George Washingtonpraying at Valley Forge. Engraving by John C. McRae, 1866, based on a painting by Henry Brueckner. (Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)
It was December 1777, one of the bleakest times during the Revolutionary War. The Continental Army had won a few battles; however, morale suffered as they had also lost a few crucial battles, such as the Battle of Long Island, the Battle for New York, the Battle of White Plains, and the Battle of Bennington. As it was common for armies to take up quarters during the winter, General George Washington chose his army’s quarters to be constructed 25 miles north of Philadelphia, near Valley Forge. The location was strategic—the British Army had captured Philadelphia that fall and the land area had small creeks that would impede attacks due to its uphill location.
The prospects looked dire for the 12,000 men encamped at Valley Forge. The roads were impassable due to snow. The Continental Army was undersupplied and underfed. The men were neglected, with tattered clothing, worn-out shoes, and disheveled hair. Their constructed shelters were dark, cold log huts with dirt floors, a pit, and a sheet for the door, and there were 12 men per hut, leading to rampant disease. (read more)
In 1852, Frederic Edwin Church painted Virginia's Natural Bridge
This week on The Public Square® we are continuing with the re-airing of our series, First, on the life and leadership of George Washington, featuring Dave Zanotti’s exclusive interview with Dr. William B. Allen. Why Washington? Did the Congress pull his name out of a hat? Or was it something more? Should POTUS #1 be considered as a valid example of leadership in the 21st century? Tune in this week to Part 2 of First. (read more and Listen)
If you’re a long time listener of The Public Square® you know our conversation between Dave Zanotti and Dr. William B. Allen about the life and leadership of George Washington has become a classic to us. It’s become a broadcast we like to return to often because we never want to forget what was said that day. (read more and listen)
Volume XX, Issue XXIII: A Prayer for Our Nation on May 6, 2021
A Prayer for Our Nation on May 6, 2021
Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us,
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory,
forever and ever.
Amen.
1 Corinthians 13, in a sign holder at Staunton's Train Station.
If you criticize someone else, then offer something of your own. If you offer it, then just do it.” –Sergei Korolev, Father of Soviet Rocketry
Sixty-three years ago the first man-made satellite was placed in orbit. The man behind this feat was Ukranian born Sergei Korolev. As a young man he was enthralled with the idea of flight and rose from his initial vocation of builder to become the Soviet Union’s secret ‘Chief Designer.’ Denounced by fellow scientist Valentin Glushko during Stalin’s purges, Korolev was sentenced to hard labor in the Gulag. He was beaten (his jaws were broken) and he almost died there, but was brought back when the Soviets needed to build an ICBM in the days of the Cold War. Ironically, Glushko would design the engines for the great rockets imagined by Korolev. Sergei dreamed of manned flight to the moon and beyond. His dream eventually became the focus of the competition between the two great ideologies when John F. Kennedy proposed a mission to the moon. Many people don’t remember that Kennedy initially went to the United Nations General Assembly where he met Premier Nikita Khrushchev and actually proposed a joint mission by the world’s two superpowers. Though Korolev begged the Soviet leader to accept the offer, Khrushchev had no desire to ‘share the glory’ with the Capitalists. So began the great ‘space race’ of the 1960s.
Korolev, once a prisoner, now became a man so valuable that the KGB insisted his identity be kept a state secret. He was known simply as the ‘Chief Designer.’ He went on to send dogs into space and designed the Vostok Spacecraft that carried Yuri Gagarin into orbit – the first person to fly in space. He began development of the large N1 Rocket and the Soyuz spacecraft in anticipation of a lunar mission but died during surgery to remove a tumor because his injuries from the gulag prevented doctors from saving him. Leonid Brezhnev ordered a full state funeral and his ashes were interred in the Kremlin wall as the world finally learned who the genius behind Russian rocketry really was. Today both Astronauts and Cosmonauts ride together to the International Space Station aboard an N1 Rocket in a Soyuz Spacecraft – essentially as designed by Sergei Korolev!
Katherine Johnson calculated the trajectory of American spaceflight.
These Women Put Man on the Moon
Watching those old space shows as a child, it was pretty obvious that you just got into the spacecraft, took off and flew to wherever in the solar system you wanted to go. It looked deceptively simple – and it was! We had no reason to doubt that man had landed on the moon because Buck Rogers had made it look simple. But when President John F. Kennedy gave the imperative to actually put a man on the moon and bring him safely home, it immediately became clear that the problem was not so simple.
In order to go to the moon, you had to take off and steer a course to where the moon would be when you got there. You had to account for parabolic ascent and elliptical orbits. Your travel map existed in the realm of complex geometry and required brilliant mathematicians to chart. Fortunately the NASASpace Task Group at Langley Research Center had just such a group of mathematicians. They were mostly women and quite a few of them were African American! If you have seen the movie Hidden Figures you learned the stories of three of them, but the complex world of spaceflight engineering actually demanded many more. Many of them worked in the West Computing Group at Langley. Here Katherine Johnson and her colleagues mapped the stars for the astronauts. Yes, they literally mapped the heavens, so that the astronauts could navigate by the stars should their machine computers fail them.
This became essential in missions like Apollo 13, where the spacecraft was actually shut down at a time when critical course corrections had to be made. Katherine Johnson was one essential backup person who the navigation controllers in ‘the trench’ at Mission Control called in to calculate the trajectories of the revised mission. This was essential as you had to sling the Command Module and Lunar Module assembly around the moon about 65 miles from the surface. A miscalculation could have sent the spacecraft crashing to the lunar surface or missing the gravitational effect of the moon entirely – hurtling into deep space with no possibility of return.
To me, the complex mapping, verified by many earth orbit tests, is one reason I have little patience for the skeptics who say the lunar landing was somehow ‘faked.’ The careful calculations and critical launch windows only became known because the people who designed the mission really had to do it.
Some of Langley's first computers. NASA Photo.
In this 1930's era building, the computers plotted man's path to the moon. NASA Photo.
Dorothy Vaughn. NASA Photo.
Katherine Johnson. NASA Photo.
Margaret Hamilton with the printout of the Apollo AGC Software. NASA.
Margaret Hamilton
Software Engineer
Margaret Hamilton was 33 years old when she worked as director of software engineering at the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory. She and her team defined the design and testing criteria for the software that ran the onboard computer on the Lunar Module and developed the concepts of asynchronous flight software and priority scheduling which saved the Apollo computers from crashing during overloads such as the ones that occurred during the Apollo 11 descent to the moon (the 1201 and 1202 alarms).
The Journey of Apollo Eight
A particularly beautiful diagram of the journey to the moon.
(NASA)
On June 21, 1897 the world celebrates the birthday of Yuriy Vasilievich Kondratyuk, the famous Ukrainian author of the “route kondratyuka” which the Apollo spacecraft and Lunar Module took to the moon, creating the concept of Lunar Orbit Rendezvous. His real name is Oleksandr Ignatyevich Shargei. He changed it because of the danger posed by the Soviet Union to upper-class Ukranians. This did not prevent him from becoming one of the most famous inventors in the world. (read more)
Oleksandr Ignatyevich Shargeiplotted the course of Lunar Orbit Rendezvous, which was used to put Apollo astronauts on the moon. NASA's John Cornelius Houbolt and Thomas Dolan of Vought Astronautics referred to Sargei's work as they developed the concept for use by the Apollo program.
Tom Dolan and John Houbolt
Thomas Dolan was an American engineer who proposed the first fully developed concept of Lunar orbit rendezvous for the Apollo program while working at Vought Astronautics. Dolan referred to his LOR study concept as Manned Lunar Landing and Return (MALLAR), and it was largely ignored by NASA administrators until Langley engineer John Houbolt began championing the concept in 1961. The proposed idea outlined a smaller spacecraft dedicated only to operate in the vacuum of space. This spacecraft could act as sort of a shuttle between an orbiting "command module" in Lunar orbit and the surface of the Moon. Following this mission profile required the Command/Service Module and Lunar Module to fly all the way to the moon together and undock while in orbit around the moon, at which point the Lunar Module would land on the moon. In order to return, it would lift off again into lunar orbit and perform an orbital rendezvous with the Command/Service Module. The lander's ascent stage would be left behind in orbit, and the crew would return home using the Command/Service Module. This method saved a lot of weight in propellant and spacecraft mass, but did not gain widespread acceptance early on. The risks associated with Lunar orbit rendezvous were initially considered unacceptable by NASA officials. The Gemini missions would later prove that rendezvous and docking was indeed possible in space, paving the way for Dolan's idea to be put into practice. John Cornelius Houbolt was an aerospace engineer credited with leading the team behind the lunar orbit rendezvous (LOR) mission mode, a concept that was used to successfully land humans on the Moon and return them to Earth. This flight path was first endorsed by Wernher von Braun in June 1961 and was chosen for Apollo program in early 1962. The critical decision to use LOR was viewed as vital to ensuring that Man reached the Moon by the end of the decade as proposed by President John F. Kennedy. In the process, LOR saved time and billions of dollars by efficiently using existing rocket technology. (Wikipedia)
'Earthrise' Photo enhanced by Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Imagery. NASA Photo.
On Christmas Eve, 1968, the Apollo 8 astronauts were attempting to do something no human being had ever done before: They were going to try to get my cheapskate father to buy my family our first color television.
Oh yeah, and they were also going to the Moon.
Fifty years ago, on December 21st, 1968, the Apollo 8 astronauts blasted off the Earth from Cape Kennedy and, although they weren’t going to land on the moon, they were going to orbit it and televise it to us all “live” from their space capsule on Christmas Eve. The astronauts, Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders, were risking their lives in this dangerous mission to advance science, to give some good news to a world that desperately needed good news… and to get my dad to buy us a color TV and give me the best Christmas of my life! I add that only so you can see that I also had some skin in the game.
For those of you who weren’t around back then, 1968 was a year of terrible pain in America. The war in Vietnam was spiraling out of control with no end in sight. And just about every family in any big city or small town knew a soldier who had been wounded or died fighting in a country that none of us had ever been to, or knew much about.
In 1968 Dr. Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy were fighting for peace, civil rights and an end to violence… and were themselves shot and killed.
It was a time when people seemed to stop having friendly conversations with their neighbors across the fence and started angrily hollering at each other in political protests on inner city streets and college campuses.
Just about every morning in 1968 the country woke up to bad news that was worse than the day before. But to a 15 year-old me and my 12 and 7 year-old brothers, the worst news of 1968 was that we still had to watch our favorite TV shows on a crummy black and white television set. Don’t get me wrong, we felt bad about all those other things that were happening in America too. We had seen it all on the TV news, but, just, you know… in black and white. I’m sure we’d have felt much worse if we had seen it in color.
Now, in case you are thinking that color televisions were a pretty rare thing in 1968, well, they were not. Most all of the families in our neighborhood had a color TV. And by 1968, just about every show on all three TV networks was in color. Most other kids could see Adam West’s royal blue cape on “Batman”, Opie’s red hair on “The Andy Griffith Show” and Little Joe Cartwright’s lime green jacket, lavender shirt and tight fawn-beige pants on “Bonanza”. (That might explain why Little Joe got beat up so much by the less tolerant cowboys on the Ponderosa.)
Watching TV in black and white made no sense to my brothers and me. If we went to the local theater, the movies were in color. The pictures that our family’s Kodak Instamatic camera took of us on birthdays, vacations and whenever my youngest brother Neil’s swim trunks fell off, were all in color. Everything my brothers and I saw in our everyday lives was in color. Except for when we got home and turned on our television. And that is because we did not live in “Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color”. We lived in Dick Scully’s Crappy World of Black and White.
Dick Scully was my father and he was the only thing standing between me and a color TV. Dad didn’t like spending money on things he considered to be an unnecessary expense… things like name-brand cookies, college educations, and Stingray bikes with monkey handle bars and cool banana seats. And my father considered a color TV the most unnecessary expense of them all. Well, maybe the second-most unnecessary expense after my mother’s visit to the doctor for her annual mammogram.
Every year I spend money that we could be using for other things on that damn test and what does it ever show, Geraldine? Nothing! Every year, absolutely nothing!” He actually made my mother feel guilty for not having cancer. Like if it weren’t for her disappointing mammograms, we’d be eating Oreos instead of Shop-Rite cookies. That was my father.
Every month or so, for years, my brothers and I asked our dad to buy a color TV and every time his answer was the same, if you don’t count swears. “We can’t afford it.” Now, we certainly weren’t rich, but my father made a good living. He had a small dry cleaning store and most of the people in the neighborhood came to him to get the stains out of their clothes. As Dad used to say, “Blood and vomit are our bread and butter.” It would have seemed impossible to make the phrase “Blood and vomit” even more disgusting in a sentence, but my father managed to do it.
My mother also tried to get him to buy a color set for us, but she was more clever and subtle than we were. I remember one time when she said, “Dick, I know you love the kids and they know you love them too. If you say that we can’t afford a color TV, we all believe you. But I was thinking… the boys have also always wanted a cat too and we can get a cat for free, so, if they can’t have a color television, why not let them have a cat instead?” Mom knew our father hated cats, so this was a brilliant plan. If asked, I would have said he hated cats more than he hated spending money on a color television. I would have been wrong. He got us a cat. The irony that it was a black and white cat was not lost on me.
If it sounds like I had the crummiest life of anyone in our neighborhood, well, I didn’t. There was one kid in my school who had it even worse than me… Ralph Forgey. The Forgeys were pretty poor and had a black and white TV like us, but the picture tube had burned out on theirs a few years earlier. They couldn’t see anything on the screen, but the sound still worked, so Ralph Forgey and his family could only listen to TV shows. Maybe that’s why Mrs. Forgey couldn’t understand how some nice girl hadn’t snapped up Liberace yet.
Since it looked like we were never getting a color television, I tried to find ways to watch my favorite shows on other people’s color TVs. My first choice would have been to watch TV over at one of my friends’ houses. The only problem was most of my friends’ parents didn’t like me much, so I was rarely ever invited inside. Some nonsense about things always getting broken whenever I visited. I was considered an “outdoors friend”.
I got so desperate to watch color TV that I came up with a plan that would get me into the house of any kid in my school, even if I never met him. The idea was that I would “find” the kid’s lost jacket and bring it around to his house at about 7:30 that evening, when network TV shows were starting up. Of course, the jacket was never “lost” at all… I had swiped it during the day at school. The plan was that the kid’s parents would be so grateful to me for having found the jacket that I would naturally be invited into their home and would get to watch their color TV with them. Unfortunately, that was never successful because by the time I got to their house, the poor kid had already gotten a beating for losing his jacket and the family was in a bad mood because of the whole thing. On paper though, that one should’ve worked.
Scams like that came to an end when it was announced that the Apollo 8 astronauts were going to the moon and would show it to us all on live television on Christmas Eve. That night at supper, I asked Dad to buy us a color TV again. He had his usual four-word-answer ready… “We can’t afford it.” But I was ready too, because for the first time, I had a good reason for us having a color TV. My brothers and I needed to see the Apollo 8 mission in color for our science classes at school. This time it was for education: The ultimate scam in any kid’s playbook. He replied with a first-ever five-word-answer… “We still can’t afford it.”
Oh man, if the first trip to the moon and education wasn’t enough to get us a color TV, nothing was. I launched into an angry, desperate plea for a color television that both my brothers joined in on. My mom stood next to us in solidarity, however she was holding the cat and I wasn’t sure if that was going to help us or hurt us. “Dick, let’s stop having this same old argument. It’s almost Christmas and this is the perfect time to finally get a color TV. The astronauts are going around the moon for the first time ever and I think our kids should get to see history being made in color like all the other kids in America!” My brothers and I cheered and, to my recollection, the cat meowed.
Dad actually seemed to consider it for a moment. We all held our breaths in anticipation, then he said, “Look, I’d love to have a color TV just like the rest of you but we just can’t afford it…” His voice trailed off as he lit up a cigarette and puffed on it self-satisfied, sure of another victory. But not this time. Mom was ready.
“Well, I’ve found a way that we can afford it, “ she said. “I’m going to pay for it myself. I got a job.”
Dad was clearly caught off guard by this new development. “What? A job? Oh come on, Gerri, you can’t be serious… "
Mom told him she was going back to being a waitress, like she was before they were married. My father, not buying any of this, picked up his newspaper and flipped through the pages, snorting, “Sure you are. What restaurant would hire you after all this time?”
My mother replied cheerfully, “The Blue Star Tavern” over on Fairview Avenue. I start tomorrow.”
My father leapt up from his chair. “The Blue Star Tavern?! That’s where I eat lunch! I don’t want my wife around when I’m eating lunch!”
You boys can come in during your Christmas vacation and eat for free”, Mom continued. “The job even comes with two uniforms and—“
You get to wear a uniform?” my little brother, Neil, asked, impressed.
Mom answered, “Well, they’re not really uniforms… just a nice blouse, a pair of pants and— “
Dad nearly choked! “Pants?!” “Pants!!” he exclaimed a second time to fully register his shock. “No wife of mine is getting a job or wearing pants!”
Panic had set in and my father started begging. “C’mon, Ger’… you can’t do this to me. If you start working, people will think it’s because I don’t make enough money.”
Mom countered with, “Well, won’t they think that anyway because we’re just about the only family in the neighborhood that doesn’t have a color television?”
For the first time in his life, my father couldn’t think of something to say. Not even something stupid. Mom just cheerfully continued, “Do you need the car every day, Dick, or do you think we should get another one for me too?” she asked.
Dad angrily snuffed out his cigarette in the ashtray, “I’m putting a stop to this right now!” He reached into his back pocket for his wallet and opened it. If this were a cartoon, the wallet would have had moths flying out of it. Since this was real life, it just smelled bad. He counted out three-hundred dollars in twenties and handed them to my mother, bellowing “Get the damn color TV, but no job… you hear me, girl?!”
I couldn’t believe it… we were actually going to get a color television. I didn’t know what to say. My mom knew what to say, though, as she turned to my dad and gave him a peck on the cheek, “Thanks, honey.”
My father lit another cigarette and fell back into his chair, muttering, “There’s no way Richard F. Scully’s wife is going to be waiting hand and foot on anyone!” He then turned to my mother and barked, “Now go fix me a peanut butter sandwich… and make it snappy!”[read more]
In June 2018, President Trump directed the Department of Defense to “begin the process necessary to establish a space force as the sixth branch of the armed forces.” The reason for a space force is simple: space is the strategic high ground from which all future wars will be fought. If we do not master space, our nation will become indefensible. Since that time, entrenched bureaucrats and military leaders across the Department of Defense, especially in the Air Force, have been resisting the President’s directive in every way they can. And this December, although Congress voted to approve a Space Force, it did so while placing restrictions on it—such as that the Space Force be built with existing forces—that will render it largely useless in any future conflicts. At the heart of the problem is a disagreement about the mission of a Space Force. The Department of Defense envisions a Space Force that continues to perform the task that current space assets perform—supporting wars on the surface of the Earth. The Air Force especially is mired in an outmoded industrial-age mindset. It sees the Space Force as projecting power through air, space, and cyberspace, understood in a way that precludes space beyond our geocentric orbit. (read more)
I teach in a law school. For several years now my students have been mostly Millennials. Contrary to stereotype, I have found that the vast majority of them want to learn. But true to stereotype, I increasingly find that most of them cannot think, don’t know very much, and are enslaved to their appetites and feelings. Their minds are held hostage in a prison fashioned by elite culture and their undergraduate professors. (read more)
Staunton's Romanesque-Revival Marquis Building, constructed in 1895, originally housed the offices of architect T. J. Collins. Collins is responsible for the design of over 200 buildings in the historic city. A men's clothing shop once occupied the street level and the large umbrella was installed on the facade as a trade sign. Today the building is often referred to as 'The Umbrella Building.' -- Photos by Bob Kirchman
'The Apprentice' Benjamin Banneker's Amazing Accomplishments
Benjamin Banneker was a renaissance man.
"You're Fired"
A Milestone Monday Feature:
The story of Benjamin Banneker is forever intertwined with the planning of our nation's capital city. In 1791 Banneker was in the employment of Andrew Ellicott, who was charged with the task of laying out the monumental city plan concieved by French architect Pierre Charles de L'Enfant, who had been hired to design a capital suitable for the new republic.
L'Enfant based his design on the best traditions of Baroque landscape design and his creation resembled the hunting gardens of Louis XIV's massive palace at Versailles. L'Enfant proved to be very difficult to work with... America's first 'rock star' architect, you might say. George Washington fired him.
Here the traditional story says that L'Enfant rolled up his drawings and left the young country in a huff, taking his designs with him. Ellicott turned to Banneker, who had prepared the actual surveys, and Banneker is said to have redrawn the plans from memory!
Though many modern historians doubt that Banneker recreated the plans from memory, the man's documented accomplishments would be in keeping with those of a man capable of such a feat.
The hunting gardens of Versailles...
...inspiration for our nation's capital?
A simple farmer most of his life, Banneker had the good fortune to know the Quaker settlers of Ellicott's Mills in Maryland. The Society of Friends believed in providing basic education to all people and young Banneker certainly received a solid basic education.
Banneker became a student of astronomy and published an almanac. He corresponded with President Thomas Jefferson on the issue of the status of his fellow African Americans. His letter to Jefferson is well crafted, invoking reason as well as compassion. It appears that Banneker took up the craft of surveying in his fifties, looking to a time when he might be physically too old to farm.
Banneker is said to have observed the workings of a clock and then carved his own working clock mechanism from scrap wood. He published his almanac until 1802.
Banneker lived for four years after his almanacs discontinued. He published a treatise on bees, did a mathematical study on the cycle of the seventeen-year locust, and became a pamphleteer for the anti-slavery movement. He continued scientific studies by night and walked his land by day. He also continued to keep his garden. He hosted many distinguished scientists and artists of his day, and his visitors commented on his intelligence and on his knowledge of everything of importance that was happening in the country. As always, he remained precise and reflective in his conversations with others. His last walk (with a friend) came on October 9, 1806, he complained of being ill and went home to rest on his couch. He died later that day." [1.]
Banneker's Almanac.
The Ellicott/Banneker map of Washington.
The city today.
1791 Letter to Jefferson To Thomas Jefferson from Benjamin Banneker, 19 August 1791
FromBenjamin Banneker
Maryland. Baltimore County. Near Ellicotts Lower Mills
August 19th: 1791
SIR
I am fully sensible of the greatness of that freedom which I take with you on the present occasion; a liberty which Seemed to me scarcely allowable, when I reflected on that distinguished, and dignifyed station in which you Stand; and the almost general prejudice and prepossession which is so prevailent in the world against those of my complexion.
I suppose it is a truth too well attested to you, to need a proof here, that we are a race of Beings who have long laboured under the abuse and censure of the world, that we have long been looked upon with an eye of contempt, and1 that we have long been considered rather as brutish than human, and Scarcely capable of mental endowments.
Sir I hope I may Safely admit, in consequence of that report which hath reached me, that you are a man far less inflexible in Sentiments of this nature, than many others, that you are measurably friendly and well disposed toward us, and that you are willing and ready to Lend your aid and assistance to our relief from those many distresses and numerous calamities to which we are reduced.
Now Sir if this is founded in truth, I apprehend you will readily embrace every opportunity to eradicate that train of absurd and false ideas and oppinions which so generally prevails with respect to us, and that your Sentiments are concurrent with mine, which are that one universal Father hath given being to us all, and that he hath not only made us all of one flesh, but that he hath also without partiality afforded us all the Same Sensations, and endued us all with the same faculties, and that however variable we may be in Society or religion, however diversifyed in Situation or colour, we are all of the Same Family, and Stand in the Same relation to him.
Sir, if these are Sentiments of which you are fully persuaded, I hope you cannot but acknowledge, that it is the indispensible duty of those who maintain for themselves the rights of human nature, and who profess the obligations of Christianity, to extend their power and influence to the relief of every part of the human race, from whatever burthen or oppression they may unjustly labour under, and this I apprehend a full conviction of the truth and obligation of these principles should lead all to.
Sir, I have long been convinced, that if your love for your Selves, and for those inesteemable laws which preserve to you the rights of human nature, was founded on Sincerity, you could not but be Solicitous, that every Individual of whatsoever rank or distinction, might with you equally enjoy the blessings thereof, neither could you rest Satisfyed, short of the most active diffusion of your exertions, in order to their promotion from any State of degradation, to which the unjustifyable cruelty and barbarism of men may have reduced them.
Sir I freely and Chearfully acknowledge, that I am of the African race, and in that colour which is natural to them of the deepest dye, and it is under a Sense of the most profound gratitude to the Supreme Ruler of the universe, that I now confess to you, that I am not under that State of tyrannical thraldom, and inhuman captivity, to which too many of my brethren are doomed; but that I have abundantly tasted of the fruition of those blessings which proceed from that free and unequalled liberty with which you are favoured and which I hope you will willingly allow you have received from the immediate hand of that Being, from whom proceedeth every good and perfect gift.
Sir, Suffer me to recall to your mind that time in which the Arms and tyranny of the British Crown were exerted with every powerful effort in order to reduce you to a State of Servitude, look back I intreat you on the variety of dangers to which you were exposed, reflect on that time in which every human aid appeared unavailable, and in which even hope and fortitude wore the aspect of inability to the Conflict, and you cannot but be led to a Serious and grateful Sense of your miraculous and providential preservation; you cannot but acknowledge, that the present freedom and tranquility which you enjoy you have mercifully received, and that it is the peculiar blessing of Heaven.
This Sir, was a time in which you clearly saw into the injustice of a State of Slavery, and in which you had just apprehensions of the horrors of its condition, it was now Sir, that your abhorrence thereof was so excited, that you publickly held forth this true and invaluable doctrine, which is worthy to be recorded and remember’d in all Succeeding ages. “We hold these truths to be Self evident, that all men are created equal, and that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happyness.”
Here Sir, was a time in which your tender feelings for your selves had engaged you thus to declare, you were then impressed with proper ideas of the great valuation of liberty, and the free possession of those blessings to which you were entitled by nature; but Sir how pitiable is it to reflect, that altho you were so fully convinced of the benevolence of the Father of mankind, and of his equal and impartial distribution of those rights and privileges which he had conferred upon them, that you should at the Same time counteract his mercies, in detaining by fraud and violence so numerous a part of my brethren under groaning captivity and cruel oppression, that you should at the Same time be found guilty of that most criminal act, which you professedly detested in others, with respect to yourselves.
Sir, I suppose that your knowledge of the situation of my brethren is too extensive to need a recital here; neither shall I presume to prescribe methods by which they may be relieved; otherwise than by recommending to you and all others, to wean yourselves from these narrow prejudices which you have imbibed with respect to them, and as Job proposed to his friends “Put your Souls in their Souls stead,” thus shall your hearts be enlarged with kindness and benevolence toward them, and thus shall you need neither the direction of myself or others in what manner to proceed herein.
And now, Sir, altho my Sympathy and affection for my brethren hath caused my enlargement thus far, I ardently hope that your candour and generosity will plead with you in my behalf, when I make known to you, that it was not originally my design; but that having taken up my pen in order to direct to you as a present, a copy of an Almanack which I have calculated for the Succeeding year, I was unexpectedly and unavoidably led thereto.
This calculation, Sir, is the production of my arduous Study in this my advanced Stage of life; for having long had unbounded desires to become acquainted with the Secrets of nature, I have had to gratify my curiosity herein thro my own assiduous application to Astronomical Study, in which I need not to recount to you the many difficulties and disadvantages which I have had to encounter.
And altho I had almost declined to make my calculation for the ensuing year, in consequence of that time which I had allotted therefor being taking up at the Federal Territory by the request of Mr. Andrew Ellicott, yet finding myself under Several engagements to printers of this state to whom I had communicated my design, on my return to my place of residence, I industriously apply’d myself thereto, which I hope I have accomplished with correctness and accuracy, a copy of which I have taken the liberty to direct to you, and which I humbly request you will favourably receive, and altho you may have the opportunity of perusing it after its publication, yet I chose to send it to you in manuscript previous thereto, that thereby you might not only have an earlier inspection, but that you might also view it in my own hand writing.—And now Sir, I shall conclude and Subscribe my Self with the most profound respect your most Obedient humble Servant,
BENJAMIN BANNEKER
NB any communication to me may be had by a direction to Mr. Elias Ellicott merchant in Baltimore Town.
B B
As an Essay of my calculation is put into the hand of Mr. Cruckshank of philadelphia, for publication I would wish that you might neither have this Almanack copy published nor give any printer an opportunity thereof, as it might tend to disappoint Mr. Joseph Cruckshank in his sale. [2.]
Our nation's capital would not be the same if it wasn't for Benjamin Banneker, the Black architect hired by George Washington, the first President of the United States, to design the city of Washington, DC. It was actually Thomas Jefferson himself who highly recommended that Banneker be placed on the planning committee. The former designer who walked off the job took all the plans with him, but Banneker was able to save the project by reproducing a complete layout of all the streets, parks, and major buildings. Not only was he able to do it from memory, he was able to do it in just two days! (read more)
Poem by Mckenna Wood
Idon’t typically get into political or touchy topics on social media but this to me is an exception. This is something that I am very passionate about. I encourage you to consider for a moment the idea that each and every life (planned and unplanned) comes with a purpose. I believe that no matter how the child was conceived it’s life is still beautiful. Have you ever asked your friend or loved one if they were planned? Probably not. Because that is not important to you, they are important to you. They play a role in your life that you probably can’t imagine being without. I believe that even an unplanned baby or a baby conceived horrifically or a baby with “special needs” can change the world. With that in mind I wrote this “poem”
What if she changed the world?
She was a blessing to everyone around her. She was kind, and loving and selfless. She was light in the darkness of this world, she was wise beyond her years. Her presence could light up a room and her smile lifted spirits. She was the best friend. She was looked up to by all the children around her. She conquered her battles. She was brave. Her words were purposeful and impactful. They reached people in a special way. Those with “diseases” and syndromes were inspired by her, she changed the definition of special needs. She showed a love like no other. She built bridges between peoples where it looked impossible. She changed the world. Except... she couldn’t. All of that was stollen from her. She was robbed of her future.
What if the circumstances were different? what if they wanted to understand that a beating heart was a life? what if they chose not to look at her as a plague on her mothers body? what if they realized that her mind and nerves and body were very much alive? what if they realized that she herself was not a disease? what if they chose to believe that she was human? what if her mother wanted her? What if her father was around? what if? What if the test didn’t say she had cerebral palsy, what if the test didn’t say she had Down syndrome, what if it didn’t say she had Spina bifida? WHAR if it didn’t say she was a disease? What if she hadn’t been ripped from her mother’s womb? what if the doctor said she can still have a life that’s full? what if they said she could still change the world?
What if her smile told someone they were seen, and that made them decide not to take their life? What if her friendship had been long awaited and prayed for by someone lonely and hurting? What if her words traveled around the world and impacted the minds of all who listened? What if her mind created cures for the sick and dying? What if her love radically changed people? What if she led a country from crumbling to standing firm? What if she redirected the course of history? What if she was different, and brilliant? What if her “flaws” were her greatest strength, her secret weapon? What if she was uniquely needed? What if she was given the chance to fulfill her purpose? What if she changed the world? - McKenna Wood
Particularly in some Anabaptist circles, one hears the argument that “since we have historically exempted ourselves from military service and government assistance, we don’t vote.” Many in that tradition today pay into (and receive) Social Security and Medicare, their young people register for Selective Service, but voting – often that will bring an explanation that one chooses to be uninvolved in the “dirty” business of politics. “God will raise up the government” they say. In a REPRESENTATIVE REPUBLIC, such as ours, GodHAS raised up the government – and they are us! Our Constitutional system was designed to give every citizen representation in the government that holds us together. We enjoy Religious Liberty, but are we taking it for granted? Indeed, are we by apathy giving up our duty to maintain it? If the mantle of government has been placed upon us, however minimally, however locally, do we not sin by neglecting a Sacred duty? Consider the many assaults on God-fearing people in Leftist legislation these days. Attacks on the Sanctity of Human Life and Religious Liberty abound in our State Houses and in Washington. Not to act is as as unthinkable as passing by an accident scene where there is injury, leaving the action of helping to someone else. In fact, the parable of The Good Samaritan should lead our action here. “Who is my neighbor?”
September 18, 2019 (Lepanto Institute) — The following is written by Hon.Robert Marshall, former member of the Virginia House of Delegates.
If Christians don’t personally engage in politics, it’s all over for America. If we fail to act in the public square, more immoral policies will spread and harm those we love.
The window of opportunity for implementing successful civic action will not remain open forever, especially if Leftists have their way and succeed in pushing atheistic socialism and curbs on religious liberty. If we truly love our neighbors, and care enough to protect our families and communities from the ever-encroaching and growing persecution of Christians and others who embrace natural law values, then we must become the salt, the light and the leaven of society. If we fail to act in the public square, more immoral policies will spread and harm those we love. Pray, and like the Good Samaritan, also act. (read more)
That ship never came. For decades the little band struggled on. Josiah struggled to lead them. A small core of APOLLONIUS devotees were always perturbed that the collective mindset originally prescribed was not adhered to. They were led by Mark and Sergey, who had barely made it through Elizabeth Zimmerman’s vetting process. Though the group as a whole dispensed rapidly with addressing each other by number, Mark and Sergey resisted that change to the bitter end. Finally it was only them referring to each other by number anyway. Then they gave it up.
The problem was that the two of them brooded together privately and stirred up some dissention publicly. Sergey would often interrupt Josiah with the statement, “that’s not by the book.” He was committed to restoring the purity of the original colony mission as he saw it. Josiah’s leadership was necessary now but in the long run it would have to go.
The two doctors gravitated to this mindset. They arrived at the colony both expecting and when their babies came they attached themselves to some men of the APOLLONIUS faction. APOLLONIUS was not the only person on Earth pushing for colonization, they reasoned. Others would follow and they would be the charter village of the new order when the latecomers arrived. Josiah had inventoried the remaining stores and they were actually not in any immediate danger of depleting resources. The doctors, for their part, did not strongly resist the change to home education. They considered their children the rightful heirs of APOLLONIUS and intended to raise them as such. Combined education might indeed get in the way of that.
Then there was the Allison/Josiah faction. They held rule of the colony by necessity and because of Josiah’s giftedness in that area. Even their enemies acknowledged this. The loss of APOLLONIUS had left most of the colonists quite rudderless if the truth be known. Steeped in the Progressive thought that had been overshadowed by a rebirth of Faith in the North Country, they were quite capable of creating institutions but clueless as to the deeper stirring of human nature that seemed to make them run so wretchedly.
The new colony was to have no prisons, but it became clear over the years that the folly that necessitated them was still present in humankind. Though they had cast off all of the antiquated beliefs and institutions, they were surprised at the dark shadows that had followed them across the solar system. Josiah dealt with the raft of petty crimes within the community with an application of something very much resembling the old ‘Golden Rule.’ When thievery was discovered, restitution was expected. Abusive and violent situations were not so easy. Initially mandatory separation of the aggressive parties seemed to work, but then there was the murder.
(to be continued)
The Port of Lexington, Virginia
Zimmerman's Lock on North River Canal
Photos byBob Kirchman
Before the railroad, the James River Canal served as a route to Western Virginia. Our founders were building a network of canals before the steel rails came.
In the late Eighteenth Century, men like George Washington saw the need for a young nation to have infrastructure. Washington and others would oversee the building of the James River and Kanawha Canal, eventually hoping to create a water link to the Ohio River and the Mississippi. The Maury and James Rivers were already used for commerce to the coast by bateaux. These disposable boats would be built for a one way trip downstream and the trip could be described as a combination of white water canoeing in a cargo boat and drifting along long sections of flatwater. By 1860 locks on the James and the North River (now the Maury) allowed canal boats to be drawn by mules upstream to Lexington. The boats were as large as 90 feet long and some had passenger accommodations.
Canal boats in Richmond, Virginia. Drawing by J. R. Hamilton
But the era of canals would be short lived. In Ellicott City, Maryland in 1830 and Charleston, South Carolina, the first steam engines would be proved on fledgling railroads. By the middle of the Nineteenth Century, Claudius Crozet and 2000 Irish tunnel builders would establish a viable railroad through the Blue Ridge Mountains. Soon it would wind its way through the Allegany Mountains. Waterways would not connect the East to the Mississippi.
Railroads soon cut along the banks of rivers, often using the old canal towpaths, but the locks from the old canals remain in many places. The stonework is beautiful and precise. The builders obviously created a work to last for the ages. As the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad built a branch South into Lexington, the engineers of that road would build fine stone viaducts in the same tradition. Many of those remain as well including a beautiful multi-arched one just South of Staunton, Virginia which may be seen from Interstate 81.
Concrete rivers carry the commerce of our day but it is good to remember that our founders saw this commerce as essential to a nation at its beginning.
Photo of a canal boat.
Zimmerman's Lock on the Maury River. The gates opened back into these recesses in the lock walls.
They Built Airplanes, Canoes and the Lunar Module!
Grumman was one of the leading aircraft producers for the U.S. Military in the 20th century. Grumman got its start in Baldwin then to Farmingdale and eventually moved to Bethpage. In 1936, a local townsman successfully persuaded his friend Leroy Randle Grumman to relocate his expanding aircraft business from Farmingdale to Bethpage. It was at this time that the founders Messrs. Leroy Randle Grumman, Leon 'Jake' Swirbul, William 'Bill' Schwendler, Clint Towl, Ed Poor, and Joe Stamm purchased the farm land from the Looney family, Mary Moesch, the Neders, and the Kutsurs. They also acquired the polo grounds known as the Central Park Hunt Club (that was the area where the airport is currently.) They opened their first plant in 1936, soon becoming Bethpage's (and Long Island's) largest business concern. Their business boomed during the 1930's and 1940's in answer to the Navy's demands for quality aircraft and by 1944, Grumman, the man and the business, became a legend in their own time, winning the Navy "E" Award for production efficiency five years in a row. It was also awarded for its high morale as it turned out 500 airplanes per month. During World War II over 17,000 aircraft were produced in Bethpage, the runways were paved and several new plants were built. Having earned a "sterling reputation" for a quality product, the company went on to produce for the Korean conflict, for the 'Cold War' peace of the 1950-s and for the needs of the military in Vietnam. (read more)
*Central Park Historical Society Encyclopedia
Francis Collins' Graduation Song
This has to be the best commencement message since Winston Churchill's 'Never Give Up" speech!
House Mountain Petunia
Photo byBob Kirchman
For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.” – ISAIAH 55:12
How Bob Childress Brought Civility to the Mountains
American history is replete with unknown pastor heroes who braved the wilderness and brought the light of the gospel to wild and brutal areas. One fascinating example is mountain man Bob Childress.
Buffalo Mountain in Virginia's Blue Ridge rises to 3972 feet, a thousand feet above the surrounding hills. The early settlers thought the summit looked like a charging buffalo, with its head lowered and its hump bulging. The early settlers on the Buffalo were Scotch-Irish, but the God-fearing ways of those earliest pioneers had long died out on the mountain. There were few roads, and those living on the mountains had no schools and often no churches. They lived the lives of remote pioneers, even retaining some of the early English speech Shakespeare would have recognized -- saying sallet for salad, sech for such, and being afeard rather than afraid. (read more)
Here is Dyane Forde’s Lost Pen Magazine. I am very pleased to be a part of it! (Link will be active on June 3rd).
Welcome to my new venture and the realization of a dream: the creation of the Lost Pen Magazine, a free, digital Christian literary and arts magazine!
For a long time, I struggled to find a place for my writing which often straddled genre and literary fiction. As book clubs and magazines began popping up for Christian romance, speculative fiction, and fantasy it seemed there wasn’t much out there for writers and readers of short fiction and poetry that dealt with Christian themes in a thoughtful, reflective manner that didn’t involve aliens, zombies, or two starry-eyed lovers trying to find their way to each other against all odds. Also, digital magazines are easy to distribute, which appealed to my desire to feature and share top-quality writing pieces and visual art.
So, I decided to create my own digital magazine to provide a platform for the ‘lost voices’ of Christian literary fiction writers and artists. I hope you’ll join this journey with me and support me as I put this project together. – Dyane Forde
Greater Montreal, June 3, 2019—The Christian Creative Nexus (CCN), an online support and promotional resource for Christian creatives, and Focus Writing Services (FWS), a freelance writing and editing service dedicated to enabling writers, businesses, and organizations to produce exceptional written content, are publishing their first digital Christian arts and fiction magazine, Lost Pen Magazine. The publication will be free and available on Issuu and Mailchimp (PDF version).
The CCN and FWS hold that God expects His people to excel at producing good work, as what His people create is a reflection of Him. Lost Pen Magazine originated from the need to take supporting and promoting Christian Creatives to a higher level than what was possible via a website, and a desire to produce a wide-reaching publication with a reputation for excellence—evidence that Christians are highly creative and capable of producing top-notch, quality written and visual work. Ultimately, Lost Pen Magazine hopes to build up and motivate local and global Christian creative communities while reaching non-believers for Christ.
For more information about Lost Pen Magazine, the Christian Creative Nexus, or Focus Writing Services, please contact founder and editor Dyane Forde at fwritingservices@gmail.com.
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty G-d, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." -- Isaiah 9:6 (read more)
This was written after UVA's win at the time just after Charlottesville's difficult days when a young woman and a number of law enforcement officers were killed. Tony Bennett is deep, he is a true gentleman and he cares about the community he serves. (read more)
Notre Dame de Paris Rose Windows Safe!
After the terrible fire that ripped through Notre Dame de Paris, today we learned that the priceless rose windows and the magnificent pipe organ have survived. These photos show the transept where the spire fell through the vault. There is much damage to repair as the roof was completely destroyed, but much remains. Photos by Christian Christensen
You wanted to see me right away?” Abiyah Ben-Gurion said as he walked into the Zimmerman offices in Wales, Alaska. Elizabeth O’Malley’s assistant Hannah replied, “Yes, I did! I just received this communication from our office on Space Station/Assembly Center 005. It seems they’ve observed something you need to look at on Mars.”
She continued: “As you know, we’ve done periodic flyovers of the abandoned colony ruins… sort of a chance to observe decay in the Martian environment… and, Oh, I am so sorry. I recall how painful that was for you, but please indulge me. There is a mystery here we need you to weigh in on. Let me bring up the images.”
Hannah’s deskpad displayed two views of the colony ruins taken from orbit. The first was a photo Abiyah’s wife Sarah had taken several decades ago. The second was freshly processed from an unmanned probe that was orbiting Mars as they spoke.
See those surviving greenhouses in the shadow of that rock mass. That was all that remained of the APOLLONIUS Colony when you returned to Earth after it had been tragically destroyed by the missile. Look at the footprint carefully. Now look at the view from our probe as it flew over yesterday. See the difference?”
Abiyah’s keen eye caught it at once, “The footprint is different!” he exclaimed. “How can that be?”
We’re perplexed as well. It is BIGGER! We wondered if blast sand had covered some greenhouses and now has blown off, but Sarah’s images of the colony before destruction show no greenhouses there!”
Well, I’m stymied,” said Abiyah, “we scanned repeatedly for signs of life and you know how thorough Sarah is!”
The 3D printers we sent up then were pretty primitive by today’s standards. There was not the AI to self-duplicate anything. As I recall, the greenhouses involved a fair amount of human manipulation to construct. They could manufacture the struts and clear panels from local soils heated in the kiln, but that too required a lot of human oversight.”
So, obviously we have someone… or someTHING adding on to the remains of the colony!”
That’s it sir, we have a riddle on our hands.”
Well, Hannah, let’s use Occam's Razor to begin with. Someone has been adding greenhouses to our colony… or what’s left of it. Who would be the simplest to suspect. We have not tracked any ships from other nations going out to Mars. Space Aliens are always invoked in a case like this… but we’ve never actually seen one… EVER! I would have to say that someone survived the blast that destroyed the colony, incredible as that may sound. The reason we didn’t detect them was that they remained in an underground bunker… perhaps aware of the radiation danger outside. They had no communication ability as that was totally destroyed.”
He continued, “It would have had to have been one of the more technically inclined colonists, to be sure -- Someone who could keep the oxygenation going in the greenhouses and run the 3D printers. I daresay there is more than one survivor.”
So, what do we do next?” Hannah mused.
We need to make contact, if we can. Remember they launched the missile to destroy our ship in orbit. It fell back to Mars and exploded on the colony… we thought it exploded destroying everyone. We don’t know if they are so poisoned by the leadership of APOLLONIUS that they believe we are tainted and they are the enlightened ones.”
Hannah looked up at the painting of Rupert Zimmerman, the mind behind the enterprises that now required their oversight and wondered what Mr. Z would have said at this moment, but it had been some time since Rupert passed after taking pneumonia following the ceremonies to commence construction on the St. Lawrence Island Crossing. Rupert had always been somewhat of an enigma to those closest to him in life, and his painted eyes gazed down at Hannah giving nothing away. (to be continued,)
The Island in Sherando Lake. Photo by Bob kirchman.
Volume XVI, Issue XVa
Phantasies ByGeorge Macdonald, Chapter 24
We are ne'er like angels till our passions die."
~ Thomas Dekker.
This wretched Inn, where we scarce stay to baite, We call our dwelling-place: We call one step a race: But angels in their full enlightened state, Angels, who live, and know what 'tis to be, Who all the nonsense of our language see, Who speak things, and our words, their ill-drawn Pictures, scorn, When we, by a foolish figure, say, Behold an old man Dead! then they Speak properly, and cry, Behold a man-child born!"
~ Abraham Cowley
I was dead, and right content. I lay in my coffin, with my hands folded in peace. The knight, and the lady I loved, wept over me.
Her tears fell on my face.
Ah!" said the knight, "I rushed amongst them like a madman. I hewed them down like brushwood. Their swords battered on me like hail, but hurt me not. I cut a lane through to my friend. He was dead. But he had throttled the monster, and I had to cut the handful out of its throat, before I could disengage and carry off his body. They dared not molest me as I brought him back."
He has died well," said the lady.
My spirit rejoiced. They left me to my repose. I felt as if a cool hand had been laid upon my heart, and had stilled it. My soul was like a summer evening, after a heavy fall of rain, when the drops are yet glistening on the trees in the last rays of the down-going sun, and the wind of the twilight has begun to blow. The hot fever of life had gone by, and I breathed the clear mountain-air of the land of Death. I had never dreamed of such blessedness. It was not that I had in any way ceased to be what I had been. The very fact that anything can die, implies the existence of something that cannot die; which must either take to itself another form, as when the seed that is sown dies, and arises again; or, in conscious existence, may, perhaps, continue to lead a purely spiritual life. If my passions were dead, the souls of the passions, those essential mysteries of the spirit which had imbodied themselves in the passions, and had given to them all their glory and wonderment, yet lived, yet glowed, with a pure, undying fire. They rose above their vanishing earthly garments, and disclosed themselves angels of light. But oh, how beautiful beyond the old form! I lay thus for a time, and lived as it were an unradiating existence; my soul a motionless lake, that received all things and gave nothing back; satisfied in still contemplation, and spiritual consciousness.
Ere long, they bore me to my grave. Never tired child lay down in his white bed, and heard the sound of his playthings being laid aside for the night, with a more luxurious satisfaction of repose than I knew, when I felt the coffin settle on the firm earth, and heard the sound of the falling mould upon its lid. It has not the same hollow rattle within the coffin, that it sends up to the edge of the grave. They buried me in no graveyard. They loved me too much for that, I thank them; but they laid me in the grounds of their own castle, amid many trees; where, as it was spring-time, were growing primroses, and blue-bells, and all the families of the woods
Now that I lay in her bosom, the whole earth, and each of her many births, was as a body to me, at my will. I seemed to feel the great heart of the mother beating into mine, and feeding me with her own life, her own essential being and nature. I heard the footsteps of my friends above, and they sent a thrill through my heart. I knew that the helpers had gone, and that the knight and the lady remained, and spoke low, gentle, tearful words of him who lay beneath the yet wounded sod. I rose into a single large primrose that grew by the edge of the grave, and from the window of its humble, trusting face, looked full in the countenance of the lady. I felt that I could manifest myself in the primrose; that it said a part of what I wanted to say; just as in the old time, I had used to betake myself to a song for the same end. The flower caught her eye. She stooped and plucked it, saying, "Oh, you beautiful creature!" and, lightly kissing it, put it in her bosom. It was the first kiss she had ever given me. But the flower soon began to wither, and I forsook it.
It was evening. The sun was below the horizon; but his rosy beams yet illuminated a feathery cloud, that floated high above the world. I arose, I reached the cloud; and, throwing myself upon it, floated with it in sight of the sinking sun. He sank, and the cloud grew gray; but the grayness touched not my heart. It carried its rose-hue within; for now I could love without needing to be loved again. The moon came gliding up with all the past in her wan face. She changed my couch into a ghostly pallor, and threw all the earth below as to the bottom of a pale sea of dreams. But she could not make me sad. I knew now, that it is by loving, and not by being loved, that one can come nearest the soul of another; yea, that, where two love, it is the loving of each other, and not the being loved by each other, that originates and perfects and assures their blessedness. I knew that love gives to him that loveth, power over any soul beloved, even if that soul know him not, bringing him inwardly close to that spirit; a power that cannot be but for good; for in proportion as selfishness intrudes, the love ceases, and the power which springs therefrom dies. Yet all love will, one day, meet with its return. All true love will, one day, behold its own image in the eyes of the beloved, and be humbly glad. This is possible in the realms of lofty Death. "Ah! my friends," thought I, "how I will tend you, and wait upon you, and haunt you with my love."
My floating chariot bore me over a great city. Its faint dull sound steamed up into the air--a sound--how composed?" How many hopeless cries," thought I, "and how many mad shouts go to make up the tumult, here so faint where I float in eternal peace, knowing that they will one day be stilled in the surrounding calm, and that despair dies into infinite hope, and the seeming impossible there, is the law here!
But, O pale-faced women, and gloomy-browed men, and forgotten children, how I will wait on you, and minister to you, and, putting my arms about you in the dark, think hope into your hearts, when you fancy no one is near! Soon as my senses have all come back, and have grown accustomed to this new blessed life, I will be among you with the love that healeth."
With this, a pang and a terrible shudder went through me; a writhing as of death convulsed me; and I became once again conscious of a more limited, even a bodily and earthly life. (to be continued)
Tulip Symmetry. Photo by Bob Kirchman.
Elevator to Surface, Smithsonian Station in the Washington Metro.
Do Metro executives know what the Metro is like for a person who uses a wheelchair? (read more)
A New Proposal for 'Elysian Lilies' ByBob Kirchman
In Metro's Smithsonian Station, the Elevator is tucked into a dark alcove that is poorly marked. If you forget to check the status updates for elevators, you might encounter this scene... the elevator is out of service.
In the older Metro Stations in Washington D. C., the elevators might seem like an afterthought. In Smithsonian Station, the elevator sits in a dark alcove and is easily missed. Harry Weese designed the stations as a crypt, of sorts, to the Federal City. He wanted you to know you were underground.
Newer Metro stations have two elevators side by side and they are large enough for two people in wheelchairs to ride together. Smithsonian Station's elevator is relatively small. Adding to the claustrophobia is the dark alcove. While the vaulted stations and open escalators are elegant in their muted illumination, a case might be made for the elevator alcove needing to visually signal connection to the world above.
To that end, a variation of the 'Elysian Lilies' mural is designed below, along with a brighter ceiling light and a brighter elevator door.
'Elysian Lilies' Mural Design for a Lift Alcove. Bob Kirchman
Panda Popularity Personified
Kids and Pandas are Inseparable at DC Zoo
A panda sculpture at the National Zoo Metro station attracts attention. Photo by Bob Kirchman
The Challenge of Leadership
"The Prayer at Valley Forge" byArnold Fribergis one of the best known paintings of the American Revolution. It depicts George Washington at Valley Forge.
No doubt, George Washington knew the challenge of leadership well. He began his career without a full college degree, but at the age of sixteen he obtained his surveyer's certificate from The College of William and Mary. At an age when most modern young men are playing video games, he was out discovering and marking an actual country! He did do something akin to the actions of modern young men when he discreetly carved his initials into Rock Bridge County's natural wonder, Natural Bridge!
Washington is noted for his military career, but historian James Hodges, Ph.D.gives us some unique insight into the man's character:
At the Battle of Brandywine in September 1777, a particularly brutal battle with much carnage on both sides, a fox terrier got lost between the lines. The little dog was captured by the Americans, who saw inscribed in his collar: “Property of General Howe.” Washington made sure the little dog was fed, cleaned and treated well. Under a flag of truce, Alexander Hamilton delivered the dog to General Howe, who had suffered great mental anguish thinking his little terrier had been lost to him forever.
Washington had been passionately fond of horses from early boyhood, and owned his first horse at 17. His mother, Mary Ball Washington, was a skilled horsewoman who taught young George how to train horses using only the gentlest of methods, and to never resort to any cruelty. Washington learned that harsh training methods were counter-productive, because horses treated with respect are eager to please their riders." [1.]
At the second battle of Trenton, on January 2, 1777, it was clearly evident that Washington's great charger Nelson returned the affection of his rider. Though cannon shells were bursting around them, man and horse stood firm. To those men Washington led into battle, they stood together as a symbol of strength. A soldier writes: “As I crossed the bridge crowded with fellow soldiers, I brushed up against the boot of the man and flank of the horse. Both seemed to exude courage.”
After the great war was over, Washington indeed became President of the nation he had helped to create. His leadership skills would be tested in the days of the Newburgh Conspiracy, where he would avert a military coup. The young nation's coffers were empty. The Continental Army had not been fully paid, and an uprising was brewing. There was talk of taking up arms against the Congress. Washington went to his officers and appealed to them in an emotional address on March 15, 1783.
Cool heads prevailed and Congress voted on a plan to pay the men. Interestingly, Washington distrusted the notion of political parties. He never aligned with one himself, though those around him were crafting the foundation for the two party system we have today. Perhaps the man's own sayings tell us volumes about his life and its motivations: [2.]
It is impossible to rightly govern the world without G-d and Bible."
The propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained”
Make sure you are doing what G-d wants you to do---then do it with all your strength."
What students would learn in American schools above all is the religion of Jesus Christ.” "It is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty G-d, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favors."
My mother was the most beautiful woman I ever saw. All I am I owe to my mother. I attribute my success in life to the moral, intellectual and physical education I received from her."
The General hopes and trusts that every officer and man will endeavor to live and act as becomes a Christian soldier defending the dearest rights and liberties of his country."
If to please the people, we offer what we ourselves disapprove, how can we afterwards defend our work? Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair. The rest is in the hands of G-d."
No people can be bound to acknowledge the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than the people of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency"
Iam sure that never was a people, who had more reason to acknowledge a Divine interposition in their affairs, than those of the United States; and I should be pained to believe that they have forgotten that agency, which was so often manifested during our Revolution, or that they failed to consider the omnipotence of that G-d who is alone able to protect them.”
Happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected.”
Iearnestly pray that the Omnipotent Being who has not deserted the cause of America in the hour of its extremist hazard, will never yield so fair a heritage of freedom a prey to "Anarchy" or "Despotism"."
Cherry Blossoms frame the Jefferson Memorial on the Washington, D. C. Tidal Basin. Photo by Bob Kirchman
Caesar Rodney's Midnight Ride
Now one was neither Tory nor Whig; it was either dependence or independence.” Caesar Rodney, after Lexington and Concord.
We all know the famous story of Paul Revere's midnight ride. Virginians celebrate the memory of Jack Jouett, who rode to Monticello to warn Thomas Jefferson of approaching British troops.Jefferson and the Virginia Legislature were able to escape across the Blue Ridge Mountains to Staunton. Still, the most memorable midnight ride that saved the young republic has to be that of Caesar Rodney. Without Rodney's ride, there would not have been a republic at all.
Caesar Rodney was born in 1728 on his family's 800 acre farm, Byfield, on St. Jones Neck in East Dover Hundred, Kent County, Delaware. The family could trace its ancestry to the Adelmare family of Treviso, Italy. Caesar Rodney's farm was a large one, worked by slaves, and it provided wheat and barley to markets in Philadelphia. His brother Thomas described him as possessing a: "great fund of wit and humor of the pleasing kind, so that his conversation was always bright and strong and conducted by wisdom... He always lived a bachelor, was generally esteemed, and indeed very popular." Indeed, his talents found him taking his place in public service. He served as sheriff and in a number of other positions. He joined Thomas McKean as a delegate to the Stamp Act Congress in 1765 and was the Brigadier General of the Delaware Militia. He went on to serve in the Continental Congress.
Here is where he made his most courageous contribution to the cause of American independence. In 1776 the vote to adopt the Declaration saw the Delaware delegation deadlocked. This was a problem as the delegates to the convention had decided that an all or nothing approach was essential. Of Delaware's two present delegates Mckean favored independence. The other delegate, George Read, did not. Rodney, who was also qualified to vote, was at home performing his duties as General of the militia when the initial voting took place. Mckean had sent word to Rodney that his vote would be needed in Philadelphia... but the message never got to him. Rodney was a bachelor and his love interest at the time was being used by the Tories to divert his participation! She was intercepting the messages! By the time McKean's message finally got to Rodney, the first deadlocked vote had already taken place and it was well into the evening. Rodney mounted his horse and rode through a great thunderstorm along the muddy road to Philadelphia. Lightning illuminated the wet road as he sloshed along as rapidly as conditions would allow. For seventy miles he rode.
Rodney was not a well man. He suffered from a rare form of cancer that disfigured his face and sapped his strength. No doubt he knew the ride could kill him, but he pressed on. He was committed to an act of treason that might lead to his death if he did survive. But he pressed on through the darkness. He reached Philadelphia by mid-morning. Spattered with mud, he stepped into the chamber just in time to cast his historic vote. Now the votes by all colonies who actually voted was unanimous! The framers rightly considered this essential to the success of the Declaration. Without Caesar Rodney's heroic ride, there would have not been a July 4th for us to celebrate! Rodney served in the war effort, even fighting alongside George Washington, who said of him: “The readiness with which you took to the field at the period most critical to our affairs, the industry you used in bringing out the militia of the Delaware State and the alertness observed by you in forwarding on the troops from Trenton, reflect the highest honor on your character and place your attachment to the cause in a most distinguished point of view.” As a young republic took its place in the world, Rodney continued to serve but his health was now rapidly declining. He died in 1784. [2.]
His legacy lives on today though. My friend Brandy Leigh Messick and her four sons are proud descendents of this great patriot and continue his mission to promote the values of this great nation to this day! Special thanks to her for providing additional background for this article.
North Rose Window, Notre Dame de Paris PSALM 48, Bringing the Beauty of Zion to the World
North Rose Window, Notre Dame de Paris. — Scratchboard, 12" x 12" by Bob Kirchman
“Bringing the Beauty of Zion to the World” — Scratchboard 12” x 12” by Bob Kirchman. A gift to Kristina and Jonathan Greer.
Walk about Zion, and go around her: tell the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces; that ye May tell it to the generation following” — PSALM 48:12,13
Volume XVI, Issue XVb
The Meaning of the Miraculous For many Centuries man has acknowledged the miraculous. In the weeks to come the Jewish community celebrates their deliverance from Egypt and the beginning of their journey to the Promised Land. [1.] A dialogue set in a meals has all generations together consider the preservation of their people that could only be seen as a work of G-d. Previous generations always saw G-d, or some miraculous force as Creator. The Patriarchs saw Him as Provider and Deliverer! The relatively recent concept of Evolution (Charles Darwin in the Nineteenth Century) has created a philosophy of Naturalism that either outright rejects or quietly diminishes the Theistic explanation.
I once attended an Easter service at a large church in Richmond. The minister asserted that the Resurrection was not important! I don't remember anything else he said. I was astonished because Christ's Resurrection would seem to be a cornerstone of Christianity. Many voices today denounce Faith. They may not directly denounce it, but in the academy it is the subject of "open discourse" such as that experienced by Ryan Rotella at FAU [click to read]. Rotella was asked to leave a class. His "offense" was refusing to participate in an excercise where students were required to "stamp on Jesus."Dennis Prager [click to read] has more details. Though the school ultimately apologized to Rotella, it justified its so-called "open discourse" in doing so.
Running from the Resurrection
In fact, among many in academia today you are likely to hear some variation of the following: "There are other reasons why I consider Christianity to be an
ill-chosen creed, such as the morals actually taught in the Bible,
many of which are abhorrent to a compassionate and just man, or other
details of its theology which run counter to observable facts." writes atheist
Richard Carrier in introduction to his argument against Jesus' resurrection from the dead.
Here in his introduction, Carrier gives what I believe is his real reason for being
uncomfortable with a physical resurrection. A G-d who can so control
the laws of nature can ask 'unreasonable' things of us as well. A
'Compassionate and Just Man,' in Carrier's world can support abortion
on demand because it is not 'abhorrent' to his viewpoint that abortion
is a kind response to the needs of women with unplanned pregnancies. The beating heart of the unborn child need not be seen here as an 'observable fact.'
Likewise, the 'restrictive' definition of marriage as a relationship
defined by Scripture in specific terms may be viewed as archaic and
discriminatory.If G-d didn't design it, He cannot write the specifications.
The elimination of Christianity as an authoritative source allows us
to personalize moral decisions. In a culture that elevates
self-actualization, this is virtue. It spares us the heavy lifting
required to weigh moral absolutes with human frailty.
Jesus, meeting a Samaritan woman at a well, is a prime example of what
I mean by this heavy lifting. Balancing compassion for the woman with his observation that
she has not been a faithful wife, Jesus creates a constructive
dialogue. He does not condemn her, nor does He overlook the complexity
she has created in her relationships. He speaks truth and ultimately
the dialogue that results sets her free. Here Absolute Love and Absolute Truth are in no way mutually exclusive. In the end her search for 'Living Water' trumps her desire to live as she pleases. [2.]
A G-d who can part the Red Sea, Create worlds and has power over death is pretty much to be respected. A G-d who changes human lives in intimate communion with his Creation is amazing.
Before Jesus appeared, the concept of Resurrection is found in Scripture. Sometimes it is very clear and other times it is a logical assumption consistent with the text.
Resurrection Foretold
And he made his grave
with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no
violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord
to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul
an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days,
and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He
shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his
knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear
their iniquities. Therefore
will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the
spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death:
and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors." -- Isaiah 53:9-12 The famous Messianic text above talks of triumph after death. Other texts that may be seen as prophetic of Resurrection are: Genesis 3:15, Psalm 2:7, Psalm 16:9-11, Psalm 22:14-25, Psalm 30:29, Psalm 40:13, Psalm 110:1, Psalm 118:21-24, Hosea 5:15-6:3, Zechariah 12:10.
Resurrection Documented and Verified
I know of no one fact in the history of mankind which is proved by
better, fuller evidence of every sort, to the understanding of a fair
inquirer, than the great sign which God hath given us that Christ died,
and rose again from the dead." says Dr. Thomas Arnold, formerly Professor of History at Rugby and Oxford Universities. Simon Greenleaf, one of the most skilled legal minds ever produced in this nation, top
authority on the question of what constitutes sound evidence, developer
of the Harvard Law School, after a thorough evaluation of the four
Gospel accounts from the point of view of their validity as objective
testimonial evidence, concluded:
It was therefore impossible that they could have persisted in affirming
the truths they had narrated, had not Jesus actually risen from the
dead, and had they not known this fact as certainly as they knew any
other fact." [3.]Dr. Henry M. Morris PhD writes more onThe Importance of the Resurrection [click to read]. His point is that the foundational truth of the Christian faith has plenty of evidence to support it.
A G-d who can part the Red Sea, Create worlds and has power over death
is pretty much to be respected. A G-d who changes human lives in
intimate communion with his Creation is amazing.
