UNFORTUNATE HISTORY OF HAITI
The earthquake in Haiti, by way of television, has given the world a glimpse of what it is like to live and die in abject poverty. Granted much of world's peoples have lived and died in poverty for centuries. But in 2010 such poverty should be unthinkable.
The Haiti we see on our screens is unfortunately symbolic of much of the history of that half of Hispaniola, at least since the Spanish sea captain Christopher Columbus of Genoa sailed into their waters.
The next four hundred years, Haitians as a people, seemed just born to die. Napoleon's France made it a slave state. In 1804 both African and local Indians, rose up and defeated the French, becoming independent Haiti.
As Haiti slaves celebrated a new start, the North American leaders, administrations of Washington, Adams and Jefferson were on trainer wheels, doing their best to make a go of it after their hard-won freedom from the English.
You would think that men who had just stood up against "taxes without representation, would be at the front of the celebrating freedom parade with their newly free Caribbean neighbors.
No. The U.S. government sided with the French against the slaves in their victory. (Choosing the wrong partner at the dance has been one of our worst traits.)
We even agreed with the French that the loss of all those slaves and produce cost them money and demanded the Haitians pay France for that loss. That kept the Haitians in debt for years. We went along with a blockade on Haiti.
Also the U.S. government was a nation that allowed slavery. The Dred Scott Decision by the Supreme Court of 1857, declared slaves were property, not persons. The plantation owners and politicians in all the free and slave states feared such a revolt in their prosperous cotton fields down south.
U.S. President Andrew Johnson (the same one who forced great sorrow for American Indians. Remember the Trail of Tears.), in 1868, he suggested the annexation of the whole island of Hispaniola -- present-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic -- to secure a US presence in the Caribbean. (No one was interested.)
From 1914 to 1935 American troops kept the "peace" in Haiti. Peace as in Cuba and other South American countries allowed U.S. corporations to drain them dry and give them nothing. (Sounds familiar?)
To make matters worst U.S. troops have twice (1991 and 2004) deposed and overthrown the democratly elected government of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Vanessa Buschshluter, of BBC News, Washington wrote: "It would be nice if Aristide were a saint. It's comfortable to take the side of a saint. But he isn't one."
When Aristide (elected by popular vote) was president, many died with only a few being brought to justice. Historians tell us Aristide did not start out to be a brutal dictator, even though he was an improvement over Francoius "Papa Doc" Duvalier and his son Jean-Claude ("Baby Doc") Duvalier. Such is just a glimpse of the past.
Now, without latrines, electricity, water, hospitals or government, comes the fear of cholera. The world-wide response to the human suffering in funds and people for Haiti shows that most of the world still cares for the less fortunate and the stricken. This help must continue for at least a decade.
The hard-working, good people of Haiti deserves better than their former leaders and from foreign interference. With the earthquake more people around the world know how desperately Haiti needs and deserves a solid new start. With helpers, even from our perceived enemies, of doctors, nurses and specialists of all kinds a better world can emerge. Pray and pass the plate again.
NEW FEATURE: TRIVIA FOR THOSE WHO LIKE TRIVIA: Today, January 29th, is the 222nd founding of today's Australia (know by some as Anniversary Day and by others as "Invasion Day.")
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Monday, January 25, 2010
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Whistleblowers
Whistle-blowers face uphill battle
When you hear a whistle in a football game, you know somebody did something wrong. It is the same way in the real world.
A whistle-blower is a person who raises a concern about wrongdoing in an organization. This person usually is from that same organization. This misconduct may be classified in many ways. For example, a violation of a law, rule, regulation and/or a direct threat to public interest, such as fraud, health/safety violations, and corruption. (These facts were lifted from various encyclopedias.)
Daniel Ellsberg, the former State Department analyst who leaked the Pentagon Papers in 1971, brought the truth of the Vietnam War to light. Ellsberg blew the whistle on the practices of deception by the Johnson and Nixon administrations, leading to less public support for the war.
A more recent case, is the one of Katharine Gun, a former employee of Government Communications Headquarters, a British intelligence agency. In 2003 she leaked top-secret information to the press concerning alleged illegal activities by the United States and the United Kingdom in their push for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Her life was actually in danger for making public what was actually going on in the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq.
Then the following year, 2004, Joe Darby, a member of the United States military police, alerted the U.S. military command of prisoner abuse in the Iraqi Abu Ghraib prison.
Whistle-blowers frequently face reprisal - sometimes at the hands of the organization or government which they have accused. Fear for their lives was evident with the cases of Ellsberg, Gun and Darby.
The accused usually fights back against whistle-blowers. Take this month's trial of Bradley Birkenfeld. He was absolutely essential to a landmark tax-evasion case against the Swiss bank UBS's cheating the USA Treasury out of $100 billion a year.
Whistle-blower Birkenfeld, on January 8, 2010, began serving a 40 month sentence in a Pennsylvania Federal Correction prison. His revelations were welcomed by the Treasurer Department and Internal Revenue System. Then the rich bankers and the tax-evaders turned on Birkenfeld (who worked for UBS) who became the only one to go to jail.
Leading Anti-Corruption Groups have requested a Presidential Pardon for him. International anti-corruption groups have joined the case. The open letter to President Obama requesting commutation for Mr. Birkenfeld in order to "reverse the devastating impact Mr. Birkenfeld's case will have on international law enforcement efforts."
Mr. Birkenfeld’s attorneys issued the following statement: “An American tragedy. A disgraceful miscarriage of justice. An insult to every honest American who must work hard and pay their taxes. The imprisonment of Bradley, is shocking and unjustified. ... It will have a radical chilling effect [on other bankers] to step forward and expose fraud. This is devastating to any efforts to expose the use of illegal offshore bank accounts by criminals who want to avoid taxes.”
New York Post writer Juan Gonzalez wrote: "Only Birkenfeld, ends up in jail - the No. 1 example of injustice and hypocrisy in the age of Obama."
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When you hear a whistle in a football game, you know somebody did something wrong. It is the same way in the real world.
A whistle-blower is a person who raises a concern about wrongdoing in an organization. This person usually is from that same organization. This misconduct may be classified in many ways. For example, a violation of a law, rule, regulation and/or a direct threat to public interest, such as fraud, health/safety violations, and corruption. (These facts were lifted from various encyclopedias.)
Daniel Ellsberg, the former State Department analyst who leaked the Pentagon Papers in 1971, brought the truth of the Vietnam War to light. Ellsberg blew the whistle on the practices of deception by the Johnson and Nixon administrations, leading to less public support for the war.
A more recent case, is the one of Katharine Gun, a former employee of Government Communications Headquarters, a British intelligence agency. In 2003 she leaked top-secret information to the press concerning alleged illegal activities by the United States and the United Kingdom in their push for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Her life was actually in danger for making public what was actually going on in the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq.
Then the following year, 2004, Joe Darby, a member of the United States military police, alerted the U.S. military command of prisoner abuse in the Iraqi Abu Ghraib prison.
Whistle-blowers frequently face reprisal - sometimes at the hands of the organization or government which they have accused. Fear for their lives was evident with the cases of Ellsberg, Gun and Darby.
The accused usually fights back against whistle-blowers. Take this month's trial of Bradley Birkenfeld. He was absolutely essential to a landmark tax-evasion case against the Swiss bank UBS's cheating the USA Treasury out of $100 billion a year.
Whistle-blower Birkenfeld, on January 8, 2010, began serving a 40 month sentence in a Pennsylvania Federal Correction prison. His revelations were welcomed by the Treasurer Department and Internal Revenue System. Then the rich bankers and the tax-evaders turned on Birkenfeld (who worked for UBS) who became the only one to go to jail.
Leading Anti-Corruption Groups have requested a Presidential Pardon for him. International anti-corruption groups have joined the case. The open letter to President Obama requesting commutation for Mr. Birkenfeld in order to "reverse the devastating impact Mr. Birkenfeld's case will have on international law enforcement efforts."
Mr. Birkenfeld’s attorneys issued the following statement: “An American tragedy. A disgraceful miscarriage of justice. An insult to every honest American who must work hard and pay their taxes. The imprisonment of Bradley, is shocking and unjustified. ... It will have a radical chilling effect [on other bankers] to step forward and expose fraud. This is devastating to any efforts to expose the use of illegal offshore bank accounts by criminals who want to avoid taxes.”
New York Post writer Juan Gonzalez wrote: "Only Birkenfeld, ends up in jail - the No. 1 example of injustice and hypocrisy in the age of Obama."
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Saturday, January 2, 2010
REEL and REAL Versions of Politics
Why can't real politics be more like reel?
"The world has been shaved by a drunken barber" says the Colonel (Walter Brennan) in the Frank Capra film "Meet John Doe." Brennan is the side-kick of Gary Cooper in this 1941 movie of common people and the power-hungry upper-crust during the Great Depression years.
In the film, a public relations scam to increase newspaper circulation, turns sour for Cooper's character, a humble, honest kid from the farm. Brennan's character wants to leave the city and the "heelots" (heels) he blames for the downfall of good people. The "heelots" are his name for people who are corrupted by wealth.
Which reminds me it is January again and time for the U.S. Senators to give themselves another raise. If no senator objects their raise is automatic. What a deal for our dedicated public servants. They care less that tens of thousands of Americans are out of work, laid off, and cheated by jobs going overseas. Blessed by Congress factories and jobs keep going overseas. No longer is just a profit acceptable, they must make mega-profits. They are top-notch "heelots."
The anti-establishment Brennan character fears his buddy Cooper is getting corrupted with the luxury and money. He tells Cooper, "You're gonna get used to a lot of stuff that's gonna wreck ya ... I've seen guys like you go under before, guys that never had a worry. Then they got ahold of some dough and went goofy ... and there you are – you're a heelot yourself."
The world of today is not that different from the 1941 film. The Colonel, a vagrant anti-social tramp, is skeptical of the power hungry, greedy "guys in charge." That attitude is growing in the hinterland. (Not the corporation-sponsored tea-bag parties – their anger is misplaced.)
Corruption and dishonesty, extra-martial affairs don't even get a powder-puff slap; no shame to having pockets bulging with re-election cash; no regulation laws enforced; ethics committees never meet; the legislatures give speeches to the walls; don't think for themselves and do little research or they would not say the things they do. (Molly Ivins has been gone three years this month. She said of Congress: "It is silly, vacillating, with no earthly idea what to do unless it has an opinion poll in front of it." Molly may be gone, but congress is as Looney as ever.)
Molly would have agreed with Thomas Carlyle, who said, "The greatest of faults, is to be conscious of none."
Remember the film, "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington," with Jimmy Stewart acting like a senator should act. Seventy years later this films reminds us our leaders need to have character and integrity. Alan Alda's 1979 film "The Seduction of Joe Tynan," reveals how extra-marital affairs ruin character and make them unfit to be trusted with affairs of state.
The 1948 film, "The State of the Union," revealed how the finest man seeking public service can be twisted, abused and used by those wanting to control. Fortunately Spencer Tracy comes to his senses before he is completely controlled by the greedy and powerful heelots.
Film classics, great theater, with hints to the wise for those who pay attention. Paraphrasing the "My Fair Lady" song "Why can't a woman be more like a man?" I ask "Why can't a the "real" public servants be more like the "reel" ones?"
E-MAIL: bet@suddenlink.net
William C. Brann Attacked Again
AS IT APPEARED in the San Angelo Standard Times and Brownwood Bulletin, Friday, Jan. 1, 2010
There is no rest for the wicked, so goes the saying; even a 112 years after his demise? Just before Christmas the tombstone of William Cowper Brann was vandalized and stolen from Waco's Oakwood Cemetery.
Brother Brann was one of a kind. The following will catch you up on him, then and now. Charles Carver's 1956 biography of Brann begins with "They wouldn't let him rest, even in his grave." Now can be added the thief of his tombstone.
Brann was an extremely opinionated newspaper publisher in Waco village in the 1890s. His paper in Austin had folded and he sold his press for $250 to a fellow writer, William Sydney Porter (who later became famous as O. Henry), and moved to Waco where he had much greater success.
Brann founded "The Iconoclast" with the stated mission “to expose Frauds and abolish Fakes, to make unrelenting war upon Humbugs and Hypocrites.” He found fame, as one writer reported, “in a flat-roofed Texas town whose intellectual glory was a Baptist college and whose answer to arguments was ropes and revolvers.”
Brann was despised by most of the town's citizens. Bob Dardin, Waco author, said, "The people who hated him read him out of self-defense ... they wanted to know what he was going to say." He once portrayed the Baylor College as "the alma mater of mob violence ... a chronic breeder of bigotry and bile."
He once said the only thing wrong with Baptists is they don't hold 'em down long enough when baptizing 'em. The war of words ended when the students kidnapped Brann and tried to hang him. The faculty is said to have saved him. He mocked the regents. He wrote that he hoped the school would not continue to “manufacture ministers and Magdalenes." (Magdalenes was his term for "fallen women").
He gave the college president, Rufus Burleson, nightmares with his "investigative" journalism. Seems a Brazilian priest had converted to the Baptists and sent a his daughter, Antonio Teixeira, a promising teenager, to study at Baylor. Soon afterwards Brand discovered she was mostly used as a servant in the president's home. A real scandal was uncovered, but best leave that for another column.
"The Iconoclast" had subscribers around the world. His financial records shows invoices from England, Australia and Japan. Some years his monthly circulation was close to 120,000. It sold for $1.00 a year, or ten cents for an individual copy at the Old Corner Drug Store or the old McClelland Hotel. Local newspapers, like the Waco Daily Telephone and Waco Tribune-Herald, were no competition for Brann. The also were not as bias.
A few called him a walking dictionary; the Prairie Voltaire or the Wizard of Words. He was endowed with a great vocabulary as his grandson said of him: "I feel such a deep-seated respect for his talent, but I would have used that talent differently if endowed like he was."
Brann was shot down by a disgruntled critic and is buried in Waco's Oakwood Cemetery, also home to three Texas governors and two Confederate generals. Brann's grave is the most visited in the cemetery. Possibly because someone shot his tombstone soon after his burial.
He was shot in the back by real estate developer Thomas E. Davis while Brann and W.H. Ward walked down Fourth Street between Austin and Franklin avenues. (A bronze plaque marks the spot.)
Critically wounded, Brann turned and emptied his six-shooter into Davis, who died the next day. Davis told authorities he was mad at Brann’s attacks on Baylor, where his daughter was a student. No moral to this column unless it would be wise to take heed and think twice when disparaging Baptists. Happy New Year --- may it be one of the best ever.
There is no rest for the wicked, so goes the saying; even a 112 years after his demise? Just before Christmas the tombstone of William Cowper Brann was vandalized and stolen from Waco's Oakwood Cemetery.
Brother Brann was one of a kind. The following will catch you up on him, then and now. Charles Carver's 1956 biography of Brann begins with "They wouldn't let him rest, even in his grave." Now can be added the thief of his tombstone.
Brann was an extremely opinionated newspaper publisher in Waco village in the 1890s. His paper in Austin had folded and he sold his press for $250 to a fellow writer, William Sydney Porter (who later became famous as O. Henry), and moved to Waco where he had much greater success.
Brann founded "The Iconoclast" with the stated mission “to expose Frauds and abolish Fakes, to make unrelenting war upon Humbugs and Hypocrites.” He found fame, as one writer reported, “in a flat-roofed Texas town whose intellectual glory was a Baptist college and whose answer to arguments was ropes and revolvers.”
Brann was despised by most of the town's citizens. Bob Dardin, Waco author, said, "The people who hated him read him out of self-defense ... they wanted to know what he was going to say." He once portrayed the Baylor College as "the alma mater of mob violence ... a chronic breeder of bigotry and bile."
He once said the only thing wrong with Baptists is they don't hold 'em down long enough when baptizing 'em. The war of words ended when the students kidnapped Brann and tried to hang him. The faculty is said to have saved him. He mocked the regents. He wrote that he hoped the school would not continue to “manufacture ministers and Magdalenes." (Magdalenes was his term for "fallen women").
He gave the college president, Rufus Burleson, nightmares with his "investigative" journalism. Seems a Brazilian priest had converted to the Baptists and sent a his daughter, Antonio Teixeira, a promising teenager, to study at Baylor. Soon afterwards Brand discovered she was mostly used as a servant in the president's home. A real scandal was uncovered, but best leave that for another column.
"The Iconoclast" had subscribers around the world. His financial records shows invoices from England, Australia and Japan. Some years his monthly circulation was close to 120,000. It sold for $1.00 a year, or ten cents for an individual copy at the Old Corner Drug Store or the old McClelland Hotel. Local newspapers, like the Waco Daily Telephone and Waco Tribune-Herald, were no competition for Brann. The also were not as bias.
A few called him a walking dictionary; the Prairie Voltaire or the Wizard of Words. He was endowed with a great vocabulary as his grandson said of him: "I feel such a deep-seated respect for his talent, but I would have used that talent differently if endowed like he was."
Brann was shot down by a disgruntled critic and is buried in Waco's Oakwood Cemetery, also home to three Texas governors and two Confederate generals. Brann's grave is the most visited in the cemetery. Possibly because someone shot his tombstone soon after his burial.
He was shot in the back by real estate developer Thomas E. Davis while Brann and W.H. Ward walked down Fourth Street between Austin and Franklin avenues. (A bronze plaque marks the spot.)
Critically wounded, Brann turned and emptied his six-shooter into Davis, who died the next day. Davis told authorities he was mad at Brann’s attacks on Baylor, where his daughter was a student. No moral to this column unless it would be wise to take heed and think twice when disparaging Baptists. Happy New Year --- may it be one of the best ever.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Dec. 25 Thoughts From Past
ON CHRISTMAS DAY IN HISTORY
Christmas Day comes in all sizes. By sizes I mean our Christmas Days have come with good or bad, happy or sad, memories of all sizes.
Beyond the pleasant, peaceful, and meaningful day of giving and receiving gifts is remembering that God gave His Son on that first Christmas Day. (I don't know the how of it, but by faith I know 'tis so.) To some people Christmas is a lovely custom, to others a grand holiday, but to one writer-scholar, "The Christmas story is precisely the story of one grand miracle, ... If you take that away there is nothing specifically Christian left." (from "God in the Dock" by C.S. Lewis.)
There is an advantage for some Christians who are of the Orthodox (or Eastern Church) as they can celebrate two Christmases a year if they so choose. They can celebrate December 25 according to the Gregorian calendar or January 7 according to the Julian calendar.
History tells us that on Christmas Day of the year 800, Charlemagne was crowned as the Holy Roman Emperor and a mere 266 years later, in the year 1066, William the Conqueror was crowned as king of England.
St. Francis of Assisi is said to have assembled the first Nativity scene. (Wonder if he had to get a permit?) In Austria, in 1818 the first singing of "Silent Night" performed.
1868, the United States President Andrew Johnson granted unconditional pardon to all Civil War Confederate soldiers. The state of Alabama was the first state to recognize Christmas as an official holiday, beginning in 1836. In part one of this series, it was noted that Christmas was declared a federal holiday on June 26, 1870.
Texas colonizer, Stephen F. Austin, freed on bail from a Mexico jail on Christmas Day, 1834
The Christmas of 1941 was not a pleasant one for the people of Hong Kong. That was the day the Japanese forces took the colony in World War II. The Emperor of Japan ruled Hong Kong for most of the next five years. The late Oz Quick, a Southern Baptist missionary from Guilin, China, was in Hong Kong recovering from an illness that day. He spent Christmas in a Japanese jail. We worked together years later in Taiwan.
Speaking of Taiwan, in 1947, the Constitution of the Republic of China on Taiwan went into effect and became a holiday they called Constitution Day. Being mostly a Buddhist country, they assured the people this was not a religious Christian holiday. It was a religious holiday for the Christians and Constitution Day for the Buddhists, Daoists and non religious.
A history-making meeting on Christmas Day, 1977, was that between – Prime Minister of Israel Menachem Begin and the President of Egypt, Anwar Sadat. The date was also Sadat's birthday.
Others born on Christmas Day include: Sir Isaac Newton; Clara Barton (founder of the American Red Cross); hotel magnate Conrad Hilton (San Angelo's Cactus Hotel was the second one he built?). Musicians Cab Calloway and Tony Martin. (Dean Martin died on Christmas Day). Actors Humphrey Bogart, Sissy Spacek; scriptwriter Rod Serling (The Twilight Zone and "Requiem for a Heavyweight.") American footballers Ken Stabler (the Snake, Oakland Raiders and Houston Oilers) and Larry Csonka, Miami Dolphins running back in Super Bowls VI, VII, VIII).
Nineteen short years ago, the first successful trial run of the system which has become known as the World Wide Web, was on Christmas Day, 1990. The Internet Era began. If our Christmases cannot be historic, they can be happy.
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS AND READERS AND THOSE DOING GOOD IN THE WORLD FOR THE HUNGRY, TIED, SICK, LAME AND THEMSELVES (STAY FIT, EAT WELL, LIVE LONG)
Christmas Day comes in all sizes. By sizes I mean our Christmas Days have come with good or bad, happy or sad, memories of all sizes.
Beyond the pleasant, peaceful, and meaningful day of giving and receiving gifts is remembering that God gave His Son on that first Christmas Day. (I don't know the how of it, but by faith I know 'tis so.) To some people Christmas is a lovely custom, to others a grand holiday, but to one writer-scholar, "The Christmas story is precisely the story of one grand miracle, ... If you take that away there is nothing specifically Christian left." (from "God in the Dock" by C.S. Lewis.)
There is an advantage for some Christians who are of the Orthodox (or Eastern Church) as they can celebrate two Christmases a year if they so choose. They can celebrate December 25 according to the Gregorian calendar or January 7 according to the Julian calendar.
History tells us that on Christmas Day of the year 800, Charlemagne was crowned as the Holy Roman Emperor and a mere 266 years later, in the year 1066, William the Conqueror was crowned as king of England.
St. Francis of Assisi is said to have assembled the first Nativity scene. (Wonder if he had to get a permit?) In Austria, in 1818 the first singing of "Silent Night" performed.
1868, the United States President Andrew Johnson granted unconditional pardon to all Civil War Confederate soldiers. The state of Alabama was the first state to recognize Christmas as an official holiday, beginning in 1836. In part one of this series, it was noted that Christmas was declared a federal holiday on June 26, 1870.
Texas colonizer, Stephen F. Austin, freed on bail from a Mexico jail on Christmas Day, 1834
The Christmas of 1941 was not a pleasant one for the people of Hong Kong. That was the day the Japanese forces took the colony in World War II. The Emperor of Japan ruled Hong Kong for most of the next five years. The late Oz Quick, a Southern Baptist missionary from Guilin, China, was in Hong Kong recovering from an illness that day. He spent Christmas in a Japanese jail. We worked together years later in Taiwan.
Speaking of Taiwan, in 1947, the Constitution of the Republic of China on Taiwan went into effect and became a holiday they called Constitution Day. Being mostly a Buddhist country, they assured the people this was not a religious Christian holiday. It was a religious holiday for the Christians and Constitution Day for the Buddhists, Daoists and non religious.
A history-making meeting on Christmas Day, 1977, was that between – Prime Minister of Israel Menachem Begin and the President of Egypt, Anwar Sadat. The date was also Sadat's birthday.
Others born on Christmas Day include: Sir Isaac Newton; Clara Barton (founder of the American Red Cross); hotel magnate Conrad Hilton (San Angelo's Cactus Hotel was the second one he built?). Musicians Cab Calloway and Tony Martin. (Dean Martin died on Christmas Day). Actors Humphrey Bogart, Sissy Spacek; scriptwriter Rod Serling (The Twilight Zone and "Requiem for a Heavyweight.") American footballers Ken Stabler (the Snake, Oakland Raiders and Houston Oilers) and Larry Csonka, Miami Dolphins running back in Super Bowls VI, VII, VIII).
Nineteen short years ago, the first successful trial run of the system which has become known as the World Wide Web, was on Christmas Day, 1990. The Internet Era began. If our Christmases cannot be historic, they can be happy.
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS AND READERS AND THOSE DOING GOOD IN THE WORLD FOR THE HUNGRY, TIED, SICK, LAME AND THEMSELVES (STAY FIT, EAT WELL, LIVE LONG)
Friday, December 4, 2009
A Little Christmas History
CHRISTMAS THROUGH THE YEARS (First of Three on Christmas 2009)
Wandering through the Internet as Christmas approaches there is a wealth of facts, legends, customs and mythis evolving from the birth of the Christ Child.
As far back as is known, Christmastime was celebrated at different times during the year, like a moveable feast. During the 4th century, Pope Julius I, chose the time of the Winter Solstice, a pagan celebration about the Return of the Sun, for a set-date to celebrate the birth of Jesus. The Pope had good intentions in setting the date on an already popular holiday. By legally replacing the pagan festival with a Christian one, he hoped to enhance the meaning of Christmas. (Such has been the intentions of Christians down to our day --- "Jesus is the reason for the season" --- "Put Christ back in Christmas." –-- He is the center of these special days, if we individually decide to make it so.)
Of the gifts brought to Jesus in Bethlehem, frankincense is of particular interest. It is a sweet smelling gum resin taken from certain trees which, in those days, grew in Arabia and India. Frankincense was a valuable commodity in the Roman Empire, even considered as valuable as precious gems. Frankincense was used in Roman funerals. Some scholars have speculated that the gift of frankincense foretold the death of Jesus.
Over the years, any traditions have evolved around the Christmas season. The Old Norse phrase "ves heill"--to be of good health – we call "Wassail." This custom gradually became a tradition of visiting neighbors on Christmas Eve and drinking to their health. Wassailing was the forerunner to the English custom of Christmas caroling, wishing neighbors to a long and healthy life.
I have not been wassailing for a long time. I remember, the Christmas I got a 78 rpm portable record player, taking out my trumpet and joining John Robnett (grandson of Howard Payne University founder) and Tommy Savage, we three went caroling the neighborhood. I don't recall our being ask to play after the first home we visited. We learned singing alone was better than sounds from cold lips on coronets.
A traditional Christmas dinner in early England was the head of a pig prepared with mustard. I am thankful the Pilgrims didn't bring that custom with them in 1620. Actually, the Pilgrims (who were English separatists) did not observe Christmas, or Easter. This resulted in Christmas not being a holiday in early America. It was even outlawed in Boston from 1659 to 1681.
During and after the American Revolution, Christmas like other English customs, were seldom observed. General George Washington and his army crossed the Delaware River on his way to Trenton on Dec. 25, 1776. The 1777 Christmas at Valley Forge saw the troops freezing and "enjoying (?)" a Christmas dinner of fowl cooked in a broth of turnips, cabbage and potatoes. Ten years later, Congress was in regular session on December 25, 1789, the first Christmas under America's new constitution.
Christmas was not declared a federal holiday until June 26, 1870 The 14th president, Franklin Pierce (b.1804 - d.1869) was the first president to decorate an official White House Christmas tree.
Next week, Friday Dec. 18th, I will continue this column on Christmas through the years.
--30—
Wandering through the Internet as Christmas approaches there is a wealth of facts, legends, customs and mythis evolving from the birth of the Christ Child.
As far back as is known, Christmastime was celebrated at different times during the year, like a moveable feast. During the 4th century, Pope Julius I, chose the time of the Winter Solstice, a pagan celebration about the Return of the Sun, for a set-date to celebrate the birth of Jesus. The Pope had good intentions in setting the date on an already popular holiday. By legally replacing the pagan festival with a Christian one, he hoped to enhance the meaning of Christmas. (Such has been the intentions of Christians down to our day --- "Jesus is the reason for the season" --- "Put Christ back in Christmas." –-- He is the center of these special days, if we individually decide to make it so.)
Of the gifts brought to Jesus in Bethlehem, frankincense is of particular interest. It is a sweet smelling gum resin taken from certain trees which, in those days, grew in Arabia and India. Frankincense was a valuable commodity in the Roman Empire, even considered as valuable as precious gems. Frankincense was used in Roman funerals. Some scholars have speculated that the gift of frankincense foretold the death of Jesus.
Over the years, any traditions have evolved around the Christmas season. The Old Norse phrase "ves heill"--to be of good health – we call "Wassail." This custom gradually became a tradition of visiting neighbors on Christmas Eve and drinking to their health. Wassailing was the forerunner to the English custom of Christmas caroling, wishing neighbors to a long and healthy life.
I have not been wassailing for a long time. I remember, the Christmas I got a 78 rpm portable record player, taking out my trumpet and joining John Robnett (grandson of Howard Payne University founder) and Tommy Savage, we three went caroling the neighborhood. I don't recall our being ask to play after the first home we visited. We learned singing alone was better than sounds from cold lips on coronets.
A traditional Christmas dinner in early England was the head of a pig prepared with mustard. I am thankful the Pilgrims didn't bring that custom with them in 1620. Actually, the Pilgrims (who were English separatists) did not observe Christmas, or Easter. This resulted in Christmas not being a holiday in early America. It was even outlawed in Boston from 1659 to 1681.
During and after the American Revolution, Christmas like other English customs, were seldom observed. General George Washington and his army crossed the Delaware River on his way to Trenton on Dec. 25, 1776. The 1777 Christmas at Valley Forge saw the troops freezing and "enjoying (?)" a Christmas dinner of fowl cooked in a broth of turnips, cabbage and potatoes. Ten years later, Congress was in regular session on December 25, 1789, the first Christmas under America's new constitution.
Christmas was not declared a federal holiday until June 26, 1870 The 14th president, Franklin Pierce (b.1804 - d.1869) was the first president to decorate an official White House Christmas tree.
Next week, Friday Dec. 18th, I will continue this column on Christmas through the years.
--30—
Great Christmas Books
GOOD BOOKS ARE GREAT CHRISTMAS GIFTS
Picking up from last week's thoughts on Christmas, there is no writer more linked to Christmas (not counting the New Testament writers), than the prolific 19th century author, Charles Dickens.
Dickens was born into a big family and had a big family of his own. He knew poverty personally. He became known for the remarkable characters and situations he created. He was a spokesman for the poor and the dispossessed. He made the "haves" see the state of the "have-nots."
In 1843, his "A Christmas Carol," tells an unmatched story of the rich and poor, the believers and skeptics, as they confront the reality of what the Christmas story is really about.
Dickens wrote several other Christmas stories. He wrote one a year for some years, but none was as popular or successful as his first. One of the most famous of his characters was Tiny Tim. Dickens considered three other names for the little boy before he settled on Tiny Tim. The other possibilities considered were Small Sam, Puny Pete and Little Larry. Millions of readers agree he used the right name. I just can't see Puny Pete or Little Larry saying, "God bless you everyone," with a straight face.
Scrooge's constant "Bah Humbug," was not Dickens' initial choice for that statement. He first had Scrooge's saying "Bah Christmas." Another good change for the master-writer. (For a brief biography of Dickens see the one by C.D. Merriman.)
According to the BBC website, the handwritten manuscript of "A Christmas Carol" is presently on display at the Morgan Library and Museum in New York along with the original watercolor cover of the 1843 first edition. Readers fortunate to be spending Christmas in New York should visit the exhibit.
In a review of the exhibit, Claire Prentice writes that Dickens wrote the classic story in a frantic six-weeks. He began in October 1843, ending in time for Christmas publication.
"The manuscript is a mess," says the Morgan's curator Declan Kiely. "It's a mess because Dickens was trying to get everything down on paper really fast."
"When you look at it, you see him in the full flood of creative energy and excitement right there on the page. When he began writing, he just couldn't put it down," says Kiely.
The story of the miserly Scrooge's redemption, after three frightful dreams, has inspired television, radio, film, opera and theatrical presentations for years. Any of the many editions of the book would make an excellent Christmas gift.
Speaking of Christmas gifts, the late Elmer Kelton's "Christmas At The Ranch," about what Christmas was like in West Texas during the Great Depression is also great reading. Kelton writes Christmas toys "were modest by today's standards because a dollar in those times looked as big as a saddle blanket."
Next Friday is Christmas Day and I will share the last of these Christmas columns. It will be a busy day, but for those who take time to read it I hope it is enjoyable. About some things that happened on other Christmases. What other historic events took place on December 25th?
***** ***** *****
Picking up from last week's thoughts on Christmas, there is no writer more linked to Christmas (not counting the New Testament writers), than the prolific 19th century author, Charles Dickens.
Dickens was born into a big family and had a big family of his own. He knew poverty personally. He became known for the remarkable characters and situations he created. He was a spokesman for the poor and the dispossessed. He made the "haves" see the state of the "have-nots."
In 1843, his "A Christmas Carol," tells an unmatched story of the rich and poor, the believers and skeptics, as they confront the reality of what the Christmas story is really about.
Dickens wrote several other Christmas stories. He wrote one a year for some years, but none was as popular or successful as his first. One of the most famous of his characters was Tiny Tim. Dickens considered three other names for the little boy before he settled on Tiny Tim. The other possibilities considered were Small Sam, Puny Pete and Little Larry. Millions of readers agree he used the right name. I just can't see Puny Pete or Little Larry saying, "God bless you everyone," with a straight face.
Scrooge's constant "Bah Humbug," was not Dickens' initial choice for that statement. He first had Scrooge's saying "Bah Christmas." Another good change for the master-writer. (For a brief biography of Dickens see the one by C.D. Merriman.)
According to the BBC website, the handwritten manuscript of "A Christmas Carol" is presently on display at the Morgan Library and Museum in New York along with the original watercolor cover of the 1843 first edition. Readers fortunate to be spending Christmas in New York should visit the exhibit.
In a review of the exhibit, Claire Prentice writes that Dickens wrote the classic story in a frantic six-weeks. He began in October 1843, ending in time for Christmas publication.
"The manuscript is a mess," says the Morgan's curator Declan Kiely. "It's a mess because Dickens was trying to get everything down on paper really fast."
"When you look at it, you see him in the full flood of creative energy and excitement right there on the page. When he began writing, he just couldn't put it down," says Kiely.
The story of the miserly Scrooge's redemption, after three frightful dreams, has inspired television, radio, film, opera and theatrical presentations for years. Any of the many editions of the book would make an excellent Christmas gift.
Speaking of Christmas gifts, the late Elmer Kelton's "Christmas At The Ranch," about what Christmas was like in West Texas during the Great Depression is also great reading. Kelton writes Christmas toys "were modest by today's standards because a dollar in those times looked as big as a saddle blanket."
Next Friday is Christmas Day and I will share the last of these Christmas columns. It will be a busy day, but for those who take time to read it I hope it is enjoyable. About some things that happened on other Christmases. What other historic events took place on December 25th?
***** ***** *****
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