>An American Outrage, Tragedy, and Disgrace

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Novelist James Patterson

   I have read what I consider one of James Patterson’s greatest novels, Alex Cross’s Trial, co-authored by Richard Dillalo. It talks of slavery in the South and the terrible aftermath of the Civil War which resulted in extreme anger of some southern men who malicious downgraded, segregated, belittled, cheated, robbed, burned, mutilated, beat to death and hung black men, women, and children.

This devilish hatred took a hundred years to quell, culminating in the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the forced desegregation of schools. It took action by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to make it happen.

President Harry S. Truman

President Dwight D. Eisenhower

     There were nine African-American students enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957. Students were prevented from entering the racially segregated school by Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus. He changed his mind when President Dwight D. Eisenhower intervened. This is considered to be one of the most important events in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. On their first day of school, troops from the Arkansas National Guard would not let them enter the school. This was followed by mobs making threats to lynch. If you want to know of the turmoil, fear, and anguish blacks must have felt when that occurred, please read James Patterson’s heart rendering historical novel Alex Cross’s Trial. Without a doubt, it is a classic piece of literature.

   In July, 1948 President Harry S. Truman eliminated segregation in the U.S. Armed Forces.

   The U.S. Supreme Court issued its historic Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas ruling on May 17, 1954. It declared that all laws establishing segregated schools to be unconstitutional and called for the desegregation of all schools throughout the nation. A plan of gradual integration to comply with the high court’s ruling was implemented during the fall of 1957. Nine black students attended the previously all-white Little Rock, Arkansas Central High School. Following President Eisenhowers intervention, those students were allowed into that school, and students were registered in all-white schools throughout the south and the nation, thus accomplishing the de-segregation of schools in America. Eisenhower tried to get Civil Rights legislation passed by a predominantly Democrat Congress and failed. It wasn’t until 1964 under President Lyndon Johnson that the Civil Rights bill was passed by Congress.

Joseph Smith As A boy of 14 prayed in a grove of trees near his home in Palmyra, NY and asked asked God and Jesus Christ, who appeared to him, which church to join. He was told to join none of them. That was 1820. In 1832 he received a revelation predicting the Civil War. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints was formed. members are called either Latter-day-Saints or Mormons. From the get-go, the Church openly opposed slavery and preached the equality of man.

   The Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Pub.L. 88-352, 78 Stat. 241, enacted July 2, 1964) was a landmark piece of legislation in the United States that outlawed major forms of discrimination against blacks and women, including racial segregation. It ended unequal application of voter registration requirements and racial segregation in schools, at the workplace and by facilities that served the general public such as public accommodations, hotels, restaurant and the like. 

Martin Luther King

   Powers given to enforce the act were initially weak, but were supplemented during later years. Congress asserted its authority to legislate under several different parts of the United States Constitution, principally its power to regulate interstate commerce under Article One (section 8), its duty to guarantee all citizens equal protection of the laws under the Fourteenth Amendment and its duty to protect voting rights under the Fifteenth Amendment.

  

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been out in front of the world with end of times, civil war, and anti-slavery prophesy. Blacks have always been allowed membership and fellowship in the Church. It wasn’t until 

   Most people don’t know this, but through the Prophet Joseph Smith knowledge of a civil war which occurred between April 12, 1861 and April 9, 1865 between northern and southern states was predicted almost 29 years before it occurred and is recorded in Section 87 of the Doctrine & Covenants and also in The History of The Church.   This section begins: “Revelation and prophecy on war, given through Joseph Smith the Prophet, 25 December 1832 (see History of the Church,1:301–2). This section was received at a time when the brethren were reflecting and reasoning upon African slavery on the American continent and the slavery of the children of men throughout the world.

   War is foretold between the Northern States and the Southern States and great calamities will fall upon all the inhabitants of the earth. Six hundred twenty-five thousand were killed.

   This is considered scripture by the Mormons or Latter-day Saints. For example, in verses one and two of that section it says: “Verily, thus saith the Lord concerning the wars that will shortly come to pass, beginning at the rebellion of South Carolina, which will eventually terminate in the death and misery of many souls;

 And the time will come that war will be poured out upon all nations, beginning at this place. As you know, the Civil War did begin in South Carolina and, although Joseph Smith prophesied or predicted the war in 1832, it did not occur until 1865. This is a well-documented scripture in the annals of Church History. It has never been a secret or undisclosed.

   The Church took a stand against slavery. That is one of the reasons it met with such stiff resistance when it attempted to establish as its center in the early 1830s Jackson County, Missouri as a gathering place. That was a slave state and people didn’t like the Mormons coming down there in large numbers changing the balance of power.

   Part of this scripture, which is being fulfilled in the twenty-first century, also predicted “famine, and plague, and earthquake, and the thunder of heaven, and the fierce and vivid lightning also, shall the inhabitants of the earth be made to feel the wrath, and indignation, and chastening hand of an Almighty God, until the consumption decreed hath made a full end of all nations.

   People are not generally familiar with this scripture because the brunt of it’s consequences may not have yet come to bear on their lives. But organizations such as the American Inflation Association (AIA) are predicting that due to the giant deficits America is experiencing due to overspending of primarily two foolish presidents, congress, and the Federal Reserve System the dollar is quickly being devalued, prices are rising – and soon will be spiraling into massive commodity inflation and shortages this country has never before known, at least not since the Great Depression.

   But only the unprepared need fear. The Church has advised its members to maintain a year’s supply of money, food, and other commodities in case of war, famine, internal strife, layoffs, and other causes of lack. Those who abide by this rule have been blessed. Those who do not always live in fear.

   Do you realize that one-third off all Americans – that’s a hundred million people – have no private retirement plan or funding. They rely entirely on Social Security which is in trouble financially and to which Congress will be forced to take an ax and cut benefits. Is this the start of some of the strife that America will experience? Even a blind man can see America is not on good economic footing. We can no longer depend on the government for anything. 

>Billy Joel’s "We Didn’t Start The Fire"

>Thanks to my friend Dan Simons for reminding me of the great talents of Billy Joel and especially for reviving in my memory his great historical ode, “We Didn’t Start the Fire” which I listened to intently and then listened again, studying it, looking for subliminal suggestive things like thalidomide, and the “Catcher In The Rye” novel of J.D. Salinger. This is one of the best videos I’ve listened to and viewed, though our family has always loved Billy Joel.

I was born in 1936 and was 17 going on 18 during my senior year of high school in 1954. Like most of my peers, I never got to read Salinger’s memorable and huge commercially successful novel. It hadn’t yet reached my consciousness, nor I doubt most of our teachers’. Our English teachers were just as prudish as our parents and our times, and as careful as true “Catchers In The Rye” should be.

But most of our parents were ignorant of this novel or of this form of art.I know mine were. Had the books reached our eyes they might have stormed our Granite High School citadel of learning and had stern words with Principal Hatch. That is, had our fragile minds been allowed to be “polluted” by the likes of English teacher Nel Madsen and others by a banned book that seemed to become passe and benign after social mores slackened, when this then “tawdry” piece of literature suddenly became regarded as a great work of art to be cherished rather than shunned. Thanks once again, Danny.
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This is a repeat, but worth it!

  

This song & its title was answer to a recent Final Jeopardy  — only one person got it right —  question was (paraphrased) “What 1980’s song do history teachers praise for its educational value.”  Never could understand all the references on Billy Joel’s song — fortunately, with this VIDEO, given the picture(s), now can “see” what our “ears” couldn’t.  Anyway, checked to see purpose behind the song.    Apparently, it’s Joel’s homage to the 40-years of historical headlines since his birth (1949).  Wish we could have appreciated the depths of this song when it was released.    Twenty years later, it’s amazing what Joel was able to put into music and lyrics lasting only a few minutes. Here it is, set to pictures… . It’s a n eat flashback through the past half century.  Turn up volume, sit back and enjoy a review of 50 years of history in less than 3 minutes! Thanks to Billy Joel and some guy from the  University of  Chicago   with a lot of spare time and Google. Top left gives you full screen….top right lets you pause.  Bottom left shows the year.  The older you are, the more pictures you will recognize.  Anyone over age 65 should remember over 90% of what they see.  But it’s great at any age.    Cl ick Here:   We Didn’t Start The Fire

All the best in news, advice, and that which makes you happy.