What Should I Say ?

There has been an enormous outpouring of media coverage since Michael Jackson died . Magazines from  People to Us and more  have had covers and lengthy articles. Some of their coverage has been appropriate, some not so appropriate. I think of one cover in particular that showed Jackson  on a stretcher being taken to  the hospital. It made me wonder, how did they get the picture and why would they chose to publish such an invasive photo on their cover, no less? Oh yeah, money. Predictably, there  has been a big surge in record sales since his death and that will likely continue. I was talking with someone about  this the other day and he mentioned the list of highest grossing dead celebrities, a list which is typically topped by Elvis Presley. It is somewhat amazing to me to realize that many years after their death that entertainers still make large sums of money.

Forbes has been publishing such a list of the top 13 since 2001. The most recent list showed Elvis at #1 with $50 Marvin Gaye #13 with $3.5 million.There is alas, already speculation about how much money  Michael Jackson will make relative to the above referenced list. Dr Kate  Woodthorpe was quoted thusly, “We could see some kind of continuing bond with a dead pop star on a scale that has never been seen before. The question that remains at this point is whether the momentum of nostalgia can, and will, continue, or whether people’s disposable cash will quickly move on to the next big thing.”Dr (Woodthorpe is on the faculty of The Open University, a distance laerning university founded in 1969 by the vernment  of the United Kingdom.

The Joy Of Taxes

Now, I know that there may be some who really enjoy  taxes and maybe even enjoy paying them. Good for you. You may be living at the ideal time in history for your wishes to come true. Case in point, the feds have raised th ecigarette tax 62 cents a pack. The great state of North Carolina wants to tack on another 50 cents which would make a total of $1.12.  Dont smoke , neither do I. Never fear, Governor Perdue also wants to add a temporary 1% to the sales tax. How is that for boosting consumer spending. One thing about that you have got to love. She was asked about other temporary tax measures that are still in effect several years later and why this one would be different. Answer, because she is governor now. Ok, back to the cigarette issue  for a moment. We are all familiar with effforts to get people to quit smoking. These efforts have been shown to be somewhat effective. If they continue to be more and  more effective, then there will b fewer smokers and fewer cigarettes sold and ergo, less taxrevenue. Then what? There will need to be a new source of tax revenue. How about soft drinks, well, there is something in the governor’s plan for that. Not to worry, just a small amount. Age old government motto, once  a camel sticks his head under the tent, eventually he will own the tent or destroy it.

Musing About Palin

Speculation has been rampant ever since Sarah Palin announced her decision to step down as governor of Alaska. To this point she has been rather vague about the reasoning behind her action. Of course, that has not prevented wild and somewhat inane speculation from the likes of Maureen Dowd and Chris Matthews. In fact, if you lumped  together  Matthews’ negative comments about Palin in the last year, you would certainly have a lot of garbage, uh verbiage.

Of course, we could throw in Letterman’s wisecracks, the Vanity Fair interview(sort of “friendly”  trashing by fellow Republicans) and numerous other. So, back to her resignation . Did she commit political suicide? She made her  first public appearance today in a while and had this telling quote about her political future ” If  I die, I die. So be it.” She has incurred significant legal costs in defending herself from various ethics complaints, so it could be that her  resignation is just what she says. And perhaps she is  putting the welfare of Alaska first. A lot of this is still speculation. As Rush said, we would do well to wait and see, a quite herculean task in politics.

Doubtless, she has been one of the most polarizing figures in politics in a  while. She has ardent supporters and somewhat virulent critics. Me, I have never been quite sure. I thought that her nomination was a bit premature and perhaps was more for media value in the McCain camp. However, even accepting the premise that political figures open themselves up  to criticism when they step on the national stage, I think  many of those attacks she has endured were off base. Is it a case of  the more liberal pundits and politicians  being “afraid” of her in a political sense? Don’t really think so. But I believe she has a role to play in national  Republican politics, an as yet undetermined one.

Sarah Palin

From Hall To Gothard

I could have a bit of fun with the title, but no,it has little if anything to do with sports or a law firm  or politics. It refers to pastors, from my first to my current. You can learn quite a lot about my current pastor who is listed on my blogroll. And  I would invite you to do do. As for the others, that will take  a little time and space.

I have only referred briefly to my various pastors but thought it might be  interesting to do so in more depth. First, some general info and guidelines. The term pastor refers to men who led a church that we attended or I attended as members. As  has been the case in recent years we have not officially joined the churches we have regularly attended but these pastors still make the grade.

I was interested to note that there are 11 names but 12 people on my list, on e being there twice, like Grover Cleveland. With the exception of the last 2, all were older than I when I was under their ministry. Several came from Tennessee(don’t know what that says) and  a couple  from South Carolina. One played minor league baseball and one has an inexplicable attachment to the Detroit Tigers. Two were independent Baptists, two were Assembly of God,  six were Southern Baptist and one was non-denominational.

I have learned and grown spiritually under most of them, some more than others. I counted two of them as very dear friends, each of which was  a minister to me in a difficult time of life.

• Rev. Odell Hall – Bethel Baptist Church- Eden, NC
• Rev Eugene Wood           “                                       “
• Rev. Harry Wood-  First  Baptist Church – Eden, NC
• Dr     Ken     Altom                 “                                       “
• Dr     Harry  Smith                “                                        “
• Rev.   Bob Potts                     “                                      Columbus, GA
• Dr       Harry  Smith              “                                        Eden, NC
• Dr       Cris Cannon                “                                                 “
• Dr       Phil  Cooley                “                                         Salisbury, NC
• Rev    Glynn  Dickens         Rowan Christian Assembly- Salisbury, NC
• Rev  Clay Manos                  New Life Assembly of God- Elizabeth City, NC
• Rev   Mike Gothard            New Community Church- Elizabeth City, NC

I owe a spiritual debt to each of these individuals . Having said that, I will attempt to explore in the coming days  what I  have gleaned from these men and what I think one should realistically expect from ones pastor.

Shalom!

July 4, 1939

Seventy years ago today  there was a brief but heartfelt speech made in Yankee Stadium. It was made by a guy who generally avoided the limelight and played in the shadow of perhaps baseball’s most famous player ever. Lou Gehrig, the Iron Horse, who played 2,130 consecutive games, a record that would last for almost 60 years, was done  as a baseball player.

Gehrig was only 35 years old at the time  and would be dead in less than  2 years

Lou Gehrig's Farewell

of the disease that now bears  his name . Its proper name is amyotropic lateral sclerosis, a disease of the central nervous system. It  also claimed another well known Yankees player, known in this area as Jimmy Hunter, who died at age 53. ( My son was privileged to meet him when he was much younger and Mr Hunter was quite gracious. Other relatives knew him and his family quite well.)

Gehrig made a famous , albeit, short speech on that day. It is often known as the “luckiest man ” speech since that was how he referred to himself. He didn’t claim to be a victim or show anger or remorse, but was rather stoic. Watching the video, one is struck both  by his youthfulness and his discomfort at having to speak in such a public setting. His official website has the complete text  of the speech and youtube has some good video selections.

I  read a good  bio of Gehrig by author Jonathan Eig  and have read a number of articles about him as well. I remember reading one as a kid  that described him as  an invaluable player. I was unfamiliar with the word in that context and couldn’t understand how he could be described that way. Now, I understand that he was invaluable and one of the greatest Yankees and greatest players ever. His #4 was retired shortly after the famous speech, the first time in professional sports a player was  so honored.

He always  played in the shadow of Babe Ruth, but in his last months until his death on June 2, 1941 he became a legend  that we can still remember. ( He and the Babe reconciled  at the time  of his farewell speech, having been estranged for 5 years.)

As the Yankees PA announcer said on May 2, 1939, ” Ladies and gentlemen, Lou Gehrig’s consecutive streak of 2,130 games played has ended.”

Three Who Pledged

The final sentence of the Declaration of Independence reads thusly: ” And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our scared honor” . Stirring words are they not and ones that should be read and pondered periodically, along with the remainder of the document.I suspect that most of us are woefully inadequate when pressed for knowledge of our declaration, much less those who wrote and signed it. Sure, we know of Jefferson and Franklin and Washington among others. But each of those 13 colonies had at least one and usually more than one representative.

For today, I want to briefly mention those from my home state of North Carolina. They were John Penn(who I had completely forgotten) William Hooper and Joseph Hewes.None of course was born in North Carolina. Penn came  from Virginia to Granville County, Hooper from Boston to Wilmington and Hewes from New Jersey to Edenton.

There is so much one could say but I just want to illuminate them a bit and help assure that they are not totally forgotten. Penn and Hooper were in their mid 30’s when they signed , with Hewes about 10 years older. None  lived very long afterwards. Hewes died first in 1779, Penn in 1788 and Hooper in 1790. One  can safely assume that  the rigors of the Revolution had to play a role in this. In fact, Hewes was serving the Department of Naval Affairs when he died .

Penn and Hooper were lawyers while Hewes was a wealthy merchant and  sponsor of one John Paul Jones. Hooper for his trouble was disowned by his father and barred from the practice of law. he also had property destroyed and barely escaped British capture.

There is not a wealth of information about them as after the revolution they really were not around to make a visible impact. But they were there at the beginning and for that, along 53  other men, we owe them much.

Joseph Hewes

William Hooper

John Penn

A Perspective on Deaths

Over the past several days, there have been some very high profile deaths with which we are all somewhat familiar. The most prominent and the most puzzling is probably that of  Michael Jackson. To me, it has been eerily similar to that of Elvis Presley in a number of ways. Of course, there has the less unexpected   but very public passing of Farah Fawcett due to cancer. Another quite unexpected death was that of television pitchman Billy Mays whose death was tragic but due to an all too common cause.

The vast majority of us have never met these people. We have seen them on television on the movies or in concert, but there remains a disconnect for most of us, although their deaths were all regrettable. In fact, both Jackson and Mays were younger than I am. Deaths in that particularly age group seem to impact me more.

But there was yet another tragic death of late. This one, except in Iowa, has been somewhat under reported due in large part to its more regional impact. I am speaking of high school coach Ed Thomas who was shot to death at age 58. Thomas was killed on June 24 by a former football player in the school’s weight room.

There have been some amazing stories about Thomas, NFL  national coach of the year 1n 2005, winner of 2 state titles and owner of  a coaching record of  292-84. He even had several former players who played in the NFL to serve as pallbearers. Somehow, I don’t think that is why his funeral drew a crowd larger than the 1,800 population of Parkersburg, Ia. He was doubtless a n excellent coach but had to be much more than that. For one, when an F5 tornado struck the town last year , he was  in  the forefront of the rescue and rebuilding.

Perhaps 2 people said it best. Pastor Brad Zinnecker of First Congregational Church  said of the mourners, ” They recognized a man after God’s own heart. His personal life and public life were one and the same.” And, one of his sons, Aaron, said that his dad would have wanted  the community to “get going” and do something to improve the town.

He left behind his wife as well as two sons, a brother and his mom. Our heartfelt thoughts and prayers go out to the entire Thomas family. But they go as well to those family members of Billy Mays, Farrah  Fawcett and Michael Jackson.

Liberty Bell, Part Deux

We left the story of the bell hanging yesterday, although it actually hasn’t hung in quite a while. Sorry, just couldn’t resist. Anyway, moving forward. Anything as old as  the Liberty Bell ( 250+ years) is bound to have  a lot of trivia and a bit of hyperbole to it. And so it does.

Being a big fan of history( if I could have figured out how to make a living at it, I should have gone into the field after college) , I love all the stories and the names and dates associated therewith. As we said yesterday, the bell originated in London where it was cast by Whitechapel Foundry at a cost of  150 pounds, 13 shillings, 8 pence. This cost also included shipping and insurance.

Some 9 months later, a crack was discovered which apparently came from a sort of test ringing. Two workmen named Pass and  Stow were hired to repair the crack and also got their names on the bell. After their repair ( by adding copper) the bell’s sound apparently was a bit disappointing to those who heard it. Even so, it was hung in the statehouse steeple. But, a new bell  was ordered and it also sounded unsatisfactory. Bell#2 was hung  in a cupola on the statehouse roof and handled  the mundane ringing, while #1 bell rang only on special occasions. In fact, it soon began to be rung over every perceived English grievance, so much so, that in 1772, some complained about the noise. That sounds like a good 21st century move, huh? Little did they know that the bell would eventually be silenced. The beginning of the end can be dated from 1774 when the first problems were noted with the steeple.

In 1777, the bell was hidden lest the British capture it. On its journey it was guarded by a North Carolina colonel named Thomas Polk. When it returned, the discovery of even more deterioration in the steeple caused it to go into storage for 7 years.It was finally rehung 1n 1785 and rang 2 years later when the Constitution was ratified. Alas, it did not ring when the Declaration of Independence was first read. It also rang periodically on momentous occasions, particularly on the deaths of famous Americans.

This next is very interesting and I had no clue about it. In 1828, the decision was made to have a new bell cast by foundry owner John Wilbank. He was supposed to haul away the old bell, but did not. This being America, even then, a lawsuit ensued for Wilbank breaching his contract with the city of Philadelphia. He argues that the $400 value of the bell was less than his cost to dispose it. Calmer heads sort of prevailed and the judge crafted a cool compromise. The city would keep the bell and Wilbank paid court costs. The catch was that the Wilbank family felt they owned the bell and were “loaning” it to the city.Periodically members of the family agitated for it to be returned  but in a 1915  agreement agreed the city could keep it as long  as it stayed in Independence Hall. Of course, governments being what they are, the city moved it a block or so  and in 1984 almost lost it again.

In 1837, the name Liberty Bell was first used in an abollitionist pamphlet and it stuck. Sort of fitting, I think, although belated. The great crack occurred on February , 1846 when it was rung for the 100th celebration of George Washington’s birth. In a somber article just 2 days later the Philadelphia Public Ledger bemoaned the fact that the bell was “irreparably cracked and dumb”. Beginning in the 1880’s the bell was actually well enough to  make  several road trips. One went all the way to  San Francisco.

Obviously, I could go on. But just a couple more cool facts. On December 31,1926, to celebrate the nation’s 150th birthday,microphones captured the sound of the bell itself as it was struch witha specially designed hammer. More recently, On April 6, 2001 it was attacked by a somewhat deranged tourist, fortunately suffering minor damage.

See, history is fun, even if it is just about a Bell.

Proclaim Liberty Throughout All The Land

… unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be  a jubilee unto you:and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family. The King James Version, Leviticus 25:10. And the first part is inscribed on our Liberty Bell itself, although it wasn’t even called that at first.

The bell is for certain one of our country’s iconic symbols and is one of the few that I have been privileged to see  up close and personal. This was a picture I took while on a Habitat for Humanity trip with our church(First Baptist -Eden NC). The young ladies , whose names I forget ,were part of our group that spent a week working in the city of Brotherly Love. I had originally intended just a single post about the bell, but I really liked the look of the enlarged picture, ergo, we shall have a couple days on the bell as we prepare for Independence Day and our country’s 233rd birthday. One small tidbit among many that intrigued me. A gentleman named Isaac Norris, Speaker of the Pennsylvania Assembly,  commissioned  the Assembly’s agent in    London, Robert Charles,  to buy a bell. Mr Norris was also the person who  chose the scripture that is inscribed thereon. Interestingly, it comes from an Old Testament book that is probably somewhat obscure to many churchgoers today.

Tomorrow, who made the bell, where has it traveled, when did it crack and when and for whom it was last rung.

Liberty Bell, 1991

All Aboard For Babylon,Iraq

With all we here about Iraq and have heard for the last several years, one place we that somehow flies under the radar is Babylon. This blog made its most recent “visit” to Babylon about 4 months ago and so it seemed time for an update. Today was a day for major celebration in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities as Iraqi forces took over significant responsibilities that had been held by American forces for some time.

So in consideration of these events, what is happening in the former capital city, that was once the most important city in the world? Once again, we start with Joel Rosenberg and move to an article in yesterday’s Stars and Stripes which gives some truly fascinating detail.

Seth Robson wrote an article entitled U.S.,Iraqi experts developing plan to preserve Babylon, build local tourism industry. The article discusses how soldiers of the 172nd Infantry Brigade are exploring the ruins of the ancient city as part of a joint U S -Iraqi effort to preserve the are and prepare it to be a tourist destination. US tourism experts  Gina Haney and Jeff Allen just made their first visit  in their capacity as the State Department’s  site managers/developers. Numbers in the millions of  visitors per year are envisioned. Admittedly this will take time and money, of which the latter is poised to return to Iraq in a big way. There has even  been a recent story from Taiwan about tours that have already begun in  order to  to watch the city’s rebuilding up close and personal.

Very, very interesting stuff and well worth keeping an eye on. I cannot help but wonder what the Old Testament prophet Daniel would have thought of this.

U S soldiers guarding the ancient city

i