Wednesday, November 22, 2017

Who would rather be a liberal?



To-day is the 22nd of November, on that day 1963, a man with a mail order rifle assassinated John Kennedy in Dallas. Yesterday, Donald Trump said he prefers a sexual predator of teen age girls as senator, over a liberal. This is what John Kennedy wrote:  

“If by a "Liberal" they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people-their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights and their civil liberties-someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a "Liberal", then I'm proud to say I'm a "Liberal.”  ― John F. Kennedy, Profiles in Courage

Tuesday, November 14, 2017

Does a bird have a chance?

 
Before i entered high school (grade 9), we went to the school to get our summer reading books; which was a good idea, they were to be part of that year's English class. It was a good idea, for to give us an opportunity to get the reading done in the possible leisure of summer, so that we would not be pressed for study time competition with the the other classes during the academic year. One of the books was, To Kill a Mockingbird. The novel was printed in 1960. It won a Pulitzer Prize. In 1962 it became a movie, and Gregory Peck played Atticus Finch (see foto), which won him the best actor Oscar. The book is objected to to-day to be read in schools, mostly in the South. The book makes white southerners "uncomfortable". Atticus is assigned to defend an innocent black man accused of raping a white woman. The man is found guilty.

The story takes place in the early 1930s, a time of economic depression, in Alabama. The story focuses on social injustice based on racial hatred of negroes, and an honorable man (Finch). The character of the character of Atticus Finch is so good, that he is an impetus for people to become lawyers (well a certain type of lawyer).

In 1963, four Ku Klux clansmen dynamited a black church, the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham Alabama. Four girls were killed, and more than twenty people injured. One killer was tried and convicted in 1977. 

In 1997, Bill Clinton nominated Doug Jones [not the relief pitcher] for U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama. In 2000 Jones was deputised to be able to try the two living klansmen bombers. They were found guilty.

Doug Jones is the Democratic candidate for United States senator for Alabama. The election is next month. The Republican candidate is former judge Roy Moore. Roy Moore has been twice removed from Alabama's supreme court. Campaigning for senator, Moore pulled out and waived a snub nose revolver. It has come to light, that Moore has had a penchant for under age teen age girls. He had been banned from the Gadsen Mall for such behaviour. Alabama is now an overwhelming Republican state. Very few white people in Alabama vote for Democrats. A majority of these voters claim to be evangelical christians, and Moore has campaigned (and made money) on his stated moral foundations. Recently, more than fifty such clergymen have signed a letter of support for Roy Moore. 

Wednesday, November 8, 2017

Judas kiss

Well, i continued my sporadic tour of stained glass. It became a sunny afternoon. I have read, Douglas Phillips *1922,1995†, a local artist had designed eight large windows (triple lights of three sections each, and a overlapping header) for Lakewood Presbyterian. The church is security conscious, i was closely supervised. In the bottom right section was this Judas kiss. Other than the Last Supper, there are not many depictions of Judas on glass in the area.

Tuesday, November 7, 2017

100 years of bolshevism

I have been writing fewer political comments, and more foto celebrations. Part of the reason is the horrible, but simple politics, here—Trump is dangerous moron, and his party is a criminal cult, and those iterations are daily evident; and i can photograph events i enjoy.

To-day, it has been an hundred years since the October [the Russians were still using the Julian calendar] Revolution began. Lenin took St. Petersburg (Petrograd) in a Bolshevik coup. From then till 1991 Revolution Day was celebrated, since then only nostalgic communists celebrated. With Bolshevism, the civil wars began, and as in the United States the political ramifications have not been settled. Bolshevik communism is dead, but its methods of deceit, and heritage of complete social and political power are still appreciated and emulated by others.

Sunday, November 5, 2017

St. Emeric

 
The last Cleveland church/parish to have its Homecoming Mass was St. Emeric. That was on the 4th of November 2012. The last Cleveland Mass Mob was at St. Emeric 13th November 2016. To-day, the 5th of November is St. Emeric Day, the patronal feast of the parish. That was celebrated to-day, as was the five years of re-opening.