Josiah, Build a Bridge! George Westinghouse

Volume XVI, Issue XXV

Josiah
By Bob Kirchman
Copyright © 2019, The Kirchman Studio, all rights reserved

Chapter 12: Build a Bridge!

Hannah brought out the coffee for the young man who had just arrived at the Zimmerman Organization Headquarters in Wales. In true form to the local traditions, Josiah poured her a cup, then one for himself. It honored Zimmerman’s Mother who was an engineer in that formerly male dominated profession decades ago. Rupert Zimmerman had insisted the practice continue as a memorial to her. In fact, the culture of the bridge now contained many such nods to those who had paved the way. Josiah had laughed at them in his youth, but now he had come to learn that they were rooted most of all in a sense of reverence for the Divine, who made families and gave wisdom to be passed from generation to generation.

Soon they were joined by Alan West, Flight Director for Cape Lisbon, Rupert’s Granddaughter, Chief Engineer of the Zimmerman Organization, Elizabeth Zimmerman O’Malley, CEO, Abiyah Ben-Gurion and Jon Greene, Professors of the College on Big Diomede.

Mrs. O’Malley began, “My Father devoted his life to making a way for mankind to go where we’d never been before. He considered himself most blessed that he lived to see the things he did. But he always felt a responsibility to those he felt he’d recklessly lead there. It is in that spirit that I have called us together. That drive led us to go to another world and now there are people living there in some confusion. We do not want to send ‘Great Northern’ back there – we don’t even think it is wise, but we’d like to reach out to the colonists and try to help them.”

West offered, “We could continue to supply them remotely with unmanned landers. Eventually they’d have enough landers that some of them could return to Earth, if they so desired. But it is painfully obvious that they feel alienated from us – and our traditions. We feel a human touch would do much to ‘build a bridge,’ if you get my drift.”

Greene observed, “Ray Bradbury once wrote about a similar scenario. Earth is destroyed in a nuclear war but a family takes a rocket on a "fishing trip" to Mars and they escape destruction. They destroy all artifacts of their old ‘misguided’ life. Later, the father offers his sons a gift in the form of their new world. He introduces them to Martians—their own reflections in a canal. That is what we have here. You once said you wished for an unreached world to reach. May I introduce to you the Martians?”

West interjected “It would mean nine months in a fairly cramped environment. There is some risk in any spaceflight and we plan to send a crew of three. There would be no guarantee as to how the colonists would respond when you landed. It seems there are several factions and they disagree on things sharply.”

Josiah’s mind wandered to the story of Nathanael "Nate" Saint, who along with four other men, Jim Elliot, Ed McCully, Pete Fleming, and Roger Youderian, sought to establish communication with the warlike Huaorani of Ecuador. They set out in a little yellow Piper PA-14 and landed on a beach of the Curaray River. Though the Huaorani had enthusiastically received gifts lowered in a bucket from the plane earlier, they murdered the five men with spears on January 8, 1958.

Though the men were armed, they did not want to kill any Huaorani and they did not use their weapons. West said “I think it prudent to give you some means of protecting yourselves, but I cannot guarantee anyone’s safety at this point. We could continue to send supplies by unmanned craft, but I think they need to see us as more than that, if you know what I mean.”
(to be continued)

George Westinghouse
American Innovator


George Westinghouse, American Innovator.

The qualities of George Westinghouse which, it seems to me, gave him the supreme quality of genius, were the qualities of imagination, faith, and courage. We know many men of great mental vigor; we know many men of strong character. Those qualities are, of course, the background of any successful career, but I am sure none of us has ever known a man who combined the qualities of faith, imagination, and courage as they were combined in George Westinghouse.” – Paul D. Cravath

We need more heroes like George Westinghouse. In our day the development of great works and human decency are often (mistakenly) considered mutually exclusive. Westinghouse was a brilliant man, an innovator, and a captain of industry. He was worth millions of dollars but never forgot his humble beginnings. Westinghouse as a youth was one you would have not thought likely to succeed. School bored him and he preferred working in his father’s shops where he eventually found himself working at a very young age. Most of us remember that he invented air brakes for trains, but few remember that when he built his great air brake factory outside of Pittsburgh, he built beautiful houses for his workers and set up a monthly payment plan so that they could buy them. He even insured the houses so that if a family were to lose their breadwinner, they would not lose their home.

While other inventors like Thomas Edison accumulated many patents based on the work of their employees, Westinghouse assembled around him the best and brightest he could find and insisted that they receive attribution for their own patents. It is said that he would have well over a thousand patents had he registered them in his own name. His brilliant engineers were not all men either. Because of his generous attribution policy we know that he had in his employ one Bertha Lamme, Nineteenth Century electrical engineer.

Westinghouse went on to develop Alternating Current electrical generation capability, demonstrating it at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. He continued to pioneer improvements in railway equipment including electric locomotives and sophisticated block control systems which enhanced railroad safety greatly. He was inspired by Nikola Tesla, the Serbian-American inventor, electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, physicist, and futurist who is best known for his contributions to the design of the modern alternating current electricity supply system. He looked to Tesla’s work as he sought to make Alternating Current practical for powering industry. In his lifetime Westinghouse created over forty different companies and made possible many of the appliances we take for granted in our homes today.

Westinghouse practiced Christian principles in his management style though he firmly believed in the freedom of his workers. He chose to live his beliefs in example rather than by preaching. He was a modest and temperate man, always devoted to his wife Marguerite Erskine Westinghouse. This quote says volumes about the man: “If someday they say of me that in my work I have contributed something to the welfare and happiness of my fellow man, I shall be satisfied.”



Wright Brothers Memorial, Kitty Hawk
Photos by Bob Kirchman















They Taught the World to Fly!

Wind, sand, and a dream of flight brought Wilbur and Orville Wright to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina where, after four years of scientific experimentation, they achieved the first successful airplane flights on December 17, 1903.

With courage and perseverance, these self-taught engineers relied on teamwork and application of the scientific process. What they achieved changed our world forever.

The tower was designed by Rodgers and Poor, a New York City architectural firm; the design was officially selected on February 14, 1930. Prior to the memorial's construction, the War Department selected Captain William H. Kindervater of the Quartermaster Corps to prepare the site for construction and to manage the area landscaping. To secure the sandy foundation, Captain Kindervater selected bermuda grass to be planted on Kill Devil Hill and the surrounding area. He also ordered a special fertilizer to be spread throughout the area to promote grass and shrubbery growth and decided to build a fence to prevent animal grazing. With a strong foundation in place, the Office of the Quartermaster selected Marine Captain John A. Gilman to preside over the construction project. Construction began in October 1931 and with a budget of $213,000, the memorial was completed in November 1932. In the end, 1,200 tons of granite, more than 2,000 tons of gravel, more than 800 tons of sand and almost 400 tons of cement were used to build the structure, along with numerous other materials. It is constructed of granite mined at the North Carolina Granite Corporation Quarry Complex. National Park service.



Wright Brothers' Kitty Hawk Camp
The Simple Quarters of the Pioneers of Flight

Photos by Bob Kirchman


This is the reconstructed camp of the brothers as it might have looked in December of 1903.











Sunset Over the Sound, Duck, NC
Photo by Karley Spralin



Sunrise Over the Atlantic Ocean
Photo by Karley Spralin



Atlantic Ocean, Wrightsville Beach
Photo by Bob Kirchman



Ionic Columns, Wilmington, NC
Photos by Bob Kirchman







Ends of the Road
Eastern and Western Terminus of I 40


Photo by John Stradle.



When the Interstate Highway System was originally constructed, Interstate 40 was only planned to go from Barstow, California to Greensboro, North Carolina but in the late 1970s it was extended to Raleigh, the state capital. In the following years it would be extended to the port city of Wilmington, North Carolina. Interstate 40 is 2554 miles long between Barstow and Wilmington but the cities are only 2480 miles apart if you travel by US 74 to I 95 and I 20 to I40.


Betsy Ross Flag in Stained Glass. Rendering by Kristina Elaine Greer.

Reverend Richard's Prayer
From Homer Hickam's Book: 'Sky of Stone'

I was reading Homer Hickam's book: Sky of Stone when this passage riveted me with its profound wisdom, succinctly stated. Hickam describes a 4th of July celebration in Coalwood where the Reverend gave this invocation: [1.]

Dear Lord, we are gathered here to celebrate not just the independence of our great land, but also the document on which it stands. There is much to admire in that document but what we best remember is this: We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

To prepare for this invocation today, I have pondered long and hard these words. Most of you know that I rarely go anywhere without my Bible. It is an old Bible. It belonged to my grandfather. What you don't know is that inside this book, I have always kept a copy of the Declaration of Independence. It also belonged to my grandfather. He believed it to be as Holy as his Bible.

When I was a boy, somebody once asked me if my grandfather had been a slave. I couldn't imagine that could be true so I went to him and asked him: Grandfather, were you a slave? He said, Child, a man called me that but I was never a slave and you know why? Because I could read. My mama, she taught me when that man wasn't looking, just as her mama taught her.

When he became officially a free man, my grandfather purchased this Bible and a copy of the Declaration of Independence. He kept them both until the day he died. He left them to me.

I have come to understand my grandfather was right. No man or woman can be a slave if they can read. Especially if they can read the Bible and the American Declaration of Independence.

But that means there are still slaves in this land. There are slaves who do not know that they have inalienable rights given to them by God, and that they also have, by the grace of the Lord, life, liberty, and the right to pursue their happiness and the happiness of their families.

They are slaves to their own ignorance. Ignorance is the ultimate slave owner.

So on this 4th of July, I pray a special prayer.I pray for the day when the tyranny of ignorance will be banished all across this great land and every man, woman, and child can read and understand what they read.

I pray for that day.I pray every day for that day."

The good Reverend had planted in me a renewed vision of the mission before us. That is the mission of educating ourselves and our children.


The U.S. Capitol.

“If Thine Enemy Hunger; Feed Him”
Here is sound advice for our time:

Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good. Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another; Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord; Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer; Distributing to the necessity of saints; given to hospitality. Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not. Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep. Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits.

Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men. If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.” – ROMANS 12:9-21

Josiah, Taking in Confidence, Sacajawea's Story

Volume XVI, Issue XXIV

Josiah
By Bob Kirchman
Copyright © 2019, The Kirchman Studio, all rights reserved

Chapter 11: Taking in Confidence

Ben-Gurion was wrestling. In the end he decided to take young Zimmerman into his confidence. Though the events on Mars were at the moment shrouded in secrecy, it would soon enough be time to let relatives of those who had survived know the fate of their loved ones.

He began, “Do you remember the Mars Mission before you were born? I was the pilot.”

Yes, a sad one, to be sure. No one survived on the planet’s surface. It must be painful for you to remember.”

Abiyah leaned closer, “We just sent an unmanned ship to the colony. There were survivors and we’ve been in conversation with them!”

The young man gasped.

Survivors – but HOW?!”

Ben-Gurion related the events that had transpired over the last year. He described the condition of the colony and the quandary it presented. “You see,” the professor concluded, “they see themselves, wretched as their lives are, as quite severed from Earth.”

So, am I to understand,” said Josiah, “that they have just enough technology to consider themselves self-sustaining, though they lack for so much we would consider basic essentials?”

Exactly, and MY quandary is what do we do next. They’re always on the verge of killing each other yet they fear us back on Earth more. APOLLONIUS taught them well, but he left out the most important lessons. They could stand to read Moses! Even though he killed the Egyptian, he thought better of it.”

Abiyah continued, “I am wrestling, my young friend – wrestling with making of you a most unusual request. Jon Greene and I are aware of your unique – gift, and your quandary as to how to use it. Obviously it would make more sense for ME to go to Mars, but I am a man of family. The other astronauts are largely technicians. They love their job. They man the defense platforms and in practice they get to blow stuff up, but they communicate in monotonous bursts. I am thinking we need someone gifted to ‘build the bridge,’ as it were.”

In Shalom, the Biosphere community on Big Diomede, as in the whole Zimmerman Organization, ‘Building the Bridge’ carried great meaning. It was a term not spoken lightly.
(to be continued)

Sacajawea's Story in Sculpture
Lemhi Shoshone Woman Guided Lewis and Clark


Sacajawea in Charlottesville's Lewis and Clark Statue...

A Milestone Monday Feature:

She was the wife of Toussaint Charbonneau, a Quebec trapper, and pregnant with her first child when she and her husband were hired to guide the Corps of Discovery. She would travel with them from present-day North Dakota to the Pacific Ocean. On the journey she would travel to the land of her birth, where she had been captured as a child. Her fluency in the languages and knowledge of the area's people not only led to the success of the expedition, Sacajawea can rightly be credited with their very survival.


...is placed crouched behind the two white explorers, though she likely was in front of them most of the journey. The sculpture was created by Charles Keck in 1919. Photos by Bob Kirchman


This 1910 sculpture by Leonard Crunelle at the North Dakota State Capitol shows Sacagawea and her child Jean-Baptiste. Photo by Hans Anderson.


My favorite rendering of Sacajawea has to be this 1905 sculpture by Alice Cooper in Portland, Oregon's Washington Park. Photo by EncMstr.

In Portland, Oregon’s Washington Park there stands a statue of Sacajawea carrying her son, Jean-Baptiste Charbonneau. The sculpture was commissioned for the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition (1905) by the Committee of Portland Women, who requested a sculpture of  “the only woman in the Lewis and Clark Expedition and in honor of the pioneer mother of old Oregon.” The sculpture was dedicated on July 6, 1905 and originally stood in the center of the exposition's plaza. Present at the dedication were prominent suffragettes: Susan B. Anthony, Abigail Scott Duniway and Anna Howard Shaw. The artist was Alice Cooper (April 8, 1875 – March 4, 1937), who was the first female artist to be represented in Portland's public sculpture collection.


Alice Cooper's sculpture of Sacajawea and Jean-Baptiste at the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition. OSU Special Collections.

Valley Railroad Bridge
Library of Congress Photos













The Valley Railroad Stone Bridge, built in 1874, crosses Folly Mills Creek just west of Interstate Highway 81 approximately five miles south of Staunton. The bridge is a four-span structure with an over-all length of 130 feet and a width of 15 feet, It utilizes semi-circular arches set on gently splayed piers. Slightly projecting imposts are located between the tops of the piers and the spring of the arches. Granite is used throughout as the construction material, and the facing is a rough-surface ashlar. The only change to have occurred to the bridge is the removal of the railroad ties and rails. Because of the close proximity to Interstate 81, the bridge has become a familiar landmark to travelers throughout the Valley of Virginia. The Department of Highways maintains it as part of the highway's landscaping. National Register of Historic Places.

Rose and Lilies in Our Garden
Photos by Bob Kirchman



I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys. As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters. As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons.” – Song of Solomon 2:1-3





Nurture and Young Imagination
By Bob Kirchman

Imagine if schools actually helped kids identify their strengths by exploring their talents from a young age and growing their skills over the 12 years instead of letting them all follow the same routine like sheep and leaving them confused after graduation.” – Tallie Dar

I’m thinking about a wonderful illustration my supervisor at the homeschool coop, Amanda Riley gave to the students. She brought a box into the room and challenged all the students (about 17 individuals) to get into the box – all at once! The result was a bit of organized chaos that proved conclusively that all the students could NOT fit into the box! She then proceeded to underscore the uniqueness of each of our beautiful students. IMAGO DEI carries with it the same wonder that you find in a handmade piece of fine pottery. No two of them are EVER actually the same.

Yes, our job as educators is to provide a platform of basic grammar to facilitate our mutual growth and interaction, but I’m now convinced that we too often fail to observe – to see what our students are emerging to be as Divine works. I’m reading the Novel Mink River by Brian Doyle. Of particular interest to me is the sculptor Nora who takes a block of wood or stone and listens as she begins to chip away to see what it wants to be. So often we here the ‘malleable clay’ illustration applied to students and they are more like Nora’s wood or stone. We begin with the chisel and hammer, but even in the noise of chipping we must listen! My mother once took me to visit a friend of hers who was a sculptor. Somewhere in that conversation I think the old saw about “carving an elephant” came up in the conversation: “You cut away everything that doesn’t look like an elephant.” Actually that is not how great sculptors work, for they are looking for the elephant that is saying that it is in there!

My eyes scan our room full of unique works in progress. The future healers and builders and poets and prophets interact with the medium and hints emerge as to what the Divine is shaping there. They will go out from here and continue this process. Can what we do here serve to help them identify the grain and composition that they have been made with – and out of it shape a life pleasing to their maker?

I think of my own childhood. At five, I think I remember mom put some construction paper, glue and scissors out on the picnic table behind our house on a glorious Spring day. My sisters and I proceeded to create a little village of paper houses! It was a day of glorious satisfaction as we placed them into natural settings. I was reminded of that beautiful day as I watched some kids at out last church picnic collect sticks and moss to create something similar. Dad gave me little model airplanes and my first camera, a Brownie Hawkeye. The wonderful thing about the Brownie was that it shot 21/4” film so although it was no Hasseblad, It’s plastic lens still rendered an incredibly crisp image. Since it only shot black and white, it came with a red filter so you could get pretty good clouds and sky! Dad shot his work with an Argus C3, which I eventually inherited. He took the photos that accompany this article. He was an engineer at NASA who wore a white shirt and a narrow tie. Behind his pocket protector their beat a wild heart!

Dad was trained in the day when engineers were not trained in the humanities and he developed his own love for fine literature and had an extensive library. He wrote papers on spacecraft structural dynamics and testing but at night he went home and read Shakespeare and Chaucer. Mom was a physicist and an engineer and she was even more of the Renaissance person. Such was the world of my preschool existence, but it was the 1950’s after all and the big modern school and the industrial model of education prevailed. At six I was packed off to a classroom with fifty students and entered the world of waxed hallways, antiseptic smelling restrooms and rote learning. By second grade I lamented that I had become a very ‘bad kid’ and was pretty much always in trouble for something. Sometime I understood the infraction, sometimes it was a mystery. I became a quiet rebel – I drew pictures and hid them under my bed. One of my teachers tore up a very nice drawing I had made of a T-rex. She told my dad I’d be lucky to be a truck driver. I continued to draw and hide the pictures under my bed. Somewhere along the way I discovered John Gnagy’s ‘Learn to Draw’ books. They taught me a lot of the basics. I found one of my Dad’s books on aircraft design. It was full of curves and calculus and wonderful elevations of airfoils. In the back there was a chapter on drawing perspective. The discovery of that chapter was an epiphany.

One day my dad noticed that I could draw a fairly decent perspective (and this was before any formal training), so he had me do a pencil drawing of a building he was proposing for his facility at NASA. I think he even paid me for it. I was twelve years old and that was my first architectural rendering.

But I think most of the adults in my greater sphere saw me as a daydreamer. Under my bed my pile of fantastic imaginings continued to grow – undersea worlds, cities on the moon, but on the outside I was resigned to the life the world poured me into. Driving a truck wouldn’t be all that bad. It was kind of like a monastic life on wheels and you got to see the country. Boy, when you’ve seen one interstate, you’ve seen them all. My buddy Chris actually did become a trucker but eventually he tried studying theology and lost his Faith. When I was older, I would learn of how Albert Einstein, the great theoretical physicist, had struggled in school. He, I would learn, was a daydreamer too. He barely passed school and then he couldn’t get a job in academia. That might have been why he found the path to brilliance. He took a job as a patent clerk in Berne, Switzerland. His job was to read the applications and recommend the good ones. Well, he became so proficient at analyzing the patent applications that he ended up with plenty of time to just stare out the window – and IMAGINE! “What would it be like to travel fater and faster away from the great clock tower in Berne. As you approached travelling at the speed of light the hand on the clock would appear to move ever slower. Then you reach the speed of light. The hand of the clock is now standing still. If you can travel faster, the hand of the clock is now moving backwards! From this little journey of imagination came new insight into the very nature of time, energy and matter! Brilliance nurtured by space to develop opened up the greatest mind in modern times.

But what if a discouraged Einstein had, as he once considered doing, gone on to sell insurance? He might have had a comfortable existence but his mind would have never taken that accelerated journey to brilliance. He would have been successful in the world’s eyes, but at what a loss! Another equally plausible scenario is that Einstein would have been admitted into academia in his younger days. He would have been consumed by the politics of the academy and writing papers of far less importance than his theories of gravity and general relativity. He would have lived his life as a successful but quirky professor without ever engaging in his great work. It was the wilderness years that played an important part in his development. There seems to be no course of study in academia to take you through the wilderness years. My early wilderness years saw me as a grill chef and a factory worker. But somehow I found myself in my mind travelling faster and faster to the other things I would later be able to do. If I could give one thing to a young person in the wilderness it would be a heightened sense of imagination. Imagination is not limited in speed to the currently available technology and it costs very little as well. A prince and a pauper can both access it and it may take either on a journey of great significance. Two bicycle mechanics can imagine flying machines. An air mail pilot can imagine flying the Atlantic. A German munitions designer can envision a trip to the moon! Imagine if schools…

Whatever you think of Elon Musk, whatever you think of the practicality of some of his ideas, it is well to consider that he represents but the latest expansion in humankind’s ability to imagine. Last year in our classes we had two sisters who collaborated to create a concept for an undersea resort – right down to such furnishings as a jellyfish lamp sconce for the hallways. Imagination! It is a gift possessed by the youth. What indeed should be our mission as educators when such illumination presents itself? Should not we ourselves find a passion to discover and nurture such wonder? And should not our nurture extend beyond the giving of tools and instruction to making sure the tool fits confidently into their young hands?


The author holds a balsa airplane. Photo by Ed Kirchman.


The author with his first camera, a Brownie Hawkeye. 
Photo by Ed Kirchman.


The author in front of a mural painted by our students. 
Photo by Madeline Maas.

Making Early Learning Joyful Again
[click to read]

By Valerie Strauss

Back in 2014, I wrote about a New York school that canceled its annual year-end kindergarten show because — are you ready? — the kids had to keep working so they would be ready for “college and career.” If you think that was a singular event, guess again. Preschool and kindergarten have become increasingly academic for years, often to the exclusion of structured play-based learning that has long been seen by experts as being the best way for young children to be educated. Things have gotten to such a point that children who leave kindergarten without having learned to read are often considered failures. (read more)

Josiah, Quandary, Building the Great Turnpikes

Volume XVI, Issue XXIV
Josiah
By Bob Kirchman
Copyright © 2019, The Kirchman Studio, all rights reserved

Chapter 10: Quandary

Young Josiah Zimmerman knocked on the office door of Abiyah Ben-Gurion. “Come in.” Professor Ben-Gurion said. “I am deep in a quandary.” The young man said.

Ben-Gurion loved young Zimmerman. The young man had originally arrived at the school to study Aerospace Engineering but after a stirring talk by Dr. Greene in chapel, he experienced what the old-timers call the ‘Burning Bosom.’ Persuasive and articulate, the young man saw his gifts most applicable to some sort of evangelism, but he still loved the sciences. As with many young people who are so blessed, young Zimmerman struggled with his calling and his passion, and that is why he sought out Ben-Gurion. Abiyah was a deeply rational man, but he seemed to understand that man was more than a rational machine. The professor’s walls were filled with amazing floral photography that he had taken. He was quiet about his faith, but it was well known that he always left his office on Fridays long before Sundown. He often slipped over to Wales in time to be there when it was Saturday so he could worship in the manner of his Fathers. His voice reading the Holy scrolls was known only to a few people, but they knew it was beautiful.

What his students saw was the strength of his character. He was tough, but fair. He met you at eye level and would listen. He was downright reluctant to give up on a student. He had helped Josiah Zimmerman understand that his heartfelt need to study Spiritual matters was a good thing. “The Divine will see to it that you have opportunity. You, my friend, must keep your eyes open and learn to recognize it.”

Ben-Gurion, at the moment, was wrestling too. He had just received the latest transcript of West and Josiah’s conversation on Mars. “Those Martians are like sheep without a shepherd,” he thought to himself. Peering at the young man seated across the desk from him he wondered, “Could this man be the answer.”

The reassimilation proposal had been floated with Josiah of Mars. He in turn had visited the Council with it. Not surprisingly, the APOLLONIUS faction was against it. Those closer to Josiah and Allison were cautiously interested in hearing more. As a group, they met the repatriation proposal with a resounding sentiment of “Not so fast.”

Ten spaces sat waiting in the lander. No one would step up to be first to go. Josiah might have been tempted but there were a few things that stopped him cold. First of all, he sensed that the volatile colony might indeed disintegrate upon his departure. More than once, he and Allison had defused some tense situations in the new colony with some old fashioned thinking. Josiah shuddered as he thought of how close the colony had come to chaos. He didn’t love his job, but he feared the vacuum.

He and Allison had children. If everyone dear to Josiah returned with him there would be room for only a couple of other colonists. Josiah would not leave his family, especially to an uncertain future. Their children knew nothing else than the red world they inhabited now with its green biospheres. If more landers were available in the future it would be fine but that would require some negotiations and some guarantees.
(to be continued)

“Painting Flowers on the Wall”
…Madeline Maas in Guatemala


Madeline Maas, designer of the 'Staunton Sunflowers' Mural, adds her hand to a mural painted by young people in Guatemala.

A Horse Named 'Socks'
[click to read]

Risen Ridge Ministry's First Horse!
By Jen Beck



On Saturday, June 8th, I got a phone call from a woman named Joanne. She introduced herself and began to tell me how she felt that Risen Ridge was an answer to her prayers. You see, due to her health, she is unable to ride anymore and needed a home for her horse, Socks. She got him when he was 4 years old and he just turned 19. This was her baby! She thought that he would be a great horse to work with veterans and people with PTSD. A friend of a friend told her about Risen Ridge, she looked up our website, and gave us a call. Not only did she want to donate her horse, but she wanted to donate a lot of horse equipment, too. She had 3 horses and, while the others had moved on already, she was waiting for the Lord to lead her to where Socks should go and she felt very strongly that the Lord lead her to Risen Ridge. We spoke for a long time, got some details about Socks and his background, and decided that we would come take a look at him to see if he would be a good fit for Risen Ridge. (read more)

Building the Pennsylvania Turnpike



Building the Massachusetts Turnpike



Valuing Human Life
Pope Francis Speaks Out about Abortion



Trinity Church, Staunton, Virginia
Photo by Bob Kirchman



A “War of the Worlds”
The Media Learns of its Power

People tuning in to CBS Radio on Halloween eve in 1938 were surprised to learn that “Earth was being invaded from Mars.” “Ladies and Gentlemen, we interrupt our program of dance to bring you a special bulletin.” Listeners were told that a fiery object had crashed in the countryside near Trenton, New Jersey. The announcer described the object as a huge cylinder. “Ladies and gentlemen, this is the most terrifying thing I have ever witnessed! Someone’s crawling out of the hollow top!” The terrifying scenario intensified as the mobilization of the army and the evacuation of New York City were described in great detail. Terrified citizens heard this broadcast and began to panic. They packed their cars and prepared to escape

A lot of people tuned in that evening after the announcement at 8:00pm that CBS was presenting a dramatization of H. G. Wells' Victorian classic “War of the Worlds.” As ‘Carl Phillips,’ actually actor Frank Readick, described the ‘invasion,’ many who had missed the announcement believed an actual invasion of Martians was taking place. The next day the national news media was filled with stories of how the fictional invasion had produced real panic.

The media had learned of its power.

People are extremely motivated by fear. This broadcast came just after Hitler’s invasion of Czechoslovakia and there was growing genuine uncertainty about the security of Europe. Not only did U. S. broadcasters take note, but Stalin and Hitler did as well. The media, playing on genuine fears, could motivate the population into a frenzied response. Vannever Bush, FDR’s top science advisor, took note as well. Annie Jacobsen, in her book Area 51, describes how so-called ‘Black Operations,’ technology for future Armageddons, was sold to the public and the government through just such purposed hype.

The American press continued to discover their power to persuade. Saul David Alinsky masterfully created the art of rallying a community against a ‘common enemy.’ Some external antagonist would become the focus of urgent warfare and absolute defeat. “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” Became one of his “Rules for Radicals.” Irrational fear of the unknown became a powerful media commodity. It has indeed remained so.

Conservative media today is heavily sponsored by gold merchants and ‘alternative investment’ strategists who all claim to know that the end is near and “here’s what to do to survive it.” Indeed, markets fluctuate and currencies sometimes fail, but usually these pitches end with a “buy my newsletter” offer rather than substantive analysis. Remember defrocked televangelist Jim Bakker? Well, he’s back on television. No longer does he offer a ‘prosperity gospel’ as he did in the past. Today, sporting a goatee and accompanied by a new blond wife to replace Tammy Faye, he hawks $2000 ‘survival buckets.’ The camera pans to his audience, a collection of elderly white people that somehow resembles a great flock of placid sheep. Today his guest is self-proclaimed prophet Jonathan Cahn. Cahn deftly mixes Kabbalah (a form of Jewish mysticism) and Scripture to paint an alarming end-times scenario. The problem is that people actually respond out of fear and send their money in.

Lacking in Bakker’s preaching is the true Scriptural admonition: “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.” – Phillipians 4:6-9. The Scripture does not diminish the importance of true planning and preparedness, but rather encourages us to do so in the light of a greater reality.

Perhaps nowhere is more filled with this than the world of modern politics. The photo below is a campaign mailer from an incumbent Virginia Senator about his challenger in a recent primary. The great irony is that this Senator is well known for saying one thing to his constituents and then throwing his vote with the other party, usually explaining it away under the guise of  “needing to compromise to get things done” or “it is the fiscally responsible thing to do.” When Tina Freitas challenged the incumbent Senator, she was looking forward to a healthy debate on the actual record. Instead she was the brunt of this Alinskyesque counter-campaign. What was lost was a healthy dialogue about the responsibilities of representative government. We are the poorer for it.


An example of 'fauxtojournalism.' This unflattering image was actually taken from the photo below where Ms. Freitas and her husband Nick participated in a solemn wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington Cemetery.


Photo: Tina Freitas Campaign.
The realization of this problem is the beginning of solving it. What if, instead of wildly packing the car on that evening in 1938 Mr. Trentonite had decided to call the radio station or the police department. He would have learned that the invasion was a fabrication. We should always inform ourselves on the issues that matter to us and know who to call when in question. We should do our homework. We should do our own research. This means going deeper than ‘Snopes’ or Politfact. [1.] We need to find the intelligent conversations – and listen.

The Two Voices
Reflections on Faith
[click to read]

In the movie: “The Longest Day,” which tells the story of Operation Overlord, the D-Day invasion of Normandy, John Wayne plays Lt. Col. Benjamin Vandervoort, commander of the 89th Division. There is a moment when he comes upon a road sign pointing out the direction to St. Mere Eglise, their objective. His men have already dutifully began to march in that direction.

Suddenly the General calls out: “Am I the only one in this unit that uses a compass?”

It turns out that the enemy has turned the sign around to lead them the wrong way! Vandervoort orders his men to turn around. He glances toward the sign: “Knock it Down!” he orders. And so we consider the voices that speak to us… offering to direct us, in our own day and time. How do we know which signs are right? What ‘compass’ is there to guide us? Are there signs around us that we should knock down? (read more)

Mountain Maple Blossoms


Maple Blossoms in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Photo by Bob Kirchman.

Monet Moments
Photographs by Bob Kirchman


Mary Gray Mountain, Staunton, Virginia. Photo by Bob Kirchman.


Sherando Lake, Augusta County, Virginia. Photo by Bob Kirchman.


Joseph Bryan Park, Richmond, Virginia. Photo by Bob Kirchman.