Thoughts on Last Night's State of the Union Address

Over the years, the annual "State of the Union" address of our Presidents hasn't been something that caught my interest.  I do try to watch some of them every year, as it is important to understand what is going on, but in particular with the last President (Obama) there was only so much I could handle before I would have to change the channel to a re-run of Mork and Mindy or something in disgust.  However, last night actually caught my interest in a real way, as in many aspects President Trump's address was different from many in previous years.  And, that inspired me to share some thoughts on it.

I also wanted to mention that I have not exactly been a great fan of Trump's - I didn't vote for him in the 2016 elections, and to be honest I was a bit skeptical about his election.  However, so far I can honestly say I have few complaints about how he's been doing.  Granted, he isn't perfect, which we all know - the "$#!+-hole" comment, for instance, could have possibly been more judiciously thought-out (it wasn't what he said so much that was wrong - we all know, and those who have been there can also say, that places like Haiti would indeed qualify for such a description - but rather how he said it; perhaps a better descriptive was warranted by the man representing the leadership of the free world). But, for the most part, Trump has managed to actually do something that many of the career politicians who leech our resources have failed to do - like him or love him, he is at least trying to keep his promises.  Compared to the eight years prior to his election, life has been somewhat better than it was when Obama was in office, to be sure.  However, we have not "made America great again" yet - America socially right now more resembles Berlin in 1946 - there is a lot of damage to clean up, and much of our standards are in tatters, so that will take some time.  That being said, the question is, can Trump do it?  Let's discuss that a minute before going into the actual SOTU address itself. 

As culturally I am a paleoconservative, politically a Monarchist, and economically a Distributist, much of my own thought about American Republicanism is somewhat admittedly critical.  To be completely honest, the system was broken before it was built honestly.  America calls itself a "democracy," but to be honest that may not be a good thing.  In his book The End of Democracy (Los Angeles: Tumblar House, 2014) Christophe Buffin de Chosal points out on page 31 that "As long as democracy has existed, every means has been devised so that the 'self-ruling' people have in practice almost nothing to say....Democracy has produced a ruling class propped up by the political parties, whose foremost objective is the preservation of power."  He notes further on page 32, "Once in place, the parties do not in the least seek to serve the common good, or rather they do so only if it first serves their own interest, which is to stay in and enjoy power."  On page 48, de Chosal nails the bottom line to all this - "Political power, in a democracy, always thus has a tendency to grow weak and the money powers to grow stronger."  As my good friend and noted American Monarchist Charles A. Coulombe also pointed out recently on a video broadcast called "Off the Menu," the problem with a Presidential government is also that if a President like Trump is elected with good ideas, the term limits he has in office would not allow time to implement them, and his successor can undo everything - this is made more real by the fact that in our nation there is a cultural divide between "Progressives" and varieties of Conservatives, and the mob rule of the "democratic process" allows the media and Hollywood to impact and influence cultural values, which in recent decades has not exactly been too good.  De Chosal's comments bring to light two important aspects of this - first, incumbent career politicians - those who de Chosal describes as "a ruling class propped up by the political parties, whose foremost objective is the preservation of power," to only serve the common good when "it first serves their own interest, which is to stay in and enjoy power."  Second, it is another of de Chosal's observations that catches our attention - political power tends to grow weak and the money powers tend to grow stronger.   We see this happening in so many cases where Hollywood interests, big corporations, and the media buy off politicians and assert their will over that of the citizenry, as well as imposing their values.  With that is their pet causes - feminism, the "LGBTQ" agenda, etc.  In other words, democracy degenerates into an oligarchy of rich Congressmen who sit on their butts, do nothing, and then come against someone who does make a stand against their pet interests because it could jeopardize their million-dollar homes and offshore accounts.   A good example of this is the recognition of the Armenian Genocide of 1915, which should be something our government should recognize but refuses to - why?  Reason is, Turkish money is bankrolling many of those who are supposed to be elected to represent their constituents, and in the case of some such as Steve Cohen in Tennessee, Eddie Bernice Johnson in Texas, and John McCain in Arizona, it means outright hostility against Armenian-Americans and others in favor of Turkish money.  Or, let's look at Nancy Pelosi, whose actions in last night's State of the Union address were so embarrassing and disrespectful that they are almost laughable if her power was not so dangerous - the people spoke in this election when Trump was voted in, but she, Hillary, and others like them called the average working American citizen "deplorable" for exercising their rights to vote.  And, they don't care - the average blue-collar guy who works his butt off and just wants to provide a good life for his family means nothing to Pelosi and her kind, but the rich, spoiled Hollywood stars and NFL athletes who disrespect the national anthem do because they have money - de Chosal's observation, then, becomes a reality.  This is the other "Golden Rule" that many of the elected officials in Congress follow as a creed - "he who has the gold rules, while those who don't are fools."  The average person who is our neighbor and co-worker has not been oblivious to this either; they will quickly tell you if they are being honest that they have little faith in our government.  It can lead to hopelessness and frustration, and indeed has as we have seen "special interests," biased media, and spoiled rich celebrities take control of the values system in this nation with a negative impact.  It is that hopelessness and frustration that has made someone like Donald Trump possible, and hence why the State of the Union address yesterday was so pivotal.

In last night's address, President Trump was attempting to be conciliatory in stating the obvious - we have some major problems that need addressed in this country, and it is for the good of the working American citizen that they need to be addressed.  Problems such as illegal immigration (a big one, which the President also attributed to the rise of drug abuse, gang violence, etc.), the economy, and also healthcare.  What he said made excellent sense, and not only did he just merely pontificate, but he introduced people who exemplified what he was saying - the North Korean expatriate with the crutches, for instance, as well as the policeman and his wife who adopted the newborn child of a heroin addict.  Whatever the intent, this personal dimension to Trump's address definitely resonated with most - except, of course, the pickle-faced Democrats sitting in the chamber, many of whom looked as if they were about to have strokes or episodes of regurgitation (one noted that Pelosi looked like she was sucking on a Tide pod, which the meme exemplifies below).  I imagine too that a Marxist like Bernie Sanders (in true Southern sentiment, I say, "bless his pea-pickin' heart!") was probably mortified at the fact that a survivor of a regime Sanders idolizes (North Korea) being present could also be seen by Sanders as a threat against his own Marxist utopian delusions.  Also, Trump's correct assessment and identification of rogue regimes like the current Iranian government as well as North Korea was excellent - he was right on that, and hopefully he can implement what he declared to do.  Overall, Trump had many strong moments, but maybe a few weak ones as well.

One area I would significantly differ with Trump on is in regard to Russia.  Russia is not a threat, nor is it in opposition to us - unless, of course, we provoke them as Obama tried to do, which is never wise in that Putin isn't one to take a lot of crap.  We have no conflict of interest with Russia, and in many cases the values Putin espouses could be a lesson for us - Putin doesn't let terrorists and the "gay lobby" dictate policies in his nation, and he also is very supportive of the Church and of persecuted Christian communities around the world, something our own nation has miserably failed to do.  Trump is on the right track with this, but there is much to be done.  Also, America has not arrived at recovery yet - much of the damage wreaked by the Obama years is still evident, and as mentioned the cultural landscape in this nation looks more like Nagasaki or Berlin in 1946.  We are still divided, "political correctness" is stifling true freedom of expression, and the twin "wild cards" of sexual harassment and racism are being used and abused as weapons against people others don't agree with.  Until this is dealt with at a fundamental level, true recovery will be slow at best.  Fundamentally America has a moral problem that is rooted in decades of Enlightenment-inspired postmodern gobbeldygook, and it has gotten so tangled that it will take either time or a radical solution to remedy it.  It remains to be seen how Establishment career politicians, bankrolled by special-interest lobbies and their own agendas taking precedence over their constituents' needs, will react to Trump's initiatives.  Much of what he has said would actually be beneficial, but activist judges and career Congressmen are going to present challenges.  It is one reason why I would tend to agree with de Chosal and Coulombe, as well as historic thinkers such as Chesterton, Ilyin, and Belloc, who all concur that democracy as such is a bad idea and cannot really exist - as Coulombe has noted in many of his own discourses and books correctly, democracy ultimately has its end in totalitarianism.   De Chosal notes on page 129 of his book that democracy is a system that "has no fundamental understanding of the concept of goodness."  This mirrors some things that the late Pope St. John Paul II noted in his encyclical Veritatis Splendor that my Moral Theology graduate course had us read a couple of years back, and on thing that the late Pontiff notes is that truth is the place from which the dignity of conscience derives (VS 63).  God's plan, which is truth, poses no threat to man's genuine freedom, and indeed only the acceptance of this truth is the only way to affirm that freedom (VS 45).  Further, it is only in this freedom, foundated in God's truth, that man can turn to what is good (VS 33).  Goodness and truth are actually transcendant properties of being (along with beauty) and theologically and metaphysically speaking they are intrinsic to our worldview, which in turn is reflected in the socio-political structures that govern us.  When one attempts to redefine what is true, what is good, and what is beautiful apart from God's establishment of these things as universals, it creates problems.  The concept of goodness therefore that de Chosal notes modern democracy lacks is also in part due to a lack of understanding truth (or a blatant denial of the true, if I dare say so).   Democracy's subjectivization of truth and goodness has led to this confusing mess that is exemplified today as "political correctness," and it is one reason why it will inevitably fail.  Many early architects of Enlightenment thought, such as William of Ockham and Marsilus of Padua, as well as Machiavelli and Descartes, denied universals via a school of thought called nominalism, and in doing so it also elevated individual reason above empirical evidence in many cases - what one therefore thinks is true, in true Cartesian fashion, then becomes the truth, and that means that the "good" is redefined by the whims of an individual rather than universal norms.  When that happens, a man can therefore claim he is a woman because he "feels" like one (note this is the whole idea behind this transgenderism issue) or a White woman can say she is "Black" because her "soul" is Black.  Reality for such people is what they say it is, rather than what it actually is, and therefore this is why transcendental properties of being (goodness, truth, beauty) are reduced to subjective definitions.  And, that is why de Chosal correctly observes a deficiency in democratic systems regarding the fundamental concept of goodness.  That discourse now relates to Trump's speech last night in this way.

The phrase "Make America Great Again!" has a feel-good quality that rightly should be an admirable goal.  And, for those who do embrace traditional values, we know what that entails.  However, we need to remember something as well, and it is also a good barometer to measure our President by too - Machiavelli had a premise to his political theory, as laid out in The Prince, that what is true is irrelevant to what works.  Truth, then, for a person with a Machiavellian mindset is sacrificed for "what works," and we have seen where that has led with recent foreign policy decisions by both Republicans and Democrats alike.  Take this issue of the Armenian Genocide.  The truth is that it was a real event that happened in 1915, and practically every Armenian alive can testify to that today as almost all of them have lost family in that event.  Logic dictates that recognizing that this event happening is the thing to do, but the Machiavellian mindset of many of our leaders see something else - they see dollar signs, as the seductive siren call of the Turkish lobby, with its rich resources, has wooed Senators and Presidents alike to ignore the Armenian Genocide as a historical event because it might "embarrass" our Turkish "friends."  But, here is the thing - the Armenian Genocide was a true event; it happened, and the Turks bear culpability for it.  So, why do elected officials such as Steve Cohen of Tennessee, Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas, and practically every sitting US President since Woodrow Wilson choose to ignore and (in the case of Eddie Johnson) outright deny it happened?  Because what works for them is more important than what's true - Turkish money to fill their coffers, much of it generated from Azeri oil fields, speaks louder than the graves of innocent Armenians slaughtered in the Middle Eastern deserts.  The personal "good" of personal wealth has priority over the greater good of the preservation of a nation of people.  Yet, is it all that "good?"  Ask former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, who now is in prison (and he is a Republican - career politicians know no parties!) for bribery, much of which came from Turkish drug money and other things in which Hastert, who could have in his position at the time as Speaker of the House passed a measure recognizing the reality of the Armenian Genocide but did not.   Let's look at something else equally appalling - abortion.   Trump is thankfully making a pro-life stand in his Presidency, and he afirmed that loudly last night in his address.  But, we need to recall something - Planned Parenthood, which is the largest mass-production entity in the abortion industry, is also rich, and on its bankrolls sit many Congressmen.   To these Congressmen (Pelosi is the most blatant) the howls and squeals of a motley bunch of sexually-frustrated ugly feminists in "pussy hats" mean more than the millions of innocent unborn children who end up dying before their life starts in agonizing ways - the reason why is money!  Pelosi and those like her (including many Republicans) are very Machiavellian in this aspect in that they are going with what gets them the most votes rather than what is morally right and good, and thus de Chosal's assessment that there is a deficiency in the universal concept of goodness, as well as revealing the real objective of the "leaders" (and I use that term loosely!) is to seek and preserve their own power, only appealing to the common good when it serves their interests - this is right out of Machiavelli's playbook in that they choose what works over what is true.  Ear-tickling - particularly if it has the backing of a bunch of rich celebrities and powerful special interests - works, and unfortunately it works too well - often, it is too late by the time the itch subsides and people realize they have been lied to.  And, that leads to a couple of closing thoughts before I conclude in regard to our President.

Trump was a fluke as far as his election was concerned - he was outside the "Establishment," and in many aspects observers on both the right and left of the political spectrum have correctly observed that the "Trump Train" was the fruit of a popular discontent with traditional politicians.  Under the surface of our American society there is a brewing of discontent that one day will erupt when finally many normal citizens will say "enough is enough" and change will happen.  Trump's election is a harbinger of that in a good way, but a lot remains to be seen as of yet, as it is only his first year in office.  When the eruption of popular discontent takes place, we need to pay careful attention to where it leads the nation as a whole - after all, many writers (Chesterton, Coulombe, de Chosal, and others) have noted that totalitarianism is the natural climax of democracy, and as Pope St. John Paul II notes in Veritatis Splendor, the root of modern totalitarianism is in the denial of the transcendent dignity of the human person, and when democracy loses a fundamental concept of goodness, then dignity of the human person is cheapened and the person becomes a mere means to be used by those who wish to exercise power.  This is why we need to pay attention and be careful, lest we fall into a hole we cannot get out of.  In order for America to be great again, a fundamental sense of goodness must be recovered, and that goodness is ultimately found in God's truth.  It is here that politics and theology meet at a crossroads, a crossroads which is often blocked and ignored by the champions of secularism, yet we cannot afford to do so.  America's greatness, therefore, is found in solid values rooted in universal truth, not in subjective ideas of truth exploited for ambitious means.  And, that essentially is what I would say I got from Trump's address last night.  If he stays true to it and can resist those who seek to undermine what he is trying to do, we might have a fighting chance as a nation.  But, there is still much to do, and ultimately it is God in whom we place our trust, as Trump is but human too.  Have a good week everyone.

Some Observations

Well, it is 2018 - a new year and a new beginning for us.   As I write this today I do so in a retrospective mode; there are a lot of things going through my mind, and it's a matter of where to discuss first honestly.  I have reflections on theological issues I could discuss, on social issues, and also just some personal anecdotes.  So, why don't we just make it a combination of all three?

Well, to begin, our household had one of the best holiday seasons we have enjoyed in many years, and it has been great.  I have spent the past week watching four seasons of Billy the Exterminator on DVD that Barb got me for Christmas.   If you have not watched this guy, you should - he is something else!   The "Billy" in question is Billy Bretherton, who with his family operates a company called Vex-Con in northern Louisiana.  Vex-Con's specialty is removing pesky critters and bugs from people's houses, and they do a pretty effective job of it.  Billy is not your typical bug man though - he actually looks kinda freaky, as he is dressed in black leather, has one hell of a wacky hairdo, and he looks more like a rock star or an outlaw biker than he does a pest-control specialist.  But, don't let looks be deceiving - Billy is also a veteran of the Air Force, and he has extensive training in etymology, so he knows his stuff.  And, despite how weird he looks, I would not hesitate to call the guy if I had a problem with pests - and, as an added bonus, the DVD's have additional features that give some good tips about getting bugs out of your house (who would have thought, for instance, that Alka-Seltzer in water would be a flea deterrent?  Fascinating!).  I got into watching this show a few years ago as a couple of co-workers were raving about it, and have been a fan of Billy ever since.  It was also a good diversion after the busy holiday season we had, and also prior to getting back to the routine of life as we have done this week too.

Moving on, there are other things happening too.  As I had mentioned earlier last year, I have sort of re-connected with my interest in the Armenian people, especially after finding out I had some Armenian heritage of my own, which was perhaps one of the most exciting things I have uncovered in my family tree.  Related to that, over the Christmas holiday I discovered something really neat in regard to Armenian music, and it is an orchestra based out of the Republic of Armenia called the Kohar Symphony Orchestra.  Named after the mother of its main benefactor, the Kohar Orchestra is one of the most phenomenal music groups I have come across, and I fell in love with them immediately.  Kohar tours worldwide, under the baton of both its previous maestro, Sebouh Abcarian, an Armenian/Cypriot who unfortunately passed on a few years back, as well as the current maestra Natalie Galstyan, a native of Yerevan in Armenia itself.  The concerts are riveting too - the sophisticated graphics as well as the stellar musical arrangements make for a remarkable concert experience.  One aspect of the concerts is audience participation - one of the major emphases of the Kohar organization is to encourage Armenian national consciousness, and it does so by emphasizing all aspects of the Armenian legacy.  If one studies history, there were actually two Armenian kingdoms - the one was Armenia proper, which is also reputed to be the first Christian nation on earth (although that is an object of debate between both my Armenian and Assyrian friends, as both groups claim that distinction), which was ruled by the Bagratid Dynasty (of which I am descended as well) for many centuries until at least the first waves of Muslim conquest in the 7th century.  The second kingdom, the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, came later and was established on the Meditteranean coast in what is today southeastern Asia Minor.   This kingdom existed between the 10th and 12th centuries, and represented a sort of fusion of cultures - it was both ethnically Armenian but also was part of the Crusader States of the time.  That kingdom had a standard flag too which looked like this:

In Kohar's concerts, one of the most amazing things to see is the waving of thousands of these ancient banners of the Kingdom of Cilicia by the audience, especially when the orchestra plays songs like Sardarabad (which commemorates a very important victory the Armenians had in 1918 over an Ottoman Turkish force, a victory which may well have saved the Armenians as a people).  Seeing that has impacted me deeply, and it has also done a couple of things for me personally.  For one, it has made me even more appreciative of my own heritage, as possessing Armenian blood now means something very significant for me.  Secondly, it has sort of compelled me to explore Armenian history more too, and I have learned a lot in the past week in particular about the Cilician Kingdom - as a monarchist as well, this fascinates me.   In the coming year, I look forward to becoming more involved with both my own Armenian interests as well as obtaining some of Kohar's concerts on DVD (I got the 2010 Lebanon concert already, which was one of their best).  If you wish to check out Kohar's website, it is at www.koharconcert.com. 

The Kohar Orchestra and Chorus in Beirut, 2010

In addition to my renewed interest in Armenians, there are many other things to discuss, including some reflections again on recent events.  It seems as if anymore whenever the news comes on, someone is making sex allegations against someone else, and to be honest it is starting to get old.  I have addressed all this before, so no need to get into it again in detail, but I did want to say something about it.  Whether the allegations are legitimate (as with Harvey Weinstein or Al Franken) or bogus (as I believe they are with Roy Moore and Bill Cosby) seems to mean less these days - sex accusations are becoming both an effective weapon to use against people one doesn't like as well as a lucrative financial opportunity, as many are jumping on the bandwagon for other reasons than trauma.  This is not a good thing, mainly because what it means is that in time the public is going to begin to be desensitized to the whole thing, and when that happens it will make justice and vindication for actual victims very difficult.  I also see this as a ploy by some on the political left to gain some sort of ground in the culture wars - radical feminists, the "gay lobby," and the numerous celebrities, academic elites, and politicians pushing those agendas have one thing in mind:  they are out to destroy traditional definitions of morality, family, and faith.   By using tactics like this to crush their opponents, leftists are gaining a grounding in those areas they should not have, and it is starting to look extremely bad for those of us who hold to more traditional views on such issues.   One sex scandal has opened a floodgate of accusations, allegations, and outright character assassinations against prominent people, and if we had brains as a society we would actually start to maybe question the volume and frequency of these incidents, as it may turn out that many of them are wrong or intentionally deceptive.  Most won't though, as we tend to as a society be gullible, and it will be to our detriment.  Sex and race have become effective and lethal weapons of the establishment, and it has gotten to the point that even a mere allegation presupposes guilt, which should not be the case.  Those accused are entitled to due process, and before the rest of us weigh in on any of it, we would do well to keep our mouths shut and learn the facts first.   Enough said on that, as I feel that is the bottom line to the whole issue.  However, this meme pretty much sums up the feeling many are starting to have about this flood of allegations that we are bombarded with daily now:  

Anyway, moving on to more positive stuff here, winter is now officially here.  As we have come to our first full year at our new home in Hagerstown, MD, we do so with some chilly temps outside - it has been in the low teens outside over the past week, and we got a dusting of snow a couple of days ago too.  After living 27 years in Florida, that is definitely an adjustment, as over those past years the lowest it had gotten down there was maybe in the low 40's.  And, despite how crazy some people have thought us to be for moving back here, I don't regret the decision one bit - I still love being back home!  The cold is a minor thing, and it's to be expected.  But, on the other hand, it also made the holidays feel more like the holidays this year - I cannot fathom how, for instance, some of our friends in Florida could put Christmas tree lights on palm trees.  To be honest, it makes the palm tree look like a malnourished Baywatch extra!  Do you recall those old cartoons from the 1930's?  If so, when I think of Christmas lights on a palm tree, this is the image that gets stuck in my head:

Any rate, last year was a good year, and we expect a lot for 2018 as well.

The main challenges of last year were getting established, as well as dealing with a few pesky in-laws who don't know how to mind their own business, which is what I want to talk about now.  For the most part, my in-laws are not bad people, and many of them are fantastic.  But, you always have one or two that want to be a pain in the butt, and those can get the best of you at times.  That is why I am doing a little lesson here for you all now that will help some of you who are facing similar problems.  I have two sisters-in-law who, for lack of a better term, are pains in the butt.  They are stuck-up, nosey, contentious, and they have caused a lot of problems for many of their other family members.  At one time, I honestly despised them, but of course you cannot maintain your Christianity if you entertain such sentiments or act upon them.  So, last year I made a commitment to start praying for them, as they really need it.  One thing you learn about forgiveness is that you don't necessarily have to run out and scream to the world "I forgive you!" as forgiveness has to be received as well as given.  So, what I believe the Gospels teach us, as well as our Church's teaching, is this - it is our responsibility to cultivate an attitude of forgiveness, and be ready to dispense it when the person who offended you is ready to receive it.  Reason for this is actually quite practical - the person who offends you may either be unaware they did so, or they may think they were doing a good thing by doing so, although they would be wrong.  By praying for these offending people, you do two things.  First, it helps you to develop an attitude of forgiveness for them.  Secondly, it also encourages the offender to maybe start to feel a conviction about the fact they wronged you, and in doing so eventually someone is going to have to talk about it and resolve it one way or the other.  That means then like everything else true forgiveness requires preparation, and it is that preparation that we ourselves must be open to, and we do so by trusting God to help us deal with the offense in the proper way.  In time, for instance, it is hoped that my two wayward sisters-in-law will come to their senses and make right what they have wronged, but in the meantime I just have to pray for them until that time is ready.  I hope that encourages some of you who may be dealing with hurts or offenses people have committed against you, and hopefully by taking this to heart you can begin a healing process in yourselves as well.  We all deal with this to some degree - human nature pretty much guarantees that! - but it is our willingness to move forward and seek constructive reparation that makes the difference.  

On that note, I will wrap up for now, but we will have the chance to visit and I will have other opportunities to share throughout the year as well.  May all of you reading this have a good and prosperous 2018 ahead, and will see you soon! 

Year-End Wrap-Up

It is almost beyond comprehension that this year is already coming to an end!  It seems like the older I get, the faster time goes.  So, what kind of year has 2017 been to us anyway?  To be honest, it has been quite a different year - a new chapter in life has opened, there have been many challenges, and also a lot of new things have taken place which have shown that we are indeed at a new place.  Was 2017 a bad year though?  Not at all actually - it has had its challenges for us, but I would not say it has been bad at all.  In many ways, as a matter of fact, it has been one of the best years, although at times circumstances don't appear to reflect the fact.  As mentioned, a lot of new things have happened, and if there were a theme to the events of the year, it would be "New Beginnings."  Let me now touch on some highlights of the past year.

A New Place

The most radical aspect of this year is the fact we moved, and that move happened on the very first day of the year - last year at this time, as a matter of fact, we were in the midst of packing up the house and preparing for it.  After spending an entire day on December 31st of last year doing the backbreaking task of loading our whole house into a Penske truck, it was at 8:30PM on that day that we pulled out of our driveway in Lakeland, FL, and we headed east on I-4 before turning north onto I-95 and leaving the state for good.  When 2017 dawned on us that night, we were just north of Jacksonville heading toward the Georgia state line.  That move was significant for several reasons, and it indeed signaled a new chapter for us.  But, we need to go back in order to move forward in order to tell the story, so let's do that.

In August of 2016, I had reached a milestone of living 27 years in Florida, with the exception of two months in California and a few months in Dothan, AL in 1992.  That time frame itself is of great surprise to me, as when I came to Florida initially I was a 19-year-old kid fresh out of high school and just starting college.   That point in my life, much as this one has, closed another chapter on my life story as well - I had opened the door to adulthood that year and stepped out of the shelter of childhood.  When I graduated high school in mid-1989, I recall being both excited and fearful, and the reality hit me like a ton of bricks when I was loading the last box of my belongings in Dad's van that year.   I still remember standing out in front of the house on Salt Lick Road in Terra Alta that day - Mom was actually crying, as was the little nonagenarian lady Myrt who had more or less adopted me as a new grandchild, and a great adventure lay ahead.  Arriving in Georgia that year on the same highway I left Florida just this past year (I-95), it was apparent that my life was changing.   After a summer with Dad that year in Georgia, I arrived on the campus of Florida Baptist Theological College in Graceville, FL, on August 26, 1989, and that began my long sojourn in the state of Florida.  Over the next 27 years, I would get married, earn my Bachelor's degree, and accomplish a lot of other things, but to be honest, Florida was beginning to seem like a dead-end to us - Barbara and I felt stuck there, a feeling we both had extending back as far as 1997 but that we ignored as life moved on with jobs and other responsibilities.  It was due to a final crisis in 2015, when we almost lost our house, that we finally made the decision to make a big change for good, and we spent the better part of 2016 preparing for it.  I remember that night in late December 2015 when we were facing eviction at that point from our house that Barbara and I stayed up all night talking about what we were going to do, praying to God for direction, and just really seeking some guidance, and at that point it came to both of us - we both saw Maryland as our destination, and it was decided at that point to just do it - move out for good, as Florida was not promising much to us nor did we have any real roots there anyway.  After God miraculously delivered us from our rental crisis, as well as providing us both with good work, we began in earnest to prepare for this big move.   It had its challenges, but 2016 was actually a good year to do it, and for the most part our preparations went smoothly.  So, from that long night-long talk we had at the end of December 2015 until pulling out of the driveway on December 31st, 2016, we now had a purpose.

Many have asked us, "why Maryland?"   The reason for that is simple - Maryland is an ideal location for us personally in that it is my home territory - where we live now is only minutes from the border of my home state of West Virginia.  Also, Maryland presents opportunities we would not have had otherwise in Florida, although in the course of this year it has taken some time to tap into them.  We have had our sights on this area since at least late 1997, so we knew for almost 20 years that this was where we needed to be.  So, when we were finally faced with making a decision, it was as if the apple that had fallen off the tree and hit Sir Isaac Newton on the kopf had likewise knocked sense into us, although it took a near-catastrophe to get us here now.  After really looking over our options, it was finally decided that Hagerstown would be the ideal location for us - it is at a convenient distance from everything we need, and it is also a nice town that is within 30 minutes or less of three other states.  And that is how we ended up here. 

Of course, this move was not without its sacrifices.   The first of those occurred last year just prior to our move, when we had come up to Parsons to visit my grandparents while scouting out the area.  It was of course wintery out, and on the Saturday we were to head back, a major snow storm had dumped a few inches of white stuff on Tucker County.  So, early that morning, when we were leaving my grandfather's house just south of Parsons to head home, we took some bad advice from my stepmother to head east on what was to be Corridor H construction, which took us over Dry Fork Mountain between Elkins and Harman.  About midway we started to notice that the roads had a lot of ice on them, and I cautioned Barbara that we needed to watch out for ice.  Not 30 seconds after saying that, we hit a nasty patch of black ice and after a few spins out of control in the road, we flipped twice before finally French-kissing the north side of Dry Fork Mountain, which also landed us upright.  Although we were not injured in that accident, it did total our Ford Ranger pickup we had owned for almost 8 years at that point, which was a tragic loss.  But, thanks to some distant relatives who lived in the nearby community of Dry Fork who graciously gave us a lift to a local mechanic shop called Dave's Auto, we were taken care of - as an extra blessing, the owner's daughter-in-law was sweet enough to give us a lift into Elkins where we were able to rent a car to drive back home, a trip which was uneventful and in style, as the car they leased us was a 2015 Mustang, which was nice!  And, in less than a week, our insurance company gave us a nice settlement, which we were also able to apply toward our moving expenses (along with a gracious loan from my dear sister-in-law Sue, which was a real blessing as well) and that kept us on-track.  Although we have yet to invest in another vehicle, for now at least we have Mom's, which has been excellent in getting us around for the past year. 

The move itself was also challenging too, as it was a lot of backbreaking work loading the Penske truck, which due to a miscalculation was undersized, so that meant we also had to leave several things behind.  But, we got here.  When we pulled into the Super 8 Motel on exit 9 off I-81 in Martinsburg, WV, which would be our home for the following week, we had about 65% of our former home in a Penske truck with us, and that was still enough to get us settled.  Now, when we moved here, we had no clue as to where we would be eventually living, which is why we stayed in the motel in Martinsburg for the first week of 2017.  During that time, we looked into several houses before settling on one that sort of came our way by an ad in the local paper - there was a huge mobile home park called Lakeside Village just south of Hagerstown, MD, which had some nice mobile homes open, and we made an appointment on Wednesday, January 4th, to check them out.  We went, filled out the paperwork, and saw the new place, and on Friday we received the call that they offered us the lease, and we then spent all that Friday and early Saturday moving stuff into the new home - again, it was backbreaking work in 11-degree weather, and while chilly outwardly I was sweating like I was in a jungle under my coat, and would pay for that a couple of weeks later when I caught a nasty virus.  But, we were home, and here we have been ever since - soon we'll be celebrating our first year in this place, and it has actually been overall a pleasant experience, as it is a nice park and generally easy on us, although a bit steep pricewise.  At this point we are still acquiring new furnishings and have some more settling-in to do yet, but we've made progress.

Adjusting to living back in my home territory after living in Florida for 27 years has had its challenges, but overall I really believe it is the right thing to do and have no regrets.  Honestly, it is just good to be back home, and as a new chapter in our lives has opened, we want to make it one of our best.  We both anticipate that happening more so in 2018, as a lot of new things come our way as well.

Moving Forward

There are many other milestones that have happened the past year that need to be discussed as well, as they involve our church, my academic pursuits, and other things.  A lot of transition is still taking place even now as I write this, so much will have to be observed as it comes together.

When we moved up here earlier this year, the original idea was to continue work in the ACC at what was to be our parish, St. Michael the Archangel in Frederick.  We started out there at the beginning of the year, but a couple of months after our move, the parish church moved as well to a new building at an old Roman Catholic sanctuary dating from pre-Civil War times near the small community of Buckeystown, and at that point some changes started happening.  As I am on the verge of completing my Master's degree, it was originally my hope to serve the Church as maybe a catechist and possibly seek Holy Orders as a permanent deacon, but circumstances occurred which sort of changed our focus.  Although the Anglican Catholic Church has been a great communion to be part of the past 10 or so years, it also became apparent that I may not have much of a future serving there, and some other situations forced me back in June to take a long hard look at what I was doing and where I was going.  As it happened, just down the road from our house in Hagerstown was a vibrant Roman Catholic parish, St. Joseph's, and after having a change in schedule during the summer months - Barb was working for a teen counseling program called Catoctin Adolescent Program in nearby Sabillasville, MD, and had to work some odd hours - it was more convenient for us to attend church closer to home, so we started attending Mass intermittently in June.  This was the very thing that I was being shown as far as direction, and after deliberating over it, Barbara gave me some sound advice entailing the ACC - sometimes it is best to just "rip off the bandage."  So, I did that - I effectively resigned my post on the Vestry of St. Michael's, as well as relinquishing my layreader responsibilities there, and we began attending St. Joseph's here on a regular basis.  This was a rather easy transition, as I had already been confirmed Roman Catholic in the year 2000, and I took the steps to re-establish communion with the Roman Catholic Church and the transition was not difficult as I was still very much Catholic in convictions and theology anyway.  So, we became registered parishioners of St. Joseph's, and in the bulletin a couple of months later there was an announcement that catechists were needed for their Parish School of Religion, and I responded - after a screening process, I was teaching my first class of 6th-graders in September, and not long after Barbara also was able to volunteer to teach 3rd-graders, and here we are!  Teaching these kids has been very rewarding, as they are a fine group of young people and I found that I have more of a knack for doing this than I thought I had.  I have also become a Knight of Columbus as well, and we are now fully integrated into parish life, which is nice.  That opens more doors for me as well to put all this education I have to use, and I now look forward to that. 

As for school, I am also excited to note that I have completed my final semester of coursework in my Master's program at Franciscan University of Steubenville, and upon taking the comprehensive exam in January I will anticipate having my degree.  Attending Franciscan University has been one of the truly rewarding experiences of my past 4 years, as it has been spiritually enlightening, academically challenging, and just an overall awesome experience.  As I finish up my final steps to get the degree I have worked for, I also plan on taking about a year off to recuperate before starting my doctoral program at Catholic University of America, as honestly I just need to take a break.  Although academic achievement is enriching and rewarding, it also can be taxing, and lately I have also been feeling that.  In the interim, I have to do some preparation work anyway for my doctoral studies, which entail taking a GRE exam later this coming year, as well as brushing up on both my German and Latin, both of which I had in high school but have gotten rusty but both of which are also very integral to my doctoral studies as reading efficiency in both is a requisite.  To be quite honest, I am kind of sick of exams and tests, but they come with the territory - in order to get a quality education, one has to master the material in such a way as it can be applicable to the field one will work in.  It is almost scary to think that by the time I receive my doctorate though I will be 53 years old!  Imagine that - spending almost all my life with education; it seems at times as if it never ends!  But, again, the rewards outweigh the challenges, and despite the hard work, as well as my being a target of misunderstanding by some unsupportive but mouthy family members who seem to take pleasure at condemning and criticizing my efforts, in the end it's going to all be worth it.  And, with only a few people to thank for helping me along the way  - God of course, as well as Barbara, to name two important ones - I am blessed that I have come as far as I have.  And, the important lesson is that despite the wagging tongues of meddling relatives who like having opinions on everything but are of little use otherwise, it is important to press on and finish the task at hand.  Discipline is a good thing, and it has its own rewards.

Milestones and Memories

There have been other accomplishments this year as well outside of church, school, and the move itself.  One of those is a very important one that I want to spend a little time on now, as it has redefined who I am to a degree, and it is also one of the most exciting discoveries I have made in many years.

One of the major interests I have in my own life is my own roots - I have extensively researched my genealogy for many years, and still conduct some of that off and on as I am able.  Over the past few months I was able to do a little bit of research, and what I came across brings many things into perspective for me personally.  I have established already in the past that I am a blood descendant of a minor British aristocrat by the name of Sir Thomas West, who was the 3rd Baron DeLaWarre (he is also the man after whom the state of Delaware was named).  Sir Thomas's own pedigree is an ancient one, with ties to the Plantagenets, Charlemagne, as well as other noble families across Europe.  However, until this time, the major thing that caught my attention about my roots was that I was a descendant of St. Vladimir of Novgorod, who of course in AD 988 converted and Christianized Russia.  That in itself would be impressive enough, but as this saga continually unfolds, there are more branches in the tree I have discovered.  One of them is through an ancestral line of Sir Thomas West's called the Percy's, who were known as the Barons of Leicester.  They, come to find out, have as their distant forebears two noble Armenian families, the Mamikonians and the Bagratids.  It would take a lot of time to document how the intricacies of that all comes together (although I have charted it out as the line goes back over 1300 years), but it is personally significant to me, which is what I want to discuss now.

Armenian advocacy has been a part of who I am since at least 1988, when I first learned of both Armenians and Assyrians.  Anyone who knows me knows that my work with Armenians and Assyrians is a very important aspect of my personal identity, and although I have been somewhat dormant with that over the past 20 or so years, I still have a very committed conviction about it.  In doing much soul-searching regarding a new church, etc., this past summer, I had this pull to revisit my old passion for the Armenian cause, and interesting enough in April a movie hit the theatres called The Promise, which focuses on the events leading up to the tragic 1915 Genocide committed by the Ottoman Turks in which 1.5 million Armenians, as well as huge numbers of Assyrians and Greeks, were martyred.  That movie touched at something in my core being, and it was this year that I made a renewed commitment to supporting my Armenian and Assyrian friends in a way I haven't since about 20 years ago.  At around the time The Promise opened at theatres around Easter, I also began to revisit some of my genealogical research as well, and that is where I believe God brought together so much about who and what I am - I was led somehow to discover this Armenian root I have in my own DNA, and upon doing so, it was as if a door was opened, and at the very core of my own being the tragedy of the Armenian Genocide became more personal to me than it ever has been - these were my people, in a real sense now, who were affected, and the revelation of that stirred within me feelings I cannot even describe, but there was a connection that happened unlike anything I had felt previous.  As this all happened, a voice within me was almost shouting "You are Armenia!"  This was something God knew that I needed to discover, as my passion had been lost for many years, but this rekindled it in such a way that I think about it again almost daily.  In the coming year, I want to explore this even further, as it is a great gift I have been given that I was never aware of, and it brings together so many mysteries from over the years that now make perfect sense - I was drawn to Armenians all those years ago in high school because in a literal sense now I am Armenian myself.  I now understand more of what Saroyan wrote about in his books, as well as what Komitas and Mirzoyan composed in their great musical masterpieces, and now when I watch movies like The Promise I can see my connection.  There is so much that can be said of this, but it will have to wait for another time, as at the present there is still much to sort out.  But, I will affirm that this is no accidental occurrence either - God has timings and seasons for everything, and this was the time to discover and reconnect to something which has been a mystery for many years.  Thanks be to God for His wisdom in revealing all these things.

What Lies Ahead

As I write this, we are about to enter the holiday season.  The house now smells of the lingering odors of Christmas cookies baking combined with the apple smell of a plug-in air freshener, and just behind me the newly-decorated Christmas tree stands dormant waiting to be turned on later tonight as it gets dark out.  Also, outside there is a briskness in the 29-degree morning air, and the residue of a light dusting of snow that happened a couple of days ago still slightly lingers.  For the first time in many years, it feels like the holidays.  Living in Florida for almost 27 years, Christmas never really felt like Christmas, as on many holidays it was even 80 degrees out - you cannot take a holiday seriously when you have hibiscus blossoms and palm trees outside your doorstep.  So, although there was some festive mood, it always seemed like something was missing.  This year, for the first time in many years, I don't feel that - it feels like Christmas in this house today!  It is a fitting end to a challenging but exciting year as the new chapter in our lives has really began to unfold.  So, as I close today, I wish everyone reading this the most blessed of holiday seasons - including some old friends in Florida, who still have the misfortune of hibiscus blossoms and palm trees and not a snowball's chance you-know-where of any snow whatsoever.  Christmas is more than climate, and it is more than how many cookies you can bake and eat, how many presents you give or receive, and it is definitely more than Santa Claus, flying reindeer, and talking snowmen - Christmas symbolizes for humanity a new chapter of our collective story; it is God's giving of Himself, by coming as a humble child in a manger in a small town in a distant land over 2000 years ago, so that we can be restored to Him.  Let's keep that in focus even as the persistent pelting of commercialism and the bright lights and shiny tinsel on our Christmas trees can risk our distraction from that fundamental reason for the season.  It is also my prayer that you who read this have a blessed 2018 ahead as it dawns on us in less than 3 weeks, and hopefully all of us can thrive in many ways this coming year.  So, as you enjoy the beauty of the season, hopefully some of us can have that dusting of snow on Christmas morning as we awake from our slumber and open those festive packages we have been anticipating over the past several weeks.  Have a good remainder of 2017, and a good start to 2018. 

A New Profitable Industry

Recently, it has occurred to me that there is now a sure-fire way to make a few thousand bucks, and it requires no skill to do it.  As a matter of fact, some of the most lucrative people embarking on this enterprise are sort of air-headed bimbos.   So, what is this great opportunity in which you can be as dumb as a rock and make thousands of dollars?  Apparently, it is sexual allegation cases. 

A few weeks ago, Hollywood was turned on its ear when a noted director, Harvey Weinstein, was accused of molesting people he worked with, many people actually.  Did he do it?  Evidence seems to suggest the possibility, and often the casting couches of Hollyweird directors in the past have been waterfalls of the love-nectar of directors and producers with their stars.  Whether he did what he did or not is not really the issue though - the real issue is the floodgates that opened once one accusation was made public, and now no one is immune from accusations as apparently everyone has been sexually assaulted by someone, at least according to the "mainstream" media.  However, as was the case with the allegations against Bill Cosby, the volume and scope of these accusations is at such a ridiculous level that it doesn't sound right, and just very recently two iconic Republican politicians have been targets of similar allegations.

The first of these is Judge Roy Moore, who just won a Congressional race in his home state of Alabama.  Judge Moore, who is a decent guy, is no stranger to controversy - about 15-20 years ago he was sued over a display of the Ten Commandments in a courthouse which he bought with his own money and donated.  Now, some tart has come forward and besmirched the good judge's name again, just before he officially takes office (oddly coincidental, don't you think?) by accusing him of sexually assaulting her.  It is obvious that this is a smear campaign by the Left, who are now riding on the Weinstein incident's pettycoattails, to discredit a good leader who has the potential of restoring order to this morally disordered nation, and in doing so they have spineless and willing allies in such useless Republican "statesmen" as Mitch McConnell, whose effectiveness as Senate Majority Leader is about as successful as sales of the Edsel in its heyday.  McConnell and his wimpy cohort of Republican "leaders" who said much but have done little have no credibility, and if I were "Stitchy Mitch" I would tread softly - he is not immune either to allegations himself.  All he has to do is cross the wrong press figure, and all of a sudden there will be some curvy tart (probably one of Bill Clinton's former girlfriends) who will pop up and accuse him of harassment.  All these dumb girls are not doing badly for making bad allegations that destroy reputations of good leaders are they?   God know's Roy Moore's heart, and ultimately I believe Moore will be vindicated - however, it may get ugly before he does.

Judge Roy Moore

The second victim of these allegations is even more shocking and unlikely, and that is former President George Bush Sr.  Apparently not one, but two, paid skanks came forward to accuse the former President of goosing their fannies or something, which knowing Bush Sr's character is absurd.  I have never been a fan of Bush Sr. - I personally never liked him much, and thought he was dull, had the personality of a garden snail, and as a leader he was not all that effective either.  But, for heaven's sake, this is a bit too much - despite his limitations, I hardly think that poor old Bush Sr. ever copped a feel on a girl's bum aside from maybe his wife Barbara.  Honestly, I think someone got him mixed up with this guy, who was his successor: 

And, here is where that double-standard sets in.  I find it interesting that they are trying to cull up crap on poor old dull George Bush the First, who hasn't even been in the public eye for years, but then old Slick Willie, who has a notorious reputation for womanizing and having sex with anything in a skirt, is not even mentioned.  And, what of ol' "Uncle Joe" Biden, our former VP?  He was touching underage girls all over, but nothing there either - hmmmm!!  It is interesting how selective the press is about who it drags up allegations about, and if they like a public figure, then it is conveniently swept under the rug.  It also is interesting that they dredged up poor old Bill Cosby as well (subject of an earlier article) while practically ignoring the sexploitation of other more recent stars who are noted for their promiscuity - Katy Perry, for one, brags about hers, and who knows what Rosie O'Donnell does when she and her friend Bill Clinton cruise the 'hood for chicks to pick up together.  Oh, but they are untouchable - the press likes them.  But, let someone threaten the established order and look what happens - there's hell to pay.  Double standards - don't you love them?

A new elite class of wealthy young skanks will soon occupy high-end neighborhoods of many communities, and they have the reputations of innocent men they accused to thank for their ill-gotten booty.  Imagine if a real investigation were conducted, and it would be discovered that many of the skanks hollering "sexual assault" against public figures they don't like were committing perjury and fraud - the prisons wouldn't be able to hold them all at this rate.  However, it is long overdue that many living in fancy houses may need to be carted off to the "big house," and they need to remember that in time lies tend to betray themselves and the truth will prevail.  It may take some time, but it will be inevitable.  Problem is, in the meantime the reputations of honorable people who could have done much for society will be destroyed, and the evil that pervades our society now will continue unabated, and more damage will be done as our enemies will feel empowered after moving the last opposition to their agendas out of their way.  But, judgement is coming, and Lord help the evil plotters and schemers, as well as the skanks and tramps they pay to destroy innocent people in the name of "sexual allegations."  

The Thrower Music Collection Year 35

It is hard to believe that recently I have commemorated 35 years (October 1st) of collecting vintage big band records, and due to many factors I was delayed in giving the "state of the collection" address here this year, so I wanted to go ahead and do that now. 

To start, let's get the boring statistics out of the way.  As of October 1st, my music collection now stands at 918 LP records, 1236 CD recordings, 100 DVD's of vintage "soundies," concerts, and big band-related movies, and around 300 or so 78 RPM records.  That means that since last year I have gained 6 new LP records, 29 new CD's, and only 3 new DVD's.   Growth was not spectacular, but good given the fact that in January we moved back to my home turf after 27 years in Florida.  The anticipated outlook is about the same for next year, as my collection is at a point where there will not be much spectacular growth although I am looking to get some good stuff regardless.  Outside of the numbers though, a lot was significant about this past year, and I wanted to give some highlights. 

To begin, I was fortunate enough to come across a vendor who has managed to reissue many rare LP's that I wanted to get on CD that honestly I thought would never be released.  A couple in Arizona, Gary and Joan Sprunk, operate a service called My Music Boutique (or Arizol Music - their website in case you're interested is www.mymusicboutique.com), and they have reissued a number of rare LP's that many people have forgotten about.  Big band recordings are often associated with the vintage 78's of their heyday, and while those are classic and definitely essential to a collection, what is often overlooked is the LP era of the 1950's and 1960's, during which many good original big band records were released, especially by the more "sweet" bands.  The advantage to those is that many of them were either originally or later reissued albums which were stereo quality, meaning the sound is excellent on them.  Some of the bands who were very prolific at recording excellent dance band LP's in that timeframe were Sammy Kaye, Guy Lombardo, Lester Lanin, Ernie Heckscher, Lawrence Welk (naturally!), Peter Duchin, Jan Garber, and the Elgart Brothers.  A lot of good swing-oriented bands, such as Woody Herman and Les Brown, released some excellent material too.  Collectors often overlook the value of these good records, and often they can be found by the dozens at thrift shops and junk stores in most towns.  I would encourage you to start thinking about maybe getting a collection of those if you can do so, because in the very near future those will be antiques as well.  And, that being said, I commend the Sprunks for taking on the great task of releasing many of those quality LP's as CD recordings, and I was fortunate to have purchased about a dozen of them over the past several months from them.  Therefore, when you can, check out their website, as they are always coming up with new gems. 

The second thing I wanted to reflect on is that with our move back to my home territory, something significant happened this year in regard to my music collection.  Being we now live in Hagerstown, MD, I am actually quite excited to know that we are only about an hour or so away from the very store in Rio, WV, where I got my first records over 35 years ago, the famous "Rio Mall."  Since moving back here, Barbara and I have managed two visits over there, and I bought my first LP there back in February since my last purchase there back in 1987.  The LP was a reissue of Shep Fields's material from the 1960's, but it was a nice find nonetheless.  And, surprisingly, they are still the exact same price I paid for them years ago - a quarter a record!  The old Rio Mall has changed somewhat over the years, as they have added a second story and now also carry groceries, which is something they never had years ago. The records too have changed location - whereas they used to be in boxes in the front of the store back years ago adjacent to the counter, now they are in an adjoining room where the new grocery stock is at, and they have a lot of them.  It was good to be able to visit there again after all these years - that place has been in business well over 50 years, and still going strong as the Fitzwater family still operates it.  I even got to see Rick, who is the son of the owner, and wonder if he remembered me as the "record boy" who used to load up on those quarter LP's years ago?  Rick was actually the guy who sold me most of my original collection, so he and I were used to doing a lucrative business back in the day.  It is almost surreal to know that after 35 years I was finally able to visit the place where my massive collection had its origin, and that it is still going strong.  No doubt now that we live fairly close I will be visiting them more in the future - Rick does have an antique accordion I want to get my hands on eventually, as he wants $100 for it, so maybe I might just do that soon.  If all the factors are favorable, that may just happen too.

The third aspect of my collection this year is upgraded housing.  Since we now live in a mobile home instead of a more spacious house like we have been used to, it is a bit cumbersome to haul around 19 boxes of records and 8 boxes of CD's, so I had to come up with a solution.  So, a couple of months ago I was able to purchase two large metal cabinets, and they are shaping up to be the perfect housing for my extensive collection.  The first cabinet at this point is together, and all the single LP records are in that one, as well as 2/3 of my 78's.   The second cabinet is a work in progress, hopefully to be assembled by the week after this is published, and it will house my boxed LP sets, including my "Holy Grail" collection of the Franklin Mint 100-LP Greatest Recordings of the Big Band Era set that came out in the early 1980's.   I recall, when I started collecting records, how that set was advertised in the various issues of Reader's Digest in those years, and I would look at that and literally drool because I wanted that collection so bad - if you love big band music, it is the crowning glory of a collector's library.  They are housed in boxes of two records each (making 50 double albums) and the records are pressed in red vinyl.  As big as it is, it doesn't contain everything, but it is perhaps the most ambitious and largest undertaking of big band reissues to ever hit the market.  I finally got my collection in 2006, thanks to the miracle of internet purchasing called EBay, and that collection is now part of my overall collection, comprising almost 10% by itself of my LP's.  So far, not even the CD era has produced anything that ambitious, and it would be interesting if someone did try to reissue that collection on CD's - how many CD's would it have?  If I were to guess, I would say at about two LP's fitting on one CD, and two CD's per album, it could easily be a 25-case set of CD's if it were reissued.  Definitely something to keep an eye out for in the future for sure!

As I reflect back on my collection over the years, I am thinking about many things.  For instance, other than a few of us who are diehard collectors who really love vintage big bands, no one knows a lot about them anymore, which makes collection and preservation of this great music more crucial.  Also, in the coming year, I am focusing on big bands as far as their roots, how they developed, etc.  Do you know, for instance, that there were dance bands in the 1880's who recorded?  Of course, there was Will Marion Cook, who only has one recorded work to his name (he is featured on a record by the legendary Ethel Waters in the 1920's as a pianist), but there were also people like Edward Issler and even Johann Strauss III, who for all intents and purposes had the first "society orchestra" that played his uncle's and grandfather's classic waltzes.  Many of those recordings are on cylinders, and maybe I will come across some of those in the future as cylinder recordings are not something I have had much luck in finding over the years.  Fortunately though, there are sites such as archive.org that have those vintage recordings available for download, and I have been able to capture them on flash drives.  I am anticipating that someone - a diehard collector like myself - may see the importance of a CD reissue of that vintage stuff, and when such a person does, I will plan on getting it.  Adding people like Edward Issler to my extensive collection, for instance, would be a great accomplishment for me.  And, who knows, maybe I might get my hands on some cylinder recordings this year too - we'll see what happens.

To wrap up this end-of-year reflection as far as my collection is concerned, the question remains about where I will be going this year?  My immediate goal is to more or less look out for some significant new releases that interest me, as well as tying up some loose ends in my Amazon wish list - I would love to add some newer material by Toshiko Akiyoshi and Lew Tabackin, for instance, and have that "waiting in the wings," so to speak.  My other watch item this year is a recent 5-CD collection of all of the legendary accordionist Charles Magnante's vintage recordings, which is the product of accordion virtuoso and historian Dr. Henry Doktorski.  Charles Magnante is significant to my collection in that he, like many soloists such as Rudy Wiedoeft and others, also are pivotal figures in the history and legacy of big bands.  Therefore, his collection added to my library is a very imminent objective.  I don't anticipate a lot of purchases this year, but will be always vigilant and keep my eyes open.  Also, a couple of more trips to Rio may yield a few more LP's and 78's as well.  Any rate, that is what my year was like as far as music collections are concerned, and I will see you all soon. 

A Major Announcement

2017 has been a year of a lot of changes for us.  We moved from Florida, where we have lived for 27 years, back to the North - Hagerstown, MD.  Hagerstown is about 2 hours east of where I was born and spent most of my early life, and it is seriously good to be back home again.  It hasn't been without its challenges though - we still need a lot of furniture for the house yet, and we are still settling in even at 9 months later.  But, it was the best decision we could have made, and no regrets.  Our new chapter has also produced new beginnings for us in other areas too, so that is why I wanted to write this today - one of those new areas is a very big change, but it too is good.

If you have followed my story on all my pages, you will recall that in 2000, when I was 30 years old, I was confirmed and received my First Communion as an adult convert to the Catholic Church.  For a few years afterward, we faithfully attended both the Cathedral of St. Jude in St. Petersburg, FL (where I was confirmed) as well as at a local Byzantine Catholic parish.  In 2006 though, a series of events in our lives compelled us to attend a traditional Anglo-Catholic parish for about 10 years, and I honestly thought that would be our permanent church home - it was conservative, and I could still remain faithfully Catholic in conviction while fully participating in the parish we attended.  So, for many years I served in various capacities in that particular jurisdiction, and actually did so until our recent move back to this area.  At that point, some things happened.

First, although our initial parish in Frederick, MD, was the same as what we had been used to for about 10 years, something was not quite right about it and in time we finally decided to move on for various reasons.  So, we found right down the street from our house a Roman Catholic parish called St. Joseph's, and earlier this summer we began attending as their Mass times were also compatible with Barbara's work schedule.  In time, this eventually led to my taking the steps to return to the Roman Catholic Church, and I was welcomed back with open arms and hearts.  That was therefore one reason.

A second reason has to do with my university where I am currently wrapping up a Master's degree, Franciscan University of Steubenville.  After being somewhat disillusioned with the direction my alma mater, Southeastern University in Florida (where I had gotten my BA in 1996), I transferred out of the graduate program I had started there in 2012 and transferred to Steubenville.  Learning so much about the Catholic faith began to make me recommit to my own Catholic convictions, and later it also became a very pivotal factor in choosing to come back home to the Church.  And, here we are.    There are of course other reasons, as well as more detail as to our reasons stated, but these two major reasons were the decisive factors in our return to the Catholic Church this year.

I bear no ill will or animosity against the faithful Anglicans I had fellowshipped with for all those years - we had gotten to know a number of good people, and they have been a blessing to us in more ways than I can document here. And, it is not against the Anglican tradition itself - the Anglican spiritual and liturgical tradition is a very rich one, and I also learned a lot from that too.  However, with certain opportunities opening up as well as other factors, we have made the right decision.

Our new parish home, St. Joseph Church in Hagerstown, MD

So, it has been several months, and I now am thoroughly Roman Catholic again, and it feels right to be so - I have been able to tap back into a stability and solid faith that is also helping to strengthen me as well.  And, I also get to use all that classroom work in a practical way - I have been commissioned as a 6th-grade catechist for our new parish, and am able to disciple an amazing group of about a dozen sharp young people.   It is a reward in itself to be able to embark on the high calling of catechetical work that I have been in preparation for, rather than being merely a flunkie somewhere while waiting on the right moment, etc.

I still have a course to plot out, but it is coming together.  Being on the verge of finishing my Master's at Steubenville and starting a doctoral program next fall at Catholic University of America, as well as my new membership in the Knights of Columbus and the Confraternity of St. Peter (an organization within the Roman Catholic Church that seeks to preserve the old Mass in Latin, called Tridentine), have integrated me well into our new parish.  

I want my former Anglican folks to know I still think a lot of them, and many are still dear friends.  Therefore, this in no way reflects upon anything about them - rather, it is just a different direction God has called us to.  It took probably about four months of intense soul-searching to come to this place we are now, and I am probably at the most peace I have been personally in a while.  It also will serve us as well being that doors can open for opportunities at this point that otherwise wouldn't have, and we have to go where we can achieve a balance of both fulfilling our vocation while retaining life stability.  That is the primary reason we are here now.

I also know this will come as a shock to some, and I understand that completely.  However, nothing has fundamentally changed much in my convictions - I was always Catholic first as far as my Christian identity  is concerned, and that hasn't changed for at least 20 or more years.  Now, I can be fully free to live that out, as well as also being more informed about what that faith is now, thanks in part to excellent instructors at Steubenville who have been a phenomenal witness - people such as Dr. Mark Miravalle, Dr. Petroc Willey, Dr. John Bergsma, Dr. James Pauley, Dr. Scott Hahn, Dr. Regis Martin, and of course my ever-reliable admissions rep, Tom Weishaar.  Them, as well as those two old Lebanese ladies - Freda Faris and Bertha Nassif - I used to walk to church back all those years ago when I was an awkward 16-year-old who was being prompted to conversion by the Holy Spirit Himself.  Any rate, this brief announcement should hopefully answer any questions some may have had lately, and I thank you for understanding.  God's blessings be with each of you reading this, and continue to remember myself and my family in your prayers as we begin to step through those doors God is opening for us.

Weighing in on Charlottesville

Over the past couple of weeks, a major flare-up happened in Charlottesville between two radically opposite but equally racist factions, and it has caused yet more division in our nation.  I wanted to refrain from saying a lot right away because I wanted to make sure I was careful with what I said when I finally did speak on it, but now the time has come, and I wanted to offer some observations today on this whole mess.

The bruhaha stemmed over the right of a group of neo-Nazi and Klucker racists and so-called "White nationalists" to have a demonstration to oppose the targeting of statues and other monuments that commemorate the heroes of the Confederacy.  When they gathered for their event, another group of racists organized by Black Lives Matter and the "anti-fascist fascists" called Antifa decided to hold a counter-demonstration, and that is when things got out of hand.  To begin, neither the KKK or Antifa represent the majority of the American public.  Secondly, despite what they call themselves, Antifa is just as racist and bad as the KKK, and to me they are two sides of the same ugly coin.  Yet, for some reason, Antifa has been labeled by their allies in the secular press as being "cultural heroes," but they are anything but.  Antifa has a goal of essentially eliminating anyone who doesn't think or behave like they do, and the incident at Charlottesville just gave them fuel for firing up.  Many of us who are appalled at the performances of both these extremist factions have come to our own conclusions about what happened, and I wanted to present the two possibilities I think stirred up this mess, and in reality to a certain degree both possibilities may be plausible at the same time.

Some of my friends on social media have a legitimate suspicion that this whole thing may have been staged to incite anarchy, and although I am not personally sure, it is definitely not out of the realm of possibility.  Consider for instance one person - Jason Kessler.  Kessler was supposedly a leader in the White nationalist "Unite the Right" faction at Charlottesville, but he was also the guy who participated in the leftist "Occupy Wall Street" demonstrations a few years back - now, how is it that a guy who is supposedly a White supremacist leader also be part of the that neo-hippie anarchist movement too??  The answer is CNN, on whose payroll Kessler is alleged to be.  So, let's put a face on this guy to show you who he is:

So, this dorky-looking guy seems to not discriminate when it comes to radical politics, does he?  What that means is that if this can be proven, Kessler is a paid agitator of the press to stir up public emotions over things the radicals want to do.  And, like I said, it's not proven yet for sure, but it is not outside the realm of possibility either (information from "CNN Caught paying Charlottesville 'White Supremacy Leader," at https://www.only-politics.com/2017/08/25/cnn-caught-paying-charlottesville-white-supremacist-leader/ - accessed 8/28/2017).  If this also turns out to be the case, it makes you wonder then how much other crap has the press incited over the years too.

A second possibility exists though as well, although not necessarily in conflict with the first.  When Obama was elected in 2008, I remember reading somewhere that a high-ranking KKK leader said that Obama would be the best thing to happen for their movement since Reconstruction.  Obama was one of those people who himself was a Black racist - he incited and encouraged everything from the hoopla over Trayvon Martin to the Ferguson riots, and that idiot wife of his, Michelle, even was telling school cafeteria programs to ban peanut butter sandwiches for being "racist."(Nathan Harden, "Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich Racist, Warns Portland School Official," published 11/24/2013 at http://nation.foxnews.com/2013/11/24/peanut-butter-and-jelly-sandwich-racist-warns-portland-school-official - accessed 8/28/2017)  It led in time to even a small child being thrown out of school because of chocolate brownies (Alex Griswold, "School Calls Police After 9-Year-Old Makes 'Racist' Comment About Brownies."  Published 6/29/2016 at https://www.mediaite.com/online/school-calls-police-after-9-year-old-makes-racist-comment-about-brownies/ - accessed 8/28/2017).  So, according to the "political correctness police," food can be "racist" I suppose!   Somehow, I don't see a jar of peanut butter or a box of Little Debbie brownies volunteering to put on white sheets and burn crosses in people's yards.  But, the culture of "political correctness" has deemed anything that someone considers "offensive" worthy of being eliminated.  And, the new target of that idiocy is Confederate statues.

In this toxic environment of "political correctness," much of the nonsense that is being perpetrated under the banner of "racist" is in reality being targeted against people now because of the color of their skin - now White people, even those not technically "White" but maybe have lighter skin, are being targeted, and many of them are starting to really take a beating from it.  And, of course, when that happens, it fuels the flames of actual racists like the KKK and the Skinheads, who are starting to find a fertile recruiting field for their ranks, feeding on the weird stuff coming from the leftist crowd, and for at least 8 years being goaded on by a President who was essentially a racist himself.  It is creating a dangerous situation, and all fingers point back to Obama on this one - had he not encouraged Ferguson, the crap that went down at Charlottesville would not have happened.  And, I will say it - Black racists are creating White racists, and it is as if they want to start a race war in this country.  And, many innocent people - Black, White, Asian, Hispanic, etc. - are going to end up being caught in the crosshairs of the extremists and will end up paying the price for the hatred of both sides of that battle.  Thanks again, Obama!  Colin Flaherty, in his excellent 2013 book White Girl Bleed a Lot (Washington, DC: WND Books) notes in chapter 2 that a new trend among Black thugs is something called the "Knockout Game," which essentially entails a gang of Black kids finding a defenseless White person and then proceeding to beat the crap out of that poor person until they pass out or even are killed.  Flaherty also notes that these same Black criminals have been targeting Asian-Americans as well, preying on the defenseless, elderly, and very young (Flaherty, p. 15).  The "Knockout Game," to put it bluntly, is the Black version of the lynch mob.  However, instead of using ropes and trees, they use pipes and bats, but it is still the same evil intentions driving both.  Another development Flaherty notes along these same lines is the "Flash Rob," which is a flash mob with criminal intent to loot and vandalize - this is what happened in Ferguson basically.   Again, like any group that is terrorized or oppressed, a need eventually arises for the victims of these crimes to take action to defend themselves, and who do you think is waiting for them to make that decision?  Your local Kluckers and Skinheads!  Violence begets violence, and as Newtonian physics verifies, an action on the part of one extreme will provoke an equal and opposite reaction from the other, and there are members of the press, politicians, and others who end up really being the only winners out of the whole thing.  Again, thank you Barack Obama!

Now, let's talk about these statues.  The focal point of the whole Charlottesville mess was a statue of Robert E. Lee that was in a public area of the town, and for many years now political-correctness revisionists have been wanting to destroy and deface Confederate and other monuments that to them smack of "racism."  Thing is, those statues have been around for ages, and they are a part of our history, love it or hate it.  To eliminate areas of history like that is to essentially censor what people are allowed to learn for themselves, and it breeds a culture of ignorance.  The Nazis did the same thing in the Third Reich when they banned art, music, and other cultural expressions by destroying them in big bonfires - the Nazis were wrong, and their political-correctness heirs in the US today are equally wrong of the same crime.  It has even gotten so bad that an Asian-American sportscaster named Robert Lee was pulled from a University of Virginia football game because of his name!  Lee is actually a common surname among Chinese-Americans, and it has nothing to do with the American Civil War or anything else - it is just a name.  Yet, poor Robert Lee was punished for his name ("ESPN Pulls Asian-American Announcer From Virginia Football Game Because He Has a Confederate General's Name," published 8/22/2017 at http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2017/08/22/espn-pulls-asian-american-announcer-from-virginia-football-game-because-has-confederate-generals-name.html, accessed 8/27/2017).  I don't know, but it seems like Mr. Lee was a victim of racism himself, and if I were him, I would sue those ding-dongs at ESPN for it.  I guess though "racism" is in the eye of the beholder, at least in the fantasy-land of the "Progressive" politically-correct types (this is why marijuana is a bad drug too - smoking too much of it makes people do stupid things like this).   And, that leads to the very issue that these idiots are "protesting," the legacy of slavery.

There are many schools of thought regarding why the Civil War was started, and the predominant one many of us have heard is that it was all about slavery.  Admittedly, slavery was an issue, but it was not the whole enchilada, and even the narrative of slavery's role in the Civil War is sometimes flawed - the industrial North and the then-encroaching Federal bureaucracy were not interested in the rights or freedom of Blacks from slavery; the Feds wanted to take a piece of the revenue pie they thought the Southern planters were not giving them, and the industrialists wanted to get their part in cheap labor to line their own pockets.   Don't get me wrong - slavery is wrong, it is dehumanizing, and it has never been sanctioned by the Judeo-Christian worldview.  But, let's give those who say slavery was the primary cause their due.  If it was, then what would the Federal Government gain from it?  If it freed the slaves, it would lose tax revenue, right?   And, Lincoln was not exactly a lover of Black people either - his solution was to ship them off to Liberia in Africa, remember.  So, what was really going on here then was not slavery itself, but the revenue slavery generated and who it went to.  So, if slavery was the primary cause of the Civil War, that is why.  Also, the institution of slavery was blamed on every White person in the South, but there are a few facts to consider there as well.  First, only the upper-crust 1% of the richest Southerners owned slaves.  Secondly, some of those upper-crust planters were not exactly White themselves - a 17th-century Black man named Anthony Johnson was credited with being the first slaveholder in the US.  Johnson was originally a Black indentured servant who was in the employ of a man surnamed Bennett, but acquired his freedom and began to build up land and wealth in southern Virginia.  In March 1655, the colonial court of Virginia ruled in Johnson's favor that a man can be owned by another man, and that is how the "peculiar institution" began in the US - with a rich Black man (Clint Johnson, The Politically Incorrect Guide to the South.  Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2006.  pp. 81-83).   On the other side of the slave chain, it was also historically established that the first slaves in what was to become the US were not Blacks either (that came later, thanks to Islamic slave traders - that is something Louis Farrakhan won't mention!) but were Irish, Romanichal Gypsies, and others from Europe.  There was a time when the number of Irish and Gypsy slaves outnumbered Blacks too, but you don't hear about that, do you?  Blacks, Cherokee, Whites - all had both slaves and slaveholders among them.  Yet, this shakedown victim mentality (to use my friend and former parishioner Kenneth Timmerman's terminology) that is hawked by hucksters like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, James Cone, Obama, and others would have us believe that only Blacks were victims.  For more on this, read especially about the Irish and Gypsy slaves shipped to the colonies by Cromwell in the 18th century at http://snippits-and-slappits.blogspot.de/2012/05/irish-slave-trade-forgotten-white.html.

By contrast, let's look at some of those "evil" Confederates that the nutjobs want to desecrate the memories of.  Robert E. Lee comes to mind in particular - this is a man who freed all his slaves, and didn't have the conscience to support slavery as an institution, and he was an honored statesman.  Then there is the most noted Confederate figure from my home state of West Virginia, General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson.  He didn't own slaves, and even had a literacy program he instituted to help freed Blacks learn how to read.  Yet, these men are considered "evil" while the same people who label them extol people like the alcoholic general and 18th President of the US, Ulysses S. Grant.  Besides being a drunk, Grant was also anti-semitic - he refused to let Jewish troops serve in his own regiment - an order he issued on December 17, 1862, required the expulsion of all Jews from his War Department (Jonathan D. Sarna, When General Grant Expelled the Jews. New York:  Random House, 2012. p. 64).  On the other hand, many Jewish veterans existed in Confederate ranks, notably Moses Ezekiel, a sculptor by trade who later opposed Grant's campaign for the White House as he understood how anti-semitic the alcoholic Union general was (Sarna, p. 68).  Some of them even equated Grant with the evil Haman who came against the Jews in the Book of Esther, saying that his only "elevation" to office was to be ascending the stairs of a gallows (Sarna, 69).  As it appears here, it looks like Jewish-Americans fared better in the Confederacy then than they did in the Union, but that is a story you won't hear either (ironic, as many of the alt-Left BLM and Antifa crowd are also some of the most anti-semitic, pro-Islamic hypocrites that exist).  I would be willing to wager that Grant was not exactly an abolitionist either, as he had his own racist skeletons (as did Lincoln and others) that modern revisionist history fails to mention.   At any rate, who is then getting honor these days - a virtuous Confederate general whose wife was the granddaughter of George Washington (Lee), or a drunk anti-semite with megalomaniac tendencies (Grant)?  You decide.

I wanted to shed light on all of this to show how ridiculously biased many on the left side of the political spectrum really are, and that the ultimate problems with Charlottesville were birthed in Ferguson.  So, whether staged or if actual White racists were involved, the sole responsibility for the friction that created those incidents rests in the hands of Obama and his fellow leftists, much in the same way that 9-11 was in reality a fruit of Clinton's policies, and not Bush Jr's - if Clinton hadn't armed KLA terrorists in Kosovo earlier with American weapons and dollars that ended up in bin Laden's hands, 9-11 may have at least been delayed for a few years.  As President Trump rightly said (and mind you, I am no fan of his either!) the blame rests with both sides.  Now, it is just time people start growing up and owning that responsibility.   When they do, then this will not be happening any more: