Posted
A hallway filled with American flags. Posters of the troops. Even a scheduled evening celebration that consisted of a 5-minute trailer with theatrical music meant to drive up your emotional state and give you goose bumps. Charged words flashed across the screen: Honor, Country, Freedom.
No, I wasn’t at a military recruitment event. It wasn’t even a government building or a movie theater, which often serve as fertile environments for statist propaganda.
Nope, all of this happened at church last Sunday. A place where, according to the cornerstone of the entire religion, we are to treat others how we want to be treated.
Yet there I was, sitting in the auditorium, reflecting on a very sad truth: The Abuse of American Soldiers. The oligarchs treat them as pawns, the general population convinces them of nonsense like they are fighting for our freedoms, and politicians parade them around like props in a theatrical show every few years to get votes. In reality, these young 20-year-olds are sent off to kill people they have no quarrel with. To defend not our freedoms, but corporatism. The elites in this country have turned the American solider into both a victim and a bully.
Anyone reading this probably has a fairly good grasp of the unification of government and big business in this country. But what about churches? Whether you believe in God or not, the churches in America are frighteningly infected with unthinking nationalism.
As I walked down the church hallway, staring at the poster that advertised a Tuesday worship service to honor the troops, I thought to myself, “maybe I should just give in.” The oligarchs have infiltrated every aspect of our lives with their worldview. Mass media, Hollywood, public schools, the economy, even our places of religious worship. Heck, they are even able to frame the perception of what it means to be a “normal” human being. Perhaps that’s at the root of many problems I face when raising my children.
Raising kids to be sovereign thinkers in this world is akin to an ant trying to climb a mountain during an avalanche. Essentially, I’ve taken on a task that is proving to be even more difficult as time goes on and the kids age.
On a personal level, I wanted to introduce my children to the teachings of Christ. Unfortunately, I can’t even do that the “normal” way by going to a church. Instead, I will likely have to do that at home in a similar spirit to our homeschooling.
Balancing my role as a father, and making sure my kids are thinking for themselves, will ultimately be my greatest achievement. In the end, I don’t want to be the designer of my children’s thoughts. I don’t want to replace the state. I just want to allow them to be raised in an environment where they think for themselves. It’s a lot harder than it sounds.
I think I’ll start by approaching the pastor this week with my children, and having an honest conversation with him about the state worship I witnessed. Maybe that will be the solution. For me to put myself in awkward conversations with everyone who has Stockholm syndrome. On second thought, maybe not…
– Daniel Ameduri aka The Dissident Dad
Saturday, November 29, 2014
Friday, November 28, 2014
8 heartbreaking quotes from post-abortive women
by Nancy Flanders
We as a society are constantly bombarded with the pro-choice rhetoric that abortion is sometimes necessary. We also hear the words of post-abortive women like Cecile Richards who will say that their abortions were the right thing to do. But whether they are stuffing down their emotions or just plain lying, abortion is never a happy ending.
It kills a child and leaves a mother to live the rest of her life with the knowledge that she took her child’s life. Nothing brings that pain to light better than the words directly from the mouths of everyday post-abortive mothers who are ignored by the major media outlets. Unlike Richards, these women have nothing to gain from sharing their stories. They only hope to help other mothers choose life.
Lori Nerad, Former National President of Women Exploited by Abortion:
“Two weeks after the abortion, I went into labor. I staggered into the bathroom. And there, with my husband beside me, I delivered a part of my baby the doctor had missed. It was the head of my baby. . . I’ll wake up in the middle of the night, thinking I hear a baby crying. And I still have nightmares in which I am forced to watch my baby being ripped apart in front of me. I simply miss my baby. I constantly wake up wanting to nurse my child, wanting to hold my child. And that’s something the doctor never told me I would experience.”
Abby Johnson, Founder of And Then There Were None:
One day in the car, my daughter (out of nowhere) asked if someday she would be able to see her siblings in Heaven. I asked her what she meant…honestly, hoping that she was not talking about my own two abortions. She said that she knew I had two abortions and she wanted to know if she would ever get to meet those babies because she said, “in my heart, I miss them.” I never knew I would pass that sort of heartbreak on to my children.
When I had my abortions, I never thought about how it would affect others. I didn’t think about my future children. I never thought about how I would have to explain my selfishness to them.
My abortions live in me, and unfortunately, they live in them. ”
Ashley Granger, Wife, mother, sonography student:
Now that my son is 4 years old, I sometimes look at his sweet face and wonder what features my other child would have had. I still have dreams about holding him or her and it makes me so deeply sad to think that I have robbed my son of a sibling. Why not just try and conceive a sibling for him today you may ask? Well, I would love to but my husband and I have been struggling with infertility for two and half years. I never once dreamed that I wouldn’t be able to conceive when I wanted to! Every night my sweet boy prays to God for a sibling and every time I hear those precious prayers my heart aches over what I did. Because in retrospect an abortion isn’t an easy fix or a solution to a problem….it is the problem, and it leaves a lasting effect on generations to come.
Katrina Fernadez, Catholic humor writer at Patheos:
“I killed two of my children, robbed my parents of grand-children, and murdered my son’s siblings. These abortions directly caused a medical condition known as incompetent cervix which resulted in the premature birth of another son who died after a week long struggle in the NICU in 2001. The suffering I’ve endured and caused others is immeasurable and the guilt almost drove me suicidal. I am a coward in every way.”
Addie Morfoot, mother, writer:
“Ross likes to tell me that Annie is our son’s guardian angel, but that idea scares me. Do I want my son’s protector to be someone whose mother gave her up? Ended her existence prematurely? She must be so mad, disappointed and hurt. So I keep her ultrasound images, along with a Hallmark “It’s a Girl!” card that my best friend sent, along with a Christmas tree ornament engraved with Annie’s due date, which my parents gave me the week I found out I was pregnant, locked away in a closet far from my son’s bedroom. […] But Annie still haunts me. When her due date rolls around, or when our son has a bad cough, or with the birth of my sister’s baby girl — I think of Annie. And once every year — on her birthday — I let myself cry. I think about how it would feel to hold her in my arms. And then I ask her to please understand that I did what I thought was best for my child.”
Beatrice Fedor, Member of the Silent No More Campaign:
“I flushed my baby in the toilet and it was horrifying. And it didn’t help me to graduate. It’s been nineteen years and to this day, I don’t have a degree. […] Seven years later, I got pregnant again. The father was twice my age and he was abusive. Abortion was the quick fix solution to protect myself and my baby from the abuser. So I went to a clinic and in great anxiety, I was put to sleep. When I woke up with blood on my legs, I burst into tears and I was inconsolable. I sank deeper and deeper into depression and suicidal thoughts.
Then, I met my husband and he brought Jesus into my life but I was still hurting. When I was pregnant with our first child, my abortions resurfaced and the guilt was overwhelming. I went to counseling and I started to heal. Later, I attended a Rachel’s Vineyard Retreat and finally, I was able to forgive myself and find peace.
Abortion promised to free me from two crisis situations and instead, it has nearly destroyed me. But there is hope for all those who are hurting and it is for them that I am Silent No More.”
Jewels Green, former abortion clinic worker and public speaker:
“[…]January 6, 1989, at 9 1/2 weeks gestation, I had an abortion. It nearly killed me. No, not the surgical procedure, the psychological aftermath. I attempted suicide three times after my abortion and finally ended up in an adolescent psychiatric ward of a community hospital for a month to recover. […] Working in the autoclave room was never, ever easy. I saw my lost child in every jar of aborted baby parts. One night after working autoclave my nightmares about dead babies were so gruesome and terrifying and intense I met with the clinic’s director to talk about my feelings. She was very understanding, open and honest, and painfully forthright when she told me, “What we do here is end a life. Pure and simple.”
Brice Griffin, Founder, Charlotte Center for Women
“After napping [after the abortion] I was raring to get back out to the bar scene. There was not enough whiskey in DC to satisfy me that night, or any night for many months following. When I woke up the morning after my abortion, Brian asked how I slept. I said, ‘Like a baby.’ He said, ‘You mean like a baby KILLER?!’ […] For months after that, I knew nothing except that I wanted to die. Death was the only certain escape from the horrific pit that had formed in my soul. I begged for therapy. I screamed for help. But only inside. How could I admit what I had done?
So I buried it. No one else needed to know. No one else needed to judge me as harshly as I had come to judge myself.
I trudged through several more years, feeling happy at times and doomed at others. One day I was running and listening to a homily by Fr. Larry Richards about Confession. He said (loosely), “If you’ve had an abortion, confess it. Your child is praying for you in Heaven.” My chest heaved with uncontrollable sobs and I ran home to arrange an appointment for Confession with my dear Priest. There in the confessional, heaving with sobs once more, I truly expected to be struck by lightning. I now sat there acknowledging that I was guilty of the worst sin possible, murder. My dear Priest smiled and handed me a box of tissues and said, ‘God is so happy you are here. You will be forgiven, but you need healing.’ He then proceeded to tell me about Rachel’s Vineyard, a ministry aimed towards healing from abortion.”
These are just eight of the women who are speaking out about the aftermath of their abortions. Lifetimes of pain and regret. Lifetimes spent yearning for a child they will never get to hold. Due dates come and go and always bring about another year of remorse. Abortion isn’t something someone does one day. It lasts a lifetime.
We as a society are constantly bombarded with the pro-choice rhetoric that abortion is sometimes necessary. We also hear the words of post-abortive women like Cecile Richards who will say that their abortions were the right thing to do. But whether they are stuffing down their emotions or just plain lying, abortion is never a happy ending.
It kills a child and leaves a mother to live the rest of her life with the knowledge that she took her child’s life. Nothing brings that pain to light better than the words directly from the mouths of everyday post-abortive mothers who are ignored by the major media outlets. Unlike Richards, these women have nothing to gain from sharing their stories. They only hope to help other mothers choose life.
Lori Nerad, Former National President of Women Exploited by Abortion:
“Two weeks after the abortion, I went into labor. I staggered into the bathroom. And there, with my husband beside me, I delivered a part of my baby the doctor had missed. It was the head of my baby. . . I’ll wake up in the middle of the night, thinking I hear a baby crying. And I still have nightmares in which I am forced to watch my baby being ripped apart in front of me. I simply miss my baby. I constantly wake up wanting to nurse my child, wanting to hold my child. And that’s something the doctor never told me I would experience.”
Abby Johnson, Founder of And Then There Were None:
One day in the car, my daughter (out of nowhere) asked if someday she would be able to see her siblings in Heaven. I asked her what she meant…honestly, hoping that she was not talking about my own two abortions. She said that she knew I had two abortions and she wanted to know if she would ever get to meet those babies because she said, “in my heart, I miss them.” I never knew I would pass that sort of heartbreak on to my children.
When I had my abortions, I never thought about how it would affect others. I didn’t think about my future children. I never thought about how I would have to explain my selfishness to them.
My abortions live in me, and unfortunately, they live in them. ”
Ashley Granger, Wife, mother, sonography student:
Now that my son is 4 years old, I sometimes look at his sweet face and wonder what features my other child would have had. I still have dreams about holding him or her and it makes me so deeply sad to think that I have robbed my son of a sibling. Why not just try and conceive a sibling for him today you may ask? Well, I would love to but my husband and I have been struggling with infertility for two and half years. I never once dreamed that I wouldn’t be able to conceive when I wanted to! Every night my sweet boy prays to God for a sibling and every time I hear those precious prayers my heart aches over what I did. Because in retrospect an abortion isn’t an easy fix or a solution to a problem….it is the problem, and it leaves a lasting effect on generations to come.
Katrina Fernadez, Catholic humor writer at Patheos:
“I killed two of my children, robbed my parents of grand-children, and murdered my son’s siblings. These abortions directly caused a medical condition known as incompetent cervix which resulted in the premature birth of another son who died after a week long struggle in the NICU in 2001. The suffering I’ve endured and caused others is immeasurable and the guilt almost drove me suicidal. I am a coward in every way.”
Addie Morfoot, mother, writer:
“Ross likes to tell me that Annie is our son’s guardian angel, but that idea scares me. Do I want my son’s protector to be someone whose mother gave her up? Ended her existence prematurely? She must be so mad, disappointed and hurt. So I keep her ultrasound images, along with a Hallmark “It’s a Girl!” card that my best friend sent, along with a Christmas tree ornament engraved with Annie’s due date, which my parents gave me the week I found out I was pregnant, locked away in a closet far from my son’s bedroom. […] But Annie still haunts me. When her due date rolls around, or when our son has a bad cough, or with the birth of my sister’s baby girl — I think of Annie. And once every year — on her birthday — I let myself cry. I think about how it would feel to hold her in my arms. And then I ask her to please understand that I did what I thought was best for my child.”
Beatrice Fedor, Member of the Silent No More Campaign:
“I flushed my baby in the toilet and it was horrifying. And it didn’t help me to graduate. It’s been nineteen years and to this day, I don’t have a degree. […] Seven years later, I got pregnant again. The father was twice my age and he was abusive. Abortion was the quick fix solution to protect myself and my baby from the abuser. So I went to a clinic and in great anxiety, I was put to sleep. When I woke up with blood on my legs, I burst into tears and I was inconsolable. I sank deeper and deeper into depression and suicidal thoughts.
Then, I met my husband and he brought Jesus into my life but I was still hurting. When I was pregnant with our first child, my abortions resurfaced and the guilt was overwhelming. I went to counseling and I started to heal. Later, I attended a Rachel’s Vineyard Retreat and finally, I was able to forgive myself and find peace.
Abortion promised to free me from two crisis situations and instead, it has nearly destroyed me. But there is hope for all those who are hurting and it is for them that I am Silent No More.”
Jewels Green, former abortion clinic worker and public speaker:
“[…]January 6, 1989, at 9 1/2 weeks gestation, I had an abortion. It nearly killed me. No, not the surgical procedure, the psychological aftermath. I attempted suicide three times after my abortion and finally ended up in an adolescent psychiatric ward of a community hospital for a month to recover. […] Working in the autoclave room was never, ever easy. I saw my lost child in every jar of aborted baby parts. One night after working autoclave my nightmares about dead babies were so gruesome and terrifying and intense I met with the clinic’s director to talk about my feelings. She was very understanding, open and honest, and painfully forthright when she told me, “What we do here is end a life. Pure and simple.”
Brice Griffin, Founder, Charlotte Center for Women
“After napping [after the abortion] I was raring to get back out to the bar scene. There was not enough whiskey in DC to satisfy me that night, or any night for many months following. When I woke up the morning after my abortion, Brian asked how I slept. I said, ‘Like a baby.’ He said, ‘You mean like a baby KILLER?!’ […] For months after that, I knew nothing except that I wanted to die. Death was the only certain escape from the horrific pit that had formed in my soul. I begged for therapy. I screamed for help. But only inside. How could I admit what I had done?
So I buried it. No one else needed to know. No one else needed to judge me as harshly as I had come to judge myself.
I trudged through several more years, feeling happy at times and doomed at others. One day I was running and listening to a homily by Fr. Larry Richards about Confession. He said (loosely), “If you’ve had an abortion, confess it. Your child is praying for you in Heaven.” My chest heaved with uncontrollable sobs and I ran home to arrange an appointment for Confession with my dear Priest. There in the confessional, heaving with sobs once more, I truly expected to be struck by lightning. I now sat there acknowledging that I was guilty of the worst sin possible, murder. My dear Priest smiled and handed me a box of tissues and said, ‘God is so happy you are here. You will be forgiven, but you need healing.’ He then proceeded to tell me about Rachel’s Vineyard, a ministry aimed towards healing from abortion.”
These are just eight of the women who are speaking out about the aftermath of their abortions. Lifetimes of pain and regret. Lifetimes spent yearning for a child they will never get to hold. Due dates come and go and always bring about another year of remorse. Abortion isn’t something someone does one day. It lasts a lifetime.
If you want to protest the one institution which kills more black people than any other, head to your local abortion clinic
By Matt Walsh
I’ve been hearing quite a bit about this alleged war being carried out against black people. I’ve been told from numerous sources that the killing of Michael Brown is but another piece of evidence that, in the words of someone on my Facebook page, blacks are ‘hunted’ in this country.
Black people are under attack, we’re informed. Cops, especially, are roaming the streets executing innocent black men in cold blood, for no reason, and without ever being held accountable for it.
And then out come the statistics: A black person is killed by a cop every day. A black man is 20 times more likely to be shot by a police officer. Law enforcement is responsible for more black deaths than sharks and lightening combined. And so on.
Unfortunately, these numbers don’t take into account how many of those black people were killed by a cop while trying to kill a cop. Apparently, in the world of Shocking Statistics Used to Prove a Liberal Argument, such details are somehow irrelevant. Could it be that a companion study might prove that black males are also 20 times more likely to violently attack police officers? Has anyone checked up on that angle?
I don’t know this for sure, but I am going to assume that if you take criminals, drug dealers, gang bangers, thugs, and the like out of the equation, and compare law abiding citizens of all races, you’ll find that the ‘killed by a cop’ figures are virtually identical. Michael Brown was killed because he was a violent criminal, not because he had a skin pigmentation displeasing to the officer. In fact, you’ll discover that anyone of any color who obeys the law and doesn’t fight cops will almost certainly avoid being killed by them. Yes, there are exceptions. There are tragic accidents, mistakes, and misunderstandings — like the poor young boy who was shot after brandishing a realistic toy gun on the playground a few days ago — but these are the exception to the rule. For the most part, in the vast majority of cases, if you follow the law and avoid provoking violent encounters with the police, you will not be ‘hunted’ by anyone.
The obfuscation here is truly remarkable. No matter how often it happens, it will always boggle my mind that anyone could site these figures about blacks getting shot by cops without even mentioning that a large number of them were engaged in shoot-outs prompted by their decision to commit a crime. It’s one thing to try and mitigate these qualifiers, but to act like they have no bearing on the matter at all? Incredible. Simply incredible. And then to take the fate of violent criminals and extrapolate that it’s just as likely to befall any person of color regardless of their law abiding nature? Again, incredible. We have reached a level of intellectual dishonesty never before encountered by mankind. It’s like a self-imposed insanity of sorts, and it makes reasonable conversation impossible.
That said, they do have a point, actually.
The people who claim blacks are being targeted and erased are, in fact, raising an important issue.
The ones who hold signs saying ‘Black Lives Matter’ are making a profoundly necessary statement.
It’s just that the shooting of Michael Brown had nothing to do with it.
And the cops have nothing to do with it.
And nothing that Al Sharpton talks about has anything to do with it.
And none of the business owners whose buildings were destroyed had anything to do with it — although I’d amend that statement if it turns out that someone set a Planned Parenthood ablaze.
Indeed, if you want to protest the one institution ehich kills more black people than any other, head to your local abortion clinic.
The chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus released a predictably hysterical and disingenuous statement after the prosecutor announced a No True Bill in the Brown case. She said it was a miscarriage of justice that the witnesses statements and physical evidence didn’t support an indictment. I think she meant that it was a miscarriage of mob rule, or a miscarriage of vengeance, or perhaps a miscarriage of injustice, because I can’t see how justice is miscarried when a grand jury fails to indict because the evidence conclusively proves that there is no grounds for indictment. In any case, at some point in her lying, race baiting rant she said this: ‘This decision seems to underscore an unwritten rule that black lives hold no value.’
Wrong again. That rule is written. It’s called Roe v Wade. It is codified into law that all unborn life has no value, only this codification happens to disproportionately impact the black population.
Being conceived black in this country is a dangerous proposition. Did you know that 16 million black babies have been slaughtered in the past four decades? 16 million. 16 million. Do liberals realize this is happening? I assume they don’t. If they did, I expect they’d be shouting about it from the roof tops, given their great and righteous concern for the fate of black children.
Yes, abortion has claimed 16 million black lives in the last 40 years. 16 million black babies have ended up in dumpsters and hazardous waste containers. Black people are only 13 percent of the population but they account for almost 40 percent of all abortions. Abortion doctors kill more black people in a week than the KKK has in the past century. There are almost 2,000 black lives ended by abortion every single day in the United States, and overall, a black baby is more than 5 times as likely to be executed as a white baby. Try to reflect on this statistic: abortion kills more black people than heart disease, cancer, strokes, accidents, diabetes, homicide, and respiratory illness — COMBINED. Throw cops in there, too, and it’s still not close. Comparing just the two causes of death, it appears that an abortionists kill about 700 times more black people than do cops.
It’s a grim picture, to say the least. Consider that, if not for abortion, the black population would be 36 percent larger than it is currently. Without Planned Parenthood and its partners in the Infanticide Industry, black people would be much less a minority in America. It’s abortion that keeps their percentages so low. It’s abortion that victimizes them more than anything.
I remember after the Trayvon fiasco when the NAACP asked Obama to press civil rights charges against Zimmerman. Part of their case was, and I’m not kidding here, that Zimmerman infringed on Martin’s ‘right to life.’ What a miracle. The NAACP has suddenly discovered the ‘right to life’ and the Congressional Black Caucus has, for the first time, come to the conclusion that life has inherent value. I guess this means they’ll soon be picketing Planned Parenthood clinics. Thank God. Praise Jesus. Finally the organizations that pretend to care about black civil rights have decided to defend the most important civil right of all.
In New York, a black child is more likely to be aborted than born. Did you get that? More likely to be aborted than born. In the country’s biggest city, there are more black children discarded in waste buckets and toilets than there are placed in nurseries at the maternity ward.
And cops are the ones dehumanizing black people?
Hundreds of white abortion doctors have become millionaires by killing black babies. Moreover, the abortionist murders black children and never faces so much as a grand jury proceeding. No, all he gets is a fat paycheck and a ‘God bless you’ from Barack Obama. Oh, and 500 million bucks from the federal government.
Black teens are sometimes shot by police when they fall into a life of violence and crime. But black infants are dismembered, decapitated, and poisoned just for falling into life in the first place.
Now let’s take this deeper. As horrific as Planned Parenthood’s ethnic cleansing is, the full story is much bigger. Side note: please don’t take my ethnic cleansing remark to mean that Planned Parenthood is attempting to wipe out the black race for the sake of quenching their racist urges. I don’t believe that for a moment. They’re just wiping out the black race for the sake of making a quick buck. This is a holocaust for profit, which makes abortionists like Nazis, but in some ways worse.
Regardless, black people aren’t just suffering individualized dehumanization and extermination at the hands of the Infanticide Industry; they are being fundamentally weakened as a race, as a people, and as a culture by the mass slaughter of the younger generations.
At the bottom of every social ill among any and every group you will find the deterioration of the family unit. From poor and black to rich and white to every combination in between, we are all at some stage of collective self destruction because we have all allowed the foundation of the nuclear family to decay. But for black Americans the situation is far worse, the disease is more advanced, and the prognosis is much bleaker.
We’ve all heard the numbers. Some 70 percent of black kids are born out of wedlock. A full 50 percent or more grow up in fatherless homes, and for black children in the inner city, that number is close to 90 percent. Yes, you read that right. That’s 90 percent. I’m no anthropologist, but I think it’s safe to say that no group ever before in human history has seen its family structure plummet into such deep disarray. This is one of humanity’s greatest tragedies, and it is greeted mostly with silence.
Abortion has helped create this situation as it is simultaneously created by it. It both fuels and is fueled by the destruction of the family unit. The two feed each other, like a two headed beast that eats itself from both ends. Because of abortion, there are fewer black men and women available to make a difference. Fewer around to raise families. Fewer in existence to right the wrongs and steer the ship. Because of abortion, the sense that life is worthless has taken hold across the country, but perhaps especially in the hearts of those whose communities are more greatly impacted by it. Because of abortion, there is more death and discord, more grief, more loss. Because of abortion, the idea that black lives don’t matter settles into the minds of many, especially the black mothers who are so much more likely to decide to have their own children exterminated.
And just as these things happen because of abortion, abortion happens because of these things.
It’s a sad tale. Unbearable to think about, really. And maybe that’s why we don’t think about it.
But we need to think about it.
We need to do something about it.
Black lives matter. Yes, they do. All life matters. All life is sacred. Black or white. Born or unborn. All life.
All life.
So if our society is ready to wave that banner and fight that fight, I will march alongside it. And with a warm smile and tears of joy, I will embrace all of these newcomers to the pro-life cause.
Welcome, friends. Glad to finally have you. Now let’s get down to business.
We’ve got work to do.
I’ve been hearing quite a bit about this alleged war being carried out against black people. I’ve been told from numerous sources that the killing of Michael Brown is but another piece of evidence that, in the words of someone on my Facebook page, blacks are ‘hunted’ in this country.
Black people are under attack, we’re informed. Cops, especially, are roaming the streets executing innocent black men in cold blood, for no reason, and without ever being held accountable for it.
And then out come the statistics: A black person is killed by a cop every day. A black man is 20 times more likely to be shot by a police officer. Law enforcement is responsible for more black deaths than sharks and lightening combined. And so on.
Unfortunately, these numbers don’t take into account how many of those black people were killed by a cop while trying to kill a cop. Apparently, in the world of Shocking Statistics Used to Prove a Liberal Argument, such details are somehow irrelevant. Could it be that a companion study might prove that black males are also 20 times more likely to violently attack police officers? Has anyone checked up on that angle?
I don’t know this for sure, but I am going to assume that if you take criminals, drug dealers, gang bangers, thugs, and the like out of the equation, and compare law abiding citizens of all races, you’ll find that the ‘killed by a cop’ figures are virtually identical. Michael Brown was killed because he was a violent criminal, not because he had a skin pigmentation displeasing to the officer. In fact, you’ll discover that anyone of any color who obeys the law and doesn’t fight cops will almost certainly avoid being killed by them. Yes, there are exceptions. There are tragic accidents, mistakes, and misunderstandings — like the poor young boy who was shot after brandishing a realistic toy gun on the playground a few days ago — but these are the exception to the rule. For the most part, in the vast majority of cases, if you follow the law and avoid provoking violent encounters with the police, you will not be ‘hunted’ by anyone.
The obfuscation here is truly remarkable. No matter how often it happens, it will always boggle my mind that anyone could site these figures about blacks getting shot by cops without even mentioning that a large number of them were engaged in shoot-outs prompted by their decision to commit a crime. It’s one thing to try and mitigate these qualifiers, but to act like they have no bearing on the matter at all? Incredible. Simply incredible. And then to take the fate of violent criminals and extrapolate that it’s just as likely to befall any person of color regardless of their law abiding nature? Again, incredible. We have reached a level of intellectual dishonesty never before encountered by mankind. It’s like a self-imposed insanity of sorts, and it makes reasonable conversation impossible.
That said, they do have a point, actually.
The people who claim blacks are being targeted and erased are, in fact, raising an important issue.
The ones who hold signs saying ‘Black Lives Matter’ are making a profoundly necessary statement.
It’s just that the shooting of Michael Brown had nothing to do with it.
And the cops have nothing to do with it.
And nothing that Al Sharpton talks about has anything to do with it.
And none of the business owners whose buildings were destroyed had anything to do with it — although I’d amend that statement if it turns out that someone set a Planned Parenthood ablaze.
Indeed, if you want to protest the one institution ehich kills more black people than any other, head to your local abortion clinic.
The chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus released a predictably hysterical and disingenuous statement after the prosecutor announced a No True Bill in the Brown case. She said it was a miscarriage of justice that the witnesses statements and physical evidence didn’t support an indictment. I think she meant that it was a miscarriage of mob rule, or a miscarriage of vengeance, or perhaps a miscarriage of injustice, because I can’t see how justice is miscarried when a grand jury fails to indict because the evidence conclusively proves that there is no grounds for indictment. In any case, at some point in her lying, race baiting rant she said this: ‘This decision seems to underscore an unwritten rule that black lives hold no value.’
Wrong again. That rule is written. It’s called Roe v Wade. It is codified into law that all unborn life has no value, only this codification happens to disproportionately impact the black population.
Being conceived black in this country is a dangerous proposition. Did you know that 16 million black babies have been slaughtered in the past four decades? 16 million. 16 million. Do liberals realize this is happening? I assume they don’t. If they did, I expect they’d be shouting about it from the roof tops, given their great and righteous concern for the fate of black children.
Yes, abortion has claimed 16 million black lives in the last 40 years. 16 million black babies have ended up in dumpsters and hazardous waste containers. Black people are only 13 percent of the population but they account for almost 40 percent of all abortions. Abortion doctors kill more black people in a week than the KKK has in the past century. There are almost 2,000 black lives ended by abortion every single day in the United States, and overall, a black baby is more than 5 times as likely to be executed as a white baby. Try to reflect on this statistic: abortion kills more black people than heart disease, cancer, strokes, accidents, diabetes, homicide, and respiratory illness — COMBINED. Throw cops in there, too, and it’s still not close. Comparing just the two causes of death, it appears that an abortionists kill about 700 times more black people than do cops.
It’s a grim picture, to say the least. Consider that, if not for abortion, the black population would be 36 percent larger than it is currently. Without Planned Parenthood and its partners in the Infanticide Industry, black people would be much less a minority in America. It’s abortion that keeps their percentages so low. It’s abortion that victimizes them more than anything.
I remember after the Trayvon fiasco when the NAACP asked Obama to press civil rights charges against Zimmerman. Part of their case was, and I’m not kidding here, that Zimmerman infringed on Martin’s ‘right to life.’ What a miracle. The NAACP has suddenly discovered the ‘right to life’ and the Congressional Black Caucus has, for the first time, come to the conclusion that life has inherent value. I guess this means they’ll soon be picketing Planned Parenthood clinics. Thank God. Praise Jesus. Finally the organizations that pretend to care about black civil rights have decided to defend the most important civil right of all.
In New York, a black child is more likely to be aborted than born. Did you get that? More likely to be aborted than born. In the country’s biggest city, there are more black children discarded in waste buckets and toilets than there are placed in nurseries at the maternity ward.
And cops are the ones dehumanizing black people?
Hundreds of white abortion doctors have become millionaires by killing black babies. Moreover, the abortionist murders black children and never faces so much as a grand jury proceeding. No, all he gets is a fat paycheck and a ‘God bless you’ from Barack Obama. Oh, and 500 million bucks from the federal government.
Black teens are sometimes shot by police when they fall into a life of violence and crime. But black infants are dismembered, decapitated, and poisoned just for falling into life in the first place.
Now let’s take this deeper. As horrific as Planned Parenthood’s ethnic cleansing is, the full story is much bigger. Side note: please don’t take my ethnic cleansing remark to mean that Planned Parenthood is attempting to wipe out the black race for the sake of quenching their racist urges. I don’t believe that for a moment. They’re just wiping out the black race for the sake of making a quick buck. This is a holocaust for profit, which makes abortionists like Nazis, but in some ways worse.
Regardless, black people aren’t just suffering individualized dehumanization and extermination at the hands of the Infanticide Industry; they are being fundamentally weakened as a race, as a people, and as a culture by the mass slaughter of the younger generations.
At the bottom of every social ill among any and every group you will find the deterioration of the family unit. From poor and black to rich and white to every combination in between, we are all at some stage of collective self destruction because we have all allowed the foundation of the nuclear family to decay. But for black Americans the situation is far worse, the disease is more advanced, and the prognosis is much bleaker.
We’ve all heard the numbers. Some 70 percent of black kids are born out of wedlock. A full 50 percent or more grow up in fatherless homes, and for black children in the inner city, that number is close to 90 percent. Yes, you read that right. That’s 90 percent. I’m no anthropologist, but I think it’s safe to say that no group ever before in human history has seen its family structure plummet into such deep disarray. This is one of humanity’s greatest tragedies, and it is greeted mostly with silence.
Abortion has helped create this situation as it is simultaneously created by it. It both fuels and is fueled by the destruction of the family unit. The two feed each other, like a two headed beast that eats itself from both ends. Because of abortion, there are fewer black men and women available to make a difference. Fewer around to raise families. Fewer in existence to right the wrongs and steer the ship. Because of abortion, the sense that life is worthless has taken hold across the country, but perhaps especially in the hearts of those whose communities are more greatly impacted by it. Because of abortion, there is more death and discord, more grief, more loss. Because of abortion, the idea that black lives don’t matter settles into the minds of many, especially the black mothers who are so much more likely to decide to have their own children exterminated.
And just as these things happen because of abortion, abortion happens because of these things.
It’s a sad tale. Unbearable to think about, really. And maybe that’s why we don’t think about it.
But we need to think about it.
We need to do something about it.
Black lives matter. Yes, they do. All life matters. All life is sacred. Black or white. Born or unborn. All life.
All life.
So if our society is ready to wave that banner and fight that fight, I will march alongside it. And with a warm smile and tears of joy, I will embrace all of these newcomers to the pro-life cause.
Welcome, friends. Glad to finally have you. Now let’s get down to business.
We’ve got work to do.
Spain: Fate of Ex-Muslim Critic of Islam Hangs in Balance
By Soeren Kern
The Supreme Court's ruling is eerily similar to an international blasphemy law being promoted by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, a bloc of 57 Muslim countries dedicated to implementing a worldwide ban on "negative stereotyping of Islam."Firasat's lawyers say that they have presented the court with irrefutable evidence that the charges against Firasat were fabricated by Indonesian authorities, but that this evidence has been ignored by a judiciary that is under political pressure from the Spanish government to get rid of Firasat once and for all."Even if Indonesians do not punish me for death, how will I be protected from Muslims who consider me a blasphemer and an apostate? Will I be able to get a fair trial when the judges, prosecution, fake witnesses and lawyers, everybody will be a Muslim?" — Imran FirasatFirasat said it was never his intention to provoke the Spanish government, but that he felt it was his duty to "warn of the dangers of not understanding or stopping what is known as Jihad."
A Spanish court is deliberating the fate of Imran Firasat, an ex-Muslim from Pakistan who faces imminent deportation because the Spanish government has deemed his criticism of Islam to be a threat to national security.
Firasat's lawyers, however, argue that sending him back to Pakistan or any other Muslim country would be the equivalent of a death sentence because Islamic Sharia law prescribes the penalty of death for Muslims who commit apostasy.
Firasat, now 36, obtained political asylum in Spain in 2006 because of death threats against him in both Pakistan and Indonesia for leaving the Islamic faith and marrying a non-Muslim.
But six years later, Spanish authorities initiated deportation procedures against Firasat, after he released a one-hour amateur film entitled, "The Innocent Prophet: The Life of Mohammed from a Different Point of View." The movie, which was posted on YouTube, purports to raise awareness of the dangers that Islam poses to Western Civilization.
On December 21, 2012, Spanish Interior Minister Jorge Fernández DÃaz issued an order to deport Firasat, based on Article 44 of the Law on Asylum and Protection, which allows the state to revoke the refugee status of "persons who constitute a threat to Spanish security." The deportation order stated that Firasat constituted a "persistent source of problems due to his constant threats against the Koran and Islam in general."
Since then, Firasat's legal team has deftly navigated the labyrinthian ways of Spain's political and judicial systems in an effort to prevent his deportation. But Spanish public prosecutors have successfully outmaneuvered Firasat's attorneys by changing their legal tactics, apparently in a bid to ensure that Firasat leaves Spain and never comes back.
In 2013, Firasat appealed the deportation order at the National Court [Audiencia Nacional], arguing that the expression of his views about Islam fall within the constitutional right to free speech.
But the National Court rejected Firasat's appeal. A ruling dated October 3, 2013 stated:
"The right to the freedom of expression can be subject to certain formalities, conditions, restrictions or sanctions, which constitute necessary measures, in a democratic society, to preserve national security, public security and the constitutional order."
On May 30, 2014, the Spanish Supreme Court not only confirmed the National Court's ruling, it went one step farther by stating:
"The right to the freedom of expression does not guarantee the right to intolerant manifestations or expressions that infringe against religious freedom, that have the character of blasphemy or that seek to offend religious convictions and do not contribute to the public debate."
This paragraph is eerily similar to an international blasphemy law being promoted by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, a bloc of 57 Muslim countries dedicated to implementing a worldwide ban on "negative stereotyping of Islam."
Warning of potential trouble ahead for the exercise of free speech in Spain, two judges—Manuel Campos and Isabella Perelló—dissented from the majority opinion. They signed a statement in which they asked whether the source of the danger to national security is in the actions of Firasat, or in the reactions of Islamic fundamentalists. They wrote:
"The pernicious effects against national security do not strictly derive from the conduct of the refugee, but rather from the violent reactions of third persons."
In any event, the Supreme Court also ruled that Firasat and his family should not be delivered "to a country where there is danger to life or freedom." This would have prevented the Spanish government from deporting Firasat back to Pakistan.
In an apparent effort to get around this obstacle, Spanish public prosecutors changed their approach by pushing for Firasat to be extradited to Indonesia, where he is wanted on murder charges.
The alleged crime occurred in June 2010, while Firasat was visiting Indonesia with his wife and children. In July 2010, Indonesian authorities deported Firasat for an alleged immigration violation (his family stayed behind in Indonesia), but a few days after he returned to Spain, Indonesian police said Firasat was a fugitive from justice and filed an international arrest warrant with Interpol. At the time, Spanish authorities refused to extradite Firasat due to his refugee status in Spain.
After the Spanish Supreme Court upheld the legality of the revocation of Firasat's refugee status, however, the Spanish cabinet met on July 19, 2014 and voted to proceed with his extradition. Firasat was arrested on July 29 and was sent to a penitentiary situated near Madrid, where he remains to this day.
In its latest ruling issued on October 28, the National Court stressed that it does not know whether the accusations against Firasat are true or false, but that he should be tried in Indonesia because that country observes "the same level of respect for human rights and formal guarantees of public and private freedoms as those observed in Spain."
In an appeal, Firasat's lawyers counter that this claim is patently untrue, especially considering that Sharia law is broadly—although not exclusively—applied in Indonesia, and that Firasat has little or no chance of getting a fair trial in that country.
Firasat's lawyers say that they have presented the National Court with irrefutable documentary evidence that the charges against Firasat have been fabricated by Indonesian authorities, but that this evidence has been ignored by a judiciary that is under political pressure from the Spanish government to get rid of Firasat once and for all.
In its appeal, Firasat's defense team has also argued that his extradition would violate domestic and international law because he would be subject to torture and probable death due to at least three factors:
1) Indonesia has a substandard human rights record—especially in regards to religious tolerance—asdocumented by the United Nations and other bodies;2) Firasat's high-risk profile, based on the death threats he has received from Islamic extremists, leaves him in a particularly vulnerable situation; and3) Multiple rulings by the European Court of Human Rights, which hold that extraditions of this nature should not proceed.
Beyond the legal technicalities, Firasat's lawyers say that by extraditing him to Indonesia, the Spanish government would be sending him to face almost certain death because of his religious convictions and personal opinions.
Strangely, the judges who ruled that Firasat should be extradited are the same ones who are considering his appeal. The National Court is expected to announce its decision on Firasat's appeal on November 28.
In a November 11 letter from prison, Firasat wrote:
"I received the judgment in which the judges have agreed to extradite me to Indonesia. The Spanish judiciary completely ignored the lies and irregularities from the Indonesian authorities which my lawyer proved during the trial. The judges did not even care about the death threats that I have received from Indonesian Islamic groups and that there has been much news in the Indonesian media about my films and activities on Islam. My conversion from Islam to Christianity also doesn't make them think that I will be the target of radical Muslims in Indonesia."For the Spanish judiciary it is good enough that Indonesian authorities present formal guarantees that I won't be given death punishment. If the Indonesian Embassy in Madrid presents that guarantee in 40 days, I will be extradited. And Indonesia will of course give that guarantee as for them it will be only a piece of paper which not necessarily will be respected in the future."Even if Indonesians do not punish me for death, how will I be protected from Muslims who consider me a blasphemer and an apostate? Will I be able to get a fair trial when the judges, prosecution, fake witnesses and lawyers, everybody will be a Muslim? And you know what image I hold in Muslim's eyes. My arguments, proofs and the clear risk of torture and death have been completely ignored by the politically influenced Spanish judiciary. They do not care if the accusations are false and religiously motivated, if I will be able to survive the Islamic anger in the nation with the biggest Islamic population on earth and if there will be violation of international human rights conventions in case of my extradition to an Islamic nation..."Please spread the news of my extradition and help me to get some media support. Only this can make Spain shy away from what they are doing to me. Please help me. I don't want to die. I want to have a new life with my family. I thank you for all the help and support until now and I trust you will do your best to help me in protecting my life. Thank you so much. God bless you."
In a November 17 interview with Cadena SER, the largest radio network in Spain, Firasat said it was never his intention to provoke the Spanish government or the Interior Ministry, but that he felt it was his duty to "warn of the dangers of not understanding or stopping what is known as Jihad."
Firasat also pointed to the irony of his situation. In 2006, the Socialist government in Spain gave him refugee status because Pakistan sentenced him to death for criticizing Islam. In 2014, the Conservative government in Spain wants to deport him for the same reason: criticizing Islam.
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Soeren Kern is a Senior Fellow at the New York-based Gatestone Institute. He is also Senior Fellow for European Politics at the Madrid-based Grupo de Estudios Estratégicos / Strategic Studies Group. Follow him on Facebook and on Twitter.
Thursday, November 27, 2014
Proclamation - Thanksgiving Day - 1899, New Hampshire
The following is the text of a Proclamation for a Day of Thanksgiving and Praise, issued by Frank West Rollins, the governor of New Hampshire. The proclamation was issued October 27, 1899 and was declaring November 30, 1899 the day of Thanksgiving.
State of New Hampshire.
By His Excellency Frank West Rollins, Governor,
A Proclamation
For a day of public Thanksgiving and Praise.
A Proclamation
For a day of public Thanksgiving and Praise.
I hereby appoint Thursday, the thirtieth day of November, as a day of joyful thanksgiving to Almighty God, our Heavenly Father.
Let a special effort be made call home our dear ones for the observance of the beautiful custom, and let family reunions be held around our hearthstones. Let the morning of this glad day be devoted to services of praise and thanksgiving for the bounteousness of the harvests and our general prosperity---and the after to deeds of brotherly kindness and loving charity, visiting the sick and needy, sending flowers and delicacies to the hospitals, and bringing the joyousness of the day to the inmates of our charitable and reformatory institutions. "Give back the upward looking and the light" to some sorrowing soul; "rebuild in it the music and the dream," even if it be but for a day. Let the evening be devoted to the children, who always seem so much nearer to God than the older ones. Make merry in the good old ways. Roll back the burden of the years. A day thus spent will not only be a loving service to God, but a blessing to others and a benediction to ourselves.
Given at the Council Chamber in Concord, this twenty-seventh day
of October, in the year of Lord one thousand eight hundred
and ninety nine, and of the Independence of the United States of
America the one hundred and twenty-fourth.
of October, in the year of Lord one thousand eight hundred
and ninety nine, and of the Independence of the United States of
America the one hundred and twenty-fourth.
Frank West Rollins,
Governor.
Governor.
By His Excellency the Governor,
with advice of the Council,
Edward N. Pearson,
Secretary of State.
with advice of the Council,
Edward N. Pearson,
Secretary of State.
Wednesday, November 26, 2014
Proclamation - Thanksgiving Day - 1887
The following is the text of the handwritten Proclamation for a Day of Thanksgiving and Prayer issued by Grover Cleveland, President of the United States. The proclamation was issued October 25, 1887 and was declaring November 24, 1887 the day of Thanksgiving.
A Proclamation
By the President of the United States:
The goodness and the mercy of God, which have followed the American people during all the days of the past year claim our grateful recognition and humble acknowledgment. By His omnipotent power He has protected us from war and pestilence and from every national calamity; by His gracious favor the earth has yielded a generous return to the labor of the husbandman, and every path of honest toil has led to comfort and contentment; by His loving kindness the hearts of our people have been replenished with fraternal sentiment and patriotic endeavor, and by His Fatherly guidance we have been directed in the way of national prosperity.
To the end that we may with one accord testify our gratitude for all these blessings, I, Grover Cleveland, President of the United States, do hereby designate and set apart Thursday, the twenty-fourth day of November next as a day of Thanksgiving and Prayer, to be observed by all the people of the land.
On the day let all secular work and employment be suspended; and let our people assemble in their accustomed places of worship and with prayer and songs of praise, give thanks to our Heavenly Father for all that He has done for us while we implore the forgiveness of our sins and a continuance of His mercy.
Let families and kindred be reunited on that day and let their hearts, filled with kindly cheer and affectionate reminiscence, be turned to the source of all their pleasures and to the Giver of all that makes the day bright and joyous.
And in the midst of our worship and enjoyments let us remember the poor, the needy, and the unfortunate; and by our gifts of charity and ready benevolence let us increase the number of those who with grateful hearts shall join in our Thanksgiving.
In witness whereof I have set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be hereunto affixed.
Done at the city of Washington, this twenty-fifth day of October in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and eighty-seven, and of the Independence of the United States the one hundred and twelfth.
Proclamation - Thanksgiving Day - 1863
This is the text of the October 3, 1863 Abraham Lincoln national Thanksgiving Day Proclamation.
Issued, October 3, 1863
The year that is drawing towards its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God.
In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to invite and provoke the aggressions of foreign States, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict; while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.
The needful diversions of wealth and strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship. The axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battlefield; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.
No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.
It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American people; I do, therefore, invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a Day of Thanksgiving and Prayer to our beneficent Father, who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that, while offering up the ascriptions justly due to him that, for such singular deliverances and blessings; they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and union.
In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington this third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.
Abraham Lincoln
By the President: William H. Seward, Secretary of State.
Tuesday, November 25, 2014
Proclamation - Thanksgiving Day - 1795
This is the text of a proclamation for a day of Public Thanksgiving and Prayer, issued by George Washington when he served as President. It was published in the Columbian Centinel on January 1, 1795.
BY AUTHORITY,
A PROCLAMATION:
By the PRESIDENT of the UNITED
STATES OF AMERICA.
When we review the calamities, which afflict so many other nations, the present condition of the United States affords much matter of consolation and satisfaction. Our exemption hitherto from foreign war – an increasing prospect of the continuance of that exemption – the great degree of internal tranquility we have enjoyed – the recent confirmation of that tranquility by the suppression of an insurrection which so wantonly threatened it – the happy course of public affairs in general – the unexampled prosperity of all classes of our citizens; are circumstances which peculiarly mark our situation with indications of the Divine beneficence towards us. In such a state of things it is, in an especial manner, our duty as people, with devout reverence and affectionate gratitude, to acknowledge our many and great obligations to Almighty God and to implore Him to continue and confirm the blessings we experience.
Deeply penetrated with this sentiment, I,George Washington, President of the United States, do recommend to all religious societies and denominations, and to all persons whomsoever, within the United States, to set apart and observe Thursday, the nineteenth day of February next, as a day of public thanksgiving and prayer: and on that day to meet together and render their sincere and hearty thanks to the great Ruler of nations for the manifold and signal mercies which distinguish our lot as a nation. particularly for the possession of constitutions of government which unite and, by their union, establish liberty with order; for the preservation of peace, foreign and domestic; and for the seasonable control, which has been given to a spirit of disorder, in the suppression of the late insurrection; and generally for the prosperous course of our affairs, public and private; and, at the same time, humbly and fervently to beseech the kind Author of these blessings. graciously to prolong them to us – to imprint on our hearts a deep and solemn sense of our obligations to Him for them – to teach us rightly to estimate their immense value – to preserve us from the arrogance of prosperity and from hazarding the advantages we enjoy by delusive pursuits – to dispose us to merit the continuance of His favors by not abusing them, by our gratitude for them, and by a correspondent conduct as citizens and as men – to render this country, more and more, a propitious asylum for the unfortunate of other countries – to extend among us true and useful knowledge – to diffuse and establish habits of sobriety, order, morality, and piety – and, finally, to impart all blessings we possess or ask for ourselves, to the whole family of mankind.
In testimony whereof, I have caused the seal of the United States of America, to be affixed to these presents, and signed the same with my hand. Done, at the city of Philadelphia, the first day of January, 1795, and of the independence of the United States of America, the nineteenth.
Go Washington,
President of the United States
President of the United States
EDMUND RANDOLPH, Secretary of State.
Monday, November 24, 2014
What George Washington Teaches Us about Thanksgiving and God’s Providence
By Hugh Whelchel
In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.
- Proverbs 16:9
It was George Washington who, in his first year as president, originally set aside Thursday, November 26th, 1789 as “A Day of Publick Thanksgiving and Prayer.”
There certainly had been many Thanksgiving observances in America before Washington’s proclamation.
The colonists of the Plymouth Plantation held a celebration of food and feasting in the fall of 1621.
The first recorded Thanksgiving observance was held on June 29th, 1671 at Charlestown, Massachusetts.
During the 1700s, it was common practice for individual colonies to observe days of thanksgiving throughout each year.
A Thanksgiving Day celebration was held in December of 1777 by the colonies nationwide, commemorating the surrender of British General Burgoyne at Saratoga.
Washington’s proclamation represents the first to be so designated by the new government of the United States of America. This “general thanksgiving” was a day appointed, “to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God.”
Gratitude for God’s Providence
It should not surprise us that one of those blessings mentioned in Washington’s Thanksgiving Day Proclamation was the Almighty’s care of Americans during their fight for independence only thirteen years earlier.
I recently finished reading David McCullough’s book 1776, in which he writes:
The year 1776, celebrated as the birth year of the nation and for the signing of the Declaration of Independence, was for those who carried the fight for independence forward a year of all-too-few victories, of sustained suffering, disease, hunger, desertion, cowardice, disillusionment, defeat, terrible discouragement, and fear, as they would never forget, but also of phenomenal courage and bedrock devotion to country, and that, too they would never forget.
In reading about the events of 1776, it is impossible not to believe that without Washington’s unwavering belief in God’s providence, the American Revolution would have been over before it started. McCullough writes about Washington:
With the situation as gray as it could be, no one was more conspicuous in his calm presence of mind than Washington. They must be “cool but determined” he had told the men before the battle, when spirits were high. Now, in the face of catastrophe, he was demonstrating what he meant by his own example. Whatever anger or torment or despair he felt, he kept to himself.
At the close of his book, David McCullough suggests the cause for the colonials’ victory in the face of such overwhelming odds rested on a single virtue held by Washington: his perseverance.
He was not a brilliant strategist or tactician, not a gifted orator, nor an intellectual. At several crucial moments he had shown marked indecisiveness. He had made serious mistakes in judgment. But experience had been his great teacher from boyhood, and in this his greatest test, he learned steadily from experience. Above all, Washington never forgot what was at stake and he never gave up…. Without Washington’s leadership and unrelenting perseverance, the revolution almost certainly would have failed.
How was Washington able to persevere when it looked like all was lost?
Perseverance and Providence
The answer is found in a letter written in January of 1776 to Joseph Reed. Washington foretold what he believed the basis for his perseverance would be:
If I shall be able to rise superior to these, and many other difficulties which might be enumerated, I shall most religiously believe that the finger of Providence is in it.
Washington believed that God’s blessing of providence was the sole reason he persevered. As he writes in a letter to Reverend William Gordon on May 13th, 1776, “No man has a more perfect reliance on the all-wise and powerful dispensations of the Supreme Being than I have, nor thinks His aid more necessary.”
In 1776, with everything falling apart around him, Washington was able to see, by faith, the bigger picture of what God was doing and the role he was called to play in it.
By 1778, George Washington had so often witnessed God’s intervention that on August 20th, he wrote Thomas Nelson to say:
The Hand of providence has been so conspicuous in all this, that he must be worse than an infidel that lacks faith, and more than wicked, that has not gratitude enough to acknowledge his obligations.
Upon Washington’s death in 1799, John Adams addressed the U.S. Senate, saying,
His example is now complete, and it will teach wisdom and virtue to magistrates, citizens, and men, not only in the present age, but in future generations, as long as our history shall be read.
Although most of us will not be called to help start a new country, we all can gain from Washington’s example. We need to see God’s larger plan and how our story fits into his story. This is what will help each of us to persevere daily amidst the up and downs of living in a fallen world.
This Thanksgiving let us look back and give God thanks for his providence in our own lives, and let us also look forward to the work he has yet for us to do.
In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.
- Proverbs 16:9
It was George Washington who, in his first year as president, originally set aside Thursday, November 26th, 1789 as “A Day of Publick Thanksgiving and Prayer.”
There certainly had been many Thanksgiving observances in America before Washington’s proclamation.
The colonists of the Plymouth Plantation held a celebration of food and feasting in the fall of 1621.
The first recorded Thanksgiving observance was held on June 29th, 1671 at Charlestown, Massachusetts.
During the 1700s, it was common practice for individual colonies to observe days of thanksgiving throughout each year.
A Thanksgiving Day celebration was held in December of 1777 by the colonies nationwide, commemorating the surrender of British General Burgoyne at Saratoga.
Washington’s proclamation represents the first to be so designated by the new government of the United States of America. This “general thanksgiving” was a day appointed, “to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God.”
Gratitude for God’s Providence
It should not surprise us that one of those blessings mentioned in Washington’s Thanksgiving Day Proclamation was the Almighty’s care of Americans during their fight for independence only thirteen years earlier.
I recently finished reading David McCullough’s book 1776, in which he writes:
The year 1776, celebrated as the birth year of the nation and for the signing of the Declaration of Independence, was for those who carried the fight for independence forward a year of all-too-few victories, of sustained suffering, disease, hunger, desertion, cowardice, disillusionment, defeat, terrible discouragement, and fear, as they would never forget, but also of phenomenal courage and bedrock devotion to country, and that, too they would never forget.
In reading about the events of 1776, it is impossible not to believe that without Washington’s unwavering belief in God’s providence, the American Revolution would have been over before it started. McCullough writes about Washington:
With the situation as gray as it could be, no one was more conspicuous in his calm presence of mind than Washington. They must be “cool but determined” he had told the men before the battle, when spirits were high. Now, in the face of catastrophe, he was demonstrating what he meant by his own example. Whatever anger or torment or despair he felt, he kept to himself.
At the close of his book, David McCullough suggests the cause for the colonials’ victory in the face of such overwhelming odds rested on a single virtue held by Washington: his perseverance.
He was not a brilliant strategist or tactician, not a gifted orator, nor an intellectual. At several crucial moments he had shown marked indecisiveness. He had made serious mistakes in judgment. But experience had been his great teacher from boyhood, and in this his greatest test, he learned steadily from experience. Above all, Washington never forgot what was at stake and he never gave up…. Without Washington’s leadership and unrelenting perseverance, the revolution almost certainly would have failed.
How was Washington able to persevere when it looked like all was lost?
Perseverance and Providence
The answer is found in a letter written in January of 1776 to Joseph Reed. Washington foretold what he believed the basis for his perseverance would be:
If I shall be able to rise superior to these, and many other difficulties which might be enumerated, I shall most religiously believe that the finger of Providence is in it.
Washington believed that God’s blessing of providence was the sole reason he persevered. As he writes in a letter to Reverend William Gordon on May 13th, 1776, “No man has a more perfect reliance on the all-wise and powerful dispensations of the Supreme Being than I have, nor thinks His aid more necessary.”
In 1776, with everything falling apart around him, Washington was able to see, by faith, the bigger picture of what God was doing and the role he was called to play in it.
By 1778, George Washington had so often witnessed God’s intervention that on August 20th, he wrote Thomas Nelson to say:
The Hand of providence has been so conspicuous in all this, that he must be worse than an infidel that lacks faith, and more than wicked, that has not gratitude enough to acknowledge his obligations.
Upon Washington’s death in 1799, John Adams addressed the U.S. Senate, saying,
His example is now complete, and it will teach wisdom and virtue to magistrates, citizens, and men, not only in the present age, but in future generations, as long as our history shall be read.
Although most of us will not be called to help start a new country, we all can gain from Washington’s example. We need to see God’s larger plan and how our story fits into his story. This is what will help each of us to persevere daily amidst the up and downs of living in a fallen world.
This Thanksgiving let us look back and give God thanks for his providence in our own lives, and let us also look forward to the work he has yet for us to do.
Sunday, November 23, 2014
Christian Veterans of the Bitterroot, 24 Nov, 2014
Prayer Breakfast
0700 at BJ’s Restaurant
Hamilton, Montana
O Father, who came to us long ago in the birth of Jesus
Christ, be born in us anew today by the power of your Holy Spirit. We offer our
lives as home to you and ask for grace and strength to live as your faithful,
joyful children always. In Jesus Christ’s name we pray. Amen.
1. Opening - Round the Table
Individual Prayers
2. Breakfast is served
3. Morning Psalm: 95
4. Breakfast Reading: Colossians 1:9-23
5. Breakfast Discussion Topics:
News around the valley
Community Aid
through Christian Churches; we must to teach our community to fish and to
provide mutual aid to local governments.
Action
Plan
1)
What is in the kits?
a)
FEMA
b)
Red Cross
c)
State of Montana
c)
Hybrid
2)
Schedule
a)
Opening Remarks
b)
Opening Prayer
c)
Explanation
d)
Round Robin or Assembly Line
e)
Table Discussions
f)
Closing Remarks
g)
Soup and Bread
h)
Closing Prayer
3)
Pick first venues:
a)
Darby Foursquare Church
b)
Corvallis United Methodist Church
c)
Bitterroot Valley Church of the Nazarene
4)
Pick topics and speakers
a)
Kits and Sets
b)
Communications
c)
Emergency Planning
5)
Always finish with “Breaking Bread”
5. 52 Weeks to Preparedness by Tess
Pennington
1)
Week 45 of 52: Long-Term Food and Water Needs
6. Closing - Round the Table
Individual Prayers
Upcoming Events:
27 Nov 2014 –
Thanksgiving
1 Dec 2014 –
0700 – Push Back with Prayer Breakfast
8 Dec 2014 –
0700 – Push Back with Prayer Breakfast
15 Dec 2014 –
0700 – Push Back with Prayer Breakfast
22 Dec 2014 –
0700 – Push Back with Prayer Breakfast
29 Dec 2014 –
0700 – Push Back with Prayer Breakfast
4 Apr 2015 –
0645 – March for Jesus Christ
Follow
the Fellowship of Christian Veterans:
On
the Web: http://cvbitterroot.blogspot.com/
On
Twitter: @Walk_April_4_15
Week
45 of 52: Long-Term Food and Water Needs
Let’s
assume for a moment that a devastating disaster occurred and you have realized
that the life you formerly knew has ended. You are now in a fight for survival.
Luckily, unlike many of those around you, you have provisions in place and have
planned accordingly for a long-term emergency. But, the longstanding disaster
is now threatening to exceed your food supply. What do you eat after your food
supply is depleted or, if it is ruined by insects and rodents?
Like
any preparedness plan we must plan for the unexpected by finding food and
supplies that can withstand the test of time. It is my hope that by now your
preparedness supplies are diverse and large enough to cover both short-term and
long-term emergencies.
From
the start, my goal with this series was for you to be prepared enough to
survive the above scenario. In order for you to get through this relatively
unscathed, you must prepare for the worst.
Listed
below are some examples of long-term food sources. If you are planning for
emergencies such as EMPs, nuclear attacks, economic collapse, grid-down
scenarios, apocalyptic epidemics, etc., then I would strongly encourage you to
invest in the following prep items.
Lifetime
Foods – Foods that can last for up to 10 years or longer will be a solid investment
for your future, as well as your best
bet at surviving a long-term disaster. Foods such as wheat, sugar, salt, white
rice and corn are some food items that can last a lifetime. To learn about more
of these forever foods, click here. Ensure that these foods are stored properly
and away from your food’s worst enemies.
Freeze-Dried
Food - Freeze dried food can last for 20 years. There are a variety of freeze
dried ingredients and cuisines to choose from for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
The best part of investing in this long-term food source, is different cans of
freeze-dried ingredients can be mixed together to create new entrees. The best
way to get your money’s worth is to purchase the #10 cans. Further, purchasing
by the case will save you even more on your investment. Due to the preservation
measures, they can be pricey, but when you work out the math per serving, it is
quite reasonable. Many preppers have stocked up on this as their initial food
source for a disaster. Because of the long expiration date, I prefer to keep
the freeze-dried foods on standby in the event that I run out of my other
foodstuffs. Please keep in mind that due to the sodium in the freeze-dried
foods, it tends to back up the intestines. Therefore, if you choose to stock up
on these essential long-term foods, I would advise for you to also stock up on
stool softeners.
Seeds
– As previously indicated in the newsletter for week 43, non-GMO or heirloom
quality seeds are the best types of seeds to store and grow during long-term
emergencies as these seeds produce seeds you can save for future harvests. However, some believe that having some
packets of GMO seeds to rely on would be beneficial during times of long-term
crises as they have been formulated to survive droughts, have larger yields and
be disease resistant. Having dependable seeds and dependable fertilizers and
soil amendments in times of a crisis is another example of having back up for
your backups. Further, if stored
properly, these seeds can last much longer than their expected expiration
dates. Consider growing vegetables that have high yields and high amounts of
nutrition and vitamins, as well as finding varieties that possess medicinal
properties. For other considerations for a survival garden, click here.
Water
Catchment Systems - Those that do not have access to their own water sources
run the risk of being completely dependent on municipal water supplies. Having
knowledge about how to harvest water through means of rainwater catchment
systems is a great place to begin this path towards self-reliance. Some
suggested low cost options are: collapsible water containers or 5-gallon
buckets, rain harvesting containers or barrels, rainwater downspouts routed to
water tanks by PVC pipes. If outside water catchment systems are being used,
learn more about which catchment system is best for your home. Here is a great
YouTube video on creating a rain harvesting system from scratch. This website
has multiple water conservation projects that you can adapt to your lifestyle.
Water
Filtration Units – In an extended emergency, possessing knowledge on how to
properly clean water will be essential in keeping sanitation related illnesses
at bay. Water filtration systems with extra filters and parts, water
purification tablets, chlorine granules, bleach, electrolyte or re-hydration
powders, anti-diarrhea medicines are essential in having clean drinking water.
Here is a YouTube video on how to make a gravity fed water system similar to
the Berkey Water System for the low price of $50. There will be a high risk of
water-borne viruses, so anti-diarrhea medications will also be valuable to
stock.
For
many of us, our core beliefs are to provide for our family and keep them safe.
But, according to societal mores we should only provide safety up to a certain
extent. It is a societal taboo to think in terms of worst case scenarios. But
sometimes, we must break through societal codes to do what is best for our
family. In the case of preparedness, thinking in worst case scenarios may help
you better prepare. Unexpected events will happen during SHTF scenarios, and it
will be up to you to be ready for them.
Preps
to Buy:
[In
Quantity]
Foods
for long-term storage such as wheat, rice, sugar, salt, honey, and corn. To
learn more, click here.
Freeze-dried
foods
Stool
softeners
Seeds,
both GMO and Non-GMO
Fertilizers
(enough for 3 seasons)
Water
catchment system items
Anti-diarrhea
medicines
Re-hydration
powders or drinks
Filtration
units such as the Berkey Water Filter
Action
Items:
Ensure
that you have enough food supplies to last for a long-term emergency. Refer to
the Ready Nutrition Food Calculator to make sure.
Research
ways that you can conserve water or harvest water on your property.
Look
for natural water sources, and underground reservoirs to turn to for an
emergency water supply.
Practice
necessary skills that will help you thrive during long-term emergencies. Skills
such as gardening, food preservation, and water harvesting.
Wednesday, November 19, 2014
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