Forgetting the Dream
While many school children around the country spent yesterday outside their classrooms enjoying the extended holiday weekend, at least one high school remained open for business. You would think maybe they decided to spend the day studying or watching select speeches and celebrating the great gains made by Martin Luther King, Jr, the slain Civil Rights Leader whose life is remembered at this time every year.
You would be wrong. The two campuses of New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois, an upscale suburb of Chicago, held a day of seminars that school administrators claimed was to carry on the legacy of King, but really were nothing more than day-long indoctrination seminars on topics that would make any far-left college professor they encounter in the future very proud. Here are just a few of the choices that were offered to students:
-“Reconstructing Race”: Race is an influential concept in our society, but one
that’s not often questioned. How do we figure out what race someone is? And what do we mean when we say someone is white, black or any other race?
-“Why Do I Have to Feel Guilty for Being White?”: Talking about race doesn’t usually feel good for anyone. White people often walk away feeling guilty and thinking, “But I didn’t do anything!” In this workshop, we’ll explore how white guilt can become a roadblock in our journeys toward becoming white allies.
-“Yer’ A White Wizard, Harry: Whitewashing in Cinema”: This is a discussion about white dominance in the film industry. We are going to be taking a look at different cases where the voices of People of Color were silenced by the industry and how we can change it.
The day also included seminars on Islamophobia to discuss stereotypes of Muslims and the Middle East in pop culture and a look at Disney films and the racial stereotypes there. So much for focusing on Dr. King’s dream of a society where people could be judged not on the color of their skin, but on the content of their character.
Several parents, who were rightly concerned about these seminars, reached out to Breitbart News via email expressing their disapproval. One parent noted the school district was in violation of its own policies of maintaining an unbiased educational environment: “These ‘workshops’ and ‘classes ‘seem likely to breed within the kids a sense of guilt and shame–as if they are at fault for the misfortune in the world and it is their responsibility to make amends. Several classes are designed to teach them to be, in essence, ‘community organizers.’…It all seems like there is a political agenda underlying it all.”
That seems to be more true each day in education across the nation, and not just in liberal enclaves of the Northeast and West. From the Fairfax County, Virginia schools that last year implemented lessons on homosexuality and gender identity for students as young as 4th grade, to the revisionist portrayals of Islam in Tennessee schools—parents have their hands full when it comes to helping their kids separate fact from fiction.
The New Trier administrators stand by their choice to stay open and made yesterday’s seminars mandatory, with any absences treated as they normally would be any other day. According to the schools’ website, “The MLK Seminar Day on Race is part of New Trier High School’s ongoing work toward equity and global citizenship”.
Glad they cleared that up…as long as it’s not political.
MLK statue in Kelly Ingram Park in Birmingham. AL
Who Are We?
Today is the last day of Hanukkah, and since this is a place where both “Merry Christmas” and “Happy Hanukkah” can still be spoken side by side, I thought it was a good time to share an interesting bit of trivia that I found in a book I read a while ago. On each of the 8 nights of Hanukkah, a candle is lit and prayers are recited. One prayer is a blessing, which begins with the phrase, “Barukh atah Adonai”, which means, “Blessed are you, Lord our God”. Then it went on to explain the word “barukh” means “blessed”, and the Hebrew word it comes from is “barakh” (“to kneel to bless or to kneel to make rich”).
If these ancient words look vaguely familiar, it’s where the African language got its word for “blessed”…”Barack”. This may make you want to scoff and I wouldn’t blame you a bit. Oh, the irony that we should have a president who has a name that means, not only “blessed” but one who kneels down to bless or to make rich. This implies an intentional action to bless.
I would say our president doesn’t live up to his name. The average household has less expendable income than before he was elected. More people are on food stamps. Race relations are worse than they’ve been in many decades, and his idea of “leading from behind” has led to a leadership vacuum here and especially in the Middle East.
Since nature hates a void, it left the door open for the true believers of political Islam such as ISIS to take hold of large swaths of that part of the world, and it remains to be seen how our own lack of real leadership will unfold here in the U.S. Whenever a tragedy strikes, such as the terrorist attack in California, Obama takes that opportunity to lecture us on “who we are”, usually by using the phrase, “That’s not who we are”. Pay attention, and you’ll notice: he says that A LOT.
The truth is, he really has no idea who we are. A married couple, who are now believed to have been part of a terrorist cell, shoot up an office Christmas party and somehow it’s the fault of the guns, or the lack of gun laws…or it’s the internet’s fault. The media and political gymnastics that have occurred in the days since the shooting have been amazing and disgusting to watch. Blaming anything other than the two people and those supporting their attack makes them into victims themselves rather than vicious jihadi Islamists fighting infidels for allah.
So we are told we have to have more gun laws or government restrictions on the internet because “it’s not who we are” to allow mass shootings to keep happening. We’re told we have to open our borders wide to let in more people, even though terrorists have admitted that they have planned to infiltrate the refugee program in order to get here to do us harm. But we can’t ask them too many questions, especially about their religion because that too, is “not who we are”.
Who we are, if the president or any other ideologue cared to ask, is a people who are the first ones to help whenever there is a man-made or natural disaster anywhere in the world. Americans give more than any nation, and have done more than any nation in the history of the world to reach out to poor and oppressed people all over the world. We’re not racist, bigoted people who need lecturing from a person who doesn’t live up to his own name to serve and bless other people. It might be wise for all of us, as we prepare to go into an election year, to remember who we are, where we’ve been, and where we want to go. American exceptionalism isn’t just a platitude used by conservative talk show hosts or an idea denied by liberals—it’s a fact supported by history.
Later this week, I’ll share an example of what every day Americans are doing to go beyond words to action when it comes to saving lives in the Middle East—-and they’re doing it without a lot of fanfare. (check back Thursday afternoon…)
The Lost Holiday
A couple of days before Halloween, I went into a grocery store and noticed they already had snowflakes painted on their windows. The frost is barely on the pumpkin before snowmen and colored lights greet us at every turn.
But wait—isn’t there another pretty important holiday in there somewhere? The one with the guys in funny black hats with big buckles on them—you remember—the Pilgrims. What about those cute turkeys made out of hand prints? Somewhere between feasting on candy corn at the end of October and the feasting on everything else at the end of the year, lies another feast. This feast, in the earlier days of our country, had nothing to do with parades, football, food…and certainly not shopping.
Like so many things in history, this day has a colorful—and at least at one point in time—a controversial story. A feast wasn’t always part of the day…just the opposite, in fact.
When the Pilgrims at Plymouth Plantation first celebrated, it was after a treacherous beginning in this new land. Many of them had not survived that first winter of 1620 due to illness, exposure and hunger—and a disastrous experiment with socialism. The Patuxet Indians had once inhabited the same area, but had been wiped out by a plague. There was, however, a lone survivor of the Patuxets named Squanto, who had been captured by an English explorer in the early 1600’s and taken to England where he learned to speak English. Captain John Smith took him back to New England in 1614, but he again was captured and sold into slavery in Spain.
As Divine Providence would have it, Squanto was then bought and rescued by some local friars in Spain who introduced him to Christianity. He ended up back in his homeland by 1619 to find his people were gone. Squanto adopted a new tribe, the Wampanoag Indians, and this was the tribe the Pilgrims partnered with to learn to make their way in a new environment. Chief Massasoit introduced them to Squanto, due to Squanto’s ability to speak English well. He was able to help the Pilgrims adjust, and Plymouth Governor William Bradford credited Squanto as being “an instrument of God” in helping the Pilgrims.
By the time the harvest of 1621 rolled around, things were much better, so Governor Bradford declared a day of Thanksgiving to give God His due for a successful harvest and for their friendship with the Wampanoag Indians. On that day Chief Massasoit and 90 of his men feasted with the Pilgrims on the fruit of the land. They enjoyed such delicacies as deer, eels (yuck!), fish, berries, popcorn and yes—turkey.
It wasn’t until 1863, when our young nation was in the midst of a civil war that President Abraham Lincoln established that the last Thursday of November should be set aside as a day of thanksgiving and fasting—not feasting—to humble ourselves and seek the face of God for direction and repentance. That’s quite a difference from today’s Thanksgiving. The holiday remained on that last Thursday for quite some time— until 1939, in fact.
It was then that Progressive Democrat President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (during his 3rd term in office) decided that there needed to be more time for shopping in between Thanksgiving and Christmas, so bowing to complaints from retailers, he moved it to the 3rd Thursday. Leave it to a Progressive to take the focus off of thanking God for His many blessings to shopping and commercialism. It’s interesting how the Republicans are always the ones that are said to be focused on money and gain, while the Democrats (in the minds of some) are for “the little guy”.
Back when President Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving, so many people were against it that the new day became known as the “Democrat Thanksgiving”, while the traditional 4th Thursday was referred to as the “Republican Thanksgiving”. Some states refused to celebrate it on the new date, while some followed suit. This confusion continued until 1941 when Congress declared that Thanksgiving should fall on the 4th Thursday of November.
So, I guess we can blame President Roosevelt for the insanity that became Black Friday, and the evolution of that in recent years to stores opening earlier and earlier to where many of them are not even closed at all on Thanksgiving Day.
If we really want to do this Thanksgiving thing right, we’ll take the feasting and thanksgiving of the Pilgrims and mix it with the prayer and humility of Lincoln’s time. Bringing these things into our own traditions would make us less likely to bypass this wonderful holiday. If anything, it can prepare us for the joyful celebration of Christmas and Christ’s birth to close out the old year, and usher in New Year’s Day with a new hope for the future.
Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!
Whiners and Warriors
It’s no wonder why some parents are reluctant to send their children away to college these days. College campuses are full of absolute chaos, as evidenced by the Yale Halloween costume controversy and the Missouri racial issues that resulted in the president of that school stepping down. College students seem mad all the time…angry at every perceived injustice. Students– aided by their left-wing professors and a 24/7 news cycle that feeds on the hash-tag-fight-of-the-day– are in a battle for everything.
Just a day after we remembered the service of our nation’s veterans, students across the nation walked out of classes to have their #MillionStudentMarch. They demanded to have a free education (because it’s a human right, don’t you know?), as well as a $15 minimum wage and student loan forgiveness. It was a collective large-scale temper tantrum with capitalism and traditional American ways being targeted for their “unfairness” and “injustice”.
One of the organizers, Keely Mullen, a student at Northeastern University, was interviewed on Fox by Neil Cavuto and it’s both painful and satisfying to watch. Mullen suggested that all these demands could be met if the “one percent” would just pay more taxes. When Cavuto calmly questioned her as to whether she or any of her peers would want 90 or 100 percent of their income confiscated through taxes once they become established, she hemmed and hawed and seemed pretty flabbergasted.
Mullen is a Marxist and is no stranger to far-left causes, so you would think she’d be better able to explain why she feels like things are so unfair for her and her fellow students. Lost in the coverage of the Million Student March is that she herself is part of the one percent whom she claims is “hoarding all the wealth” which causes so much distress for college students. Her LinkedIn profile picture shows her up on a stage with a bullhorn and she describes herself as a “student pursuing opportunities in community organizing and anti-racism advocacy work”. She’s majoring in political science and Sociology, so she’s probably had more than enough opportunities to have the idea of “white guilt” drummed into her, along with all the usual anti-capitalist, anti-American garbage.
Northeastern charges around $45,000 a year for tuition, so Mullen can look forward to a pretty hefty debt load once she’s finally finished with her four years of studying community organizing and interning with the ACLU. She complained to Cavuto about how high tuition was and that it’s just not fair that students here in the US have to actually pay for a college education when other countries give it to their citizens for free. Well, Keely- other nations also tax their citizens into lifestyles that you and your friends would find very hard to live in. You may also want to stop and think for a minute: Why do so many of them forego their free educations in their home countries to come to American universities?
I’d just like to know who twisted her arm and forced her to go to an expensive school, and major in two areas that almost guarantee unemployment after graduating? It’s not like she didn’t know going in what the cost would be—and why should her debt be forgiven? Many of us have had to struggle to pay off student loans years after our diplomas expired. She may want to think about the reasons why college is so expensive—high salaries paid to professors who can never be fired due to tenure; or the fact that the government is now in charge of student loans, so the higher the tuition, the more money that needs to be borrowed, and therefore more money rolling into the hands of the government. I’m sure she never gives a thought to those things when she’s out with her bullhorn making demands of her fellow Americans.
But in this country…at least for now…she has the right to speak. She has that right because of the First Amendment to the Constitution that so many people gave their lives to defend over the course of our history. One young active duty Marine had a different opinion on what the students were doing on college campuses this week, and took to social media to set them straight. Tweeting a selfie, dressed in fatigues and carrying a full load on his back, James Erickson said this: “I wanted money for school, so I marched too…#millionstudentmarch This one was about 25 miles…”
He didn’t even need a bullhorn.
The young and the restless- entitled students demand free education and debt forgiveness during the Million Student March.
Scrapping Traditions
How do you celebrate Veterans’ Day without those pesky displays of patriotism? Just ask the powers that be at Seattle Pacific University. In an effort to refrain from offending anyone…hmmm…it was announced that the Christian school would not have the presentation of the colors or the reciting of The Pledge of Allegiance during their chapel this week when they hold their Veterans’ Day remembrance.
After this news came out last Friday in the conservative student-run website The College Fix, the school—one day later—reversed their decision and now the Veterans’ Day service at the chapel will include The Pledge and presentation of the colors. The SPU Military & Veteran Support Group launched a Facebook campaign to get the word out about their school’s stance that “a few people” would be made “uncomfortable” if The Pledge were recited during a Christian service.
Of course, that makes no sense at all, given that our nation as founded began as a place where people (the Pilgrims) escaped to so that they could specifically practice Christianity and where they would be free to read the Bible without having to go through the Church of England (the King) and accept whatever interpretation came down from him. So, reciting The Pledge, especially during a Veterans’ Day service, would be entirely appropriate at a Christian university.
But that involves knowing history. Today’s college campuses are more interested in ridiculous speech codes and protecting students from “micro-aggressions”. Instead of being hotbeds of new and diverse thinking, most college campuses today are run by far-left professors and administrators who believe the only people that it’s okay to offend are Christians…and apparently the military. Many campuses today are filled with children in adult bodies who feel threatened and “uncomfortable” if they encounter beliefs that challenge their own.
The Constitution—when taught at all— is presented as a “living, breathing document” that should change with the times and be molded to the whims of whomever is in power. Students don’t learn any longer that our Constitution was meant to be a firm foundation of eternal truths upon which the strongest most influential nation in world history was built.
To even introduce the idea that displays of patriotism are inappropriate on Veterans’ Day—at a Christian university, no less—is a little ominous. People in a free society should expect that at some point, they may encounter something that will offend them. The chapel service at Seattle Pacific isn’t even mandatory for students, so anyone who thinks they would be offended by what happens there could just not show up.
But that would be too easy. It’s much better (in the minds of some) to strip away every patriotic vestige from true American holidays for everyone else…and give a slap in the face to those who served our country in the process.
Smashing Pumpkins
Some time ago, I posted about “The Greening of Lent”, where environmentalists gave people the charge to reduce their “carbon footprint” during the 40 days before Easter. Now, the kooks have moved their attention to Halloween costumes and fall festivities to deliver their politically correct message. If the thought of skeletons, zombies and angry clowns coming to your house tonight for free food makes you tense, you’ll be happy to know there are some new creatures that may be coming to your door.
The Department of Energy is encouraging potential ghosts and goblins to dress as alternative energy sources. It’s true. As if they have nothing else to concern themselves with, you may get to see kids dressed as wind turbines, solar panels and maybe even as the head of the department, Ernest Moniz. Not sure what’s scarier: a child who would want to dress in these costumes, or a child who actually knows who Ernest Moniz is.
The Department of Energy even has instructions on its website for kids who decide to take the environmentalist message into their Halloween costumes. The agency also made news this week after it claimed the most famous icon of Halloween—the jack-o-lantern—causes global warming. According to the website, once your happy or scary pumpkin face gets old, it will end up in a landfill, “adding to more than 254 million tons of municipal solid waste (MSW) produced in the United States every year… At landfills, MSW decomposes and eventually turns into methane—a harmful greenhouse gas that plays a part in climate change, with more than 20 times the warming effect of carbon dioxide (CO2).”
However, they do mention some actual good news. This waste can be used as bio-fuel that could help the country become less dependent on foreign oil (as if we really have to be anyway with all of the natural gas we have), but that’s another topic for another time. The Department of Energy doesn’t seem to discourage the carving of pumpkins, however. As with the costumes, they just encourage you to carve something energy efficient into them, such as the previously-mentioned wind turbine, a curly CFL light bulb or the shape of an atom. So if dressing up as a windmill doesn’t interest you, maybe you can just carve one into a pumpkin, set it out on your porch and then all your neighbors will know that you care about the planet.
This is confusing…like the jack-o-lantern, the “Energy Pumpkins” too will end up in a landfill until such time as the technology and resources are in place that can convert them into the bioenergy of which the bureaucrats at the DOE speak. So, given the choice between some boring costume or pumpkin carving, most of us prefer to stick with tradition…so fire up the jack-o-lanterns!
Divine Connections: The Making of “Woodlawn”
On the heels of the very successful faith-based film “War Room”, produced by the Kendrick Brothers (“Courageous”, “Fireproof”), another duo of filmmaking siblings is bringing the story of “Woodlawn” * to theaters in two weeks.
Jon and Andrew Erwin wrote, directed and produced the story of Woodlawn High School in Birmingham, Alabama during the tumultuous early 70’s when the school was becoming integrated. In a city torn apart by racial strife, the high school becomes the focal point of tension in a time of major change. Based on a true story, Woodlawn High School was on the verge of closing until a different kind of movement began. Against the backdrop of competition, racism and violence, a spiritual revival took place… and it started with the football team.
Jon Erwin was on hand recently when a very-nearly-done version of the film premiered at Legacy Arena in Birmingham at the conclusion of the Restoring Unity event (which was also produced by the Erwins). Prior to the showing, radio and TV host Glenn Beck interviewed Jon Erwin, producer and actor Kevin Downes, and cast members Jon Voight, Nic Bishop, Kevin Sizemore and Caleb Castille.
To say that the release of “Woodlawn” at this time is a miracle in itself would be an understatement. According to Downes, just a year prior to the Birmingham premiere, there wasn’t much to work with, given the length of time it normally takes for a film to go from an idea to the big screen. He said, “Twelve months ago, Jon and I were sitting in a parking lot going, should we shoot this movie this fall so that it could be out for our culture to witness it next fall?… we didn’t have a script, we didn’t have a story, we didn’t have money, we didn’t have a cast. I mean how all these gentlemen came into our cast is nothing short of miraculous and to me, God gets all the credit.”
That may explain how a little independent film of the Christian genre managed to attract the attention of an Academy Award-winning actor to play an iconic football coach. Jon Voight, who plays famed University of Alabama coach Paul “Bear” Bryant, was drawn to the character and work ethic of the Erwins. As he told the crowd in Birmingham, “I looked them up and they had a little video of their work together, and I looked at these guys, and I saw the way that they worked, the kindness to the people that they worked with, they joy they took in their work and Jon said, he said, “here’s how we make film…the best idea wins. So that meant he was collaborative and he was going to engage everyone in the process, which is what you have to have for the very best kind of film.”
It was more Divine Intervention that brought Caleb Castille into the cast. Castille plays Tony Nathan, a young African-American man who is integrated into Woodlawn High School. He goes on to become a star athlete who is recruited by Bear Bryant to play for Alabama. In an odd case of art imitating life, Castille was a football player at the University of Alabama. In fact, it could be said that playing for the Crimson Tide is sort of the Castille family business since both of his older brothers and his father played there. But in early 2013, in spite of his success on the field, Castille said he felt God was leading him away from football towards acting. As he put it, ‘Football was so comfortable to me, right, and through just being sick and tired of being sick and tired, I took the time to grow closer to the Lord, which in essence brought .. a better knowledge of why He put me on the earth.” Castille said he wants to reach people, and believes there’s no better way to do that than to work in films. For this film, Castille was hired to be the stunt double for the original actor, until a last-minute casting decision placed the young athlete-turned-actor into his first starring role.
Jon Erwin and his brother Andrew direct and produce “Woodlawn”, and Jon co-wrote the script with Quinton Peeples. Another of the main characters, Hank Erwin, played by Sean Astin, was inspired by the patriarch of the Erwin family. Hank Erwin was an evangelist, broadcaster and later, an Alabama state senator. The elder Erwin was in attendance at the premiere and later closed with a prayer. His son Jon praised him as a “great dad” and told the audience he’s had a great opportunity to honor him in this film and bring such a compelling story as “Woodlawn” to film-goers. He believes it has a relevant message for today. “It’s a story of an impossible situation…love, the love of Christ conquering hatred and if it happened then, it can happen now.”
“Woodlawn” opens in theaters around the country on October 16th. A review of the movie will be posted here next week.
***For behind-the-scenes geeks only: Check out the new Liberty Belle Blog TV channel on Vimeo for more audio from these on-stage interviews at the Birmingham premiere. There are 2: an un-edited one with a little more audio from Kevin Downes & Jon Erwin who both comment on the “War Room” /“Woodlawn” connection; The edited audio has sound bites from Erwin, Downes, Castille & Voight, who talks about playing Bear Bryant. Both include my own pics from the premiere, as well as photos from various websites, including www.woodlawnmovie.com.
Cast & Crew of “Woodlawn” at Birmingham, AL premiere in August.
The Spirit of 93
If you were old enough 14 years ago to remember the events of this day, you probably know exactly where you were and what you were doing. It was a Tuesday, and since then, we’ve seen many Tuesdays come and go. The photos of all those who lost their lives on this day in 2001 slowly faded with time and fell from their places on cement walls and bulletin boards. The phrase “Never Forget” is often seen and heard on this day, only to go away again until next September 11th.
All of those who perished on 9/11/01, their families, friends, and colleagues have a story to tell… and some of those stories have been told many times. Some stories may never be. When it comes to the passengers and crew that boarded Flight 93 on that fateful morning, the names that usually come to mind are Todd Beamer, Mark Bingham and Tom Burnett. They were the men who decided to lead the other passengers in an attempt to re-take their airplane from the terrorists. As a result of the last heroic efforts of many of the passengers, Flight 93 is the only plane that never made it to its intended target, which is now believed to have been the U.S. Capitol building.
Among the other passengers and crew was a former police detective (Cee Cee Lyles, flight attendant); a greeting-card aficionado who always remembered loved ones and co-workers on special occasions…two of whom received cards from her that were postmarked 9-11-01 (Lorraine Bay, flight attendant); an aspiring child psychologist who worked with troubled teens (Deora Bodley); an ironworker who helped to build the World Trade Center and who had served as a paratrooper in the U.S. Army (William Cashman); an account executive at Good Housekeeping who was in the middle of writing her own book to inspire women (Lauren Grandcolas). As a side note, Lauren, who was 38, was expecting her first child with her husband Jack at the time of her death. Every year when they read the names of the victims at the memorial service in Shanksville, PA and a bell tolls for each passenger …her unborn child is also recognized among them. Lauren’s two sisters completed her book, titled “You Can Do It: The Merit Badge Handbook for Grown-Up Girls.”
Time and space doesn’t permit a complete list, but here are a few more: a veteran of Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm who later flew humanitarian missions to Somalia (First Officer Leroy Homer); a college-aged Japanese national who was headed home after having visited such American icons as the Statue of Liberty and Niagara Falls who traveled alone so he could immerse himself in the English language (Toshiya Kuge); the Purser on Flight 93 (Deborah Jacobs Welsh) who had more than 25 years of experience in the airline industry. Deborah was known for her compassion that she showed to the homeless who lived near her Manhattan neighborhood when she would bring them leftover airline meals and warm winter clothing.
These are just some of the 40 people who, when they saw evil face-to-face, didn’t sit around asking why the terrorists hated them. They didn’t form committees to try to analyze the evil before them. Time wasn’t on their side and they knew it…and they acted.
The passengers and crew of United 93 could be considered some of the first civilian heroes of the modern-day War on Terror (a term our current president no longer uses). The world has gotten even more dangerous in the 14years since. The same ideology of the hijackers of 9-11-01 is the same ideology that threatens large swathes of the Middle East right now. It now goes by another name than it did in 2001, but it’s still pure evil and it has to be called out for what it is.
Those people could have ignored what was happening before them that day, but it wouldn’t have done them any good…and if they had chosen to sit passively in their seats and accept what was happening, it wouldn’t have turned out any differently for them. On the other hand, but for their fearlessness in the face of terror, that day could have turned out much differently for a lot of other people.
A memorial plaque for the passengers & crew of United Flight 93
A Tale of Two Marches
St. Paul, Minnesota is about 1,000 miles from Birmingham, Alabama geographically. Both cities had gatherings this past weekend that, when looked at side by side, shows that perhaps more than miles separate them.
In St. Paul, police estimated between 350 and 500 people showed up at the Minnesota state fair on Saturday to support the “Black Lives Matter” march. Why pick the state fair to stage such an event? To make a point about economic disparities, of course. Organizer Rashad Turner said, “”There are going to be thousands of people, low-income people, in St. Paul who are going to smell that food, but they’re not going to be able to have any…a lot of people want to put the (Black Lives Matter) in a box and say, ‘You should focus on police brutality,’ but it’s also about the economic and social justices and how they’re interrelated.”
Turner encouraged the marchers to be peaceful; however, peace starts in the heart and comes out the mouth. According to Newsmax, the Black Lives Matter marchers chanted, “Pigs in a blanket, fry ’em like bacon.” This derogatory reference to police came less than 24 hours after a Texas officer was gunned down in Houston Friday night while in uniform…while he was pumping gas.
In Birmingham, the Restoring Unity event (#NeverAgainIsNow) began with a march of anywhere from 20-30 thousand people through the Civil Rights district Saturday morning. At this time, I’ve found no national media coverage of this march, which Birmingham police had estimated numbers closer to 30,000 and said it was likely the largest march in the city since the 1963 Civil Rights marches.
Led by conservative radio commentator Glenn Beck, Bishop Jim Lowe of the Guiding Light Church, and Alveda King, niece of slain Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., the march began at the historic 16th Street Baptist Church. That church was the site of a deadly KKK attack in 1963 that killed 4 young girls.
Carrying signs that stated such things as “All Lives Matter”, “Courage”(under a photo of Frederick Douglass) and “God is the Answer”, the march moved through downtown Birmingham and crossed racial, generational and denominational barriers. Academy Award-winning actor Jon Voight was there, as was his friend Chuck Norris…and yours truly.
Ending at the Legacy Arena, the march began a day of speaking, singing, and praying. It’s hard to know how to describe the arena show. It was a little bit of a history lesson as historian David Barton of Wallbuilders spoke about how the youth of the Founding Generation took their places in history to forge independence.
It was a lot of a revival…having church on a Saturday afternoon and listening to the amazing voices of the gospel choir of the Guiding Light Church, powerful messages and prayers from Bishop Lowe, Alveda King, Pastor Rafael Cruz (father of Ted Cruz), and Johnnie Moore. Moore, an author and humanitarian, is an advocate for the Christians in the Middle East who are being marked for extinction in areas being overtaken by ISIS. He told stories of people there who have been executed by the terrorist group for refusing to renounce their faith in Jesus Christ; of women and young girls being sold as slaves, children being crucified and men burned alive in cages. He said the Christians there feel forgotten by their American brothers and sisters.
Then there was the call to action by Glenn Beck. Less than 2 weeks ago when he interviewed Johnnie Moore on his radio show, he vowed to raise a million dollars to help get some of these Christians and Yazidis into any safe country that will take them. He said a family of 5 can be sustained for one year for $25,000, giving them time to get on their feet to build a new life free from the threat of ISIS. As of Saturday, close to $3 million had been raised. He announced a new fundraising campaign called The Nazarene Fund, which will raise $10 million dollars by the end of the year in order to help these persecuted Christians get away from ISIS. He compared it to a modern day Schindler’s List, referring to Oskar Schindler, who saved about 1200 Jewish lives during WWII. Incidentally, Beck is an avid collector of historic artifacts and held up Schindler’s actual hand-written list of names of people that were saved from Nazi death camps.
Beck’s humanitarian organization Mercury One is the donation point for those who wish to help this cause.
There’s much more I could write about Saturday’s event that ended that night with the premier of “Woodlawn”, a faith-based film about the true story of a revival in Birmingham that began with a high school football team in a school on the verge of closing due to racial strife. Jon Voight, who plays Paul “Bear” Bryant in the movie, was at Restoring Unity all day, and appeared on stage with other cast members for an interview with Beck prior to the movie screening. More will be coming about that soon. More pictures and video of Restoring Unity will be posted on the Liberty Belle Blog Facebook page.
The Meerkat blimp flew over Birmingham and was live streaming the event.
Restoring Unity– #Never Again is Now
There’s a phrase that’s very popular in our culture and it’s something that gets said after some horribly tragic event: “Never Again.” In fact, it’s said so often that it seems to have lost its meaning.
People will be gathering in Birmingham, Alabama this weekend in the hopes of changing that and putting action behind those words. “Never Again is Now—Restoring Unity” kicks off tonight at The Guiding Light Church, which is a predominantly Black church in downtown Birmingham. Bishop Jim Lowe, who pastors the church will be speaking, as will radio and television commentator Glenn Beck, whose humanitarian organization Mercury One is hosting the event.
Tomorrow, there will be a march downtown, tracing the steps of Martin Luther King, Jr and participants are being asked to commit to the peaceful resolution of our nation’s problems. There will be times for reflection as well at some of the historical places that were so important to the Civil Rights movement, such as the Birmingham Jail, where MLK wrote his famous letter to other pastors. The Restoring Unity event at Legacy Arena will again feature Lowe, Beck, David Barton and others.
According the church’s website, the goal of this weekend is to empower individuals who attend to carry the message that “Never Again will we stand quietly and allow certain tragic situations to occur in our world community.”
Mercury One has been involved in a number of humanitarian outreaches in the U.S. and abroad and is currently trying to raise $2 million in order to help persecuted Christians and Yazidi families escape the clutches of ISIS in the Middle East.
The weekend will culminate Saturday night with the world premiere of the faith-based film “Woodlawn” at Legacy Arena. Based on a true story, “Woodlawn” takes place in the early 1970’s at the Birmingham high school that was torn apart by racial tension, and the miraculous events that happened to bring the school—and the city—together.
If you’re in the Birmingham area, it’s not too late to get there…or keep checking back here for pictures (hopefully) and updates.
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