On Robert Sherwood, America and Sarah Palin

I am very fond of Robert Sherwood’s work and have read and studied a good portion of his work including his fine biography of Roosevelt and Hopkinns and about half a dozen of his plays. I also know –you might not know it- that he was a combat veteran of the Black Watch (of Canada) in the First World War. Humphrey Bogart is a great favorite. My father saw him and Lesley Howard on Broadway in the mid-30’s in Robert Sherwood’s PETRIFIED FOREST (I have in an anthology of American drama). The film version is very well done and my son enjoyed watching it with my father so it has become part of the family tradition.
Of course Sherwood’s script for THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES which won an Oscar I believe is a masterpiece. It is worth reading the NYT review. I recommend it to my students but do not show it to them because most are not mature enough to appreciate it. I used to show clips to my AP US history classes and give them the movie review to read.

http://movies.nytimes.com/mem/movies/review.html?_r=2&res=EE05E7DF1739E561BC4A51DFB767838D659EDE


Bosley Crowther (1946):

“It is seldom that there comes a motion picture which can be wholly and enthusiastically endorsed not only as superlative entertainment but as food for quiet and humanizing thought. Yet such a one opened at the Astor last evening. It is The Best Years of Our Lives. Having to do with a subject of large moment—the veteran home from war—and cut, as it were, from the heartwood of contemporary American life, this film from the Samuel Goldwyn studio does a great deal more, even, than the above. It gives off a warm glow of affection for everyday, down-to-earth folks.”


I like GONE WITH THE WIND and it has an interesting POV from the home front and at times it has wonderful performances and even intelligent dialogue but I think THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES is a more grown up film and captures some of the best and worst of America.

The best is its generosity and the humanity of its people and genuine democratic spirit; the worst is its anomie, carnal materialism and hedonism (as exemplified in the “Pat Derry” character the shallow estranged adulterous wife of Dana Andrews). We have a lot of Pat Derrys in our schools and universities. But as I live in the western most fringe of the American Heartland I know America is redeemed by its legions (still) of Sarah Palinesque women.


It is hard to understand the hatred and contempt felt for Mrs. Palin but then again Messalina had great hatred and contempt for other women whose virtue and character showed her own corrupt selfish blackened soul in a bad light. Much of the disdain for Mrs. Palin is class prejudice ( I know a lot about class prejudice ) mixed with envy and a ideological vitriol. There is a thing as Sarah Palin derangement syndrome. Personally, I would love to match Mrs. Palin versus Mr. Obama in, let’s say Jeopardy. I would even love to match their literary efforts (leaving off Mr. Obama’s ghost written hagiographies.) I have no doubt Mrs. Palin would come off as the wiser of the two. Mr. Obama (or as I like to call him sometimes “Sportin’ Life”) is a zero without his speechwriters and teleprompter . That is my opinion. I saw him speak in person last summer and admit he has great charm but I believe there is no substance there and Mr. Obama is an immature, ignorant, arrogant political witch doctor. America will do well to vote him out of office in 2012; I think Independents are coming to that realization too.

Personally I think post modernist Sangerite-Shakerite hedonists like this are a tragic waste of womanhood. But of course they are great temptations for American males (and others ) and are (for a while) objects of lustful desire. The wise ones realize they don’t have many good years and so make adjustments. But traditional family life and motherhood –and my sources are the mothers themselves- is a much happier and saner life choice.

By Sangerite-Shakerite I mean people who use dud in the mud sex for entertainment purposes only in the fashion of the Last Days of Pompeii. But of course I am a traditionalist. I believe, however, there is something to the “Roe effect”. It is why there will always be Orthodox Jews, Muslims, Mormons etc. If a movement and if a nation and if a belief system are to have a strong future they must go forth and multiply. We survived the 20th century and hope our race and line will survive the 21st century.

Well these are some Saturday morning musings as I listen to E Power Biggs on the organ playing Bach on the Flentroop organ in the Busch-Resinger Museum (Harvard University).

Turn Ye to Me by John McCormack

Scottish Gaelic and Auld Country Scottish Attitudes

Well, Bruce

Scottish Gaelic (Gàidhlig) is pronounced “Gallic”; my grandfather who was born in the Scottish Highlands in 1886 often referred to his native language as Highland Scots (as opposed to Lallans or Lowland Scots). He said it was a dialect of Irish Gaelic (pronounced Gael-ic) and many people called Scottish Gaelic (Gàidhlig) “ERSE “(Irish) when he was young but he never did.



He never considered “Erse” to be denigrating. Most Highlanders consider themselves to be Gaels and to have racial ties to Irish Gaels as well as the Cymric (Welsh/British people).



My grandfather often said “the Scots and the Irish are the same people except half of them don’t know it and the other half don’t want to know!.” He was referring to the attitude of so many who wanted to out English to the English and hide their Irish/Celtic roots. That was a very common attitude in the late Victorian or Edwardian period in Britain. My people by the way always considered themselves Islanders or Highlanders and referred to Ireland and Scotland as “the Isles”. Their homeland was their native place (Cioch Mhor) or the Gaidhealteachd (Highlands) and sometimes they spoke of “Alba” (the land of the mountains white) as Scotland. They also called it Scotia and Caledonia but those were poetic usages I think.



They rarely if ever, quite innocently, referred to themselves as “British” because to them British people were their WELSH cousins and they themselves were not Welsh. They never, it hardly needs to be said, spoke of themselves as English or Europeans. They were Highlanders, Islanders or Gaels. People who lived on the Continent or An Roinn Eorpa were the other though of course it seemed to me my grandfather was aware of his kinship to the Gauls of old. He often called his kilt the “Garb of Auld Gaul.”



The English (or Sassunachs) and the Europeans were the other. My Auld Pop referred to English women, for example, as “South o’ the Dyke Lassies” and routinely called English “Saxon.” As a joke he used to say anyone who married French women or Italians or Spanish were marrying lassies ‘very much to South o’ the Dyke’ but aye closer to Rome. As a boy most of the priests in my grandfather’s region were educated at the Scots College in Rome or the Scots College of Valladolid (Spain); some were Irish Franciscans. He had a very strong sense of belonging to Christendom and believing in the unity of Christendom in way many Calvinists did not. Of course, many people in my family intermarried with Irish people in Glasgow and I know there were a lot of Tallies (Scottish born Italians) in my grandfather’s parish in Govan. Glasgow has long been a very cosmopolitan town not unlike Brooklyn or London.



The Scots language was always called Beurla Albannach (Anglo-Scottish or Scots). “Gnath-bheurla na H-Eireann” was (Anglo-Irish). His language he always called ‘the Gallic” or “Highland Scots.”





Manx Gaelic (spelled in a phonetic English pattern) has been extinct, except in an artificially restored way, since the early 20th or late 19th century. It appears to be very close to the Scottish Gaelic of the Western Isles and Argyll.





Today I think it clear that Scottish Gaelic and Irish Gaelic are two languages as separate as say Portuguese and Spanish but they are also very closely related. I have heard many Irish scholars say that Scottish Gaelic is (or was) a dialect of Irish Gaelic



The habit of calling Irish Gaelic “Irish” seems to be a modern one from the dates of the Free State. It is a simple fact that “Irish” and “Ireland” are not Irish words! Gaeilge is the Irish Gaelic word for Irish Gaelic.



As a final note my grandfather always called many city girls “paltry women”. “They wadna survive a Highland winter until Easter.”

He was of the opinion that healthy, strong and beautiful women were well-rounded and solidly built. To him the ideal woman was a woman with womanly, matronly look. I suppose our ideals of beauty have been shaped by the childless or nearly so Hollywood ideal. If we honored motherhood more we would not put the figures of childless teenagers as the ideal.



He had nothing but scorn for boyish bony gamin-like women. To him they were hardly women at all. Personally, I tend to agree with him.



Mise le meas (that’s me with respect)


Richard Keith Munro


****
READER COMMENT

Hebrew sadly is a special case- there were so many immigrants from
Europe and natives that Hebrew was the only way they cld talk to each
other(Yiddish did not include the middle eastern Jews). Irish was
being taught much earlier but it didn't take the same way because
people could speak English.

It's amazing how fast Hebrew became a mother tongue - but hard to
emulate.


On Nov 12, 2009, at 8:21 PM, "Richard K. Munro"
wrote:

> Dear Todd: I am delighted to know that Manx has be resurrected ; if
> it can
> be done with Hebrew it can be done with Manx. It is all a matter of
> making it the lingua franca of a family or community.
>
> I wish you all the luck in the world. I was vaguely aware that there
> were
> some movements to preserve the language or restore it. I know
> recordings
> were made of the last fluent native speakers.
>
> Manx music and Manx songs are very special as is Ellan Vanin
> herself. I
> have known a few Manxmen in my life including men who fought along
> side my
> grandfather's Regiment in the Struma Valley (they served in the 27th
> Division together). I visted the Menin Gate with one of the last
> veterans
> of the 27th Division and he was a Manxman.
>
> I have read some Manx songs and it seems very similar to Irish
> Gaelic or
> Scottish Gaelic but especially the "English phonetics" of the Book
> of the
> Dean of Lismore.
>
> Richard Munro
>
> _____
READER COMMENT >
>

Subject: Re: [CelticCafe] Gaelic Languages and South O' the Dyke
> Lassies
>
> Great post, Richard. I wanted to add an interesting note. At our
> festival we typically have several Irish Gaelic speakers, but in
> 2007 we
> had over a dozen. That year we also had a Manx band, who had a Manx
> speaker. The Irish, who all came from either Cork or Conamara, were
> very
> excited and spent lots of time conversing with the Manx speaker. They
> indicated that they could understand each other well, and figured that
> the actual languages were around 80% the same. Manx has a slew of
> Norse,
> Latin, and English borrow words in it, but in any given sentence the
> Irish knew what the Manx speaker was saying. They may miss a word or
> two, but the context was readily known. We also had two Welsh speakers
> that year, and all of the Celtic speakers jumped in a round table
> discussion about the languages that the public absolutely loved. Of
> course, the Welsh speakers and the Gaelic speakers couldn't
> communicate,
> but they were very aware that they shared a huge number of common
> words.
> In any case, the last fully fluent Manx speaker only died in the 70's.
> There were still several mostly fluent speakers alive then, and they
> have managed to pull the language from the edge of extinction to the
> point today where there are more than a hundred fluent speakers, with
> several native speakers (meaning children who learn it as a first
> language). A couple of thousand can speak it with some proficiency.
> They
> are a very interesting group and quite a lot of fun.
>
> Tod Ardoin
>
> >
MUNRO:

Of course, when I was referring to Hebrew I was referring to a best case scenario.



And Hebrew being a language of a great classic the Old Testament or Hebrew Scriptures and all the rabbinic commentaries has a special allure that Latin once had (and still does to a diminished degree). My father studied Latin at school and so could read Virgil in Latin but he had only a passing, corrupt , oral knowledge of Gaelic which was his father and grandfather’s native language.



But they were both –essentially- illiterate in Gaelic as they were not taught the language.



So it is curious that my father and grandfather both being Gaels could read and write in French, Latin and English but almost not at all in Gaelic.



When they went to school in Scotland (1890-1927) used Gaelic was discouraged if not prohibited. Those who grew p in the great cities because English dominant and Gaelic survived only as part of the oral and musical culture. I became interested in Gaelic and Scots poetry chiefly because of my interest in clan histories, slogans, songs piping and traditional music.



I cannot remember a time when I did not know Caisteal Folais Na Theine (Foulis Castle Ablaze ) and Biodh eagal Dhe oirre! (Reverence you to God or Dread God; the ancient clan Munro motto). My grandfather taught me to count in Gaelic (and Punjabi too) by lining up my toy solders. He also taught me elementary commands in both languages. In his stories he would often punctuate his stories with Punjabi (“marv e” he is dead changa dost (good comrade)….changa gori spahis (the good white soldier) ‘covering fire day-do” (give him covering fire) nan lao (bring bread; food); panee lao (bring water) chai lao (bring tea). I remember these off the top of my head but if I think about it I could remember more and naturally he knew so much more than I because they ate, drink and slept with Indian Regiments of the 27th Division and they had almost daily contact for five years. In another age I would have been an NCO in a Highland regiment or in the Indian Army.



In his day Scottish Highlanders were expected to be the interpreters and go betweens with the Dins (soldiers of the Indian Army) so he had some basic oral competence in Punjabi (which is an Indo-European Language closely related to Latin and Gaelic). They often went on scouting patrols with the Dins and never spoke a word of English. They and the Punjabis communicated in a Punjabi-Gaelic-English patois.



Educationally all the adults in my family were all English dominant, however though I think our bilingual background and respect for Latin and French as universal languages gave us a cosmopolitan interest in languages. My father never discouraged me from studying Gaelic as a hobby but there is no question he favored my studying Spanish, Portuguese and German formerly as he considered these to be culture languages with great utility. For that reason I never studied a single day in Scotland; my father considered Scotland to be part of our past. He was not against Gaelic in the sense of being hostile but he was convinced that “English was the language of the banks and the long-range guns.” In other words as the Romans won the war in Gaul so the English and English-speaking Lowlanders won their wars so Latin, French and Gaelic were (the old pre-Flodden languages of the court) were dethroned. ‘He believed that Lingua Francas were languages based upon high culture or empire; minority languages were doomed to be swept away or assimilated like Gaulish or Old British (a native language of the Scottish lowlands).



Many people date the decline of Gaelic to the Highland Clearances or Culloden but my father thought the decisive movement was Flodden (1513) when the last Gaelic-speaking King of Scotland (James IV) was killed. At that time most of the Scottish Roman Catholic aristocracy could speak French, Gaelic and read and write in Latin or French. A whole generation of Scots were wiped out in that battle and it may have changed the cultural history of Scotland as well.



Mary Queen of Scots, for example, could not speak English (she was a native speaker of French and could read and write Latin) but as far as I know she knew little or no Gaelic. When she spoke with her friends among the Highland Chiefs she probably spoke in French or Latin. This probably explains part of her alienation from her own people; it was more than just religion.



Gaelic is hurt by the fact that



1) it is not a true national language (unlike Welsh) ; it one is the ancient ancestral languages of the native Gael, Pict and Briton.

2) It’s hinterland of Gaelic speakers has diminished almost to the vanishing point; once less than 50% of a population speaks a language there is no language majority to immerse oneself in.

3) 80% of Gaelic speaking people intermarry with non Gaelic speakers and most do not live in Gaelic speaking communities. Some of their children will be Gaelic speakers but many if not most will not be.

4) Planned Parenthood has come to the Scottish Islands and Highlands; at one time a high birth rate helped offset the high immigration rate but this is not true any longer. I read that there are scarcely 2000 Gaelic speaking children living in households in which both parents are native Gaelic speakers. No language has a long future if it does not have demographic vitality. The desire for independence came too late for French Quebec and I think there is little chance that Scotland will ever vote to become an independent country especially as non Scottish ethnics emigrate to Scotland. They, like immigrants to French Canada, will have no interest in Scottish Gaelic culture or Scottish Independence.

5) The Gaels are very religiously divided embracing different sects of Christianity. I could be wrong but essentially I have observed there is a Roman Catholic minority in some places and Evangelical Christians in another. This division means that Gaels do no have a strong unified religious tradition to sustain them and unite them.

6) The decline in the Scottish Regiments and Territorial units is another factor. I have heard it said that the Army discouraged the use of Gaelic but on the other hand when my grandfather served in the Argylls it was the most Scottish institution he was ever associated with bar none. There is no question the Scottish Regiments kept piping and promoted a pride in Scottish national feeling In the First World War there were hundreds of volunteers from Nova Scotia in my grandfather’s Regiment (the 1st Battalion Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders) who were native Gaelic speakers. English may have been the language of command but at the squad level they men spoke and sang as they pleased. There was an active piping culture and many companies –all recruited from the Highlands and Islands were predominately Gaelic-speaking. In fact the only education in Gaelic my grandfather ever received was while in the Army. What Gaelic he could read was from the Psalms and the New Testament which was the only Gaelic book he ever saw (or owned). But he really couldn’t read; he used it as a memory aid it seems to me. He really just memorized some psalms and some portions of the Bible. He could not write them out properly so he was for all intents and purposes illiterate. (though of course he could read and write English reasonably well for a person with only an elementary education; he went to sea at age 8.



At one time the Churches were a very important community and educational force for Gaelic if not the most important. I don’t think any one will disagree that Church attendance and participation has declined in Scotland though it Gaels in general have high attendance rates than the general population. One place Gaelic thrived was in the hymns and prayers of the people.



Also I believe the decline in church attendance tends to diminish the use of Gaelic and well as the decline (in young people) in the interest in traditional music.



The allure of English-speaking pop culture is very great. Youth only interested in movies , video games and computers tend to be English dominant.



On the plus side, Scottish Gaels are more literate than at anytime in modern history and Scottish Gaelic is popular

and fashionable in a way it hasn’t been in centuries.



Gaelic is available on the Internet and via mass media, This allows heritage speakers to support the language and retain or regain the use of the language.



But the decline of the Scottish birthrate to ZPG or even Negative Population Growth guarantees there will be a diminishing number of native speaking children.



So by the 22nd century Gaelic may go the way of Manx and exist only in folkloric tradition. I reverently hope this is not the case but I am being realistic. That worse case scenario is probably more likely than a Hebrew like resuscitation.



By the 22nd Century if present population trends continue not only Gaelic will be endangered but other European languages as well.



French and Italian, for example may become minority languages in their own hinterlands.



As incredible as that seems, it is a real possibility if one looks at birth rates, assimilation rates and immigration rates to Europe.



Demography is destiny. The hands that rock the cradles rule the word and it is their mother tongue that shall endure because tomorrow belongs to the big battalions.





A seal fein fuair an t-eineach HONOUR has had its own day,

Ag so an dile dheireadhach This is the final flood

A dhuid fa chre do chadal that shut your sleep under clay

Rug a re go Roghadal. That brought his life span to Rodel.





Mise le meas (that’s “me” with respect)

Richard K. Munro




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: CelticCafe@yahoogroups.com [mailto:CelticCafe@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Gwen
Sent: Thursday, November 12, 2009 8:22 PM
To: CelticCafe@yahoogroups.com
Cc:
Subject: Re: [CelticCafe] Gaelic Languages and South O' the Dyke Lassies





Hebrew sadly is a special case- there were so many immigrants from
Europe and natives that Hebrew was the only way they cld talk to each
other(Yiddish did not include the middle eastern Jews). Irish was
being taught much earlier but it didn't take the same way because
people could speak English.

It's amazing how fast Hebrew became a mother tongue - but hard to
emulate.

Sent from my iPhone

On Nov 12, 2009, at 8:21 PM, "Richard K. Munro"
wrote:

> Dear Todd: I am delighted to know that Manx has be resurrected ; if
> it can
> be done with Hebrew it can be done with Manx. It is all a matter of
> making it the lingua franca of a family or community.
>
> I wish you all the luck in the world. I was vaguely aware that there
> were
> some movements to preserve the language or restore it. I know
> recordings
> were made of the last fluent native speakers.
>
> Manx music and Manx songs are very special as is Ellan Vanin
> herself. I
> have known a few Manxmen in my life including men who fought along
> side my
> grandfather's Regiment in the Struma Valley (they served in the 27th
> Division together). I visted the Menin Gate with one of the last
> veterans
> of the 27th Division and he was a Manxman.
>
> I have read some Manx songs and it seems very similar to Irish
> Gaelic or
> Scottish Gaelic but especially the "English phonetics" of the Book
> of the
> Dean of Lismore.
>
> Richard Munro
>
> _____
>
> From: CelticCafe@yahoogroups.com [mailto:CelticCafe@yahoogroups.com]
> On
> Behalf Of Tod Ardoin
> Sent: Thursday, November 12, 2009 8:14 AM
> To: CelticCafe@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: [CelticCafe] Gaelic Languages and South O' the Dyke
> Lassies
>
> Great post, Richard. I wanted to add an interesting note. At our
> festival we typically have several Irish Gaelic speakers, but in
> 2007 we
> had over a dozen. That year we also had a Manx band, who had a Manx
> speaker. The Irish, who all came from either Cork or Conamara, were
> very
> excited and spent lots of time conversing with the Manx speaker. They
> indicated that they could understand each other well, and figured that
> the actual languages were around 80% the same. Manx has a slew of
> Norse,
> Latin, and English borrow words in it, but in any given sentence the
> Irish knew what the Manx speaker was saying. They may miss a word or
> two, but the context was readily known. We also had two Welsh speakers
> that year, and all of the Celtic speakers jumped in a round table
> discussion about the languages that the public absolutely loved. Of
> course, the Welsh speakers and the Gaelic speakers couldn't
> communicate,
> but they were very aware that they shared a huge number of common
> words.
> In any case, the last fully fluent Manx speaker only died in the 70's.
> There were still several mostly fluent speakers alive then, and they
> have managed to pull the language from the edge of extinction to the
> point today where there are more than a hundred fluent speakers, with
> several native speakers (meaning children who learn it as a first
> language). A couple of thousand can speak it with some proficiency.
> They
> are a very interesting group and quite a lot of fun.
>
> Tod Ardoin
>
> >Of course, when I was referring to Hebrew I was referring to a best case scenario.



And Hebrew being a language of a great classic the Old Testament or Hebrew Scriptures and all the rabbinic commentaries has a special allure that Latin once had (and still does to a diminished degree). My father studied Latin at school and so could read Virgil in Latin but he had only a passing, corrupt , oral knowledge of Gaelic which was his father and grandfather’s native language.



But they were both –essentially- illiterate in Gaelic as they were not taught the language.



So it is curious that my father and grandfather both being Gaels could read and write in French, Latin and English but almost not at all in Gaelic.



When they went to school in Scotland (1890-1927) used Gaelic was discouraged if not prohibited. Those who grew p in the great cities because English dominant and Gaelic survived only as part of the oral and musical culture. I became interested in Gaelic and Scots poetry chiefly because of my interest in clan histories, slogans, songs piping and traditional music.



I cannot remember a time when I did not know Caisteal Folais Na Theine (Foulis Castle Ablaze ) and Biodh eagal Dhe oirre! (Reverence you to God or Dread God; the ancient clan Munro motto). My grandfather taught me to count in Gaelic (and Punjabi too) by lining up my toy solders. He also taught me elementary commands in both languages. In his stories he would often punctuate his stories with Punjabi (“marv e” he is dead changa dost (good comrade)….changa gori spahis (the good white soldier) ‘covering fire day-do” (give him covering fire) nan lao (bring bread; food); panee lao (bring water) chai lao (bring tea). I remember these off the top of my head but if I think about it I could remember more and naturally he knew so much more than I because they ate, drink and slept with Indian Regiments of the 27th Division and they had almost daily contact for five years. In another age I would have been an NCO in a Highland regiment or in the Indian Army.



In his day Scottish Highlanders were expected to be the interpreters and go betweens with the Dins (soldiers of the Indian Army) so he had some basic oral competence in Punjabi (which is an Indo-European Language closely related to Latin and Gaelic). They often went on scouting patrols with the Dins and never spoke a word of English. They and the Punjabis communicated in a Punjabi-Gaelic-English patois.



Educationally all the adults in my family were all English dominant, however though I think our bilingual background and respect for Latin and French as universal languages gave us a cosmopolitan interest in languages. My father never discouraged me from studying Gaelic as a hobby but there is no question he favored my studying Spanish, Portuguese and German formerly as he considered these to be culture languages with great utility. For that reason I never studied a single day in Scotland; my father considered Scotland to be part of our past. He was not against Gaelic in the sense of being hostile but he was convinced that “English was the language of the banks and the long-range guns.” In other words as the Romans won the war in Gaul so the English and English-speaking Lowlanders won their wars so Latin, French and Gaelic were (the old pre-Flodden languages of the court) were dethroned. ‘He believed that Lingua Francas were languages based upon high culture or empire; minority languages were doomed to be swept away or assimilated like Gaulish or Old British (a native language of the Scottish lowlands).



Many people date the decline of Gaelic to the Highland Clearances or Culloden but my father thought the decisive movement was Flodden (1513) when the last Gaelic-speaking King of Scotland (James IV) was killed. At that time most of the Scottish Roman Catholic aristocracy could speak French, Gaelic and read and write in Latin or French. A whole generation of Scots were wiped out in that battle and it may have changed the cultural history of Scotland as well.



Mary Queen of Scots, for example, could not speak English (she was a native speaker of French and could read and write Latin) but as far as I know she knew little or no Gaelic. When she spoke with her friends among the Highland Chiefs she probably spoke in French or Latin. This probably explains part of her alienation from her own people; it was more than just religion.



Gaelic is hurt by the fact that



1) it is not a true national language (unlike Welsh) ; it one is the ancient ancestral languages of the native Gael, Pict and Briton.

2) It’s hinterland of Gaelic speakers has diminished almost to the vanishing point; once less than 50% of a population speaks a language there is no language majority to immerse oneself in.

3) 80% of Gaelic speaking people intermarry with non Gaelic speakers and most do not live in Gaelic speaking communities. Some of their children will be Gaelic speakers but many if not most will not be.

4) Planned Parenthood has come to the Scottish Islands and Highlands; at one time a high birth rate helped offset the high immigration rate but this is not true any longer. I read that there are scarcely 2000 Gaelic speaking children living in households in which both parents are native Gaelic speakers. No language has a long future if it does not have demographic vitality. The desire for independence came too late for French Quebec and I think there is little chance that Scotland will ever vote to become an independent country especially as non Scottish ethnics emigrate to Scotland. They, like immigrants to French Canada, will have no interest in Scottish Gaelic culture or Scottish Independence.

5) The Gaels are very religiously divided embracing different sects of Christianity. I could be wrong but essentially I have observed there is a Roman Catholic minority in some places and Evangelical Christians in another. This division means that Gaels do no have a strong unified religious tradition to sustain them and unite them.

6) The decline in the Scottish Regiments and Territorial units is another factor. I have heard it said that the Army discouraged the use of Gaelic but on the other hand when my grandfather served in the Argylls it was the most Scottish institution he was ever associated with bar none. There is no question the Scottish Regiments kept piping and promoted a pride in Scottish national feeling In the First World War there were hundreds of volunteers from Nova Scotia in my grandfather’s Regiment (the 1st Battalion Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders) who were native Gaelic speakers. English may have been the language of command but at the squad level they men spoke and sang as they pleased. There was an active piping culture and many companies –all recruited from the Highlands and Islands were predominately Gaelic-speaking. In fact the only education in Gaelic my grandfather ever received was while in the Army. What Gaelic he could read was from the Psalms and the New Testament which was the only Gaelic book he ever saw (or owned). But he really couldn’t read; he used it as a memory aid it seems to me. He really just memorized some psalms and some portions of the Bible. He could not write them out properly so he was for all intents and purposes illiterate. (though of course he could read and write English reasonably well for a person with only an elementary education; he went to sea at age 8.



At one time the Churches were a very important community and educational force for Gaelic if not the most important. I don’t think any one will disagree that Church attendance and participation has declined in Scotland though it Gaels in general have high attendance rates than the general population. One place Gaelic thrived was in the hymns and prayers of the people.



Also I believe the decline in church attendance tends to diminish the use of Gaelic and well as the decline (in young people) in the interest in traditional music.



The allure of English-speaking pop culture is very great. Youth only interested in movies , video games and computers tend to be English dominant.



On the plus side, Scottish Gaels are more literate than at anytime in modern history and Scottish Gaelic is popular

and fashionable in a way it hasn’t been in centuries.



Gaelic is available on the Internet and via mass media, This allows heritage speakers to support the language and retain or regain the use of the language.



But the decline of the Scottish birthrate to ZPG or even Negative Population Growth guarantees there will be a diminishing number of native speaking children.



So by the 22nd century Gaelic may go the way of Manx and exist only in folkloric tradition. I reverently hope this is not the case but I am being realistic. That worse case scenario is probably more likely than a Hebrew like resuscitation.



By the 22nd Century if present population trends continue not only Gaelic will be endangered but other European languages as well.



French and Italian, for example may become minority languages in their own hinterlands.



As incredible as that seems, it is a real possibility if one looks at birth rates, assimilation rates and immigration rates to Europe.



Demography is destiny. The hands that rock the cradles rule the word and it is their mother tongue that shall endure because tomorrow belongs to the big battalions.





A seal fein fuair an t-eineach HONOUR has had its own day,

Ag so an dile dheireadhach This is the final flood

A dhuid fa chre do chadal that shut your sleep under clay

Rug a re go Roghadal. That brought his life span to Rodel.





Mise le meas (that’s “me” with respect)

Richard K. Munro

Technology per se is not the answer to Education Reform.

Technology can do wonders. I think our use of Safari (libraries of videos, long and short often with subtitles in English and Spanish), Smartboards and speakers have been a big improvement. We can make instant copies of articles we research on line. We have access to spell-check and online dictionaries , quotations and encyclopedias. For our English learners every story and article is available on CD; a summary of each story is available in twenty languages including Arabic, Chinese , Russian and Japanese. Computer labs make writing and editing essays easier.

But cheating is a big problem. Excessive reliance on multiple choice instruments when there are 40 and 50 students in a classroom designed for 30 or 35 is a problem. Computers and technology can help for review but by themselves they do not teach grammar, literary devices and good style. I recall Bill Gates boasting he got an A in a mythology class he never attended by studying the Cliffnotes. Well, perhaps he got an A on a superficial multiple choice test but he missed the point of gaining an introduction to Greek and Roman literature.

One cannot dismiss the utilitarian argument because one must be practical. One must pay the bills, “keep the wolf from the door” and be prepared to compete in today’s society. However, a liberal or humane education, at its best in the most practical and adaptive education a man can get. Why? For one reason a classical liberal education based on a well-rounded education of mathematics, history, literature, music and languages is a very hard and challenging curriculum. Second a good general education is important because we don’t know what challenges and questions we may face in our lives. The mere training of today may soon be obsolete. A third reason is as Cicero famously said, is that literature (the liberal arts) “hinders not.” They are, indeed a great ornament and a great comfort. They are, in my opinion, the key to a happy and satisfying life. There is no royal road to geometry, algebra, or fluency in French, Spanish, German, Chinese, Russian, English or Italian. And he who writes a living line must sweat.

A student asked Miguel de Unamuno what he should do to obtain wisdom.
Unamuno who excelled in every genre and who was fluent in many languages answered with only one word repeated three times: LEER! LEER! LEER!. Then he walked away. Regardless of the technology those who do not read and think will remain as children. A people lacking understanding will come to ruin. An individual who does not inform him or herself will simply be unable to make wise and informed decisions.
I believe there can be no short cut to Core Knowledge or Cultural Literacy.

Technology can help in so many ways but really, to me, in the subjects I teach, technology is only something to help, to make presentations more efficient, to print out thumbnails of class notes, to provide sound effects and memorable images in color. Technology helps give us tools to analyze some standardized test results and so have quicker feedback and be able to share records more easily. But in the final analysis we in the public schools must create citizens imbued with civic virtue, with a community spirit, with an appreciation for our splendid ancient heritage of freedom. And that includes freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of the private domain, freedom of press, freedom of assembly, freedom of association and freedom to educate one’s self and one’s own child or children.

And there is no question that students need to learn not only of individual freedoms but also individual responsibility. There is no question that students should learn not only of what is good for themselves but what is right for others and the common good. Those who are strong should learn with humility that they will be strong only for a while. Those who are rich should learn that materialism is not enough and that boundless prosperity may slip away from us. Those who are strong should not hate the weak or the orphans or empire who lack the documents of the rich but instead remember the warning to be merciful to the stranger and the alien for “you too were once a slave in the land of Egypt.”

Scientists, technicians, bureaucrats, lawyers wrap themselves in a suffocating blanket misguidedly thinking they can solve all ills by planning and calculation when they have cut themselves off from their humanity and real understanding. Haim Ginott in his wonderful book TEACHER AND CHILD reminded us that “learned engineers” built gas chambers, “educated physicians” and “trained nurses” murdered infants and innocents not by the thousands but by the millions. He warned his fellow teachers that their efforts should never produce “learned monsters, skilled psychopaths” and “educated Eichmans.”

A well-rounded liberal or humane education teaches us how to think. I am a very strong advocate of a liberal culture because it is essential for the good life and as the basis ofa free society and for the preservation of what the Gael would call “ar dualchas airidh;our splendid ancient heritage. President Kennedy made reference to this is his famous inaugural of January 20, 1961 when he said he was proud of his “ancient heritage.” Dr. Morbius (remember FORBIDDEN PLANET?) sought all knowledge but he forgot the danger of unlimited power without restraint and without moderation and without care for others. In the end he and all he created was destroyed by Id Monsters. Technology is only as good or bad as how we apply it and how we use it. It can be used for the good of mankind or for unlimited evil or destruction. So whatever we do for our children and our schools and whatever technology we use we should take care that our schools are not murder machines of civility and humanity.

The ACLU, the Mojave Cross and Democracy

Consider the comments of Diane Ravitch, author of Making Good Citizens:
Education and Civil Society: "Democracy is a process, a way of living and
working together. It is evolutionary, not static. It requires cooperation,
compromise, and tolerance among all citizens. Making it work is hard, not easy.
Freedom means responsibility, not freedom from responsibility."

Without mutual respect and compromise Democracy becomes impossible.

One of the reasons the ACLU attack on the WWI memorial in the Mojave -which as I
write is
is shamefully hidden under a wooden shroud- is so dangerous for Democracy is
that the attack lacks all reason, all respect especially for the long lost
Doughboys on 1917-1919 who made the supreme sacrifice.

If the ACLU attack on our memory and our commemorations is allowed to succeed
then every public memorial and every public inscription of the past that is
unacceptable by the lights of the ACLU is in danger.

As I see it the ACLU-Secular-left attack on Judeo-Christian tradition and
Christianity in particular is a form of punishment and revenge that totally
lacks any respect for the memory of fallen comrades who died in service of their
country. If this form of persecution is sanctioned by the Court, the Federal
government would be denying the free exercise of religion of a community.

Federal lands supposedly belong TO THE PEOPLE not to the State. No Federal
money ws spent in putting up the cross and no state, Federal or local money is
spent in its maintenance. And in fact the land upon which the cross sits is
now private land as well! No one is required to attend services there nor pay
any money. But the case of the ACLU is ,essentially, that a man in Oregon who
has never been to Mohave MIGHT be offended if he HAPPENED to NOTICE a cross in
public view and HE MIGHT interpret this as an unconstitutional establishment of
a "religion". This is the new doctrine of the veto power of one; just forget
tradition, custom and popular sovereignty! We might as well install Czars and
Commissars for life to run all our affairs.

It so happens that the vast majority of Americans are against this 'absolutist'
(and in my view totalitarian an intolerant) view of Christian symbols in public
places. (over 70% in recent polls).

It seems the ACLU-Secular-Left want and religious activity or symbolism to be
prohibited in speech, public life, community life and absolutely restricted to
whispers in a darkened private sphere. Every year we recall the great moral
tragedy of our culture of death which has accepted tens of millions of
abortions as no big deal. So we place hundreds of white crosses on Church
property and display signs -not of hatred or accusation -but of sorrow and
prayer for what seems to many of us a human holocaust on a scale which very soon
will surpass the total number of dead in both world wars. You may not agree
with this point of view but this is a valid and reasonable viewpoint and a
peaceful free exercise of religion. If our people were to put these crosses on
your lawn or glue them to the wall of Clinica Sierra Vista I would be opposed to
such an illegal trespass and lack of respect for the property of others.

What happens when we do this? Radicals-offended by seeing these symbolic
crosses next to a public highway- trespass and vandalize the crosses tearing
them down and marking them with swastikas. In this they are no different than
the fanatical iconoclasts of another era. And the message they send is very
clear. They hate and if they could get away with it they would burn
our church to the ground. Similarly anyone who supported Prop 8 was
considered "hateful" and "bigoted". But almost all the acts of violence and
intimidation were performed by homosexual activists and the Left such as the
assault of an old lady whose crime was to carry a pro proposition 8 placard.
Other groups vandalized signs on people's lawns. Other groups publicized hotel
and restaurant owners who contributed to the pro prop 8. And once again the
CTA/NEA -without consulting its rank and file- blithely gave over 400,000 to the
Anti prop 8 campaign. Indirectly they used taxpayers funds to support their
philosophy or "their doctrines." There is very little Democracy in these actions
in my opinion and a measure of Bossism and totalitarianism.

What is happening because of the constant attacks by the Secular Left on
traditional symbols and values (traditional marriage in the monogamous
Judeo-Christian tradition) is great anger and frustration and a sense that SOME
institutions -which are tax-supported- have become are are becoming ENEMY
institutions.

Thirty years ago I never heard the contempt and distrust that people express
towards the state government and the Federal government. One sixth of all
hospital patients are taken care of in Catholic hospitals and now there is great
concern that nurses, doctors and hospital personnel will be REQUIRED to peform
abortions once Obamacare is passed. Already in California there is no parental
consent and children as young as 11 or 12 can have access to birth control and
abortions without the consent and knowledge of their parents. Already
pharmacists MUST prescribe RU-486 abortion pills or risk losing their jobs.
What is actually happening is pharmacists cover for each other or discourage the
use of RU-486 by not having it on hand (young women who want it typically want
it IMMEDIATELY). I never thought I could ever come to the day where I would
ever feel that the day seems to becoming when I have to revoke my allegiance to
America and her government but we seem to be closer to that possibility every
day.
My only solace is that things are far worse in Britain and Canada than they are
here. Our system of Federalism and local control of schools gives us some
breathing space. And yet some believe that the Federal government should be
given more authority and more power over our lives and tax us even more than
they do so that elites can impose their 'correct' views on the rest of us.

And Monday is so-called Columbus Day. At one time the celebration of Columbus
Day like the public celebration of Christmas was seen as proof of religious
tolerance towards Catholics and Italians and Hispanics in particular. Lincoln
knew the significance of this respect and hence the Columbus doors in the
Capitol which celebrate Queen Isabella and Columbus for opening the path to the
New World. Of course, in California we no longer celebrate Columbus day and it
is not a school holiday and you know why. Native American and Chicano Activists
have spread anti-Spanish and anti-Christian propaganda to the effect that
Columbus and even the Missionary founders of California are NO BETTER THAN
GENOCIDAL MANIACS and KILLERS like the Nazis! The Black Legend is alive in well
in California’s public schools and it seems to me nothing more than a veiled
Anti-Catholicism and anti- "White Culture". That is the true meaning of
multiculturalism to accuse, to teach hatred and resentment and to divide
Americans and hence weaken the Union.

Once again their is no respect for history, tradition and the cherished beliefs
of a large portion of American citizens. What's next? Will they dynamite the
Columbus doors in Congress. Will they go on a campaign to eradicate every
inscription and public monument they don't like? We can expect continued
attacks in the coming years.

What radicals like this really are doing is weakening our national union step by
step and playing a dangerous game as they flirt with the politics of ethnic
grievances and political separatism. They are not willing, as most of the
American public are, to live and let live. They are not peacefully coexisting,
they are not compromising, they are not respecting long held customs and
traditions but insist in their proto-totalitarian way that there is ONLY ONE
WAY...THEIR WAY and THEIR interpretation. They are in fact very illiberal
liberals. They will force their way by hook or by crook via the Courts or by
steady political pressure regardless of the long term consequences. They are
acting very irresponsibly and with this irresponsibility they are contributing to a
polarization of political view that could eventually lead to violent
confrontation, bitter factionalism, even Civil War.

And that is the price the will be paid for having a total lack of civic virtue,
moderation and tolerance. Democracy means rule by the people -popular
sovereignty-. It is not rule by ACLU lawyers or Dukes for life (Federal Judges).
Any attempt to muzzle the American people and impose laws without popular
support will cause great bitterness and upheaval. But worst of all it causes
resentment and disrespect for officials of the government and so weakens public
confidence in Democracy itself.

Richard K. Munro

CALEDONIA

MUNRO'S COMMENTARY ON THE RABBI'S SERMON (fFAGMENT)

I found this sermon very wise and very, very
interesting. I liked the detail about the Roman coins marked by the Jewish
fighters. As a Gael and the son and grandson of Gaels I have always thought of
places like Masada or Numantia or Alesia or Culloden from two perspectives.
That of the men who served the yoke -the Empire- and those who fought for the
lost cause of independence and liberty FOR THEMSELVES. Perhaps their liberty
was imperfect and their societies not as strong politically but they fought the
cause of true honor for liberty FOR THEMSELVES and that is always an honorable
fight and there is something more. The spirit of liberty , the spirit of
sacrifice and spirit of courage and struggle is never entirely lost if the past
is remembered. This is something Gaels -though we are small in number- have in
common I think with the Jews. We remember the past. I remember reading
Caesar's Gallic Wars -translated by Moses Hades- with great joy. It is , after
all a great adventure story. And as a Roman Catholic, I admit that something in
me made me want to root for Caesar and the Romans not the Gauls who were the
barbarians. But I remembered my grandfather who read out the name
VERRRRCINGETORRRRIX said that rix or Righ was King or High Chief of the Marching
Men (or Host). Ver is man as in VIRILE and CINGETO -cogante with the Gaelic
CEUM for step or path and the Spanish CAMINO (path or track). He reminded me
that my ancestors were kinsmen of the Gauls though we were brought into the
Christian Catholic faith by Roman hands.......Patrick and Mungo came from the
same northern Romano-British Diocese and of course St. Columba and St. Maelrubha
and St. Bridget were Gaels but brought into to the faith by the hand of Patrick
or his disciples. And of course we believe in Apostalic Secession -that Patrick
was baptized by priests who were baptized by priests whose baptism traces back
to Peter, John the Baptist and Jesus himself. Perhaps this is a romantic dream
but the Celtic line of my family traces its Christian-Jewish roots that way. Of
course I am part Sutherland and Anderson as well as these lines came relatively
late to Christianity as they were Norse originally. I am quite sure I have
racial roots to Norway and Sweden but interesting enough I have never been
interested in them particularly as my people were completely assimilated to
Scottish Gaelic culture and Christianity over a period of 1000 years.

As you know I have much love and facination for the Jewish faith which I
consider the mother faith of Christianity. And as I have told Diane many times
I hold Jews in awe because really you are of the line of David -collaterally the
same line as Joseph. Mary and Jesus. I could never understand anti-Semitism
because to love the Bible and the teachings of the Great Teacher is to have love
and awe and gratitude for the Jewish people. I begin my catechism classes this
Sunday. And when I read from the Bible I never cease to remember that the Old
Book began as a Jewish Hebrew book and that the New Testament is a Greek book
written by and for Helenistic Jews and a few gentile friends. It is my own
personal theory that the first Christian communities came about when Jewish men
or half-Jewish men and their gentile converts married gentile women and so were
gradually alienated and rejected by the Jewish community as half-breeds and
religious degenerates. And so there must be roots of conflict and alienation
from the very beginning like the murderous bickering of Highland Clans. Yet all
very tragic and unnecessary because we are one human family and those of us who
believe in the God of Abraham have more in common than not. We believe in the
dignity of individual human beings. We reverence unto God and obey his
commandments and we know not to do this is vainglory or hubris.

But I have learned as a teacher that teaching is not an easy matter. Many
people are slackers and resist education as too painful. Education means
alienation from their home culture and their peers so they cling to what is
familar even if it drags them down.

GO FOR YOURSELF: LECH LECHA (GEN 12:1)

GO FOR YOURSELF: LECH LECHA (GEN 12:1)
>
> ROSH HASHANA DAY 2009/5770
>
> BY RABBI MARC GELLMAN, PH.D.
>
>
>
> The sages taught that there are no extra words in the torah. I think
> the sages were right and the irony is that it will take me three
> sermons with lots of extra words to prove it to you. My proof text
> for these three linked yontiff sermons is a single Hebrew word, lecha,
> which means "for yourself" and on the surface lecha seems to be a
> completely superfluous word in every Torah verse where it appears.
>
> For example, in Genesis chapter 12, the first text we shall consider
> today, God commands Abram, his name had not yet been changed to
> Abraham, to leave his homeland in Haran (present day Syria) and travel
> to Canaan, the newly promised homeland for the Jewish people. God
> calls to Abram, "Lech lecha meiarzecha u'meimoladecha u'mebeit avicha
> el ha aretz asher ani erecha." "Go for yourself from your land and
> from your culture and from your father's house to the land I will show
> you." God could have said, "lech m'artzecha" go from your land. The
> extra word lecha "go for yourself" adds nothing--or does it? I
> believe that lecha is not extra but essential. I believe lecha is the
> key to understanding what it means to be deeply Jewish, not just
> Jewish by birth or bagels, but Jewish for yourself--lecha. Lecha is
> the perfect proof that there are no extra words in the Torah.
>
> The command to Abram teaches us the first meaning of lecha: the first
> way to become Jewish for yourself is to love Zion.
>
> Abram's Jewish journey begins the same way each of our Jewish journeys
> begin, with a call to Zion. I say Zion and not Israel because the
> land that is the land of Israel has had many historical names, Canaan,
> Judea, Palestine and Israel (in fact Israel in the Bible is the name
> of the Jewish people not the land), but spiritually, religiously the
> land has always had just one name, Tzion, Zion. 154 times in the
> Tanach the land is called Zion. However, Zion is not just the name of
> the land promised to Abram by God. It is the land promised to us
> through Abram. Before we were given a law code, before we were given
> a set of beliefs and customs and rituals, before we were given lox and
> bagels and cholent and tzimis and rugelach and petchaw (cow's foot
> borsht--don't ask) we were given Zion. Zion is the beginning of any
> serious Jewish journey. Zion is the foundation for any thick and rich
> and real sense of personal Jewishness. To find yourself as a real Jew
> you must find your way to Zion.
>
> Being a lover of Zion is closely related but is not the same as being
> a Zionist. The dream of Zion is a religious belief. Zionism is a
> political movement. For some ultra orthodox Jewish sects, like the
> Satmar Hasidim, the dream of Zion is actually a reason for opposing
> the State of Israel. They believe that Zion can only be made real on
> earth by the Messiah, and Herzl and Ben Gurion were not the Messiah.
> I think their views and their actions are not just wrong but actually
> a perversion of Judaism and an nightmare in the dream of Zion.
>
> ON the other end of the religious and political spectrum was early
> Classical Reform Judaism which, until the 50s actively opposed the
> State of Israel as a source of dual loyalty for American Jews and as a
> particularistic anachronism for what they believed was a
> universalistic Reform Judaism. Both these religious objections to the
> actual State of Israel embrace the dream of Zion but reject the way
> the dream has become real in the world.
>
> Both are blind to the way Israel has transformed modern Jewish life.
> Satmar is still mired in the 17th century and Reform Judaism has
> finally embraced the religious meaning of the State of Israel despite
> its unfortunate resolutions condemning Israel that have the effect of
> undermining support particularly among our youth, and emboldening
> Israel's enemies.
>
> What we must all remember and embrace is the reality of a Jewish state
> that has transformed Jewish life while also remembering that Zion is
> the dream of a land that will transform the world .In the words of the
> prophet Isaiah 2:3, ki mitzion tetze torah u'davar adonai
> mirushalayim, "For the torah shall go forth from Zion and the word of
> the Lord from Jerusalem." The State of Israel is incomprehensible
> except as a part of that dream. The question is, can we and can our
> children still dream the dream of Zion and so strenghten our roots and
> our faith? Beyond giving to the UJA or AIPAC, will you allow the
> dream of Zion to be for you, lecha?
>
> For the oldest generations here in this room my question must seem
> totally absurd. How could a Jew not love Zion? You, the members of
> what Tom Brokaw called the greatest generation, you are the ones who
> remember a world without Israel. You are the ones who raised money
> for a state that did not yet exist. You remember the little blue
> pushkes for the JNF on your grandmother's table. Some of you saw in
> your childhood in Europe what Herzl saw in the Dreyfus trial in Paris
> at the end of the 19th century, that there was no future for the Jews
> of Europe. You smelled the chimneys. Your support for Israel was
> unquestioned and constant, and many of you have done a wonderful job
> teaching your children and grandchildren about the dream and the debt
> it imposes on every Jewish person to support the State of Israel and
> expose her enemies.
>
> However, today the love of Zion is a besieged and imperiled Jewish
> dream. I never thought I would say this, and saying it makes my soul
> shiver, but today for many Jews the dream of Zion does not include
> them, and this has seriously weakened the State of Israel, decreased
> Jewish identity, and fractured Jewish solidarity world wide. The
> severing of the Jewish connection to Israel particularly among the
> young is a nightmare in the dream God dreamed for the children of Abram.
>
> The most important Jewish task of our time is to reinvigorate the
> dream of Zion among young Jewish dreamers. New surveys indicate that
> 30% of 20-30 year old Jews felt that that the destruction of the State
> of Israel would not be a personal catastrophe for them. It's not that
> they seek Israel's destruction, actually it is worse. They would be
> unmoved by Israel's destruction. Israel can survive any external foe,
> but it cannot survive the disconnection of young Jews from Zion.
>
> The greatest success story in the effort to restore the fading dream
> of Zion among young Jews is Birthright. To date, the Birthright trips
> to Israel have brought almost a quarter of a million young Jews to
> Israel so that they might rediscover Zion. Its results are generally
> positive, but mixed. It takes more than a ten day trip to Israel to
> revive a dream. Most love the trip but the follow up has been spotty
> and often unsuccessful. The reason for this is how they go. They are
> going to Israel and they should be going to Zion. The religious
> element of the land is often left out of their orientation lectures
> and itineraries in favor of bar crawling in Tel Aviv and swimming in
> the Dead Sea. The problem with including a religious element in the
> Birthright trips is of course deciding which flavor of Judaism you
> will choose. Now there is a controversy that the follow up program
> Birthright Next is being monopolized by orthodox Judaism. This is
> good because it is at least a religious effort but bad because it does
> not respect or reflect the diversity of modern Jewish religious life.
> As a result the birthrightarians are often spiritually short changed.
>
> The problem with Birthright, from my own personal perspective is that
> these kids do not have a chance to learn about Zion from Nelson
> Glueck, and sadly Nelson is dead. Rabbi Nelson Glueck, Ph.D. was my
> teacher, my mentor, my rabbi who convinced me to become a rabbi and to
> study in Israel and (in the hardest thing he ever got me to do) to eat
> pita bread cooked over a camel dung fire in a Bedouin camp in the
> Judean wilderness.
>
> Nelson was a spy, the head of the OSS in the Middle East during WWII,
> and in fact the model for Indiana Jones. Nelson was a distinguished
> biblical archeologist who discovered King Solomon's mines and Nelson
> was the president of Hebrew Union College the seminary which ordains
> Reform rabbis. In my first visit to Israel during my sophomore summer
> in college in 1966, Nelson took me up to the roof of the HUC building
> on King David Street and pointed to the old city which had not yet
> been liberated. He looked through me with his deep blue eyes resting
> under the shade of his arching eyebrows and said,, "The Arabs believe
> that the temple mount is the axis mundi, the omphilos, the navel of
> the universe. They believe that the universe was created from
> Jerusalem. Well, we Jews believed that first. Yehudah Ha-Levi taught
> that Jerusalem is the place where Heaven and Earth kiss, and I believe
> it too." That day on the rooftop changed my Jewish life. That day
> the dream of Zion entered my heart and my soul. I did not learn
> anything new on that rooftop. I felt something new on that rooftop.
> I felt my Jewish roots sink into the soil of Zion and the dream of
> Zion. Zion is the place where the Jewish universe and the universe of
> the world intersect. Zion is the place God pointed to when he said
> lech lecha to Abram. Zion was the Jewish sacred space.
>
> Every great world religion is rooted in a sacred place. Hinduism is
> rooted in India, indeed Hindu means India. Islam is rooted in Mecca.
> The Lakota Sioux religion is rooted in the Black Hills of South
> Dakota. The Rastafarians are rooted in Ethiopia which they call
> Zion. The dream of Zion is the Jewish version of the universal
> religious dream of sacred space.
>
> For two thousand years in the Diaspora we Jews have forgotten about
> sacred space. We have sanctified sacred time for two thousand years
> since the destruction of the Temple by the Romans in the first
> century. We sanctify communal time through holidays and through rites
> of passage, but we have lost a sense of sacred space. Sacred space
> roots us in the earth. Most people can see the value of sacred space
> when they see the Native American rituals or when they see Hindus
> bathing in the Ganges or when they see Muslims at the Kabah stone in
> Mecca, but for some reason many Jews cannot admire in our own
> tradition, the sacred space we instantly admire in other tribes and
> traditions.
>
> There are, sadly, no effective arguments to convince a person of the
> importance of sacred space. You must go up to the rooftop and have a
> teacher point it out to you. You must see the light of Jerusalem as
> different than any other light in any other place. You must touch the
> stones of the kotel and feel their warmth as different than the warmth
> of any other stones. You must travel half way around the world to
> Israel and get off the plane and feel in some real way that you are
> not a visitor but that you are home.
>
> I know that to many of you this may all sound quite tribal, and my
> response is, "Yes it is tribal, but you are a part of this tribe."
> And what do you think a bris is? Isn't that tribal enough for you.
> And how about blowing a hollowed out ram's horn? That is also a
> tribal ritual. Religions are not just a collection of intellectual
> beliefs. They are the record of the collective wisdom of the tribal
> elders. And one of the pieces of wisdom is that we did not come from
> anywhere, we came from Zion and that we will return there all of us
> some day at the end of time. If you are serious about your Jewish
> identity, you must come to a realization that being Jewish is partly
> about coming from Zion. You must believe and know that we are bound
> to that land and also bound by that land.
>
> The most contemptible name for Jews in Europe was luftmentchen, "air
> people". A luftmench was a rootless cosmopolitan who had traded in
> authenticity for assimilation. Surrendering the dream of Zion is like
> cutting the string on a balloon and watching it float away on the
> winds of fashion and fate. Now of course the rootless cosmopolitan
> can retort, "I am happy to cut the string. I am a citizen of the
> world. I do not need a homeland." Herzl's counterargument was that
> you need a homeland to be safe.
>
> This is still true for many oppressed Jews in the world. I remember a
> little Ethiopian Jewish boy named Ari drawing a crayon picture of a
> smiling dog in a nursery school absorption center in Israel. I asked
> him why the dog was smiling and he answered me, "Because the dog knows
> that I do not have to eat him." Part of the dream of Zion is
> concrete. Part of that dream, we must never forget, is to create and
> sustain and protect a real and safe place where a real little boy
> named Ari can crayon a picture of a smiling dog that he does not have
> to eat.
>
> Now we generally do not eat dogs and so, in addition to Herzl's
> argument from safety for the dream of Zion, there are other reasons
> for each of us, safe in this land of freedom, to embrace a Jewish
> identity that is rooted in Zion.
>
> In these perilous times building our Jewish identity on the
> foundations of a love of Zion is also building our identity on the
> foundations of freedom. Since long before 9/11 but absolutely since
> then the war of the jihadists is a war against all those who love Zion
> and the promise of freedom that is the heart of the dream. Detaching
> oneself from the struggle to defeat the enemies of Israel is at one
> and the same time detaching oneself from the struggle to defeat
> worldwide Islamic jihadism. This is why many non-Jews today also
> support for the dream of Zion. In other times, many Jews thought it
> was safe to melt into the cosmopolitan masses and surrender the dream
> of Zion. The fight to defeat jihadists demands that all people join
> all Jews in taking up the dream of Zion as our dream for freedom and
> victory. Today every patriot must become a spiritual Zionist. All
> the dreams of freedom in our time go through Zion. Our choice is
> simple and brutal. We are rooted in the defense of Zion or the dream
> of freedom from terrorism will become a nightmare for the entire free
> world.
>
> Finally, on a very personal level, whether you know it or not, the
> dream of Zion is an ineluctable part of each and every Jewish person.
> In Yiddish it is called a pintele yid which literally means a Jewish
> spark. It refers to that irreducible Jewish part within us that
> cannot be erased. The reason that on visits to Israel this spark can
> be and has been fanned into a roaring Jewish fire of faith and
> fidelity is that the spark was always in us. It is a spark from God
> in Zion. This is why loving Zion is not just something you ought to
> do to become more deeply Jewish; it is something you have to do to
> become more deeply Jewish. Zion is not the only spark in our Jewish
> souls, but it is the first spark to live in us and the last spark to
> die. When God commanded Abram, lech lecha, we must feel that God
> commanded each and every one of us. God gave Zion to the Jewish
> people and through us to the world. This means that God gave Zion to
> you--lecha.
>
> The dream of Zion is also the last dream we will dream at the end of
> our life here on planet earth. The Jewish mystics, the mekubalim,
> taught about gilgul haneshamot. They taught that there are tunnels
> under the earth. When we die our soul travels through these
> subterranean tunnels until they arrive at a place under the Temple
> mount, directly under the Holy of Holies. From there, from Zion, all
> souls ascend to the Olam Habah, to Heaven, to the World to Come where
> they are judged and welcomed by God and the angelic hosts. Zion was
> not just the end point of Abrams journey. It is, if this legend of
> the mekubalim is true, the end point for each and every one of us in
> our earthly journey through life and into death and beyond death.
>
> For two millennia reconnecting to the dream of Zion was very
> difficult. Jews could only go to Israel as guests of the overlords of
> land--the Greeks, the Persians, the Romans, the Arabs and the Ottoman
> Turks--and this made the choice of journeying to Zion perilous. And
> in the lands of our dispersion we were never free to choose to leave
> the Jewish tribe the way we are free to leave it today. Our Jewish
> identity was forced upon us by antisemitism, but after May 18, 1948
> and especially after June 7, 1967 we were free to see all of Zion not
> from a rooftop, but with our touch and our tears. So the choice of
> lech lecha is particularly poignant and powerful now. Our decision to
> take Zion into our personal Jewishness, into our hearts and our faith
> and not just to acknowledge it as a part of our ancient and hoary
> history is now both possible and pressing in a way it has never been
> before in all of Jewish history. This choice, born of our dream of
> Zion and the courage of Israeli freedom fighters, is our choice now.
>
> Two weeks ago 120 coins some of them gold were discovered in a cave in
> the Judean hills. They are from the failed Bar Kochba revolt against
> Roman rule in 135 ce. The coins were Roman but the freedom fighters
> of Beitar melted them and stamped their own insignia on them which
> bore the words "For the freedom of Jerusalem." We cannot hold the
> coins, but we can dream the dream that forged the coins. Put one of
> those coins in your pocket and dream the dream of Zion for yourself.
> It is a dream that finally we can dream when we are awake.
>
> There are no extra words in the Torah.
>
> Amen
>

Nancy Pelosi as an unnatural "monster"

Re: Satyric view of the Speaker of the House (Nancy Pelosi)

Funny but the worse thing about Nancy Pelosi is she is "normal" in Ultra Liberal
Colleges and San Francisco. Many liberal arts departments and teacher ed
schools have become (virtually) enemy institutions and we have to submit to
crushing taxation to pay for these Ivory Towers (as we have had to pay to creat
ACORN which might have elected Mr. Obama) . As we are taxed more and more our
ablity to privately educate ourselves or our children will even be more reduced.
People earning $40,000 a year (not an opulent salary by any means) will be
REQUIRED at any age to pay thousands of dollars of mandatory government health
insurance. People making $80,000 or more ( now lower upper middle class) could
be require to spend over 20% of their income on government health insurance a
long while in most cases paying 7,8,9 and eventually 10 percent or more in
Social Security tax. In most states there is no Prop 13 so property taxes are
going up inch by inch and yard by yard every year effectively wipig out the
savings and disposable income of entire families.

Unless Obama is stopped he could destroy America's economy and in the long run
America's ability to defend not only itselft but the West including Australia,
New Zealand, South Korea and Japan. It is only a matter of time before Red
China gains parity in submarines, surface naval craft and air power. Eventually
we will have to withdraw our fleets from the Chinese sphere and then the Chinese
will be able to operate and expand with impunity. If China were a free country
I would not feel this way but let us not forget they are potentially America's
arch enmeny and they are still run by a Fascist-Community Military
dictatorship.

MUNRO

MARRIAGE IS A ONENESS

Marriage is not a federation of two sovereign states. It is a union–
domestic
social
spiritual
physical.

It is a fusion of two hearts–
the union of two lives–
the coming together of two tributaries,
which, after being joined in marriage, will flow in the same channel in the same direction… carrying the same burdens of responsibility and obligation.

Modern girls argue that they have to earn an income, in order to establish a home, which would be impossible on their husband’s income.

That is sometimes the case, but it must always be viewed as a regrettable neccessity, never as the normal or natural thing for a wife to have to do.

The average woman, if she gives her full time to her home
her husband
her children…

If she tries to understand her husband’s work…
to curb his egotism while, at the same time, building up his self-esteem
to kill his masculine conceit while encouraging all his hopes
to establish around the family a circle of true friends…

If she provides in the home proper atmosphere of culture
of love of music
of beautiful furniture
and of a garden…

If she can do all this, she will be engaged in a life work that will demand every ounce of her strength
every bit of her patience
every talent God has given her
the utmost sacrifice of her love.

It will demand everything she has and more.
And she will find that for which she was created.
She will know that she is carrying out the plan of God.
She will be a partner with the Sovereign Ruler of the univers.

And so, today’s daughters need to think twice before they seek to make a place for themselves
by themselves
in our world today…

Dr. Peter Marshall

YALE KRAMER AND OBAMA CARE

http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/09/remember_the_golden_oldies_dr.html



This is an article that everyone should read. Yale Kramer is an excllent
thinker and writer. His historical and literary references by the way are
correct and impecable.

Yet, there is something more. Dr. Kramer knows and remembers the Hippocratic
oath:

"I will prescribe regimens for the good of my patients according to my ability
and my judgment and never do harm to anyone."

All my life I have respected and revered old people because it is to them we owe
so much: our life, our liberty and also their example and their wisdom. The
very young an innocent are helpless and require our special care and assistance
even though we may owe them nothing as yet. But they are the future. The
elderly are not the future -thought they remind us that we are bounded creatures
and that their present if we are lucky will be our future.

As we must honor our mother and father, we must as a people honor our mothers
and our fathers even in their last days and years which as Dr. Kramer reminded
us may be productive, instructive and happy for them and for their families and
for society. The old folk in my life -now all gone except in memory- never
ceased to be fount of love, wisdom and kindness.

Never trust those who are not kind to their elders, their colleagues or their
suborinates. It may well be that they love humanity in general while they hate
individuals but it also may be that they care not for the common good at all
only for power.

These are things which I think we should remember at this present time. A very
old man wrote the Quixote and yet another said "Power corrupts and absolute
power corrupts absolutely."

RICHARD K . MUNRO

ENGLISH IMMERSION ARTICLES By MUNRO and others.

http://www.ceousa.org/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_view&gid=213&Itemid=54

HEDDEL NASH...GREAT ENGLISH TENOR

Heddle Nash was born in London June 14th 1894. This was very memorable to me, of course , and my parents because they were married on June 14, 1941, also known as flag day. Nash was 20 when World War one broke out and he enlisted in the British forces, interrupting his musical studies. He was a combat soldier and saw action in Palestine, Gallipoli and France. He was severely wounded; he recovered and later married his nurse. They had two sons. My father was also seriously hurt in a car crash and was nurse by my mother whom he later married. After World War I Nash studied with Marie Brema at the Blackheath Conservatory. Nash made his operatic debut in 1924 at the Teatro Carcano in Milan playing the role of Almaviva in Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville). Nash sang many song recitals and was well known as singer of oratorios, art songs, and opera (often in English) on the radio and on recordings. He is considered by many to be one of the greatest tenors of the 20th century and certainly one of the greatest English tenors of his era (floruit 1924-1950). He died of lung cancer in 1961 at the age of 67.


ANOTHER GREAT TENOR OF THE 78 era WEBSTER BOOTH




SNOWY BREASTED PEARL (translation of Irish Gaelic song) WEBSTER BOOTH

Love and Loyalty (fidelty) are prime virtues

Love and loyalty (fidelity) are prime virtues. Loyalty must come down if it is to come up, of course.



1)“Love is space and time measured by the heart.”

~ Marcel Proust ~

(1871-1922, French author)



2) “The heart that has truly loved never forgets….”
Thomas Moore, Irish poet.



3) “Tis a good thing, a happy thing when all men are leal and true; happy for them and happy for all. Loyal hearts are loving hearts.”

Traditional saying



4)”…keeping ever before you, aye, the images of darling children fondly listening as they are told about their absent father by your lealhearted loving wife.”



….biographical sketch of Sir Henry Havelock, 1858 By William Brock)

(AMajor-General Sir Henry Havelock, (5 April 1795 – 29 November 1857) was a British general who is particularly associated with India and Afghanistan. He was noted for his recapture of Cawnpore from rebels during Sepoy Muntiny of 1857. He was the commanding officer of Sir Colin Campbell of the 93rd Sutherland Highlanders, the original THIN RED LINE OF HEROES.)





5) Every society rests ,in the last resort,



on the recognition of common principles and common ideals,



and if it makes no moral or spiritual appeal to the loyalty of its



members, it must inevitably fall to pieces.”



Christopher Dawson, English historian


QUO VADIS, BRITANNIA?
QUO VADIS, EUROPA?
QUO VADIS, AUSTRALIA?
QUA VADIS AMERICA?

Quo Vadis MILEY CYRUS?

The girl is reasonably pretty and slim as most young girls are but really is not anythng special, physically, just above average. They say at 50 you have the face you deserve. Compare this young miss to Maureen O'Hara who just turned 89 or 90. Miss O'Hara was a complete knock out from age 17-55, kept her figure and still was attractive and quite handsome into her 60's and 70's.
And part of the appeal of Maureen O' Hara was she had a great sense of modesty. She was a very talented woman who also sang on broadway and recorded a LP of Irish songs (very nice really she had a sweet but small voice; her mother was an opera star).
Remember Brittany Spears? The same thing an above average girl in looks wth a nice figure and some talent for singing (not much really). She struck it rich but does not seem to have a happy life. I wish Miley better fortune but it is not a good sign when her parents allow her to be displayed and exploited like a prostitute. All this wealth and fame are like some feverish disease . A healthy person has just enough and develops good relationships with loving and trustworthy stable people. But all this is, in my humble opinion very unhealthy for Miley when lewdness, money and fame are all combined with a longing for those things to the detriment of all else there is an increase of jealousy, fear of loss (of fame, of looks, of figure), foul talk (each word like wound eventually it will damage the soul), foul thoughts (dominated by Eros; true love of friendship becomes difficult if not impossible). In the end an ugly life will end in ugly actions. And of course Miley will not be 15 or 25 forever. The great actresses singers and artists have more than looks alone and so make the transition from the eternal 25 year old (until age 40). Those actresses who don't and who can't make the transition often go mad. Marilyn Monroe died at age 36 and she was overweight -have you seen photos of her 1960-1962?- and rapidly aging. If she had not killed herself her career would have been over. That was too much for her to take so she went out before total bankruptcy set in. Very tragic but hers was a life -despite all her talents- of endless eros and hedonistic parties ending all alone drinking and taking pills and afraid to leave the house. I hope Miley can avoid a tragic path to self destruciton that Brittany Spears and Marilyn Monroe followed. That is the real tragedy. What are the parent's thinking? Maybe all they care about is their cut in the action. But money is not everything , not by a long shot. And true beauty is found only with modesty and true happiness is found only with true love which goes far beyond and far deeper than mere eros (sex).

RICHARD MUNRO