and the rioters into  the Courts of Justice before it’s too late to deliver our nation from the dogs of war. 

Glass half-Full

Lincoln Legacy in Danger

 Something was lost, but something was found. . . in a Civil War battlefield at Gettysburg.

They walked up the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

When they reached the top, Bridget was gazing, like most everyone else who ascends here, with rapt interest at the seated statue. But Marcus, holding Bridget’s hand, gently prodded her to keep moving, slowly to the left, through the myriad of ambling visitors.

They came to an inner sanctum. Carved on the white marble wall in front of them were the words of the slain President’s Gettysburg address. Marcus stopped, taking in the enormity of it, both physically and philosophically. He was looking at the speech intently. Bridget was looking at him.

After a few moments: “Isn’t that amazing?

“Yes.” She could see that he was thinking hard about something. The great chamber echoed a murmur of humankind.

“Supreme irony.” The longing of a nation’s soul reverberated through the memorial… in the soundings of children, the whisperings of passersby. Deep within Marcus’ soul, something sacred was stirring, and she could see it coming forth.

“The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but can never forget what they did here.” He was reading aloud Lincoln's words on the white wall.

But for the echoes of a million people who had passed through this place, there was silence. After a moment, Bridget responded. “…and yet, there it is carved on the wall, for all to see: ‘the world will little note what we say here….’”

“Right, Bridget. Isn’t it amazing?”

Suddenly, amid the noise was a loud shouting.

Marcus could hear where it was coming from. He moved quickly away, toward the noise, to see what was happening. Bridget felt the sudden coolness of air on her hand, in the absence of Marcus’ gentle grip.

As soon as he emerged from behind the marble column, Marcus was puzzled by an incongruous, glistening wet flash of red upon the feet of Lincoln’s statue. What the hell? Instinctively, he ran over to it. He could still hear a constant shouting; it was a ranting. Then his attention settled on the man who was yelling. He had a bucket in his hand, dripping with red paint. The rant went on, and suddenly Marcus was comprehending it: “…you sonofabitch see if you can get that off and then rub it on your white ass, your sorry white ass that destroyed what this country could have been you’re a traitor to your race.”

This must be a dream, a very bad dream. Marcus was noticing the speaker’s bald head, goatee, his moving mouth spouting insult. Then Marcus was deciding to do something. It seemed to him that it was someone else speaking when he asked, loudly, “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

The stranger, startled, turned to Marcus and looked at him. Then he opened his foul mouth: “I’m gonna make things right. There’s a lotta things need to be made right. It’s gonna start now.”

A bad dream. Marcus could feel his ire rising. His voice must have quivered with “You better leave now. You’ve defaced national property. You better find a park ranger and turn yourself in. If you don’t, I’ll turn you in.” Marcus found himself yelling, as his challenge escalated through the marble edifice.

The man turned and began to walk down the steps.

Impulsively, Marcus thought, and shouted: “Who are you, anyway?”

Marcus began following the man down the steps. “They oughta bury you under this place.” Marcus was right behind him.

Suddenly the vandal turned and punched his assailant in the face.

The scene above took place in the story I wrote and published in 2007,

Glass half-Full

Who Was in Charge?

The attempted disruption of our Electoral process on Jan6 has propelled our nation into confusion. 

From the beginning, all kinds of Americans began pointing fingers of accusation, a phenomenon which is now, 2 1/2 iyears later, generating indictments and multiple trials. Through our Justice systems—federal, state and local—will begin, attempting to determine what happened on Jan6, how did it happen, and who made it happen.

As we couch potato citizens survey the wide array of talking heads, media journalists, podcasters, writers, videographers and any other tom, dick or harriet who is able to get a word or image in edge-wise. . .

 

We need to keep in mind that so many of us Americans are trying to comprehend just what the hell happened on Jan6?, who made it happen? and what needs to happen next to restore peace, prosperity, rule of law, accountability and Justice.

I, for one, have appreciated that our US House of Representatives appointed an investigative Jan6 committee to begin answering those questions for the American people

Now, two and a half years later, we are seeing a multitude of sources, online and in legacy news-reporting corporations.

Also now, the incredible array of information being generated is overwhelming. The so-called Mainstream Media are being challenged in a big way; they’re facing an unprecedented tidal wave of alt-Right, alt-Left, alt-shock’n’awe, alt-sensational reporting, all of which is absolutely relevant, easily accessible, free or subscriptive and viewable at our fingertips. 

Here’s just one interesting source that I discovered today: some guy on You-tube, Brian Smith, interviewing another guy, Steve Baker about Jan6. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7B97nZEZ3c

Steve had taken a massive footage of video there at our Capitol on that fateful day, January 6, 2021; he has some observations that are worth hearing.

This conversation between Brian and Steve is just one of thousands, but is probably worth your time. Their emerging consensus is that there was a lot more going on there than meets the eye.

Well, duh?! Y’think?

But seriously, their  main talking point suggests that the Jan6 riot—or whatever you call it—I call it an insurrection— was “allowed” to happen, and that a lot of well-informed people in Washington already knew about it, or something like that. This may a re-hashing of  the old  blameshifter go-to accusation that antifa (whatever that is) did it. Or maybe fairy godmother, or the grinch, or the wicked witch of the west or the wizard behind the curtain. Somebody send Toto in!

But seriously, y'all,  here’s my main thought as my viewing of their discussion was concluding: So if there were higher-ups people. . . in Washington, and in .gov, our Capitol Police, our Congress, Nancy Pelosi blahblahblah. . . Rush Limbaugh. . . our Executive branch. . . who knew, in advance, that the shit was about to hit the fan. . . who had authority to make or not-make things happen?

 Think about it this way: January comes before March. Vote-counting comes before inauguration.

 Who was in charge of our US government on that January  day? Who was in charge of our Justice Department on that day? Our FBI, our CIA, our classified docs, our national guard, our military, our nukes? Who had authority to make or not-make things happen? Who could issue the ultimate commands to our military and to our police on that day, January 6 2021 ? Who is responsible here?

Who was in charge?

duh. . . donald trump. It happened on his watch.

                                Glass half-Full 

Future Ain't What it Was

 The 1950’s were a totally unprecedented period in the history of the world.

When I was a child, back in those days, less than a decade after the most destructive world war in human history, I got habitually hooked, like millions of other baby boomers, on TV. It was the latest and greatest—the most amazing—at that time— invention of all time: Television! (haha!)

We were the first generation to grow up with an electronic fantasy-box glowing in the living room. In the afternoons, after  school, we were affixed to it, most every day and night of every week.

This development would certainly change the world as we know it, but nobody knew how it would change the world. 

We watched Davy Crockett, Captain Kangaroo and Howdy Doody; we watched Roy Rogers and his wife, Dale Evans.  

Along came Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse and Minnie, with their cartoon buddies. . . Pluto,  Donald Duck, Cinderella, and a host of Disney-fied critters and characters conjured up from ancient European fairytales, along with a host of American Uncle Remus critters—Br’er Rabbit, B’rer Fox. A bunch of ancient fairytales and folk tales  were modified-- electronified, 20th-century-style— for us clueless kids to watch on  our new-fangled miracle TV-tubes, television. 

Prior to that development, nothing in the world had ever existed like it. And we had no idea whatsoever how TV would change the world.

We were growing up, baby boomers, in the great American land of unprecedented progress and prosperity. 

We just knew we had a great Future ahead of us.

Then along came Walt Disney. He and his Dream crew began—with their cartoonizing worldview—putting the Disneyland dream together.

So it wasn’t  just on those magic TV screens. The Disney crews built a whole theme park in California, a fantasy land that would change American vacationing forever. . .  and twenty years later they built another—even bigger and fancier DisneyWorld—on a huge tract of land in Florida.

Within that dream world, they built a Tomorrowland, a futuristic, progress-fantasizing entertainment theme park with an eye toward the Future. 

But yesterday, my idealized theme-park future world was unexpectedly darkened while touring the latest disney cinema set of future past.

What does it say about our great American expectations for the future when we find, instead of Buzz Lightyear, the Jetsons, or Tomorrowland, a bunch of clueless, vacationing mousekateers wandering in a darkened dystopia of future-past decay and decline?

. . . even if it is, cinematically, from a galaxy long, long ago and far, far away.

Glass half-Empty

Future Insurrection Prevention

In the wake of donald trump’s attempt to launch a Jan6 insurrection on our Congress, a trail of criminal destruction was left behind. Now We the People are trying to clean up the mess  and find a way to impose Justice on the criminals who tried to steal our .gov from US, the People.

The first thing we learn is that We the People must not allow trump to occupy the oval office again. Now we discover that our US Constitution has already prescribed a legal means by which the chief insurrectionist of Jan6 can be legally and officially removed permanently from any further occupancy in the White House.

Our Constitutional Amendment XIV, Section 3 forbids any person who has aided insurrection from ever again having a public office.

The only question that arises is how, exactly, will this Constitutional prohibition be set in place. 

Recently two of our wisest legal authorities have weighed in on the issue. Judge Michael Luttig and Professor Lawrence Tribe have expressed their opinion that this Constitutional principle is “self-executing.”

Who determines that any particular person is guilty of aiding/abetting insurrectionists? These two experts, and many others, speculate that the  Secretaries of State who serve in our fifty states, will make the decision, whether trump’s name can legally be included on the ballot, or whether trump will be disqualified from candidacy, due to inciting and aiding the Jan6 insurrection.

Now we discover that there is legal precedent for this procedure. 

You can learn about it here:

         https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPjLIzh6HHE

Jessica Denson, hosting the LIGHT ON podcast on YouTube, Meidas Touch network, interviews Donald Sherman, Chief Counsel  of CITIZENS FOR RESPONSIBILITY AND ETHICS IN WASHINGTON (CREW).

Mr. Sherman explains that his experience with this issue started in the wake of a disputed New Mexico election in which CREW won a precedent case in New Mexico where Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment was applied. 

Regarding this present situation, and the question that is raised whether or not the Jan6 riot was (legally speaking) an insurrection,  Mr. Sherman explains:

“donald trump’s  lawyers (have already .ed.) referred to January 6 as an insurrection. There have already been votes in the House and Senate calling Jan6 an insurrection. The Jan6 comittee reached this conclusion and recommended pursuing enforcement of Section 3 (of Amendment XIV) against the insurrectionists.”

Furthermore, Donald Sherman continues:

“Section 3 was designed, specifically, for the moment we find ourselves in.” . . .

“In the aftermath of Jan6, I feel fortunate that we could look to this document and find an answer, a clear and unambiguous answer, in that there was precedent that we could look to.” (CREW’s New Mexico case).

And Donald Sherman continues:

“. . . and  if we don’t enforce Section 3 (of Amendment XIV) in this moment, it is hard to imagine a situation where we would, in the future.”

“This is the moment that Section 3 was designed to help us respond to. There was precedent after the civil war (prompting the Fourteenth Amendment) legislation demonstrating that these confederates. . . that people who engaged in insurrection against the Constituion of the US. . . were disqualified from office. The only question for us is, is there going to be precedent. . . an historical record that we leave behind . . . for generations yet unborn to ensure that this kind of insurrection that donald trump fomented-- to overturn a free and fair election--does not happen again.”

“We (CREW ) have been and we are preparing to bring litigation as soon as it is is legally allowable and strategically viable, to do so. We plan to pursue litigation to bar trump from the ballot in a number of states, based on his engagement against the Constitution of the US.”

So we learn from Donald Sherman's explanation here that there is already a legal precedent for applying Section 3 of Amendment XIV to disqualify donald trump from ever occupying a public office again. 

Glass half-Full 

It's Fourteenth Amendment Time

 Georgia tells the story, ya’ll, 

how trump sent out the call

cuz the donald called down to Georgia and 

he was lookin’ for some votes to steal,

 but the Georgians wouldn’t let him 

‘cuz they didn’t want no artful  deal.

They wanted a new President

one who would do right

not a dealer who’d deal up a national fight!

Read it aloud, y’all, and you shall hear

of the Jan6 attack and the Congressional fear. 

But hey, here’s the thing:

A Constitutional point  we do bring.

The Georgia indictment  tells the story, y’all,

 plain and simple, of an insurrectionist call!  

From Eastman to Chesebro to Sidney and Rudy

they’d whip up some grand ole conspiratorial booty.

It’s all there in the Georgia indictment

from trumpian disgruntal to riot-incitement!

Now seems to me . . . I remember somewhere

our Constitution says somethin’ ‘bout what happened there.

Oh yeah, its in Amendment fourteen, 

in the bottom of section three, oh yes, we have seen:

No person whose done insurrection can hold

any civil or military office, we are told!

No person who in rebellion has engaged,

especially if they’ve drummed up such a rage

that stopped Congress from doing their duty

so trump could artfully deal up some more  booty!

Georgia tells the story, y’all

how trump sent out the call

when the donald called down to Georgia

and he was lookin’ for some votes to steal.

Such an artful deal!

Listen, ye citizens and you shall hear

how thugs and destroyers drummed up such fear

with insurrection rebellion in that Jan6 riot

cuz the donald couldn’t keep his mouth quiet!

 

Glass half-Full