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

Harry Truman: VIRTUTE NON ASTUTIA

BOTTOM PICTURE INCLUDES EARL MILLER AND FDR
We miss Truman. We miss the country he was president of a whole lot more.














Harry Truman

Harry Truman was a different kind of President. He probably made as many important decisions regarding our nation's history as any of the other 42 Presidents. However, a measure of his greatness may rest on what he did after he left the White House.

The only asset he had when he died was the house he lived in, which was in Independence,Missouri . His wife had inherited the house from her mother and other than their years in the White House, they lived their entire lives there.

When he retired from office in 1952, his income was a U.S. Army pension reported to have been $13,507.72 a year. Congress, noting that he was paying for his stamps and personally licking them, granted him an 'allowance' and, later, a retroactive pension of $25,000 per year..

After President Eisenhower was inaugurated, Harry and Bess drove home to Missouri by themselves. There were no Secret Service following them.

When offered corporate positions at large salaries, he declined, stating, "You don't want me. You want the office of the President, and that doesn't belong to me. It belongs to the American people and it's not for sale."

Even later, on May 6, 1971, when Congress was preparing to award him the Medal of Honor on his 87th birthday, he refused to accept it, writing, "I don't consider that I have done anything which should be the reason for any award, Congressional or otherwise."

As president he paid for all of his own travel expenses and food.

Modern politicians have found a new level of success in cashing in on the Presidency, resulting in untold wealth. Today, many in Congress also have found a way to become quite wealthy while enjoying the fruits of their offices. Political offices are now for sale. (sic. Illinois )

Good old Harry Truman was correct when he observed, "My choices in life were either to be a piano player in a whore house or a politician. And to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference!

I say dig him up and clone him!!

MUNRO's COMMENTARY:





RE: Harry Truman: Virtute non astutia (character not craftiness).



Dear Steven and friends:


Very Amusing and as far as I know completely true. {SEE ABOVE}



Truman also spoke very unfavorably of Lyndon Johnson’s integrity which is interesting since they came from the same party. Truman did not hesitate to call Richard Nixon a ‘”no good lying bastard” and seemed to predict that Nixon’s duplicity would be his greatest Nemesis. And Truman was the least formally educated of all our modern presidents –never getting past high school.



But we know from the David McCullough biography that Truman was a great reader and an autodidact. Truman learned from what he read and from what he experienced. Truman said: “In reading the lives of great men, I found that the first victory they won was over themselves... self-discipline with all of them came first. “



Truman was , in all aspects , of his life, from his business partnership and its bankruptcy, his austere lifestyle in Washington, his lack of interest in money, his great integrity and civic virtue a man of integrity. His ability to change and grow wiser were remarkable. WWIII changed his attitudes on race –and he admitted this- and Truman, if he had ever been anti-Semitic or anti-Catholic –and there is no evidence of this- did all that he could not to display bigotry. He was encouraged and invited to join the Klan in the 1920’s to further his political appeal but he found their bigotry unacceptable. Integrity defined his personal and public life. Samuel Johnson wrote “Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful”.



Truman was a Lincoln in his devotion to the truth, public service in the true sense of the word –sacrifice not self-aggrandizement. He said, famously, “I never did give anybody hell. I just told the truth and they thought it was hell.”



Truman was brave –he had great physical and moral courage- and he was humble yet wise.



I admire Truman and his legacy because like Lincoln he had great faith in America and the proposition that “all men are created equal” and endowed with natural rights which certainly are “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” (the Declaration) and within reason embrace with great seriousness not only life and liberty but also “property” rights (The Constitution).



Truman, like Lincoln, believed in Right and Wrong and the immutability of truth. Truman had confidence in the rightness of his opinions and acted accordingly and when he made a mistake he owned up to it. Never apologizing and never admitting that one does not know all the facts is evidence of a very dangerous attitude of hubris or vainglory.



Truman knew that people change their minds –he did on race- and that mankind in the course of history had passed up and down from knowledge to incomplete knowledge to error and prejudice and then overcoming error, prejudice and attempting as far as humanly possible to gain true knowledge and wisdom. In his wisdom he knew not all could be known but when he made a decision he stuck with it and moved on. He did the best he could where he was with what he had and who could ask for anything more of a U.S. president?



Yes, Truman excelled in the American virtues.



Truman celebrated the importance of Duty to the Republic, under God, but also to individuals whose natural rights demanded they be treated with dignity, freedom and respect. Truman’s life was one of simplicity, self-control and moderation yet he was not excessively Puritanical –he drank whiskey, played cards and used, at times, a taste for manly, soldierly, direct and profane language, a habit he no doubt did not learn in school but as an officer of men in the field. For let us not forget, Truman was one of the Doughboys who helped secure the freedom and security of Britain and Europe against the Kaiser and his legions. Truman was, in fact, a hero of two great wars and a true soldier of freedom and justice.



As a Christian he refused the accolades of Glory per se and though like any other man Truman had pride but he always moderated his pride as a man and as an American with humility. It is this combination of meekness and courage combined with a gentle, humble and merciful heart, purged of most conceit and selfishness that really were the mark of this truly admirable and very American character.



Truman did not encourage the USA and the UN to recognize Israel as an independent state because it was popular or an easy thing to do but because it was right. Truman said “I had faith in Israel before it was established, I have in it now. I believe it has a glorious future before it - not just another sovereign nation, but as an embodiment of the great ideals of our civilization.” I believe no man has ever said it better. Truman recognized we, the gentiles, should never forget the great gifts of the Jews to all humanity.



I of course never met Truman nor his contemporaries but I did have the opportunity some years ago (the early 1970’s) to meet Earl Miller, FDR’s personal bodyguard –formerly of the New York State Police- and speak to him as regards to his opinion of the great statesmen with whom he had contact. He was personal friends with Gus Gennerich and all of the inner circle of FDR’s personal bodyguards who were all composed of New York City Police officers and New York State Policemen who first came into service when FDR became governor of New York.



Naturally, Miller loved FDR and had the highest regard for Mrs. Roosevelt. He told me interesting and amusing stories about FDR driving with him at high speeds in his specially designed convertible. Miller said to me of FDR “either he was the greatest actor in the world or he was a man who deeply cared about people. And that’s what I believe. He was like everyone’s favorite uncle. I loved him. I would have laid down my life for him.” Of Churchill he said “bodyguards and servants did not even exist for him; he seemed to have aristocratic contempt for them.”



And what of Truman?



Miller said quite truthfully he did not really get to know Truman well because FDR so rarely called upon his services.



But Miller said something that was very interesting. Truman had the reputation of being a very simple, unassuming man who was very considerate with his drivers, with the White House servants and cooks. Miller said he might have been the most beloved and respected man ever to live in the White House among the workers there with the possible exception of FDR himself. That of course was just one man’s opinion but it seemed to me to be a very worthy and informed opinion though of course not without prejudice. But I am not likely ever to come closer to the truth than this.



Harry S. Truman was an American Cincinnatus in the tradition of Lincoln and Washington.



Truman was not the most influential and greatest of the 20th century presidents but he was a very competent and honest president with a strong and successful foreign policy and a man who was an extremely important precursor for the Civil Rights achievements of the 1950’s and 1960’s



Truman was and remains a great example for what a democratic statesman can be at his best.



We shall never see his like again in this age of voluptuous, profligate politicians who live drink, party like Lords of some Imperial Empire while they write laws for confiscating other people’s earnings to use as their free spending money.



Truman inspired patriotism and civic responsibility; the pols of today mostly without term limits in their safe gerrymandered districts do just the opposite. No wonder many citizens are so demoralized they never vote and no wonder taxes are so high and our government is a web of corruption, secret insider deals, lavish living, immorality, sexual scandals, special favors, incompetence, parasitism, nepotism and waste.



Harry Truman was an exemplar of civic virtue and he knew our free society was based up a limited government as well as a positive passion for the public or common good.



Truman knew that the survival of the American Republic is not based on arms, though arms we need, nor on material prosperity, though we should seek some measure of material security as a basis of civilized life but upon the education and character of our citizens and their elected leaders.



Harry Truman: virtute non astutia (character not craftiness).



Harry Truman was a great man, a leal and true man who makes one proud to be an American and have lived during his lifetime.



He needs no monument.



The whole Free World is his monument.



Ne obliviscaris (do not forget): Harry Truman. Never was a man more truly named than Harry Truman.



Yours mostly sincerely and with deepest respect,


RICHARD K. MUNRO, MA

LAMENT FOR RED IAN

Thug thu dhioms' a' ghrian 'san speur You blotted the sun from the sky
Faill ill o hug o ro é Faill ill o hug o ro é
Spiòn thu asam mùirn mo chléibh You wrenched the joy from within my body
Faill ill o hug o ro éile Faill ill o hug o ro éile

Gheall mo gràdh dhomh siòda 's sròl My lover promised me silk and finery
Còmhdach riòmhach's seudan óir Flowing robes and golden jewelry
Gheall e mire 's blasdachd beòil He promised merryness and fine fare
'S cáithream chlàr a dhuisgeas òrain And the symphony of harps to inspire poetry

Có o'm faigh mi biadh air bòrd Who will provide me with meat for my table?
Thréig mo shòlas 's m'àilleachd neòil My happiness and my fair complexion have gone
Thréig mo stiùir, mo ràmh, 's mo sheòl My rudder, my oar and my sail have gone
Dh'rimich saoidh nan dualan òrbhuidh My flaxan-haired warrior has departed

Dìobradh damh a mhang 'sa fhrìth As a deer abandoning its fawn in the forest
Dìobradh eala 'h-ealag fhìn As a swan deserting its young
Dìobradh màthair rùn a cridh' As a mother forsaking her beloved child
'S mi gun dàimh, gun ghaol, gun dìonadh So I am left friendless, unloved and unprotected

MO GLEANNAN TAOBH LOCH LIOBHAINN

MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS ESCAPING LOCH LEVEN CASTLE

MO GHLEANNAN TAOBH LOCH LI\OBHAINN

(I KNOW THIS SONG BY DAVID SOLLEY; it is one of my favorite Gaelic songs)

O 's truagh nach robh mis' ann an gleannan mo ghaoil
Oir tha beannachadh Dhe\ agus sith ann
Tha na h-aibhnean 's na coilltean as bo\idhch' air an t-saoghal
Ann an gleannan mo ghaoil taobh Loch Li\obhainn.

Fa\ile cu\bhraidh an fhraoich tigh'nn thar mullach nam beann
Agus chi\ thu'n damh ruadh air an fhri\th ann
'S ged shiu\bhladh tu Alba chan fhaic thu aon ghleann
Tha cho boidheach rim' ghleann taobh Loch Li\obhainn.

Air an achadh bheag uain' chaidh lomadh le fa\l
Bidh na gillean le'n camain a' stri\ ann
'S chan 'eil buidheann an siorramachd mho/r EarraGha\idheal
Tha cho clis ris na suinn taobh Loch Li\obhainn.

Tha daoine cho coibhneil 's cho ca\irdeil 'sa ghleann
'S chan eil aobhar bhith dubhach no sgi\th ann,
Ach cho fhad's a bhios Ga\idhlig 'ga sgri\obhadh le peann
Bidh mi moladh mo ghleann taobh Loch Li\ohainn.

(Here's another little song with vocabulary list and translation.
There is one interesting point of writing style here: the
relative pronoun is omitted everywhere it would occur in more
formal writing - that's a reasonable omission to make, as it
would be elided away in speech in every case.) CC

TRANSLATION

My little valley by Loch Leven

It's a pity I'm not in the little valley I love,
for God's blessings and peace are there.
The rivers and woods are the most beautiful in the world
in the little glen I love by Loch Leven.

The fragrant scent of the heather coming over the tops of the hills,
and you'll see the red deer in the forest there
and even should you travel throughout Scotland you wouldn't see a single valley
that is as beautiful as my valley be Loch Leven.

On the little green field that was mown with a scythe
the lads will be competing there with their shinty sticks
and there isn't a team in the great county of Argyll
that is as agile as the men by Loch Leven.

The people are so kind and so friendly in the valley
that there's no reason to be sad or weary there;
and as long as Gaelic is being written with pens
I shall praise my valley by Loch Leven.


Vocabulary
----------

ach [ax] but. (but in the 3rd line of the last verse
here it just means "and")
achadh [axu%] field
agus [a%us] and
aibhnean [ain'un] rivers, streams. Nominative plural of abhuinn
air [er'] on
Alba [alapu] Scotland
ann [a:N],[auN] in it (prepositional pronoun)
in the second line of the third verse, the "it" in "in it"
is the valley, so "in it" will be rendered "there" in
english.
aobhar [u:var] reason, cause
aon [u:n] one
beag [buk],[bek] small
beann [bjauN] hill; of hills (nom sing & gen plural)
beannachadh [bjaNuxu%] blessing
bidh [pi:j] will be (future independent of bi)
bhios [vis] will be, is; future relative of bi
bhith [vi] being, to be. (verbal noun of bi)
bo\idhch' [bo:(j)x'] more beautiful, most beautiful
(comparative form of bo\idheach)
bo\idheach [bo:jox] beautiful
buidheann [bujeN] class, team, group
chaidh [xai%'] went (past independent of rach)
ca\irdeil [kar's't'el] friendly
camain [camaN'] shinty sticks (plural of caman)
(I think "shinty" is the english for camanachd;
it's a bit like hockey, but more fun)
chan [xan] not
clis [klis'] agile, nimble
coibhneil [kui(v)N'el'] kind, friendly. usually pronounced without a
v sound. dialect spelling of caoimhneil, but
this spelling is quite common.
coilltean [ku:L't'@n] woods (nom plural of coille)
cu\bhraidh [ku:ri] fragrant, pleasantly scented
damh [da:v] deer
daoine [duN'e] people, men; nom. plural of duine
dubhach [du:ox] unhappy, clouded
EarraGha\idheal [jaRa%a:jul] Argyll
'eil [el] be; dependent present of bi (short for bheil)
eil - - modern spelling of 'eil
fad' [at] far, long (short for fada)
fhaic [ax'k'], [ex'k'] see; future dependent of faic
fa\ile [fa:L'u] scent, perfume. (also written faileadh,
and the f is optional in both spelling and
pronunciation)
fa\l [fa:l] scythe
fhraoich [rujx'] of heather (gen sing of fraoch)
fhri\th [ri:] forest (not trees! deer-forest)
(dative case of fri\th)
gaoil [gu:il] of love (gen of gaol)
ged [g'et] although
gillean [kiL'un] boys [plural of gille]
gleann [gl'aun] valley
gleannan [gl'aNan] small valley (diminutive of gleann)
lomadh [Loumu%] shearing, shaving, making bare, mowing, husking
moladh [molu%] praising, commending (verbal noun from mol, praise)
mo/r [mo:ur] big
mullach [mu:ox] top, summit
nach [nax] that not
nam [num] of the (genetive plural definite article)
oir [o(i)r'] for, because
peann [pjauN] pen. Note that
rim' [rim] to my, as my (prepositional possessive
pronoun, ri + mo)
ris [ris'] to, as (form of ri used with definitive
article)
robh [ro] was (past dependent active tense of bi)
ruadh [rua%] red, russet
'sa [su] in the (anns a')
saoghal [su:ul], [su%ul] world. (if you go far enough south, you
may even here a glottal stop separating the
syllables rather than hiatus or a spirant)
sgi\th [sk'i:] weary, tired
sgri\obhadh [sgR'ivu%] writing (verbal noun from sgri\obh)
siorramachd [s'uRumaxk] county, shire (siorram = sherif)
sith [s'i] peace
shiu\bhladh [hjulu%] should travel (incomplete independent active
tense of siubhal)
stri\ [stri:] contest, strife, rivalry, contention
suinn [sujN'] heroes, champions, stout fellows (plural of sonn)
taobh [tu:v] beside
thar [har] across, over
tigh'nn [ti:N'] coming (for tighinn [t'i:iN'] (verbal noun)
truagh [trua%] sad, a pity; pronounced [truai] in some dialects
uain' [uaN'] green (uaine, [uaN'@])
(pronounced uaN' rather than uan' because scots
gaelic has dropped lenited palatalised n from its
set of phonemes, in most - maybe all - dialects;
there several more examples of this delenition
in the above list; some dialects depalatalise
instead of deliniting, eg duine is [dun@] in some,
[duN'@] in others, but the general rule at the end of
word is to delenite - even dialects which have [dun@]
will often have [duN'] for the form with the final
vowel elided (duin')).

MO MHATHAIR...my mother

Lovely Highland melody

THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER..thrilling version

JOHN MCCORMACK and FRANK PATERSON

SONG OF THE EXILE SLAN LE MAIGH

Ó slán is céad on taobh so uaim
(A hundred farewells from this place I'm in )
Cois Maighe na gcaor na gcraobh na gcruach
(Beside Maigue of the berries, the branches, the stacks)
Na stát, na séad, na soar, na slua
(The estates, the jewels, the craftsmen, the crowds)
Na ndán, na ndréacht, na dtréan gan ghruaim
(The arts, the stories, the good-humored warriors )

Curfá: Chorus (after each verse):
Och, ochón is breoite mise
(Oh it is broken hearted I am)
Gan chuid, gan chóir, gan chóip, gan chiste
(Without a share, or right, or company, or money)
Gan sult, gan seoid, gan spórt, gan spionnadh
(Without happiness, or jewels, or sport, or vitality )
Ó seoladh mé chun uaignis
(Since I was sent into loneliness )

Slán go héag dá, soar-fhir suairc
(Farewell forever to her happy freeman )
Dá daimh, dá heigs', dá chléir, dá suag
(To her love of kin, her gatherings, her clergy, her scholars (
Dom chaired cléibh, gan chlaon, gan chluain
(To the friends of my heart, not perverse or deceitful )
Gan cháim, gan chaon, gan chraos, gan chruas
(Without flaw, without concealment, without gluttony, without stinginess )

Slán dá n-éis, dá beithibh uaim
(Good-bye, one by one, to its beautiful women )
Da gcail, dá gceill, dá scéimh, dá snua
(To their fame, their sense, their loveliness, their complexions )
Dá mná go léir, dá gcéim, dá gcuaird
(To all its women, to their rank, their visitations )
Da bpráisc, dá bplé, dá méin, dá mbua
(Their messing, their discussions, their minds and their talents)

KAREN MATHESON Capercaillie - Mi le m-uilinn TENDER LOVE SONG

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGKAft_LzdU&feature=related



Mi le m'uilinn air mo ghluin
(With my elbow on my knee )
'Smuladach mi deanamh dain
(I am overcome by sadness whilst making this poem)

Sèist: Chorus (after each verse):
Shil mo shuil nuair chaidh siuil
(Tears fell from my eyes when he left under sail)
Ri croinn-ura chaol ard As the tall mast grew small
Righ, 'smo run-sa nam barr
God (king) he is my innermost love high upon the mast!

Dearcam fhathast air mo ghaol
(A glimpse of my love )
Coiseachd air slat-chaol fo sheol
(Walking on board the deck beneath the sails )

Seid seimh, socair, o Ghaoth Tuath
(Oh North Wind, blow gently )
Gus an cuir i Cluaidh as fair
(Until he reaches the waters of the Clyde)

Gheall a Pillidh mis, a ghraidh
(A promise that I will not forget my love)
Buidhe nuair ni fas an t-earn
(In rescue it will increase)

Aiseig fallain o Ghaoth
(Tuath Oh North Wind, bring him)
Dhachaidh dhanh mo luaidh slan
(Home in good health )

Mezzo Soprano Jacquelyn Wagner is absolutely magnificent.

Dear Sir:

I am a great aficionado of song and opera and I have been following great singers all of my life. One of the real greats –I saw her perform many times- was Victoria de Los Angeles another was the great Mezzo Shirley Verrett. I thought I should never hear or see the like again in my lifetime.

But I was wrong. Jacquelyn Wagner is absolutely magnificent.
This is a voice I would drive 500 miles to hear.
This is a name and a voice I will patiently wait for and seek out to hear again and again!
The words to not exist to describe fully the thrill this woman provides not only with her lustrous, glorious voice but with her every gesture and facial expression, her sincerity, her clear diction, her complete involvement with the song and the music. When I heard her performance of De España vengo it was as if I had heard for the first time. Never have I heard an American artist sing this famous Spanish Zarzuela Arias to such perfection!
Miss Wagner seems to have that inner fire that burns only in a handful of great artists and - when it blazes up - makes for the highest and most memorable music experience possible. There can be no question this is a great musical and artistic talent.
I wish her all the luck in the world and with me she has mad a fan for life.
Good health I wish to her, great health, good companions, good luck and much happiness. Those associated with Jacquelyn Wagner can consider themselves very fortunate indeed.

Sincerely,

Richard K. Munro, MA
Teacher of English, Spanish and History
http://www.blogger.com/profile/12285008371586474385




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9g2mr4oE-Y Jacquelyn Wagner - Der Freischütz



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUC0T4voNSg Jacquelyn Wagner - De España vengo The only performance by an American that I would rank as worthy of comparison to Victoria de Los Angeles. The timing, expression and diction really rose to the very limits of art.

VICTORIA DE LOS ANGELES is applauding from heaven and nodding in aggrement with me:

The Vietnam War: “Save your luck , your ammo and your blood for when it really counts.”

The Vietnam War: “Save your luck , your ammo and your blood for when it really counts.”

By Richard K. Munro


Who was to blame for the Vietnam debacle? Some blame LBJ –he must bear the most responsibility- but others blame Nixon for ‘lengthening the war.” There is no question that commitments of prior presidents ‘set the trap’ of the Vietnam-Indochina quagmire. The roots of the disaster go back to France’s colonial past and France’s defeat in WWII. But the US involvement was a direct result of US foreign policy from Truman to Ford.
After WWII the French returned to reoccupy Indochina which had been “liberated” by the Japanese during WWII. The French Army was not particularly well equipped and they scraped the bottom of the barrel for recruits. Some of their Legionnaires were former German soldiers and it was no uncommon for French soldiers to be partially disabled (one eyed or one armed) and still be on active service. Nonetheless, the Truman Doctrine gave military aid to France and NATO helped secure the French homeland. This enabled France to attempt to reassert its colonial rule. But this time the French were facing well-equipped and highly motivated Communist insurgents. Things went from bad to worse for the French and in 1954 they were utterly defeated at Dien Bien Phu. Eisenhower refused to send US troops at that time since he had just ended the Korean War and wisely did not want the US to get involved in another land war on the mainland of Asia. At the Geneva Conference of 1954 France gave up Indochina which was slit it three countries: Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam (North and South). The division of Vietnam was ‘temporary ‘ awaiting elections (never held). In the meantime Ho Chi Minh solidified his Communist dictatorship in the North. Though the USA did not send combat troops in the 1950’s Eisenhower gave over 1 billion dollars in aid to South Vietnam. The justification had its roots in Truman’s policy of containment and the ‘domino theory.” The rational was we had to contain Communism in South East Asia or Indonesia, Malaya , Singapore and Australia were at risk. Secretary of State Dulles put together SEATO (now defunct). The US had few allies in Vietnam. Australian and South Korea were the only allied nations to send significant troop support. Britain, France and USA’s NATO allies stood apart; in fact many of them traded food , fuel and war materiel to North Vietnam. North Vietnam would receive massive support from the Soviet Union and Red China (including hundreds of thousands of “volunteer” laborers who freed North Vietnamese from the fields to fight). President Kennedy followed the example of Truman and Eisenhoer and by 1963 he had sent 16,000 US troops to South Vietnam, chiefly advisors and trainers. On November 2, 1963, the president of South Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Diem and his brother were arrested and murdered by ARVN military army officers. It appears this coup had the backing of the CIA. Kennedy had declared in an interview, “In the final analysis, it is their war. They are the ones who have to win it or lose it. We can help them, we can give them equipment, we can send our men out there as advisers, but they have to win it, the people of Vietnam, against the Communists... But I don't agree with those who say we should withdraw. That would be a great mistake.... [The United States] made this effort to defend Europe. Now Europe is quite secure. We also have to participate—we may not like it—in the defense of Asia.” We can never know if Kennedy would have sent combat troops to South Vietnam in 1965 as LBJ later did.. But one can make a case –since Kennedy had refused to send the Marines to Cuba- that Kennedy would not have risked the unpopularity of a major war so far from the centers of power. We do know that Kennedy was a strong anti-Communist and believed in counter insurgency and supported the strengthening of US Army Special Forces (nicknamed the Green Berets).

Upon the assassination of Kennedy himself, November 22, 1963 Lyndon Johnson became president. In retrospect, it is ironic that LBJ becamse so closely identified with the Vietnam war because he ran as the “peace candidate” against Barry Goldwater who was depicted as an extreme hardliner. It appears that LBJ was ready, willing and able to intervene in South Vietnam militarily as soon as he had a causus belli.. There was a naval incident with the USS Maddox in the Gulf of Tonkin August 2, 1964. The Maddox had been scouting North Vietnamese waters and the North Vietnamese apparently responded with an attack on the US vessel. Within hours LBJ launched retaliatory air strikes on North Vietnam. this sparked the passage of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution August 7 1964. It passed 416-0 in the House and 88-2 in the Senate. The only two Senators to vote against the resolution were Sen. Wayne Morris (D-Oregon) and Ernest Gruening (D-Alaska.). Gruening prophetically said the resolution was a “predated declaration of war”. The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution empowered president Johnson to “repel attacks” on US forces to “prevent further aggression.” Later critics of the wr would call the full-scale use of military forces ‘illegal” because war was never declared by Congress.
LBJ’s policy was to strengthen ARVN by first increasing its air cover. This led to the need of larger US airbases on Vietnamese soil and of course to provide security for these bases the US began to expand its ground forces (called ‘escalation”) in South Vietnam 1964-1965. The US began Operation Rolling Thunder to begin carpet bombing of North Vietnam with B-52’s. But bombings were limited for political reasons; Haiphone Harbor was never mined or blockades and many critical dikes were also not bombed. LBJ’s policy seemed to be “show the flag , spill blood and hang tough.” LBJ may have made a critical mistake by not declaring a State of Emergency or war. One result was that US Forces were filled with many short term draftees; as much as 1/3 of US combat forces in the Army would be lost each year. By 1965 there were 184,000 US troops in Vietnam. As the ARVN forces seemed incapable of stopping Vietcong attacks of US Air bases and South Vietnamese cities, president Johnson sent US Marines and US Army combat units.. The first major battle between US Forces and the People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN plus Vietcong units) was in November 14-18, 1965 in the Ia Drang Vallley.. The US forces came within an inch of being wiped out but were saved by heavily artillery and air support. It is significant that the ARVN (South Vietnamese) forces scarcely played any role in the battle. By 1967 there were 485,000 troops in Vietnam and by March 1969 (the Nixon presidency) there were 540,000. President Nixon soon withdrew the US Marines and began a policy of “Vietnamization”.
The American people supported containment from the 1940’s until 1960’s but from the very star there was a “credibility gap” because LBJ was not completely honest with the American people about the economic cost (over $100 billion dollars and the effectiveness of the US campaign. The can be no question television played a part in demoralizing the American people into believing the war was unwinnable. The economic cost caused high interest rates, inflation and higher taxes. It could be argued serious long-term economic damage to the USA., The draft was unfair because ‘college deferments’ meant middle and upper class American males could avoid military service. The abolition of the college deferment led to widespread unrest on US campus in 1968-1969. The American people began to become divided into ‘Hawks” (who were anti-Communist and supported the war) and Doves (peaceniks who favored ending the war immediately) . The turning point was the TET OFFENSIVE of January 31, 1968. Though the attack was thrown back –with great difficulty- Tet resulted as a political victory for the Vietcong.. There is no question LBJ rapidly lost popularity because of the war especially within the Democratic party. LBJ had won in a landslide in 1964 but my 1968 his popularity was rated at 16% by some polls. Senator Eugene McCarthy (D-Minn) opposed LBJ, and though LBJ won the New Hampshire primary in March 1965 McCarthy won 42% of the vote. Soon after Robert Kennedy entered the race. On March 31, 1968, LBJ went on live television to announce that he would not run for reelection. In May 1968 Johnson announced that peace falks would begin in Paris. Meanwhile, Kennedy won a series of primaries culminating in his June 1968 primary win but tragically was assassinated shortly there after. The split in the Democratic party led to chaos in the 1968 Democratic Convention and Hubert Humphrey was picked as a ‘compromise candidate”. Richard Nixon running as a peace candidate “with a secret plan to end the war” won in a very close election primarily because George Wallace siphoned off millions of votes in the South that had voted form LBJ previously. Nixon’s election changed US policy in Vietnam and gradually the US began withdrawing combat forces though briefly the USA surpassed 500,000 troops in March 1968. Nixon won re-election in 1972 over a dovish candidate named George McGovern. Nixon continued Johnson’s policy of peace talks but they dragged on successfully for over three years. Secretary of State Kissinger warned the North Vietnamese that there would be ‘grave consequences” if they failed to conclude the peace talks. The Vietnamese communists remained intransigent and Nixon responded with the “Christmas Bombings” (Operation Linebacker) 18th of December to the 29th 1972. Over 30 US bombers were lost, chiefly to Soviet built SAM-2 missiles. Talks resumed in January 1973 and President Nixon ordered all US offense operations to cease. The US gradually and peacefully withdrew its forces. Henry Kissinger won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts, though in retrospect it was somewhat of a booby prize, in my opionion. But Nixon would not be at the helm as his presidency ended in disgrace due to the Watergate scandal; on August 9, 1974 Nixon resigned. and President Ford became president. After the elections of November 1974 the Democrats once again held a big majority in the House and Senate. In January 1975 North Vietname under its gifted General Giap launched an all out offensive in South Vietnam. Without US ground forces the ARVN forces, despite some desperate stands by ARVN Marines, South Vietnam collapsed. It was 1965 all over again except this time there were no US Army or US Marine combat brigades to stop the offensive. Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh city) fell on April 30, 1973. The photographs of the US evacuating the US embassy by helicopter are iconic More than 58,000 American servicemen and women lost their lives from 1959-1973 and in addition more than 300,000 Americans were wounded many critically. I visited Walter Reed hospital in 1976 and there were still war casualties in the hospital still in comas or in serious condition. When the war ended the official death count was 55,000 but over the years that number has inched up as hospitalized soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines succumb to their wounds. Over three million Vietnamese were killed in the war. Over 125,000 South Vietnamese fled Vietnam in April 1975. to settle in the USA. In the following years over 500,000 Vietnamese would flee from Vietnam to the USA.
The history of the Vietnam War is very instructive. There is no question it was a lesson as to the limits of US power. Many presidents both Republican and Democrat contributed to the debacle. It was a big mistake to impose an weak and unsatisfactory regime in South Vietnam without much popular support. It was a big mistake to fight the war as a police action with limited international support. It was a big mistake not to declare a state of emergency or war and to try to fight a difficult war with marginally motivated short-term draftees. It was a big mistake to fight such a limited war without and clear objectives or goals. In subsequent wars the USA has been more successful because they rely on a smaller but highly trained all volunteer professional force. It was a mistake to wage war in Vietnam because Vietnam was far from the centers of power. One could argue that US Naval and Air Power could have contained the Communist movement to the mainland without a land intervention.. The social and economic costs of the Vietnam War were very great. Never again will there be a near unanimous vote for military intervention as there was in 1964; the unanimity on foreign policy caused by WWII and the Cold War was smashed by the tensions of the war. It can be argued that the bitter divisions caused by the war are still festering in the early 21st century. Both parties are to blame but I remain firmly convinced that the true architect of the defeat was President Johnson. For this reason and for the economic and social damage caused by the war, I rate LBJ as one of the worst presidents of the 20th century. Kennedy and the presidents prior to him had only sent limited forces and no combat troops. President Nixon gradually withdrew US combat forces in a war as to avoid a massacre or defeat of US forces on the ground. President Ford was helpless in face of Congressional opposition to do anything to stop the final Communist offensive. If the Vietnam War teaches us anything it teaches us that war is a tricky, dangerous and expensive proposition. Do not shed your blood and your treasure until the issue at hand is truly critical and threatens the national security of your nation. Save your luck , your ammo and your blood for when it really counts.




TIMELINE:

http://www.pbs.org/battlefieldvietnam/timeline/index.html