It is for these very reasons, I believe, we have new generations of very cynical kids.
Finally, the curtain pulls back and the death's head peers back at them demanding fealty and they demur.
It isn't a virtue to demur, it is an act of self-interest. The good kind.
Our newspapers and news media have been bought with corporate money and politics is as much a servant of money as it has ever been. Who is left to refuse war?
War is just GREAT for industry.
The same billionaires own a piece of all the above.
Our kids will die for Apple, Amazon, MSNBC, and General Electric.
Now that is a Pledge of Allegiance I can't wait to hear.
TerryWalstrom
JoinedPosts by TerryWalstrom
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15
Terry's Editorial on the Pledge of Allegiance
by TerryWalstrom interry's editorial on the pledge of allegiance_____.
can one child in a thousand actually define the word or give the meaning of "allegiance?
" can you--without stumbling around about it?give me a moment of your time, will you?first, in medieval times, wealthy landowners allowed peasants to cultivate their property as long as these pitiful souls made a pledge of fealty or allegiance to become a soldier for that lord of the manor if he needed to go to war against some imagined enemy.
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TerryWalstrom
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15
Terry's Editorial on the Pledge of Allegiance
by TerryWalstrom interry's editorial on the pledge of allegiance_____.
can one child in a thousand actually define the word or give the meaning of "allegiance?
" can you--without stumbling around about it?give me a moment of your time, will you?first, in medieval times, wealthy landowners allowed peasants to cultivate their property as long as these pitiful souls made a pledge of fealty or allegiance to become a soldier for that lord of the manor if he needed to go to war against some imagined enemy.
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TerryWalstrom
Terry's Editorial on the Pledge of Allegiance
_____Can one child in a thousand actually define the word or give the meaning of "Allegiance?" Can you--without stumbling around about it?
Give me a moment of your time, will you?
First, in Medieval times, wealthy landowners allowed peasants to cultivate their property as long as these pitiful souls made a pledge of fealty or allegiance to become a soldier for that Lord of the Manor if he needed to go to war against some imagined enemy.
"You want a place to live and a meal for your hard labor--then you must promise to die on my behalf."
THAT, my friends, was a Pledge of Allegiance.
Fast forward to modern times.
Having a small child place his or her hand over their tiny beating heart and reciting an oath to Flag/Republic under GOD is something with a name: Theocracy.
Combining religious ritual and the political rule is Theocracy.
Patriotism is necessary, of course, but a coerced surrender of one's soul to politics is another.
I had school chums who died in Vietnam. Why?
On friend was drafted and another volunteered. Their deaths came at a cost. What did it really pay for?
I refused Military Service as a JW. Since Jr. High School I had refrained from patriotic participation having been taught it was "blasphemy".
What I did was the product of undue influence (persuasion against my best interests) the same as my school chums with patriotic duty. Two heads of the same Hydra.
Our American Wars since WWII have not been legally "declared" wars.
Our Corporate, Military/Industrial/religious foundation is rife with self-interest, money, and corruption.
Wars fought to support corruption under the guise of patriotic duty are abominable.
We still have young Americans dying in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria...Why?
Politics.
Anyway...
UNDUE INFLUENCE is vile. Creating little patriots who will die for the whims of global politics is abominable!Teaching children to love the freedoms and opportunities of America is wonderful.
That's the end of this editorial. Your mileage may vary.
____
HISTORY NOTE
In 1891, the family magazine Youth’s Companion asked 35-year-old Francis Bellamy, a former pastor of Boston’s Bethany Baptist Church, to fashion a patriotic program for schools around the country to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s “arrival in America” by “raising the U.S. Flag over every public school from the Atlantic to the Pacific.”
Through the pledge, Bellamy sought to define “true Americanism” against the rising tide of southern and eastern European immigrants “pouring over our country” in the early 20th century from “races which we cannot assimilate without a lowering of our racial standard.” Although Bellamy conceded that “the United States has always been a nation of immigrants,” he argued that “incoming waves of immigrants … are coming from countries whose institutions are entirely at variance with our own.”
Decrying the character and “quality” of these recent newcomers, Bellamy lamented that “we cannot be the dumping ground of Europe and bloom like a flower garden.” To him, “every dull-witted and fanatical immigrant” granted citizenship threatened the American Republic.
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Links: http://eagnews.org/parents-fight-back-after-school-drops-pledge-of-allegiance-for-student-authored-oath-to-global-society/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/made-by-history/wp/2017/11/03/the-ugly-history-of-the-pledge-of-allegiance-and-why-it-matters/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.e637ebc123be -
24
Another JW "friend" bites the dust
by TerryWalstrom injust got word one of my favorite friends died a year ago!
only now have i heard about it.
he remained a devout jehovah's witness--so--he could not/would not speak to me.
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TerryWalstrom
Thanks to all and especially for the detective work.
I hope I don't find myself in a long queue like Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians. (Gulp). -
24
Another JW "friend" bites the dust
by TerryWalstrom injust got word one of my favorite friends died a year ago!
only now have i heard about it.
he remained a devout jehovah's witness--so--he could not/would not speak to me.
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TerryWalstrom
TheWonderofYou: JOE RAY PRUETT, SR., former owner of Pruett's T.V. Repair, passed away at his home on September 15, 2004
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Oh fer Crissakes!
That sucks. This time I'm just more angry than anything.
THANK YOU for finding this.
Joe was my first friend inside Seagoville. He went out of his way to make me feel like I had solidarity with others.
Joe had a terrific sense of humor. He spoke fast and was a bit of cut-up.
He was paroled 6 months before I was.
When I was paroled, I had a LIST with all the Brothers names and addresses I took with me.
My mother ended up throwing it away. (Gr-r-r-r-r)
I've searched for him time and again to no avail.
I'm going to try and contact this family and simply ask (just to make certain) if Joe had been an inmate in Seagoville.
Huge sigh.
What a stab in the heart. Another one gone forever. -
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This Morning’s Narrow Escape from a Serial Killer
by TerryWalstrom inthis morning’s narrow escape from a serial killer.
8:00 am: i leave the house.
my aim is 10,000 steps.
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TerryWalstrom
The events actually happened. I account for those.
What I'm still wondering I can list.
1. Why did I feel the overwhelming urge to look behind me?
2. Why would a floral delivery guy go down such a treacherous (for a vehicle) pathway? It was obvious there were no streets or houses nearby.
3. Why didn't he honk his horn earlier rather than creeping up so close?
4. What if I had NOT turned around when I did?
5. Let's just say (speculatively) if he were intending sneaky harm...When I suddenly turned around and he knew he had no longer any chance of surprise...maybe he wondered if I had his license plate number and THAT's WHY he doubled back: to create a plausible deniability of ill-intent. His alibi.
Or--I'm just nuts:) -
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This Morning’s Narrow Escape from a Serial Killer
by TerryWalstrom inthis morning’s narrow escape from a serial killer.
8:00 am: i leave the house.
my aim is 10,000 steps.
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TerryWalstrom
All my ridiculous emotions were indeed futile!
It's not unlike seeing your garden hose in the corner of your eye and screaming, "SNAKE!"
I watch too much TV, obviously. -
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This Morning’s Narrow Escape from a Serial Killer
by TerryWalstrom inthis morning’s narrow escape from a serial killer.
8:00 am: i leave the house.
my aim is 10,000 steps.
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TerryWalstrom
This Morning’s Narrow Escape from a Serial Killer
8:00 AM: I leave the house.
My aim is 10,000 steps. A morning stroll, if you will.
Its purpose is stamina building for my London vacation in September.
My earbuds blare Elliot Goldenthal: TITUS.I change my route each morning, ever increasing the distance.
I bore easily, so I take a completely different route on a whim.
MY FIRST MISTAKE!
______The access on-ramp to the Freeway on my left signals the end of a paved surface for my walk. For about 500 paces a crude asphalt surface replaces the concrete.
What follows is now a dirt path and a rural countrified slog through a wooded path.
I’m isolated as I trudge, engrossed in the music's crescendo after crescendo of stentorian brass. (Stentorian? Define: loud and powerful.)I can see there is a slope downward surrounded by grassy snake country and a nasty drainpipe spilling rainwater runoff plus creepy ooze is just ahead. At about that point, the hackles on my neck rise!
(Hackles? Definition: erectile hairs along the back of a dog or other animal that rise when it is angry or alarmed.)
Why am I alarmed?
Instinctively, I pivot front to back and---FREEZE!______
Not 12 paces behind me--out of nowhere--is a dirty white van. The motor is running.
It has clearly been stalking me!
This is inhospitably rough road no “sane” person would elect to drive upon for ANY reason.I’m facing East and the sun stabs blinding shafts through the trees surrounding the scene.
I squinted hard.
The driver is staring at me!
He is wearing absurd, round-rimmed “Mr. Moto” black-rimmed spectacles.
His shoulders are hunched as though he were a race driver about to swerve into a hairpin turn. His skin is eerily pale and the expression on his unearthly face is baleful. (Baleful? Definition: threatening harm; menacing).I yanked the earbuds out and took a sharp breath.
Clearly, my nemesis HATES me!
My brain races.
“Data please,” I scream internally at my Fight or Flight Instinct Department.
My right-hand makes a swift gesture and I remove my pocket knife, flicking it open like a scene from BLACKBOARD JUNGLE.
I’ll not go without a fight!
My best threatening stance instantly spooks the serial killer and he begins slowly backing the van without haste--deliberate, taunting, cat and mousing me as he continues to stare directly into my wide eyes.
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As he reaches the asphalt, I hear the stick shift catch and the ugly van does a stuntman on steroid whirl-about in a 180 maneuver.
Here one minute--gone the next!
I say to myself out loud:
“That could have been my epitaph: Here one minute--gone the next.”______
I become more self-aware at this moment... feel my heart pounding and fast panting breath--as though I’d been sprinting uphill all this time.
I calm myself and the rational side of Terry’s brain kicks in.
I take a deep breath and head back the way I’d come.MY SECOND MISTAKE!
_____Internal dialogue: I begin joking with my girly-man side.
That’s my rational side. I was in no danger at all and had over-reacted.
I had just about convinced myself I had a silly and melodramatic imagination when
straightaway ---HERE HE COMES!WTF?!
The van had circled back on surface roads and was thundering down the access road on the right-hand side WHERE I WAS WALKING!
The painfully bright sunshine was blinding me--but--I readied myself to pull off a sideways leap into a neighbor’s driveway like Burt Reynolds in NAVAJO JOE.If I leaped too soon, the fierce predator could swerve and catch me! He’d fall upon me and pierce my neck with his hypodermic filled with animal trank and stuff me in the van heading for the murky ooze of that drainpipe (where he probably stuffs all his victims after torture and taunt has slaked his bestial urges!)
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Now, at the climax of this heinous encounter--
I MADE MY THIRD MISTAKE!____
The van suddenly slowed as the window rolled down.
The little white-haired, albino Floral Delivery guy with thick Mr. Moto glasses shouted at me:“I can’t find Scruggs Park Drive--where the F**K is it? I’ve got two dozen Marigolds to deliver before Nine.”
Gosh. Do I feel stupid--or what?
I gulped and replaced my stabbing knife in my pocket, fake-grinned sheepishly as I directed him to his delivery spot.“Thanks.” He roared off and left me in a smothering cloud of carbon monoxide.
Well--what can I say?
Carbon monoxide is deadly; so--technically he DID sorta try to kill me.
A little.
Or not.__________
(A true story: according to me) -
24
Another JW "friend" bites the dust
by TerryWalstrom injust got word one of my favorite friends died a year ago!
only now have i heard about it.
he remained a devout jehovah's witness--so--he could not/would not speak to me.
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TerryWalstrom
As I near the end of my earthly course (I couldn't help myself--I had to use that JW-speak for fun)--I realize two things.
1. If we want to reclaim a friend and do nothing--we lose them absolutely. (I tried, but should have tried again.)
2. Once a person is gone the opportunity (however difficult) is done.
Death's FINALITY is the part that eats away at your heart. -
24
Another JW "friend" bites the dust
by TerryWalstrom injust got word one of my favorite friends died a year ago!
only now have i heard about it.
he remained a devout jehovah's witness--so--he could not/would not speak to me.
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TerryWalstrom
DIOGENESISTER: Would you like me to ask on Reddit if anyone knows these fellow friends of yours? It has a large active readership - over 20,000
Me: That would be wonderful--thank you! -
24
Another JW "friend" bites the dust
by TerryWalstrom injust got word one of my favorite friends died a year ago!
only now have i heard about it.
he remained a devout jehovah's witness--so--he could not/would not speak to me.
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TerryWalstrom
Tollie taught us all (in prison) to go back and read the early books from Russell and Rutherford. That area of JW "knowledge" was an abyss. Almost nobody (except the elderly) had an inkling of the upheavals in the early years.
Tollie intellectualized all the flaws. His intelligence worked against him in that respect. He could think up a way Jehovah's spirit could be guiding events.
Rutherford was a raw material and just the kind of Old Testament judge to fight through the war years and prevail--so he thought. Russell and Rutherford were seen as less than perfect sinners molded and shaped to accomplish a task.
"David was beloved of God and he stole a man's wife and sent the guy off to die." Jehovah uses the worst of us to accomplish the best."
Delusional but inspiring :)
JW history, through Tollie's eyes. was a shaping from raw materials and an incremental cause and effect process of cleansing.
Tolli saw tests of Faith as a way we get to know what we're made of.
Some of us were born to fail and die at Armageddon. By testing your devotion and dedication and Love for Jah--you discovered whether you were a "vessel fit for destruction" or a worthy vessel.
On the one hand, I admire that ingenious stupidity. On the other hand, I sure would love to have re-bonded over the duration of his last years.
I'm still looking for two other very close prison Brothers and I can't seem to find. (The ones I did locate were dead.)
Ron Clayton from Oklahoma and Joe Pruitt. I think he too was previously in El Reno prison and transferred to Seagoville from Oklahoma.
Here's what makes it difficult. These guys would be about my age (71).
How many folks that age are technophobes?
Plenty. So--the chances of them surfing the Worldwide Web are slim to none--or--of them having an electronic "footprint" I can follow.
If you know either of them--Please let me know. It's never too late unless they've planted you in the garden.
______