Woodlawn

Citizen Journalism with a Better Flavor


Volume XII, Issue VIa: Tony Nathan at Woodlawn

The Real Jesus Revolution

Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest." -- John 4:35

I just watched the movie Woodlawn again. Although it is having a rather limited distribution, you really should watch it. The movie tells the real life story of athlete Tony Nathan and the very real Faith that brought healing to the racial tension of Birmingham, Alabama in the 1970's.

The film has a great message about how the Divine can indeed use our gifts and talents to bring healing and redemption into our world. Several times during the film the 'other' weekly news magazine's cover THE JESUS REVOLUTION is shown. TIME presents a very psychedelic illustration of the 'Jesus Freak' movement. Woodlawn tells the real story.

Indeed the character of Hank, portrayed by Sean Patrick Astin (Samwise Gamgee in the Rings Trilogy) tells a great story of how many of us came to Faith in that period and the impact of lives touching lives. His hopes of a baseball career dashed by a steel mill accident, Hank nonetheless becomes a great influence in the lives of countless young people!

Birmingham Alabama was being torn apart by racial tensions. The city experienced fifty bombings in the era and it seemed impossible for there to be healing. Then a young group of football players found Faith (and brotherhood) in Christ. The rest is history. Tony Nathan went on to play college ball at Alabama under Bear Bryant, at a school that was once off limits to him.

That is the true story of the work of the Divine in human lives. It goes on in many quiet ways today! We need to be part of it. All of us have young people in our lives. Are we being an instrument for the Divine to work in their lives?
(to be continued)

"Elites and Intellectuals"

Citizen Journalism with a Better Flavor


Volume XII, Issue IV

The Vacuum at the Top

There was a time when the "elite" truly seemed to be better than most people. For example, Leonardo da Vinci was an architect, cartographer, engineer, painter, sculptor, writer and legendary inventor among other things. Socrates was a superb stonecutter, soldier, politician and philosopher. Galileo studied medicine, mathematics, physics and has been referred to as "the father of modern science." For much of human history even the lesser "elites" from noble families had a tremendous advantage over the average man in a time when an education was hard to come by and their wealth and position in society provided them with opportunities to acquire skills that the general populace couldn't." writes John Hawkins. In an article entitled: Elites Are No Longer Elite [click to read], Hawkins explores the reason this is so. Essentially, Hawkins says that there are no more Renaissance men and women, as people tend to become highly proficient in one area of expertise while remaining woefully ignorant of the world outside of their area of expertise. That was not always so.

There was a time when brilliant people like Claudius Crozet and Isambard Kingdom Brunel needed to know a broader range of knowledge in order to do the works they were able to accomplish. They needed to know more than engineering tables. They needed to understand commerce and markets. These men built railroads, but their work ultimately built communities as they provided avenues of commerce and prosperity. Crozet and Brunel seem far closer in stature to da Vinci than their modern counterparts. Hawkins continues: "Today, in a world where there is a nearly infinite supply of news sources, there are far fewer shared activities than there used to be; college educations are commonplace and people can become extraordinarily wealthy based on a terribly narrow skillset." Indeed, my own experience often included such exercises as drawing for architects who couldn't draw and sometimes in the presentation process, creating design for designers who couldn't. Indeed, I was sometimes amazed that by simply stepping back and taking in a larger picture, the resulting contribution to a work would be better than imagined.

The Académie des Beaux-Arts taught through the process of drawing. The advent of computer drafting led to a whole era of designers who's drawings, though they guided the mouse, where essentially drawn by someone else! The art once deemed so essential to design remains as a brief portion of the course, but it is no longer something a designer immerses oneself in every moment. One feels at times, watching the process, as if the designer is connecting lines and templates. The window manufacturer provides the cuts which are pasted into the drawing on screen. To be sure, the computer has opened up new vistas for the exploration of complex forms, but the buildings we live our everyday lives in do not require complex forms. Before the Second World War, in the early Twentieth Century, there existed a beautiful Classicism that made small houses noble. There was a sense of scale and proportion. There was a sense of shadow and texture. I learned much copying the styles of the renderers of those days.

On a far larger scale, Hawkins observes that our leaders often emerge having shown little or no expertise beyond their small sphere. Virginia boasts an 'elite' Senator who's 'expertise' consists of making a fortune by buying cell phone licenses. His good fortune in acquiring wealth is his credential. He does not know what it is like to struggle for years, paying your employee but not yourself to build a business. That might not be such an issue but for his stated derision of those who do: ""you’re going to see a coalition that has just about completely taken over the Republican Party in this state and if they have their way, it’s going to take over state government. It’s made up of the Christian Coalition, it’s made up of the right to lifers, it’s made up of the NRA, it’s made up of the homeschoolers, it’s made up of a whole coalition of people that have all sorts of different views that I think most of us in this room would find threatening to what it means to be an American." -- Mark Warner [1.]

There was a time when Beauty, Truth, Virtue and Nobleness were seen to spring from a Divine origin. The problem with Senator Warner's statement is that he summarily dismisses a whole group of people who embrace that. The Right to Life springs from the concept of IMAGO DEI, that belief that mankind is created in the Image of G-d. The Second Amendment acknowledges the belief that government serves the people and that power remains with the people. The ability to engage in self-defense is simply an expression of that greater principle. Homeschoolers simply acknowledge that the parent is the first one responsible for training up a child. They extend that responsibility in providing instruction in a broader body of knowledge than early language. Here Hawkins swerves into a greater truth. Modern relativism has rendered obsolete the concept that there is an ultimate source of Wisdom and Truth. The Academy, believing this, no longer teaches it.

Until recent times the Divine underpinning was foundational to learning. By its very nature it invited exploration of a broader world. Design had its inspiration in nature. Flawed human nature was continually challenged by a Divine benchmark. Relativism states that "all truths are equally valid," resulting in a diminished sense of the need to pursue absolute truth. Indeed, there is NO need to pursue absolute truth, for it doesn't exist in their thinking. This immediately serves to narrow one's experience. The celebration of 'Diversity' does NOT serve to broaden because it rails against the notion that there is an absolute. One steps up to the human experience like a consumer of a buffet, sampling interesting dishes but learning nothing about the creation of a meal! Indeed, Hawkins notes that one phenomenon inherent in this mindset is that now we have people who are famous simply for being famous. They need not present a resume of accomplishment. Hawkins cites the example of our President, who was elected despite the conspicuous absence of a resume of accomplishment.

As his election was sealed and his inauguration began, news anchors remarked: "We know VERY LITTLE about him!" A colleague of mine lamented the general lack of investigative journalism in our day, remarking that they must not have the resources for it. NO!, all you needed to do was READ HIS BOOK and you would come away with a strong sense of his Anticolonialist Socialist sentiments. But such is the Modern Age, that we can style the blank canvas of a Presidential candidate to be whatever we want him to be. Because many in our day are unfamiliar with true accomplishment, we fail to look for it!

That is why this publication has recently presented a series of stories of great accomplishment. Neil Armstrong and President Kennedy show us something of it. They showed us how to lift our eyes to the horizon. Kennedy, though a flawed man like most of us, did heroic things in the Pacific War and wrote a book called Profiles in Courage. I read it in Middle School... not as an assignment, mind you, but because it sat on Dad's voluminous bookshelves. Those people assigned to find counterfeit money do not spend a lot of time studying counterfeit money. Instead, they study real money in GREAT DETAIL. By doing so they develop a sense for what the true currency looks like. Even when presented with a very skillful counterfeit they can "feel" it. That is why THYME Magazine has become, if you will, Profiles in Faith! Indeed, there is a real vacuum of true stories of accomplishment that, if we knew them, would inspire us to set our vision higher.

Da Vinci was in fact the illegitimate son of a peasant woman. Nobles in Eighteenth Century England were often useless "idle rich," yet there is a greater nobility that is recurring in the human experience. The First Earl of Mansfield, William Murray, might never have understood fully the depravity of slavery without the presence of his great-niece, Dido Elizabeth Belle in his life! She was an illegitimate child of a slave but because of her father's love, she was accorded the status of a noblewoman. Like Esther of old, she became in a way a representative for the humanity of her people. George Gist was derided by his neighbors, but he created a language for his people. Such is the true nobility that a free society is able to nurture in its people. America has been such an incubator for human brilliance for over two centuries! Those who would cast her aside in the pursuit of their Socialist solutions would do well to reconsider!

The Magician's Twin
C. S. Lewis and the Case Against Scientism


C. S. Lewis explores the modern tendency to elevate science to the status of religion.

Why Christians Should Paint,
[click to read]

Dance, Quilt, Act, Compose Music, Write Stories,
Decorate Cookies, and participate in the Arts
by Mark Altrogge

When I was little my aunt said she loved how I sang all the time. In grade school my teachers let me spend extra time in the library drawing. My parents got me my first oil painting lesson when I was 12. And when I was 14 the Beatles invaded America and I had to get a guitar and get in a band. In college I majored in art ed and got a Masters in painting.

But when Jesus saved me in my early 20s, I began to wonder if art was a waste of time. I could be evangelizing or praying or doing something spiritual instead of dabbing oil paint on a canvas. And besides that, everything is going to burn up anyway at the end, so what’s the use of creating things? Or if I do paint a painting does it have to be a Christian theme? Does it have to have a cross in it or be a scene from the Gospels?

Here are a few reasons why Christians should play banjo and decorate cakes, knit sweaters and make movies, do photography and write poems: (read more)

The Future of America is at Stake
[click to read]

If You're On Fence About Your Vote
by Dr. Jim Garlow/Skyline Church, San Diego

Dr. Jim Garlow is pastor of Skyline Church in San Diego. He is also co-founder of The Jefferson Gathering, a weekly worship service for members of Congress at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.

I have been asked "the question" so many times regarding Trump or Hillary. By way of background, I have followed every national convention—Republican and Democrat—from the time I was age 9, and have attended most of the GOP Conventions from 1984 to the present. I have watched the news virtually every day from the age of 8. I have never seen anything like what we are observing.

In spite of the unprecedented nature of this election cycle, I will attempt to respond to "the question." I am not demanding that anyone else share my view. But I was asked. Here is my best attempt to answer as I am able to see things at this time: (read more)

The America I Love


The cornerstone of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad bridge across Main Street and the Tiber River in Ellicott City. This is not the cornerstone of the railroad, which was laid by the last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence, Charles Carroll, on July 4, 1828. That historic cornerstone resides in the Baltimore and Ohio Museum in Baltimore.


The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad station in Ellicott City, Maryland.


In the late Nineteenth Century, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad ran as far as Lexington, Virginia over this fine stone bridge.

A Story in a Painting

Citizen Journalism with a Better Flavor


Volume XII, Issue III

Belle, A Story in a Painting

The Eighteenth Century painting is intriguing! Its subjects appear to be an English noblewoman and a mysterious princess. But this is not some flight of fantasy, the women depicted are actually cousins who lived together at Kenwood House under the care of William Murray, First Earl of Mansfield. Dido Elizabeth Belle, the woman on the left, was the daughter of Captain John Lindsay, Murray's nephew, who fathered the girl when he was stationed in the West Indies. Lindsay was knighted and promoted to Admiral and left his daughter in the care of Murray in 1765. The daughter of a slave woman, she was nonetheless brought up as a free gentlewoman along with William's niece, Elizabeth Murray who is depicted on the right.

When my wife and I watched the movie Belle, which is the story of Dido and William Murray, the painting seemed familiar. It was a bit later that it came to me that that was an image my Art History professor had had on one of her slides. I've often asked fellow artists if they enjoyed Art History? They often reply that they did not, seeing it as a torturous process of memorization. They did not have the privilege of studying under Penny Griffith. She was an adjunct professor who obviously loved her material. She told us what to memorize for the test and then proceeded to weave spellbinding lectures about the story found in the art! Francisco Goya came alive as we learned his keen observations of Spanish nobility and his depiction of the darkness of war and the darkness of the human soul!

Yet the painting by Johann Zoffany, executed in 1779, remained a mystery. Perhaps it was a bit of romanticism as noblewomen might enjoy, but it would be years later that I would learn the amazing history contained in that canvas. It is the story of how Belle's relationship with William Murray led to significant advances in the fight against slavery. Belle's mother was a slave, but Belle, living at Kenmore, was accorded all the rights of a free person, including a sizable inheritance! Her great-uncle, acting in his capacity as Lord Chief Justice, made two significant rulings on the issue.

In 1772 Murray, the Earl of Mansfield, was called upon to rule in the case of an escaped slave who's owner wanted to take him back to the West Indies for sale. The Chief Justice called the slave to court. This action let it be known that the court considered him a person! Murray declared in his ruling: "The state of slavery is of such a nature, that it is incapable of being introduced on any reasons, moral or political; but only positive law, which preserves its force long after the reasons, occasion, and time itself from whence it was created, is erased from memory: it's so odious, that nothing can be suffered to support it but positive law. Whatever inconveniences, therefore, may follow from a decision, I cannot say this case is allowed or approved by the law of England."

The effect of this ruling was the recognition that English common law did not support the institution of slavery. Years before William Wilberforce campaigned to end the institution in the legislature; Murray, in his capacity as Chief Justice ruled that the institution had no basis in English law. In another case, that of the Zong massacre of 1781, he again dealt the institution of slavery a solid blow. The ship Zong, dangerously overcrowded when she left Africa with her human cargo, 442 souls in all, saw an epidemic break out among them. The slavers decided to throw one third of the slaves overboard. They then presented a claim to their insurers, arguing that they did not have enough water and needed to do so. The insurance company refused to pay.

The captain had reasoned that rather than have the slaves get sick on board and be rendered worthless, he would kill them and collect the insurance money. He would then argue that the slaves sacrificed for others when there was not enough water. It was proved beyond doubt that water was adequately available, making clear the dark intent of the slave ship captain! The UK Daily Mail writes: "Insurance was Lord Mansfield’s speciality, and he concluded that the insurers were not liable. The breathtaking brutality of the murders and the fact that drowned human beings could be reduced to an insurance claim brought home the urgency of abolishing the slave trade."

The America I Love


Dolls in a Window on Main Street, Ellicott City, Maryland. I took this photograph the last time I was in Ellicott City to deliver the water-powered sawmill model to the museum there. This venerable old storefront had endured scores of floods, but something made me want to linger and savor the moment. I only wish I had lingered longer!


High Water Marks, Ellicott City, Maryland.


The Patapsco Hotel, Ellicott City, Maryland.

Neil Armstrong Interview II

Citizen Journalism with a Better Flavor


Volume XII, Issue II

"We Choose to Go to the Moon..."

Last week we presented a rare Interview with Neil Armstrong [click to view]. If you have not had a chance to watch it in its entirety, please do so. It is a refreshing look at the fulfillment of great human aspiration from the perspective of the very humble man who did it! Alex Malley is refreshing in his open style of interview and he allows Neil Armstrong to be seen as the man he is. There is no drive to sensationalize or twist the story, rather one sees how Armstrong rose from a little boy who was uneasy with the concept of death to a man capable of taking great risks in a well reasoned manner. That was a quality he would need in his journey to the moon.


Alex Malley converses with Commander Neil Armstrong.

Indeed, his story is one to remember, but he is not the first brave man who did not appear so in our first glimpse of him. The morning of my birthday I found myself reading from the Book of Judges in my daily reading. The story was that of Gideon. When we first meet him in Judges chapter 6 he is threshing grain while hiding in a winepress. Normally grain was threshed on a hill in the open so the chaff will blow away, but Gideon fears the Midionites, who raid the land and steal the grain. Hence, he is hiding in the winepress.

An angel of the Lord appears to him saying: "The LORD is with thee, thou mighty man of valour."

Gideon's answer is anything but valorous, he replies: "Oh my Lord, if the LORD be with us, why then is all this befallen us? and where be all his miracles which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt? but now the LORD hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites."

And the LORD looked upon him, and said, Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites: have not I sent thee?

And he said unto him, Oh my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house.

And the LORD said unto him, Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man.

And he said unto him, If now I have found grace in thy sight, then shew me a sign that thou talkest with me.

Gideon might have been the 'least in his father's house.' He indeed asked for a lot of confirmation but then he boldly stepped out and trusted G-d, who did mighty things through him. He went on to win a decisive victory over the Midianites with just 300 men! The time Gideon lived in was one of great despair for the people, as the Midianites had robbed and disheartened them. At times like that (and times like our own),we often find ourselves crying out for extraordinary leaders.We forget that extraordinary things are often done by very ordinary men and women in the face of extraordinary challenges.

Listening to Armstrong, one is struck by his humility and matter-of-fact description of the incredible events he participated in. He does not like to talk about himself and though he is a man of high accomplishment, he is reluctant to take any more of his share of the credit for it. I am incredibly blessed to know young men and women cast in the same mold who live in our times. What will the Divine accomplish through their lives, I ask? I think of President John F. Kennedy's setting the bar: "We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too." [1.] The challenge before us in our times is great indeed!

I step out of the tent and gaze up at the stars. In my lifetime I saw mankind reach for them. My father was an engineer with NASA in its golden age and he developed a device known as the Launch Phase Simulator. [2.] Framed in the trees in the night sky I see the constellation Orion. That was one of the first ones my father taught me to recognize... the mighty hunter with his dagger and his distinctive belt! Generations must have been inspired by the sight before me this night! I think of the young people I have been priviledged to work with. I have seen them grow into people capable of being used to change the world (for the better), and I am humbled to think that I might have somehow been used to influence their lives. And so I plead; we NEED to leave them a country that challenges them as those before us were challenged... to dare and do great things!

Man's First Act on the Moon:

Buzz Aldrin describes, in his own words, the first act of men visiting another world, to honor G-d: “In the radio blackout, I opened the little plastic packages which contained the bread and the wine. I poured the wine into the chalice our church had given me. In the one-sixth gravity of the moon, the wine slowly curled and gracefully came up the side of the cup. Then I read the Scripture, ‘I am the vine, you are the branches. Whosoever abides in me will bring forth much fruit. Apart from me you can do nothing.’ I had intended to read my communion passage back to earth, but at the last minute [they] had requested that I not do this. NASA was already embroiled in a legal battle with Madelyn Murray O’Hare, the celebrated opponent of religion, over the Apollo 8 crew reading from Genesis while orbiting the moon at Christmas. I agreed reluctantly. …I ate the tiny Host and swallowed the wine. I gave thanks for the intelligence and spirit that had brought two young pilots to the Sea of Tranquility. It was interesting for me to think: the very first liquid ever poured on the moon, and the very first food eaten there, were the communion elements.”

Eric Metaxas writes: "And of course, it’s interesting to think that some of the first words spoken on the moon were the words of Jesus Christ, who made the Earth and the moon — and Who, in the immortal words of Dante, is Himself the “Love that moves the Sun and other stars.” [3.]

The America I Love
Photos by Bob Kirchman


The Wright Brothers' Memorial, Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.


Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Arlington, Virginia.


William Moffatt Grier: Citizen, Soldier, Educator, Servant of Christ. Born Feb. 11 1843; Died Sept. 3, 1899. President of Erskine College from 1871 to 1899. His service is measured not by years but by results. He still lives in hundreds of useful lives to which he gave inspiration and guidance - "life's work well done, life's race well run, life's crown well won, now comes rest."

Grier lost a leg in the Civil War Battle of Williamsburg and later became an educator and president of a seminary.

Next Week in THYME:
A Story in a Painting

Meet Belle, her real life story is the story behind an intriguing Eighteenth Century Painting. It has recently been made into a fascinating movie and tells the story of how her family's love for her compelled them to stand against the beast within; the human depravity that would enslave and destroy her people!

Interview with Neill Armstrong

Citizen Journalism with a Better Flavor


Volume XII, Issue I

Interview with Neil Armstrong!


The first man to set foot on the moon!

In this rare series of interviews, Neil Armstrong, the first man to set foot on the moon, tells the story of the historic mission from his own perspective. Alex Malley of Australia's EvoTV's The Bottom Line looks at the life and leadership of the lunar mission's commander. Fascinated by aircraft, even at a very early age, Armstrong obtained his pilot's license at the age of fifteen!

He went on to fly combat missions during the Korean War and later became a test pilot. He then became an astronaut as NASA geared up to meet President John F. Kennedy's challenge to put a man on the moon in the decade and return him safely to earth.

The Russians had already orbited the first satellite, Sputnik, on October 4, 1957 and subsequently orbited cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin as the Americans struggled to develop a dependable booster. After Alan Shepard's short suborbital flight in 1961, President Kennedy challenged the fledgeling space agency to go to the moon.

Armstrong is refreshingly honest in his discussion with Malley. The interview is presented in four parts and is worth watching to the very end. Neil Armstrong expresses very real concern that the space agency lacks the vision and sense of purpose it had in those early years. He ends with a challenge that we as a people would do well to heed and pursue in our own time!


Forty-seven years ago two human beings changed history by walking on the surface of the moon. But what happened before Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong exited the Lunar Module is perhaps even more amazing, if only because so few people know about it.

Time to Awaken a Sleeping Giant

In 2004, Christian voter turnout increased by 93 percent over the 2002 turnout, and 42 percent of voters identified abortion as an important issue. As a result:

• 63 percent of the freshman U.S. congressmen elected were pro-life.
• 77 percent of the freshman U.S. senators were pro-life.

By increasing pro-life representation in Congress in the 2002 and 2004 elections, America witnessed the first four major abortion-restricting bills enacted since Roe v. Wade:

• Infants Born Alive Protection Act
• Unborn Victims of Violence Act
• Partial-Birth Abortion Ban
• Fetal Farming Ban

In addition, those senators helped confirm strict constructionists John Roberts and Samuel Alito to the U.S. Supreme Court. By 2006, Christian voter turnout decreased by 30 percent from the 2004 numbers, and only 30 percent of voters said that abortion was an important issue. As a result:

• Only 31 percent of the freshman U.S. congressmen elected were pro-life.
• Only 10 percent of the freshman U.S. senators elected were pro-life.
• The Baltimore Sun labeled the 2007 Congress as “the most pro-choice Congress in the history of the Republic.”

Your vote does matter, and you have the opportunity to protect life, marriage and family. Will you commit to cast your vote in support of the family this November?

Virginia Voter Information:

State General Election: November 8, 2016
Virginia polling times: 6:00am to 7:00pm
Registration deadline November 2, 2016
Register Online [click to register].

A Call to Action!

Right around you, in your church or place of business, are the discouraged people who likely share your values but won't bother to vote! Elections have consequences and we are losing religious freedom and basic protections found in the Bill of Rights by our apathy. There are Excellent Resources [click to read] to help you get your friends and neighbors registered. There are voter guides to help them make informed decisions.

"And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not." -- Galatians 6:9

Solving an Age Old Problem


At Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport, items left on a plane are returned quickly as Sherlock sniffs out their owners!

THYME MAGAZINE: The Gift Horse

Citizen Journalism with a Better Flavor


Volume XI, Issue XXVII

If there was anything that bothered Rupert Zimmerman it was 'impossibility' created solely by bureaucratic convolutions. When the family packed in the car during his youth to visit the extended family in Michigan, they were inevitably faced with the Breezewood Interchange on Interstate Seventy. On Summer road trips the mighty highway's brief diversion to the old Lincoln highway resulted in gargantuan traffic jams, boiling radiators and often as many boiling tempers. Zimmerman's father REFUSED to stop at the roadside businesses who's continual lobbying fended off many a reasonable attempt to build the connection.

The lack of a connection was originally a byproduct of the funding legislation that allowed the Interstate highways to be built. Highways without tolls received the 90% Federal funding and tolls were permitted in special circumstances if they were needed to retire the bonds the state issued to build the road, but the Pennsylvania Turnpike had been built depending on the toll revenue and the Turnpike Authority was going to use ongoing tolls to support operations and maintenance of the facility. Interstate Seventy from Maryland to the Turnpike had been built by using the standard funding formula but Federal funds for the connection to the turnpike would only be given if the Turnpike became a freeway atfer the bonds were retired.

Penndot would not commit the entire amount of funding to complete the interchange, so it languished as a grade intersection onto US Thirty for decades. Service businesses rose and fell, but all considered the 'permenant' detour of Interstate Seventy crucial to their continued viability. The Turnpike Authority relocated the road around the Sideling Hill Tunnel, which they abandoned. This created a rather awkward interchange where you crossed the road you WANTED to be on by an overpass on your way to US 30 where you would double back to take the road further.

The whole scenario seemed to be taken from the age of competing railroads in the Nineteenth Century where rival roads spurned each other at what engineers would consider logical connecting points. As Rupert Zimmerman connected continents in the later part of the Twenty-first Century, the roads in Breezewood remained separated. Indeed, one would have laughed at the notion that they EVER would be connected.

But now the continents were connected. Indeed it had taken some hard negotiations and the infusion of Zimmerman money to connect Hokkaido, Japan's Northernmost Island, to the Asian mainland. The Completion of the Pan-American Highway through guerilla infested Central America was a similar challenge. Elizabeth Zimmerman O'Malley became known for her skills as a negotiator as the world was brought together. As the Zimmerman clan cut the ribbon for the new Americas Connector and rode through the tunnel under the now somewhat antiquated Panama Canal, it seemed that there was no obstacle too great, no river too wide, no mountain to high... but then there was Breezewood!

Indeed, the task of joining continents and its successful completion left Rupert Zimmerman with time on his hands. In his complex at Wales, scores of young apprentices peered into computer screens seeking to smooth the world's traffic flow. Zimmerman silently chuckled at the thought, passed along to him that you were really old when your colleagues were young enough to be your children. "Hah!," the old man thought as he walked past the office of his granddaughter, who was running the great bridge's operation now. Rupert's mind wandered to the time when his little daughter Elizabeth sat at a little table beside his drawing ponies and princesses.

Working with young people kept you young. That was what Zimmerman's experience told him anyway. For centuries father and mother had taught the skills of life to their children, who in turn taught their children. In relatively modern times the task had been relegated to 'experts' residing in the great universities. Sadly, much of the world's distress could be traced to ideas such as Marxism that flourished in the halls of academia long after they had failed as actual methods of governance. Zimmerman's young friends, the Greenes were pioneering a new interaction of academy connected to the world; one that did not isolate itself in ivory towers.

But as Zimmerman walked through the 'Labyrinth of Exile,' as he called his complex at Wales, the thought washed over him that he really was unnecessary now. He walked to the stairs and proceeded to the roof of the complex's tallest tower. He thought of the Patriarch David, Israel's great warrior-king. His undoing had begun on a rooftop. Rupert needed to stay out of his daughter's way... and now he needed to stay out of the way of his granddaughter, but firmly convinced that: "The devil find's work for idle hands," that thought propelled his hasty retreat from the rooftop. He stopped at the office of a young engineer and asked him to pull up some map images. He was not at all surprised by the top entry that came up in unfinished highway connections. It had remained so for decades. Rupert Zimmerman set is mind on Breezewood!

*******
His reception in Panama had been far warmer, Zimmerman thought, than the one he received in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. After several days of being pushed around through various offices of Penndot, Zimmerman had an audience with the Governor. Presenting her with a complete proposal of what Zimmerman Bridge and Highway would reconstruct the interchange for, he then handed her a cheque for the entire amount plus twenty per-cent for the inevitable overruns. The funds were clearly designated and the contract printed on the back of the cheque made it impossible for the funds to be diverted without a substantial penalty.

For years, a cartel of Breezewood businesses had successfully thwarted any effort to close the gap. Now they created a charge that Zimmerman was redistributing his own funds to line his own pockets! Even as the old man set up a trust to pay for 'substantial decreases in hospitality revenue,' Breezewood's lawyers lined their own pockets creating even more trumped-up charges to stall the project. Zimmerman rented a suite in one of Breezewood's hotels and made a show of having his breakfast at Perkin's or any number of Breezewood establishments. Though the old man graciously lobbied for his proposal, the local anger only intensified. There was an assassination attempt. After a bullet lodged in the wall of the pancake house behind the great builder, Pat and Elizabeth begged him to come home.

Panama and Nicaragua had been a breeze, compared to Breezewood," the old man thought. But after the assassination attempt, Penndot quickly and quietly awarded the contract for the Beezewood Connection to J. D. Eckman in Atglen, Pennsylvania. Slowly, the planning and construction began. Zimmerman admired the work of Eckman bescause they had pioneered some bridge jacking techniques. In decades past, the bridge carrying interstate 295 across the Christina River in Wilmington, Delaware had sunk on its pilings because of improperly stored sand piles at its pilings. Eckman brought in an innovative jacking system allowing the compromised pilings to be rebuilt. The bridge remained open even as its supporting structure was completely replaced.

Now the firm installed a prefabricated flyover to connect the interchange on the old section of turnpike to Interstate Seventy. Prefabrication was necessary because the 'cartel' had lobbied into place a set of 'environmental' regulations that made on-site construction impossible. Six months after permits were finally pulled, drivers sped from the interstate onto the turnpike. In the months that followed, Zimmerman's accountants held their breath, expecting a slew of lost revenue claims on the trust fund. As it turned out, Breezewood revenues actually increased. The few attempts to 'prove' otherwise and tap the fund were pretty quickly found out and prosecuted.

Zimmerman himself did not attend the opening ceremonies. He was to those outside of his circle of family and friends, seen as quite a recluse now, though his children and grandchildren would beg to differ. He DID drive through the connector, months later, in a Toyota. Three generations of Zimmerman family rode with him in the car as they drove from Virginia to Michigan.


The rebuilt Breezewood Interchange.

Copyright © 2016, The Kirchman Studio, all rights reserved

The Men Who Made America Great Again

Citizen Journalism with a Better Flavor


Volume XI, Issue XXVII

In the early 1860’s there were two Americas. There were the Eastern states who would all too soon divide into Union and Confederacy, but then there was California. Although America stretched from “sea to shining sea,” California was isolated from the East by what many considered miles of uninhabitable desert. To get to California, one often took passage on a ship to Panama, made a short trip overland and then boarded another ship for San Francisco. California, in time, could have easily become another country.

Then there was the great settlement of the Latter Day Saints at Salt Lake. There could have been another nation created by their isolation on both sides. Railroads were already well established in the East, but there was none crossing the great desert. Hearty pioneers walked beside their ox-drawn wagons on trails to California and Oregon, but they likely saw this as a one-time migration, never looking back. Commerce was not possible on any scale without improved transportation.

As the Nation advanced toward her terrible Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln signed The Pacific Railroad Act of 1862 that made construction of the transcontinental railroad possible. It assigned the job to two companies: the Central Pacific Railroad of California was to build eastward from Sacramento, and a new company called the Union Pacific was to build westward up the Platte River Valley from Omaha, Nebraska. It was called a “work of giants” by some, but if they were giants, there were some of them who were not unlike the ruthless Philistine: Goliath.

The greatest ‘Goliath’ of all, in the building of the Union Pacific road would have to be Dr. Thomas Clark Durant. Trained in medicine, he kept the title as he pursued schemes for making money. He founded a railroad company, the Missouri and Mississippi Railroad, in 1854. Though he built very little of it, he poised himself to take advantage of a future Pacific railroad project, should it come to be. During the Civil War, he and his associate Grenville Dodge smuggled contraband cotton out of the South. With the money he made from smuggling, he invested in a fairly devious subscription scheme that left him in control of the Union Pacific Railroad Company.

Now the good doctor made himself Vice President and named a figurehead President for the company. Dodge would become his chief engineer. As the road was built, the scheming Durant would come into conflict with Dodge, as the engineer fought to direct resources to building track and Durant tried to divert them.

Prior to the Civil War the building of the road had been stalled by a dispute over whether a Northern or Southern route should be chosen. Secession allowed for the decisive selection of the Northern route from Omaha. The Pacific Railroad Act of 1862 had set aside a land grant to finance construction, but in the Civil War era it was not enough. The Pacific Railroad Act of 1864 increased the incentives.

Oakes and Oliver Ames had made a lot of money making shovels during the gold rush. They graduated to providing cannon during the war. The brothers put up a million dollars of their own money and pledged their credit to get the road built. By the end of 1965, however, Thomas Durant had spent half a million dollars and had laid only 40 miles of track across Nebraska. Grenville Dodge had a reputation, gained during the war, for building (and rebuilding) railroads with great speed. Durant appointed him chief engineer of the project. The conflict between Dodge and Durant as the road progressed would become legend, but Dodge was the man to get the job done. In a letter to his brother, Dodge speculated that he would likely have trouble with Durant. The two had worked together before and Dodge’s fears were well founded.

By 1866 things had changed. A newspaper man wrote: "The track laying on the Union Pacific was a science. We, pundits of the far East, stood upon that embankment, only about a thousand miles this side of sunset, and backed westward before that hurrying corps of sturdy operators with a mingled feeling of amusement, curiosity and profound respect. On they came. A light car, drawn by a single horse, gallops up to the front with its load of rails. Two men seize the end of a rail and start forward, the rest of the gang taking hold by twos, until it is clear of the car. They come forward at a run. At the word of command the rail is dropped in its place, right side up with care, while the same process goes on at the other side of the car.

Less than thirty seconds to a rail, and so four rails go down to the minute. The moment the car is empty it is tipped over on the side of the track to let the next loaded car pass it, and then it is tipped back again, and it is a sight to see it go flying back for another load, propelled by a horse at full gallop at the end of sixty or eighty feet of rope. Close behind the first gang come the gaugers, spikers and bolters, and a lively time they make of it. It is a grand 'Anvil Chorus' that those sturdy sledges are playing across the plains. It is in triple time, three strokes to the spike. . .ten spikes to a rail, four hundred rails to a mile, eighteen hundred miles to San Francisco. Twenty-one million times are those sledges to be swung ... before the great work of modern America is complete."

In Salt Lake City, which had been established two decades before the railroad came, Brigham Young was not happy. The shortest route for the new railroad had been laid across the Northern shore of the Great Salt Lake. Salt Lake City was on the Southern end of the lake. The rails would meet on the deserted Northern side of the lake at Promontory in 1969, but a spur would need to be built to serve Salt Lake City. Though he was not pleased with this arrangement, the Mormon leader still took a grading contract for the Union Pacific and one of his bishops took one with the Central Pacific.

Then there was no harmony at Promontory as the two lines built past each other, grading out parallel roadbeds. Grading crews would set off charges without warning to harass the men working on the grade beside them. It literally took an act of Congress to settle the joining point would be at Promontory. Durant, for his part, had not been paying his men. The men revolted, kidnapping Durant and chaining his private car to the tracks. Durant wired to his board of directors for $500,000 to pay the men and arrived late for the ceremony at Promontory.

Grenville Dodge and Durant’s relationship was frayed beyond repair. After the lines joined at Promontory, Oliver and Oakes Ames made plans to oust the scheming Durant, but he resigned before they could fire him.

David McCulloch adds this, perhaps greater perspective: "In the same year the road was completed, 1869, another monumental epic engineering feat was completed; the Suez Canal. Suddenly the world was getting smaller, an idea that inspired Jules Verne to write 'Around the World in Eighty Days.'" The great work of Nineteenth Century America had been built by men who were less than giants, men with feet of clay, but build it they did.

In the wake of America’s horrible Civil War, revival had begun. Ferenc Morton Szasz writes:

Though such signs of spiritual life appeared all over the Western landscape, they are completely absent from most people's visions of the nineteenth-century American frontier. Names like Buffalo Bill, Sitting Bull, Annie Oakley, Calamity Jane, Billy the Kid, and Wyatt Earp are almost synonymous with the West, while names like William D. Bloys, Daniel S. Tuttle, Charles Sheldon, Sheldon Jackson, and Brother Van Orsdel ring few bells. Yet if one looks at actual accomplishments, the situation might well be reversed. Most Western communities owe far more to these unheralded clerics than they do to the high-profile outlaws or icons.

From about 1840 to the end of the century, these largely anonymous ministers shaped the contours of Western life in three major ways. They formed the first churches and Sunday schools, which promoted social stability while reining in local violence; they developed a distinctly Western style of Christianity that emphasized a non-denominational message of salvation and personal ethics; and they helped lay the institutional foundations - orphanages, hospitals, and schools - for scores of Western communities.”

Though the railroads had been built by speculators and schemers, it was the great message of the Gospel that laid the foundations for the society of America’s vast interior.

The Gospel that Built Frontier America [click to read].



Is America a Christian nation?
Martin Mawyer Writes:

The question itself is ambiguous. Are we talking about the founding of America? The people of America? The government of America? The morality of America? We're weighing in on this important debate by reprinting The United States: A Christian Nation, written by Supreme Court Justice David Brewer and published in 1905. This pocket-sized, clearly written and inspiring book also includes a modern-day foreword and afterword by CAN founder Martin Mawyer.

So are we a Christian nation?

President Barack Obama narrowed it down to “the people of America” when he said on June 28, 2006:

Whatever we once were, we are no longer just a Christian nation; we are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, a Buddhist nation, a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers.”

Under Obama’s logic, America is no longer a Christian nation because other faiths, beliefs and non-beliefs are represented in the land.

Carrying the Obama logic further, it can then be said that we are also a Satanic nation, witchcraft nation, voodoo nation and a nation of Nuwaubians (those who believe that white people were created to serve blacks). These too live in America and practice their religions freely.

Obama is not alone in his simplistic logic. Secularists, humanists and atheists also point to the diversity of religious belief in America to support the notion that the country is no longer a Christian nation, “whatever it once was.”

This argument is irrational and farcical. There are child molesters in America, and we have rapists, thieves and murderers among us, but does that mean we are no longer a law-abiding nation? Should we concede that we’re no longer a nation of laws?

The answer, obviously, is “No.” We were founded in law. Law shapes all of our lives. The vast majority of Americans respect and obey the law. Never could it be said that, because some choose to follow another course, we are no longer a law-abiding nation.

Did the Obama administration suddenly become “no longer a Democratic administration” simply because Ray LaHood (a former Republican congressman from Illinois) was appointed as Secretary of Transportation in 2009? Hardly.

Is the New York Times “no longer a liberal newspaper” just because George Will’s column appears in it? Of course not.

The mere presence of a person, or a group of people, does not change the history and distinctive nature of an entity. FOX News certainly isn’t considered a left-wing news organization just because Juan Williams, Geraldo Rivera and Alan Colmes appear on camera.

According to a 2015 Pew Research Center survey, the Muslim population in America is 1 percent. The Hindu: .07 percent. Jews were only slightly ahead of both minorities at a meager 1.8 percent. Buddhists weren’t even numerous enough for the Pew Research Center to sample.

Christians, however, represent 75 percent of Americans. And of those Americans who claim any sort of religious belief, a commanding 94 percent identify themselves as Christian.

I understand why Jesus-haters cannot stomach these numbers, but for the vast majority of Americans, the national figures answer the burning question:

Is America a Christian nation?

Of course it is.

The Pew Research Center is unabashed in saying, “American remains a predominantly Christian nation.”

Predominant means to be “present as the strongest element, exertion or power.” So the strongest element in America, according to the Pew Research Center, is Christians.

More Americans read the Bible than any other book ever published.

Even the liberal Huffington Post has admitted, “The Bible is the biggest bestseller in history.”

No other book resides in more American homes than the Bible, with 88 percent of households owning at least one. Most Americans own multiple copies, on average 4.4.

Bolstering the reality that the United States is a Christian nation are two U.S. Supreme Court rulings:

In 1892, Justice David Brewer wrote a majority opinion that asserted, “This is a Christian nation.” (Holy Trinity Church v. United States)

Again in 1931, the Supreme Court said, “We are a Christian people.” (U.S. v. Macintosh)

Neither of these rulings has been challenged or overturned.

Some will argue that referring to ourselves as a Christian nation is living in the past, and that it’s a notion too archaic and old-fashioned for modern civilization.

Tell that to the prime minister of England, who this past Christmas Eve referred to Britain as “a Christian country.”

As a Christian country,” Prime Minister David Cameron said in his national address, “we must remember what His birth represents: peace, mercy, goodwill and, above all, hope.”

This coming July 25, Poland will hold a public celebration in the western city of Poznań marking its 1,050th anniversary of becoming a Christian nation.

These nations can look at themselves and see their true identity: Christian.

Meanwhile, in America these days, some look at a boy and call him a girl, look at a baby and call it a tissue mass, look at creation and call it random chance, look at Islam and call it a religion of peace ...

… Or look at a Christian nation and call it secular.

Not me. Americans should never forget or be ashamed of our historic relationship with Christ and what His message has done for all Americans, as expressed so wonderfully in the words of The Battle Hymn of the Republic.

In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea, With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me. As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free While God is marching on.

What has Christianity done for America?

It has stood for liberty and the rights of man,” Justice Brewer wrote in his 1905 book The United States: A Christian Nation.

And the more thoroughly this republic is filled with the spirit of the gospel, the more universal the rule of Christianity in the hearts of our people, the more certainly will she ever be the welcome leader in movements for peace among the nations.”

Christianity has always represented the best things in the world: Justice, truth, free will and equality, to name a few. Whenever these great social gifts were torn apart, Christianity put them back together, sometimes through great sacrifice of human lives.

If anyone is turning the clock back, it’s the secularists and humanists who would throw us into the Age of Babylonianism – in which babies can be sold as spare body parts.




Irish Lives Matter

In the mid-Seventies, one of my friends embarked on a rather ambitious overseas study project. He set out for Northern Ireland in order to study the age-old conflict there, its roots and possible ways to overcome it. His presentation when he returned was much anticipated. He did not let us down. His photographs captured a car bomb exploding on a Belfast street. He scored an interview with Bernadette Devlin, the controversial Irish Republic activist and the youngest woman ever elected to the British Parliament.

My friend said that essentially the situation was similar to that in America where African Americans felt disenfranchised and were feeling that they had to resort to violence. The difference is that these people in Northern Ireland were divided by denomination. The Orange (Protestant) faction held power while the Green (Catholic) faction was often oppressed. He met with people from both sides who essentially pointed to a long-standing animosity rooted in historical events.

The irony, it seemed, was that here you could see very little, if any difference in the outward appearance of the people in each group. Indeed, the identification with Orange or Green was the great divide that could not be bridged. Sadly, my friend began to document his report on a struggle that in all likelihood had no solution.

But then he met a third group of people and they identified not so much as Catholic or Protestant, but as Christian. They included in their fellowship those of the creed they were not. They saw themselves as redeemed children of the Master and as neighbors! No longer Green, no longer Orange, they saw themselves as fellow partakers in the Kingdom of Heaven. Identification with the larger community, not a retreat to tribalism resulted in true healing. In concluding his presentation, my friend pointed to this new sense of community and laid out the great hope... that reconciliation is truly possible!



Voting, a Sacred Obligation
[click to read]

Thoughts from Charles Colson (2008)

I have been surprised by the number of Christians who have given up on politics this year. "I don't like either candidate, so I'm staying home," some say.

How do we go about choosing the best candidates? Not by pulling a partisan lever—that's knee-jerk ideology. Christians live instead by revealed truth, never captive to any party. Thus, the best place to go for wisdom is not the candidates' websites, but the Bible.

I get fed up with the vain posturing and empty promises, too. But not voting is not an option—it's both our civic and sacred duty. Voting is required of us as good citizens and as God's agents for appointing leaders. (Read More)

So What's at Stake: Our Future

In the last election, a large number of people stayed home. The current administration gained another four years. We cannot afford to stay home again! What's at stake? First of all, with the passing of Justice Antonin Scalia, the Supreme Court's direction will be shaped for decades to come by who is elected this Fall. Here the choice is clear. If you stay home, vote third party or even vote directly for the party that holds the Executive Branch now, we can be assured that the most radical activist justices will be appointed. At stake are cases determining the security of Religious Liberty, Parent's Rights, and Sanctity of Human Life to name a few. On the other hand, Donald Trump has surrounded himself with people who will work to secure those values in the courts as well as in the legislative process. We cannot sit this one out!

Secondly, the current administration's all-out assault on the closely held values of God-fearing America will continue from the Executive Branch as well if their chosen candidate is elected. In the selection of Mike Pence as the Vice-Presidential candidate, we have an assurance that we indeed have a place at the table. [Updated Information]: The clear promise to: "work to repeal the Johnson Amendment" is reason enough for all people of Faith to vote for Donald Trump. In 1954, then Senator Lyndon Johnson was instrumental in passing legislation which restricted the free speech rights of Pastors from their pulpits. The IRS website states:

Under the Internal Revenue Code, all section 501(c)(3) organizations are absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office. Contributions to political campaign funds or public statements of position (verbal or written) made on behalf of the organization in favor of or in opposition to any candidate for public office clearly violate the prohibition against political campaign activity. Violating this prohibition may result in denial or revocation of tax-exempt status and the imposition of certain excise taxes.

Certain activities or expenditures may not be prohibited depending on the facts and circumstances. For example, certain voter education activities (including presenting public forums and publishing voter education guides) conducted in a non-partisan manner do not constitute prohibited political campaign activity. In addition, other activities intended to encourage people to participate in the electoral process, such as voter registration and get-out-the-vote drives, would not be prohibited political campaign activity if conducted in a non-partisan manner.

On the other hand, voter education or registration activities with evidence of bias that (a) would favor one candidate over another; (b) oppose a candidate in some manner; or (c) have the effect of favoring a candidate or group of candidates, will constitute prohibited participation or intervention.

The Internal Revenue Service provides resources to exempt organizations and the public to help them understand the prohibition. As part of its examination program, the IRS also monitors whether organizations are complying with the prohibition." Traditionally, this oversight has been heavily applied to Conservative and Pro-Life speech, while more Liberal positions being shared are largely ignored. The promise to work for the elimination of this provision is another clear statement that people of Faith indeed do have a place at the table.

Third, we have an opportunity to re-secure our borders, protect American productivity and reestablish our position as a mighty nation that creates opportunity while it protects basic freedoms and does indeed uphold the rights of those who's voice is not as loud or strong. Newt Gingrich summed it up in his speech to the Republican Convention, outlining the challenges before us. It is time to come together and reclaim America.