I heard a Black man once lamenting the term African-American. “I was born in this country,” he said. “I’ve never been to Africa. When will I be just an American?”

That touched me; but, then, I thought of my own situation. I am Scotch-Irish-Cherokee. I look Caucasian. I call myself Anglo-American. I am related, by blood, to Anglo-American, Euro-American, Asian-American, African-American, and Native American. I have aunts, uncles, and cousins who look Cherokee. I married a German: a Euro-American. My German in-laws and some of my offspring are blonde and fair. Some of my relatives are yellow-skinned and slanted-eyed; some have a deep tan and woolly hair—one, woolly hair and pale skin. One of my grandparents was what is called “black Irish”; he, and some of his children, are olive-skinned and look Mediterranean. One of my uncles married a dark-haired Acadian beauty from Louisiana; their offspring—my cousins—look French and can rightly be called Euro-American or Cajun. I asked one of my relatives, “When they ask for your race, what do you put?” She said, “Mixed.” That’s the way it is in this melting-pot country. We all have to put up with those annoying questions about ethnicity. To me, cultural diversity is more than social pluralism and Liberal agenda—I live it.

CULTURAL THEMES

Some Blacks, I’ve heard—Morgan Freeman, for one—do not observe Black History Month, which seems to me a bit arrogant. I suppose they don’t observe the other cultural themes either. February is Black History Month. March is Women’s History Month, Irish-American Heritage Month, and Greek-American Heritage Month. April 22 is Earth Day. May is Jewish-American Heritage Month and Asian-Pacific-American Heritage Month. June is Caribbean-American Heritage Month. July 4 is Independence Day. September is National Hispanic Heritage Month. September 11 is Patriots Day. October is interesting: it is Filipino-American History Month, German-American Heritage Month, Italian-American Heritage Month, and Polish-American Heritage Month. November is Native American Heritage Month and Puerto-Rican Heritage Month. December is Maritime Heritage Month and Universal Human Rights Month.

That gives those of us who like to write a whole lot to write about. Observing these cultural themes provides opportunity to study closely things that might otherwise remain unnoticed and unappreciated. Why should any member of these people groups act as if he’s above it all and belittle the significance of what we’re trying to do here?

http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/travel/africanamericanhistorymonth.html Black Heritage

AMERICAN HISTORY

Some Blacks, I understand, favor the term “American” history over “Black” history. Well, this is the problem. History textbooks cannot squeeze in everything—it isn’t possible, there’s too much history to cover—and they tend to focus on wars, politicians, and legislation. Much cultural history is overlooked by grammar school, high school, and college textbooks. This is not an intentional slight. If you want to be able to carry them in your book bag, history books have to be portable. If they included everything, they’d be too heavy to lift. Thus, they can provide only an overview. If you want to know more on a given subject, you have to read other books, like biographies and historical accounts.

I don’t know everything, but I am old and I know a lot more than young people. It took me a long time to learn it. It did not all happen in school. I have been learning all my life, and I am still learning.

I know a great deal, for instance, about the War of Independence. How did I learn this? I watched American Experience and related programs on PBS-TV. I read histories and biographies. I visited most Revolutionary War sites listed in the National Park System: almost sixty. Many Blacks have never seen sites like Fort Ticonderoga, Valley Forge, and Yorktown—as if this were European or white man’s history. What do you suppose it would take to bring this period in history home to American Blacks or to make them feel that because this is American history, it is their history too?

http://www.nps.gov/revwar/contact/park_info.html American Revolution

I know a great deal, too, about the Civil War. I read narrative historian Bruce Catton and biographies of famous persons. I watched American Experience and related programs on PBS-TV. I visited every Civil War site listed in the National Park System: over seventy. Many Blacks never go to military parks like Chickamauga, Shiloh, Gettysburg, Vicksburg, or Appomattox—though, with over 700,000 casualties, the Civil War remains the bloodiest war in American history, though almost 200,000 Blacks fought on the Union side, and though it was the war that brought about the Emancipation Proclamation. What do you suppose it would take to bring this American history home to American Blacks?

http://www.nps.gov/civilwar150/civwarparks.html American Civil War

I grew up on Westerns. I know a great deal about Westward Expansion. Before I watched American Experience and related programs on PBS-TV, I watched things like Playhouse 90, docudramas, documentaries, and other historical productions. I visited most Westward Expansion sites listed in the National Park System: near seventy. Many Blacks never visit the Golden Spike, Mount Rushmore, the Little Bighorn, or Scotts Bluff—as if this history belonged to the white man, Native Americans, and European and Asian immigrants. What do you suppose it would take to bring this history home to American Blacks or to make them feel that because this is American history, it is their history too?

http://www.nps.gov/findapark/index.htm#search Search by Topic: Westward Expansion

CONCLUSION

Do you see my point? Blacks say “American” history, but they don’t think or do “American” history. Reverting to the more inclusive term American is nothing more than a cop-out. They don’t intend to study this country’s history at all.

I don’t watch much TV or film because there are few things I consider good enough to waste my time on. But, occasionally, along comes a film or TV program that is actually well made, has something to say, and is not too indecent. Here are a few worth taking home.

• Alone (TV 1997) with James Earl Jones, Hume Cronyn

Fiction. The story, written by Horton Foote, is often titled “Horton Foote’s Alone” to distinguish it from other titles by the same name. Since it is the story of a couple of old, lonely men wanting to rock on the front porch and be left alone, I can relate. John Webb (Hume Cronyn), recently widowed, lives in Texas, on a big spread, in a main house plus tenant buildings. When his grown children learn there is oil on the property and that an oil company wants to pay big money for drilling rights, naturally they want Dad to disappear, or something like that. However, Webb doesn’t fancy the idea and there comes the rub. He is buffered in his action by the coming of his friend Grey (James Earl Jones), to whom he lends one of his empty buildings. Besides being a great story, Alone boasts a superb supporting cast, including Ed Begley Jr, Chris Cooper, Hallie Foote, Frederic Forrest, and Piper Laurie.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0167762/ Horton Foote’s Alone (TV 1997)

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• Amazing Grace (1996) with Ioan Gruffudd, Albert Finney, Ciarán Hinds, Benedict Cumberbatch, Youssou N’Dour

Historical. Slavery was not unique to America. It is almost as old as civilization, has been practiced by many cultures, and is still being practiced in some countries. In fact, there are more slaves today than at any time in history. Immigrants from the Old World brought slavery with them to the New World. However, by the nineteenth century, it was being seen for what it was: a human rights issue. In England a young Christian politician, William Wilberforce (Ioan Gruffudd), arose in the House of Commons with a passion to outlaw the uncharitable, unchristian practice. Supporting him were the prime minister, William Pitt (Benedict Cumberbatch), and a former slave trader, John Newton (Albert Finney), author of the hymn “Amazing Grace.”  Opposing him, among others, was Lord Tarleton (Ciarán Hinds). Telling his story was Olaudah Equiano (Youssou N’Dour), the erudite former slave turned author. This film gives the historical account of Wilberforce’s successful but costly battle to end slavery in Britain.  The Slave Trade Act (1807) stopped the ships, but it was the Slavery Abolition Act (1833)—which Wilberforce did not live to see (he died one month before the passage)—that abolished slavery in Britain, effective 1 August 1834. Thus, England ended slavery thirty years before America’s Emancipation Proclamation (1863)—without war or bloodshed.

http://bit.ly/VQuOA ”Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)”
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0454776/ Amazing Grace (1996)

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• Buffalo Soldiers (TV 1997) with Danny Glover, Carl Lumbly, Clifton Powell

Historical. Buffalo Soldiers, based on a true incident that happend in 1880, tells of the US 10th Cavalry, Troop H, that protected the Western territories after the Civil War. It was formed as an all-Black regiment, meaning Black enlisted men and white officers, behind whom the Blacks were to stay at least fifteen feet. The Blacks were given menial, dirty jobs. The focus of the movie is Troop H’s attempt to capture a nasty Apache warrior, Victorio (Harrison Lowe), who has escaped from the reservation and is making war on settlers in New Mexico. Because this is desert country, Colonel Grierson (Bob Gunton) decides the best way to catch Victorio is to guard the water holes. This calls for the biggest military concentration ever assembled in these parts. Troops of the 10th Cavalry are assigned to patrol the region from the Van Horn to the Quitman Mountains, and north to the Sierra Diablo and Delaware Mountains. Inevitably troops encounter Indians and fight small skirmishes. But there are major confrontations at a water hole south of Sierra Blanca and a springs north of Van Horn. The military does its job, Victorio is forced to retreat to Mexico, and the Apaches are exhausted. In fact, after the Apaches crossed the border, Victorio and many of his warriors were killed by Mexican troops, 14 October 1880. Among the supporting cast: Gabriel Casseus, Glynn Turman, and Mykelti Williamson. Graphic war violence.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118790/ Buffalo  Soldiers (TV 1997)

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• Captive Heart: The James Mink Story (TV 1996) with Louis Gossett Jr, Kate  Nelligan, Rachel Crawford, Ruby Dee, and Michael Jai White

True story. 1852. Toronto, Ontario, Canada. James Mink (Louis Gossett Jr) is a wealthy Black man, living comfortably, with his white Irish wife, Elizabeth (Kate Nelligan), and mulatto daughter, Mary (Rachel Crawford). Seventeen-year-old, bilingual Mary, home from college, is considering a career teaching school, and perhaps transferring to college in Quebec. Mink has other ideas. Thinking Mary needs to marry before all the best men are spoken for, he posts a $10,000 dowry to a white man who will oblige. A smooth-talking horse-trader and slave-trader, William Johnson (Peter Outerbridge), gets the better of Mink: he marries Mary, goes to Niagara Falls for the honeymoon, and sells her into slavery in America. Mary winds up on a Virginia plantation, where she meets Elroy (Michael Jai White) and his mother (Ruby Dee). Mary insists, “I was kidnapped. I’m not like you,” to which Elroy responds, “You think you’re different from us? We were all, more or less, kidnapped.” In Canada, when they learn of the trickery, the biracial couple, posing as white mistress and Black slave, head south to Virginia to rescue Mary. Pulling this off is as suspenseful as a war mission behind enemy lines. Occasional violence and strong language. Currently on youtube at the “enjoyutube2″ channel.

http://imdb.to/uMA9dP Captive Heart: The James Mink Story (TV 1996)
http://bit.ly/yw4tYP CH-1 Captive Heart: The James Mink Story

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• Conrack (1974) with Jon Voight, Hume Cronyn, Madge Sinclair

True story. There are many islands off the coast of South Carolina. This is a tale of Daufuskie Island, inhabited entirely by Blacks. The local schoolteacher, Mrs Scott (Madge Sinclair) is not a bad person, but more disciplinarian than teacher. On the mainland, the school superintendent, Mr Skeffington (Hume Cronyn), recruits a young white man, Pat Conroy (Jon Voight), to take the school. Conroy’s first task is finding out what the students know and what they don’t know. He soon discovers they are deficient not only in basic skills like reading, writing, and arithmetic, but also life skills like personal hygiene. Speaking only quasi-English, they can’t even pronounce his name; they call him Conrack. He begins an innovative approach: teaching them to bathe and brush their teeth, exposing them to cultural enrichment—art and music appreciation, Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, baseball, movies—going on field trips so they can learn about botany and zoology, then—because they live on an island and can’t even swim—giving them swimming lessons, and taking them on a field trip, by boat, to the mainland so they can go trick or treating. When school superintendent, Skeffington, hears of all this, he decides he wants someone less unconventional, and Conrack is history.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071358/ Conrack (1974)

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• Cry, The Beloved Country (1995) with James Earl Jones, Richard Harris, Charles S Dutton

Fiction. The story comes to us from the pen of Alan Paton. A South African minister, Stephen Kumalo (James Earl Jones), from a rural Natal town, travels to Johannesburg to help his sister Gertrude, whom he finds living in sin. He looks in on his brother John (Charles S Dutton), who has taken up politics. Kumalo then looks for his son Absalom (Eric Miyeni), whom he finds in jail. Turns out, there was a robbery; a white man, Arthur Jarvis, was murdered. The victim’s father, James Jarvis (Richard Harris), supports apartheid (segregation). But when they meet face to face, both Jarvis and Kumalo see not only their sons, but themselves through a new prism.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112749/ Cry, The Beloved Country (1995)

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• The Ditchdigger’s Daughters (1997) with Carl Lumbly

True story. The Ditchdigger’s Daughters, based on the memoirs of Yvonne S Thorton, describes how her dad, Donald Thorton (Carl Lumbly), an unskilled laborer, encourages his six daughters—no son—to strive for excellence. He becomes mentor and coach, demanding good report cards, curtailing frivolous amusements, even dating, and setting the goal for each to become a doctor. Every girl should be so lucky as to have a dad like that! While some viewers are hard on Dad Thornton, I think he’s wonderful—not unlike the real-life Frank Bunker Gilbreth, in Cheaper by the Dozen (1950), who resisted pop culture, railed against cosmetics and bobbed hair, and escorted his girls to the prom. Sure, Thornton demands much of his girls, which they don’t always appreciate, but he also makes personal sacrifices to ensure their success. How do you ever repay such a man?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118989/ The Ditchdigger’s Daughters (1997)

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• Driving Miss Daisy (1989) with Morgan Freeman, Jessica Tandy, Dan Aykroyd, Esther Rolle

Fiction. This has to be one of my favorite films. When an elderly Jewish widow, Daisy Werthan (Jessica Tandy), in Atlanta, Georgia, bruises the car, in her own driveway, her son, Boolie (Dan Aykroyd)—where do they get these names!—hires her a Black chauffeur, Hoke (Morgan Freeman). When the cook, Idella (Esther Rolle), hears, she tells Hoke: “I wouldn’t be in your shoes if the good Lord Himself asked me!” The beautiful thing about this movie is not the cantankerous Jewess, but the manly Hoke who will not be driven into inferiority. Yes, Daisy will ride in his car because that’s what he was hired to do: drive her. And it doesn’t matter if she was a schoolteacher and he cannot read or write, he’s still a man. When her son gets her a new car, Hoke buys the old one for himself—not from the family, but from a dealer. He doesn’t intend to be beholding to nobody. When Daisy talks about her poor days way-back-when, Hoke says, “Well, you’re doing alright now, ain’t ya?” When they go on a long trip, Hoke lets her know that there are some things he shouldn’t have to answer for: she’s neither his mother nor his schoolteacher. When Idella dies, Hoke tells Daisy she can’t cook; he tries to help. When snow blankets Atlanta, and the power goes out, Hoke brings Daisy hot coffee from a vendor—he learned to drive on ice years ago.  She agrees neither of them can make Idella’s coffee. When she gets old and befuddled, Hoke calls her son. When she’s in a nursing home, Hoke spoonfeeds her. To Boolie: “Hoke came to see me not you.” In the end the pair relate like an old married couple.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097239/ Driving Miss Daisy (1989)

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• Faith Like Potatoes (2006) with Regardt van den Bergh, Frank Rautenbach, Hamilton Dlamini

True story. Unapologetically Christian, as are other works of writer and director Regardt van den Bergh. Angus Buchan (Frank Rautenbach), a Scotsman, is a second-generation farmer in Zambia. A hothead who feels that his life is out of control, he heads south after an incident and starts over in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa, where his siblings live. Accompanying him are his three children and pregnant wife. They settle on a tract of land, temporarily living out of a camper. It is Zulu country, and the natives pretty much think it is the whites’ duty to give them jobs. One, Simeon Bhengu (Hamilton Dlamini), shows up, cannot speak English, but lets it be known he is a strong worker. Further, the family shouldn’t be living in a “toy house.” The Zulu wants to build them one. He does. In time for the newborn. Still Angus is out of control, farming isn’t easy, and life is a mess—until God saves him at a Methodist church. After his conversion the Scotsman is a changed man, an evangelist, a person of faith, who believes God for great and mighty things. “The condition for a miracle is difficulty; however, the condition for a great miracle is not difficulty, but impossibility” (Angus Buchan). Against advice, he plants potatoes—in a drought. How is faith like potatoes? It grows unseen until the harvest: you cannot see it, but it is real.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0850667/  Faith Like Potatoes (2006)

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• A Family Thing (1996) with James Earl Jones, Robert Duvall

Fiction. Well, it’s a little hard to buy; but if you can, this is the way the story goes. Earl Pilcher Jr (Robert Duvall), a white Arkansas businessman, lives with and around extended family. His mom dies, leaving behind a confession: she is not his birth mother; Earl Jr is the son of her white husband and a Black woman. When the biological mother died in childbirth, Earl Sr’s white wife took him in and reared him as her own. Earl Jr has an older Black half-brother, Raymond (James Earl Jones), in Chicago, that she wants him to visit. Dad, Earl Pilcher Sr (James N Harrell), is alive and well; he knows all this, and he and Earl Jr see each other every day. Earl Jr goes to Chicago, gets a cold shoulder from Raymond (James Earl Jones) and Raymond’s son, Virgil (Michael Beach); but Raymond’s Aunt T, his mom’s sister, accepts Earl Jr and insists the family accept him too. Eventually the two half-siblings are seated together talking like brothers. Raymond remembers when Earl Jr was born—and even before.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116275/ A Family Thing (1996)

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• Glory (1989) with Matthew Broderick, Cary Elwes, Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman

Historical. Glory tells the story of the first Black regiment. Colonel Robert Gould Shaw (Matthew Broderick), a Yankee officer during the Civil War, agrees to lead the first company of Black soldiers, the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry; his second in command is Cabot Forbes (Cary Elwes). Their first volunteer is an educated Black man, Thomas Searles (Andre Braugher). More volunteers sign up, among them an escaped slave, Trip (Denzel Washington), and a gravedigger, John Rawlins (Morgan Freeman). After his company is forced to sit out the war, doing menial labor, Shaw demands they see action. He volunteers them for an assault on Fort Wagner. During the charge, Shaw is killed. Others, following in his train, continue up the parapet and also die fighting. But news of the regiment’s courage spurs recruitment. By the end of the war, there are more than 180,000 African-American soldiers in uniform, perhaps pivotal to a Union victory.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097441/ Glory (1989)

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• The Last Brickmaker in America (2001) with Sidney Poitier, Bernie Casey

Fiction. After Henry Cobb’s (Sidney Poitier) wife dies, and he almost loses the will to live, the doctor is not optimistic about his health. Then the school decides to expand; and since Henry had made all the bricks for the existing building, the principal asks if he’d like to make all the bricks for the new wing, thereby ensuring a uniform appearance. Enterprising young builders balk: no one makes brick by hand anymore. But Henry livens up at the suggestion. Though opposed by modern contractors, Henry is supported by a rebellious adolescent, Danny Potter (Cody Newton), and an old friend, Lewis (Bernie Casey). The film shows how brick is made, from choosing the soil to baking the brick in a kiln. With Henry’s help the young man and his parents get straightened out, Henry gets a new lease on life, and the school gets an enlarged edifice.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0255313/  The Last Brickmaker in America (2001)

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• Places in the Heart (1984) with Danny Glover, John Malkovich, Sally Field, Ed Harris

Fiction. When her husband, the sheriff, is killed in action, Edna Spalding (Sally Field) finds herself alone and broke, on a small mortgaged farm in Waxahatchie, Texas. It is 1935, the Great Depression. Her banker wants to know how she is going to pay the mortgage. Well, she hadn’t thought about it. She hadn’t thought about widowhood either. The banker pawns off on her his blind brother-in-law, Mr Will (John Malkovich) as a live-in houseguest. Maybe she could take in boarders. No, she was thinking more of crocheting lace doilies. Both together wouldn’t bring in enough to survive; but when a Black vagrant, Moses (Danny Glover) comes around, Mrs Spalding comes up with a better idea: planting cotton. Mose becomes the brains of the farm, showing her what to do; she is the responsible head of household; and Mr Will not only makes brooms, but cooks green beans and cornbread. It takes the three of them, together, to get the job done; and they do fine, until the town muscle, the clan, show up.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087921/ Places in the Heart (1984)

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• The Simple Life of Noah Dearborn (1999) with Sidney Poitier, Bernie Casey, Afemo Omilami, Mary-Louise Parker, Dianne Wiest

Fiction. This movie is similar to Alone in one respect: an old man owns some land, and someone else wants it. In this case, ninety-some-year-old Noah Dearborn (Sidney Poitier) owns thirty-some acres of prime real estate in Georgia, and the persons coveting it are developers. They want to tear down everything and plant a shopping center. Noah, of course, has no desire to relocate, especially with one foot in the grave. I mean, couldn’t they just hold off a couple of years? “Ain’t got long to stay here.” On the other hand, he does look pretty healthy. A carpenter by trade, untouched by pop culture, Noah cares only about natural things, like woodworking. When the Philistines can’t work their wiles, they send in a psychologist to evaluate Noah and have him declared incompetent. Instead, she falls under the spell of his simple life and tries to help him in his fight to keep his land.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0200138/ The Simple Life of Noah Dearborn (1999)

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• Sounder (1972) with Kevin Hooks, Paul Winfield, Cicely Tyson

Fiction. In the Newbery Award-winning book by William Armstrong, the only character identified by name is Sounder, the dog; the time and the place are ambiguous. The movie is different. Here the family are Louisiana sharecroppers in the Depression-era 1930s. The father, Nathan Lee Morgan (Paul Winfield), finds a stray coon dog, which he and his older son, David Lee (Kevin Hooks), take hunting. Because of the dog’s howls when he chases prey, they name him Sounder. During the winter, when game is scarce, Dad is arrested for stealing grub and is sentenced to a year of hard labor. It is up to the mother, Rebecca Morgan (Cicely Tyson), and the children to harvest the crops. No cause to worry. “We’ll do it because we have to do it,” she says with grit. After a time, Mom sends David, junior-aged, to visit Dad at the workhouse. David never finds the place, but he stumbles across an all-Black school and a Black schoolteacher, who inspires him to read and write. When Dad returns home, he and the boy talk. Dad knows the role that Southern society has carved out for Black sharecroppers, and he is determined that his son break free.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069303/ Sounder (1972)

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• Sounder (2003) with Carl Lumbly, Paul Winfield, Daniel Lee Robertson III

Fiction. Why would anyone want to improve on perfection? Well, they tried. They remade a classic. This is the Disney version, with nice cinematography and digital format. Kevin Hooks, who played David Morgan in the 1972 version, is the director; the schoolteacher this time is Paul Winfield, who played Nathan Morgan in the earlier film. Here the characters, like the book, are unnamed, known only by their familial role. The plot is the same: the Dad (Carl Lumbly) is arrested for stealing food, only this time he gets five years; the dog Sounder disappears; the boy (Daniel Lee Robertson III) goes off looking for his dad and runs into a schoolteacher (Paul Winfield). This time, thanks to Dad’s longer sentence, the young protagonist has the time to learn to read and to see education as a way out of the back-breaking labor and poverty his family have suffered.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0324030/ Sounder (2003)

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• The Tuskegee Airmen (TV 1995) with Laurence Fishburne, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Cuba Gooding Jr, Andre Braugher

Historical. This is the story of the first African-American aviators in World War II: the 332nd Fighter Group and the 477th Bombardment Group of the US Army Air Corps. They are called the Tuskegee Airmen because they were trained in Tuskegee, Alabama. In the movie the trainees are Hannibal Lee (Laurence Fishburne), Walter Peoples III (Allen Payne), Leroy Cappy (Malcolm-Jamal Warner), Benjamin O Davis Jr (Andre Braugher), Billy Roberts (Cuba Gooding Jr), and Lewis Johns (Mekhi Phifer). When First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt (Rosemary Murphy) arrives for an inspection, it is Lee who takes her up in a plane; naturally she’s impressed. A congressional hearing is held to determine if the Tuskegee Airmen should be allowed to participate in the war. Against such silly claims as Blacks are “incapable of handling complex machinery,” thanks to an inspirational speech by their commander, Benjamin O Davis (Andre Braugher), the hearing decides in their favor. The all-Black 332nd Fighter Group is deployed to Italy, to provide escort for Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bombers. Then on to Berlin and North Africa. Eventually, their reputation grows to the point that bomber pilots specifically request Blacks as escorts, preferring them over whites. Out of 450 pilots deployed overseas, more than 15,000 sorties, and over 1,500 missions, the Tuskegee Airmen engaged and defeated Messerschmitt Me 262s, the first operational jet fighters, suffered only 66 men killed in action, and were awarded 95 Distinguished Flying Crosses (850 war medals total). The 477th Bombardment Group worked on bombers, but never served in combat.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114745/ The Tuskegee Airmen (TV 1995)

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*The term “Black Folk” echoes WEB DuBois, The Souls of Black Folk.

The other day I heard of a man who ran—on the lam.

Where? Where does a person run to? There’s no hiding place.

Wasn’t that the point of showing us Osama bin Laden in a cave? Cameras everywhere. From outer space. And they are so good they see through canvas tents—in the middle of nowhere—at least on JAG (CBS-TV).

Forty years ago spy satellites could read the date on a penny dropped on a sidewalk in New York City. At the time, the USA did not want people to know their surveillance was that good. If so then, imagine now. That was the real purpose of the Space Age: not to put a man on the moon, but to position spyware.

You may imagine that people can still run. Such myth is perpetuated by the rash of illegals supposedly crossing the southern border into this country. If illegals or drugs are getting through, they are doing so only because the USA wants them to get through. We do not live in an agrarian or industrial world: we live in a well-equipped, ultramodern technological age—Alvin Toffler’s Third Wave.

You probably have not studied demographics where professionals build computerized images of the aging and waning of a population. Turkey and Saudi Arabia, for example, are young countries: one-fourth or more of their population is under thirty years of age; the old order is passing. Young people are clamoring for Western culture. Japan, an homogeneous country, is old and refuses to repopulate its country with non-Japanese; without an influx of new blood, it will die.

To maintain its standard of living and pay its bills, the USA needs more people, and it has no qualm about where they come from. The powers-that-be want the domestic population of America to reach 400 million and to brown: so whites will become a minority. To function socially, they need legal and illegal immigrants—of course, after illegals get jobs here and stay awhile, they are given amnesty and become de facto legal. And the only way that illegals can stay and work is that employers know who they are and look the other way. All part of their plan.

The point is that you cannot go anywhere unless a country lets you.

To get into another country legally, you need passport, visa, and ID. To stay illegally and get a job, you still need some form of ID, to be able to speak the language, and to look similar enough to the natives that you don’t stand out in a crowd. If you are rich enough, you can get someone to help you—there is still the human factor in all this—but if you are poor, running is not what it used to be.

If you think you can hide out in shelters and live off soup kitchens and free food places, think again. The government now mandates all such places to take ID and keep records. You cannot even mooch off social welfare and remain anonymous.

Many or most of us have an address, mailbox, ID, drivers license, car registration, car payment, mortgage or lease, rent or house payment, utility bills, real estate taxes, annual or quarterly income tax, stocks, bonds, CDs, savings, dividends, insurance (house, car, health, life), college transcripts, checking account, credit cards, passports …. We are known. There is no anonymity.

A few years back a light-headed fellow—airhead—out in Waco, Texas, had the bright idea that he could hide out. He bragged that there were vast empty spaces in Texas where a person could get lost forever and never be found. Then he started getting guns via the US Postal Service, Fed-Ex, UPS, or whatever—he had an address and a mailbox. If you have an address, someone knows where you are—they even know how old you are and who you are related to. If you don’t have an address, they are going to come looking for you.

Did you hear that Fed-Ex and UPS are planning to merge? They’ll call themselves Fed-Up. ~Ed Baer

All my life, it seems, I have known of and thought of eschatology, the Great Tribulation, the Antichrist, and the mark of the beast—it’s coming. Liberals ridicule us Christians for equating some of the new tech with the mark of the beast. That is fallacious snobbery. The mark of the beast is real.

“For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar” (Romans 3:3, 4).

“And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness” (2 Thessalonians 2:11, 12). Those who denigrate the idea will be the very persons deceived.

Theoretically, the mark of the beast was possible even in a less-sophisticated age than the one in which we live now. Hitler tattooed the Jews with a number. If he had gained world dominion and ordered every living person tattooed, he could have accomplished as much as Scripture says (Revelation 13)—with a tattoo. It could have been done. Albeit, with hard copy.

Old-time preachers, living long before Hitler, never questioned the possibility of someone being able to wield world power or world control: for that reason they expected Jesus to come then just as much as we do now. However, even with Hitler’s scheme, there still would have been the human factor: someone looking the other way. Someone thinking for himself, perhaps accepting bribes, perhaps lifting someone out of the sea, hiding him out, or giving him a lift. There was no way, even requiring “papers” and tattoo, that a leader could have had total control.

This is where today is different. Someone can control everything.

There are cameras everywhere. If you think you can live underground and walk into a grocery store or convenience store, like Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber, and use cash only, think again. How do they get those images of hoods robbing stores? Cameras. How do those live traffic images show up at noon and dinnertime on the local news? Cameras. Some highways tell motorists they are being photographed; others do not. If a USA satellite could read the date on a Lincoln-head penny in 1969, imagine now.

There are even two-way cameras in your TV set and may be in your computer and cellphone. Why do you think the government mandated digital over analog? You can imagine it was for uniformity, like getting rid of LPs when they brought out CDs. Makes sense. But there are pixels with digital, and one of those pixels is looking at you—or could.

There are ID requirements everywhere. In some countries, passports are infected with RFID, and persons are being given RFID via injection. Others have provided fingerprints, hand scans, retina scans, full body imaging, biometrics, DNA …. Soon, if not already, governments everywhere will have more than enough info to know exactly who everyone is, with or without the individual’s express permission. Some persons who know about the mark of the beast and call themselves Christians are not bothered about RFID or biometrics. “As long as it doesn’t require worship, I have no problem with it.” Why not? It’s an invasion of privacy. Today it may be only circumstantial. Tomorrow it may be dictatorial.

In India, a new biometric system, Unique ID or Aadhaar, is already in place. It is a 12-digit number issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). The number alone is proof of identity and address. Without papers or RFID. The number, which is good for driving, banking, and government services, is unique to an individual, costs nothing, and remains valid for life. Interestingly, in India, a Hindu country, it is a random number, devoid of any classification based on caste, creed, religion, or geography. Soon every country will have the same system.

http://uidai.gov.in/ India’s biometric system Aadhaar

There are growing computer requirements everywhere. Each computer has an IP address, and persons cannot log onto the internet without revealing where they are or what instrument they are using. Libraries require personal ID because the government says they need to know exactly who was looking up what during a given time period. Sure. If you are in some place like Philadelphia, which has imbedded hot spots in its streetlamps, you can use your wireless free; still the computer itself has an IP address. If you are at home, you have a service provider, and assuming your log-in has not been hijacked, they know it is you or someone in your house or someone using your cellphone. Now the government is fussing about thieves who sit outside your window or outside Starbucks or Panera Bread and piggyback your computer. They are complaining that only the computer is ID’d, not the user, and they are making laws—in the middle of the night while you and I are sleeping—that will require ID of the user. How are they going to accomplish that? RFID. Biometrics. Electronic epidermal tattoo.

There are growing credit card dangers—I suspect they create these dangers so they can provide a solution. Now they have these wavable chipped cards, which they say can be read from a distance of thirty feet. Even Bank of America is getting rid of magstriped cards and going to wavable RFID or chip-and-pin (mini-microprocessor), which they say is more internationally acceptable (some European countries, for example, no longer have the equipment to swipe magstriped cards) and more secure. Uh? If RFID is more secure, why is it more easily picked up? RFID is nothing but radio waves—Thanx a mil, Marconi! If Bank of America is in big trouble financially, perhaps it is because of their big plans to replace old magstriped card readers with new ones—restructure their infrastructure—and if Warren Buffett wants to help them out, perhaps it is because he has an interest in the outcome. You think?

Dynamics Inc has recently come out with an innovation solution to credit card fraud. The new card, on display January 2012 at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, and under trial by CitiBank, is powered by a tiny battery and, like some key fobs, generates a different security code every time it is used. The number in the magstrip also changes, so it can’t be cloned and thieves can’t skim a card with a portable card reader. The card also requires a PIN.

http://bit.ly/28SKvK Contactless Cards Spark Concern for Data Privacy
http://bit.ly/vIdDdW New Terminals to Accept Chip-and-Pin Payments
http://huff.to/zn601x Credit Cards With Chips: Are Urban Legends True?
http://bit.ly/ynlLlU Dynamics Inc revolving security code credit card

Further, the government plans to track prepaid credit cards—doesn’t want anyone or any transaction to be anonymous. Only a matter of time before they make cash illegal in America—already impractical in some countries that allow chipped cards but no coin.

Recently a female motorist, on religious grounds, refused to have her biometric photo made for an enhanced drivers license; she said it was the mark of the beast. The state refused to re-up her drivers license, so now she is walking around without photo ID. The end result? She cannot get a job, travel, buy, sell, access health care, bank, rent a hotel room, or obtain a post office box because she does not have government-issued ID; and, of course, she cannot leave the country or board a plane. That is de facto the mark of the beast.

http://bit.ly/oFAuHf Challenging requirements for enhanced drivers license

It is later than you think. We are right on the verge of the seven-year Tribulation and the mark of the beast. Maybe you think not necessarily, that all this tech could be in place decades before the Antichrist shows up. Think again. We are close, very close, to RFID, biometrics, or epidermal tattoo being mandated. We are running out of time.

“Go, my people, enter your rooms and shut the doors behind you; hide yourselves for a little while until his wrath has passed by” (Isaiah 26:20).

Posted 6 September 2011 Morning Light
Updated 13 January 2012

I disdain pop culture.

One of the goofiest songs I ever heard was “don’t know much geography, don’t know much trigonometry, don’t know much about algebra…but I know I love you” (Sam Cooke). Sounds like the kind of line a guy would pull on an unsuspecting fourteen-year-old, so he could ruin her life forever. As James Dobson says, “Guys lie.” Not about being stupid, but about being in love. You know, the Michael Bolton song: “I said I loved you, but I lied.” By contrast, “A love affair with knowledge will never end in heartbreak”  (Michael Garrett Marino).

A few phrases was about all I heard of the “don’t know much” song. Before the next line, I flipped the dial. If that boy came around my daughter, I’d be showing him the door. As EV Hill said, “You have to break up some things.”

http://bit.ly/xyMlIY lyrics “Don’t Know Much” [and proud of it]
http://bit.ly/10mRPA EV Hill Sermon

Years ago I occasionally watched Jeopardy while I was cooking dinner. They’d ask questions about history and literature, religion and philosophy, science and the arts….I haven’t watched Jeopardy in decades. Nowadays they ask silly questions about pop culture. I was told that if they didn’t include pop culture, nobody would make any money, because pop culture is all this generation knows.

Our educational system, like our churches and medical care, is corrupted with money.

I remember when the Almighty called ministers to preach, and they were motivated by passion. Now, all they hear is the call of the almighty dollar, and they are motivated by a spirit of greed. How is the church influenced by money? Because the Federal government underwrites the church by making it nonprofit, making contributions tax-deductible, and giving the minister a tax-free housing allowance. Church is Big Business, and ministers are hirelings.

I remember when physicians went into medicine because they wanted to help people. Now, all they want is money. In a modern hospital if a patient cries too loud or too long, the doctor will sock him with a hypodermic to quiet him.

I remember when a hospital bed in a semi-private room was $3 a night; a ward, $1 a night. A working man could pay for medical care on his way out the door, with cash from his wallet. Nowadays, the cost of medical care is almost prohibitive. No one can afford it without medical insurance, and that insurance will cost a family moreper month than a car payment!  How is medicine influenced by money? Because the Federal government went into socialized medicine with Medicare and Medicaid, costs skyrocketed, insurance companies had no choice but to govern medical treatment; further, the pharmaceutical industry trains doctors and provides scholarships. Medicine is polluted with special-interest groups.

“Unless we put medical freedom into the Constitution, the time will come when medicine will organize into an undercover dictatorship to restrict the art of healing to one class of Men and deny equal privileges to others; the Constitution of the Republic should make a Special privilege for medical freedoms as well as religious freedom.” ~Benjamin Rush, MD

I remember when cereal was 25¢-50¢ a box. After the WIC program came out—overnight—cereal jumped to $4 a box. Afterward, about the only common persons who could afford cereal were the persons with WIC vouchers or food stamps. Nowadays close to fifty million Americans are on food stamps. The government is underwriting the grocery store!

There was a time when higher education at a small, private school was affordable—about $50-$100 a semester. Back then a car was under $2,000; a cottage or bungalow, with land, less than $5,000; a large, brick home, about $10,000. So, you see, even if a person stayed in school for four years, and paid his own way, the cost of an education was still less than the price of a house or a car. Compare that to today’s out-of-control tuition. Today’s students are coming out of four-year programs owing as much as $200,000. How is education influenced by the Federal money? Because the Federal government went into student loans with the National Defense Education Act (1958). All schools, by now, have become dependent on student loans.

Anytime the Federal government gets involved, the price escalates exponentially. If you want the price of anything to go down, and the quality to go up, get the Federal funding out of it.

There was a time when higher education was not for everybody—only those likely to succeed, a fact discoverable by SATs and ACTs. Now everyone thinks he has a right to go to college, even if he can’t spell arithmetic or doesn’t know the difference between a gerund and a participle. All private schools and colleges want are warm bodies. They don’t care if students are academically inclined—just so they fill the seats and help pay the overhead. Bring them in. Muscle them through. And at Orientation, don’t mention study habits; talk about STDs and prophylactics.

“When we, through our educational culture, through the media, through the entertainment culture, give our children the impression that human beings cannot control their passions, we are telling them, in effect, that human beings cannot be trusted with freedom.” ~Alan Keyes

“The object of a New Year is not that we should have a new year.  It is that we should have a new soul and a new nose; new feet, a new backbone, new ears, and new eyes.  Unless a particular man made New Year resolutions, he would make no resolutions.  Unless a man starts afresh about things, he will certainly do nothing effective.”  ~G K Chesterton

Resolved:

• To be like Enoch who “walked with God” (Genesis 5:24).
• To be like Abraham who “called upon the name of the Lord” (Genesis 21:33) and “believed God” (Romans 4:3).
• To be like Joseph who refused to “sin against God” (Genesis 39:9) and let himself be “tried of the Lord” (Psalm 105:17-19).
• To be like Moses who chose to “suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season” (Hebrews 11:25).
• To be like Aaron and Hur who “lifted up the hands that hang down” (Exodus 17:12; Hebrews 12:12).
• To be like Caleb who, trusting God (Numbers 13:30), said, “Give me this mountain” (Joshua 14:12).
• To be like Joshua, “strong and of good courage” (Joshua 1:9), who said, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15).
• To be like Gideon who took God at His word: “Surely I will be with thee” (Judges 6:16).
• To be like David, “a man after [God’s] own heart” (Acts 13:22), who “served his generation by the will of God” (Acts 13:36).
• To be like Nehemiah who wept and prayed (Nehemiah 1:4-11), watched and prayed (4:9), and worked and prayed (4:17).
• To be like Esther who, fasting and praying (Esther 4:19), said, “If I perish, I perish” (4:16).
• To be like Isaiah who said, “Here am I; send me” (Isaiah 6:8).
• To be like Andrew, who brought his loved ones to Christ (John 1:41, 42).
• To be like John, who leaned on the Master (John 13:23).
• To be like Stephen, who interceded for those who did not know Him (Acts 7:59, 60).
• To be like Paul, who “forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before, pressed toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13, 14).
• To be like Timothy, who studied “to show himself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15).
• To be like Jesus, who did the will of the Father (John 4:34).

“When we once begin to form good resolutions, God gives us every opportunity of carrying them out.” ~St John Chrysostom

I’ve known a few memorable Christmases, unfortunately sometimes for the wrong reasons, like the year we wrecked on the side of a mountain in a blizzard; I ended up with a nasty injury and spent much of the Holidays in pain.  I’ll never forget that Christmas.  Or the year we visited relatives in north Florida and the thermometer dropped to 0°.  Who anticipates things like that? 

Better were the years we went caroling door to door, put up Nativity scenes, and had Christmas plays. Or the years we took our Holidays at a remote cabin in the woods.  Initially we were driving up in a Jeep Wrangler; but after a torrential rain rewrote the landscape, we were forced to hike, pulling a Radio Flyer loaded with all our food and gifts.  My dad would chop wood for the potbellied stove in the front room and the cooking range in the kitchen.  There was an old pump organ for entertainment, though getting and keeping a fire going was entertainment enough.  On the front porch were rockers, which, we were told, were sometimes, in our absence, occupied by black bears.   I never knew bears were attracted to rocking chairs, did you?

Then, there were the years with my own children when I put up a tree and spent hours in stores looking for just the right gift….Or the year I bought myself an electric lawn mower.  I was so tickled with that thing that when I got up in the morning, I went down to where it was waiting atop the carpeted floor, threw my arms around it, and kissed it.  I was never so delighted with an appliance in my life.

All that is behind me now.  Now I give gift cards or food.  It’s simpler.  Maybe I got the idea from my aged, olive-skinned grandfather, who, unable to shop, would park himself by the front door, and as relatives came in, hand out $20 bills.  Saves “wear and tear” on the shopper.

This year I attended Christmas concerts and special services.  I didn’t enjoy every event.  At one, the auditorium was packed, and it was stuffy.  Amazing how a little too much warmth makes a body uncomfortable.  Another event was too dry.  I prefer a warm, relaxed atmosphere to one so uptight it pings.  There were also the Senior Christmas Banquet at the church and the Senior Christmas Party for the community.  From one I brought home a bag of candy; from the other, a bag of fruit, which I washed and put in the refrigerator.  Fresh oranges, apples, tangerines—what riches!

Anxious about grocery-shopping, I’d put it off till the last minute.  The eve of Christmas Eve I carved time out of my schedule to tackle the store—and the crowds.  When it was over, I laughed.  I’d found …

• Edwards 32-oz frozen pecan pie ($4.99)
• Atlanta Cheesecake Company 40-oz lemon cheesecake ($4.99)
• Delicious 32-oz 8-inch, two-layer carrot cake ($2.50)
• Betty Crocker 6-oz Homestyle Chicken Stuffing (78¢)
• French’s 6-oz Fried Onions ($1.50)
• Utz 10-oz potato chips (99¢)
• Off-brand 10-oz nondairy coffee creamer ($1)
• Farmland 40-oz hickory-smoked ham ($4.66)
• Deli-fresh 16-oz French bread ($1.04)
• Deli-fresh 6-ct sandwich-sized wheat rolls ($1.09)
• Delmonte 14.5-oz canned vegetables (49¢)
• Campbells cream of mushroom soup (49¢)

…in addition to the usual milk and eggs.  If you’re like me and have sticker-shock at the grocery store, and don’t want to waste a lot of money, those are pretty good, if not phenomenal, prices.  I figured the Lord knew what I needed (and wanted) and fixed it for me.  Christmas Day I prepared sliced ham, stuffing with Craisins (left over from Thanksgiving), green bean casserole, beets, boiled eggs, French bread, and choice of desserts.

Aside from being delighted at my relatively inexpensive groceries, I most enjoyed the Christmas Eve and Christmas Day services at the Baptist church.  The music was exceptionally good (I’m talking trained, skillful), the sound quality was excellent, and, best of all, it was Christ-centered.  Everything from the choice of carols and choruses, to the solos, Bible reading, Communion, and sermon was retelling the age-old story of Bethlehem and the gift of the Christ-Child.  One brother gave as his favorite Christmas verse the unlikely passage: “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2:6, 7).  The senior pastor spoke on both occasions; at the latter, on “King of Kings, Lord of Lords, and Lamb of God” (1 Timothy 6:15; Revelation 17:14; 19:16; John 1:29, 36).  What a wonderful thought!Closing with Isaiah 53, the pastor could hardly get through the heart of the passage without choking up. Sprinkled throughout the assembly were raised hands.  I thought, These people could’ve stayed home today.  It’s Christmas; but as if they too realized, and appreciated, the true meaning of the Holiday, they, like me, came out to honor the One it was all about.   It was truly a blessed and memorable Christmas.

“May Peace be your gift at Christmas and your blessing all year through!”  ~Anonymous

“The time to begin writing an article is when you have finished it to your satisfaction. By that time you begin to clearly and logically perceive what it is you really want to say.” ~Mark Twain

Writing comes naturally to some people—not to others. Any English comp instructor can tell you that most incoming freshmen, even in good schools, can barely write. On one student’s paper a prof scribbled: “I am returning this otherwise good typing paper to you because someone has printed gibberish all over it and put your name at the top.” Students sit down to a blank sheet of paper or, these days, a blank screen, and almost have a panic attack. They will be popping their knuckles, drumming on the desk, fidgeting in their chairs—sweating—because writing does not come naturally to them—it is work. Or, in Gene Fowler’s words, “Writing is easy: All you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.”

Nowadays, we have these computers, laptops, notebooks, I-pads, and what-have-you, and everyone is writing—Associated Content, WordPress, Google, blogs, you-name-it. How? They cannot even compose a letter, let alone a paper, and they are writing? I am surprised not only by the number of persons who try (hoping to come into money maybe), but, occasionally, by the quality of their work. Some blogs are not bad–I tweet those. Most blogs, however, are sad—the aspirant needs to give up and go home—or, if he is home, then he needs to get up and go do something else. Some write poetry: I guess they want to be discovered. Some post their profile, then never write a word: I guess they want to be known—or are looking for love and attention.

If you do sit down to write, say something. “Writing comes more easily if you have something to say” (Sholem Asch ).

A theology professor told me: “Don’t duplicate someone else’s research. If it has already been said or done, do something else.”

The other day I read a short blog on a known missionary and thought, What a waste of time! A name and a blurb about the missionary would have been sufficient, because the reader could have found as much on Wikipedia. If you have nothing to add to the conversation, do not talk. “The role of a writer is not to say what we all can say, but what we are unable to say” (Anaïs Nin). Or, in other words, find a new angle or something that has not been said before. Takes a little more creativity, doesn’t it?

Another thing that bothers me is the number of poor writers wanting to be heard—even if they have nothing to say—invading my space, if you will (I am a writer). They create “white noise.” There is so much out there—some of it good, some of it bad—that readers or auditors have to “channel surf,” or, like the fellow fiddling with the old CB radio, fine tune, to find clarity or credible material. I personally wish every one would not talk at once—that amateurs would go away so professionals could do their work.

I have surmised, however, that the controllers—the State—like it this way. They want persons to talk, and keep on talking. They want unsuspecting blabbers to open up and “tell me all about yourself.” This is a far better way for them to get information than to shine a light in someone’s face and interrogate him. Social media and blogs are so subtle and noninvasive. “There are thousands of thoughts lying within a man that he does not know till he takes up the pen and writes” (William Makepeace Thackeray). The naive speaker hardly feels any pain. “Writing became such a process of discovery that I couldn’t wait to get to work in the morning: I wanted to know what I was going to say” (Sharon O’Brien).

Some States are notorious for collecting information on people. One lady, living in a totalitarian regime, was so very, very careful about keeping the names, identities, dates, and places of her family secret. Years later, when the regime fell and she saw the dossier they had gathered on her, she was shocked to learn that all her carefulness had been for nought—they already knew. And that was a simple paper trail.

Already, in this country, the State—now equipped with a staggering state-of-the-art surveillance and security system—has gigabytes of information stored on everyone of us. A gigabyte is so huge that one gigabyte can hold the contents of ten yards of books on a shelf; one hundred gigabytes can hold the contents of an entire library floor of academic journals. And somewhere in the nebulous netherworld of espionage is a corps of “listeners,” picking up every word we speak.

It is estimated that an articulate person utters tens of thousands of words every day—the equivalent of a good-sized book—all reflecting the life and thought of the author. With or without electronic identification, speakers and writers can be identified by their thoughts and words—readers recognize Shakespeare when they hear him. The more writers have said or written, the more evidence of who they are because, as Emily Dickinson observed, “Publication is the auction of the Mind of Man.”

So, the State wants us to talk, and keep talking. That is one reason the US Supreme Court has protected freedom of speech over almost every other freedom in the US Constitution. That is one reason bloggers can say almost anything, even if they are not qualified to open their mouth and are propagating misinformation. The State knows if we talk long enough, we will tell on ourselves.

You tell on yourself by the friends you seek,
By the very manner in which you speak,
By the way you employ your time,
By the use you make of dollar and dime,
You tell what you are by the things you wear,
By the spirit in which your burdens bear,
By the kind of things at which you laugh,
By the records you play on the phonograph,
You tell what you are by the way you walk,
By the things of which you delight to talk,
By the manner in which you bear defeat,
By so simple a thing as how you eat,
By the books you choose from the well-filled shelf:
In these ways and more, you tell on yourself. ~Anonymous

“Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.” ~William Wordsworth

What’s a byte? http://whatsabyte.com/
Ecosystem ID http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/40748 John W Whitehead

Formerly posted in Morning Light

Several years ago my daughter, who was a student at the time, purchased a Compaq Presario F700 Notebook PC, attended by stuck-on labels like “Broadcom Wireless,” “Windows Vista,” “Nvidia graphics,” and worst of all, “Built to Last,” a statement that was soon to laugh in our face. The notebook or laptop alone cost over $500. Along with the laptop, she purchased over $200 in accessories, including a surge protector specifically designed for computers and other electronics, a portfolio or carrying case, a flash drive, and an over $100 license for Microsoft Word Home Office. She was smiling with anticipation.

In less than six months the PC was freezing. She would have to turn the thing off and let it reboot. As time passed, the aggravation escalated to maybe five times a night, where she was working, off-line, at home, on her thesis. Before another month or so passed, the wi-fi ceased, even with the user switch turned on. Someone gave her an ethernet cord, which she could use only in certain places: it was not as user-friendly as wi-fi, so she seldom logged onto internet anymore. When she did, Windows Vista would automatically do updates, whether she wanted them or not. When she tried turning off the automatic updates, the laptop balked. “You need those.” Sure.

Trying to find a solution, she went online. The thing did overheat. Maybe that was the problem. They sold little cooling fans that you could stick underneath the PC.

“What’s that gonna cost?”

“I don’t know.”

“We’re dealing here with a defective product. We ourselves know little or nothing about computers. And they expect us to spend more money to fix something that never should have torn up in the first place! What right do they have to place such a maniacal machine on the market!”

We did not buy the cooling fan.

A couple of months before the year’s guarantee expired, the laptop was becoming so unreliable and so difficult to use that she was ready to scream. Sometimes it would loop all night and come back about 8:00 am. Sometimes it would not loop at all. Sometimes it would take days to return. Sometimes she would blanche and almost have a heart attack. She had help and support via phone and internet, but she was not getting far with the pros.

One day an empty cardboard box came in the mail. “What’s this?”

“They want me to mail the laptop to Houston. That’s the only way they can fix it.”

“There is no local repairman?”

“No.”

“How long will that take?”

“They said it’d take four-six weeks, maybe eight”—the heart of the semester.

“By which time the guarantee will have expired. Is this thing wired to self-destruct after six months so you’ll be forced to buy the extended warranty?”

“I don’t know.”

“Why don’t they send you a boot disk?”

“You’re supposed to make your own when you bring the thing home from the store.”

“Why didn’t someone tell you? Why didn’t they include a complementary boot disk in the original package? Is that so difficult? Why couldn’t they send you one now—this very minute? Wouldn’t that be cheaper?”

“I don’t know.” She needed the PC—now—and the stuff that was on it.

“Probably got prisoners working on the PCs. No privacy. They can read all your stuff.”

“Mom, I don’t think they use prisoners to fix computers.”

“You don’t know, do you? Credit card companies use them. Probably the cheapest labor force, and imagine the problems they’re having with these things. They need a lot of computer people. Somebody probably trains prisoners to fix and hack computers. Isn’t the FBI busy with hacking? Probably have the FBI training prisoners to hack. Even the people who aren’t in prison are sometimes only persons who haven’t been caught. They’re still criminal.”

“Mom, you’re nuts!”

“Are you gonna send it?”

“I don’t know.”

She didn’t.

She kept trying to work with the PC. It kept failing—miserably. She would almost have a panic attack getting up with support services. She would turn on the PC, and instead of booting, it would go to a blue screen. She could not get to the computer menu or Windows Vista.

We went back to the office supply store where she bought the thing. “Sorry, can’t help you. We only sell computers, we don’t service them. You’ll have to go to Best Buy. It’s across the way,” the cashier said, pointing.

“Well, we were thinking more of a refund.”

“Sorry, can’t do that either. It’s been over ninety days.”

“It says, ‘Built to Last.’ You don’t think you have some responsibility for how this thing behaves.”

She shook her head. We walked out.

“Wow, those people really are distancing themselves—sending you to their competitor to get the thing fixed. Maybe they’re all in cahoots. You know, the office supply sells ‘em and Best Buy fixes ‘em.”

“Mom, I don’t think they’re in cahoots. The girl was trying to be helpful.”

“By denying you a refund? Or not even offering you a deal on a trade-in? I don’t think so.”

We went to Best Buy. The repair center had an assortment of prices, depending on what was wrong, and it could take a while. Maybe weeks. Maybe $150-$200. Even then, no guarantee.

“Might as well buy a new one!”

She did. A Toshiba. Hasn’t had any problems with Toshiba. Works fine all the time.

The old $500 Compaq, which she had had scarcely a year (and used even less), and because of which she was now tormented with post-traumatic stress disorder every time she saw the thing or heard that looping sound, lay dead in the closet. She wanted to throw it away.

“Naw, let’s hold onto it. Maybe I’ll think of something later. Maybe I’ll get it fixed myself.”

After about a year, I dug it out. “I suddenly have faith that God is gonna heal that thing.”

Though no one had seen anything but black on that computer screen for a long, long time, it shortly came alive. A message said, “Do you want to restore? Recommended.” I thought you’d never ask. Yes! Yes! Yes!

“It’s yours,” my daughter told me. “I don’t want it.”

“No, it’s still yours. I’m just using it.”

It worked a few days, then starting acting up again. Occasionally it would freeze. I could still re-boot. Then it became so bad—again—that I finally got into the menu I’d wanted in the first place and did factory recovery. It brought the thing back to life, as if it were brand-new. Wow! This is cool. I’d lost all my documents, but that was okay. Most were already published anyway.

That lasted about a month. Then it would boot, but Windows Vista would not come up. My daughter came home with a boot disk for Windows Vista. Ah, you were thinking of me! How sweet!

It didn’t work.

“Well, you know something? I’m not worried about that thing. God restored it once, He can do it again.”

It came alive again. I got a restore menu and Windows Vista came back up.

Then it went black again, as it had been all last year.

I didn’t worry about it. I had it fixed so it could boot from Internet Explorer. When I got it to a place where I could log on, Voila! It came alive again. Up came a message that I had an old version of Explorer, would I like to update it? No, thanks. Don’t wanna mess with it if it’s working.

The thing went black again. Looping. Gone. To my daughter: “I’m not worried about that thing. God restored it once, He can do it again.”

Back home, a few days later, it came back. It lasted long enough for me to begin writing a blog. My daughter came running with a flash drive to save my blog: “Better catch it while I can. Who knows when the thing will go out?”

It did. I’m in the dark again. The thing is two days dead and counting.

My daughter: “There oughta be a lemon law for laptops.”

Formerly posted in Morning Light

Well, how was your Thanksgiving this year?

I’ve known some memorable Thanksgivings.

…Like the year we had our Thursday meal with our widowed landlady in her small ranch-style house and cramped dining room. Her son and daughter-in-law, both professors from a state university, had come in from the Midwest, and all they could talk was Big Ten college football—when they weren’t watching the games on TV.

…Or the year a policewoman invited a coworker, another lady, and me over for the main Thursday meal—we all knew one another from church, where the women helped park cars. It was a darling little cottage—new—with all new furniture and household items—like stepping into a home store. After a fellow policeman dropped by, we had three black-and-white patrol cars parallel-parked in front of the little white picket fence. For you cops, a series of squad cars may be routine; but since I wasn’t part of the fraternity, that day stands out in my mind.

…Or the year we went to the Yacht Club with a starchy couple for fine dining. Someone had exposed one wall to the great outdoors, water was lapping against the concrete walkway, a light breeze was wafting through, and the big, beautiful boats were almost close enough to touch. The main man had taken care to order, and pour, just the right wine; and having done so, he was miffed when I didn’t sip or even taste. And while the food was good—not great, but good—the plate was a little skimpy compared with home cooking.

…Or the year we stopped at the Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, Kentucky. Not all Shaker museums have a restaurant—some only a café, if that. Canterbury Shaker Village (Canterbury, New Hampshire) has Greenwood’s; Hancock Shaker Village (Pittsfield, Massachusetts), Village Harvest Café. So the event and the tab stand out in memory. Ours was a full course meal, à la seventeenth-century, in rustic indoor setting.

http://www.shakervillageky.org/ Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill
http://shakers.org/ Canterbury Shaker Village
http://www.hancockshakervillage.org/ Hancock Shaker Village

…Or the year we dined at the Blue Gate Restaurant, Shipshewana, Indiana, a little, rural, Amish commercial zone, with plenty of shops (playing Christian music), buggy tours, furniture stores, and Menna-Hof museum and bookstore. If you like Amish cuisine—or are simply attracted to the romance of the Amish—you might like to visit some other sites: Shady Maple Smorgasbord (Lancaster County, Pennsylvania), Carlisle Inn (Walnut Creek, Ohio), and Amish Acres (Nappanee, Indiana). But my favorite is Das Dutchman Essenhaus (Middlebury, Indiana). Overlooking the dining room is an open loft, where you can lie back and view the skyscape. Also on the grounds are a bakery, gift shop, village stores, lighthouse, covered bridge, horsedrawn carriage rides, miniature golf, playground, and Inn and Conference Center (with grand piano, splendid open spaces for lounging and playing games, screened-in porch with rocking chairs, and Continental breakfast).

http://www.shipshewana.com/attractions.php Shipshewana, Indiana
http://www.riegsecker.com/php/blue_gate/ Blue Gate Restaurant
http://www.shady-maple.com/smorgasbord Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
http://www.dhgroup.com/en/wc/wc-carlisle-inn.php Walnut Creek and Sugar Creek, Ohio
http://www.visitamishcountry.com/dining.php Amish Country Ohio
http://www.essenhaus.com/ Das Dutchman Essenhaus
http://www.essenhaus.com/page/77/Video-Introduction-to-the-Essenhaus Video

Of course, there are always those family Thanksgivings, some memorable, some mundane—some I cannot even remember. Sometimes it is the travel not the destination that stays with a person—or the seasonal dinners…

…Like the covered dish supper one year at the seminary. I took sweet potato soufflé and green bean casserole.

…Like this current season’s fellowship dinner at the church—I considered that my Thanksgiving dinner: turkey, trimmings, mashed potatoes, green beans, dessert, and coffee. A wonderful meal. About all I could do afterwards was go home and sleep.

♫ A single room, a table for one,
It’s a lonesome town alright…. ♫ ~Jay Livingston, Ray Evans, Henry Mancini

Well, sometimes it happens. You’re not going anywhere, no one is coming, so you wind up alone, or nearly alone, for the main event. Such was my Thanksgiving this year. Still I bought a little something. At the grocery store:

• Edwards 32-oz frozen pecan pie ($4.99 on sale)
• Fresh nameless 34-oz apple pie from the grocer’s bakery ($3.99 on sale)
• Fresh nameless 30-oz pumpkin pecan streusel pie from the grocer’s bakery ($2.99 on sale)
• Betty Crocker 6-oz Homestyle Chicken Stuffing (98¢)
• Fishers 4.25-oz Frosted Walnuts ($1)
• Ocean Spray 5-oz Pomegranate Craisins ($1.88)
• Bumble Bee 10-oz 97% fat free White Chicken ($2)
• Idahoan 4-oz Four Cheese Mashed Potatoes ($1)
• 16-oz can generic green beans (50¢)

Now if you add that all up, it’s about $12 for the pies and about $7.50 for everything else. Less than $20 total. And most of it name brand.

Pies are something I never buy, but I wanted one—pumpkin—for the Holidays, something I wouldn’t have to cook—I don’t like those frozen pies you have to pop into the oven. I wound up buying more because they were on sale. That apple pie, which I opened ahead of time, was exquisite: the best of its kind I’ve ever had. And Edwards makes the best pecan pie on the market.

Thanksgiving Day I prepared three dishes.

(1) I opened, drained, and merely warmed the green beans. Didn’t even add butter or bacon bits.

(2) I boiled 2 cups of water, poured in the instant potatoes, stirred, and set it aside.

(3) I boiled 1.5 cups of water, with a little margarine, poured in the stuffing mix, and set it aside. Then tossed in a few Craisins, a few walnuts, and a drained can of chicken. No gravy.

To serve, I composed a single-serving bowl with a little out of each pot. You could add croissants or yeast rolls. I happened to have on hand a loaf of uncut Italian bread: the kind you pull and dip in olive oil. Nice TV dinner, if you watch TV—I don’t. Or nice table for one. Or something nice to graze on while you’re at the computer.

Thanksgiving cannot get any simpler or cheaper than that, and it was delicious. If you’re a one- or two-person household, perhaps aged like me (and you don’t cook anymore), you might want to give it a try the next Holiday season.

But whether we have less or more,
Always thank we God therefor. ~Anonymous

Posted 26 November 2011 in Morning Light

Filed under: Lifestyle Tagged: Amish cuisine, fellowship meal, Italian bread, pies, Shaker Village, simplicity, stuffing, table for one, Thanksgiving, turkey ]]> http://temporalliving.wordpress.com/2011/12/17/a-simple-thanksgiving/feed/ 0 Truthseekerk Football Main Meal Wine Fine Dining Blue Gate Restaurant Turkey Pumpkin Pie Italian Bread http://temporalliving.wordpress.com/2011/12/17/the-future-of-money-and-how-it-impacts-you/ http://temporalliving.wordpress.com/2011/12/17/the-future-of-money-and-how-it-impacts-you/#comments Sat, 17 Dec 2011 21:46:34 +0000 Truthseekerk http://temporalliving.wordpress.com/?p=31 ]]> “The financial system as we know it is completely untenable, and there are gonna be big changes.” ~Dr Nathan Hagens

Economics is not my field. I write as a layman.

I do not watch much TV. When I do have opportunity to flip channels, I find myself pausing at C-Span, Weather, History, Discovery, Learning (TLC), or Food Channel, muted with closed caption (CC); sometimes, News or CNBC-TV. Occasionally MBA Face-off. Strangely, I often know the answer when the MBA does not. I credit this to life-skills (experience)—it took me a long time to know everything I know—and common sense; viz., I am not without some understanding of finance. So trust me when I tell you that what is going on today is unlike anything that has occurred in my lifetime.

It is estimated that within a few years our 200-year-old currency will disappear. CNBC-TV speculates the dollar will be “utterly destroyed.” China, that the dollar will be replaced with the yuan. The United Nations (UN), that the dollar will be replaced with a new “global currency.” Imagine: “It may happen that you have $100,000 in your bank, and the next day, you wake up and you have 10,000 patriot dollars, or something like that” (Dr Nathan Hagens, economist).

http://www.cnbc.com/id/33709379/ Dollar will be “utterly destroyed”
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/?id=487521&type=Business# Yuan will replace dollar
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504383_162-5298305-504383.html UN proposes new “global currency”

Now, if you think things don’t happen overnight, you’re wrong. They do. Ask people who have lived through overnight twisters. They will tell you that they went to sleep in one world and awoke to another.

Years ago I worked with a young female refugee from Guatemala—still scarred by her experience in her native land. She was surprised by American complacency: that citizens had no awareness or anxiety that their lives might suddenly be forever altered by national or international events. She said, “Don’t they know their government could fall overnight? We went to bed in one nation and awoke in another. Our money and our leaders were all changed.” I thought, Yes, but you lived in a small country. Our country is big and strong. It won’t happen here.

It could.

“In reality, there is no such thing as ‘Too big to fail’; there is only ‘The bigger they are, the harder they fall’” (Eric Raymond).

Sudden, swift transition has taken place in Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Denmark, Norway, Luxembourg, Holland, Belgium, the Balkans, the Baltics, France, Italy, the USSR, Central America, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, Somalia, Libya, Syria … Why not America?

After the War Between the States, Confederate currency was worthless. Not long after World War I, a wheelbarrow of German Papiermark couldn’t buy a loaf of bread: the new Reichsmark was worth 10¹² Papiermark—roughly, a trillion. After World War II the inflation rate in Argentina averaged over 200 percent, reaching a high of over 20,000 percent in 1990. One woman, knowing the price would be higher tomorrow, went to the store and cleaned them out of Kleenex. Runs on stores were so common that residents had to shop early or shelves would be empty.

“There are 10¹¹ stars in the galaxy. That used to be a huge number. But it’s only a hundred billion. It’s less than the national deficit! We used to call them astronomical numbers. Now we should call them economical numbers.” ~Richard Feynman

What is going on right now with our economy is unprecedented. America’s mountain of debt is proof that the system is falling apart. “We have built an entire industrial civilization on the assumption that there will be more every year. We now know that resources are harder to find and, in order to keep the system going, we’ve flooded the American economy—as well as the world economy—with more and more credit” (Dr Nathan Hagens).

“The Titanic is going to sink, and there are some people that will not believe it until they’re under water.” ~Michael Ruppert

Since, in the $1 trillion 2008 banking bailout, the USA was playing with taxpayer money, why wasn’t the “gift” applied to the national debt or consumer debt? Imagine: they could have liberated us all! The bankers would still have received the money, and some people would still be living in their houses. Instead, as always occurs with liquid handouts (eg Imelda Marcos), the recipients (in this case, bankers) pocketed the money, enriched themselves, then turned around and abused the very people who had helped them (we borrowers). How do they get away with this? We taxpayers were the philanthropists. Yet we are denied credit or are stiffed with usury. You know, you have to figure that someone is up to no good. That maybe this is a contrived crisis.

“Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidise it” (Ronald Reagan).

It reminds me of the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant (Matthew 18:23-35). After he was forgiven a debt of $9.6 million (10,000 talents), he went out and imprisoned someone who owed him $16 (100 denarii). When the king heard about it, he rescinded the clemency and made the rich servant repay the original debt. We should be so lucky.

“If you put the Federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there’d be a shortage of sand.” ~Milton Friedman

Posted 19 November 2011 in Morning Light