Category: History

Nehemiah Or History Repeats

Nehemiah Or History Repeats — The celebrations of praise and ceremonies of repentance occurring after the Jews rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem following the Babylonia Exile are recorded in Nehemiah.

So, what nation does this remind you of?

Then you helped them conquer great kingdoms and many nations, and you placed your people in every corner of the land; they completely took over the land of King Sihon of Heshbon and King Og of Bashan. 23 You caused a population explosion among the Israelis and brought them into the land you had promised to their ancestors. 24 You subdued whole nations before them—even the kings and the people of the Canaanites were powerless! 25 Your people captured fortified cities and fertile land; they took over houses full of good things, with cisterns and vineyards and olive yards and many, many fruit trees; so they ate and were full and enjoyed themselves in all your blessings.

26 “But despite all this, they were disobedient and rebelled against you. They threw away your law, killed the prophets who told them to return to you, and they did many other terrible things. 

Read the whole chapter: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Nehemiah%209&version=TLB

Nehemiah Or History Repeats
Nehemiah Or History Repeats — The celebrations of praise and ceremonies of repentance occurring after the Jews rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem

Statue Of Liberty Concerned Slavery, Not Immigration

Statue Of Liberty Concerned Slavery, Not Immigration

By Kevin Lynn

Given the numerous attempts to pack immigration provisions into current spending bills, there’s probably no better time to talk about the real meaning of the Statue of Liberty.

The Statue of Liberty has long been a beacon for immigrants, and not just any immigrants, but the poorest and most destitute around the globe. This symbolism of taking in the world’s impoverished is embodied in a verse from Emma Lazarus’ poem, The New Colossus, which proclaims as though speaking through the statue itself, “give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!“

These often recited and famous words are a permanent fixture associated with the Statue of Liberty. After all, aren’t they inscribed on a bronze plaque below her feet?  Yet, the bronze plaque wasn’t originally part of the statue; it was added 17 years after the dedication. And, what’s more, the poem’s words and ideas obscure the statue’s true meaning.

As Roy Beck author of Back of the Hiring Line points out, the statue was meant to “celebrate the fact that the U.S. had finally abolished slavery and accorded full liberty, at least in principle, to all its inhabitants.”  What’s still ignored to this day, are the broken shackles on her feet, which signify the newfound liberty for formerly enslaved Black Americans.

The Statue of Liberty was not intended as a symbol for those who have yet to come, but a tribute to the foundational group of people who were already here. The intent was “to portray a form of government that could be copied by people in their own countries, not by leaving their countries.” Appropriately, she was named Liberty Enlightening the World, not Liberty Receiving Enthusiastically the World! 

Statue Of Liberty Concerned Slavery, Not Immigration

Immigration proponents’ understanding of the true meaning of the statute is entirely backward.  They don’t talk about its history or intent as it goes against the heart of the open border advocates’ narrative.  Much like the passage from “The New Colossus,” they focus on the poor coming from overseas and across our borders rather than the poor at home. The fact that there have been 1.6 million migrant encounters last fiscal year, and 1.6 million already, year to date is music to their ears.

Yet, more than three million immigrants a year, both legal and illegal, arriving in the U.S. creates colossal problems for everyone, and especially the poor. According to the Census Bureau, in 2020, the number of people officially in poverty was 37.2 million, and the depth of poverty has gotten worse. Deep poverty has increased to 45.6%.

And why do the poor continue to stay poor? One big reason is the oversupply of low-skilled immigrant workers, who depress wages of the native-born. Case in point, the bottom 20% of Americans’ income has remained largely the same ”and has only risen from around $15,000 to $16,100 between 1966 and 2014”. As a result, these lower-income households saw a twenty percent decrease between 1970  and 2020 in their income share compared to the middle and upper class.

Not surprisingly, the descendants of American slaves have been hit especially hard by the endless waves of migration. The National Bureau of Economic Research found that since 1970, actual earnings for the median black man have fallen from $30,800 to $21,000 in 2014, a 32 percent decline.

Declining wages have slowed people’s ability to move up financially in their lifetimes. This increasing economic inequality and the inability to get ahead is due, again, in large part to mass immigration.

Just look at the contrast between the upward trajectory of children born before the 1965 Immigration Act and afterwards.  It’s startling! Whereas”92% of children born in 1940 earned higher incomes at the age of 30 than did their parents, this share dropped to 50% for children born in 1980“. 

We’ve gone from a country where almost everyone could financially exceed their parents’ income to the odds of achieving that now are worse than flipping a coin. Of the children born into the bottom fifth of the economic ladder, 43% will continue to be stuck there, and for Americans born at the bottom, it’s clear the ability to move up is particularly low. 

With the recent influx of immigrants, Democrat mayors in blue states finally must confront the consequences of their policies. New York City’s mayor Eric Adams recently let out a few known truths on immigration, conceding the illegal immigrant influx was a “real burden” and that for New Yorkers, “our schools are going to be impacted, our health care system is going to be impacted, our infrastructure is going to be impacted.” He went so far as to say, “if there was ever an all-hands-on-deck moment, this is it.” Hopefully, Mayor Adams will realize the costs of immigration before it sinks his ship.

In Washington D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser told Face the Nation that newly arrived asylum seekers were filling up homeless shelters. These bussed migrants are straining the city’s social safety net, and “the local taxpayers are not picking up the tab and should not pick up the tab.” She believes it’s the federal government’s responsibility and they should pull out their checkbook. She’s right on that. By the same token, it shouldn’t be the responsibility of the U.S. to generously accommodate illegal aliens, either. 

The stone-faced Statue of Liberty and Americans struggling here share an uncomfortable truth: both the meaning of the statue and American livelihoods have been displaced. Prioritizing the needs of the impoverished from abroad over the plight of America’s most vulnerable ignores the fact that day after day the poor become more financially broke and economically immobile.

Reducing immigration will benefit those Americans struggling to make ends meet, as economic prosperity is very much possible. Between 1940-1980 when there was low immigration, “the real incomes of white males expanded two-and one-half fold” while “real incomes expanded four-fold” for Black men. By 1980, the Black middle class grew from 22 percent of African Americans to 71 percent.”

The U.S. has a duty and an obligation to pick up the tab for its citizens, not new arrivals from halfway around the world. It’s time we support our poor, our homeless, and our huddled masses yearning to breathe free. Only then can the U.S. live up to the real meaning of the Statue of Liberty. 

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Kevin Lynn is the Executive Director for Progressives for Immigration Reform. Lynn writes about the unintended consequences of unbridled immigration and their impacts on the environment, as well as federal, state and local politics. A former Army intelligence officer and successful organizer of influential groups in Arizona, California and Texas, he is based in Pennsylvania. Contact him at klynn@ firdc.org.

Statue Of Liberty Concerned Slavery, Not Immigration Statue Of Liberty Concerned Slavery, Not Immigration

Henry Laurens William Lawrence Sr Omnibit 7-4-14

Henry Laurens, the 5th president of the Continental Congress, was the only Revolutionary War patriot to be incarcerated in the Tower of London.

Laurens was captured when his ship was stopped while returning from a successful diplomatic mission to the Netherlands. The notes in his possession caused the English to declare war on the Dutch.

They won that one.

Laurens was released on Dec. 31, 1781 in exchange for Lord Cornwallis who had surrendered two months earlier after the Battle of Yorktown.

Laurens’ son John was also a patriot and an abolitionist who urged his father to free the 260 slaves on his South Carolina plantation. John was killed in a skirmish near the end of the war. Lauren freed his slaves in tribute to him.

 

Henry Laurens William Lawrence Sr Omnibit 7-4-14

Henry Laurens William Lawrence Sr Omnibit 7-4

Rotary Phones Explained To The Young

Rotary Phones Explained To The Young — A mind-blowing sign of the passing of time is this U.K. website that treats rotary phones as exotic artifacts and explains how to use them.

To start making a call, the caller lifted the handset from its cradle and waited to hear the dial tone, also known as the dialing tone, in the earpiece. If there was no tone, the phone either wasn’t working – a not uncommon situation in and after the Second World War or was one of the very early phones.

On hearing the dial tone, the caller put a finger into the dial hole with the first letter to be dialed and dragged the dial round to the ‘stop’.

On removal of the finger, the dial returned itself to its original position, ready for the next letter to be dialled. As it returned, it made a clicking sound: one click for the first hole, two for the second, etc. After dialling the last of the three letters of the area code, the process was repeated with the numbers part.

Note that it’s British which explains the spelling and the communication problems relating to World War II.

It does kind of make one feel old. Think we’ll go listen to some Dead Milkmen or something.

Rotary Phones Explained To The Young

Manasseh And Ephraim Made First Alphabet Says Ph.d.

Manasseh And Ephraim Made First Alphabet Says Ph.d. — Douglas Petrovich, who has a Ph.d from the University of Toronto in Syro-Palestinian archaeology and is the author of The World’s Oldest Alphabet, had a fascinating interview, May 27, with Eric Metaxas concerning his discoveries.

The secular consensus is that the oldest alphabet is Semitic. Petrovich says, however, that the Hebrew was the language that used it first rather than Phoenician which is the traditional title holder.

Manasseh And Ephraim Made First Alphabet Says Ph.d.
Douglas Petrovich

Further, Petrovich makes the case that it was developed in Egypt by the Hebrew patriarchs Manasseh  and Ephraim, for their father, Joseph.

Petrovich also says he has demonstrated conclusively that the Israelites sojourned in Egypt as described in Genesis which is something secularists insist never happened

Watch the interview at this link.

Manasseh And Ephraim Made First Alphabet Says Ph.d.

Pilgrims Were Peaceful Research Reveals

Pilgrims Were Peaceful Research Reveals

By Bob Small

Another organization I learned about from presentations at the 2021 Bill of Rights Banquet was the Plymouth Rock Foundation.

I was skeptical about many of its claims after first sailing through it voluminous website — especially the one regarding 50 years peaceful relationships with the Native Americans.

Reviewing numerous other websites, though, had my questions answered positively.

Especially interesting sections of the Foundations’ website are America’s Hometown Thanksgiving; A lesson from Plymouth, and Who were the Pilgrims.

Previously unknown to me was that The Pilgrims kept their treaties with the Pakauoket and Wampanong, and other tribes, from 1621 to 1675, when King Phillips War began and that started as was a civil war between tribes with the Pilgrims choosing a side.  In terms of percentage of population killed, this war was more than twice as costly as The Civil War and The Revolutionary War.

Also, the Wampanong brought deer and seafood.  The American Turkey Union should publicize this.

The Pilgrims, in England, were Seperatist Puritans who felt their congregations should separate from the Church of England as under the 1559 Act of Uniformity, it was illegal not to attend Church of England services. Penalties included both fines and Imprisonment.

Some of the sources I used to confirm the Foundation’s claims

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas.com/archive/2019/11/thanksgiving-belongs-wampanong-tribe-602422/

https://www.patriotledger.com/story/news/2020/11/13/pilgrim-400-arrival-provincetown-mashpee-wampanoag-nation-quadricentennial/6267362002/

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/native-intelligence-109314481/

Some of these articles use the models of restorative narrative.

This is a link meant for grade school students,  from Eastern Illinois University: https://castle.eiu.edu/-wow/classes/fa09/Plimouth?Lessons5.html

Having recently viewed Ken Burns documentary The West, one can only wish that other settlers, many of whom considered themselves Christians, would of followed the example of their Pilgrim predecessors, rather than violating almost every subsequent treaty with Native Americans.

Pilgrims Were Peaceful Research Reveals
Pilgrims Were Peaceful Research Reveals

Angelo Bruno Receives Visitor

Angelo Bruno Receives Visitor —The Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, on Feb. 23, 1964, published the below article by their reporter William Lawrence Sr. concerning a meeting with the noted Angelo Bruno.

We thought we’d share it:

Angelo Bruno Receives Visitor --The Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, on Feb. 23, 1964, published the below article by their reporter William Lawrence Sr.
Angelo Bruno Receives Visitor --The Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, on Feb. 23, 1964, published the below article by their reporter William Lawrence Sr.
Angelo Bruno Receives Visitor

Tony Taylor Telstar Hero R.I.P.

Tony Taylor Telstar Hero R.I.P. — Beloved Philadelphia Phillies icon Tony Taylor died, July 16, at age 84. While there have been articles recording his athletic achievements we missed the one noting what will put him in the history books centuries hence, namely being the first athlete to appear in a transatlantic satellite broadcast. It happened on July 23, 1962 when part of a Chicago Cubs-Phillies game was broadcast as filler before remarks by President Kennedy to inaugurate Telstar. It showed Tony flying out to right field.

Here it is. Tony’s appearance is at 19:38.

Tony, this is for you:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mn6TNWVjZP0
Tony Taylor Telstar Hero R.I.P.

Racism Definition, Anti-American AntiFa And Honest Abe

Racism Definition,  Anti-American AntiFa And Honest Abe — The hate-group Antifa is portrayed by crony corporatists,  establishment media and Deep State Republicans as opponents of racism and defenders of the oppressed despite its funding by mega-oppressor George Soros and despite it being on The New Jersey Department of Homeland Security’s watchlist.

Please recognize that this group is a bad thing. They are modern-day brownshirts filled with hate and motivated by a desire to rule. They are worse than modern-day Klansmen and Nazis in that the modern-day Klan and Nazi Party are run by incompetents that would make Elmer Fudd look smart.

Antifa is run by pros and has a well-planned agenda.  “. . .fascisti si dividono in due categorie: i fascisti e gli antifascisti”* as the great Ennio Flaiano said.

Few people called “racists” are. Racism is the practice of defining ethnicities, categorizing human beings in them and then declaring certain categories don’t deserve civil rights. It’s a vile thing and the vast majority of Americans consider it such.

If someone should call you a racist for holding a political opinion or liking a certain candidate, make them define the word. Odds are they won’t even try. Antifa and its fellow-travelers want the definition to be arbitrary. They want it to be used only when it advances their agenda without people thinking about it.

For the snowflakes who may not been given an accurate depiction of American history in the public schools here is how a great man suggested we unify this country after a bloody war:

Fellow-Countrymen:

At this second appearing to take the oath of the Presidential office there is less occasion for an extended address than there was at the first. Then a statement somewhat in detail of a course to be pursued seemed fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four years, during which public declarations have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new could be presented. The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as to myself, and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured.

On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it, all sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war—seeking to dissolve the Union and divide effects by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish. And the war came.

One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was somehow the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union even by war, while the Government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with or even before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully.

The Almighty has His own purposes. “Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh.” If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said “the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.”

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.

 

*Fascists are divided into two categories: Fascists and the anti-fascists.

Racism Definition , Anti-American AntiFa And Honest Abe

Racism Definition , Anti-American AntiFa And Honest Abe

School Closing Numbers Pass Into History

School Closing Numbers Pass Into History  — All things must pass. KYW has stopped broadcasting school closing numbers on snow days, which it had been doing since the 1960s. Listening for them was a well-remembered part of childhood for several generations. That’s right sonny, we had to listen to the radio to find out if we didn’t have school.

School Closing Numbers Pass Into History