tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-366506052024-03-14T03:31:56.135-04:00The Coltons Point TimesBirthplace of Religious Freedom ----------"Ne Obliviscaris"Jim Putnamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12209035120639959756noreply@blogger.comBlogger2208125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36650605.post-86279038297540388762020-02-06T10:23:00.000-05:002020-02-06T10:23:53.259-05:00The Complete True Story Behind “American Pie” by Don McLean - The Day the Music Died<div style="text-align: center;">
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Buddy Holly</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">What was American Pie all about?</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">One of the most controversial yet successful songs of the 20th century, “American Pie” was written and performed by Don McLean and was released in 1971. The elegiac composition of the song has become a staple of the American music, and as the decades passed, multiple interpretations have been given to the lyrics. Three decades later, “American Pie” remains one of the most debated and dissected songs in the history of popular music.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Singer-songwriter Don McLean poses for a portrait in June 1970. (Photo by Julie Snow/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)</span></i><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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<b>Don McLean – American Pie – The Day the Music Died<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Recorded May 26, 1971, “American Pie” was no ordinary song – at eight and a half minutes long, it quickly became a cultural event and even though many people weren’t entirely sure what it was about, it reached the top of the Billboard 100 charts in a matter of weeks and sold over 3 million copies. Don McLean had refused to discuss the meaning of the lyrics for decades but finally cracked the code in a 2015 interview that preceded the auction for the original manuscript of the iconic song.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">A Defining Moment in American Music</span></b><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">No matter how open to interpretation the lyrics of “American Pie” have been over the decades, the emotional resonance of the song contributed to the birth of an American classic. It was clear from the beginning that McLean was referring to a defining moment in music, as the lyrics point to something that has been lost and can’t be gained back. The song opens with the death of singer Buddy Holly and ends with the catastrophic concert at Altamont Motor Speedway, and as such, we discover that the lyrics cover the period between 1959 and 1970, as the third verse defines the timeframe as the “<i>10 years we’ve been on our own</i>.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The decade the song refers to has been a defining one not only in music but also the entire American history.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The sense of disillusion and loss that “American Pie” transmits is not just about the deaths in the music world, as we’ll see below, but also about a generation that could no longer believe in the utopian dreams of the 1950’s and was an immediate challenge the assumptions of an old world.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">The Roots of an American Icon</span></b><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">One of the most enduring American singers-songwriters, Donald McLean III was born on October 2, 1945, in a family with Scottish roots. Both his father and grandfather were named Donald McLean, and his mother’s side of the family had roots in Abruzzo, Italy. His early musical influences included Buddy Holly and Frank Sinatra, but as a teenager, McLean became particularly interested in folk music, and his love of music flourished when he was in high-school. McLean bought his first guitar at the age of 16, and he started making contacts in the music business. This was the period he made friends with Fred Hellerman of the Weavers and singer Erik Darling.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<i style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Photo of Don McLean Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">After his father died when McLean was 15, he briefly attended Villanova University, but he dropped out after four months to focus on his musical career. He became associated with Herb Gart, who would become his manager for almost two decades, and started to perform at various events and venues across the country. He Released his first album, “Tapestry,” in October 1970, but had it rejected 72 times before “Mediarts”, a new label, agreed to release it. Even though the album received good reviews, it was not a commercial success. McLean had his major break with the release of his second album, “American Pie,” which made him an international star and remained in charts for over two years after its release.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">A Masterpiece is Born</span></b><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Recorded on May 26, 1971, and first aired on the radio a month later, “American Pie” reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on January 15, 1972, and remains the most successful single release of Don McLean. The song was distributed on both sides of the disc because of its length. A first interpretation of the lyrics was published on January 7, 1972, by WCFL DJ Bob Dearborn, and most subsequent interpretations stemmed from this initial one. It wasn’t until 1978 that McLean finally stated that the lyrics of the song are of an autobiographical nature and present a shortened version of his life between the mid-1950s and the late 1960s.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Don McLean performs onstage, Chicago, Illinois, November 10, 1978. (Photo by Paul Natkin/Getty Images)</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The song also reached number 2 in the UK for three weeks and topped the charts in Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. At the time of its release, “American Pie” was the longest song to enter the Billboard Hot 100, at 8:33 minutes long. At present, it is the fourth longer song ever to enter the Billboard. The Library of Congress selected the song for preservation in the National Recording Registry for its cultural and artistical significance.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">The Early History of “American Pie”</span></b><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In the years after the song was released, it was widely thought that McLean wrote the song at Caffe Lena in upstate Saratoga Springs, New York. However, McLean disputed the claim in an interview for the New York Times in 2011. Even though some employees of the folk café Caffe Lena claimed that he started to write the song there, McLean stated that he wrote it in Cold Spring and Philadelphia. There is a plaque in the Tin & Lint bar on Caroline Street in Saratoga Springs that claims the song was written there.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Photo of Don McLean (Photo by Mick Hutson/Redferns)</span></i><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Not only the place where the song was written is disputed, but also the place where it was first performed. Saint Joseph’s University claims to be the place where the first was performed for the first time, but according to McLean, he debuted the song in Philadelphia at Temple University on March 14, 1971.<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">What Is “American Pie” About?</span></b><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">According to McLean, the song represents the shifting from the naïve, innocent 1950’s to the darker decade of the 1960s. Even though some of the events mentioned in the song are easy to decipher, such as Buddy Holly’s death on February 3, 1959, most of the lyrics have a deep meaning that has been the subject of speculation for the last decades. McLean himself has generally avoided any question that asked him about the true meaning of the song’s lyrics, stating that the lyrics shouldn’t be analyzed because they are poetry.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<i style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">The wreckage of the plane crash that killed rock stars Buddy Holly (Charles Hardin Holley), Ritchie Valens (Richard Steven Valenzuela), and The Big Bopper (Jiles Perry Richardson, Jr.) On February 3, 1959, outside of Clearlake, Iowa. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">When asked about how he composed the song on British show Songbook, McLean answered: “For some reason, I wanted to write a big song about America and politics, but I wanted to do it differently. As I was fiddling around, I started singing this thing about the Buddy Holly crash, the thing that came out (singing), ‘Long, long time ago, I can still remember how that music used to make me smile.’ Over the years, it has been speculated that “American Pie” contains references to multiple post-World War II events such as civil rights and a wealth of pop culture elements.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Our Story Begins</span></b><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In the verse that opens the song, McLean is nostalgic for the music of his youth and the way it made him feel at the time he was only discovering the joys of listening and creating music.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Rock ‘n’ roll singer, songwriter and guitarist Buddy Holly (1936 – 1959), right, with his group The Crickets, Jerry Allison and Joe Mauldin. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">” A long, long time ago</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">I can still remember how</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">That music used to make me smile</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">And I knew if I had my chance</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">That I could make those people dance</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">And maybe they’d be happy for a while.”</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Almost immediately, he turns his attention to a seminal event that cast a shadow over his joy – the death of Buddy Holly who had died in a plane crash in February 1959. At the time of the event, McLean himself was a paperboy, and he found out about the death of the music star by reading the front page of the newspapers he was supposed to deliver.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">The Daily Tribune newspaper reports the deaths of Buddy Holly, J. P. ‘The Big Bopper’ Richardson and Ritchie Valens (Photo by GAB Archive/Redferns)</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">“But February made me shiver</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">With every paper, I’d deliver</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Bad news on the doorstep</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">I couldn’t take one more step</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">I can’t remember if I cried</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">When I read about his widowed bride</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Something touched me deep inside</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">The day the music died.”</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The first verse is the easiest to decipher, as McLean identifies Buddy Holly by the time of year he died, as well as the widow he left behind. As it will become more evident in the next verses, Holly’s passing had a profound impact on McLean, as he associated his with the disappearance of the optimism and innocence of the 1950s. As such, the day the music died is not only the day one of its most essential representatives passed away, but also when the old days and the optimism that came with them died as well.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">The Day the Music Died</span></b><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Don McLean coined the phrase “the day the music died,” an expression that would later be used as a reference to the day of February 3, 1959, when rock ‘n’ roll musicians Buddy Holly, JP Richardson, and Richard Valens died in a plane crash in Iowa together with their pilot Roger Peterson. At the time, Holly body was touring across the Midwest together with his band, and rising artists JP Richardson and Richard Valens join them.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PpNRJMhsFmE/XFjvEtXHqnI/AAAAAAAAj-Y/Ggr9rGNMe1Iq6Kg22b0EeqvxdN2-oCDAACLcBGAs/s1600/AP%2B8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="178" data-original-width="288" height="247" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PpNRJMhsFmE/XFjvEtXHqnI/AAAAAAAAj-Y/Ggr9rGNMe1Iq6Kg22b0EeqvxdN2-oCDAACLcBGAs/s400/AP%2B8.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">A group of men view of the wreckage of a Beechcraft Bonanza airplane in a snowy field outside of Clear Lake, Iowa, early February 1959. The crash, on February 3, claimed the lives of American rock and roll musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. ‘The Big Bopper’ Richardson. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Because the tour buses were called and the journeys between venues were long, Holly decided that they had enough with the cases of frostbite and flu that were affecting their performa</span></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13pt;">nces. As such they chose to charter a plane to reach their next venue, but soon after takeoff late at night, the plane crashed into a cornfield with no survivors. Holly’s band members Waylon Jennings and Tommy Allsup were supposed to be on board as well, but they exchanged places with Jennings and Valens at last minute and took the bus instead.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Bye, Bye Miss American Pie</span></b><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The chorus of the song is a primary key to understanding its meaning because this is where the theme of the countries lost innocence is stated quite clearly.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">“Bye, bye Miss American Pie</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">And them good ole boys were drinking whiskey and rye</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Singin’ this’ll be the day that I die</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">This’ll be the day that I die.”</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2gI5mSYVcbc/XFjvFHlsrII/AAAAAAAAj-c/ze0FRZeffmkPejh1DQiZcWa85oK4dTTuwCLcBGAs/s1600/AP%2B9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="193" data-original-width="288" height="214" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2gI5mSYVcbc/XFjvFHlsrII/AAAAAAAAj-c/ze0FRZeffmkPejh1DQiZcWa85oK4dTTuwCLcBGAs/s320/AP%2B9.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Mrs. Krantz of Minneapolis beams at her apple pie baking in the oven in 1951.</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In the chorus, McLean conveys his sadness at the loss of America’s innocence. American Pie is a metaphor for the country, and the chorus is thus a farewell to the all-American pie. It is thought that he was also inspired by the expression “as American as apple pie” that is often used to describe something that is quintessentially American. Other interpretations state that this could also be a synthesis of the American pie and the beauty queen Miss America.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">No matter the interpretation, the name “American Pie” evokes a simpler time when icons had meaning, and life had more taste. McLean bids farewell to the America of a passing era.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Turning the Attention to the Chevy</span></b><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The phrase “Drove my Chevy to the levee” refers to a well-known series of Chevrolet commercials that were very popular on American television in the 1950’s. , and the lyrics went like this:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">” Drive your Chevrolet through the USA,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">America’s the greatest land of all<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">On a highway or a road along a levee…<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">..life is completer in a Chevy<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">So make a date today to see the USA<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">And see it in your Chevrolet.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tAAZJXKKVZE/XFjuuNKJx_I/AAAAAAAAj7o/jeC0690jvCEVSZX4bhiS4wbGCkeYF9gFACLcBGAs/s1600/AP%2B10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="194" data-original-width="288" height="215" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tAAZJXKKVZE/XFjuuNKJx_I/AAAAAAAAj7o/jeC0690jvCEVSZX4bhiS4wbGCkeYF9gFACLcBGAs/s320/AP%2B10.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Car buyers flock to a dealership to see the new models of the 1953 Chevrolet, Lynwood, California, 1953. (Photo by Underwood Archives/Getty Images)</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">McLean chose to allude to this particular commercial because the Chevy was the mark of the regular American family in that period. For those not familiar with the term, a levee is a dam built to prevent inundations, but sometimes the term refers to the steep bank of a river. Driving the Chevy to the levee refers to romance, but the lyrics have a double meaning, because “The Levee” was also a party spot in, where McLean used to listen to music with his friends. Sometimes, when The Levee would close (“the levee was dry”), they would drive across the river in search for places to drink in Rye, NY.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The choice of words “the levee is dry” also alludes to the disappearance of something that once gave Mc Lean great pleasure – just like the evaporating American dream.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">This Will Be the Day That I Die</span></b><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Once they reach their favorite places to drink, McLean and his friends raise their glasses to “the good ole boys,” mourning the death of Buddy Holly and his band. One of the key lines of the song, “This’ll be the day that I die” is a rewording of a line from Buddy Holly’s “That’ll Be the Day” hit: “Cause that’ll be the day when I die.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/---UctqZw9pk/XFjuuNFSAGI/AAAAAAAAj7g/NMbt65xnzU8ZKpF1jWdjx5qG-7u6pI56wCLcBGAs/s1600/AP%2B11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="192" data-original-width="288" height="213" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/---UctqZw9pk/XFjuuNFSAGI/AAAAAAAAj7g/NMbt65xnzU8ZKpF1jWdjx5qG-7u6pI56wCLcBGAs/s320/AP%2B11.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">“The Levee”, later became “Tin Lizzies” and is currently called “The Beechmont Tavern“Source: </span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><a href="https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/the-beechmont-tavern-new-rochelle?tab=interior" target="_blank"><i>yelp.com</i></a><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">” In that particular song, Holly fears that his love would leave him, which would mean the end of the world for him. McLean uses the line with a double edge: to point to Holly as a symbol of the song, and to mourn the death of music as he knows it and a whole world with it.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">The Book of Love Makes an Entrance</span></b><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The second verse of the song introduces some of the most discussed themes of “American Pie” – the Book of Love and the Rolling Stones.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">“Did you write the Book of Love</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">And do you have faith in God above</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">If the Bible tells you so</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Do you believe in rock n’ roll</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Can music save your mortal soul</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">And can you teach me how to dance real slow</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Well, I know that you’re in love with him</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">‘Cause I saw you dancin’ in the gym</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">You both kicked off your shoes</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Man, I dig those rhythm & blues</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">I was a lonely, teenage broncin’ buck</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">With a pink carnation and a pickup truck</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">But I knew I was out of luck</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">The day the music died”</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8TOPApoQLXI/XFjuunTgtoI/AAAAAAAAj7s/WzlDDFpTZigD15LlRuz6wd5GEvnDp8B7gCLcBGAs/s1600/AP%2B12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="288" data-original-width="288" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8TOPApoQLXI/XFjuunTgtoI/AAAAAAAAj7s/WzlDDFpTZigD15LlRuz6wd5GEvnDp8B7gCLcBGAs/s1600/AP%2B12.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Source:<a href="https://www.njarts.net/350-jersey-songs/book-love-monotones/" target="_blank"> njarts.net</a></span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">This is a verse in which the singer reaches back even further in the days of his youth, a time when he courted a woman who ended up despising him. While the woman is referenced in the song as the writer of the Book of Love, it is widely believed she is a symbolic figure, and the Book of Love reference is about the 1957 hit by The Monotones, “The Book of Love.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The song was written by Warren Davis, Charles Patrick, and George Malone, three of The Monotones members. The idea for the chorus line “I wonder, wonder, wonder who, who wrote the book of love” came to lead singer Charles Patrick after he watched a Pepsodent toothpaste commercial that featured the line “wonder where the yellow went.” The song includes a “boom” part, which was inspired by a kid who was kicking his ball against the garage door while the band was rehearsing.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Another Look at the Past through Rose Colored Glasses</span></b><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Other elements in this verse point to McLean’s remembrance of the golden age in American history, a time of pickup trucks, sock hops, and pink carnations. At the time McLean wrote the song, most people had started to believe that the 1950’s had been a charmed moment in time, a period of unprecedented economic prosperity that followed World War II. This was a time when the majority of Americans found themselves free from many uncertainties and finally became able to enjoy themselves. They celebrated the achievement of the American dream with automobiles, suburban homes with white picket fences, kitchen appliances, and babies. By the time the 1960’s ended, the American dream had begun to fade as radical changes took the country by storm.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8pCH4moKNxs/XFjuu-G5iCI/AAAAAAAAj7w/b2XUNfROXN4TVFg9cnP1Rs_GggsbYNG1QCLcBGAs/s1600/AP%2B13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="187" data-original-width="288" height="259" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8pCH4moKNxs/XFjuu-G5iCI/AAAAAAAAj7w/b2XUNfROXN4TVFg9cnP1Rs_GggsbYNG1QCLcBGAs/s400/AP%2B13.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">New England neighborhood with white picket fences (Photo by Visions of America/UIG via Getty Images)</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The religious references in the second verse are most likely related to the belief that many Americans conceived in the 1950’s, that they were living in a country blessed by God. The music itself becomes an object of faith in the song, with the line “Do you believe in rock n’ roll/ Can music save your mortal soul” and McLean suggests that the music of the golden post-war period is a symbol of the unquestioning innocence of those times.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">From now on, the sacredness of the music will become a staple of the song, as it will be encountered again and again as the verses go on. Everything that relates to religious metaphors in the next verses is referring back to the music, which in turn is a metaphor in its own right, one for the faith and innocence of the 1950’s.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">A Romantic Touch Filled with Dance</span></b><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">“And can you teach me how to dance real slow?” McLean goes back to the romantic touch of the previous verse and is shown here courting Miss American Pie. The picture of the sock hop is another reference to the 1950’s when school dances mostly took place in high-school gyms, and the students danced in their socks to avoid damaging the polished wood floors.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Young men and women sit awkwardly together on chairs beside the dance floor, during a high school dance in the gymnasium at Monterey Union High School, while other couples dance in the background, Monterey, California, 1950. (Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The narrator is rejected at this point, as the girl who he is interested in goes dancing with someone else. McLean is thus left behind with his pink carnation and his truck. As he is left stranded, he can’t think about anything else but Bye Bye Miss American Pie. By personifying America as a woman, it becomes more evident that the entire song is a farewell to the country he once knew.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">At this point, the song is all set up, and the listener can make some sense about everything that is about to unfold. From now on, the song sets the music of the new era against some of the most representative musical figures of the 1960s as well as the shattering changes they represented in American culture.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Like a Rolling Stone</span></b><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The next verse marks the beginning of McLean’s descent into hidden meanings, and this is why it contains some of the most debated lyrics of the song.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">“Now for ten years, we’ve been on our own<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">And moss grows fat on a-rollin’ stone<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">But that’s not how it used to be”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wg9qcjDWhFk/XFjuv59xYLI/AAAAAAAAj74/ReCFqeYS0as94_p7whwIlbZuV1HZnfuvACLcBGAs/s1600/AP%2B15.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="228" data-original-width="288" height="253" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wg9qcjDWhFk/XFjuv59xYLI/AAAAAAAAj74/ReCFqeYS0as94_p7whwIlbZuV1HZnfuvACLcBGAs/s320/AP%2B15.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Group shot of English rock and roll band The Rolling Stones posed in 1968. Clockwise from top left: Charlie Watts, Bill Wyman, Brian Jones (1942-1969), Mick jagger and Keith Richards. (Photo by Mark and Colleen Hayward/Redferns)</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">This it is a clear reference to the Rolling Stones, but also another tribute to Buddy Holly who sang “Well you know, a rolling stone, don’t gather no moss.” Most interpreters believe that this verse takes place between 1963 and 1966. The image of the Rolling Stone is referring to an old cliché that describes a person never puts down the rules, but in this context, it foreshadows the uprooting anarchy that Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones Will bring tour America at the beginning of the 70s.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">It is also believed that the rolling stone reference is about Bob Dylan who sang “Like a Rolling Stone” in 1965, in what was to be later considered a major break from folk music. Shortly after, Dylan was involved in a motorcycle accident and paused his musical career for about a year, in a period that many believed marked a turning point in his career (hence the “moss grows fat” line).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">The Arrival of the Jester</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13pt;">” When the jester sang for the King and Queen</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In a coat, he borrowed from James Dean<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">And a voice that came from you and me”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">According to McLean, the song represents the shifting from the naïve, innocent 1950’s to the darker decade of the 1960s. Even though some of the events mentioned in the song are easy to decipher, such as Buddy Holly’s death on February 3, 1959, most of the lyrics have a deep meaning that has been the subject of speculation for the last decades. McLean himself has generally avoided any question that asked him about the true meaning of the song’s lyrics, stating that the lyrics shouldn’t be analyzed because they are poetry.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-o1gUrdFDAZk/XFjuwcOPf9I/AAAAAAAAj78/tJBdNSWskscBrzlCDdNajLLTDk3chYpbACLcBGAs/s1600/AP%2B16.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="282" data-original-width="288" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-o1gUrdFDAZk/XFjuwcOPf9I/AAAAAAAAj78/tJBdNSWskscBrzlCDdNajLLTDk3chYpbACLcBGAs/s1600/AP%2B16.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">The cover for the Bob Dylan album ‘The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan’, released by Columbia Records in 1963. The cover features Dylan and his girlfriend Suze Rotolo walking near their apartment in Greenwich Village, New York City. (Photo by Blank Archives/Archive Photos/Getty Images)</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The jester that appears in the following lines of the third verse is widely believed to be associated with Bob Dylan, mostly because it is rather easy to identify him by the James Dean coat he sported on the cover of his “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan” album released in 1963. Because of this association, we get a date for the opening of verse three, 1963, one of the most critical years in American history because of the assassination of John Kennedy (November 22, 1963). Some historians consider the year so radical that it marked the starting point of the 60s.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">“A voice that came from you and me” further identifies Dylan, who was mostly known for his distinctive, unpolished voice as well as his literate and introspective approach to folk music. The learn was the voice of a generation, and the Jester is a mythological figure that plays the role of a trickster, advising Royals by undermining them, something that Dylan also seemed to do by heralding a new order in popular music.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Why Would Dylan Borrow a Jacket from James Dean?</span></b><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Most remembered as the rebel without a cause in the film with the same name, James Dean is the embodiment of rebellion and alienated youth that fits so well with Bob Dylan’s impact on American music in the same period. His portrayal of a rebellious and fragile teenager in “Rebel without a Cause” (1955) made Dean the symbol of youth in disarray and catapulted him to stardom.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sTKNAGkk-S4/XFjuw13uC3I/AAAAAAAAj8A/i4dx2BMS_PUBBUwWn_efIMJ7nCCfMSQ-QCLcBGAs/s1600/AP%2B17.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="209" data-original-width="288" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sTKNAGkk-S4/XFjuw13uC3I/AAAAAAAAj8A/i4dx2BMS_PUBBUwWn_efIMJ7nCCfMSQ-QCLcBGAs/s1600/AP%2B17.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">American actor James Dean (1931 – 1955) holds American actor Natalie Wood (1938 – 1981) in a scene from ‘Rebel Without A Cause,’ directed by Nicholas Ray, 1955. (Photo by Warner Bros./Courtesy of Getty Images)</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">His tragic and premature death in a car accident right when his glory was beginning contributed to the creation of the Dean myth and his entry into the pantheon of American cinema. Dean was the first actor to be nominated for the Best Actor Oscar award posthumously and win it. He is also one of the few actors (five in total) to be nominated in this category for their first film role. Dean is also known for his movies “East of Eden” (1955) and “Giant” (1956), which was released posthumously.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Bob Dylan Changes the Face of American Music</span></b><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The most influential singer-songwriter of the century, Bob Dylan has changed the 60’s and the American culture with it. His work is mostly linked to that decade, mainly because some of his seminal work came out between 1964 and 1966. The only songwriter in history to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature, Dylan has been a prominent figure in popular culture for over five decades, and songs such as “The Times They Are a-Changin'” and “Blowin’ in the Wind” became anthems for the anti-war movement and the Civil Rights movement.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fjde6gEdVpw/XFjuxUQH4JI/AAAAAAAAj8E/rKoLj9MdsS8egrUE-Eg6opPDwdO-OqqEQCLcBGAs/s1600/AP%2B18.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="181" data-original-width="288" height="201" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fjde6gEdVpw/XFjuxUQH4JI/AAAAAAAAj8E/rKoLj9MdsS8egrUE-Eg6opPDwdO-OqqEQCLcBGAs/s320/AP%2B18.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Photo of Bob DYLAN; performing live onstage (Photo by Bob King/Redferns)</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Throughout his career, Dylan has incorporated a wide range of social, political, literary and philosophical influences in his music. In a career that spans half a century, he explored multiple styles ranging from folk and blues to rock and roll, gospel, country, and even jazz and Irish folk music. He was one of the first folk singers to use electrically amplified rock instrumentation, and he released his three most influential albums, “Bringing It All Back Home,” “Highway 61 Revisited” and “Blonde on Blonde” in the space of just 15 months, between 1965 and 1966.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Besides being the symbol of teenage angst, Dean was also a fashion icon, and the leather jacket he wore in “Rebel Without a Cause” has become iconic for the “bad boy” image. This explains the “coat (Dylan) borrowed from James Dean” line in “American Pie.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">A Verse Fit for a King</span></b><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">” And while the King was looking down<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The jester stole his thorny crown<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The courtroom was adjourned<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">No verdict was returned.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XJFaFNubEsQ/XFjux-OyWrI/AAAAAAAAj8I/YFeWQM09RJwwoTqzN-EWAkRDZYci4WUbQCLcBGAs/s1600/AP%2B19.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="230" data-original-width="288" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XJFaFNubEsQ/XFjux-OyWrI/AAAAAAAAj8I/YFeWQM09RJwwoTqzN-EWAkRDZYci4WUbQCLcBGAs/s1600/AP%2B19.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Rock and roll musician Elvis Presley performing on the Elvis comeback TV special on June 27, 1968. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In the next lines, the King is most commonly identified with Elvis Presley, nicknamed at the time, “The King of Rock ‘n’ Roll”. McLean suggests here that Dylan has gone before the court and rock ‘n’ roll to challenge Presley’s dominion, which is also a metaphor for the challenge the country is confronted with as the younger generation started to challenge the assumptions of the older one.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Presley was the symbol of a youthful rebellion in its own, but one that had started in the 1950s, and by the time McLean wrote his song, his time became somewhat obsolete, because the new generation chose Dylan to be their new spokesman. The thorny crown metaphor is a symbol for the price of fame the winner of the emerging American cultural revolution had to pay.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">The Presley Revolution</span></b><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Just like Bob Dylan a decade later, Elvis Presley had started a revolution of his own in the 1950s. Often referred to as “The King” or “The Kind of Rock and Roll,” Presley is one of the major cultural icons of the 20th century. He began his musical career in 1954 at Sun Records. Accompanied by guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black, he helped popularize the blossoming rockabilly genre, an energetic mix of country music and rhythm and blues.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Photo of Elvis PRESLEY; posed, on phone (Photo by GAB Archive/Redferns)</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In 1956, his contract was purchased by RCA Victor, and he landed his first Number 1 with the single “Heartbreak Hotel.” He then embarked on television appearances and released a string hit singles such as “I Want You, I Need You, I Love You” (1956), “Love Me Tender” (1956), “All Shook Up” (1957), “A Fool Such as I”/”I Need Your Love Tonight” (1959), “Are You Lonesome Tonight?” (1960) and “Return to Sender” (1962).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Presley’s singing talent and gestures were deemed provocative and indecent by the Puritan section of America, and they made him a figurehead of rock ‘n’ roll as well as a subject of controversy. The singer died suddenly in 1977 at his Graceland estate in Memphis, Tennessee, at the age of 42.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">And What about the President?</span></b><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Besides associating the king with Elvis Presley, some other interpretations point out that the king and queen are President John F. Kennedy and the First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy. The role of the court jester is taken by alleged assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, who also happens to share physical similarities with Bob Dylan.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">President John Kennedy rides in a motorcade from the Dallas airport into the city with his wife Jacqueline and Texas Governor John Connally.</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Kennedy’s presidency was full of idealism and wit, and the first couple was challenging the institution of the Presidency, filling it with a fresh air that remembered many of the breadths of innovation that was sweeping the country in all respects. During the early 1960s, the Broadway play “Camelot” was very popular, and the public started to romanticize Kennedy’s presidency as modeled after King Arthur’s Court. This is why it can be interpreted that the assassination of the president in the fall of 1963 by Lee Harvey Oswald could be associated with the jester stealing the crown of the king, robbing him of his authority.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The “no verdict was returned” is thus a reference to the suspicious circumstances surrounding the death of the president. Besides the shocking murder that paralyzed the country, Kennedy’s death was a severe blow to the morale of the nation, because it was the point that severed the old post-war innocence and replaced it with an ever-growing cynicism towards American government and culture. Once again, the word McLean once new was changing.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">The Beatles Enter the Scene</span></b><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">” And while Lenin read a book on Marx<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The quartet practiced in the park<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">And we sang dirges in the dark<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The day the music died”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Photo of BEATLES; John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, George Harrison – posed, group shot – outside Brian Epstein’s Belgravia house for Sgt. Pepper launch (Photo by Jan Olofsson/Redferns)</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In the final four lines of the third verse, the Beatles arrive on the scene of music (“the quartet practiced in the park). Lenin here it is often believed to be a play on Lennon, but it is not clear what the correlation to Marx means. It has been speculated that it is a reference to Lennon via his song revolution because Marx is generally associated with the communist revolution. The dirges mentioned at the end are a possible reference to the tragic death of John Fitzgerald Kennedy but may also be a funeral mourning for the good old days.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Lenin reading a book on Marx </span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">can also be interpreted as the rise of communism in Eastern Europe and across the globe, as a background in the music setting of the period. If that is the case, Lenin is not a play on Lennon, but the Russian political figure himself, who based most of his thinking on the writings of Marx.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The idea of a cultural revolution in the works is poignant at this point, and as the Beatles grew more and more experimental, they would soon change the shape of rock ‘n’ roll just as Bob Dylan had managed to do before them. The park reference is mostly related to the famous 1966 farewell concert at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park when the Beatles retired from the public eye and began to create more straightforward music.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Fresh Wind from Across the Pond</span></b><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Widely regarded as the most influential music band in history, The Beatles was a British musical group, originally from Liverpool, England. Formed in 1960, and comprising of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, the group only had eight years of record career, from 1962 to 1970, during which they recorded 12 original albums and composed more than 200 songs mostly written by the Lennon / McCartney duo, whose success in the history of the recording industry remains unmatched.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">THANK YOUR LUCKY STARS Photo of BEATLES, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr & John Lennon performing at Alpha Television Studios, Aston, Birmingham, Bigsby Vibrato. (Photo by David Redfern/Redferns)</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">After starting off with the rock ‘n’ roll and beat music of the 1950s, the Beatles quickly changed their style, feeding on many sources to invent their musical language. Their technical and musical experiments, their worldwide popularity and their growing political consciousness over the course of their careers extended the Beatles’ influence beyond music to the social and cultural revolutions of their time. They remain the most sold artists in the world, and some of their best-known songs include “Love Me Do” (1963), “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” (1967), “All You Need Is Love” (1967) “Hey Jude” (1968), “Yellow Submarine” (1968), “Come Together” (1969), and many more.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Entering a Cultural Minefield</span></b><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The fourth verse marks the move to the most explosive period of the 60s, which took place between 1966 and 1969. Once again, the music mirrors the changes in culture and society.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">” Helter Skelter in a summer swelter</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">The birds flew off with a fallout shelter</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Eight miles high and falling fast</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">It landed foul on the grass</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">The players tried for a forward pass</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">With the jester on the sidelines in a cast</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Now the half-time air was a sweet perfume</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">While sergeants played a marching tune</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">We all got up to dance</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Oh, but we never got the chance</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">‘Cause the players tried to take the field</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">The marching band refused to yield</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Do you recall what was revealed</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">The day the music died?”</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">The Byrds perform live on stage in London in 1971. Left to Right: Clarence White, Gene Parsons, Roger McGuinn, Skip Battin. (Photo by Gijsbert Hanekroot/Redferns)</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The 60s revolution became more pragmatic and organized under the new left and began fragmenting into numerous causes such as the black power, women’s rights, anti-war and counterculture movements as well as the revolutionary youth movements and progressive labor. This was also a period of sexual and spiritual freedom marked by the advent of drugs and philosophies of peace that eventually came to characterize the generation of this time in the eyes of the public.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">At the beginning of this verse, McLean references the Manson murders as well as the song “Eight Miles High” by The Byrds. There is also another reference to Bob Dylan’s motorcycle accident and how the new generation tried to get his place while he was on the sidelines in a cast.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">A Summer of Chaos</span></b><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The first three lines of the fourth verse depict the chaos that took place in the summer heat at the end of the decade. 1967 was the year’s self-proclaimed summer of love as youth culture hippies from all over the country headed to San Francisco’s Haight Ashbury district where they lived out the counterculture’s refrains of drug-induced transcendence and brotherly love. However, as they lived a carefree existence, the calm waters were soon to be disturbed by several events that challenged the flower power existence of the hippies.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Three soldiers stand amid the rubble of a burned building in Washington, D.C. Riots and looting occurred in many U.S. cities after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">This was the time when the violent Oakland anti-draft protests took place, but also the year the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy took place. Other significant imbalance included the black riots across the nation following the assassination of Martin Luther King as well as the riots at Columbia University and the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The “Helter Skelter” phrase is a metaphor for the Celtic events of this period and also a reference to the song of the same name by the Beatles. Another musical reference in this verse is “Eight Miles High” by The Byrds, which was released in 1966 and spoke of the drug culture of the period and foresaw the anarchy that was about to erupt in America. Both of the songs cater to the idea of falling fast, which in retrospect it is a metaphor for the following of the all the world and the advent of a new one.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Culture against the Government</span></b><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The lines “It landed foul out on the grass/The players tried for a forward pass” refers to the youth culture making a pass against the government while attempting to change and transform the country. It is evident that the political and civil authorities do not take kindly to the challenges and that this has forever changed the American cultural dialogue.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Photo of Grateful Dead Photo by Waring Abbott/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">This verse speaks about the pragmatic agendas of the civil rights movement and about the musical players of the time. Bob Dylan is now representing the New Left, antiwar position, while the Beatles are at the forefront of the counterculture. Together with many others such as the Rolling Stones, the Grateful Dead, the Jefferson Airplane and the Byrds, they are all symbols of the liberal political forces that compete on the rock ‘n’ roll and cultural front during this period.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">“With the jester on the sidelines in a cast” is a line that refers to the nearly fatal motorcycle accident Bob Dylan was involved in on July 29, 1966. After the crash, he retreated to Woodstock, New York, to recuperate and also deal with the overwhelming sensations he was experiencing due to the pressures of his success. In the next few years, his work was not as well received by us his earlier one, mostly because he retreated from the social commentary and lyrical complexity that made him the voice of a generation. His role as a beacon of light in the social and musical context was soon to be taken by the Beatles.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">The Death of Traditional Rock and Roll</span></b><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The 1967 summer of love marked the midpoint of the 60s cultural revolution (“the half-time air”) and the sweet perfume referenced in these lines is viewed by some as a reference to the flowering of the movement, but many others believe that it has another meaning too, as the air of the summer was filled with marijuana. The defining musical album for the summer of love was the Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” which quickly became the marching tune of the counterculture (“While Sergeants played a marching tune.”)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">(Photo by SSPL/Getty Images)</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The next lines, (“We all got up to dance / But we never got the chance”) refer to the transformation of rock ‘n’ roll music that has now moved beyond its original roots that were dance-based towards something that became more experimental, drug-related, and political, in stark contrast to the simpler times of the 1950s, when it was all about dancing and having fun.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The pace gets more and more rapid as the radical youth players move away from the peaceful someone of love towards confrontational violence. “The marching band refused to yield” is a metaphor for the civil authorities who pushed back but also continues to be a metaphor for the music that keeps changing over and over again. here they are, a generation lost in space, which is now widely regarded as the last generation, left with no time to start over.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Do You Recall What was Revealed?</span></b><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">This is considered to be the most ambiguous line of the song, and it has been subject to many interpretations over the years. One of the most common suggestions is that it refers to ” Unfinished Music No. 1—Two Virgins,” an album released by John Lennon and Yoko Ono in 1968, where they appear naked on the cover. Another interpretation says that the line refers to the Chicago Police Department’s brutality in the context of the 1968 riots at the Democratic National Convention.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Beatle John Lennon (1940 – 1980) and his wife of a week Yoko Ono in their bed in the Presidential Suite of the Hilton Hotel, Amsterdam, 25th March 1969. The couple are staging a ‘bed-in for peace’ and intend to stay in bed for seven days ‘as a protest against war and violence in the world’. (Photo by Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Moreover, in the fall of 1968, the first protest in the Miss America contest history occurred. As the pageant was hauled in Atlantic City New Jersey, the woman’s liberation movement, was critical of the Miss America contest stereotyping of women as sex symbols, gather outside the convention center where the event was held and they used a “Freedom Trash Can” to pass wigs, high heels, false eyelashes, as well as bras to symbolically free women of these sexual stereotypes. As the media mostly paid attention to the discarded bras, the line “Do you recall what was revealed” may be a reference to these braless protesters, in another rejection of the old attitudes of 1950s America.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Things Become Ugly</span></b><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">“American Pie” reaches its climax in the fifth verse, concerning the Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger and the bloody concert held in the fall of 1969 at the Altamont Motor Speedway, California. The flower power hippies drew together once more to recreate the atmosphere of the successful Woodstock music festival that took place a couple of months earlier.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones at The Altamont Speedway on December 6, 1969 in Livermore, California. (Photo by Robert Altman/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">” Oh, and there we were all in one place</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">A generation lost in space</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">With no time left to start again</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">So come on Jack be nimble, Jack be quick</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Jack Flash sat on a candlestick</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">‘Cause fire is the devil’s only friend</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Oh and as I watched him on the stage</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">My hands were clenched in fists of rage</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">No angel born in Hell</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Could break that Satan’s spell</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">And as the flames climbed high into the night</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">To light the sacrificial rite</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">I saw Satan laughing with delight</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">The day the music died”</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Approximately 300,000 people gathered at Altamont, and the alcohol and drug use led to escalating violence. The flower children weren’t able to recreate the atmosphere at Woodstock, but instead, they found themselves lost in space, with no place left to go, mostly because the momentum of the revolution was long gone. This verse is filled with references about the night of the Rolling Stones concert and the events that took place there.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">The Rolling Stones and the Path to Darkness</span></b><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In their song “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” the Rolling Stones play with fire and boast about their freedom, and that is what the “<i>So come on Jack be nimble, Jack be quick</i>” reference is about. The Rolling Stones had become of the darker voices in rock and roll at the end of the 60’s, with their latest albums, “Beggars Banquet” in 1968 and “Let It Bleed” in 1969 featuring a sort of aggressive nihilism that wasn’t present in their earlier songs. For this reason, McLean uses Mick Jagger and his band as representatives of those who incite to rebellion while pushing for personal freedom. As such, it doesn’t take long for the narrator to identify Jagger with the Devil.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Rolling Stones Live On Stage In USA (Photo by Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images)</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">As violence starts during the concert, Jagger doesn’t end the show even after some of the people in the audience pleaded with him to do so. It is difficult to say whether his defiant attitude incited a riot, but as footage from the concert proves, he could have brought it to an end by leaving the stage.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Death Comes to the Concert</span></b><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">As the audience is mesmerized by the Rolling Stones’ performance, the Hell’s Angels motorcycle gang, who were hired as security for the night, start to defend the stage violently, but without too much success. The moment is used by Mclean not only to reference the actual events that took place that night but also to use Jagger as the motive for the anarchy unfolding in the culture and society.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Hell’s Angels before the Rolling Stones appeared at the Altamont Speedway for the free concert they were headlining. (Photo by William L. Rukeyser/Getty Images)</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The next lines, “And as the flames climbed high into the night/ To light the sacrificial rite” are a reference to the stabbing of a black man by a member of the Hells Angels during the concert. The victim was Meredith Hunter, an 18-year old African-American teenager who approached the stage armed with a revolver. Alan Passaro of the Hell Angels stabbed and beat him to death, and the entire incident was caught on camera. It subsequently became a theme for the “Gimme Shelter” documentary. Even though he was initially charged with murder, Passaro was later acquitted on the grounds of self-defense.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">The Revolution Comes to an End</span></b><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The violence and indifference of the crowd present at the Altamont concert are seen by many as the sign that spelled the end of the cultural revolution that began in the earlier years. Mick Jagger is thus the symbol of the self-centeredness of the crowd, and many have said that the lyrics of “American Pie” find him responsible for not preventing or even for provoking the events of that night.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones performs at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on July 4, 2015, in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images)</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The entire episode shows the epitome of the aggressive rebellion that transformed America from a somewhat innocent and naïve society into a slightly apocalyptic nation that used violent means to tear up the old order. “I saw Satan laughing with delight” is the climax of a moment that shows just how ugly things have become.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Who Are the Rolling Stones?</span></b><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Formed in London, England, in 1962, The Rolling Stones that initially comprised of guitarist and original leader Brian Jones, pianist Ian Stewart, singer Mick Jagger, and guitarist Keith Richards. Ian Stewart was dismissed from the official formation by group manager Andrew Loog Oldham in May 1963 but continued to work with the group as road manager and pianist until his death in 1985. Jagger and Richards quickly formed a duet of songwriters and gradually took the helm of the group, in place of an increasingly erratic Brian Jones. Brian Jones chose the name of the band, which comes from a song by Muddy Waters, “Rollin’ Stone.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rbZQ6P76i7E/XFju6NrzW_I/AAAAAAAAj9I/ZRdFC41prAAKRN5rHcpRPxjQfSQPyt9BgCLcBGAs/s1600/AP%2B33.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="679" data-original-width="1000" height="217" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rbZQ6P76i7E/XFju6NrzW_I/AAAAAAAAj9I/ZRdFC41prAAKRN5rHcpRPxjQfSQPyt9BgCLcBGAs/s320/AP%2B33.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">(L-R) Musician Ronnie Wood, singer Mick Jagger, musicians Charlie Watts and Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones perform during Desert Trip at the Empire Polo Field on October 14, 2016 in Indio, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Jones died drowned in his pool in July 1969, shortly after he was laid off from the group. He was replaced by Mick Taylor, who toured and recorded five studio albums before leaving the Stones in 1974. Ronnie Wood, the former guitarist of Faces, took his place. Bill Wyman left the band in 1993. Bass-player Darryl Jones joined the Stones as well, but without becoming an official member.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Rolling Stones have released 23 studio albums in the United Kingdom (25 in the United States), 32 compilations and eight live albums (9 in the United States). In 2012, the band sold more than 400 million records worldwide. They entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989, and the Queen of England knighted Mick Jagger in 2002.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">The Girl Who Sang the Blues</span></b><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">“American Pie” comes to an epilogue as McLean mourns his loss over the ruins of his generation, looking for signs of the old world. He believes he had met a return to the age of innocence in “<i>a girl who sang the blues</i>,” but his relief is short-lived.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">” I met a girl who sang the blues</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">And I asked her for some happy news</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">But she just smiled and turned away.”</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Janis Joplin sings with her band Big Brother and the Holding Company at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco. (Photo by © Ted Streshinsky/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The girl who sang the blues is most likely Janis Joplin, the rock, and roll icon whose death of a heroin overdose in 1970 marked yet another loss for the musical movement. McLean hopes that her music would be the “happy news” that everybody has been waiting for, but the girl “just smiled and turned away,” just like rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix and The Doors’ Jim Morrison did the same year.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">The Female Voice of Rock and Roll</span></b><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Janis Joplin was a unique presence in the music world in the 1960’s. Mostly because she was a female voice in a world dominated by male figures. Born on January 19, 1943, Joplin became the most successful female rock star of her time even though she had a very short career. She rose to fame in 1967 as the lead singer of the rock band Big Brother and the Holding Company, before embarking on a solo career.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Photo of Janis Joplin (Photo by Paul Ryan/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Joplin was a mezzo-soprano and was highly respected by critics and public alike. Her most famous songs include “Me and Bobby McGee, ” which reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1971, as well as “Cry Baby,” “Piece of My Heart,” “Piece of My Heart,” “Ball and Chain” and “Mercedes Benz.” Her exciting career ended abruptly when she died of a heroin overdose at the age of 27. Joplin had only released three albums, and a fourth one, “Pearl” was released posthumously. The Rolling Stone magazine included her on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time at number 46, and she is still one of the top-selling musicians in the United States.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">The Sacred Store Meaning</span></b><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">After he learns about Joplin’s death, the narrator turns to “the sacred store,” which is a euphemism for a record store, in line with the music as a religious experience vibe that was established earlier in the song. However, the music he wants to listen to would no play anymore. In the 1950s, many music stores offered listening booths for their customers, but as the 1970’s came, most of them weren’t providing this service anymore so that one can take the “the music wouldn’t play” line literally.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Photo of 70’s and RECORD STORE; Bleeker Bob’s Records (Photo by Ebet Roberts/Redferns)</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">As he gets back on the streets, McLean learns once more that the world around him has become unrecognizable:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">“And in the streets, the children screamed</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">The lovers cried, and the poets dreamed</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">But not a word was spoken</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">The church bells all were broken.”</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Nothing is the same anymore, and what once a vibrant culture is now dead, aptly represented in song by the image of the broken church bells.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">The Enigmatic Trio</span></b><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The last lines of the song are again highly enigmatic ones, as they carry more than one association. McLean now shifts from the problems of the day and the sentiment of loss he experiences when witnessing a world that is changing before his eyes and focuses again on the plane crash the song began with.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">“And the three men I admire most</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">The Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">They caught the last train for the coast</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">The day the music died.”</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">American senator Robert F. Kennedy (1925 – 1968) stands in an open-top convertible and shakes hands with members of a crowd as he campaigns for the Democratic Presidential nomination in Detroit, Michigan, May 15, 1968. (Photo by Andrew Sacks/Getty Images)</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The three figures mentioned in these last lines may refer to the three performers who died in the plane crash, but they could also be a symbol of the three major political assassinations of the 1960s: John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King. The violent deaths of these three historical figures were definitive in the shattering of the public’s optimism, so they could very well qualify as the people referenced in the song.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Don McLean Reveals the Meaning of the Song Himself</span></b><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">It wasn’t until 2015 that Don McLean decided to lift the veil on the meaning of the song. His decision was taken at the time the original manuscript of the song was sold at auction in New York. The manuscript that was put up for sale was accompanied by a note in which McLean mentions that “American Pie” is “a morality song” that showcases the decline of the USA together with its loss of innocence.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In an interview that was published in the auction catalog, McLean revealed that “Basically in American Pie, things are heading in the wrong direction (…) It is becoming less idyllic. I don’t know whether you consider that wrong or right, but it is a morality song in a sense.” Before the auction, whenever he was asked what the song meant, McLean would joke “It means I don’t ever have to work again if I don’t want to.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Source: </span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><a href="http://nypost.com/2015/04/07/don-mcleans-american-pie-could-bring-1-5m-at-auction" target="_blank"><i>nypost.com</i></a><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">He also mentioned that “American Pie “is as relevant as ever, because the world went downhill since he wrote the song.”I was around in 1970, and now I am around in 2015… there is no poetry and very little romance in anything anymore, so it is really like the last phase of American Pie.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Besides the short explanation above, McLean refused to offer further revelations about who’s who in the song, stating that “Over the years I’ve dealt with all these stupid questions of ‘Who’s that?’ and ‘Who’s that?’ These are things I never had in my head for a second when I wrote the song. I was trying to capture something very ephemeral, and I did, but it took a long time.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">The Making of “American Pie”</span></b><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Producer Ed Freeman stated that the “American Pie” single is a combination of 24 different takes of McLean’s voice. This happened because the singer wasn’t the easiest person to work with, and as such, multiple takes were taken during the same session on May 26, 1971, with a live and unedited backing band track.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Don McLean attends 86th Annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on November 22, 2012, in New York City. (Photo by Laura Cavanaugh/Getty Images)</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The producer also stated that even though McLean was a very talented singer, he was sometimes criticized for singing with the same vocal inflections, so he decided to be more improvisational. “In my head, I knew what it was supposed to sound like—I don’t now remember how I arrived at that, but when I kept asking him to sing it in a certain way, he wouldn’t do it. He wanted to play with it every time, inserting slides, melismas and other things that, to my mind, didn’t fit. So we ended up recording him 24 times on 16-track tape and took different parts from different takes until I got every word the way I wanted it, without all the play, and I don’t think Don appreciated that very much…In Don’s case, I think he was happy with the finished vocal, but he was not happy with somebody else having that much influence,” said Freeman.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">How Was the Song Recorded?</span></b><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The song was recorded inside Studio A at New York’s Record Plant, on May 26th, 1971, and the recording equipment used was a 32-input Spectra Sonics console coordinated by engineer Tom Flye. Originally a musician who performed on keyboards and drums in a variety of bands, Flye was born in Chicago but relocated to New York in 1964. He started working at Record Plant as a recording engineer and worked on records by the Impressions and Curtis Mayfield before producer Ed Freeman took him on for the American Pie project.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">New York’s Record PlantSource: </span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><a href="https://www.pinterest.com/lvpjr/famous-recording-studios/" target="_blank"><i>pinterest.com</i></a><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Spectra Sonics board used for the recording was a piece of modern technology at the time, as it had a separate monitor system that allowed engineers to record on one side while playing back on the other. The producers were mixing live, as Flye recalls, and even though producer Ed Freeman originally wanted “American Pie” to go to stereo after starting in mono, the board wasn’t suitable for this, so the song ended up being recorded as a stereo mix. A U87 was used for the electric guitar, and the bass guitar was recorded with a DI.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">A (Not So) Star-Studded Cast in the Background</span></b><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">“American Pie” ends with a campfire-type chorus, for which McLean used a background chorus that was credited as the West Forty-Fourth Street Rhythm and Noise Choir on the sleeve of the album. The ensemble was comprised of some of McLean’s friends, a mix of professional musicians and people with no musical background. Some of the members of the ad-hoc chorus included Carly Simon, Pete Seeger, and James Taylor and Livingston Taylor.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">BOTTOMLINE Photo of Carly Simon (Photo by Richard E. Aaron/Redferns)</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">As for the challenges the length of the song brought to the producing team, Ed Freeman remembers that “it was a complete nightmare to fit an eight-and-a-half-minute track onto one seven-inch single.” The track had to be cut in half very carefully and added to both sides of the record. The final running times were 4:11 minutes for Part One and 4:31minutes for Part Two.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Don McLean after “American Pie”</span></b><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">“American Pie” brought him fame, but McLean continued to record other songs for the next decades. His third album, “Don McLean,” was released in 1972 and peaked at number 23 on the Billboard 200 chart. One of the songs on the album, “The Pride Parade,” is about the overwhelming feelings the singer had to deal with as a result of his fulminant success. “Playin’ Favorites,” his fourth album, was released in 1973 and included McLean’s cover of Buddy Holly’s “Every day.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Don McLean performs at the 2014 Stagecoach Country Music Festival – Day 2 at the Empire Polo Club on April 26, 2014, in Indio, California. (Photo by Jerod Harris/WireImage)</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">McLean’s final studio recording for United Artists was the 1974 album “Homeless Brother,” whose title was inspired Jack Kerouac’s book “Lonesome Traveler.” McLean moved briefly to Arista Records, where he released his “Prime Time” album in 1978. After a disagreement with Clive Davis, the Arista chief, McLean no longer had a record contract in the United States but released his single “Chain Lightning” by Festival Records in Australia and EMI in Europe. As a consequence of his international success, the singer signed a new deal in the United States with Millennium Records in 1981.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Further chart success followed in the 1980’s with singles “Since I Don’t Have You” and “It’s Just the Sun.” The “Don McLean Classics” album was released in 1992 and featured new studio recordings of “Vincent” and “American Pie.” The singer continued to record, and his latest album, “Addicted to Black” was released in 2009.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Why Was the “American Pie” Manuscript Sold at Auction?</span></b><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The original “American Pie” lyrics headed to auction at Christie’s on April 7, 2015, where they sold for $1.2 million. The handwritten lyrics were a never-before-seen 16-page document that included 237 lines of manuscript and 26 lines of typed text. When asked why he has decided to part with the lyrics at that specific moment, McLean stated: “I’m going to be 70 this year. I have two children and a wife, and none of them seem to have the mercantile instinct. I want to get the best deal that I can for them. It’s time.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">American Pie” Manuscript </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>Source: </i><a href="http://nypost.com/2015/04/07/manuscript-for-don-mcleans-american-pie-auctioned-off-for-1-2m" target="_blank"><i>nypost.com</i></a><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">He also mentioned that for years he hadn’t been sure he still had the manuscript but started to look for it in his boxes after former Rolling Stone editor Ben Fong-Torres asked him about his thoughts on giving his papers to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. When he found the manuscript, McLean said that it was the first time in decades that he saw it again.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The manuscript consists of multiple pages on colored paper and several pages taken out from a spiral notebook. It includes several lines that haven’t made the cut for the final version of the song, such as “And there I stood alone and afraid/I knelt to my knees and there I prayed/and I prepared to give all I had to give/If only he would make it live again.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Madonna Covers “American Pie”</span></b><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">On March 3, 2000, Madonna released her version of “American Pie,” and included it in the soundtrack of her movie, “The Next Best Thing.” Even though the film was not a critical success, the song itself beat number 29 on the Billboard hot 100 chart as well as number one on the Billboard hot dance club songs chart. A video accompanied the musical release, showing Madonna dancing in front of an American flag with a tiara on her head. Her video also included working class citizens, same-sex couples, and teenagers and cheerleaders.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Madonna performs her ‘Rebel Heart’ Tour at Allphones Arena on March 19, 2016, in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Zak Kaczmarek/Getty Images)</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Madonna’s version became a worldwide hit and reached number one in several countries, such as Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Finland, Switzerland, Austria and more. The cover is much shorter than the original and only includes the beginning of the first verse as well as the second and sixth verses. It was also recorded as a dance-pop song and was co-produced by William Orbit.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Madonna’s Video and Critical Reception</span></b><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Directed by Philipp Stölzl on January 10, 2000, in London, Madonna’s “American Pie” video pays homage to the 1970s, the period when the song was first performed. Madonna dances in front of a giant American flag and some shots show ordinary people, children, a woman in a shop, interracial families posing for a photo, a gay and lesbian couple kissing each other; roughly, what makes up the American population. Two versions of the video exist, the second one featuring a remix that is a more upbeat and dance-friendly version of the song.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Singer Madonna performs ‘Ghost Town’ onstage during the 2015 iHeartRadio Music Awards which broadcasted live on NBC from The Shrine Auditorium on March 29, 2015 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for iHeartMedia)</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The critics weren’t too excited with Madonna’s cover, but Don McLean himself praised it and stated that her version is “mystical and sensual” and “a gift from a goddess.” As of 2017, the “American Pie” cover is Madonna’s 16 bestselling single.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">However, Rolling Stone included Madonna’s cover on the list of Worst Covers of All Time. The song came in third on the list after “Behind Blue Eyes” by Limp Bizkit and “Smells like Teen Spirit” by Miley Cyrus. The singer’s under five-minute song may have hit number one on the dance charts, but critics were so harsh that Madonna ultimately said: “It was something a certain record company executive twisted my arm into doing.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Other Versions and Parodies</span></b><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Besides Madonna’s cover, multiple versions and parodies of “American Pie” also exist. In 1999, a song titled “The Saga Begins” written and performed by “Weird Al” Yankovic recounted the plot of Star Wars Episode One as a parody of “American Pie.” McLean permitted the parody and praised it after its release.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">American musician and comedian Weird Al Yankovic plays the accordion as he performs onstage at the Star Plaza Theater, Merrillville, Indiana, July 9, 2010. (Photo by Paul Natkin/Getty Images)</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A live video of “American Pie” was used by the City of Grand Rapids, Michigan, as a counter-reaction to a Newsweek article that claimed the city was dying. Many critics hailed the video as an extraordinary performance, with film critic Roger Ebert ever stating that it was “the greatest music video ever made. “The song was also used as a track for the series of music video games “Rock Band.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The song was also revived for a Chevrolet ad in 2002, and the automotive company included the “Drove my Chevy to the levee” line, omitting, for obvious reasons, the “this’ll be the day that I die” part.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Fun Facts about “American Pie”</span></b><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Don McLean owns the phrase “American Pie” as a registered trademark, so he got money for licensing the title for the “American Pie” movies. This comes as a surprise for many since the serious song has nothing to do with the comedy series.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">From “Pinkie Pie” to “The Day Guitar Hero Died,” the song has been used as a parody by many YouTubers in the recent years.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The song was snubbed at the Grammys and other awards, even though it was a critical success. However, 29 years after its release, it was enshrined at the Grammy Hall of Fame.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Joelle Carter and Jason Biggs are caught in bed by parents Molly Cheek, Eugene Levy, and Larry Drake in a scene from the film ‘American Pie 2’, 2001. (Photo by Universal/Getty Images)</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Even though the original song was over 8 minutes long, many radio stations in the US had a policy that limited airplay to 3:30 minutes. As such, the song was banned from those stations simply because of its length. There were voices at the time that suggested McLean wrote such a long song as a protest against said policy.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The song was responsible for the revival of interest in Buddy Holly, who wasn’t much remembered in the 1960’s. McLean himself said in an interview: “By 1964, you didn’t hear anything about Buddy Holly. He was completely forgotten. However, I didn’t forget him, and I think this song helped make people aware that Buddy’s legitimate musical contribution had been overlooked. When I first heard ‘American Pie’ on the radio, I was playing a gig somewhere, and it was immediately followed by ‘Peggy Sue.’ They caught right on to the Holly connection, and that made me very happy. I realized that it was gonna perform some good works.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">The “American Pie” Legacy</span></b><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">After all these years, “American Pie” is still a symbol of the musical revolutions o the 1970’s and remains in the public memory as one of the most significant song allegories of the century. The song keeps bringing joy to listeners, as it is a joyful remembrance of a world that is no more. The meaningful lyrics of “American Pie” bring back memories of the 1950’s and 1960’s, reminding listeners of fate and how the world around us is ever-changing.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS – APRIL 19: Don McLean performs at Koninklijk Theater Carre on April 19, 2010, in Amsterdam, Netherlands. (Photo by Paul Bergen/Redferns)</span></i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Considered by many as one of the greatest songs ever written, “American Pie” is here to remind us all of a more peaceful time when music was intertwined with political events and cultural changes and managed to capture the true spirit of the country. No other song managed to include so many references and nuances about the cultural background of a nation at a specific point in time. For this reason, “American Pie” remains a memorable creation that encapsulates the true American spirit beautifully.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 22.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">American Pie<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS757US757&q=Don+McLean&stick=H4sIAAAAAAAAAONgVuLQz9U3MMowyAIA2OFg5wwAAAA&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiV1OHl8-bdAhXOxVkKHZZoBLsQMTAAegQIBhAF">Don McLean</a><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A long long time ago<br />I can still remember how<br />That music used to make me smile<br />And I knew if I had my chance<br />That I could make those people dance<br />And maybe they'd be happy for a while<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">But February made me shiver<br />With every paper I'd deliver<br />Bad news on the doorstep<br />I couldn't take one more step<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I can't remember if I cried<br />When I read about his widowed bride<br />Something touched me deep inside<br />The day the music died<br />So<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Bye, bye Miss American Pie<br />Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry<br />And them good ole boys were drinking whiskey and rye<br />Singin' this'll be the day that I die<br />This'll be the day that I die<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Did you write the book of love<br />And do you have faith in God above<br />If the Bible tells you so?<br />Do you believe in rock and roll?<br />Can music save your mortal soul?<br />And can you teach me how to dance real slow?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Well, I know that you're in love with him<br />'Cause I saw you dancin' in the gym<br />You both kicked off your shoes<br />Man, I dig those rhythm and blues<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I was a lonely teenage broncin' buck<br />With a pink carnation and a pickup truck<br />But I knew I was out of luck<br />The day the music died<br />I started singin'<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Bye, bye Miss American Pie<br />Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry<br />And them good ole boys were drinking whiskey and rye<br />Singin' this'll be the day that I die<br />This'll be the day that I die<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Now, for ten years we've been on our own<br />And moss grows fat on a rolling stone<br />But, that's not how it used to be<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">When the jester sang for the king and queen<br />In a coat he borrowed from James Dean<br />And a voice that came from you and me<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Oh and while the king was looking down<br />The jester stole his thorny crown<br />The courtroom was adjourned<br />No verdict was returned<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">And while Lennon read a book on Marx<br />The quartet practiced in the park<br />And we sang dirges in the dark<br />The day the music died<br />We were singin'<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Bye, bye Miss American Pie<br />Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry<br />Them good ole boys were drinking whiskey and rye<br />And singin' this'll be the day that I die<br />This'll be the day that I die<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Helter skelter in a summer swelter<br />The birds flew off with a fallout shelter<br />Eight miles high and falling fast<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">It landed foul on the grass<br />The players tried for a forward pass<br />With the jester on the sidelines in a cast<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Now the half-time air was sweet perfume<br />While sergeants played a marching tune<br />We all got up to dance<br />Oh, but we never got the chance<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">'Cause the players tried to take the field<br />The marching band refused to yield<br />Do you recall what was revealed<br />The day the music died?<br />We started singin'<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Bye, bye Miss American Pie<br />Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry<br />Them good ole boys were drinking whiskey and rye<br />And singin' this'll be the day that I die<br />This'll be the day that I die<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Oh, and there we were all in one place<br />A generation lost in space<br />With no time left to start again<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">So come on Jack be nimble, Jack be quick<br />Jack Flash sat on a candlestick<br />'Cause fire is the devil's only friend<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Oh and as I watched him on the stage<br />My hands were clenched in fists of rage<br />No angel born in Hell<br />Could break that Satan's spell<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">And as the flames climbed high into the night<br />To light the sacrificial rite<br />I saw Satan laughing with delight<br />The day the music died<br />He was singin'<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Bye, bye Miss American Pie<br />Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry<br />Them good ole boys were drinking whiskey and rye<br />Singin' this'll be the day that I die<br />This'll be the day that I die<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I met a girl who sang the blues<br />And I asked her for some happy news<br />But she just smiled and turned away<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I went down to the sacred store<br />Where I'd heard the music years before<br />But the man there said the music wouldn't play<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">And in the streets the children screamed<br />The lovers cried, and the poets dreamed<br />But not a word was spoken<br />The church bells all were broken<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">And the three men I admire most<br />The Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost<br />They caught the last train for the coast<br />The day the music died<br />And they were singing<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Bye, bye Miss American Pie<br />Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry<br />And them good ole boys were drinking whiskey and rye<br />Singin' this'll be the day that I die<br />This'll be the day that I die<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">They were singing<br />Bye, bye Miss American Pie<br />Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry<br />Them good ole boys were drinking whiskey and rye<br />Singin' this'll be the day that I die<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Songwriters: Don Mclean<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://coltonspointtimes.blogspot.com</div>Jim Putnamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12209035120639959756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36650605.post-74903282864152682532020-02-06T10:13:00.000-05:002020-02-06T10:31:58.121-05:00CPT Spirits in the Sky - Buddy Holly, The Day the Music Died<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">If February 3, 1959 was the day the music died when Buddy Holly was killed in a plane crash in <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Iowa</st1:place></st1:state>, then September 7, 1936 was when the music came alive at his birth. What a decade preceded the birth of Buddy Holly, especially when it came to American icons.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Marilyn Monroe was born June 1, 1926, James Dean February 8, 1931, Elvis Presley January 8, 1935 and Buddy Holly September 7, 1936. All would grow to dominate the entertainment industry and all would die way too early in life. Their respective ages were Buddy Holly 23, James dean 24, Marilyn Monroe 36 and Elvis 42.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Buddy Holly was popular for all of two years while alive, 1957 - 1959 and during that time he created a remarkable body of work so extensive that new Buddy Holly albums were released until ten years after his death, in 1969.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Among entertainers citing Buddy Holly as a major influence on their careers were the Beatles, Elvis Costello, the Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan. Rolling Stone magazine ranked Buddy number 13 on its list of the 100 greatest artists of all time. He was one of few white entertainers to ever appear at the Apollo Theater in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">New York City</st1:place></st1:city> performing shows August 16-22, 1957.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In perhaps an indication of his awareness that he had little time on Earth not only did he stockpile a wealth of recordings but he met his wife to be, Maria Elena Santiago in NYC and proposed on the first date, married her two months later, and died six months later. She had just discovered she was pregnant and canceled touring with him. Within 24 hours of hearing of his fatal plane crash on the news she had a miscarriage and lost their child.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The following is an article written by Alan Hanson comparing the careers of Buddy Holly and Elvis Presley.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Buddy Holly and Elvis Presley Comparisons</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">by Alan Hanson<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>“Buddy Holly could have been a country singer, or pop crooner, could have and probably would have fitted his talent to whatever music was happening when he came along. It happened to be rock ’n ’roll. But it only fully became rock ’n’ roll the day Buddy Holly started singing it.” —</i>Paul Williams in his book, “Rock ’n’ Roll: The 100 Best Singles”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;">Elvis center Buddy far right</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Paul Williams may have been over stating things a bit, but Buddy Holly certainly earned his currently accepted status as one of rock ’n’ roll’s founding fathers in the late fifties. In 1986, Buddy and Elvis Presley were both named charter members of the newly established Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The two men had many other things in common. Both were born in the deep south and raised in poverty. Early contact with country music and rhythm and blues stimulated their youthful, creative musical spirits. There were obvious differences, as well. Buddy looked like the typical boy next door, while Elvis’s smoldering looks oozed sexiness. Holly was an accomplished guitar player and songwriter; Elvis was neither. On stage, Presley’s voice and energy were boundless, while Buddy depended more on instrumentation and his unique “hiccup” vocal style.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Elvis Presley was born on January 8, 1935, in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Tupelo</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">Mississippi</st1:state></st1:place>. Buddy Holly was born a year and a half later on September 7, 1936, in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Lubbock</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">Texas</st1:state></st1:place>. Coincidentally, the currently accepted definitive biographies of both men were published a year apart—Peter Guralnick’s Last Train to <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Memphis</st1:place></st1:city> in 1994 and Ellis Amburn’s Buddy Holly: A Biography in 1995. Most of the following references to Holly’s life and career come from the Amburn volume.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">• Family backgrounds were important<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Growing up in the late and post-Depression years, both Buddy and Elvis were “mama’s boys,” due to weak father figures. According to Amburn, “The situation would have far-reaching consequences for Buddy, who would make the mistake of relying on stronger personalities who were not always trustworthy.” Elvis had the same weakness, but fortunately for him the man in whom he put his trust, Colonel Parker, brought Elvis incredible fame and wealth, while Buddy’s manager held him back and stole a fortune from him.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">An advantage that the young Buddy had that Elvis lacked was a trusted sibling. The youngest of four children, Buddy found in his eldest brother, Larry, a confidant he would cling to for the rest of his life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">When his other brother, Travis, came home from the war in 1945, he taught Buddy how play the guitar. Around the same time, about 900 miles to the east, Elvis Presley received a guitar for his eleventh birthday and began learning how to play it with help from his uncle and church pastor. A natural affinity for the instrument allowed Buddy’s guitar playing to progress at a rate that amazed his family.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Hank Williams, Sr., was Buddy’s first musical idol. According to Amburn, though, when Buddy first heard Fats Domino sing on the radio, he saw his future. “It was as if the heavens had opened,” Amburn explained. “But it was more than just the music. From that moment on, Buddy identified closely with blacks.” Meanwhile, an adolescent Elvis was experiencing a similar epiphany in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Memphis</st1:place></st1:city>, to where his family had moved in 1948.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Although a year younger, Buddy Holly got started in professional music before Elvis. Around 1951, when Buddy was 15 years old, he started jamming with another </span><st1:city style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;" w:st="on">Lubbock</st1:city><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> musician, Jack Neal. The two put together a country and western act and played live entertainment Saturday morning for youngsters at </span><st1:city style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;" w:st="on">Lubbock</st1:city><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> movie theaters. In September 1953, “The Buddy and Jack Show” made its debut on KDAV radio. On November 10 that year, a station DJ recorded an acetate of the duo singing and playing. It was just a few months after Elvis had walked into Sam Phillips’s Memphis Recording Service to make an acetate of “My Happiness” and “That’s When Your Heartaches Begin.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">• Buddy the tortoise, Elvis the hare<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">As rock ’n’ roll became more prominent on the radio during Buddy’s senior year in high school, he and Jack began playing the new music at sock hops, store openings, and community shows. Meanwhile, things were happening much faster for Elvis in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Memphis</st1:place></st1:city>. By the time Buddy graduated from high school in 1955, Elvis already had four singles out on Sun Records and had worked the concert circuit across the south for a year and a half.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Everything changed for Buddy when Elvis came to <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Lubbock</st1:place></st1:city> five different times in 1955. “What is certain beyond any doubt,” Amburn declared, “is that when Elvis Presley hit Lubbock in 1955, he transformed all the C&W pickers in Buddy’s circle into rockers. ‘Without Elvis,’ Buddy once said, ‘none of us could have made it.’ Though rock ’n’ roll had burst on the world of West Texas the previous year with Bill Haley’s ‘Shake, Rattle, and Roll,’ it was Elvis who whispered freedom into the ears of embattled Baptist boys like Buddy and unleashed a new generation of rockabillies.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">“Elvis changed Buddy,” singer Waylon Jennings, then another young <st1:place w:st="on">West Texas</st1:place> musician, later told Elvis biographer Peter Guralnick. “It was the beginning of kids really starting to think for themselves, figuring things out, realizing things that they would never even have thought of before.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Buddy’s brother Larry remembers when Elvis was late for one of his early 1955 appearances at <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Lubbock</st1:place></st1:city>’s Fair Park Coliseum. “In Elvis’ absence, Buddy and his front band blew the roof off the coliseum, playing until Elvis came on,” Amburn reported. “Many people in the audience preferred Buddy to Elvis, Larry proudly recalled, although Buddy was still a beginner.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">On October 15, 1955, Elvis appeared at two venues in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Lubbock</st1:city></st1:place>. After finishing up at the coliseum, he gave another show at the Cotton Club, the city’s major dance hall. “We opened for Elvis,” recalled Sonny Curtis. “Bales of cotton were stacked around the stage to protect him from the audience. The most beautiful girls in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Lubbock</st1:place></st1:city> were trying to climb the bales to get at him. That’s what impressed us as much as his music. We’d been hillbillies but after the Cotton Club we were rockers like Elvis.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">• Buddy Holly knew Elvis “quite well”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The extent of Buddy’s personal relationship with Elvis in 1955 is unclear. “Buddy and Elvis got along pretty good,” Larry claimed. “When Elvis came to town, Buddy found him a girl. She was not anyone you’d find on this side of town.” As for Buddy, during his Australian tour in 1958, he told a DJ that he’d once known Elvis “quite well.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Back in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Lubbock</st1:place></st1:city> in 1955, though, Elvis was clearly Buddy Holly’s idol. Buddy even made a leather guitar case for his J-45 that matched the one Elvis used to carry his Martin D-28. “I Forgot to Remember to Forget,” Elvis’s Sun record that topped Billboard’s C&W chart in late 1955, was Buddy’s favorite Presley song. Late in the year, Buddy and his band performed on "The Big D Jamboree," <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Dallas</st1:place></st1:city>’s Saturday night country and western radio show. Sid King, another musician on the show that night, described Buddy as “virtually a carbon copy of Elvis.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">According to Amburn, in 1955 there was another <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Lubbock</st1:place></st1:city> visitor who would play an important role in the careers of both Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly. Colonel Tom Parker came to town looking for a talent to manage. Amburn says that both Elvis and Buddy “intrigued” the Colonel, who decided to focus on Elvis. He thought enough of Buddy, though, to recommend him to <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Nashville</st1:place></st1:city> talent agent Eddie Crandall.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">That led to Buddy’s first big break in show business. When he and his band opened for Bill Haley and the Comets at Fair Park Coliseum in October 1955, Crandall was there to see Buddy. On December 2, Buddy signed an exclusive management contract with Crandall. That was less than two weeks after Elvis left Sun Records and signed a contract to record for RCA. Soon Crandall got Buddy a record deal with Decca.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">As 1956 dawned, it looked like both singers’s dreams of fame and fortune were about to come true. Both Elvis and Buddy had January dates in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Nashville</st1:place></st1:city> for their first recording sessions for their new labels. While 1956 would turn out to be a spectacular breakout year for Elvis, for Buddy it was a year of failure and exploitation that would test his resolve to make it as a professional entertainer. In RCA’s <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Nashville</st1:place></st1:city> studio on January 10, Elvis recorded “Heartbreak Hotel,” which would reach the top of Billboard’s pop chart in May, launching Presley’s fabulous run through the end of the decade. Meanwhile, Buddy’s Nashville Decca session on January 26 was a disaster that led to nowhere.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">• Decca a little bit country, RCA a little bit rock ’n’ roll</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Amburn explained how differing philosophies at RCA and Decca dictated totally different outcomes for the two young singers. “In the growing conflict between C&W and rock ’n’ roll … country music would be split down the middle, RCA and at least half of the C&W establishment fleeing to rockabilly … and the other half remaining straight country singers.” Some at RCA may have had their doubts, but they allowed Presley to do his thing. “At Decca,” noted Amburn, “Buddy’s mentors would prove less amenable to the new music; in fact, they hated rock ’n’ roll.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The result was that instead of viewing Buddy as a potential new rockabilly star, Decca tried to force him into the existing country music model. The result was predictable. After Buddy’s first single, “Blue Days, Black Nights” and “Love Me” was released on April 16, it sold only 19,000 copies. “It’s a wonder the world ever again heard of Buddy Holly,” Amburn noted. Buddy’s second release for Decca also failed miserably, and at year’s end the label declined to renew his contract. As 1957 dawned, Buddy was penniless, his career no further along than it had been 12 months before.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The one positive thing Buddy took from his failed year at Decca was some experience with songwriting. For his January 1956 <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Nashville</st1:place></st1:city> session, the label asked Buddy to show up with four original songs. One of the songs Buddy wrote and recorded for Decca, “That’ll Be the Day,” came off poorly and was never released by the label.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In January 1957, without a manager, a band, or a recording contract, Buddy returned to <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Lubbock</st1:place></st1:city> and considered quitting the music business. Deciding to give it one more try, he formed another band and drove ninety miles northwest of <st1:city w:st="on">Lubbock</st1:city> to record at Norman Petty’s recording studio in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Clovis</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">New Mexico</st1:state></st1:place>. There, on February 24, 1957, Holly’s life changed when he recorded a rocking version of “That’ll Be the Day.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Petty took the acetate to </span><st1:city style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;" w:st="on">Nashville</st1:city><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> and got Buddy a one-record contract on the </span><st1:city style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;" w:st="on">Brunswick</st1:city><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> label. Amburn called </span><st1:city style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;" w:st="on">Brunswick</st1:city><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">, “a kind of trash-basket label in which Decca dumped its undesirables.” “That’ll Be the Day” by the Crickets, the name of Buddy’s new band, was released nationally on May 27, 1957. It spent 22 weeks on Billboard’s Top 100 pop chart, peaking at #3. It reached that same number on Cash Box magazine’s list of “Best Selling Singles.” Buddy Holly had finally hit the big time.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">• Buddy Holly's career took off in ’57<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">He had a lot of catching up to do, however. By the time “That’ll Be the Day” became Buddy’s first hit record, Elvis already had five #1 singles and eight gold records. Holly had two more of his own compositions lined up to follow his first hit—“Peggy Sue” and “Oh Boy,” both recorded at <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Clovis</st1:place></st1:city> in July 1957. Both charted in the top 10 late in the year.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Suddenly, Buddy Holly was in great demand. With the Crickets, he appeared three times on American Bandstand and twice on The Ed Sullivan Show. At Christmas time in 1957 Buddy co-starred with Fats Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis, and the Everly Brothers on Holiday of Stars Twelve Days of Christmas Show in <st1:place w:st="on">Times Square</st1:place>. As the new year began, Buddy Holly found himself Decca’s top recording artist.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Like Elvis had in 1956, Buddy Holly spent much of 1957 and 1958 on the road. Unlike Elvis, though, who headlined his own tours, tightly controlled by Colonel Parker, Buddy’s only option was to join the great rock ’n’ roll package tours, organized by promoters like Alan Freed and Dick Clark. “Planned and mounted like military campaigns, these all-star caravans swept across the country in buses,” Amburn explained, “playing as many as 70 cities in 80 nights.” Buddy toured the nation and <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Canada</st1:place></st1:country-region> with other rock stars, such as Frankie Lymon, Gene Vincent, Paul Anka, Jerry Lee Lewis, Eddie Cochran, The Everly Brothers, Connie Francis, The Drifters, Chuck Berry, Buddy Knox, and Danny and the Juniors.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Although Buddy never met Elvis again after their 1955 encounters in <st1:city w:st="on">Lubbock</st1:city>, their paths almost crossed again in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Vancouver</st1:place></st1:city>, B.C., in the fall of 1957, when both were out on tour. Elvis was there on August 31 for his controversial show at Empire Stadium. Buddy came through eight weeks later with a package tour booked into the Georgia Auditorium. Hall of Fame DJ Red Robinson interviewed both stars prior to their shows. Buddy expressed a longing for a break in the grueling rock ’n’ roll grind. “Enervated from singing his guts out in nightly rock shows,” Amburn explained, “he longed for a radical change in musical trends, confessing that he’d rather sing songs that didn’t require him to scream and shout.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Elvis and Buddy both recorded their rock ’n’ roll versions of some R&B classics, including “Good Rockin’ Tonight,” “Ready Teddy,” “Shake, Rattle, and Roll,” and “Rip It Up.” Although Elvis never recorded a Buddy Holly song, Buddy recorded one of Elvis's from the soundtrack of his 1957 film, Jailhouse Rock. According to Waylon Jennings, Buddy’s version of “(You’re So Square) I Don’t Care” is the best example of the “Buddy Holly sound.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The package tour format allowed Buddy to perform overseas, something Elvis often expressed a desire to do but never did. In January 1958, Buddy, along with Anka and Jerry Lee, flew out of <st1:state w:st="on">New York</st1:state> for a tour in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Australia</st1:place></st1:country-region>. They stopped in <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Hawaii</st1:place></st1:state> along the way, where Buddy performed a free show for military personnel at Schofield Barracks, the same venue where two months earlier Elvis had given his final concert of the 1950s. While in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Australia</st1:place></st1:country-region>, a DJ asked Buddy if Elvis was his favorite singer. “I guess he’s one of them,” Buddy responded. Soon after returning from <st1:country-region w:st="on">Australia</st1:country-region>, Buddy and the Crickets left for <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">England</st1:place></st1:country-region>, arriving on March 1, 1958, for a twenty-five-day British tour.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">• Rock ’n’ roll’s first wave played itself out</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">While Buddy was still in abroad, cracks were beginning to appear in his career and in rock ’n’ roll music in general. Buddy’s record sales began to decline. His single releases of “Maybe Baby” and “Rave On,” both considered early rock classics today, stalled at #18 and #37 respectively on the Top 100. “It’s So Easy,” another Holly classic, didn’t chart at all in 1958. Neither of Buddy’s albums reached the Top 40 on Billboard’s album chart. When Alan Freed’s forty-four-day “Big Beat” package tour, which included Buddy, ended with a riot in Boston, it galvanized the societal enemies of rock ’n’ roll to mount an all out war against it. Elvis was taken away by the army, and Jerry Lee Lewis’s career never recovered after it was revealed he had married his 14-year-old cousin.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The only good news for Buddy Holly in the latter half of 1958 was his marriage to Maria Elena Santiago in August. That fall, however, Buddy and his wife left <st1:city w:st="on">Lubbock</st1:city> and moved to <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">New York City</st1:place></st1:city>. Buddy had fired his manager, but it was too late. Much of the money he had earned through record royalties and touring was gone, spent or tied up by the man Buddy had trusted to handle his financial affairs. (Reading Ellis Amburn’s account of how Norman Petty mismanaged Buddy Holly’s career should make all Elvis fans say, “Thank God for Colonel Parker.”)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In early 1959, Buddy Holly, with a pregnant wife and living off the generosity of his wife’s aunt, did something he didn’t want to do—he signed on for still another all-star package tour. The “Winter Dance Party” was to be a twenty-four-day meander across the upper mid-West in a converted school bus in the dead of winter. His death at age 22 in an </span><st1:state style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;" w:st="on">Iowa</st1:state><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> cornfield plane crash on February 3, 1959, abruptly ended the brief yet brilliant career of Buddy Holly.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">According to Peter Guralnick and Ernst Jorgensen in their book, Elvis: Day by Day, Elvis learned of Holly’s death at his army posting in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Germany</st1:place></st1:country-region> on February 5. The authors state that Colonel Parker’s assistant, Tom Diskin, sent a telegram of condolences to Holly’s family on Elvis’s behalf.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">• Death brought fame to Buddy Holly</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Recognition as one of rock ’n’ roll’s pioneers, denied him in life, came to Buddy in many forms in death. In addition to being charter members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, both Holly’s and Presley’s images appeared on U.S. Postal stamps in 1993. Buddy had five entries—“That’ll Be the Day,” “Not Fade Away,” “Rave On,” “Peggy Sue,” and “Everyday”—on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. (Elvis had 11 on the list.) “That’ll Be the Day” and “Peggy Sue” are on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s list of songs that shaped rock ’n’ roll.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">No </span><st1:place style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;" w:st="on">Graceland</st1:place><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> exists for Buddy Holly pilgrims. His birthplace in </span><st1:city style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;" w:st="on">Lubbock</st1:city><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> was demolished years ago, and in the 1990s, his family sold off their Buddy Holly keepsakes and memorabilia. In </span><st1:city style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;" w:st="on">Lubbock</st1:city><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> there is the </span><st1:placename style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;" w:st="on">Buddy</st1:placename><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><st1:placename style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;" w:st="on">Holly</st1:placename><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><st1:placename style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;" w:st="on">Center</st1:placename><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">, inside of which is The Buddy Holly Gallery, a permanent display featuring, according to the center’s web site, “Artifacts owned by the City of </span><st1:city style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;" w:st="on">Lubbock</st1:city><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">, as well as other items that are on loan.” Included in the display are “Buddy Holly’s Fender Stratocaster, a songbook used by Holly and the Crickets, clothing, photographs, recording contracts, tour itineraries, Holly’s glasses, homework assignments, and report cards.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Like Elvis’s fans, the Buddy Holly faithful honor their rock idol by gathering each year on the anniversary of his death. Starting in February 1979, on the twentieth anniversary of his death, the Surf Ballroom in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Clear Lake</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">Iowa</st1:state></st1:place>, where Buddy gave his final show on February 2, 1959, has hosted an annual Buddy Holly tribute weekend. The 2013 event is being expanded to four days to accommodate the ever-increasing number of rock ’n’ roll fans who attend. It’s not quite the same as the candle-light vigil at Graceland during Elvis Week, but those who are moved to do so can trek through the snow to a nearby cornfield where a marker memorializes the lonely spot where “the music died” back in 1959. | <a href="http://www.elvis-history-blog.com/alan-hanson.html"><span style="text-decoration-line: none;">Alan Hanson</span></a> (October 2012)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">By Alan Hanson - The Elvis History Blog</span></div>
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Holly is considered the single most influential creative force in early rock and roll. His works and innovations were copied by his contemporaries and later musicians, notably The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, and Buddy exerted a profound influence on popular music. On April 15, 2004, <em>Rolling Stone</em> magazine ranked Holly #13 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.<br />
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Also on the private charter with Holly were the Big Bopper and Richie Valens. Holly's death was immortalized by the song <em>The Day the Music Died</em>.</div>
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I was a huge Buddy Holly fan while growing up in Iowa. One time I played <em>Oh Boy</em>, a Buddy Holly hit, 43 straight times on a jukebox to honor his death much to the chagrin of the country club members in the club Canteen who didn't like country music.<br />
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Buddy Holly belongs to the ages but his music belongs to us.<br />
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<b>Buddy Holly True Love Ways<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>Buddy Holly – The Last Day<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://coltonspointtimes.blogspot.com</div>Jim Putnamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12209035120639959756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36650605.post-60401355857004165042020-02-04T01:04:00.000-05:002020-02-04T01:04:10.604-05:00The Melchizedek Chronicles – America post Impeachment – The Biggest Loser – the News Media who Abandoned America!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vR2BsBqceLE/XjkGtRbonbI/AAAAAAAAokI/c5BxiyHkzWEMMIGY_b_DVFsg7vKcPBbYwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/NM%2B7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vR2BsBqceLE/XjkGtRbonbI/AAAAAAAAokI/c5BxiyHkzWEMMIGY_b_DVFsg7vKcPBbYwCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/NM%2B7.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Unbelievably, Speaker Pelosi and her posse are not the
biggest loser in the Democrats three-year odyssey to deny the American voter
their duly elected president. While it
is true the American Constitution was under the greatest assault in our
history, in the end the wisdom of the Founding Fathers and the Constitution
withstood and defeated the attack.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But the news media, that is an entirely different matter. You see, the Fourth Estate as they are known wandered
far, far from the protection of the Constitution in their total breakdown of
honor, fairness, logic, and honesty.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The members of what was once a highly honorable profession
which used to claim to be the people’s watchdog over government sold its soul
to the Devil when trapped in their obsession of destroying President Trump and their
relentless efforts to undermine his presidency.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Unfortunately, the media mental meltdown also dragged several
Democratic party officials and elitist federal bureaucrats with them into the
abyss of endless lies, fake news, extreme bias, spewing hatred, and polarizing
a nation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Never in modern history have so many media people collectively
demonstrated such a sorry lack of common sense, fairness, or any of the good
qualities one might expect from the media.
Night after night the media happily crossed the line of fairness and honesty
in reporting and the conflicts of interest in the media were rampant and
sinister.</span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_kgNVHpEPVo/XjkGl2kYEaI/AAAAAAAAokc/IpNsY2WJBiUIhlIEWqLl5d4qeKFx3Y4CgCEwYBhgL/s1600/NM%2B16.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="493" data-original-width="1051" height="150" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_kgNVHpEPVo/XjkGl2kYEaI/AAAAAAAAokc/IpNsY2WJBiUIhlIEWqLl5d4qeKFx3Y4CgCEwYBhgL/s320/NM%2B16.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It seems as if the media empires dedicated themselves to
hiring a cadre of news anchors and reporters who were basically soulless, without
morality or ethics, historically dumb, and void of any good manners and
decorum. They single handed destroyed
the once proud reputations of many a great journalism school.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3U-U5b695sY/XjkGkqgYRXI/AAAAAAAAoko/UOMMZSY0dtIsU9enaOcaBPWTuf4YkNI8wCEwYBhgL/s1600/NM%2B13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="524" data-original-width="931" height="180" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3U-U5b695sY/XjkGkqgYRXI/AAAAAAAAoko/UOMMZSY0dtIsU9enaOcaBPWTuf4YkNI8wCEwYBhgL/s320/NM%2B13.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I am not asking you to believe me, mind you, but look at
the record.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Broadcast networks saw their precious Nielsen ratings crash
before their very eyes. The people of
America cut the cord to broadcast media by the millions. It was not just the news that people stopped
watching but the seemingly endless sting of network awards shows from the
Oscars to Grammys, the Emmys to Tony awards, even to the sporting world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The radical liberal hatred of the news media penetrated
speeches, themes, and actions by nominees and Oscar winners from the Red Carpet
to the winner’s podium. The more
dominant the bias became over the years the faster the public pulled the plug
on them as their ratings crashed as well.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It did not help that at the same time the entertainment idols
of the political fundraising machines for the liberals were “exposed” in the
sexual assault scandals by the lords of the industry like Harvey Weinstein, or
the sex trafficking by Jeffrey Epstein.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Throughout the rapid descent of people like Weinstein and
Epstein the media protected these criminals with false news, watered down
coverage, or simply ignoring the story. It was a case of liberals against liberals,
power, and money, against the people as deep divides within the party surfaced.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">From the day Trump took the presidency 93% of all news
stories were negative toward the president.
During the last three months of the impeachment insanity almost 100% of
the stories were negative.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Even that was not enough for the pack of rabid creatures in
the news rooms as they reported fake fact checkers, created fake news, enticed
the bureaucratic allies inside the government to help undermine the
Administration, and created a dangerous bond with the Obama Administration top
officials in the intelligence services including FBI and CIA, the national
security officials, State Department, Justice Department, and perhaps the White
House.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I say “perhaps” on the latter because people seem to have
forgotten the Attorney General and his broad-reaching criminal investigation
that could lead to the criminal indictment of many government officials and
political hacks, only this time on the liberal side. The AG will not be issuing subpoenas like the
helpless House Democrats failed to do, but will issue criminal indictments.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Once threatened, our Constitution will take all necessary
action to protect itself and the integrity of the people who elected the president,
whether it be Trump or someone else. The
endless stream of lies, lies, and more lies from the Democrat leaders and news
media are not without consequence.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The punishment for this three-year fiasco will be handed
out by the American voters in the election this fall. Do not be surprised if Trump sweeps the
Democrats out of office and regains the House, strengths his hold on the
Senate, and runs away with his own re-election.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CwnXLd2G5QU/XjkGr4hlTMI/AAAAAAAAoks/CvA-Biz9uKcD1ynXlFiof8ghkJCwRet_ACEwYBhgL/s1600/NM%2B4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="599" data-original-width="485" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CwnXLd2G5QU/XjkGr4hlTMI/AAAAAAAAoks/CvA-Biz9uKcD1ynXlFiof8ghkJCwRet_ACEwYBhgL/s320/NM%2B4.jpg" width="259" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The fingerprints of evil are all over the actions of the
House and News media. People, by nature,
do not embrace evil. So, what explains
the proliferation of bad people in politics and the news services? When potentially good people do bad things, fear
traps them and they madly strike out against all perceived villains.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bjTbDxnaQak/XjkGseRkNoI/AAAAAAAAokU/LsU2wJmDoPoo7paRmfGr_VE-VPeg7mCcACEwYBhgL/s1600/NM%2B5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1200" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bjTbDxnaQak/XjkGseRkNoI/AAAAAAAAokU/LsU2wJmDoPoo7paRmfGr_VE-VPeg7mCcACEwYBhgL/s320/NM%2B5.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Such fear is an open invitation to evil, an entity powered
by the spiritual world and fallen angels.
They have a single purpose in their existence, to find weak and fearful
people, to take possession of the person, and to destroy their soul. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">If you take possession of people in high places all the
better because then you can reach multiple weak souls through them and the platforms
they occupy in politics or the media.</span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IKNbe6Tjq38/XjkGrW2IE8I/AAAAAAAAoko/1fMguLSfNukYVNhDEiqujkZd3vV4RZ4rQCEwYBhgL/s1600/NM%2B3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="740" data-original-width="600" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IKNbe6Tjq38/XjkGrW2IE8I/AAAAAAAAoko/1fMguLSfNukYVNhDEiqujkZd3vV4RZ4rQCEwYBhgL/s400/NM%2B3.jpg" width="323" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The good news, God is not about to let them win in the
end. God loves all creations and will
never give up on them, even if contaminated by evil. Are you willing to give up any chance for
eternal Oneness with God, immortality, because you fail to seek and pursue the
Truth?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-86nDcJ0MfDE/XjkGpQfHn2I/AAAAAAAAokc/dw7mUmoHHmUrAmbO_I9Fj5GHL7n6HGvWgCEwYBhgL/s1600/NM%2B22.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="734" height="152" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-86nDcJ0MfDE/XjkGpQfHn2I/AAAAAAAAokc/dw7mUmoHHmUrAmbO_I9Fj5GHL7n6HGvWgCEwYBhgL/s320/NM%2B22.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">All of you can play a key role in illuminating the darkness
by exposing the Truth. Demand Truth from
those who influence you, especially from politicians and News media. Truth and light are the enemies of evil. Seek Truth and you will illuminate the
darkness and end the dominance of evil in our lives.</span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://coltonspointtimes.blogspot.com</div>Jim Putnamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12209035120639959756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36650605.post-8921203089024047082020-02-03T00:51:00.000-05:002020-02-03T00:51:01.881-05:00America's Super Bowl - The most successful show in the history of Television - Kansas City Chiefs end 50 year drought<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-S2dGROPnkts/XjexcAC6J0I/AAAAAAAAohI/ZotfB1GUrZQT_WkGjn74e1VCGwJP2nJHACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/SB%2B11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="800" height="266" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-S2dGROPnkts/XjexcAC6J0I/AAAAAAAAohI/ZotfB1GUrZQT_WkGjn74e1VCGwJP2nJHACLcBGAsYHQ/s400/SB%2B11.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For those of you around the world not exposed to the Super Bowl in America, it is the only TV program that could possibly knock the Trump impeachment trial, Democratic Presidential primary, and those lying news media off the air for a day.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A lot of fun and fascinating facts follow but here are some teasers. With a television audience between 100 million and 193 million, mostly Americans and American troops throughout the world, it is the biggest show in television history and this is the 54th year. For the past five years it has pulled over 100 million viewers per year.</span><br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yOBuk56e--s/XjexgRmHkDI/AAAAAAAAoh0/eukdpJDfAQ4moG4fLUSmZU85hKltoLyMgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/SB%2B20.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="513" data-original-width="770" height="213" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yOBuk56e--s/XjexgRmHkDI/AAAAAAAAoh0/eukdpJDfAQ4moG4fLUSmZU85hKltoLyMgCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/SB%2B20.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Super Bowl halftime show is the largest live concert in the world and a gold mine for invited artists. This year Shakira and Jennifer Lopez dazzled.</span><br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UpecNqlSPAc/Xjexd96pI2I/AAAAAAAAohg/ZbVXe04d37oXjEIrQwYuHMMNyUnQUvPxQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/SB%2B15.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1200" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UpecNqlSPAc/Xjexd96pI2I/AAAAAAAAohg/ZbVXe04d37oXjEIrQwYuHMMNyUnQUvPxQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/SB%2B15.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was the favorite San Francisco 49ers against the Kansas City Chiefs who have not won the Super Bowl in fifty long years. The Chiefs were trailing 20-10 with about seven minutes left in the game when the Chiefs stunned the nation with 21 straight points in little over 5 minutes to win 31-20.</span><br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cqdHkyPAFbk/XjexdLpowZI/AAAAAAAAohc/isD3rz8JK3UNO7ze4o5JAe5H2x8PUZZKwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/SB%2B14.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="800" height="192" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cqdHkyPAFbk/XjexdLpowZI/AAAAAAAAohc/isD3rz8JK3UNO7ze4o5JAe5H2x8PUZZKwCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/SB%2B14.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The fact the favorites and losers were from Nancy Pelosi's home in San Francisco, and the Chiefs are from the American heartland where Trump has substantial support, probably gives Trump more talking points.</span><br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eP_vtOwR3Z0/XjexhjY3zCI/AAAAAAAAoiI/Z-2tgbr2q6kM735IGyuLkapoCkUwUz7rwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/SB%2B7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="288" data-original-width="512" height="180" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eP_vtOwR3Z0/XjexhjY3zCI/AAAAAAAAoiI/Z-2tgbr2q6kM735IGyuLkapoCkUwUz7rwCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/SB%2B7.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Senate impeachment trial of Trump drew about 7 million viewers on a good day so you can see how the Super Bowl, with at least 14 times more viewers, might explain why Trump will be acquitted this Wednesday, yet another a crushing defeat for the Democrats and news media.</span><br />
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<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222;">Super Bowl 2020</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Data. Some 193.8 million adults in the US plan to watch <b>Super Bowl</b> 54 per a survey of more than 7,200 US adults from NRF. That's
upwards of 11 million more viewers than last
year's projected viewership of 188.5
million.</span><br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2TNHhrag9_A/XjexcOd_4CI/AAAAAAAAohM/uxAekw_7iCIrdOOTR8r9rUwqQW4PvKA2gCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/SB%2B10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="364" data-original-width="647" height="225" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2TNHhrag9_A/XjexcOd_4CI/AAAAAAAAohM/uxAekw_7iCIrdOOTR8r9rUwqQW4PvKA2gCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/SB%2B10.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here is what the UK had to say about this amazing American spectacle.</span><br />
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">UK View of Super
Bowl<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-R14XQcvp2vg/XjexhUB0myI/AAAAAAAAoiA/JAlkjH9rQOo8PJkI9LbrGYWjrRqOU1Q7wCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/SB%2B5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="225" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-R14XQcvp2vg/XjexhUB0myI/AAAAAAAAoiA/JAlkjH9rQOo8PJkI9LbrGYWjrRqOU1Q7wCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/SB%2B5.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b><span lang="ES-UY" style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: ES-UY;">Cultura Colectiva</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The Super Bowl In Numbers: Crazy Facts About The Big Game<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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By: <a href="https://culturacolectiva.com/author/">Oliver
G. Alvar</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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January 23, 2020<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">As one of the most-watched annual games in the
world and a billion-dollar brand, the Super Bowl consistently gives us
record-shattering numbers every year. Here are the craziest facts about The Big
Game.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Who doesn’t love Super Bowl Sunday? The anticipation of a
winning team rushing through the field after a victorious touchdown, the
excitement of all those play-by-play analyses and strategies that could turn a
close match into a steamrolling of epic proportions. Anything can happen,
nothing is written—and we all love it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">So, the fact that The Big Game is such a commercially
successful event comes as no surprise, does it? As a record-shattering event,
the Super Bowl provides astonishing numbers every year, some of which might
tell us more about American culture than we’re comfortable accepting. Indeed,
Super Bowl Sunday is one of those days that provide a strong argument for the
idea that Americans are the biggest consumerists in the world. That’s a
double-edged sword.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Regardless of what it means, however, here’s how the Super
Bowl looks—in numbers. Read on to find 7 crazy facts about the big game.</span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PC0RSl_p2Ls/Xjexc1fQfkI/AAAAAAAAohY/-zk5VyJv6GMx4z0otT-cwy4p-rEJ8KJ4ACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/SB%2B13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="1200" height="180" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PC0RSl_p2Ls/Xjexc1fQfkI/AAAAAAAAohY/-zk5VyJv6GMx4z0otT-cwy4p-rEJ8KJ4ACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/SB%2B13.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It's the second-largest day for food
consumption in the US.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Think about all the beer, hot dogs, and hamburgers consumed
during that Sunday. The Big Game accounts for most food-consumption in America
during a single day, right behind <a href="https://culturacolectiva.com/history/true-and-bloody-origins-of-thanksgiving">Thanksgiving</a>.
That’s a ridiculous amount of food!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It's second only to the UEFA Champions League
final as the most-watched annual sporting event worldwide.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And that’s even crazier when you consider the UEFA
Champions League Final is watched by many countries worldwide, whereas the vast
majority of the Super Bowl’s audience comes from a single nation. That’s a lot
of Americans watching a single game!</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It's frequently the most-watched American
television broadcast of the year.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The Super Bowl broke records in 2015 with an average
TV-audience of 114.4 million viewers, and it hasn’t gone below the 100
million-viewers mark since 2009. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Its commercial spots are among the most
expensive in the world.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The 2017 Super Bowl had an advertising revenue of around
419 million dollars. An average 30-second ad-spot costs around 5 million
dollars since 2016, and not less than 2 million since the turn of the
century!</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Each American spends over $80 during Super Bowl
Sunday.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">On average, each American consumer plans to spend around 82
dollars on snacks, drinks, television, team apparel, accessories, decorations,
furniture, and any other number of things for Super Bowl Sunday. This average
includes betting. In 2017, about 138 million dollars worth of bets were placed
at casinos across Nevada.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">All those crazy figures and record-shattering in spite of
the Super Bowl being mainly for American audiences. After all, Super Bowl
Sunday is so popular in the US, it’s basically become an unofficial national
holiday, which just goes to show America is the most consumer-based society in
the world. But hey, as long as it’s all about football, I guess it’s fine<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The Super Bowl is back this weekend with all the razzmatazz,
build-up and big money that goes with it. And that's before there's even been a
touchdown!<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">This is the 54th edition of the Bowl, with Kansas City Chiefs
taking on the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday. The NFL's biggest event is being
held Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, Florida.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The 65,326-capacity stadium will host the event for the sixth time
in 31 years. That's some big numbers already... So here are some more!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">San Francisco 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan will lead his side in
Miami on Sunday, hoping to reproduce the success of his dad, Mike.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Mike coached in four Super Bowls as an assistant, before leading
the Denver Broncos to back-to-back titles over 20 years ago in the late 1990s.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">No pressure, Kyle!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">22.81 miles per hour<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">If you could make a noise for how fast Kansas City Chiefs player
Tyreek Hill is, it would be "vroooom!" Luckily there are more
scientific ways of measuring speed - the Chiefs receiver clocked in at 22.81mph
in December against the Los Angeles Chargers. That's faster than the speed limit
for some streets in the UK!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">In the interest of fairness, in a close second, 21.87mph is the
top speed of 49ers running back Raheem Mostert.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Qp6oYD5ZjsM/XjexerH6fGI/AAAAAAAAoho/JHbhPP3-8tgxLUM9FplTcapuM0CJ2EURwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/SB%2B17.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="683" data-original-width="1024" height="266" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Qp6oYD5ZjsM/XjexerH6fGI/AAAAAAAAoho/JHbhPP3-8tgxLUM9FplTcapuM0CJ2EURwCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/SB%2B17.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Happy 43rd birthday
Shakira!<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The Super Bowl halftime show is a big deal and this year Shakira
will be performing on her 43rd birthday!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">She'll be joined by Jennifer Lopez, as the other confirmed artist.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The halftime show attracts a huge TV audience, sometimes more
people watch that than the game itself.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The most-watched halftime show was 2015 when Katy Perry's
performance attracted 118.5 million viewers, while the game itself drew an
average audience of 114.4 million viewers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TLYYa50_xwY/XjexePSSFkI/AAAAAAAAohk/XYKu5Q0rzL4ab3O9rJG502vLjOPCVbawQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/SB%2B16.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="537" data-original-width="800" height="214" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TLYYa50_xwY/XjexePSSFkI/AAAAAAAAohk/XYKu5Q0rzL4ab3O9rJG502vLjOPCVbawQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/SB%2B16.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">50 year wait<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Kansas City Chiefs fans have waited a long time for this! It's 50
years since the Chiefs were last in the Super Bowl, that's before Shakira was
born! At the time they beat the Minnesota Vikings in New Orleans.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Kansas also appeared in the first Super Bowl in 1967, losing to
the Green Bay Packers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">$5.6 million<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Half time is such a big deal at the Super Bowl and with millions
of people watching, 30-second advert slots cost $5.6 (£4.2m) million, each! The
cost of all the adverts put together is roughly $400 (£303) million!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Facebook and US president Donald Trump are among those expected to
air commercials.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">OVER ONE BILLION CHICKEN
WINGS!<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Yes, that's a lot of chicken!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Super Bowl fans are expected to eat 1.4 billion wings on Sunday.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">To put that into perspective: The weight of those wings (75.4
million kilograms) is more than 300 times the combined weight of all 32 NFL
teams.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">More Super Bowl Facts<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">So you got this far but you're still confused about what the Super
Bowl actually is, don't worry we have the answers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">If your mates are big American football fans, hopefully we can
help you to at least understand some of what they're talking about on Monday
morning.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">And if you're new to American football or just want a reminder you
can find all of the rules of the game <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/31082306"><b><span style="color: #011638;">here</span></b></a>!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dQvflVkDyWc/XjexcR0gCNI/AAAAAAAAohQ/a2Lf4cMGjLchsQ2oZjLUzY1fe0eHNq6JQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/SB%2B1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1500" height="213" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dQvflVkDyWc/XjexcR0gCNI/AAAAAAAAohQ/a2Lf4cMGjLchsQ2oZjLUzY1fe0eHNq6JQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/SB%2B1.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">UK Halftime Show???</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">What is the Super Bowl?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">It's the final game of the National Football League (NFL) season
in the United States and is one of the biggest sporting events on the planet.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The NFL is what all <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/31082306"><b><span style="color: #011638;">American
football</span></b></a> teams are part of.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The winners of the Super Bowl are crowned 'World Champions' and
get to lift the Vince Lombardi trophy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">This year it's the 54th Super Bowl.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xvkQPS9-d-o/Xjexcli8GtI/AAAAAAAAohU/e5r8Q6IwE-A1QP9fB_BLX4-JXS-iG-n4wCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/SB%2B12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="599" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xvkQPS9-d-o/Xjexcli8GtI/AAAAAAAAohU/e5r8Q6IwE-A1QP9fB_BLX4-JXS-iG-n4wCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/SB%2B12.jpg" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">50 years ago Chiefs last won</td></tr>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">How long does the game take?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The game is meant to last an hour with four 15 minute quarters.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">It can take much longer though because of the half-time show and
all the ad breaks.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">This is why snacks are a big part of fans' Super Bowl parties!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Most people do not want to see the game, just highlights, but want to see the halftime show so here is the full performance by Shakira and Lopez.</span></div>
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pILCn6VO_RU" width="560"></iframe></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://coltonspointtimes.blogspot.com</div>Jim Putnamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12209035120639959756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36650605.post-3543395806420297772020-01-29T23:21:00.000-05:002020-01-29T23:21:37.034-05:00The Melchizedek Chronicles – Why Melchizedek says, “Reality - where Truth goes to hide” – How it manifests in the Trump Impeachment debacle.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OVTbiZPknoo/XjJXRukFKDI/AAAAAAAAofg/M5l6SF5H5_4h4loY1lntneBNZZ3Ts_MagCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/God%2B29.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="638" data-original-width="900" height="282" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OVTbiZPknoo/XjJXRukFKDI/AAAAAAAAofg/M5l6SF5H5_4h4loY1lntneBNZZ3Ts_MagCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/God%2B29.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Chaos
on Steroids</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Chaos is always the result of something very confusing to
those caught up in it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Take the Impeachment of President Donald Trump for example.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once the doom-witted Schiff Road Show made it
through the House Intelligence and Judiciary Committees and finally made its
way to the Schumer Senate, the House started making demands on the Republican
controlled Senate through co-conspirator Schumer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wwFxkidZcD8/XjJXQNyy9eI/AAAAAAAAofU/JLKCkaIYmGkI_s8L6n-E321uxYkeQVSBQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/God%2B25.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="438" data-original-width="780" height="179" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wwFxkidZcD8/XjJXQNyy9eI/AAAAAAAAofU/JLKCkaIYmGkI_s8L6n-E321uxYkeQVSBQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/God%2B25.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Suddenly a strange realization came to Schumer that here in
the Senate the Dark Force no longer controls Impeachment, so no one cares what
he might have to say.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was as if all
anyone heard was senseless babble.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TY63EGWyIfk/XjJXItqbBjI/AAAAAAAAoeQ/m8c3XB1BrMU4m7EOD33FpQ4u92RpDl3OwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/God%2B11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="606" data-original-width="1024" height="236" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TY63EGWyIfk/XjJXItqbBjI/AAAAAAAAoeQ/m8c3XB1BrMU4m7EOD33FpQ4u92RpDl3OwCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/God%2B11.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">So now both sides, the dark and the light, have made their
cases and the Democrats and Republicans agree on nothing, absolutely
nothing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ironically, guess what folks,
Trump has fulfilled yet another campaign promise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He said he would “drain the swamp” in Washington,
D.C. and let me tell you all (anther annoying Hayseed reference), that you can
already hear the giant sucking sound of the drains being opened.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bCr_8K26HFQ/XjJXQy9q4RI/AAAAAAAAofc/PWYkgzUQ6fwzLnc8kVZvB4YD6pIYt49uQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/God%2B28.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="259" data-original-width="460" height="180" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bCr_8K26HFQ/XjJXQy9q4RI/AAAAAAAAofc/PWYkgzUQ6fwzLnc8kVZvB4YD6pIYt49uQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/God%2B28.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">You see, when you drain the swamp you must expose the swamp
dwellers, the hideous political establishment, lest they escape your efforts to
eradicate them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Boy are a lot of swamp
dwellers out there from Pelosi’s Posse to the Schiff Grave Diggers, from the news
media mouth pieces to those who would bastardize intelligence agencies, from
Obama staff appointees to the intellectually constipated bureaucrats and
academia.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">They have all sworn allegiance to the dark side.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This struggle for domination is not new to
the oligarchs of the Democratic party.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>From the high-profile Democrat fundraisers like Harvey Weinstein and
Jeffrey Epstein to the Pelosi Posse, from Obama intelligence agency political
hacks to the Obama apologist former staffers, reaching even into the
intellectually constipated bureaucrats and academia, they are puppets of the
ultimate puppet-master.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-I5Pd-BV9inY/XjJXJXsLgDI/AAAAAAAAoeg/VSO3xS8lcYAC3cun-pHDHAwRfyxyWOn9ACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/God%2B13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="432" data-original-width="671" height="206" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-I5Pd-BV9inY/XjJXJXsLgDI/AAAAAAAAoeg/VSO3xS8lcYAC3cun-pHDHAwRfyxyWOn9ACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/God%2B13.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Well, you know you are mired in chaos when over ninety
percent of news stories are passionately anti-Trump, when nearly ninety percent
of the public does not believe the news media, and when less than three percent
of Americans are even tuned in to the Senate Impeachment Trial.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-T2j37LZXpXs/XjJXK3ujNNI/AAAAAAAAoes/6qHl8WFvDJ87RSYQr_me_zYUsOFzvu4JQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/God%2B16.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="1000" height="224" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-T2j37LZXpXs/XjJXK3ujNNI/AAAAAAAAoes/6qHl8WFvDJ87RSYQr_me_zYUsOFzvu4JQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/God%2B16.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The vast majority of the People do not believe the news
media, and do not believe the anti-Trump politicians, bureaucrats, and blowhards.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In such circumstances, of course Reality is
chaos on steroids.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-36uOSksBuQk/XjJXKjtzaHI/AAAAAAAAoeo/rXeZNd7zUMgiI2YQJBcI3qY0iCUj0i6rACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/God%2B15.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="853" data-original-width="1280" height="266" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-36uOSksBuQk/XjJXKjtzaHI/AAAAAAAAoeo/rXeZNd7zUMgiI2YQJBcI3qY0iCUj0i6rACLcBGAsYHQ/s400/God%2B15.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Melchizedek says “Reality – is where Truth goes to hide.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Our Reality is certainly in a stranglehold of chaos because
the news media and politicians have bombarded us with lies, like a high-protein
assault on the Truth combined with the bitterness of debate, the condemnation
of doubters, the poisoning of minds, and the hijacking of our government agencies
and bureaucrats.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Qpp8GVbmG6w/XjJXVgpcQXI/AAAAAAAAogA/Zs5nQUvM2Mkwyu_92D1hAPi5kNCb7Z-yQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/God%2B9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="395" data-original-width="236" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Qpp8GVbmG6w/XjJXVgpcQXI/AAAAAAAAogA/Zs5nQUvM2Mkwyu_92D1hAPi5kNCb7Z-yQCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/God%2B9.jpg" width="238" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Chaos indeed!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">If you are under fifty years old you have already been
subject to digital addiction pressure your entire adult life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The digital revolution has taken over your
ability to discover Truth and distinguish between good and evil.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Your perceptions have been overwhelmed by the
avalanche of lies, and lies, and lies.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Many people are so enchanted (or perhaps under a spell), by
the technology revolution that computers, iPads, lap tops, smart phones, smart
TVs, with their gaming, texting, social media, and streaming of music, television
and movies absorb all your attention and dominate your lives.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zWdmEcvM0TY/XjJXSKx8E1I/AAAAAAAAofk/0Y-S4_GcQ7YBgnC_YkdKM1Kvgs_Os0PiACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/God%2B3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="678" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zWdmEcvM0TY/XjJXSKx8E1I/AAAAAAAAofk/0Y-S4_GcQ7YBgnC_YkdKM1Kvgs_Os0PiACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/God%2B3.jpg" width="226" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Far too many people spend more time in the Virtual World
surrounding them than with their family or friends.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>More often they spend more time in virtual
space than with their teachers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In other
words, more of your time is spent being told what to think, do and say by a
thing called Artificial Intelligence (AI), than with your parents, family,
teachers, mentors, or friends.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">You have built an impregnable wall and invited the enemy
into your secret cocoon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My hope is you
have not lost touch with the real Reality completely so you can still find your
way back home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Back home means when you,
your heart, and your mind are free of the digital addiction and can still question
your truth, question the source of your moral foundation, and question why
people are using your digital empire to enslave you and tell you what to think.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">What better place for Truth to hide than in Reality where
polarization is so extreme that both sides of any issue refuse to accept anyone’s
truth that does not agree with them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
is a truth that is inflexible, undeniable and so rigid, that someone just has
to be lying.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In my last article I offered a number of quotes from the
Book of Revelations from the Bible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
did not use them to scare people into believing we are approaching the End Times.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you have not read it lately or at all, you
should check it out and no Internet Cliff Notes can substitute for the full
text.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">What is important about Revelations is that Melchizedek
says those of us waiting for the beginning of the end of time when Revelations
begins are going to be disappointed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Revelations began at the beginning of time, even before humans were
place on Earth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are closer to the end
of time than you might think, because we are well beyond halfway through
Revelations.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Do not panic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We
still have maybe a thousand or more years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Far beyond your current lifetime.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But we have completed nearly thirty billion years to get here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have a lot to share about the thirty billion
years missing from our history books and Bibles but first we must address the
chaos now dominating our lives.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">People enlightened by the love of our Creator know we are
approaching the end.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They also know the
darkness and evil we are experiencing is right out of Revelations and we do not
even see it in our faces.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do not be
surprised.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Melchizedek says evil has walked the Earth throughout time,
ever since Michael drove Lucifer and his legions of the dark side, the Fallen
Angels, to Earth when we were still in the Garden of Eden, which existed at a
higher range of frequency at the time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Humanity was not born evil, it came from the misuse of free
will through the temptation of the dark ones.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>You see, the Fallen Angels once experienced the Kingdom of God, before
they became jealous of the humans who first seeded our world and began
recreating new humans to host the Souls coming to Earth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a physical act not possible for
Angels.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Under the leadership of Lucifer, they revolted against the
will of God and wanted to usurp God’s place in human life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In other words, they wanted to control humans
by stealing our Souls thus enslaving us throughout our lives on Earth.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Having once been part of God’s Kingdom, they also knew God’s
Plan called for us to spiritually evolve until we no longer belonged on Earth,
but could reunite and become One with our Creator by the end of time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To do so we must find our way back to the
path of enlightenment as taught by Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Right now, evil Is making a last stand of sorts to destroy our hope for
eternal salvation as One with our Creator.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">There will be a final judgement of your Soul and what it
accomplished toward achieving the conditions of your sacred covenant with God,
your individual path to salvation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There
will be no such judgement for the Fallen Angels, they already made their
decision to become enemies of God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HBLtuC0yymg/XjJXVAQ29wI/AAAAAAAAof8/s-RUidjkm7sfA2IZH9uLvOvMkAAUT7xQACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/God%2B8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="482" data-original-width="643" height="239" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HBLtuC0yymg/XjJXVAQ29wI/AAAAAAAAof8/s-RUidjkm7sfA2IZH9uLvOvMkAAUT7xQACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/God%2B8.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The Creator, or Unknowable One as Melchizedek says, created
us and all that exists in our cosmos.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>God also created the Kingdom of Heaven where we return between
lifetimes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the end, all Souls that remain
free of evil contamination, will return to immortality becoming One with God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">All Fallen Angels will cease to exist for there is no place
in God’s eternity for evil.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You can save
your Soul, they cannot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With the end
nearing, they know the consequence of their prior actions against God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The total hopelessness of their situation is
generating a panic in them to do everything possible to stop your Soul from
uniting with the Creator.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If the Fallen
Angels cannot have immortality like your Soul, then they will intensify their
efforts to destroy you so you do not achieve immortality either.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The Luciferic forces have been here since the beginning of
time to test your Free Will to make the right decisions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Masters at temptation, at seducing the
depressed, at massaging our egos, feeding fear, and fooling good people, they
know the clock on their existence is almost run out.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Melchizedek says evil has been so well developed by the
Fallen Angels they are even capable of disguising themselves as Jesus to lead
you into temptation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are you prepared to
recognize the deception?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I suspect not.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">People are not evil, but evil can possess any person and
make them do evil things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You have a lot
to learn before you are ready to confront the power of evil and that force is already
being used against you.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">You must learn, question, challenge, pray, meditate and fight
evil.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are many out there who can
help you and God is flooding the Earth with spiritual and other beings who
stand ready to help you, if you ask for help.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It is a condition of the right use of your Free Will.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Find those enlightened who stand ready to help.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Those in human form most likely are off the
grid of the Internet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Recognize that
those who hate you are more than likely possessed by evil.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Drag them out of the shadows and into the
light to expose and destroy them before they destroy your Soul.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Seek Truth and you will find the other Seekers of Truth and
together you can build a wall against the powerful forces of evil now running
rampant on the Earth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pray, pray, and
pray as my friend Mr. Martin says for only through enlightenment and resistance
can you find your way back home with the Creator.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It is your heart that can give you the emotional strength
to find Truth and keep your mind from succumbing to the temptations of
evil.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Your heart is the intersection
between your body, your Soul, and God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://coltonspointtimes.blogspot.com</div>Jim Putnamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12209035120639959756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36650605.post-32417773055017873822020-01-27T12:41:00.000-05:002020-01-27T12:41:19.586-05:00The Melchizedek Chronicles – Darkness Descends as People Struggle to Find Hope<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mGK7mOTyJ84/Xi8fGOZeOtI/AAAAAAAAodg/D-FdwbZcDDICu67mUPYwvM9MHiKCbCrowCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/JC%2B5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mGK7mOTyJ84/Xi8fGOZeOtI/AAAAAAAAodg/D-FdwbZcDDICu67mUPYwvM9MHiKCbCrowCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/JC%2B5.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 107%;">As a very sorry chapter in the history of humanity ends, it
might be time to step back and ask ourselves what we can do to make sure we
never go through it again. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I am not just talking about the cloud of hate, envy, and
polarization in American politics and impeachment.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If that were the only problem facing the
world, we would be fortunate.</span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Humans have become progressively under the spell of
darkness not just recently, but for thousands of years, despite being forewarned
it was coming.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ancient prophecy and the
Book of Revelations from the Bible warned us.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For you to understand what I am going to discuss about the
teachings of Melchizedek, you must know what is happening in the world is not
good.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From impeachment to war, religious
division to bias, and racial and cultural conflict to sins of the past, the
Dark Side is very active.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Look around you and you see the collapse of religious, political
and social institutions, the corruption in governments, the flare up of racial conflict,
economic inequality, expanding slavery to drugs, perversion, and digital mind
control, greed, anger, hatred, and a voracious hunger for power.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Clearly, we do not have the answers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We cannot even work together to find
solutions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you want to survive today
you must trust no one, stop communicating, hide behind an imaginary digital
identity, embrace fear, and fail to seek Truth.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But that is okay.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>God gave us a Free Will and the odds have always been there is a 50-50
chance we make the wrong decision.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Once upon a time the world worked together to identify
flaws, learn what we did not know, solve problems that would benefit all
people, and show compassion and concern for everyone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Today you might have to look long and hard
among the seven billion humans to find people with such qualities.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Melchizedek says we have lost our connection to God, our
Creator.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are you open to at least
learning how and why?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Let me correct myself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In saying Melchizedek said we lost our connection to “God” I misspoke.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You see, Melchizedek always refers to God as “The
Unknowable One.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Many a time I got lessons from Melchizedek on how little
we know about our Creator who created all we have, are, and will be, see, and
experience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God is clearly The Knowable
One, even if I refer to The Unknowable One as God.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We are all the sons and daughters, like Jesus said, of God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thousands or millions of years ago our
earliest known ancestors, Indigenous ones, clans, and tribes identified the
existence of a Creator God.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Taoists of China and Asia, Persians in the Middle East,
ancient Greeks in Europe, Egyptian kings and queens in North Africa, the Jews in
a far corner of the Middle East, and pockets of peoples throughout the world
all defined a single deity God and Creator.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This happened hundreds to thousands of years before Jesus,
the Son of God, came to help us find our way back to God some 2,200 years ago.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We humans have a great deal of history I suspect many of
you have forgotten, ignored, or denied the Truth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Such are the machinations of our failure to
make proper use of our Free Will.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Once Melchizedek explained it to me in a very clear
way. He said; “it is too bad humans have
such poor judgement.”</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Ravie; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Reality -<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Ravie; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Where Truth<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Ravie; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">goes to hide…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Ravie; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Melchizedek<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For that reason, God sent His Son to reawaken the people to
the Truth. God created us in the image
and likeness of the Creator. God the
Creator will never give up on us, his Creations. Will you give up on God?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Besides life the Creator also gave us a Free Will to make
our own decisions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do you follow the
path to redemption and salvation in using your Free Will, or do you embrace
your own version and agenda?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Do you even know or remember why God created you?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The promise to us from God is spiritual immortality, by
returning to our Oneness with God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus
came and taught the path to such immortality.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When our actions and decisions in our physical lives
reflect or mirror <b>What God Would Do (WGWD), </b>we have achieved a state of
grace and will return to Oneness with God our Creator for eternity.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Jokerman; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">WGWD<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">[What Would God Do!]</span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">No one in our physical world can make and deliver on such a
promise, no one!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet you will face many
deceivers in your lifetime offering eternal salvation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You owe it to yourself to check it out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Seek out the Truth by asking <b>WGWD!<o:p></o:p></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You must use your God-given Free Will throughout your
life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do you use it for the right
reasons?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do you mirror WGWD?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or have you bought into the message, lure,
and deception of the shadow dwellers of the Dark Side?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Stay tuned for the next story for where that will lead you.</span></span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://coltonspointtimes.blogspot.com</div>Jim Putnamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12209035120639959756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36650605.post-53916888720032146172020-01-24T11:48:00.001-05:002020-01-24T11:48:30.323-05:00The Melchizedek Chronicles - Dark Clouds on the Horizon - The untold consequence of abortion - Roe versus Wade - outdated or just misrepresented?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XJilvKtsNAU/XN2VD5niLGI/AAAAAAAAlQU/kHesrppPkAIVq3Rsxqu17VfJNKtR7bvRwCLcBGAs/s1600/Time%2B4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="530" data-original-width="546" height="310" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XJilvKtsNAU/XN2VD5niLGI/AAAAAAAAlQU/kHesrppPkAIVq3Rsxqu17VfJNKtR7bvRwCLcBGAs/s320/Time%2B4.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Finding truth in the minefield of lies! </span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">As the Abortion debate in America heats up with the oncoming 2020 election looming on the horizon, there is a real danger Americans will not get all the facts when it comes to the debate? Not surprising I guess when it seems the news media, the political parties, and the politicians all have their own set of principles which apply regardless of the truth.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Since all three groups are in the business of spreading their own brand of propaganda to the masses, it is not surprising the fact checkers are tripping all over themselves trying to justify their favorite causes while feeding the fake news to the people. It is the sad state of affairs we face today.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Abortion, as an issue, has long been hijacked by special interests to mask a series of sins ever since it was first proposed as the principal building block of Eugenics. Make no mistake, it is an issue born of the darkest sides of human life based on a principal that educated nations must protect themselves from the undesirables wanting what they have, wealth and power.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Even that first central argument ignored the overriding moral issues involved in life, who or what is responsible for the entire act of procreating life, meaning how did we acquire the ability to create new life? Science, technology and education have so far failed to give us a credible explanation other than God and God's Creation, all that is what we experience. Like it or not Divine law and God's creation plan still stand alone as the source of all we are.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Under God's law it takes two people, not one, to create a new life, a male and female. The are many distinct creations of God that come into play in the procreation process including the sperm and egg uniting to create a fetus, the fetus evolving into a viable child, the mother carrying the fetus to fruition, not to mention the health of the fetus which is also dependent on the DNA of the father and mother and whatever they have done to their own bodies during their life.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">We are talking about aborting what is well on the way to being a little child, a child of God first and foremost, resulting from the union of two humans. Are their valid reasons for allowing abortion, probably and we can only do our best to honor the life of the child when considering the options.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Aborted babies are not simply statistics in human evolution like the victims of other forms of death. Even the media is afraid to talk about abortion as involving real children, or even having the potential to become a real child. I suspect God gave mother's custodianship over the fetus because they have the emotional foundation, patience, and heart to give that child a fair chance in life.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The truth about abortion is not something we want to talk about. We talk about all kinds of diversionary issues like rape, incest, a threat to the life of the mother, as if all abortions faced such dire circumstances. Based on the available statistics I can find, if you add all of these cases together they represent less than five percent of all abortions.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">If that is the case, then what do the remaining ninety-five percent of abortions represent? How about abortions of convenience. In this day and age of many ways of birth control, it seems there should not even be any abortions for convenience, yet they dominate the abortion landscape.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">So is there something else the media and abortion advocates are hiding that could be more sinister or dark in nature. Eugenics, the purification of the races is certainly one. Yet I believe there is something even more dangerous in which the richest of the rich become the chief beneficiaries of abortions. How can that be you might ask?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">What is the only thing money cannot buy? Immortality. The astonishing ability to live forever. Yet a profit center has been evolving in the abortion industry which seems to add fuel to the speculation that there is a golden lining in abortions for the super rich, genetic research, genetic modification, and yes, human cloning.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The concentration of wealth in the world and the scientific potential of using the fetus, body parts, even stem cells from aborted fetuses, seem to be fostering an entirely new purpose for abortions, and is making them exceptionally profitable in the process.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">If the body parts from an aborted fetus can lead to genetic research to cure diseases, then it could also be used to master the cloning of humans, especially when money is no problem. How many impoverished women and girls in the world could resist the chance to make perhaps $100,000 by selling their aborted fetus to the minions of the rich seeking to extend life and then create life.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">We need to calmly look at the real truth behind abortion. What is the role of God versus women? What is the true purpose of abortion? Are aborted fetuses creating an entirely morally bankrupt industry of body tissue and parts for sale to the highest bidder, a false promise of the eternal Fountain of Youth if you have enough money?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The aborted fetus is not just another statistic. It is a creation of God just like the creations that gave us Einstein, Plato, Socrates, Pythagoras, or the many women and men who have advanced the cause of humankind throughout the ages.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">As you will read, in the modern era there have been over sixty million abortions in America, over 3.4 billion abortions worldwide. Listen to the debate, but remember the truth. The greatest cause of death in America is not from cancer, heart disease, infectious diseases, car wrecks, or even shootings, it is from abortion and as we approach zero population growth in America, where will the children come from needed to support the future of our nation and world?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">So where do we stand at the moment. The latest available statistics, 2017, show the following.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Causes of death in America in 2017</span></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XV-i-8IwYsQ/XN2q3NXrfBI/AAAAAAAAlRo/v8j7kQU3T2QUuBkYxVJJY1vN79wFM44rQCLcBGAs/s1600/New%2B4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1112" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XV-i-8IwYsQ/XN2q3NXrfBI/AAAAAAAAlRo/v8j7kQU3T2QUuBkYxVJJY1vN79wFM44rQCLcBGAs/s400/New%2B4.jpg" width="370" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">For comparison, here are the number of abortions in America in 2017.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial rounded mt bold" , sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 19.9733px;"><b>Abortions in US in 2017 - 879,000</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Again for comparison, the highly emotional gun deaths in US in 2017-2018.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Now for the detailed facts on abortion in America and the World.</span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jEaDke5tZKI/W9tE8aq0gDI/AAAAAAAAjQA/UVz_VJa7-aIo6_xBk3gSQNGOPEX66DMkwCEwYBhgL/s1600/Mixed%2B1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="347" data-original-width="746" height="185" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jEaDke5tZKI/W9tE8aq0gDI/AAAAAAAAjQA/UVz_VJa7-aIo6_xBk3gSQNGOPEX66DMkwCEwYBhgL/s400/Mixed%2B1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "chiller"; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 34.24px;"> </span></b><b><span style="font-family: "chiller"; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 34.24px;">Since Roe versus Wade 1973</span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: red; font-family: "chiller"; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 34.24px;">60,069,971</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "chiller"; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 34.24px;"> Abortions in the US<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "chiller"; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 25.68px;">36% White = <span style="color: red;">21,625,189</span><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "chiller"; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 25.68px;">25% Hispanic = <span style="color: red;">15,017,492</span><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "chiller"; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 25.68px;">30% Black = <span style="color: red;">18,020,991</span><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "chiller"; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 25.68px;">9% Other = <span style="color: red;">5,406,299<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "chiller"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14.2667px;">-----------------------------------------------------------------<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "chiller"; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 34.24px;">Since Planned Parenthood International 1952</span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: red; font-family: "chiller"; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 34.24px;">3,564,000,000</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "chiller"; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 34.24px;"> Abortions in World<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #3b3328; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 10pt;">---------------------------------------------------------------------------<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "chiller"; font-size: 24pt;">United States Population 2018<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "chiller"; font-size: 24pt;">327,535,104<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #3b3328; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><b style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "chiller"; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 25.68px;">White 61.3% = 200,778,950</span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "chiller"; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 25.68px;">Hispanic 18.1% = 59,283,835<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "chiller"; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 25.68px;">Black 12.7% = 41,596,945<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "chiller"; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 25.68px;">Other 7.9% = 25,875,538<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "chiller"; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 34.24px;">White Population = 200,778,950</span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "chiller"; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 34.24px;">White Abortions = </span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: red; font-family: "chiller"; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 34.24px;">21,625,189</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "chiller"; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 34.24px;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "chiller"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14.2667px;">-------------------------------------------------------------------------<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "chiller"; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 34.24px;">Hispanic Population = 59,283,835<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "chiller"; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 34.24px;">Hispanic Abortions = <span style="color: red;">15,017,492</span><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "chiller"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14.2667px;">-------------------------------------------------------------------------<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "chiller"; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 34.24px;">Black Population = 41,596,945<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "chiller"; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 34.24px;">Black Abortions = <span style="color: red;">18,020,991</span><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "chiller"; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 34.24px;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>World Population 2018<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "chiller"; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 34.24px;">7,632,819,325<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "chiller"; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 34.24px;">World Abortions since 1952<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: red; font-family: "chiller"; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 34.24px;">3,564,000,000</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "chiller"; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 34.24px;"> Abortions<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "chiller"; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 34.24px;">Percent of total 2018 population<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: red; font-family: "chiller"; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 34.24px;">47%<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; line-height: 17.12px;">The Democrats Dangerous Dilemma</span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; line-height: 17.12px;">Revisionist History and Abortion<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">History has a way of protecting the truth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Take today, for example.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Revisionist History has become a new art form as we experience the twenty-first century.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">There are two kinds of Revisionist History.</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">One is the practice of looking back on recorded history and finding errors or omissions that were missed by the author.</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">When incorporated into the prior history the events may alter more recent historical facts.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">I call that filling in the missing gaps in earlier recorded history and presenting the truth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In my mind it is more of an edit and addendum to what was previously written to correct the account.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">The second type of Revisionist History is far more sinister in motive and deceptive in execution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Generally speaking, it is an attempt to whitewash history or falsify historical events by revising them to meet a perceived current perception.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Twisting the truth to promote an alternate version of the truth, either by adding inaccuracies to the story or by erasing history to tell a different story.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">For example, take the case of abortion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you were to believe the stories being told today, you would think Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood one hundred years ago, was a champion for women’s rights, for giving women the right to control what happens to their body (abortion), and for promoting birth control.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Thanks to Ms. Sanger and her work Planned Parenthood International began a partnership with the United Nations to bring birth control and abortion to the world in 1952.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By 1973 her people were the driving force behind the Roe versus Wade Supreme Court case legalizing abortion and defining the federal standards for when it could take place and what conditions must be met.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Noble indeed, but not the whole truth by any stretch of the imagination.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For in the course of revising the history of Planned Parenthood a dark chapter in their evolution was simply and conveniently deleted from the books and minds.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">You see, the motivation for Sanger a hundred years ago was not to help women in need, nor to give rise to the feminist and women’s rights advocates of the future, it had much darker intentions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Here is her motivation in her own words that is missing from the Revisionist History of Planned Parenthood of today.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Read them and you will realize her decades of championing birth control and abortion were far removed from the women’s health, rights and empowerment credited to her today.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "chiller"; font-size: 28pt; line-height: 39.9467px;">Eugenics<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Eugenics is a nice-sounding word, combining as it does the Greek words for “good” and “birth.” And Francis Galton, who made up the word and the idea, proposed Eugenics “for the betterment of mankind.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The actual definition is rather horrible: the controlled and selective breeding of the human race.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Margaret Sanger, who was a member of the American Eugenics Society and was the editor of the Birth Control Review, describes the philosophy of eugenics on the cover of her magazine, the Birth Control Review:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #111111; font-family: "bookman old style" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">“More Children for the Fit. Less for the Unfit.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
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<span style="color: #111111; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Then she made it clear whom she considered unfit:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #111111; font-family: "bookman old style" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">“Hebrews, Slavs, Catholics, and Negroes.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">She set up her Birth Control clinics only in their neighborhoods. She openly advocated the idea that such people should apply for official permission to have babies:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">In her often-quoted book of 1931, "My Way to Peace," Sanger recommends that the government:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "bookman old style" , serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">“. . . keep the doors of Immigration closed to the entrance of certain aliens whose condition is known to be detrimental to the stamina of the race, such as feeble-minded, idiots, morons, insane, syphiletic, epileptic, criminal, professional prostitutes, and others in this class . . . apply a stern and rigid policy of sterilization, and segregation to that grade of population whose progeny is <u>already</u> tainted or whose inheritance is such that objectionable traits may be transmitted to offspring. (Jan. 17, 1932 [LCM 130:198].)”<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">One of the prominent supporters of that horrific eugenics program was Clarence Gamble, and Gamble was a director of Margaret Sanger’s American Birth Control League, which later changed its name to Planned Parenthood.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">In Margaret Sanger’s “Birth Control and Racial Betterment,” the Planned Parenthood founder links the goals of eugenics with her own goals of promoting birth control, writing (emphasis added):<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<em><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #3b474a; font-family: "bookman old style" , serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">“We who advocate Birth Control, on the other hand, lay all our emphasis upon stopping not only the reproduction of the unfit</span></b></em><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><i><span style="color: #3b474a; font-family: "bookman old style" , serif; font-weight: normal;"> </span></i></strong><em><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #3b474a; font-family: "bookman old style" , serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">but upon stopping all reproduction when there is not economic means of providing proper care for those who are born in health. …While I personally believe in the sterilization of the feeble-minded, the insane and syphilitic</span></b></em><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><i><span style="color: #3b474a; font-family: "bookman old style" , serif; font-weight: normal;">,</span></i></strong><em><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #3b474a; font-family: "bookman old style" , serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> I have not been able to discover that these measures are more than superficial deterrents when applied to the constantly growing stream of the unfit… Eugenics without Birth Control seems to us a house builded upon the sands. It is at the mercy of the rising stream of the unfit….”<o:p></o:p></span></b></em></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Sanger was highly motivated to stop the procreation by those she deemed “unfit.” In a personal letter to Katharine Dexter McCormick in 1950, Sanger called for:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<strong><i><span style="color: #3b474a; font-family: "bookman old style" , serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">“a simple, cheap, safe contraceptive to be used in poverty- stricken slums, jungles, and among the most ignorant people.”</span></i></strong></div>
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<span style="color: #3b474a; font-family: "georgia" , serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">But, Sanger added;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">In 1932, Sanger also called for those who were poor (and those she considered to be “morons and immoral”) to be shipped to colonies where they would live in “Farms and Open Spaces” dedicated to brainwashing these so-called “inferior types” into having what Sanger called better “moral conduct.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Margaret Sanger is usually described as a “birth control pioneer” who founded Planned Parenthood, but she also met with members of the Klan, advocated eugenics, and supported the use of sterilization to rid the planet of the “unfit.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Sanger wrote about her meeting with the Klan in her autobiography. Yet somehow this fact is made light of, glossed over, or completely ignored by the media.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">On page 366 of her autobiography, Sanger described her meeting with the Klan, where she says she received additional invitations to speak with similar groups:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<em><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #3b474a; font-family: "bookman old style" , serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">“I accepted an invitation to talk to the women’s branch of the Ku Klux Klan…. I saw through the door dim figures parading with banners and illuminated crosses…. I was escorted to the platform, was introduced, and began to speak…. In the end, through simple illustrations I believed I had accomplished my purpose. A dozen invitations to speak to similar groups were proffered.”</span></b></em><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #3b474a; font-family: "bookman old style" , serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #111111; font-family: "chiller"; font-size: 28pt;">Sanger and Hitler’s Nazi Master Race<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">The birth control movement and the eugenics movement were the same movement — to the point where Margaret Sanger twice tried to merge her organization with major eugenics groups.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">One eugenics expert, Eugen Fischer, whom Sanger featured as a speaker at a population conference she organized, had already run a concentration camp — in German-ruled Southwest Africa, before World War I, where he murdered, starved and experimented on helpless native Africans. It was Fischer’s book on eugenics, which Hitler had read in prison, that convinced Hitler of its central importance.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Another longtime official of Planned Parenthood, Garrett Hardin, had a decades-long track record of serving in eugenics organizations, and as late as the 1980s was calling for mass forced sterilization of Americans as a necessary solution to the “population problem.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">The same people served on the boards of the American Eugenics Society and Sanger’s organizations for decades, and they worked closely together on countless projects — ranging from researching the birth control pill as a means of diminishing the African-American birth rate (they tested the early, hazardous versions of the Pill on impoverished rural women in Puerto Rico), to passing forced sterilization or castration laws in more than a dozen states that targeted blacks and other poor people accused of “feeble mindedness” or “shiftlessness” and diagnosed as “unfit” parents.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">The eugenicists, self-appointed experts on human quality of life, had peddled their theories not just in Britain and America but in Germany, where they helped to directly inspire Nazi sterilization and extermination programs aimed at the handicapped, Jews, and the small population of black or mixed-race Germans — children of French colonial troops whom Hitler considered a grave menace to “Aryan” racial “hygiene.” One of Sanger’s regular authors in The Birth Control Review wrote in a U.S. newspaper in the 1930s defending the forced sterilization of such mixed-race children, for the sake of Germany’s “health.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Hitler’s Bible, by Sanger’s Friend<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Friends and associates of Sanger (such as Harry Laughlin) accepted awards from Nazi-controlled universities, visited with Hitler and Himmler, and boasted that the forced sterilization programs which they had instituted in America were used as models by the Germans. One author who served on Sanger’s board and published regularly in The Birth Control Review was Lothrop Stoddard, a high official of the Massachusetts Ku Klux Klan, whose book <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Rising Tide of Color Against White World Supremacy</i>, Adolf Hitler cited in Mein Kampf as “my bible.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Adolf Hitler officially instituted Eugenics, leading an entire country in carrying out its principles, not only to breed what he believed to be a superior race but to eliminate everyone whom he considered to be inferior. Where did Hitler find early support for his Eugenic ideas? From Margaret Sanger and her circle.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Eugenic Scientists from Nazi Germany wrote articles for Sanger’s Birth Control Review, and members of Sanger’s American Birth Control League visited Nazi Germany, sat in on sessions of the Supreme Eugenics Court, and returned with glowing reports of how the Sterilization Law was “weeding out the worst strains in the Germanic stock in a scientific and truly humanitarian way.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Margaret Sanger began publication of The Birth Control Review 1917. She was the sole editor of the Review until 1928 when the American Birth Control League (another Sanger foundation) took the reins. A new series began in 1933 and it completely ceased publication in 1940.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">From Sanger's "Dream Journal"<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="dream"></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">[Tucson, Ariz.]<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Feb 3rd 1942.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "bookman old style" , serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></i></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "bookman old style" , serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">“Last night I dreamed of Hitler–- Saw him in a room so close that I could see his eyes wink. Dream not very clear at 3 Am. just awoke–- But house I was in with others raided by Nazis. I hid under a table with others but one womans leg was discovered then we all were brought forth. Hitler came in to execute war plans & operations using this house as his base. A bird flew into the room from the window & lighted near me-– It was white & a dove-– Hitler caught it held it up high over my head & told me to pick out a feather–-I did so & <u>awakened</u>.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "chiller"; font-size: 28pt; line-height: 39.9467px;">Presidential Intervention and Politics<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Most people view the Democrat Party as Pro-choice and the Republican Party as Pro-life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From a platform position that is right but both parties have walked the fine line between the two sides of this volatile issue. A decade before Roe versus Wade was adopted, the first Catholic President in our history, John F. Kennedy, a Democrat, was not even queried about the issue. In spite of the lack of interest in the issue, the JFK legacy is quite clear, he has a major pro-life legacy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Kennedy appointed Byron White to the Supreme Court. Justice White was the writer of the dissent in the Roe v. Wade case that, with Doe v Bolton, legalized abortion at all stages. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Here is an excerpt of White’s dissension:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;"><i>“…I dissent. I find nothing in the language or history of the Constitution to support the Court’s judgment. The Court simply fashions and announces a new constitutional right for pregnant mothers [410 U.S. 222] and, with scarcely any reason or authority for its action, invests that right with sufficient substance to override most existing state abortion statutes. </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;"><i>The upshot is that the people and the legislatures of the 50 States are constitutionally dissentitled to weigh the relative importance of the continued existence and development of the fetus, on the one hand, against a spectrum of possible impacts on the mother, on the other hand. As an exercise of raw judicial power, the Court perhaps has authority to do what it does today; but, in my view, its judgment is an improvident and extravagant exercise of the power of judicial review that the Constitution extends to this Court.”<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">President Bill Clinton was the first Democrat to reverse the pro-life to pro-choice position in the party platform although he was careful to avoid any hint of government funding of abortion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When his Vice President Al Gore ran for president he further advanced the cause of pro-choice and made pro-choice an essential element in the Democrat platform for decades to come.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">President Obama is the first president to become a pro-abortion extremist. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He never supported any meaningful restriction on it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He opposed a partial-birth abortion bill in Illinois, even as the federal version passed the House with 282 votes and the Senate with 64 votes and was signed into law by President Bush in 2003. He arrived in the U.S. Senate in time to denounce the Supreme Court’s ruling upholding the ban.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">In 2007, he told the Planned Parenthood Action Fund that his first act as president would be signing the Freedom of Choice Act. The act would enshrine in federal law a right to abortion more far-reaching than in Roe v. Wade and eliminate basically all federal and state-level restrictions on abortion. The National Organization for Women said it would “sweep away hundreds of anti-abortion laws [and] policies.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">The fact is that the right to abortion is at the heart of contemporary liberalism. Roe v. Wade is liberalism’s Great Writ. Nancy Pelosi considers the right to abortion more sacrosanct than the First Amendment. She would never tamper with or restrict the former; she wants to amend the latter to allow for more campaign-finance regulations.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Obama successfully cemented the Democrat Platform as the social agenda for liberal and social change, reversing years of Democrat tolerance of pro-lifers within the party.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He successfully replaced the pro-life tolerance with a progressive agenda designed to lure in multiple social causes and merge them under a social(ist) umbrella.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Today we see the consequence.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "chiller"; font-size: 28pt; line-height: 39.9467px;">When genetic research became profitable<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">At the same time the political parties were realigning as the Democrats flipped from pro-life to pro-choice and demanded full federal funding of abortion, the medical industry was rapidly transforming as well.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Scientific advances may not have helped determine the critical fact of when life began, but it did lead to the genetic research field and the conversion of health care from a social service to a profit center driven by profits with no regard to morals.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Perhaps the most ironic result of the advances is that cellular research and genetic engineering established a hope for genetic breakthroughs that could extend the life of humans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was called the Human Genome Project, and it began just as Clinton was about to run for president.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Remember, it was Clinton who moved the Democrat party from pro-life to pro-choice.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">The Genome Project was an international scientific research project with the goal of determining the sequence of nucleotide base pairs that make up human DNA, and of identifying and mapping all of the genes of the human genome from both a physical and a functional standpoint.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Launched in 1990, two years before Clinton’s election, it was completed in 2003, the year before Obama gave his famous speech to the Democrat National convention that would catapult him to the presidency just five years later.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Sadly, the results of the project created a huge demand for stem cells, tissue from human organs, and a multitude of other issues that would erase all concern for morality or ethics well into the future.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Suddenly, those millions of aborted fetuses became a potential unlimited profit center for medical research, backed by the profit-driven financial investors in the medical community.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Total abortion clinics are under active investigation by federal agencies for the illegal sale of human parts, tissue, stem cells and who knows what else from the aborted fetuses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are talking about an industry with billions upon billions of dollars in potential revenue from the national and international sale of fetus body parts.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">What is happening in the real world in light of the fact agencies are prohibited from profiting off the sale of body parts?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Statements from a whistleblower on the illegal sale of body parts by clinics or funeral homes involved in abortions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">“So A is like brain, heart, lungs, liver, spleen,” explains O’Donnell, listing the body parts that were “really high demand.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">“So if you really do your job, you get up to 11-20 specimens, you’re getting $20 per specimen. If it’s 1 to 10, you’re doing just blood, you’re getting $10 for one blood draw.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Regarding current investigations underway:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">"The facts are, Planned Parenthood took money for harvesting baby body parts and its partners charged hundreds of dollars each for arms, lungs, brains, and eyes, potentially making thousands of dollars on a single aborted child," said Live Action founder Lila Rose.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Body brokers like Donor Services are also known as non-transplant tissue banks. They are distinct from the organ and tissue transplant industry, which the U.S. government closely regulates. Suppliers of transplant tissue must obtain federal recognition and operate as charities. It is illegal to buy or sell organs such as hearts, kidneys and tendons for transplant.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">But no federal law governs the sale of cadavers or body parts for use in research or education. Few state laws now provide any oversight. That means almost anyone, regardless of expertise, can dissect and sell human remains.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Reuters identified 34 body brokers that have been active across the United States during the past five years. Twenty-five of the brokers were for-profit corporations. The other nine were structured as nonprofits, including Donor Services – the only broker Reuters could find that still doubles as a funeral home.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">If crooks have already infiltrated the system what are the professional crime syndicates doing, especially when there are billionaires desperate for access to life-saving body parts. For more information see the next article on how much your body parts are worth on today’s black market.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "chiller"; font-size: 28pt; line-height: 39.9467px;">Undermining the Democratic Party of Today<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Here is the dilemma facing the Democrat party today.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They attracted multiple worthy and high-mind causes and coalitions into the party based on the lure of being the banner issues for the party, and for consolidating the efforts of many of these advocacy groups.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">In the process the groups are losing their individual identities and focus by being diluted into the Democrat advocacy machine, and the same groups are being alienated from their original support base because social advocacy is an individual perception, issues are individual in nature, and all socials issues compete with each other for public attention.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Important social causes are being lost in the babble of politics, fund raising for political purposes, and access to public forums, because they aligned with the wrong political party.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Both parties have done this, but the liberal, progressive side of the Democrat party has far more groups competing for attention.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Beyond the impossible blending of competing and explosive issues, there are some strange ironies that result from being the platform for all social advocacy by the Democrats.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Polls show that up to 65% of all legal and illegal immigrants from Mexico and South America oppose abortion.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Seven-in-ten white evangelical Protestants (70%) think abortion should be illegal in all or most cases.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Among black Protestants, forty-five percent say abortion should be illegal in all or most cases.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Among Catholics, forty-seven percent say abortion should be illegal in all or most cases<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">The Public Religion Research Institute found 54 percent of Latino millennial said abortion should be illegal in most or all cases.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">The message is clear.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No matter what the Democrats do, half of their core constituents will oppose the party position.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>According to the latest 2018 Gallup poll, fifty percent of all Americans support conditions on abortions, while just twenty-nine percent support unrestricted abortions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">A new CBS poll has revealed that the majority of young American women do not support unrestricted abortions, take issue with a lot of feminist ideologies, and do not think the mainstream media is a reliable source of information.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">The poll found that only 28% of women support abortion being legal in all cases. 34% of women supported abortion being legal in most cases. 25% think abortion should be illegal in most cases, and 13% of women think that abortion should be illegal in all cases. <a href="http://www.lifenews.com/2018/08/20/cbs-poll-reveals-millenial-women-reject-abortion-feminism-the-media/">Lifenews points out the significance of these numbers</a>. “In the end, that means 72% are likely in favor of some kind of abortion restriction.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Less than half of the women surveyed thought of themselves as feminists. 46% of the respondents considered themselves to be feminists, while 54% did not. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Only 7% of the women polled said that they “almost always” trust the media to give them accurate information. <a href="http://this%20poll%20only%20adds%20to%20the%20reasons%20why%20that%20might%20be:%20while%20women%E2%80%99s%20news%20sites%20regularly%20assume%20that%20all%20%E2%80%9Cwomen%E2%80%9D%20support%20abortion%20and%20feminism,%20that%E2%80%99s%20not%20the%20case./">Lifenews points out</a> that “this [CBS] poll only adds to the reasons why [women distrust mainstream media]: while women’s news sites regularly assume that all “women” support abortion and feminism, that’s not the case.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">The Democrat party platform on abortion is doomed because nearly fifty percent of the core Democrats are opposed to the party position.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Major decisions face the immediate future of the party.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">The alliance between the liberal Democrat party and the Mainstream News Agencies has also worked against the Democrats as the news media is an even more unreliable source of honest news than the politicians.</span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://coltonspointtimes.blogspot.com</div>Jim Putnamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12209035120639959756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36650605.post-86145560225107888182020-01-18T15:36:00.000-05:002020-01-18T15:36:41.603-05:00The Melchizedek Chronicles - The Seven Deadly Sins of the Digital Revolution that Doom it to Failure!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cz-rCTFUjFw/XFxzHKhNtGI/AAAAAAAAkAU/U786gwzs8JsBMs3dh3hC1cMRc4KgvsvxgCEwYBhgL/s1600/Seven%2B27.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="311" data-original-width="500" height="248" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cz-rCTFUjFw/XFxzHKhNtGI/AAAAAAAAkAU/U786gwzs8JsBMs3dh3hC1cMRc4KgvsvxgCEwYBhgL/s400/Seven%2B27.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "comic sans ms"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 22.8267px;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "comic sans ms"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 22.8267px;">The vast majority of participants employed by digital companies or the consumers addicted to the digital products, from games to apps, lack the knowledge of experience and are clueless on the history of failures of the pre-digital and scientific ages.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "comic sans ms"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 22.8267px;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "comic sans ms"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 22.8267px;">People do not want endless choices of lousy content as proffered by the Digital Revolution through video, movie, television, audio, games and other digital techniques. Millions of choices of music, videos, movies or games are insane and would take multiple lifetimes to experience.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "comic sans ms"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 22.8267px;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "comic sans ms"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 22.8267px;">Security breaches, identity theft, invasion of privacy, spam and hacking are unacceptable collateral damage of digital evolution. Billions and billions of dollars in losses are being absorbed and passed on to consumers as if it is no big deal.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "comic sans ms"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 22.8267px;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4.<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "comic sans ms"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 22.8267px;">The Digital Revolution is applying long-rejected profit demands on entertainment companies which have gutted the once high quality of most movies, television shows and music, the various arts disciplines, news and consumer choices by ignoring the inferior quality of content now being offered.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "comic sans ms"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 22.8267px;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">5.<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "comic sans ms"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 22.8267px;">No one is telling the truth about the long-term mental and physical dangers of constant exposure to human-generated electromagnetic waves, increased radiation, and the many psychological addiction consequences on humans. In addition, the impact of million of megatons of radioactive waste within the earth and testing of new weapons technology have consistently missed "unintended consequences" of deadly magnitude. Finally, the impact of natural and climatic changes or anomalies is disrupting the natural balance of the science of nature.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "comic sans ms"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 22.8267px;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">6.<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "comic sans ms"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 22.8267px;">The unregulated digital world ignores collateral damage to human evolution through genetic manipulation of plants, animals and humans by encouraging profit-driven activity to prolong life through eugenics-driven research which makes the harvesting of human parts through abortion profitable and necessary for the purification of the human genetic code.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YSpp7K0FFV4/XFxzHAnnaZI/AAAAAAAAkBY/5atd2HNqckcNJCxDTzNeadnz2ToFf_x6ACEwYBhgL/s1600/Seven%2B26.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="625" height="203" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YSpp7K0FFV4/XFxzHAnnaZI/AAAAAAAAkBY/5atd2HNqckcNJCxDTzNeadnz2ToFf_x6ACEwYBhgL/s400/Seven%2B26.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "comic sans ms"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 22.8267px;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">7.<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "comic sans ms"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 22.8267px;">There is no morality or ethics foundation (right or wrong) to the Digital Revolution and Artificial Intelligence which undermines our relationship to God, the Creator, the creations of God and God’s plan for the Soul of all humans. The Soul is essential to human life but cannot be created by humans thus human genetically engineered clones will be soulless with no protection from the Dark Forces which are attempting to destroy the world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://coltonspointtimes.blogspot.com</div>Jim Putnamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12209035120639959756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36650605.post-86712362758105886352020-01-17T09:55:00.000-05:002020-01-18T16:37:57.905-05:00The Melchizedek Chronicles – Are you prepared for a devastating event in the near future? What will you do if the lights went out?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Ab5rqy_JzQI/XKZq7GC9U3I/AAAAAAAAkjQ/n9EMamsdDWsxHnzPxxre5wpZfDsadiJ8gCEwYBhgL/s1600/HJL%2B26.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="739" data-original-width="1100" height="267" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Ab5rqy_JzQI/XKZq7GC9U3I/AAAAAAAAkjQ/n9EMamsdDWsxHnzPxxre5wpZfDsadiJ8gCEwYBhgL/s400/HJL%2B26.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 17.12px;">We all need to know how we will react to a natural disaster, maybe an economic collapse, perhaps a secret scientific experiment gone array, something of that magnitude that disrupts your life plans and instantly whisks your world into chaos.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Melchizedek, nearly four years ago, warned of the coming weather anomalies reaching record shattering dimensions. Each year weather patterns have deviated farther and farther from normal, with much stronger and more dangerous fires, tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, blizzards, wind shear, you get the idea.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 17.12px;">It seems the new weather mutations are now the new normal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One-hundred-year-old flood records fall almost daily, and the unheard of 500-year flood levels are now being breached.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Coast-to-coast annual rainfall totals shatter previous records while snowfall records have tumbled in a wide swath of Northern states from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean, with some snow packs reaching 25 feet deep.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Highly unusual “Cyclone Bombs” have cause massive freak wind storms, major blizzards, and breathtaking floods two years in a row. Denver International Airport recorded winds of 96 miles per hour, and no tornado or hurricane conditions were present.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Speaking of
hurricanes, they are not only on steroids but doing rather bizarre things like
rotating in a 360-degree circle, stalling over major Texas cities, and leaving
a tragic path of destruction much farther inland than previous storms, even
after they become tropical depressions after hitting land.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Tornadoes are now much
stronger than before. Blizzards strike more frequently with greater
intensity, and hurricanes spawn more destruction over wider areas than normal
times.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Yet, in spite of the
weather anomalies and upheavals we have experienced, three of the greatest,
most dangerous, unpredictable of all disasters are yet to
occur. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and solar storms on the Sun,
a trio of destroyers who wield so much power the people of the world have no
defense against them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 17.12px;">Melchizedek says our science is yet to determine the age of our cosmos and when it does, through mathematics and physics breakthroughs, we will discover creation took place thirty-billion years ago, not the 13.82 billion years old currently speculated.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 17.12px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">During our thirty-billion years of existence there were times when the Human Life Cycle evolved, but it was not always in synchronization with the will of the Creator.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In six previous eras of the Human Life Cycle, when mankind became too infatuated with greed and power and lost their way, it had to be stopped and reset, leaving only enough human survivors to repopulate the new Human Life Cycle era.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 107%;">We are
now in the seventh Human Life Cycle on Earth, and most likely, the
last. Are you prepared for the disruptions we will most likely face
in the imminent days ahead? Are you prepared for the real Earth
warming and climate change?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 107%;">While
the environmental threats trigger fearful reactions and responses in victims,
and just plain fear in those anticipating the storms, perhaps we place too much
attention and significance on them and not enough attention on the other
possibilities.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 107%;">According
to science and archaeology at least four times in our history the earth has
experienced global warming before the existence of a new Ice Age on
Earth. It is the natural progression of the evolution of planet
earth, with or without the humans.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 107%;">Earth's
elliptical orbit around the Sun and the degree of tilt of Earth's axis in its
path around the Sun, are factors to consider when discussing climate change. In
the cycle of Earth’s Great Year, the line off the North Pole axis (extending
toward Polaris) scribes a complete circle in the heavens about every 25,800
years.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 107%;">A complete cycle takes between 25,000 and 28,000 years, depending
on the amount of Earth's wobble. One cycle is “Earth’s Great Year” (also called
a "Platonic Year.") Climate and atmospheric changes appear to become
more acute toward the end and beginning of a new year.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Earth’s Purification and Regeneration Processes</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Earth has a built-in, naturally-occurring “force field” around it that creates and helps maintain viable living conditions for its plant and animal inhabitants. The atmosphere contains greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide to keep the Earth warm, and an ozone layer to protect the Earth from harmful and incinerating (burning) radiation.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Earth also has other means that help it absorb and retain the sun’s heat and energy (such as the oceans) as well as reflect its energy back into space (such as the polar ice caps). Wind and ocean currents also help distribute this heat around the globe, all within the Earth’s protective atmosphere.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The point is that Earth is unique in its ability to create and maintain sustainable living conditions, because all of its systems and influences are connected to each other, from its atmosphere, oceans and land, to its seasons, its living inhabitants, and the sun.</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 17.12px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Imagine the impact when a massive meteor crashed into the earth and created the Gulf of Mexico, resulting in so much debris from the explosion being tossed up in the atmosphere of the earth it blocked out the healing rays of the Sun for not days, weeks, or years, but hundreds of years bringing most life forms to a screeching halt.</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-n2OpP7yGoKY/XKbVzZPBKbI/AAAAAAAAkjs/1xBloVIL8JMHoPPqkCY1Yb4PGC0VVja6QCEwYBhgL/s1600/HJL%2B36.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="466" data-original-width="466" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-n2OpP7yGoKY/XKbVzZPBKbI/AAAAAAAAkjs/1xBloVIL8JMHoPPqkCY1Yb4PGC0VVja6QCEwYBhgL/s320/HJL%2B36.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 17.12px;">Another time the Yellowstone Super-volcano exploded out west and the debris field again blocked out the life-saving natural rays of the Sun.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the process it annihilated the most powerful species to walk the earth, the dinosaurs.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xIWviUf9duU/XKbVzSLzoVI/AAAAAAAAkjw/tnNoDW7uPxIHH1aarmwuuQVOaXmnM-v5gCEwYBhgL/s1600/HJL%2B37.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="385" data-original-width="685" height="223" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xIWviUf9duU/XKbVzSLzoVI/AAAAAAAAkjw/tnNoDW7uPxIHH1aarmwuuQVOaXmnM-v5gCEwYBhgL/s400/HJL%2B37.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 17.12px;">Certainly, humans can speed up the process of global warming and climate change, but just as certainly it took a massive number of natural disasters to disrupt our climate to the point of reaching the highest limits of the global warm up, which then triggered a new Ice Age.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 17.12px;">So, what does all this mean to you?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 17.12px;">First, it means the Earth has survived nearly thirty billion years without the help of mankind.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GNp8vUTFQz0/XKbV8UFqMvI/AAAAAAAAkj0/YZFYmbkmzeM64URl1xzflRCaQVJHtqpqQCEwYBhgL/s1600/HJL%2B30.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="527" data-original-width="1274" height="165" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GNp8vUTFQz0/XKbV8UFqMvI/AAAAAAAAkj0/YZFYmbkmzeM64URl1xzflRCaQVJHtqpqQCEwYBhgL/s400/HJL%2B30.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 17.12px;">Second, it means whoever created the earth, Sun and cosmos [<i><b>The Unknowable One</b></i>] must have been one powerful entity to create such miracles.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 17.12px;">Third, the Earth itself is a miraculous creation since it can continually regenerate over billions of years.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GimhrhiEqK4/XKZq5U0DolI/AAAAAAAAkjU/gBQ1TNbycTkIEPq5TyFVKJaL_vherUabgCEwYBhgL/s1600/HJL%2B18.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="436" data-original-width="600" height="232" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GimhrhiEqK4/XKZq5U0DolI/AAAAAAAAkjU/gBQ1TNbycTkIEPq5TyFVKJaL_vherUabgCEwYBhgL/s320/HJL%2B18.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 17.12px;">Fourth, it not only regenerates but it also heals and repairs itself from even catastrophic natural disasters, like meteor strikes or super-volcano eruptions that contaminate our atmosphere while blocking the life-giving rays of the Sun.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 17.12px;">Fifth and finally, the Creator, God, Lord or whatever you choose to call God, seems to take a special interest in what happens here on Earth because the Earth, Sun and humans are all creations of the Creator and survived the catastrophic events in our known and unknown history.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 17.12px;">The multitude of miracles it took for <i><b>T</b></i><b><i>he Unknowable One</i></b> to create humans, earth, the cosmos, and everything in it, reflect the ultimate mystical, magical, and spiritual power of a deity beyond our knowing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 17.12px;">There is no other valid explanation for how things were created and exist.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 17.12px;">Melchizedek says humans should worry a little less about the future of the Earth, and a lot more about our continued existence in that future.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 17.12px;">We are not the Masters of Creation, we are a creation of the Creator just like everything else in our world and cosmos.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It only makes sense to say all of creation share the responsibility to work in harmony, to protect our world from the contamination of evil and fear, and preserve all that was created in the world we were given.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 17.12px;">You do not need a miracle to awaken you to the Divine Creator, just look in the mirror, then look at the landscape outside the window, the Earth you inherited and inhabit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The reality you see is a miraculous creation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You are living and experiencing the miracle of creation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 17.12px;">If only we took time to catch our collective breath, to meditate, to find that elusive peace, block out the physical world from your senses, and open yourself to the unlimited potential of the Kingdom of Heaven, located just beyond the physical world in the spiritual dimensions beyond.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 17.12px;">You would probably be in awe if you peeked into a dimension beyond time and space, a world of imagination beyond our comprehension.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps you might begin to understand the power and love of our Creator.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 17.12px;">What we have available to us are the miraculous gifts God gave us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What we do with those gifts is our acknowledgement of the Creator and enlightenment of basking in the Creator’s love.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 17.12px;">Have you searched for your God-given purpose or mission in life?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Identified the special gifts and attributes God gave you?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are you using those gifts for the benefit of all God’s creations?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 17.12px;">Are you really prepared for the coming day when the lights go out, and from that void of darkness a new world must emerge?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 17.12px;">There is hope for we are creations of the Creator.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our mind, spirit and soul are capable of fantastic feats.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We must challenge the limits of our imaginations and work in harmony with the Creator to protect, honor, and nurture all aspects of God’s Creation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 17.12px;">Seek out and acknowledge the God who gave you your life, by using the gifts God gave you to help bring peace and harmony to our world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ask the Holy Spirit for enlightenment to find the path of Jesus, the Son of God, who is ready to help you find your way home.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 17.12px;">A spiritual army of protectors and defenders led by Michael<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>are poised in the spiritual world and stand ready to come to your aid, if you just ask.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/--nJHnVs0vbY/XKZq5zq1aNI/AAAAAAAAkjc/rZQy7pn9XXEcF5TU79w0x7VPoeKIyKgIwCEwYBhgL/s1600/HJL%2B2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="340" data-original-width="480" height="226" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/--nJHnVs0vbY/XKZq5zq1aNI/AAAAAAAAkjc/rZQy7pn9XXEcF5TU79w0x7VPoeKIyKgIwCEwYBhgL/s320/HJL%2B2.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 17.12px;">We are all Creations of the Creator.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 17.12px;">The Creator never gives up on his Creations.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 17.12px;">That means you!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 17.12px;">Do not give up on yourself!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 17.12px;">From Palm Sunday, April 5 to Easter Sunday, April 11, we honor the five stages of human spiritual evolution. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 17.12px;"><b>Birth</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 17.12px;"><b>Transfiguration </b>(state of Grace)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 17.12px;"><b>Death</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 17.12px;"><b>Resurrection</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 17.12px;">and<b> Ascension</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 17.12px;"> of Jesus as he lived among us and showed us the path of redemption and eternal salvation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You should pay attention to the coming Holy Week and Easter activities if you want to seek enlightenment in your life.</span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://coltonspointtimes.blogspot.com</div>Jim Putnamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12209035120639959756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36650605.post-9197018912946241882020-01-16T09:01:00.000-05:002020-01-16T09:01:34.371-05:00The Roots of Country Music in America - Appalachia to Nashville - The Heart and Soul of American Music!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kgMUaMUsH4o/XEs2_FV3qZI/AAAAAAAAj3k/6YdFbe2lf9Ija4x7N8rIW9spqvGtwkVEQCLcBGAs/s1600/Country%2B1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="713" data-original-width="1000" height="285" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kgMUaMUsH4o/XEs2_FV3qZI/AAAAAAAAj3k/6YdFbe2lf9Ija4x7N8rIW9spqvGtwkVEQCLcBGAs/s400/Country%2B1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Most people probably have little understanding of the roots of country music in America because it has always been taken for granted that country is one of the core genres we have always had around. It is known as the heartbeat and soul of America and been around about as long as the Europeans have been here.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>John Denver's Country Roads played around the world!</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Over the years we may have heard country music we liked, some even crossed over to pop and rock charts, and many stars in other genres either started as country music singers or became famous and then cut a country song or album. But do we really know from whence it came?</span><br />
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<img alt="" border="0" height="200" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5343485457455011186" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/_OfiWlLNBji4/SifftmoSVXI/AAAAAAAAB3M/O73LsbhIQ2E/s320/Country5.jpg" style="display: block; height: 320px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 254px;" width="158" /><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">When English speaking America was first being colonized in the 1600's the coastal areas were settled first, Virginia, Massachusetts and Maryland, all by 1634 and it did not take long for the European immigrants to make their way to the Appalachian Mountains, the Southern Appalachians that is, which included the Blue Ridge Mountain range and Cumberland Plateau. Western Virginia and Eastern Kentucky and Tennessee territories along with pieces of the Carolinas and Georgia made up the region which served as a barrier to westward expansion.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Immigrants came to the area because the coastal regions were already populated and with them came the Old World musical instruments were brought together in barn dances and celebrations by these hardy people settling the region. This was in the days before electricity, before electric guitars and synthesizers</span></div>
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<img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5343485814742778786" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OfiWlLNBji4/SifgCZoVA6I/AAAAAAAAB3k/WtTs-toNUxo/s320/Country8.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 316px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 323px;" /><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Irish fiddle, German dulcimer, Italian mandolin, Spanish guitar and African banjo were brought to these celebrations and played together in hillbilly jam sessions far from the operas and symphonies of the cities on the east coast. This came to be known as "Old Time" music.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In the 19th century some immigrant groups moved to the Texas area to settle and further integrated the hillbilly sound with Spanish, Mexican and Native American music and large dance halls were built where the locals could gather and dance to the sounds. This was the final step in the evolution of the roots of Country Music.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Then came the 20th century with cars and roads and radio which brought down the barriers of communication and people from throughout the nation could hear this unique American creation. The first country recording was in 1921 and throughout the 1920's as radio expanded so did the country music.</span><br />
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<img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5343485448767449682" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/_OfiWlLNBji4/SifftGRAqlI/AAAAAAAAB28/8tX5ScrbDLA/s320/Country3.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 320px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 270px;" /><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Country musicians were great innovators ever since mixing the instruments from five counties up in the Appalachians and electricity, recording and touring gave them more and more opportunities to do this. Hillbilly music grew in popularity driven by the Carter Family and Jimmy Rodgers and in 1925 WSM-AM radio in Nashville started the first country music broadcast, on November 28, 1925, when the WSM Barn Dance was first broadcast. In time it would become the Grand Ole Opry under the guidance of people like Roy Acuff.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">By the 1930's and Great Depression people were poor and the radio became the primary source of news and entertainment. Soon a fledgling movie industry introduced the Singing cowboys while radio was expanding the barn dances with legendary country shows being broadcast from Chicago to Texas to California. In the 1940's these shows introduced singers like Roy Acuff, Bill Haley, Eddie Arnold and singing cowboys like Gene Autry and Roy Rogers.</span><br />
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<img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5343485810809996082" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OfiWlLNBji4/SifgCK-rgzI/AAAAAAAAB3c/JRpA7ggTTxY/s320/Country7.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 161px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 320px;" /><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Bob Wills and his legendary Texas Playboys was among the innovators of country music when in 1935 he introduced drums to the band, a first, then became the first group with the electric guitar in 1938. Yet it was not until the early 1960's that the steel guitar and drums were fixtures in country bands.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Hillbilly music spawned Hillbilly Boogie by 1939 and a new country genre called Bluegrass emerged with the sound of Bill Monroe, Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs at the end World War II. By this time country music included Hillbilly, Boogie, Blues, Honky Tonk, Gospel and Rockabilly.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">To the rest of the world country music was called Hillbilly until 1944 when the name was changed to Folk and Blues music. By 1949 it was labeled Country or Country Western, the latter referring to the singing cowboys of movies and then television. Honky Tonk saw the rise of Ernest Tubb, Floyd Tillman, the Maddox Brothers and Rose, Lefty Frizell and Hank Williams.</span><br />
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<img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5343485445720581218" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/_OfiWlLNBji4/Siffs66lJGI/AAAAAAAAB2s/DgyP-JrRMqw/s320/Country1.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 214px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 320px;" /><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Along came the 1950's and country music changed again as Rockabilly dominated with Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins leading the way. From 1955-1960 ABC-TV became the first network with a nationwide country show called the Ozark Jubilee that showcased country stars to the nation. Elvis helped drive the cross-over between Rockabilly and Rock 'n Roll.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Late in the '50's came the Lubbock Sound of Buddy Holly and then there was a country backlash as the industry felt rock 'n roll was to dominate. Ray Price, Marty Robbins and Johnny Horton began to shift the music back to traditional country.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In the early 1960's the Nashville sound became dominant with producers like Chet Atkins, Owen Bradley and Billy Sherrill reviving the genre with legendary singers Patsy Cline, Jim Reeves and Eddy Arnold.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Patsy Cline – Crazy - (Written by Willie Nelson)</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Ray Charles introduced Country Soul in 1962 with his release of I Can't Stop Loving You. A new sound in Nashville called Countrypolitan was created featuring the sounds of Tammy Wynette and Charlie Rich. But soon the Nashville sound became stale.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Out west Honky Tonk and Western Swing were merged by Bob Wills and Lefty Frizell to form the Bakersfield Sound. It would encompass the diversity of different styles from Buck Owens, Merle Haggard, Tommy Collins and Wynn Stewart.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In other places like Lubbock, Tulsa and Austin the disappointment with the Nashville Sound and control of the record labels was causing an Outlaw movement. Inspired by the success of The Beatles, Bob Dylan and Rolling Stones in demanding creative control of their music and control of their songs, the Outlaws gravitated to Austin where Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson became the leaders.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Not only did their music change but their image as well. Gone were the clean cut, clean shaven cowboys of old and in were the long haired radical Outlaws of the future. Jessie Colter, wife of Waylon, was one of the female pioneers while Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard soon joined forces.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">With The Beatles astounding success blending rock and pop music Nashville was hungry to tap into the crossover sound needed to reach the mainstream markets. Others, seeking a return to the "old values" of rock 'n roll, created a new genre called Country Rock.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Byrds, Flying Burrito Brothers, Allman Brothers, Marshall Tucker Band, Poco, Buffalo Springfield and Eagles exploded onto the music scene as Southern Rock and Heartland became new subgenre spin offs. Ever since there has been a tug of war between traditional country and country rock or country pop as stars like Dolly Parton, Rosanne Cash, Linda Ronstadt, Juice Newton, Alabama, Hank Williams, Jr., Brooks and Dunn, Garth Brooks, Dwight Yoakum, Shania Twain, Faith Hill, and Keith Urban helped move country towards rock over the years.</span><br />
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<img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5343491700886202562" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OfiWlLNBji4/SiflZBOR6MI/AAAAAAAAB4M/CWl3bc30IWU/s320/Country14.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 178px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 320px;" /><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">By the mid 1970's Olivia Newton John and John Denver captured the Country Pop crossover market and powered their way to CMA and Grammy Awards with multi million selling hits. Soon a whole new group of country performers would take up the mantle.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">George Straight, Alan Jackson, Clint Black, Toby Keith, Reba McEntire, Kenny Chesney, Alison Krauss, Vince Gill and Tim McGraw among others perform the Classic Country style today while the pop crossover comes from new artists like Carrie Underwood from American Idol fame and newest sensation Taylor Swift who have breathed new life into the country music industry.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">What is next? Who knows. Still, those who understand that country music is an ever-changing genre that morphs into a variety of styles depending on the needs of the people and the innovation of the artists, must feel good as a broad range of artists currently dominate the radio airwaves and rule the concert circuit.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">As the major record labels collapse, the radio stations strangle on their own automated programming and the formula music once again becomes stale we know it is the time when country music always rediscovers itself. Nashville will be a lot better as a result, all country artists will benefit, the public will reap the rewards of new and innovative country music and history will once again record that the American country sound once again became relevant in a time of need and a time of truth.</span><br />
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://coltonspointtimes.blogspot.com</div>Jim Putnamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12209035120639959756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36650605.post-33472645057578444322020-01-16T08:18:00.002-05:002020-01-16T08:18:52.773-05:00Spirits in the Sky - Hank Williams - the Father of Contemporary country music - September 17, 1923 - January 1, 1953 - Triumph and Tragedy in just 29 years!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia";">Legendary Country Music Performer Hank Williams was born September 17, 1923 in <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Alabama</st1:place></st1:state>. By the early age of 25, he was a country music superstar and by the early age of 29, he was dead. Williams left behind a legacy of country classics in his brief but lasting repertoire.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia";">Hank Williams, known as the Father of contemporary country music, is perhaps one of the most misunderstood of country legends. During his lifetime, he was known as increasingly unreliable, a drunk, a drug addict, and reckless womanizer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia";">What was unknown to almost everyone at the time was Williams suffered from a congenital spinal disorder since birth and every year his condition worsened. He was born with a mild undiagnosed case of spina bifida occulta, a disorder of the spinal column, which gave him lifelong pain—a factor in his later abuse of alcohol and drugs.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia";">As a result, Williams first used excessive alcohol in his early teens to disguise the intense pain he suffered all the time. It was not an easy life growing up in the midst of the Great Depression of the 1930's.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia";">When he was eight years old, he was given a guitar by his mother. His musical education was provided by a local blues street singer, Rufus Payne, a Black musician who was called Tee Tot. From Tee Tot, Williams learned how to play the guitar and sing the blues. Hank was a gifted musician and songwriter who had his own band and radio show by the time he was in his late teens.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia";">Hank’s monumental legacy becomes even more notable when realizing he issued only thirty singles in his lifetime—and five more posthumously. Eleven went to #1. All were recorded in less than six years, between December 1946 and September 1952. Yet that small body of work changed the course of American music, forever altering the sound of country music and motivating songwriters of all styles to dare to be as emotionally bare and as unabashedly real as Hank had been.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia";">The following are more detailed accounts of the life and times of Hank Williams and his remarkable journey from the pinnacle of success to the depths of defeat.</span><span style="font-family: "georgia";"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia";">We dedicate this story to the true legacy of the most famous country singer of all time who set the standard for being the best at a level seldom achieved in any musical genre.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "arial"; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Hank Williams is the father of contemporary country music. He was a superstar by the age of 25; he was dead at the age of 29. In those four short years, he established the rules for all the country performers who followed him and, in the process, much of popular music. Hank wrote a body of songs that became popular classics, and his direct, emotional lyrics and vocals became the standard for most popular performers. He lived a life as troubled and reckless as that depicted in his songs.<br /><br />Hiram King Williams was born in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Mount Olive</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">AL</st1:state></st1:place>, on September 17, 1923. When he was eight years old, he was given a guitar by his mother. His musical education was provided by a local blues street singer, Rufus Payne, who was called Tee Tot. From Tee Tot, Williams learned how to play the guitar and sing the blues, which would come to provide a strong undercurrent in his songwriting. Williams began performing around the Georgiana and <st1:city w:st="on">Greenville</st1:city> areas of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:state w:st="on">Alabama</st1:state></st1:place> in his early teens. His mother moved the family to <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Montgomery</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">AL</st1:state></st1:place>, in 1937, where she opened a boarding house. In <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Montgomery</st1:city></st1:place>, he formed a band called the Drifting Cowboys and landed a regular spot on a local radio station, WSFA, in 1941. During his shows, Williams would sing songs from his idol, Roy Acuff, as well as several other country hits of the day. WSFA dubbed him "the Singing Kid" and Williams stayed with the station for the rest of the decade.</span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "arial"; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Williams met Audrey Mae Sheppard, a farm girl from Banks, AL, in 1943 while he was playing a medicine show. The following year, the couple married and moved into Lilly's boarding house. Audrey became Williams' manager just before the marriage. By 1946, he was a local celebrity, but he was unable to make much headway nationally. That year, Hank and Audrey visited <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Nashville</st1:city></st1:place> with the intent of meeting songwriter/music publisher Fred Rose, one of the heads of Acuff-Rose Publishing. Rose liked Williams' songs and asked him to record two sessions for Sterling Records, which resulted in two singles. Both of the singles -- "Never Again" in December 1946 and "Honky Tonkin'" in February 1947 -- were successful and Williams signed a contract with MGM Records early in 1947. Rose became the singer's manager and record producer.<br /><br />"Move It on Over," released later in 1947, became Hank's first single for MGM. It was an immediate hit, climbing into the country Top Five. By the summer of 1948, he had joined <i>The Louisiana Hayride</i>, appearing both on its tours and radio programs. "Honky <st1:place w:st="on">Tonkin</st1:place>'" was released in 1948, followed by "I'm a Long Gone Daddy." While neither song was as successful as "Move It on Over," they were popular, with the latter peaking in the Top Ten. Early in 1949, he recorded "Lovesick Blues," a Tin Pan Alley song initially recorded by Emmett Miller and made popular by Rex Griffin. The single became a huge hit upon its release in the spring of 1949, staying at number one for 16 weeks and crossing over into the pop Top 25. Williams sang the song at the Grand Ole Opry, where he performed an unprecedented six encores. He had become a star.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "arial"; mso-ansi-language: EN;"><br />Hank and Audrey Williams had their first child, Randall Hank, in the spring of 1949. Also in the spring, Hank assembled the most famous edition of the Drifting Cowboys, featuring guitarist Bob McNett, bassist Hillous Butrum, fiddler Jerry Rivers, and steel guitarist Don Helms. Soon, he and the band were earning $1,000 per concert while selling out shows across the country. Williams had no fewer than seven hits in 1949 after the success of "Lovesick Blues," including the Top Five smashes "Wedding Bells," "Mind Your Own Business," "You're Gonna Change (Or I'm Gonna Leave)," and "My Bucket's Got a Hole in It." A string of additional singles followed in 1950, including the number one hits "Long Gone Lonesome Blues," "Why Don't You Love Me," and "Moanin' the Blues," as well as the Top Ten hits "I Just Don't Like This Kind of Livin'," "My Son Calls Another Man Daddy," "They'll Never Take Her Love From Me," "Why Should We Try," and "Nobody's Lonesome for Me." That same year, Williams began recording a series of spiritual records under the name Luke the Drifter.<br /><br />Williams continued to rack up hits in 1951, beginning with the Top Ten hit "Dear John" and its number one flip side, "Cold, Cold Heart." That same year, pop vocalist Tony Bennett recorded his own version of "Cold, Cold Heart" to popular acclaim, leading to a stream of covers from such mainstream artists as Jo Stafford, Guy Mitchell, Frankie Laine, Teresa Brewer, and several others. Williams had also begun to experience the fruits of crossover success, appearing on the Perry Como television show and joining a package tour that also featured Bob Hope, Jack Benny, and Minny Pearl. In addition to "Dear John" and "Cold, Cold Heart," Williams had several other hits in 1951, including the number one song "Hey, Good Lookin'" and "Howlin' at the Moon," "I Can't Help It (If I'm Still in Love with You)," "Crazy Heart," "Lonesome Whistle," and "Baby, We're Really in Love," which all charted in the Top Ten.<br /><br />Though his professional career was soaring, Hank's personal life was beginning to spin out of control. He had suffered a mild drinking problem before becoming a star, but it had been more or less controlled during his first few years of fame. However, as he began to earn large amounts of money and spend long times away from home, he began to drink frequently. Furthermore, Hank's marriage to Audrey was deteriorating. Not only were they fighting, resulting in occasional separations, but Audrey was trying to create her own recording career without any success. In the fall of 1951, Hank was on a hunting trip on his <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:state w:st="on">Tennessee</st1:state></st1:place> farm when he tripped and fell, re-activating a dormant back injury. Williams began taking morphine and other painkillers for his back and quickly became addicted.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "arial"; mso-ansi-language: EN;"><br />In January of 1952, Hank and Audrey separated for a final time and he headed back to <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Montgomery</st1:city></st1:place> to live with his mother. The move had little effect on his music career, however, with "Honky Tonk Blues" peaking at number two during the spring. In fact, he released five additional singles in 1952 -- "Half as Much," "Jambalaya," "Settin' the Woods on Fire," "You Win Again," and "I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive" -- all of which charted in the Top Ten. In spite of such success, Hank turned completely reckless in 1952, spending nearly all of his waking hours drunk and taking drugs. He also frequently destroyed property and played with guns.<br /><br />Williams left his mother in early spring, moving in with Ray Price in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Nashville</st1:city></st1:place>. In May, Audrey and Hank were officially divorced. She was awarded the house and their child, as well as half of his future royalties. Williams continued to play a large number of concerts, but he was always drunk during the show, and he sometimes missed the gig altogether. In August, the Grand Ole Opry fired Williams for that very reason, explaining that he could return once he was sober. Instead of heeding the Opry's warning, the singer just sank deeper into his self-destructive behavior. Soon, his friends were leaving him, as the Drifting Cowboys began working with Price and Fred Rose no longer supported him. Williams was still playing <i>The Louisiana Hayride</i>, but he was performing with local pickup bands and began earning reduced wages.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "arial";">That fall, he met Billie Jean Jones Eshlimar, the 19-year-old daughter of a </span><st1:place style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: arial;" w:st="on">Louisiana</st1:place><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "arial";"> policeman. By October, they were married. Hank also signed an agreement to support the baby -- who had yet to be delivered -- of one of his other girlfriends, Bobbie Jett, in October. By the end of the year, Williams was having heart problems and Toby Marshall, a con man doctor, was giving him various prescription drugs to help soothe the pain.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "arial"; mso-ansi-language: EN;"><br />Hank was scheduled to play a concert in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Canton</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">OH</st1:state></st1:place>, on January 1, 1953. He was scheduled to fly out of <st1:city w:st="on">Knoxville</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">TN</st1:state>, on New Year's Eve, but the weather was so bad that he had to hire a chauffeur to drive him to <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:state w:st="on">Ohio</st1:state></st1:place> in his new Cadillac. Before they left for <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:state w:st="on">Ohio</st1:state></st1:place>, Williams was injected with two shots of vitamin B-12 and morphine by a doctor. Williams got into the backseat of the Cadillac (allegedly with a bottle of whiskey), and the teenage chauffeur headed out for <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Canton</st1:city></st1:place>. When the driver was stopped for speeding, the policeman noticed that Hank looked like a dead man. Williams was taken to a <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:state w:st="on">West Virginia</st1:state></st1:place> hospital and he was officially declared dead at 7:00 a.m. on January 1, 1953. He had died in the back of the Cadillac, on his way to a concert. Ironically, the last single released in his lifetime was "I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive."<br /><br />Hank was buried in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Montgomery</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">AL</st1:state></st1:place>, three days later. His funeral drew a record crowd, larger than any crowd since Jefferson Davis was inaugurated as the President of the Confederacy in 1861. Dozens of country music stars attended, as did Audrey Williams, Billie Jean Jones, and Bobbie Jett, who happened to give birth to a daughter three days later. "I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive" reached number one immediately after his death, and it was followed by a number of hit records throughout 1953, including the number ones "Your Cheatin' Heart," "Kaw-Liga," and "Take These Chains From My Heart."<br /><br />After his death, MGM wanted to keep issuing Williams records, so they took some of his original demos and overdubbed bands onto the original recording. The first of these, "Weary Blues from Waitin'," was a hit, but the others weren't quite as successful. In 1961, Hank was one of the first inductees to the Country Music Hall of Fame. Throughout the '60s, Williams' records were released in overdubbed versions featuring heavy strings, as well as reprocessed stereo. For years, these bastardized versions were the only records in print, and only in the '80s, when his music was released on compact disc, was his catalog restored to its original form. Even during those years when only overdubbed versions of his hits existed, Williams' impact never diminished. His songs have become classics, his recordings have stood the test of time, and his life story is legendary. It's easy to see why Hank Williams is considered by many as the defining figure of country music. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="pub-name"><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 9pt;">Encyclopedia of World Biography | </span></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 9pt;">2004<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 9pt;">COPYRIGHT 2004 The Gale Group Inc.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 22.5pt; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">Hank Williams<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<strong><i>In his tragically short career, Hank Williams (1923-1953) became one of the most famous country and western performers in the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region>. He wrote and recorded songs that are still considered to be country music standards.</i></strong><i><o:p></o:p></i></div>
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Hiram King "Hank" Williams was born on September 17, 1923, near <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Mt. Olive</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">Alabama</st1:state></st1:place>, the third child born to Elonzo Huble and Lillian (Skipper) Williams. His father abandoned the family when Williams was a young child, spending many years at veterans' hospitals for various ailments. It therefore became the responsibility of his strong-willed mother to raise Williams and the other children. Williams attended <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Sidney</st1:placename><st1:placename w:st="on">Lanier</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">High School</st1:placetype></st1:place> in Montgomery, but left school at the age of 16.</div>
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Raised as a Fundamentalist Baptist, Williams was steeped from his earliest childhood in the church's distinctive sermons and music. He remained fond of the fire and brimstone images, especially from the songs. His mother played the organ at <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Mt.</st1:placetype> <st1:placename w:st="on">Olive</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">West</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">Baptist</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Church</st1:placetype></st1:place>. "My earliest memory," Williams told <em>Rolling Stone</em> writer Ralph J. Gleason, (as quoted by Williams' biographer Colin Escott), "is sittin' on that organ stool by her and hollerin'. I must have been five, six-years-old, and louder'n anybody else." Williams also found inspiration in black music. He learned to play the guitar in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Greenville</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">Alabama</st1:state></st1:place>, from a street performer named Rufe Payne, known as Tee-Tot. "I was shinin' shoes and sellin' newspapers and following [him] around to get him to teach me to play the git-tar," Williams told Gleason. "I'd give him 15 cents, or whatever I could get ahold of for a lesson." Yet another musical inspiration for the lanky teenager were the ever-present sounds of traditional country music performers like the Carter family and Monroe brothers.</div>
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<span style="font-size: 19.5pt;">Early Career</span></div>
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Trying to break into the music business, Williams entered talent contests all over the country. He won $15 at the Empire Theater in <st1:city w:st="on">Montgomery</st1:city> by performing what is probably the first song he wrote, "WPA Blues," a blues critique of President Franklin Roosevelt's Depression-era work program. Too sickly and skinny for the hard labor jobs of his peers, Williams honed his guitar and singing skills. In 1942, he managed to get his own weekly 15-minute show on <st1:city w:st="on">Montgomery</st1:city> radio station WSFA. (In those days, radio programming was composed almost entirely of live acts.) Williams spent several years (the precise number varied wildly depending on who told it) at WSFA, eventually becoming a disk jockey. In <st1:city w:st="on">Montgomery</st1:city>, Williams made his first recording, at <st1:city w:st="on">Griffin</st1:city>'s Radio Shop. Around this time, he organized his backup band, the Drifting Cowboys, who would play with him through most of his career.</div>
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In 1943, Williams met Audrey Mae Sheppard. At the age of 20, she was separated from her husband and a single mother. In a ceremony just ten days after her divorce became final, she and Williams were married before a justice of the peace at his gas station near <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Andalusia</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">Alabama</st1:state></st1:place> in December 1944. With the help of his new bride, who took over his mother's motivating role, Williams traveled to <st1:city w:st="on">Nashville</st1:city>. He was determined to build a successful career in the country music business.</div>
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In 1946, Williams earned a writer's contract after auditioning for Acuff-Rose publishing. He recorded his first session in December 1946, and the single "Calling You" was released in January 1947. The success of that record led to a one-year recording contract with MGM records in March 1947. His first MGM single, "Move It On Over," sold 108,000 copies in less than a year. His growing popularity enabled Williams to secure a position on a bigger radio show, the Louisiana Hayride, which was broadcast out of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Shreveport</st1:city>,<st1:state w:st="on">Louisiana</st1:state></st1:place>. It was the biggest listening audience he had ever reached.</div>
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<span style="font-size: 19.5pt;">Big Break<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Williams recorded "Lovesick Blues," from a 1922 musical called <em>Oooh Ernest!</em> "Lovesick Blues, a song that was neither country nor blues in origin, and not even from Hank's pen, gave him his breakthrough," Escott later wrote. "From the opening line, with its keening yodel adding a dramatic flourish to the word "blues," it was obvious that this was a performance—rather than a song—that was impossible to ignore. Hank's performance almost instilled the lyrics with meaning."</div>
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The song, released February 11, 1949, quickly became Williams' trademark tune. It spent a year on the charts, including 16 weeks at the top. Suddenly, Williams found himself on a roll. He quickly recorded two more songs that also hit the charts, "Wedding Bells," and "Mind Your Own Business," a tune allegedly aimed at his wife. Even though Williams was gaining a reputation for being unreliable and having a problem with alcohol, the Grand Ole Opry reluctantly hired the rising young star as a regular cast member in the summer of 1949.</div>
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As Williams grew more famous, his wife began to push for her own spot in the limelight. Since the start of their relationship, Williams had sometimes allowed her to play with the Drifting Cowboys. They recorded several duets together. One demo revealed that "Audrey's voice sounded like fingernails scraping down a blackboard. She was shrill and tuneless, and her problems were compounded by a weak sense of time," Escott wrote. "Her duets with Hank were like an extension of their married life—she fought him for dominance on every note."</div>
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<span style="font-size: 19.5pt;">Rising Star<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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1949 was a very successful year for Williams. Not only was he hired by the Grand Ole Opry, but he became the proud parent of a son, Randall Hank Jr., who would later become a country music star in his own right. In 1950, Williams had a series of successful songs including "My Bucket's Got A Hole In It," "Long Gone Lonesome Blues," and "Why Don't You <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Love</st1:city> <st1:state w:st="on">Me.</st1:state></st1:place>" He also released a series of religious duets with his wife. Using his own increasing stardom as leverage, Williams had helped his wife get a recording contract with Decca. They were far less successful. He recorded his unpopular religious sermons under the name "Luke the Drifter," so that jukebox operators who had standing orders for any Hank Williams release wouldn't buy them.</div>
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Williams' success continued through 1951, and culminated with the release of "Cold, Cold Heart." The tune spent almost a year at the top of the country music charts. Music executives convinced pop crooner Tony Bennett to record a version of the song, which became a hit for him as well. This was especially significant because it was the first time a country song recorded by a pop artist had achieved such stunning commercial success. Subsequently, Williams became noticed on a national level, one of the first country singers to do so. In addition to their musical activities, Williams and his wife found the time to launch a <st1:city w:st="on">Nashville</st1:city> clothing store, Hank and Audrey's Corral.</div>
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<span style="font-size: 19.5pt;">Decline and Fall</span></div>
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With greater success came increased pressure. Williams felt an obligation to continue producing hit songs. He allegedly bought some songs under shady circumstances and called them his own. The relationship between Hank and Audrey Williams also grew tense, as allegations of mutual infidelities flew. His problem with alcohol grew worse. In January 1952, Audrey Williams filed for divorce.</div>
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"As his personal life began its disintegration," Escott wrote, "Hank's recording career swung into high gear. Every record he released under his own name during the last two years of his life entered the top five of the country charts, and many were covered for the pop market. Williams canceled some sessions, and failed to show at others, but when he actually appeared in front of the studio microphone, it seemed as though he could do no wrong."</div>
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Williams could not maintain the front for long. Although he made television appearances and had even gotten some movie offers, Williams lost what little control he had maintained over his drinking. He also began abusing amphetamines and barbiturates. In 1952, he lost his job with the Grand Ole Opry and was forced to return to the Louisiana Hayride. He moved into his mother's boarding house in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Montgomery</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">Alabama</st1:state></st1:place>.</div>
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Williams married for the second time on October 19, 1952. His new bride was Billie Jean Jones, the daughter of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Bossier City</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">Louisiana</st1:state></st1:place>, police chief. The wedding took place three times at the New Orleans Municipal Auditorium for an estimated 14,000 spectators who paid to see the event. The couple was only married for ten weeks before Williams' reckless lifestyle caught up with him. On New Year's Eve, 1952, he was riding in the back seat of his chauffeured Cadillac to a show in <st1:state w:st="on">Ohio</st1:state>. Williams was heavily medicated and drunk when he died of an alcohol-induced heart attack sometime during the night in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Oak Hill</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">West Virginia</st1:state></st1:place>. On January 1, 1953, Williams was pronounced dead. He was 29 years old.</div>
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Williams' funeral in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Montgomery</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">Alabama</st1:state></st1:place>, drew more than 20,000 mourners from all over the country. Country stars Ernest Tubb, Roy Acuff, Red Foley, Carl Smith, and Webb Pierce sang in memory of their lost friend. The <em>Montgomery Advertiser</em> reported (as noted in <em>Country: The Music and Musicians</em> ) "They came from everywhere, dressed in their Sunday best, babies in their arms, hobbling on crutches and canes, Negroes, Jews, Catholics, Protestants, small children, and wrinkled faced old men and women. Some brought their lunch."</div>
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<span style="font-size: 19.5pt;">Legal Wrangling<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Almost immediately after Williams' death, a battle over his estate broke out between the surviving members of the family. Audrey Williams, Billie Jean Williams, and Williams' mother sued and counter-sued for years. Lawsuits continued into the late 1980s between Hank Williams, Jr., and the "lost daughter" of Hank Williams, Sr., who was conceived during a short affair Williams had after his first wife threw him out of the house. Jett Williams was born five days after her father's death. Like her half brother, she later launched a singing career and hired several members of her father's Drifting Cowboys to play backup.</div>
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Despite his excesses the controversy regarding his estate, Williams could be proud of his musical legacy. In <em>The Illustrated History of Country Music,</em> music legend Johnny Cash stated, "Hank Williams is like a Cadillac. He'll always be the standard for comparison." Williams' trademark hillbilly-tinged sound remains a country music staple. In 1990, Poly Gram Records released a popular collection of every known single he recorded. In 1998, famed auction house Christie's, auctioned off one of his old Gibson guitars. The guitar fetched $112,000. Clearly, Williams continues to lure fans.</div>
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The key to Williams' long-lasting popularity "is passion," concluded Escott. "The entire range of human emotions is within these recordings: love, hate, envy, joy, guilt, despair, remorse, playfulness, sorrow, and more. The lyrics were simple, but simplicity does not preclude meaning. In writing for the man who could barely sign his name, Hank Williams wrote for us all." He cited some of Williams' more poignant lyrics, noting: "There can be few who haven't felt as though Hank Williams has read their mail, their diary, or their mind."</div>
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<span style="font-size: 19.5pt;">Further <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Reading</st1:place></st1:city><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Brown, Charles T., <em>Music <st1:country-region w:st="on">U.S.A.</st1:country-region>: <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region>'s Country and Western Tradition,</em> Prentice-Hall, 1986.</div>
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<em>Country: The Music and the Musicians,</em> edited by Paul Kingsbury and Alan Axelrod, Country Music Foundation, 1988.</div>
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Escott, Colin, <em>Hank Williams: The Biography,</em> Little, Brown and Company, 1994.</div>
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<em>The Illustrated History of Country Music,</em> edited by Patrick Carr, Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1979.</div>
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Williams, Jett, with Pamela Thomas, <em>Ain't Nothin' as Sweet as My Baby: The Story of Hank Williams' Lost Daughter,</em> Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1990.</div>
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Williams, Roger M., <em>Sing a Sad Song: The Life of Hank Williams,</em> <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Illinois</st1:placename></st1:place> Press, 1981.</div>
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<em>Forbes,</em> March 9, 1998, p. 249.</div>
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"Hank Williams: The Complete Website," <a href="http://www.geocities.com/Nashville/Opry/9132/"><span style="color: windowtext;">http://www.geocities.com/Nashville/Opry/9132/</span></a> (February 12, 2000).</div>
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Hank Williams, Sr., "Welcome to the Official Website of: Hank Williams, Sr.," <a href="http://www.cmgww.com/music/hank/"><span style="color: windowtext;">http://www.cmgww.com/music/hank/</span></a> (February 12, 2000). □</div>
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<b><span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: large;">Faces of Spina Bifida Magazine</span><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Hank Williams, Sr.<o:p></o:p></span></h2>
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<b><span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 10.5pt;">December 29, 2011</span></b><span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 10.5pt;"> <a href="http://facesofspinabifida.com/category/famous-faces">Famous Faces</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Faces Archive | <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=36650605" target="_blank">Source</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 10.5pt;">"The far best explanation of his problem lies in the symptoms of spina bifida occult in Hank's medical reports and in his autopsy. Spina bifida occult is a birth defect; the vertebral arches fail to unite and this allow the spinal cord to herniate, to extend outward from the spine. Hank's type was not so severe. there evidently was no external growth, but even the lesser version (the occult) can leave a mark on the back and effect the lower extremities. The ailment is progressive and thus explains some of Hank's problems, especially his occasional paralysis, along with his trouble with sports as a child."<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 10.5pt;">.</span><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://coltonspointtimes.blogspot.com</div>Jim Putnamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12209035120639959756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36650605.post-64111471381498428702020-01-15T11:32:00.001-05:002020-01-15T11:32:33.788-05:00Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. - Born January 15, 1929 - Died April 4, 1968 - "Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”<div style="text-align: center;">
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial";">“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”</span></i></b><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial";"><br /></span></i></b><span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 4;"> </span>Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial";">“I have decided to stick to love...Hate is too great a burden to bear.”</span></i></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 4;"> </span>Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.</span><br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "arial"; mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'"</span></span></i></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 4;"> </span>Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.</span><br />
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<strong style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>"Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away, and that in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty."</em></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 4;"> </span>Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.</span><br />
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<em style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>"I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word."</strong></em></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia";"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia";">Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial";"><br /></span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial";">“Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.” </span></i></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 4;"> </span>Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.</span><br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "arial"; mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every tenement and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old spiritual, "Free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last."</span></span></i></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia";"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia";">Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong><em><br /></em></strong></span></span><span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong><em>"Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must love our enemies - or else? The chain reaction of evil - hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars - must be broken, or else we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation."</em></strong></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 4;"> </span>Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.</span><br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial";">“Let no man pull you so low as to hate him.”</span></i></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 4;"> </span>Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial";">“Now there is a final reason I think that Jesus says, "Love your enemies." It is this: that love has within it a redemptive power. And there is a power there that eventually transforms individuals. Just keep being friendly to that person. Just keep loving them, and they can’t stand it too long. Oh, they react in many ways in the beginning. They react with guilt feelings, and sometimes they’ll hate you a little more at that transition period, but just keep loving them. And by the power of your love they will break down under the load. That’s love, you see. It is redemptive, and this is why Jesus says love. There’s something about love that builds up and is creative. There is something about hate that tears down and is destructive. So love your enemies.</span></i></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 4;"> </span>Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia";">Here is a sampling of the martyrs who gave their lives for others.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";">Southern <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Poverty</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">Law</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Center</st1:placetype></st1:place></span></b><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";"><st1:placetype w:st="on"></st1:placetype></span></b><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";">Civil Rights Martyrs<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<strong><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">May 7, 1955 · <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Belzoni</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">Mississippi</st1:state></st1:place></span></span></strong><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 8.5pt;"><br /><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span></span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Rev. George Lee, one of the first black people registered to vote in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Humphreys</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">County</st1:placename></st1:place>, used his pulpit and his printing press to urge others to vote. White officials offered Lee protection on the condition he end his voter registration efforts, but Lee refused and was murdered.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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<b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">September 30, 1962 · <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Oxford</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">Mississippi</st1:state></st1:place></span></span></b><br />
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Paul Guihard, a reporter for a French news service, was killed by gunfire from a white mob during protests over the admission of James Meredith to the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Mississippi</st1:placename></st1:place>.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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<strong><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><st1:state w:st="on"></st1:state></span></strong><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /><strong><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">April 23, 1963 · <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Attalla</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">Alabama</st1:state></st1:place></span></strong></span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">William </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Lewis Moore, a postman from </span><st1:city style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;" w:st="on">Baltimore</st1:city><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">, was shot and killed during a one-man march against segregation. </span><st1:city style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;" w:st="on">Moore</st1:city><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> had planned to deliver a letter to the governor of </span><st1:state style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;" w:st="on">Mississippi</st1:state><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> urging an end to tolerance.</span><br />
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<strong><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">June 12, 1963 · <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Jackson</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">Mississippi</st1:state></st1:place></span></strong></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Medgar Evers, who directed NAACP operations in <st1:state w:st="on">Mississippi</st1:state>, was leading a campaign for integration in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jackson</st1:place></st1:city> when he was shot and killed by a sniper at his home.</span><br />
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<b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></b></div>
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<b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">September 15, 1963 · <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Birmingham</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">Alabama</st1:state></st1:place></span></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley were getting ready for church services when a bomb exploded at the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Sixteenth</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">Street</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">Baptist</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Church</st1:placetype></st1:place>, killing all four of the school-age girls. The church had been a center for civil rights meetings and marches.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">April 7, 1964 · <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Cleveland</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">Ohio</st1:state></st1:place></span></b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia";">Rev. Bruce Klunder was among civil rights activists who protested the building of a segregated school by placing their bodies in the way of construction equipment. Klunder was crushed to death when a bulldozer backed over him.</span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">June 21, 1964 · <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Philadelphia</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">Mississippi</st1:state></st1:place></span></span></b><br />
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">James Earl Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Henry Schwerner, young civil rights workers, were arrested by a deputy sheriff and then released into the hands of Klansmen who had plotted their murders. They were shot, and their bodies were buried in an earthen dam.</span><br />
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<b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">March 11, 1965 · <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Selma</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">Alabama</st1:state></st1:place></span></span></b></span></b></div>
<b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"></span></b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Rev. James Reeb, a Unitarian minister from <st1:city w:st="on">Boston</st1:city>, was among many white clergymen who joined the <st1:city w:st="on">Selma</st1:city> marchers after the attack by state troopers at the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Edmund</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">Pettus</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Bridge</st1:placetype></st1:place>. Reeb was beaten to death by white men while he walked down a <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Selma</st1:place></st1:city> street.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">March 25, 1965 · <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Selma</st1:city> Highway, <st1:state w:st="on">Alabama</st1:state></st1:place></span></span></b></span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Viola Gregg Liuzzo, a housewife and mother from <st1:city w:st="on">Detroit</st1:city>, drove alone to <st1:state w:st="on">Alabama</st1:state> to help with the <st1:city w:st="on">Selma</st1:city> march after seeing televised reports of the attack at the Edmund Pettus Bridge. She was driving marchers back to <st1:city w:st="on">Selma</st1:city> from <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Montgomery</st1:place></st1:city> when she was shot and killed by a Klansmen in a passing car.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><st1:state w:st="on"></st1:state></span></b><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"></span></b></span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">June 10, 1966 · <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Natchez</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">Mississippi</st1:state></st1:place></span></span></b></span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"></span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Ben Chester White, who had worked most of his life as a caretaker on a plantation, had no involvement in civil rights work. He was murdered by Klansmen who thought they could divert attention from a civil rights march by killing a black person.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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<strong><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><st1:state w:st="on"></st1:state></span></strong><br />
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<strong><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><st1:state w:st="on"></st1:state></span></strong><br />
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><strong><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">February 8, 1968 · <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Orangeburg</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">South Carolina</st1:state></st1:place></span></strong></span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Samuel Ephesians Hammond Jr., Delano Herman Middleton and Henry Ezekial Smith were shot and killed by police who fired on student demonstrators at the South Carolina State College campus.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><strong><st1:state w:st="on"></st1:state></strong></span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><strong><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">April 4, 1968 · <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Memphis</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">Tennessee</st1:state></st1:place></span></strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a Baptist minister, was a major architect of the Civil Rights Movement. He led and inspired major non-violent desegregation campaigns, including those in <st1:city w:st="on">Montgomery</st1:city> and <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Birmingham</st1:place></st1:city>. He won the</span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 8.5pt;"> Nobel </span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">peace prize. He was assassinated as he prepared to lead a demonstration in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Memphis</st1:place></st1:city>.</span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Fwg1mABNbZg/UeVqAW6dPyI/AAAAAAAAL9w/uMH-bcGMf28/s1600/Right2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="260" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Fwg1mABNbZg/UeVqAW6dPyI/AAAAAAAAL9w/uMH-bcGMf28/s320/Right2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;">Viola Liuzzo family</td></tr>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN;">"I want to be the white man's brother, not his brother-in-law."</span></i></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 4;"> </span>Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://coltonspointtimes.blogspot.com</div>Jim Putnamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12209035120639959756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36650605.post-57000311531129764022020-01-14T13:22:00.000-05:002020-01-14T13:22:41.011-05:00More news you are being denied by the broken news media - Headlines from international news services tell us what the American news media ignore or lie about. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HV1xoE1pmro/Xh4EblTdxgI/AAAAAAAAoa8/FZmJAb8ArE40MloW5u-M7mFcMkl42RUQQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Iran%2B3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="446" data-original-width="933" height="190" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HV1xoE1pmro/Xh4EblTdxgI/AAAAAAAAoa8/FZmJAb8ArE40MloW5u-M7mFcMkl42RUQQCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/Iran%2B3.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hzNbZwl6l9c/Xh4EZSwqGII/AAAAAAAAoac/BnwrQ13zT2A2Zm1LlZFEyPi0bUjJJxOxgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Iran%2B14.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="659" data-original-width="1172" height="223" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hzNbZwl6l9c/Xh4EZSwqGII/AAAAAAAAoac/BnwrQ13zT2A2Zm1LlZFEyPi0bUjJJxOxgCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/Iran%2B14.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The 2020 election is not just about Trump, but also the collapse of the Democratic "Socialist" Pelosi Party and the meltdown of credibility in the news media.</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nLzpuhhpsB4/Xh4EaGSzlDI/AAAAAAAAoao/evdtQdJYH_AV16GRLCim19j0Ol1zWoWlQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Iran%2B17.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="440" data-original-width="660" height="213" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nLzpuhhpsB4/Xh4EaGSzlDI/AAAAAAAAoao/evdtQdJYH_AV16GRLCim19j0Ol1zWoWlQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Iran%2B17.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">While the US news media chose to glorify the Iranian terror leader and support the radical Iranian revolutionaries over the President of the United States, the world news services got it right by reporting on the protests against the Iranian government.</span><br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IJk9jHiFCw4/Xh4Ea1F76LI/AAAAAAAAoaw/6qvKEMWgefECW9tVm_gSuBhwVo1a4XuHgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Iran%2B19.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="590" height="189" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IJk9jHiFCw4/Xh4Ea1F76LI/AAAAAAAAoaw/6qvKEMWgefECW9tVm_gSuBhwVo1a4XuHgCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Iran%2B19.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Check out the video coverage of Iran by the rest of the world.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Iran protests.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media;
gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/iDmknvaJju4" width="560"></iframe><o:p></o:p></div>
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media;
gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rcwab7I_ils" width="560"></iframe><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Here is how American news outlets viewed the Iranian crisis.</span><br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ads-claaD0w/Xh4EdwyJFKI/AAAAAAAAobQ/f13_PPaJ_9YH1treDO-bYMIXgaaqPrcIQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Iran%2B8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="387" data-original-width="715" height="173" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ads-claaD0w/Xh4EdwyJFKI/AAAAAAAAobQ/f13_PPaJ_9YH1treDO-bYMIXgaaqPrcIQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Iran%2B8.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rNExbNobSLg/Xh3-4izgJQI/AAAAAAAAoaA/VpScFhcdYx4Juj_yBs8G1aJ-Xb0sFSC2QCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Grabie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="30" data-original-width="144" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rNExbNobSLg/Xh3-4izgJQI/AAAAAAAAoaA/VpScFhcdYx4Juj_yBs8G1aJ-Xb0sFSC2QCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Grabie.jpg" /></a></div>
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MONTAGE: MEDIA MOURN LOSS OF IRANIAN TERROR LEADER</h1>
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‘He’s regarded as personally incredibly brave’</h6>
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Jan 6, 2020 7:37 PM</div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">By <b><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;"><a href="https://news.grabien.com/author.php?id=2&type=staff"><span style="color: #3c89ca;">Tom Elliott</span></a></span></b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">News of the strike
on the Iranian general Qassem Soleimani is being felt not just in Iran but
also in U.S. newsrooms. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Many in the major media
are portraying the death of the terror leader as a grave loss to
humanity. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The morning Soleimani’s
killing was first reported, CBS’s Holly Williams described him as a “revered
figure” and a “war hero.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“He wasn’t well-known in
the United States, but he was one of the most powerful figures in the Middle
East, sometimes even touted as a possible future leader of Iran,” Williams
said. “For America, though, General Soleimani was a problem.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">CNN’s
Fareed Zakaria agreed with Williams that Soleimani is “revered” in
Iran: “Imagine the French Foreign Legion, at the height of the French empire.
This guy is regarded in Iran as a completely heroic figure, personally very
brave.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Picking up on the French
theme, Zakaria’s CNN colleague, Anderson Cooper, likened him to the World War
II leader, Charles DeGaulle, calling him “personally incredibly brave” and
reporting that “the troops love him.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">CBS’s National Security
Contributor Michael Morell praised Soleimani’s military prowess,
likening him to an “evil genius.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Morell’s CBS colleague,
Holly Williams, agreed: “Even many of Soleimani’s enemies admitted he was a
military genius. He spearheaded Iran’s involvement in a Syrian Civil War hoping
to shore up the Syrian regime’s grip on power. … By killing Qasem Soleimani,
the U.S. has stripped Iran of an inspirational military leader. But it’s also
further inflamed dangerously high tensions. Iran has already vowed to take,
quote, harsh revenge.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">During Monday’s funeral
for the dispatched Quds Force leader, ABC’s Martha Raddatz — reporting from
Tehran in a headscarf — appeared awestruck at the display: “I have been in the
midst of anti-America protests in Iran before, but nothing like this. A
powerful combination of grief and anger with shouts of ‘death to America’
echoing through the streets around us. This morning, mourners filling the
streets of Iran's capital of Tehran for the funeral of general Soleimani killed
by that U.S. drone strike last week. Aerial images capturing the sea of
Iranians packing the streets to pay tribute to a man revered by many
here.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">NBC’s
Richard Engel, also reporting from the funeral procession, said the United
States had elevated the terror mastermind into martyr status: “Now, after
this killing, you saw people not only going out in the streets in millions, as
Ali was describing, he was there, but throwing articles of their own clothing
up onto the coffin so that attendants could rub it on the coffin so that they
would have some sort of memento of an object that was close to Qasem
Soleimani’s body. They turned him into a martyr, if not a saint. And we’re
seeing now all around the region Shiite groups, allies of Iran speaking in one
voice, and that is that U.S. troops have to leave the region, should be forced
out of the region starting with Iraq.”</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Then the walls came tumbling down with the truth.</span></span></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://coltonspointtimes.blogspot.com</div>Jim Putnamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12209035120639959756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36650605.post-31696212515852151042020-01-14T12:29:00.000-05:002020-01-14T12:29:30.929-05:00News the News Media does not want you to see - Trump gets triumphant welcome to NCAA National Championship - What no jeers just cheers?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">LSU defeated Clemson last night 42-25 to win the national championship but President Trump may be the biggest winner as the crowd went wild when the President and First Lady were introduced at the beginning of the game.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Tens of thousands of fans stunned the announcers and the tens of millions watching this classic when they gave Trump a thunderous standing ovation for minute after minute breaking into chants of "USA! USA!" and "Four more years!"</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Trump at NCAA Championship Game - Hear the truth while you listen to the deafening crowd reaction to the President. Double click for full screen.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Here were headlines not in the mainstream media.</span><br />
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College National Championship Game That’ll Make Your Spine Tingle<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">President
Donald Trump gets raucous welcome at College Football Playoff title game<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fafafa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt; text-transform: uppercase;">PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP GOT ROARING CHEERS DURING
ENTRANCE AT NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME, GETS ‘USA’ CHAN</span><span style="background-color: #fafafa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 21.3333px; text-transform: uppercase;">T</span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://coltonspointtimes.blogspot.com</div>Jim Putnamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12209035120639959756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36650605.post-44471969017762467562020-01-06T16:19:00.000-05:002020-01-06T16:19:36.830-05:00Joan of Arc, Maiden of Orlѐans, Savior of France, Saint, born January 6. Danced with Fairies and Commanded a Nation's Army by age seventeen yet was Martyred by age nineteen!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A very special Child of God whose Faith was unwavering through life and death!</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">Louis Kossuth, a great Hungarian revolutionary hero and champion of liberty in the 19th century said this about Joan of Arc.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">"Consider this unique and imposing distinction. Since the writing of human history began, Joan of Arc is the only person, of either sex, who has ever held supreme command of the military forces of a nation <i>at the age of seventeen</i>."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">Let me give you a brief overview of her life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">Most of us have heard the story of Joan of Arc, the French girl born January 6, 1412, who had visions and heard voices from St. Michael, St. Catherine of <st1:city w:st="on">Alexandria</st1:city>, and St. Margaret of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Antioch</st1:place></st1:city>. The voices started at age 13½, the summer of 1425.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">By May 1428, she no longer doubted the source of the voices and their insistence she must help the king of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">France</st1:place></st1:country-region>. She was to lead the French army against the English and stop the English from conquering <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">France</st1:place></st1:country-region>. When her voices told her to see the king's commander, she made the trip in June and faced disrespect by the rude and dissolute soldier.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">On October 12, 1428, English troops surrounded the town of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Orlѐans</st1:place></st1:city>, and laid siege, a truly tragic turn of events. As the ever more insistent voices demanded she see the king, she went again in January 1429 and got to the king on March 8.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">Upon convincing the king of her sincerity and determination, Joan became supreme commander of the French army, and on April 30, Joan led the previously demoralized French army into Orlѐans. By May 8, Joan had captured all the surrounding English forts and raised the siege.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">On July 29, 1429, Charles VII, with Joan at his side, was crowned King in the city of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Reims</st1:place></st1:city>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">Joan continued her ferocious assault on the English and on May 24, 1430, an overwhelming Burgundian force, loyal to the English, captured Joan after the battle of Compiègne.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vhjhIGspPZ4/VPEF1M4HjBI/AAAAAAAARsQ/NmCWhsTld08/s1600/Joan23.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="232" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vhjhIGspPZ4/VPEF1M4HjBI/AAAAAAAARsQ/NmCWhsTld08/s1600/Joan23.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">Sold to the English, Joan went to prison where her hands, feet, and neck where locked in chains, while being held for an Ecclesiastical court trial, where she was charged with witchcraft and heresy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">The trial started February 21, 1431, convicted Joan of being a heretic on May 29, 1431, and burnt her at the stake May 30, 1431. She died at nineteen years of age.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">Consider the brief career of one of the most beloved heroes in French history and successful military commanders in the history of warfare. By age 13, Joan began hearing voices. These voices convinced her to go to the king by age 17 with her plan to save <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">France</st1:country-region></st1:place>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">She spent one year, until age 18, leading her troops in driving the English from <st1:state w:st="on">Northern provinces</st1:state> of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">France</st1:place></st1:country-region>. Once captured, she spent her final year as a prisoner of the English before her death at the stake, at just 19½ years old.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">In the end, the king she installed and the country she saved had abandoned Joan, as had her beloved Roman Catholic Church. Joan of Arc, God's warrior, and French martyr, disappeared and seemed forgotten.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">So how did this convicted heretic become one of the most popular and least understood saints in the church?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">That, my friends, is the rest of the story and what a story Joan has to tell.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">To discover the truth about Joan of Arc we must journey through a story with all the elements of an Academy Award winning movie. Her story was set against a backdrop of the previous millennium, when <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">France</st1:country-region></st1:place> earned recognition as "God's special country" for Roman Catholics, with her people dedicated to faith and the church.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b>Timeline - All Dates Anno Domini A.D. the year of our Lord<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<span style="color: red;">33 Death of Jesus<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: red;">305 Death of Saint Catherine of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Alexandria</st1:place></st1:city><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: red;">306 Death of Saint Margaret of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Antioch</st1:place></st1:city><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: red;">324 <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Constantine</st1:place></st1:city> calls the Council of Nicea<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: red;">1291 Crusades end<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: red;">1347 Black Death Plague hits <st1:place w:st="on">Europe</st1:place><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: red;">1336 Hundred Years War between <st1:country-region w:st="on">England</st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Scotland</st1:country-region>, and <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">France</st1:place></st1:country-region> begins<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: blue;">1412 Joan of Arc born in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Domremy</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">Lorraine</st1:state></st1:place> Province<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: blue;">1425 Joan first hears voices and saw visions<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: blue;">1428 June - Joan tries to reach French King<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: blue;">1428 October - English lay siege to Orlѐans<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: blue;">1429 March 8 - Joan finally meets French king<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: blue;">1429 April 30 - Joan, Supreme Commander of French army, enters Orlѐans<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: blue;">1429 May 8 - English abandon siege of Orlѐans<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: blue;">1429 July 29 - Charles VII, with Joan at his side, is crowned King in <st1:place w:st="on">Reims</st1:place><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: blue;">1430 May 24 - Joan is captured at Compiѐgne & sold to English<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: blue;">1431 February 21 - Joan's trial begins for witchcraft & heresy<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: blue;">1431 May 29 - Joan convicted of being heretic<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: blue;">1431 May 30 - Joan burnt at the stake<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: purple;">1455 King and Pope seek revision of her trial results<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: purple;"> Appellate Court reverses and annuls verdict<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: purple;">1776 <st1:placename w:st="on">Lorraine</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Province</st1:placetype> (Domremy) joins <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">French</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype></st1:place><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: purple;">1787 French Revolution begins</span></div>
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<span style="color: purple;">1793 Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette put to death</span></div>
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<span style="color: purple;">1803 Napoleon begins rehabilitating Joan's reputation </span></div>
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<span style="color: purple;">1869 Bishop of Orlѐans requests investigation for beautification<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: purple;">1896 Mark Twain anomalously publishes <i>Joan of Arc</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: purple;">1909 April 11 - Pope Pius X issues beatification decree<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: purple;">1920 Pope Benedict XV canonizes Joan a Saint<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">Early in the millennium, <st1:place w:st="on">Europe</st1:place> had just completed the crusades (1095 until 1291).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">During the one hundred years before Joan lived, from 1347-1352 the Black Death plague killed 20 million Europeans, (forty to fifty percent of the entire European population), and up to one hundred million people would die worldwide before it was through.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">From 1336 to 1443, the Hundred Years War raged between <st1:country-region w:st="on">France</st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">England</st1:country-region>, and <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Scotland</st1:country-region></st1:place>. By the time Joan was born, <st1:country-region w:st="on">France</st1:country-region> was nearly devastated, <st1:country-region w:st="on">England</st1:country-region> was prepared to appoint the next king of <st1:country-region w:st="on">France</st1:country-region>, the French had lost most of the populous <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Northern provinces</st1:place></st1:state>, and the French army was a disgrace.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">Such was the world as we enter the age of Joan in 1412.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">How often do biographies of Saints talk about a childhood raised in an environment that finds a blending of ancient magic, mystery, and fairies with modern Christianity, at least modern in 1412?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">Most people do not know that Joan, the patron saint of <st1:country-region w:st="on">France</st1:country-region>, was not a native of <st1:country-region w:st="on">France</st1:country-region> and did not live in <st1:country-region w:st="on">France</st1:country-region> when told she must save <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">France</st1:place></st1:country-region>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">On several occasions, her voices shared prophecy with Joan, which she passed on to authorities at a time the Inquisition was suspicious of any metaphysical or mystical activities including seers and prophets.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">The total disregard for law, morality, respect, and justice played out between the French, the English, the church, and Joan's accusers during the Ecclesiastical court trial and her death by burning at the stake, is among the most malicious, evil, and heinous acts in history.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">During her one year as a prisoner of the English in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Rouen</st1:place></st1:city>, Joan received the most disgusting, degrading, humiliating, and demeaning treatment humanly possible from extreme mental to physical abuse.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">No one of authority in the church or <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">France</st1:place></st1:country-region> made any effort to help Joan in her defense or attempt to ransom her. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">Why did it take the church 489 years, nearly one-half a century, to complete the canonization of St. Joan?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">From the time Joan was born in 1412 until her canonization in 1920, there were 53 popes and 3 antipopes including two who ignored her direct appeal for help. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">Why did English writers and historians in the 17th century, and then Scottish writers in the 19th century become the first to champion her cause for sainthood?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">Perhaps most unusual of all, why did beloved American storyteller Mark Twain write a most extraordinary and thoroughly documented biography about Joan of Arc, a book he considered his best work, which took Samuel Clemens 12 years to research and two more years to write?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-J3S15ArP6L0/VPEFxmJl9yI/AAAAAAAARqw/qltFHxBy6Z0/s1600/Joan11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-J3S15ArP6L0/VPEFxmJl9yI/AAAAAAAARqw/qltFHxBy6Z0/s1600/Joan11.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">Mark Twain's story, <i>Joan of Arc</i>, appeared in serial form in 1896 and book form in 1899, just a decade before Pope Pius X issued her beautification decree April 11, 1909, and two decades before her canonization in 1920 by Pope Benedict XV.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">As you can see, I have a lot to cover to do justice to the reputation and stature of one of my favorite saints.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">As Mark Twain noted, the details of the life of Joan of Arc form a biography, which is unique among the world's biographies in one respect: It is the only story of a human life, which comes to us under oath, the only one that comes to us from the witness stand.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">The official records of the Great Trial of 1431, and of the Process of Rehabilitation of a quarter of a century later, remain preserved in the National Archives of France, and they furnish with remarkable fullness the facts of her life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">Joan was born in the <st1:placetype w:st="on">village</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Domremy</st1:placename>, in the east of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">France</st1:country-region></st1:place>. It was part of the independent Duchy of Bar, itself part of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:state w:st="on">Lorraine</st1:state></st1:place>, the last province to join the French kingdom in 1776. Joan was not even a citizen of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">France</st1:place></st1:country-region> although Domremy was loyal to the French King Charles VII. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">Just outside the village lay an ancient and magical forest, and for over 500 years, the Fairies of the forest watched over the village children. To honor their protectors, on summer days the children gathered in the forest around a magnificent beech tree, to sing and dance for hours together.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">Here they made wreathes of flowers and placed them on the tree and in the spring beside the tree, to please the fairies that lived there. For hundreds of years, the kids of Domremy were the Children of the Tree. Joan was one of these children according to the court transcripts.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">When she was 13, Joan began hearing voices she identified as Saint Michael, Saint Catherine of <st1:city w:st="on">Alexandria</st1:city>, and Saint Margaret of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Antioch</st1:place></st1:city>. Catherine and Margaret were among the Fourteen Holy Helpers, a group of ancient Catholic martyrs and saints called upon to help <st1:place w:st="on">Europe</st1:place> overcome the Black Death Plague just 50 years earlier.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">Ironically, both Saints were beautiful, humble, strong, and defiant and died teenage virgins, killed because they refused to marry prominent Roman officials. Saint Margaret was 15 years old when she died in 306 AD and Saint Catherine was 18 in 305 AD when she died. They shared many attributes with Joan.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">On several occasions, her voices told her prophecies to pass on to others, in order to overcome roadblocks. For example, she was able to convince the French commander to help her see the king with the help of her voices. The second time she saw the commander, in February, she told him the French suffered a great defeat in the Battle of Herring, which proved to be true.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">When she finally met the king, she went straight to the disguised monarch and bowed, stunning the room full of the king's court and the king. When she told the king his secret that no one else knew, it convinced the skeptical king to let her proceed. Her voices guided her through all the traps</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">Joan prepared to take command of the army, and her voices told her to create a standard, bearing the words Jesus and Maria, with a picture of God the Father, and kneeling angels presenting a fleur-de-lis.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">"I had a banner, the field of which was sown with lilies. On it the world was represented [the image of God holding the world] and two angels at the sides. It was of linen or white boucassin. There was written upon it, as it seems to me, these words: Jesus Maria, and it was fringed with silk."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";"> Joan of Arc's description of her banner at her trial in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Rouen</st1:place></st1:city><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";"><br /><span style="color: windowtext;">Joan of Arc</span> carried a special banner (battle standard) made by a Scottish painter (Hauves Poulvoir) while she was at <st1:city w:st="on">Tours</st1:city> preparing to lead the army of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">France</st1:place></st1:country-region>. Joan testified at her trial that she created her Banner by the command of God. Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret gave her instructions about the design and told her to take it and bear it boldly.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">The king offered her a sword to carry when leading the army but she begged to search for an ancient sword buried behind the alter in the chyapel of Ste-Catherine-de-Fierbois.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">In the very spot her voices indicated, they found the sword.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">Perhaps the most interesting fact connected with her voices at this early stage of her mission is a letter Sire de Rotslaer wrote from Lyons on April 22, 1429, delivered at Brussels and duly registered, as the manuscript to this day attests, before any of the events occurred.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">The Maid, he reports, said<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";"> "that she would save <a href="http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11318b.htm"><span style="color: windowtext;">Orléans</span></a> and would compel the English to raise the siege, that she herself in a battle before <a href="http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11318b.htm"><span style="color: windowtext;">Orléans</span></a> would be wounded by a shaft, but would not die of it, and that the King, in the course of the coming summer, would be crowned at <a href="http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12725a.htm"><span style="color: windowtext;">Reims</span></a>, together with other things which the King keeps secret." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">All came true.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">The accuracy of the prophecies of Joan, her use of men's white armor to hide her beauty and protect her virginity, the strict discipline and morality she demanded of her army, and her fearless tendency to lead her troops into battle brandishing only her Banner, won over the king and the military.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">Make no mistake, in a few short years our poor, illiterate village girl who knew nothing about commanding armies and could not even ride a horse, was Supreme Commander of the French army leading her worn out troops into battle on her magnificent stallion, against one of the world superpowers, <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">England</st1:place></st1:country-region>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">Calling upon faith stronger than most can ever imagine, she stopped a siege, drove the English into retreat, and brought to an inglorious end the Hundred Years War <st1:country-region w:st="on">England</st1:country-region> fought against <st1:country-region w:st="on">France</st1:country-region> and <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Scotland</st1:place></st1:country-region>. Her brilliant military strategy enabled <st1:country-region w:st="on">France</st1:country-region> to beat the odds and in time drive the English out of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">France</st1:place></st1:country-region>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">When they captured Joan under mysterious circumstances, she already knew from her voices she would live for just one more year, and it would be the most difficult year of her life. Her freedom was still possible through ransom or a prisoner exchange by the French or the church but no one tried, so her captures sold her to English supporters.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">Politics, greed, deceit, fear, humiliation, all drove those in power to want her to go away, vanish from the history books. There can be no doubt that the English feared their prisoner with a superstitious terror, and were ashamed of the dread which she inspired, so they were determined at all costs to take her life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">An Ecclesiastical court trial of Joan began in the English-held city of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Rouen</st1:place></st1:city>. Her attitude was always fearless, and March 1 while being interrogated, Joan boldly announced that, "within seven years' space the English would have to forfeit a bigger prize than <a href="http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11318b.htm"><span style="color: windowtext;">Orléans</span></a>." In fact,Paris was lost to Henry VI on November 12, 1437 — six years and eight months afterwards.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">There is no time to explain the outrageous manipulation of the government, church, and rules of law as she was continually tortured, interrogated, and humiliated before the courts. On March 17, 1431, Joan stood accused of 70 counts of witchcraft and being a heretic, the number of charges then reduced to 12.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">Torture and techniques to break her spirit continued until May 9 when it was clear she would not break. In the end, they dropped the witchcraft charges and convicted her of being a heretic, with the most prominent charge being she wore the clothes of a male.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">Threatened and exhausted, at one point she signed a retraction witnesses said was just eight lines long, that took over a half hour to read, which included a provision if her life was spared she could never wear male clothes again. The jailers and prosecutors then conspired to threaten to rape her and within a few days of her agreement, she returned to wearing male clothing to discourage rape.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">On May 29, a court of thirty-seven judges decided unanimously that the Maid was a relapsed heretic, thus sentencing her to death at the stake, a sentence actually carried out the next day, May 30, 1431.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">The morning of the execution Joan made her confession and received Communion. Witnesses to her death said her demeanor at the stake was such as to move even her bitter enemies to tears.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">She asked for a cross, which she embraced, and then held before her while she called continuously upon the name of Jesus, as the flames engulfed her. After her death, soldiers took her heart, which failed to burn, and her ashes, and unceremoniously threw them into the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Seine</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">River</st1:placetype></st1:place> to make sure no relics emerged.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">Indeed, they almost succeeded in making her vanish for there was no protest, riots, or pilgrimages over Joan's conviction or burning at the stake. The fact the English controlled<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">In yet another peculiar twist to the Joan story, her brothers embraced another young girl and for the next 20 years declared that Joan had escaped the fire and was alive. As a result, her family continued to receive financial assistance from the province and the brothers made many appearances with the fake Joan receiving gifts and money.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">About twenty-four years after her death, Charles VII, concerned that his monarchy was achieved thanks to a convicted heretic, and it might jeopardize hereditary claims to the throne in the future, sought a revision of her trial, the <i>procès de réhabilitation.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">This time the French monarchy and Pope were deeply involved as both wanted to correct a major failure to defend Joan during the first trial. Now an appellate court constituted by the pope, after long inquiry and examination of witnesses, reversed and annulled the sentence pronounced by a local tribunal under Cauchon's presidency.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">The illegality of the former proceedings was clear, and it speaks well for the sincerity of this new inquiry. With the rejection of the original sentence, there was some degree of reproach upon both the King of France and the Church at large, seeing that so great an injustice existed for such a long time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">Still little came of the action in terms of Joan and her standing in the church and history books. English writers beginning in the seventeenth century began writing favorably about the Maid and by the nineteenth century De Quincey, in particular, showed more respect for her than those in her own land.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">As for <st1:country-region w:st="on">France</st1:country-region>, the St. Joan of <st1:placename w:st="on">Arc</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Center</st1:placetype> in <st1:city w:st="on">Albuquerque</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">New Mexico</st1:state> describes the political and secular issues in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">France</st1:country-region></st1:place> during the ensuing years as follows.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "georgia"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The powers in charge during the French Revolution (1787 -1799) were very cruel to Joan of Arc's memory. They canceled the May 8th procession that had been held at Orleans continuously since two years after Joan's death. They also destroyed statues and crosses that were set up to honor Joan of Arc and they burned her relics, consisting of her hat that she gave to Charlotte, her standard and a sword that had belonged to her.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "georgia"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">For the next ten years Joan's memory was relegated to the shadows of French life as o</span></i><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">n July 14, 1789, the Parisian crowd seized the Bastille, a symbol of royal tyranny</span></i><i><span style="font-family: "georgia"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">. On June 20–21, 1791, Louis XVI tried to flee the country, but was captured at Varennes, and brought back to <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Paris</st1:place></st1:city>.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "georgia"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Believing they were betrayed by the king and the aristocrats, the <st1:city w:st="on">Paris</st1:city> revolutionaries rose on August 10, 1792, occupied Tuileries Palace, where Louis XVI was living, and imprisoned the royal family in the <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Temple</st1:place></st1:city>. At the beginning of September, the Parisian crowd broke into the prisons and massacred the nobles and clergy held there.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "georgia"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Meanwhile, the National Convention was divided between the Girondins, who wanted to organize a bourgeois republic in France and to spread the Revolution over the whole of Europe, and the Montagnards (“Mountain Men”), who, with Robespierre, wanted to give the lower classes a greater share in political and economic power. <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">In spite of efforts by the Girondins to save him, judgment on Louis XVI was passed by the National Convention of revolutionaries, he was condemned to death for treason, and executed on January 21, 1793; the queen, Marie-Antoinette, was guillotined nine months later.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "georgia"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">It was not until 1803, when Napoleon once more made it 'politically correct' to honor Joan of Arc, by giving his permission for the May 8th ceremonies at Orleans to be resumed. Because Joan had fought the English, Napoleon made use of her to further his own campaign against them. He made her an official symbol of French patriotism and a national heroine.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "georgia"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Therefore, her popularity among the people grew. All during the first half of the nineteenth century France was struggling against England in one way or another and during this time many 'histories' were written about her.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "georgia"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">It took Jules Quicherat, a French historian, five years from 1841-1845 to compile all the documents concerning Joan of Arc into five volumes. Not only did he publish the complete texts of the trial of Condemnation and Nullification but he also gathered excerpts from chronicles, literary works, letters, public documents and the accounting ledgers from the city of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Orleans</st1:place></st1:city> into his scholarly work.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "georgia"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Single handedly Quicherat sparked a renaissance of interest in Joan of Arc among the scholars who in turn translated the Latin and Old French into modern French. By doing this the general public could finally read for themselves Joan's own words and at last she became for them a real historical figure.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "georgia"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">With this development, the whole spectrum of political ideologies began to claim her. Joan became the champion for many causes from the atheistic anticlerical Freemasons, the Socialist Nationalists and Communists to the conservative Catholic Monarchists. From the 1850's on <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">France</st1:place></st1:country-region> was shaken by a savage anticlerical movement. Those who supported the Church decried the rapid spread of atheistic secular-humanism and the growing immorality of the nation and they used Joan of Arc as a symbol to reclaim these souls.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "georgia"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The Church was not blind to the upsurge in popularity that Joan of Arc had achieved and on May 8, 1869, Bishop Dupanloup of <st1:city w:st="on">Orleans</st1:city> with the support of eleven other French Bishops petitioned <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Rome</st1:place></st1:city> to begin the process of Canonization. Bishop Dupanloup declared, "Not only <st1:city w:st="on">Orleans</st1:city> and <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">France</st1:place></st1:country-region> but also the whole world venerate God's actions through Joan of Arc, the piety and enthusiasm of this young girl, her purity and selflessness with which she always carried out the will of God.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "georgia"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">"We wish that Your Holiness would now honor and exalt her memory. This would be a just tribute to Joan of Arc, who in freeing her country also saved it from the heresy which might have become a danger. It would also constitute a title of honor to the French people."<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "georgia"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Unfortunately, with the coming of the Franco-Prussian war in 1870 and <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">France</st1:country-region></st1:place>'s ensuing defeat, Bishop Dupanloup's request was put on hold. During this war, <st1:country-region w:st="on">France</st1:country-region> lost the provinces of <st1:state w:st="on">Alsace</st1:state> and <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Lorraine</st1:place></st1:state> to the Germans and the French politicians used Joan of Arc as a symbol for a crusade to regain these territories.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "georgia"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">In 1893, the French people overwhelmingly elected a Socialist government into power. Eight months later on January 27, 1894, Pope Leo XIII, in hopes of improving relations between the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Vatican</st1:place></st1:country-region> and the French government, extended an olive branch to them by officially beginning the process of Joan's Beatification. In doing so he proclaimed the Maid to have been the venerable handmaiden of God.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">As I mentioned earlier, Mark Twain's magnificent story, <i>Joan of Arc</i>, appeared in serial form in 1896 and book form in 1899, just a decade before Pope Pius X issued her beatification decree April 11, 1909, and two decades before her canonization in 1920 by Pope Benedict XV. Her sainthood was again delayed, this time by the outbreak of World War I.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">Today it has been 603 years since the birth of this French heroine, but only 95 years since her canonization as a saint. We are just beginning to understand the amazing story of faith Joan lived and her place in history as a military genius, a visionary and prophet, a sanctified virgin, and a soldier of God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">Joan's story is far too vast to give justice to and far too meaningful to interpret in such a short presentation as this but I hope she understands, and I urge all of you to learn more about <i>Jehanne la Pucelle, </i>Joan the Maid, our beloved <em>Jeanne d'Arc, Joan of Arc.<o:p></o:p></em></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">In his book, Mark Twain wrote the following closing paragraphs about Joan of Arc. Since Mark is my favorite American author and humorist - satirist, and about the most unlikely person on Earth to write about a Saint, I take his observations very seriously. This is what he said about Joan the Maid.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "arial";">"We know what Joan of Arc was like, without asking -- merely by what she did. The artist should paint her spirit -- then he could not fail to paint her body aright. She would rise before us, then, a vision to win us, not repel: a lithe young slender figure, instinct with "the unbought grace of youth," dear and bonny and lovable, the face beautiful, and transfigured with the light of that lustrous intellect and the fires of that unquenchable spirit.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "arial";">"Taking into account, as I have suggested before, all the circumstances -- her origin, youth, sex, illiteracy, early environment, and the obstructing conditions under which she exploited her high gifts and made her conquests in the field and before the courts that tried her for her life -- she is easily and by far the most extraordinary person the human race has ever produced."<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">Thank you for sharing a few moments with me, thank Joan of Arc, and dieu vous bénisse.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://coltonspointtimes.blogspot.com</div>Jim Putnamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12209035120639959756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36650605.post-47448555120948776432020-01-05T20:15:00.000-05:002020-01-05T20:15:54.926-05:00The Melchizedek Chronicles - January 6 - The Epiphany of Jesus - Priests and Wise Men of the East - Ancient Prophecy and Birth of the Messiah!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-x_GXWlO7vjM/XgCCqCvuQeI/AAAAAAAAoWM/M9RL7tsJEjg5JGSXd2AQeYKIcD0txTQvgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Magi%2B1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="544" data-original-width="979" height="220" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-x_GXWlO7vjM/XgCCqCvuQeI/AAAAAAAAoWM/M9RL7tsJEjg5JGSXd2AQeYKIcD0txTQvgCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/Magi%2B1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="color: #2c5164; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Want
to know the history behind the Feast of the Epiphany?</span></span></b><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">By <a href="https://plus.google.com/108894272701410047795/?rel=author" target="_blank"><span style="color: #006699;">Adelaide Mena</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Washington D.C., Jan 6, 2019 / 01:01 pm ().- While the hustle and
bustle of Christmas ends for many people on Dec. 26, throughout Christian
history Christmas lasts for twelve days – all the way until Jan. 6.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">This
feast marking the end of Christmas is called “Epiphany.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">In the
Latin Rite of the Catholic Church, Epiphany celebrates the revelation that
Jesus was the Son of God. It focuses primarily on this revelation to the Three
Wise Men, but also in his baptism in the Jordan and at the wedding at Cana.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZofQisfv-1Q/XgCCnteeDeI/AAAAAAAAoV4/XDduF9iW5vsFmvifFx0OaoC0MAaFjdEeACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Ep%2B5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="467" data-original-width="610" height="244" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZofQisfv-1Q/XgCCnteeDeI/AAAAAAAAoV4/XDduF9iW5vsFmvifFx0OaoC0MAaFjdEeACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Ep%2B5.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">In the
Eastern rites of the Catholic Church, Theophany – as Epiphany is known in the
East – commemorates the manifestation of Jesus' divinity at his Baptism in the
River Jordan.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">While the
traditional date for the feast is Jan. 6, in the United States the celebration
of Epiphany is moved to the next Sunday, overlapping with the rest of the
Western Church’s celebration of the Baptism of Christ.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">However,
the meaning of the feast goes deeper than just the bringing of presents or the
end of Christmas, says Fr. Hezekias Carnazzo, a Melkite Catholic priest and
founding executive director of the Virginia-based Institute of Catholic
Culture.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mJh3wRSJ4h8/XgCCpv6hh9I/AAAAAAAAoWI/hqvK5X_UGj8NQ_7sogfVEjUcU36HeZMjwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Ep%2B9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="427" data-original-width="600" height="283" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mJh3wRSJ4h8/XgCCpv6hh9I/AAAAAAAAoWI/hqvK5X_UGj8NQ_7sogfVEjUcU36HeZMjwCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/Ep%2B9.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">“You
can't understand the Nativity without Theophany; or you can’t understand Nativity
without Epiphany.” The revelation of Christ as the Son of God – both as an
infant and at his baptism – illuminate the mysteries of the Christmas season,
he said.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">“Our
human nature is blinded because of sin and we’re unable to see as God sees,” he
told CNA. “God reveals to us the revelation of what’s going on.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Y0NW6ofWSiw/XgCCrK_TWNI/AAAAAAAAoWY/b9HwJES1tR0g81_evl1rEzqDwi4L15YUQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Magi%2B3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="467" data-original-width="700" height="213" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Y0NW6ofWSiw/XgCCrK_TWNI/AAAAAAAAoWY/b9HwJES1tR0g81_evl1rEzqDwi4L15YUQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Magi%2B3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Origins
of Epiphany</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">While the
Western celebration of Epiphany (which comes from Greek, meaning “revelation
from above”), and the Eastern celebration of Theophany (meaning “revelation of
God”), have developed their own traditions and liturgical significances, these
feasts share more than the same day.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">“The
Feast of Epiphany, or the Feast of Theophany, is a very, very early feast,”
said Fr. Carnazzo. “It predates the celebration of Christmas on the 25th.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TlTUFgd3k-Q/XgCCq7S0BCI/AAAAAAAAoWQ/UTXnQpI_ebETIXUd1e6MqEH77rYyoOjeACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Magi%2B2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1553" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TlTUFgd3k-Q/XgCCq7S0BCI/AAAAAAAAoWQ/UTXnQpI_ebETIXUd1e6MqEH77rYyoOjeACLcBGAsYHQ/s400/Magi%2B2.jpg" width="308" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">In the
early Church, Christians, particularly those in the East, celebrated the advent
of Christ on Jan. 6 by commemorating Nativity, Visitation of the Magi, Baptism
of Christ and the Wedding of Cana all in one feast of the Epiphany. By the
fourth century, both Christmas and Epiphany had been set as separate feasts in
some dioceses. At the Council of Tours in 567, the Church set both Christmas
day and Epiphany as feast days on the Dec. 25 and Jan. 6, respectively, and
named the twelve days between the feasts as the Christmas season.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Over
time, the Western Church separated the remaining feasts into their own
celebrations, leaving the celebration of the Epiphany to commemorate primarily
the Visitation of the Magi to see the newborn Christ on Jan. 6. Meanwhile, the
Eastern Churches' celebration of Theophany celebrates Christ’s baptism and is
one of the holiest feast days of the liturgical calendar.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Roman
Traditions</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">The
celebration of the visitation of the Magi – whom the Bible describes as learned
wise men from the East – has developed its own distinct traditions throughout
the Roman Church.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">As part
of the liturgy of the Epiphany, it is traditional to proclaim the date of
Easter and other moveable feast days to the faithful – formally reminding the
Church of the importance of Easter and the resurrection to both the liturgical
year and to the faith.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Other
cultural traditions have also arisen around the feast. Dr. Matthew Bunson, EWTN
Senior Contributor, told CNA about the “rich cultural traditions” in Spain,
France, Ireland and elsewhere that form an integral part of the Christmas
season for those cultures.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">In Italy,
La Befana brings sweets and presents to children not on Christmas, but on
Epiphany. Children in many parts of Latin America, the Philippines, Portugal,
and Spain also receive their presents on “Three Kings Day.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Meanwhile,
in Ireland, Catholics celebrate “Women's Christmas” – where women rest from
housework and cleaning and celebrate together with a special meal. Epiphany in
Poland is marked by taking chalk – along with gold, incense and amber – to be
blessed at Mass. Back at home, families will inscribe the first part of the
year, followed by the letters, “K+M+B+” and then the last numbers of the year
on top of every door in the house.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">The
letters, Bunson explained, stand for the names traditionally given to the wise
men – Casper, Melchior and Balthazar – as well as for the Latin phrase
“Christus mansionem benedicat,” or, “Christ, bless this house.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">In nearly
every part of the world, Catholics celebrate Epiphany with a Kings Cake: a
sweet cake that sometimes contains an object like a figurine or a lone nut. In
some locations lucky recipient of this prize either gets special treatment for
the day, or they must then hold a party at the close of the traditional
Epiphany season on Feb. 2.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">These
celebrations, Bunson said, point to the family-centered nature of the feast day
and of its original celebration with the Holy Family. The traditions also point
to what is known – and what is still mysterious – about the Magi, who were the
first gentiles to encounter Christ. While the Bible remains silent about the
wise men’s actual names, as well as how many of them there were, we do know
that they were clever, wealthy, and most importantly, brave.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mkgtFIVmais/XgCCmlFIhRI/AAAAAAAAoVw/mx1WsRdaf20H_3SJNLjMnewBCKWxN0cdQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Ep%2B3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="600" height="266" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mkgtFIVmais/XgCCmlFIhRI/AAAAAAAAoVw/mx1WsRdaf20H_3SJNLjMnewBCKWxN0cdQCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/Ep%2B3.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">“They
were willing to take the risk in order to go searching for the truth, in what
they discerned was a monumental event,” he said, adding that the Magi can still
be a powerful example.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Lastly,
Bunson pointed to the gifts the wise men brought – frankincense, myrrh and gold
– as gifts that point not only to Christ’s divinity and his revelation to the
Magi as the King of Kings, but also to his crucifixion. In giving herbs
traditionally used for burial, these gifts, he said, bring a theological “shadow,
a sense of anticipation of what is to come.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mJh3wRSJ4h8/XgCCpv6hh9I/AAAAAAAAoWI/hqvK5X_UGj8NQ_7sogfVEjUcU36HeZMjwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Ep%2B9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="427" data-original-width="600" height="283" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mJh3wRSJ4h8/XgCCpv6hh9I/AAAAAAAAoWI/hqvK5X_UGj8NQ_7sogfVEjUcU36HeZMjwCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/Ep%2B9.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Revelation
of God</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Fr.
Hezekias Carnazzo explained to CNA the significance of the feast of the
Theophany – and of Christ’s Baptism more broadly – within the Eastern Catholic
churches.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">“In our
Christian understanding in the East, we are looking at creation through the
eyes of God, not so much through the eyes of Man,” Fr. Carnazzo said. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">In the
feast of the Baptism of the Lord, he continued, there is special divine
significance.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">With this
feast day, the pastor explained, “God has come to reclaim us for himself.”
Because of original sin, he continued, humanity has inherited “a human nature
which has been dislocated from its source of life.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Sin also
effected parts of creation such as water have also been separated from their
purpose and connection to God’s plan for life, Fr. Carrazzo said, because its
original purpose is not just to sustain our bodies, but our souls as well.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">“With the
fall, however, it has been dislocated from its source of life, it is under the
dominion of death- it doesn’t have eternal life anymore. So God comes to take
it to himself.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">“What
Jesus did was to take our human nature and do with it what we could not do –
which is, to walk it out of death, and that’s exactly what He did with His baptism.”
As it is so linked to the destruction of death and reclaiming of life, the
Feast of Theophany is also very closely linked to the Crucifixion – an
attribute that is reflected in Eastern iconography of both events as well.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">The feast
of the Theophany celebrates not only Christ’s conquering of sin through
baptism, but also God’s revelation of Christ as his Son and the beginning of
Christ’s ministry. “The baptism of the Lord, just like the Nativity, is not
just a historical event: it’s a revelation,” Fr. Carrazzo said.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KvpZ0i5Iu6g/XgCCdS7-JjI/AAAAAAAAoVU/f_a3fdADp70I41aY8Dr9IK3aqjlkz-32wCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/BJ%2B2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="1015" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KvpZ0i5Iu6g/XgCCdS7-JjI/AAAAAAAAoVU/f_a3fdADp70I41aY8Dr9IK3aqjlkz-32wCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/BJ%2B2.jpg" width="216" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">To mark
the day, Eastern Catholics begin celebrations with Divine Liturgy at the
Church, which includes a blessing of the waters in the baptistry. After the
water is blessed, the faithful drink the water, and bring bottles of water to
bring back to their homes for use and not only physical but spiritual healing,
he explained. Many parishes hold feasts after Liturgy is over. In many Middle
Eastern cultures, people also fry and eat awamat – dough that is fried until it
floats, and then is covered in honey.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">During
the Theophany season, priests also try to visit each home in the parish to
bless the house with Holy Water that was blessed at Theophany. Fr. Carrazzo
invited all Roman Catholics to come and become familiar, “to be part of a
family” and join in celebrating Eastern Catholic traditions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">This
article was originally published on CNA Jan. 6, 2017.</span></i></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://coltonspointtimes.blogspot.com</div>Jim Putnamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12209035120639959756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36650605.post-38733452145359792772020-01-01T11:03:00.000-05:002020-01-01T11:03:41.309-05:00The Melchizedek Chronicles - The Road to Kingdom Come – Path to Eternal Salvation – From Birth to Death to Eternity - The Mission of Jesus<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5nCFaMrz-1Q/WltrXjmb_TI/AAAAAAAAf8E/ixgBUHrU8k0SeIPq3_99pJTRplh_0otQACEwYBhgL/s1600/Soul%2B16.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="375" data-original-width="500" height="300" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5nCFaMrz-1Q/WltrXjmb_TI/AAAAAAAAf8E/ixgBUHrU8k0SeIPq3_99pJTRplh_0otQACEwYBhgL/s400/Soul%2B16.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">John the Baptist baptizes Jesus</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">the Ministry of Jesus begins!</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left;">Christian religions celebrate the baptism of Jesus on either January 8 or January 13.</span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-R5p4_zhbcQY/XC7x4T96E0I/AAAAAAAAjmU/Eh7DMz8pzrUhwYFwjBzrxS68mXJ0W-MWgCEwYBhgL/s1600/Baptism%2B2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="768" height="266" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-R5p4_zhbcQY/XC7x4T96E0I/AAAAAAAAjmU/Eh7DMz8pzrUhwYFwjBzrxS68mXJ0W-MWgCEwYBhgL/s400/Baptism%2B2.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Honor Death by Celebrating the Life, not Mourning the Loss<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jesus demonstrated the path to eternal salvation with five actions, three had never been experienced by mankind. Life and Death are two actions familiar to us although our knowledge of the significance of these is little understood.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-83QNQhm5LSo/WltqsRJMCWI/AAAAAAAAf7Q/rTjC3YWVYFYV9upGqMWFWoay4bLao_gbwCEwYBhgL/s1600/Judge%2B3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="280" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-83QNQhm5LSo/WltqsRJMCWI/AAAAAAAAf7Q/rTjC3YWVYFYV9upGqMWFWoay4bLao_gbwCEwYBhgL/s1600/Judge%2B3.jpg" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When you add the other three, Transfiguration, Resurrection, and Ascension, the whole concept of each one alone defies our maximum mental capabilities to grasp. At that point we are stuck somewhere between Steven Spielberg and Walt Disney, like a fuzzy fantasy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-44S7smFeF8M/WltrfcF3roI/AAAAAAAAf8E/-xOWsR8YVbQiqJt1hU4Xj0FAKRMSZCTQgCEwYBhgL/s1600/Soul%2B25.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="893" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-44S7smFeF8M/WltrfcF3roI/AAAAAAAAf8E/-xOWsR8YVbQiqJt1hU4Xj0FAKRMSZCTQgCEwYBhgL/s320/Soul%2B25.jpg" width="285" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All three are far beyond our understanding of life, and so many other things beyond life as we know it. You must get beyond the limits of your mind. This world is no longer a playground, this is a spiritual war zone. The long-rumored battle between Michael with his legions of Angels versus the Fallen Angels, good versus evil, was true, and the battleground has now spilled into our world, Creation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We don’t even see it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Gjiv_epAD-s/Wltq_QrYPMI/AAAAAAAAf7Q/kvq7jETQFCseR5QnV6077eNU7bvohg1LwCEwYBhgL/s1600/Power%2B1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="600" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Gjiv_epAD-s/Wltq_QrYPMI/AAAAAAAAf7Q/kvq7jETQFCseR5QnV6077eNU7bvohg1LwCEwYBhgL/s400/Power%2B1.jpg" width="266" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But this is just a backdrop for the Main Event, your awakening.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It can and must come, to each and every one of you, if you are prepared to pay the price.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What I am about to disclose to you could change you, or reinforce what you might have thought. At a minimum, I hope it will lead to triggering your imagination and stimulating your creativity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GGgXo5cH0kg/WltrsLtC5RI/AAAAAAAAf8U/mY1b-tbfr3QzXo4s5MEp7MKCWoVcrk5qQCEwYBhgL/s1600/Imagination2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="177" data-original-width="284" height="199" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GGgXo5cH0kg/WltrsLtC5RI/AAAAAAAAf8U/mY1b-tbfr3QzXo4s5MEp7MKCWoVcrk5qQCEwYBhgL/s320/Imagination2.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">IMAGINATION<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">CREATIVITY<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yRH_OwkUtLs/WltrvWO8qkI/AAAAAAAAf8U/5aALWXYsb08HGNE3BfTngechmKbmiDxVACEwYBhgL/s1600/Imagination8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="258" data-original-width="400" height="206" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yRH_OwkUtLs/WltrvWO8qkI/AAAAAAAAf8U/5aALWXYsb08HGNE3BfTngechmKbmiDxVACEwYBhgL/s320/Imagination8.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These are two of the most important gifts you were given by the Creator. Or perhaps it will stimulate you to seek out the truth. Deep down inside you harbor a fear that you are not fulfilling your mission in life. Your intuition is probably right.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Your physical body is perhaps the most complex, miraculous, and magnificent creation of the Creator. When I say your body, I mean in a living state, after the Soul has fused with the fetus at the moment of birth, and the result defies physics, all of science, logic, or any other form of comprehension.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">No matter what you think about yourself, the Creator loves you so much because you are his Creation, that he gave you life. Your life is just the first step in your journey, for you must then find answers to the most unlikely of questions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Not only did he create you to function in our world, he then gave you a path to return to the Kingdom, then to the Eternal State of Oneness of the Creator in Eternity. And then, about thirteen billion years after he created your world, he sent you his Son Jesus.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When Jesus first came to Earth during the Roman Empire his visit certainly did not get the press attention it deserved. But then, it took a long time for the news of events in Jerusalem to circulate around the world by camel and messenger pigeon.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HSo24AHNj0c/Wltq-uHgBHI/AAAAAAAAf7Q/s7m9WHQd2akhjje43MCuWe5mW04j5MI7wCEwYBhgL/s1600/Jesus%2B6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="486" data-original-width="864" height="180" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HSo24AHNj0c/Wltq-uHgBHI/AAAAAAAAf7Q/s7m9WHQd2akhjje43MCuWe5mW04j5MI7wCEwYBhgL/s320/Jesus%2B6.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">His first mission was not just to die for your sins, it was meant to serve as a wake-up call.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To demonstrate that sacrifices must be made to bask in the brilliant white light of the Kingdom of Heaven, or the golden glow of Eternity beyond.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kzHF6Uz6uyI/WltqXHl4H6I/AAAAAAAAf6E/LGGU4O6-bgkMgzXMsXq46RVQh8KtB_QjwCEwYBhgL/s1600/JC%2B4.bjpg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="270" data-original-width="360" height="240" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kzHF6Uz6uyI/WltqXHl4H6I/AAAAAAAAf6E/LGGU4O6-bgkMgzXMsXq46RVQh8KtB_QjwCEwYBhgL/s320/JC%2B4.bjpg.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All of these things, in order for the Holy Spirit to awaken you to the mysteries of creation and the magic of beyond. So, Jesus came to experience Birth, Transfiguration, Death, Resurrection, and Ascension to show you how it is done.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our knowledge and experience are centered around Birth and Death, the natural cycle of life. Our misunderstanding of the significance of death has led to a backlash of negative thinking, thus increasing the density or frequency of our own bodies and stalling the progress of our spiritual evolution back to the Creator.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jn4dOFhDEKs/Wlt9ORlECrI/AAAAAAAAf_s/bxsGk-cG1bkAgDFGKaz3ZoEXXcLINO3GgCLcBGAs/s1600/Sorrow%2B1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="240" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jn4dOFhDEKs/Wlt9ORlECrI/AAAAAAAAf_s/bxsGk-cG1bkAgDFGKaz3ZoEXXcLINO3GgCLcBGAs/s320/Sorrow%2B1.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Nothing can trigger an emotional response on Earth like Death. To understand the meaning of Death we need to unravel the mysteries of life, our life, in the Earth state.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We have discussed the structure of the spiritual world outside. There are three key components we have identified, Eternity, the Kingdom (of Heaven), and Creation, the world in which we take physical form.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZiWHqgatG-Y/Wltq9FMl7HI/AAAAAAAAf7Q/LvdiWSjRKZMnl7x13RaaKHayVZx4EIi3ACEwYBhgL/s1600/Heaven%2B1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="347" data-original-width="480" height="288" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZiWHqgatG-Y/Wltq9FMl7HI/AAAAAAAAf7Q/LvdiWSjRKZMnl7x13RaaKHayVZx4EIi3ACEwYBhgL/s400/Heaven%2B1.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Based on a preponderance of information that has come to us through ancient scripture, inspired thinking, the teaching of Jesus, and new revelations of long-hidden truth, we have been exposed to some of the truth. All things on Earth and the rest of Creation agree that one of the most important cycles we experience is the circle of life. Yet for all its importance there is very little we truly understand about it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Creator created all that is in order for us to experience the human condition, the physical body. It is our most important test of faith and of our ability to seek salvation by following the path as shown by Jesus.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I think we might all agree on this premise and goal. Yet in our everyday life on Earth, we tend to ignore the most important teaching and example set by the Son of God. Of course, you may disagree with me about the importance, but look at the evidence. You praise the power of the God and pray to his Son to show you the light, all the while denying the most important components of the path Jesus showed us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gQKZ8znl5yA/Wltq9VDgohI/AAAAAAAAf7Q/oQYgHOsKClssRwlgnNcFl8sSfDHY5-LTgCEwYBhgL/s1600/Jesus%2B3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="353" data-original-width="528" height="213" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gQKZ8znl5yA/Wltq9VDgohI/AAAAAAAAf7Q/oQYgHOsKClssRwlgnNcFl8sSfDHY5-LTgCEwYBhgL/s320/Jesus%2B3.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Being born and dying are but two of the five actions Jesus taught us, and generally we accept them. Still we ignore the core of his teaching that all five steps are necessary for our spiritual awakening and fulfillment of the most important aspect of our mission, reuniting with our Creator.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4LTnupKsxD0/WltxZ-x-tkI/AAAAAAAAf-g/Bgmh1bWMsk8O3_fWZu9MfKfmfOIG-9YUwCLcBGAs/s1600/Transfiguration%2B5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="200" data-original-width="475" height="167" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4LTnupKsxD0/WltxZ-x-tkI/AAAAAAAAf-g/Bgmh1bWMsk8O3_fWZu9MfKfmfOIG-9YUwCLcBGAs/s400/Transfiguration%2B5.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In our life on Earth we must achieve Transfiguration, embrace the State of Grace it represents, and know that such a state can only be temporarily experienced in our life, as it cannot be a permanent condition until we die. In somewhat scientific terms since Earthlings have a tendency of wanting to feel, see, and experience something before accepting it as truth, we create our own barriers to keep from experiencing the state of Transfiguration, the state of living in the Grace of God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wPbDDa0EM8M/WltxaaClDcI/AAAAAAAAf-k/Sxv8K5GYbdYGqEnWej18M6D4seADMjwXQCLcBGAs/s1600/Transfiguration%2B6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="338" data-original-width="400" height="270" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wPbDDa0EM8M/WltxaaClDcI/AAAAAAAAf-k/Sxv8K5GYbdYGqEnWej18M6D4seADMjwXQCLcBGAs/s320/Transfiguration%2B6.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When Jesus transfigured for apostles Peter, James, and John, an event he neither planned nor expected, he was in a deep state of prayer. Suddenly his body burst into a blinding radiating white light, he seemed almost transparent to them, and on each side of him appeared spiritual entities the apostles identified as Moses and Elijah. Both had been long dead at the time yet there they stood, in the clouds on either side of Jesus radiating the same blinding light.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XA90g82B67A/Wltu02N4orI/AAAAAAAAf9M/9LoXc4dRCG8gGJLd1lDmYtB2qcQVByDrwCLcBGAs/s1600/Mag%2B10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="327" data-original-width="432" height="242" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XA90g82B67A/Wltu02N4orI/AAAAAAAAf9M/9LoXc4dRCG8gGJLd1lDmYtB2qcQVByDrwCLcBGAs/s320/Mag%2B10.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jesus was frustrated at the time with his apostles who continued to doubt and misunderstand his words and teaching, even as he was demonstrating his power with miracles. In spite of spending three years with the Son of God before his death, those closest to him continued to lack faith. Only the Magdalen, who we call Mary Magdalen, understood the meaning and purpose of his words and actions, and in time came to be known as the Apostle to the Apostles.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fZ-6H6sPbrU/Wltu_igMYrI/AAAAAAAAf9Y/SWTKoYckCvgyazqsTZIAkWGhrg3PlLWywCLcBGAs/s1600/MM%2B23.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="550" data-original-width="471" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fZ-6H6sPbrU/Wltu_igMYrI/AAAAAAAAf9Y/SWTKoYckCvgyazqsTZIAkWGhrg3PlLWywCLcBGAs/s320/MM%2B23.jpg" width="274" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was Magdalen alone among all others who heard and understood the words of Jesus and who spent the rest of her life trying to make certain those words were not misinterpreted. She had a faith in Jesus and a love for Jesus that transcended their human condition and limitations.</span><br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-uaNGdnrUN64/WltuyKHFVCI/AAAAAAAAf9I/vbvAvGrtFoAsU0M8J6bhyvaizafmpugsQCLcBGAs/s1600/Mag%2B6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1119" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-uaNGdnrUN64/WltuyKHFVCI/AAAAAAAAf9I/vbvAvGrtFoAsU0M8J6bhyvaizafmpugsQCLcBGAs/s320/Mag%2B6.jpg" width="223" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Throughout his entire ministry she stood beside him, from the Baptism with John the Baptist to his Crucifixion and death on the Cross, where only Magdalen, of all the apostles and disciples, stood with his Mother Mary to mourn their beloved’s death.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-49MaIsDpE0o/WltvNy-ylQI/AAAAAAAAf9g/eM4zcWVnFKsYFn2FPkFxma4zBOLQkiPtwCLcBGAs/s1600/MM2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="502" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-49MaIsDpE0o/WltvNy-ylQI/AAAAAAAAf9g/eM4zcWVnFKsYFn2FPkFxma4zBOLQkiPtwCLcBGAs/s320/MM2.jpg" width="200" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">She helped bring his body down and move it to the tomb where she anointed it with sacred oils. When the tomb was closed, she checked periodically in anticipation of his Resurrection, was first to discover the tomb was empty, first to discover the arisen Lord, then sent by Jesus to tell the Apostles of his Resurrection. Finally, she was at his Ascension when the followers received the Holy Spirit and Jesus, accompanied again by Moses and Elijah, ascended into the Kingdom of Heaven.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5mH42ZtFoJ4/WltxHdIntMI/AAAAAAAAf-I/AU6IdIZBleYPOwP5LWhEiWx2ncLgudLTwCLcBGAs/s1600/Jesus%2BAscension2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="399" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5mH42ZtFoJ4/WltxHdIntMI/AAAAAAAAf-I/AU6IdIZBleYPOwP5LWhEiWx2ncLgudLTwCLcBGAs/s320/Jesus%2BAscension2.jpg" width="255" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">His Resurrection was the second time Jesus had Transfigured, into the State of God’s Grace, having previously experienced it with Peter, James, and John. This time it was permanent. So, in his human state he experienced Birth, Transfiguration into a state of Grace, and his final act of being crucified and Death. At the moment of his Death the world was made aware that he had fulfilled the ancient prophecy by dying, and would soon return.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In fact, let me review what happened at the moment of his Death on the Cross by quoting from an earlier description of events in an article written Good Friday of 2017.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QmeBgs96IAA/Wlt9Nena4ZI/AAAAAAAAf_U/e17rJjAbfkM5VpbmGslZUukjt0oaBG_qgCLcBGAs/s1600/Jesus%2B6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1149" data-original-width="1600" height="229" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QmeBgs96IAA/Wlt9Nena4ZI/AAAAAAAAf_U/e17rJjAbfkM5VpbmGslZUukjt0oaBG_qgCLcBGAs/s320/Jesus%2B6.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Colton’s Point Times – Conversations with Melchizedek – April 6, 2017<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"> </span></i><b><i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Friday</span></i></b><i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Yes, Michael and Gabriel.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">They turned away.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">They turned away their faces from the greatness of that ultimate human experience, his being crucified for bearing the truth. And the turning away was so as not to be contaminated by the loneness, the low vibration of that ultimate human condition. The carnage and the ugliness of the humanness. The ugliness to which, we would bring ourselves down, descend.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="color: #4472c4; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-themecolor: accent1;">[Is it true the Roman stabbed the sword into Jesus to make sure he would die before the Sabbath began?]<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Yes, that was the motive, that was the intention. It was also in the mind of the one who ordered this, the Roman Centurion.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Longinus was the soldier who actually pierced Jesus. He really was trying to help the Savior pass. He got the message, oh he got the message. He knew who Jesus was. He did not want to prolong this anymore. It also fulfilled a prophecy that Jesus would be dead before the Passover paving the way for the angels to arrive.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">There would be no Jews on the streets concerned with the body missing or the burial. As a result, there would be a blank space in there where all of this other story would unfold. Without the Passover and everyone home and in after the sunset, this all would not have been possible. So, the Roman, the head of that guard who ordered it, was motivated by the Holy Spirit to create fulfillment of this prophecy.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Thus, at the precise moment of death on that fateful Friday, the earth, nature, the universe, and endless hordes of angels were able to awaken the world to the death of Jesus and the coming resurrection from the dead.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">At the moment Jesus died, a massive earthquake tremor shook the entire earth. There was a complete great darkening of the sky. It was not just an eclipse, but an emission from a planet. It was some kind of an explosion or emission that slowly passed in front of the sun blocking the sunlight for the next twenty-four hours.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">A celestial darkening overcame the earth. More like a cloud, more like a shadow, as clouds pulled together bringing a great darkening. It was almost like the clouds pulled together to mask a major explosion behind it. There was a great roar, a rumbling from that, which people would interpret as thunder.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="color: #4472c4; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-themecolor: accent1;">[At the time of the death and resurrection was the whole world aware of what was going on, just the Middle East, or only the Israelis?]<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The whole world felt the tremor and, the side where the Sun was, all of that area would have seen the darkening, whether it was on the horizon or not.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Those on the opposite side of the earth would have seen a shower of that explosion, a dense meteor shower with remnants striking the earth at different points. There was impact, impact all over the globe, yes, a shower of the stars and the sky, the sky lighting up in places because of that. <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">There was also a great essence of human foreboding, and all through the animal kingdom, the animal behavior just responded, indeed all through nature, marking that point. That the mission was fulfilled.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<b><i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">There was rejoicing, great rejoicing. Definitely, Angels sang.<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
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<i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">A good question, can we number the Angels? <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FbxF3xsB5Xg/Wlt9K1NjUwI/AAAAAAAAf_A/H7onz1A1blo5WNFJij2ck_vDnM34YyutACLcBGAs/s1600/Angels%2B1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FbxF3xsB5Xg/Wlt9K1NjUwI/AAAAAAAAf_A/H7onz1A1blo5WNFJij2ck_vDnM34YyutACLcBGAs/s320/Angels%2B1.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">There were hordes, hordes of Angels. Banks upon banks, layers upon layers. Sweeping, sweeping and rolling, and ascending and descending. You know that concept of Seraphim, the Seraphim. Michael was within that whole ascending, descending, rolling, turning, of Angelic forces coming. He would appear and reappear.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">---------------------------------<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Once he was laid to rest in his tomb the stage was set for his last two acts on Earth, his Resurrection and Ascension.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How do we embrace the Death of a Loved One?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If we understand death is a necessary step to get to the Kingdom in Heaven, then we should turn our attention to focusing on celebrating the life lived and the progress made toward a reunion in Heaven. This is not a time for grieving, mourning the loss, feeling abandoned by those left behind.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is a time to celebrate the life lived, not mourn the death. In death, you return to the Kingdom where your progress in your sacred covenant with God is assessed. You are following the path of Jesus “outside of time” with your body no longer necessary. You have returned to the Heavenly Soul of the Just, the Heart of the Creator in the Kingdom.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In order for your lifetimes on Earth to reach an end, you must embrace and experience the last two acts demonstrated by Jesus, the Resurrection from the Dead and the Ascension into the Kingdom.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Earlier, when you experienced the Transfiguration by being touched by the Holy Spirit, you were made aware of the final calling to the Father, the secrets to life everlasting. Your own Resurrection, demonstrated by Jesus, allows you to break free of the ties that bind you to everyday life on Earth. You have evolved to a higher frequency than the density of Earth.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In this state of Grace, you have the wisdom of Melchizedek, the power of Angels, and the example of Jesus at your disposal. It will be your new mission to help all others still left attached to Earth.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pU0Z4hhFvzo/WltuLVjbimI/AAAAAAAAf8w/cdfXa4c-bjQtsD9SqBOqoSSl3IG1ZMItgCLcBGAs/s1600/Soul%2B17.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1067" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pU0Z4hhFvzo/WltuLVjbimI/AAAAAAAAf8w/cdfXa4c-bjQtsD9SqBOqoSSl3IG1ZMItgCLcBGAs/s400/Soul%2B17.jpg" width="266" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You see, in the eyes of the Creator, we all are One, the Oneness found in the heart of Father Creator. That same heart is the Soul for all mankind. Each of you is connected to the heart of the Creator by golden filament light beams.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All physical bodies have their own Soul on Earth, but all Souls come from the same single source, the One source, the heart of Father Creator. You achieve Resurrection when you follow the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and the path of Jesus, Son of God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ktg7ETcrTdU/Wlt9NuHQ5iI/AAAAAAAAf_o/GDai2Yhl0W8lfupRfE1wsKnuUhZK96UPgCLcBGAs/s1600/Magdalan%2B1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="595" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ktg7ETcrTdU/Wlt9NuHQ5iI/AAAAAAAAf_o/GDai2Yhl0W8lfupRfE1wsKnuUhZK96UPgCLcBGAs/s320/Magdalan%2B1.jpg" width="317" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You do not die in the physical world, only the vessel you occupy ceases to exist. Your soul and spirit, they live on in the Kingdom where form is energy, thought is energy, and perfect love is energy.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;">God the Creator does never give up on His creations. No matter how far astray you may drift, Jesus taught us the pathway to redemption and salvation. During the billions of years of our existence the Father also gave you multiple experiences on Earth to achieve the state of grace necessary to finally enter the Kingdom and return to Oneness with Father Creator.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You Resurrect when your Will reflects the Will of the Father, when you have achieved the state of grace of the Transfiguration needed to achieve your own ascension. When you finally know that the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are all always present within you.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;">Never again will you return to Earth in the physical form.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Some call it Judgement Day, the Grande Finale, your Ascension, when all Souls destined for Eternity Ascend, at the end of time, in unison, in Oneness, in the Grace of God, and the love of the Father.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VKs9JhCUDPg/WltuQjQrRpI/AAAAAAAAf80/CgvQjLZTCXIm9VB-y6uS2PpJWoKTUjTSgCLcBGAs/s1600/Soul%2B32.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="325" data-original-width="474" height="219" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VKs9JhCUDPg/WltuQjQrRpI/AAAAAAAAf80/CgvQjLZTCXIm9VB-y6uS2PpJWoKTUjTSgCLcBGAs/s320/Soul%2B32.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And then there was the One.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://coltonspointtimes.blogspot.com</div>Jim Putnamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12209035120639959756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36650605.post-27066161967706349502019-12-31T13:08:00.002-05:002019-12-31T13:08:22.417-05:00The Melchizedek Chronicles - Your Twenty-first Century “New” New Year’s Resolutions - are you up for the challenge!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Come on, most everyone is a slacker when it comes to New Year’s resolutions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since New Year’s Resolutions are a practice run for Lenten resolutions, and Lent is when you are supposed to help heal your body, mind and soul, not just your ego, it is time you had some new, more creative, much more imaginative resolutions for both occasions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">As for the annual New Year's resolutions, you might as well call them your Fantasy Game Resolutions, like fantasy football.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Playing fantasy football does not put you on the field or in the game, you just pretend.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is the same with most New Year’s resolutions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For thousands of years we have celebrated New Years.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">New Year's</span><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;"><span style="float: none;"> Day was first celebrated in 45 B.C. on January 1 for the first time in </span><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">history</span><span style="float: none;"> as the Julian calendar took effect. Soon after becoming Roman dictator, Julius Caesar decided that the traditional Roman calendar was in dire need of reform.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #181818; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; letter-spacing: 0.4pt; line-height: 17.12px;">The earliest recorded festivities in honor of a new year’s arrival date back some 4,000 years to ancient Babylon. For the Babylonians, the first new moon following the vernal equinox—the day in late March with an equal amount of sunlight and darkness—heralded the start of a new year.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #181818; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; letter-spacing: 0.4pt; line-height: 17.12px;">They marked the occasion with a massive religious festival called Akitu (derived from the Sumerian word for barley, which was cut in the spring) that involved a different ritual on each of its 11 days.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #181818; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; letter-spacing: 0.4pt; line-height: 17.12px;">In addition to the new year, Atiku celebrated the mythical victory of the Babylonian sky god Marduk over the evil sea goddess Tiamat and served an important political purpose: It was during this time that a new king was crowned or that the current ruler’s divine mandate was symbolically renewed.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">With such significance put on the New Year and thanks to Roman Emperor Julius Caesar changing the calendar, we have celebrated on the same day, New Year’s Eve, for a couple of thousand years. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One can only assume mankind has evolved since those early days and we now indulge in a rather benign series of dos and don’ts called New Year Resolutions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">In other words, kinder and friendlier stuff that will not add too much stress to your already stressful life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do eat healthier food.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do not eat sugar saturated junk food.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do get more exercise (as if that defines any real obligation).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do not eat candy and sweets, as if about everything you eat did not have sugar.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Join the latest diet fad.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Give up smoking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do not drink so much booze.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do go to church more often.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do not pile up so much credit card debt.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">You get the message.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">If we ever really did do any of those resolutions the world would be a much kinder, gentler, yes benign place to live.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">So, look around you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do you see any evidence of success, or sustained success?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">We have the most expensive health care system in the world yet we are sicker, fatter, more out of shape, more stressed out and more over-medicated to legal drugs, illegal drugs and other synthetic poison than ever before.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Perhaps there is a reason our automobile manufacturers keep announcing they are no longer building normal passenger cars, but adding new lines of behemoth SUVs and light trucks to replace cars.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We no longer fit in passenger cars, we need bigger and bigger mechanical monsters to bear our weight.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Sometimes it seems we have a self-defeating attitude about picking resolutions that often try to address our real problems or flaws or addictions that have not been solved in our lifetime.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We hope to accomplish something good to feel good about failing at another resolution.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Maybe we take solace in the fact “trying” to do something is better than doing nothing at all but is it really?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I suspect it just lets us get away with the fantasy approach to discipline. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Six months later after the resolution is broken and nothing changed in your life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">So where do we start?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Seek out the truth in all things.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Our first resolution should be to seek out the truth about how to get healthier.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is so much untruth in labeling it is often confusing, if not downright deceptive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just saying something is true does not make it true.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Eating less sugar does not mean just the granules you put in coffee or tea, or on cereal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most everything you consume has sugar or salt intended to get you addicted to the food, and boy is that ever a friendly addiction.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Sodas, sweets and salt are the real sources of addiction because at a very early age it is thrown at us to shut us up, bribe us, make us feel good or simply teach self-indulgence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course, no one is to blame for the primal addictions we force on our children that will eventually kill you but that is beside the case.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are a lot of people who contribute to this childhood addiction including parents, grandparents, doctors, teachers, coaches and, believe it or not, you.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Heal yourself first.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Jesus once said to heal yourself before you can heal others as he said to forgive yourself before you can forgive others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What he was saying to us is God created us and gave us gifts but we must take responsibility to use them as God intended.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">In other words, we must take responsibility for our own self, for our body, mind and soul.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You must take responsibility through knowledge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Use knowledge to learn about your addictions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Learn why you let yourself be a repeat victim to habits that are self-destructive and sometimes fatal.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">By learning you gain knowledge, with knowledge you might gain wisdom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Accumulating knowledge is the first step, knowing what to do with it is wisdom.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">God gave you a body and mind, and the free will to make choices.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">These choices can either help or hurt you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Only you, not your doctor, priest, rabbi, minister, imam, monk, teacher, shrink or family knows you like you do. There is one exception, your Creator. Only God knows what gifts were given to you.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">If we were really smart, we would pray to God to help us discover our gifts. And i</span><span style="font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt;">f we were really smart and equally knowledgeable, we would then pray to God to help us use our gifts for serving God's Will. Can you do that?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Take responsibility, do not delegate to an outside source because it only gives you someone else to blame for your woes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Besides, by now you should be asking yourself if those outside sources have really helped you eliminate the addictions they were treating, and without prescription drugs.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Are you joyful?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are you happy?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are you healthy? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do you set a good example for others?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or are you just passing on your own hang ups to your children?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">In Truth addictions are just another way of giving up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are the modern-day rationalization of explaining away your own inattention and lack of responsibility for your own choices, actions and failures.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Additions are the modern-day form of slavery.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Modern-day slavery.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">All forms of addictions from health to digital to financial lead to obsession and depression.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once you accept them as real or try to ignore them as not reflecting you, they seem to take possession of your mind and your life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Modern addictions like the digital addiction are the twenty-first century form of slavery, perhaps even far more dangerous than those we carried over from the twentieth century like prescription drugs, pain killers, anti-depression drugs, illegal drugs, alcohol and smoking.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Digital addiction runs counter to everything we, as living and breathing creations of God are meant to be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It stops natural contact and communication with other people, real people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It often leads you to the creation of false identities hiding behind the Facebook, Instagram, Twitter ad other social media forums.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">It depersonalizes us into mere false identities in a virtual world where no rules, ethics, orality, or common sense guide our actions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We do not take responsibility for the alter-egos we create nor the consequences that result.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hiding behind them on the Internet we can accept fake news, lies, distortions, and create chaos, bully and character assassinate others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is all part of our detached fantasy world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">In Truth it is no more real than the fantasy we create for our alter-ego.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Artificial Intelligence is the God of technology and machine world.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Artificial Intelligence is the God of technology and the machine world, because it knows everything there is to know that is available and it has the processing speed to instantly compile, analyze and make decisions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The algorithms of AI are taking away your mind, your creative thinking, your imagination, and your ability to communicate with others.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Digital addiction is the result when you delegate all decisions to the machines and their clever algorithms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It creates a new you guided by fantasy and not fact.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the AI God creating it has no ethics, no morality, no common sense and no concern for you or your mind and body beyond profiling you from your dependence on them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">AI overwhelms you with choices, while it saps your energy, shuts down your creativity and imagination, and blocks you from direct, old fashioned face-to-face communication with real people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All the while it is telling you how to think, what to think, what you need to buy, where to go, and how to get there.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">It is your very own Godless Puppet Master and you are dancing on the stage at the end of those Wi-Fi links and endless apps.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You are living the destiny decided by the Puppet Master, not your own destiny, your own path.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You have weakly succumbed to delegating a substantial part of your life to a machine-made set of rules and principles based not on right or wrong, but trends and habits.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet you are responsible for what it told you to do, not the Godless One.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Truth about health, life and destiny.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Your twenty-first century resolutions should be to seek out the Truth about your health, life and destiny.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You should take responsibility for identifying your addictions and for overcoming them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">You should especially address regaining control of your body, mind, spirit and soul from the ever-expanding tentacles of Artificial Intelligence with their seemingly harmless algorithms.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Only humans, with their knowledge, moral and ethical standards, and a dose of common sense know what is best for other humans because AI was created by humans, while we were created by God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Communicate with real people.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Vow to communicate with real people more, face-to-face, because only humans can express and demonstrate how emotions and passion, not found in the AI digital world, can transform those around us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We can share joy, spread good cheer, be kind and nice, none of which the God of the Virtual World can duplicate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No algorithm has been able to recreate the Perfect Love of God or Jesus, essential to empowering our life on Earth.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Laugh, love and live joy while encouraging and energizing those you encounter.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Use this information as a basis for your resolutions and you might actually become human again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In all things ask not just “What Would Jesus Do (WWJD), but ask What Would God Do (WWGD), and you will be accepting your responsibilities as one of God’s creations.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Forsake the darkness and embrace the light and finally have a real Happy New Year.</span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://coltonspointtimes.blogspot.com</div>Jim Putnamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12209035120639959756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36650605.post-38522757953294979402019-12-28T01:13:00.000-05:002019-12-28T01:13:06.724-05:00The Melchizedek Chronicles - The Twelve Days of Christmas – December 28 - The Feast of the Holy Innocents<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">December 28, is the Feast of the Holy Innocents honoring the baby boys of </span><span style="background: white; color: #222222;">Bethlehem</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">killed by Herod the Great, the Roman-appointed King of the Jews, in order to stop the birth of the new Messiah.</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">It was a desperate act by this torn king fearful that the coming King of Kings would usurp him.</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">You see, he was a brutal yet great builder, but his fear of Jesus drove him to become a fruitless mass murder.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">His victims, the baby boys of Bethlehem, are honored on this day for they were instrumental in providing cover so the Baby Jesus could be saved. The original intent was specifically for these children. Over the years other causes have jumped on the bandwagon laying claim to the feast.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This is the fourth day of the Twelve Days of Christmas, and the third feast day in a row (St. Stephen and St. John). The Twelve Days span from the birth of Jesus on Christmas Day to the Feast of the Epiphany, <span style="background: white; color: #222222;">the manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles as represented by the Magi (Matthew 2:1–12).</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">On January 6 we celebrate the Epiphany, the day the Magi, Wise Men, and the many other prominent long-distance travelers arriving at the stable to honor the new Messiah. A magnificent Star of Bethlehem illuminated the sky like a beacon guiding them home. From kings, princes, priests, and rulers to shepherds and angels they were drawn to the Baby in the Manger.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This third feast in a row, the Feast of the Innocents, honors those innocent victims of King Herod who also died in their service to Jesus and Father Creator. Such a cowardly act by Herod that he should decide the fate of the new Messiah.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">How arrogant for any human being to believe their Will was all-powerful like the Will of Father Creator. They have no concept of the power of the Creator’s Perfect Love for all of Creation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In this day and age, it is so easy to get caught up in the frenzied, frantic, freaky, and fear-filled minds of the people. It is like a giant vacuum hose sucking everything in sight down into an endless Black Hole leading to the abyss.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But enough of this babble, we know the frayed edges of humanity where wounds are laid open and can never be healed is alive and well, but we can free ourselves of the dark influence.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You want to find inspiration and hope?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Seek out a quiet place and meditate. Purge your mind of all the worldly distractions, and free your spirit of all those other-worldly distractions. It may take some effort, but you can achieve this pathway to enlightenment.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When you achieve the state of peace and solitude ask Jesus to activate the Holy Spirit within you, long dormant while awaiting your call for help. As you have drifted farther and farther away from Jesus, who is the pathway to Father Creator, the Dark Side has harvested more and more weak and fear-laden Souls.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Rule number one in Creation, it is foolhardy to attempt to usurp control over any of the Creator’s Creations. Whatever action you take to accumulate power and possessions never intended for individuals and are not yours to take, is a direct affront to the Creator.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You can kiss off the Kingdom and embrace the void of the abyss where contaminated souls are transformed into anti-matter for all eternity. Perhaps you might call that Hell.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">At present there are a considerable number of lost or contaminated souls walking the Earth who collectively represent a roadblock to salvation in the Kingdom for all others. Do not be surprised if substantial numbers of these contaminants are suddenly taken from the Earth to clear a better path for those of faith, or those who will seek out and find faith given a chance.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Not all of the seeds that are planted will grow, some must die away so that others will thrive.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And now back to our pathway to enlightenment. You are meditating, free of the worries and burdens of the real world, and beyond reach of the bad influences of the spirit world. Now what?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I mentioned you must ask Jesus to activate the Holy Spirit within you, long dormant while awaiting your call for help. What that means is Jesus is calling for the Holy Spirit to awaken in you those memories or DNA coding of the path to the truth. Jesus is the path to the truth and the truth guiding your salvation is knowing the Perfect Love of Father Creator is already within you.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When the Creator made Creation, to make it complete, the Creator became part of His own creation, not just humans but all life forces of his own Creation, thus everything that is has a life force of the perfect love of the Father.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">End of lesson for the day.</span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://coltonspointtimes.blogspot.com</div>Jim Putnamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12209035120639959756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36650605.post-89889582826596788542019-12-26T20:46:00.002-05:002019-12-26T20:46:32.668-05:00The Melchizedek Chronicles - The Twelve Days of Christmas - December 27 - Feast of St. John the Evangelist<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><b>Feast of St. John the Evangelist, December 27</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Today we honor <b>St. John the Evangelist</b>, December 27, and does he pack a lot in his resume. It seems he is in quite good standing with God and Jesus, because he was the only Apostle not martyred. He was too busy writing the story to get caught up in the action. Perhaps that is what drew me to a life of writing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">Today is the third day in the octave of Christmas. The Church celebrates the Feast of St. John, apostle and evangelist. </span></span><span style="background-color: white;">According to Catholic Culture,</span><span style="background-color: white;"> he was b</span><span style="background-color: white;">orn in Bethsaida, he was called while mending his nets to follow Jesus. He became the beloved disciple of Jesus. He wrote the fourth Gospel, three Epistles and the Apocalypse. His passages on the preexistence of the Word, who by His Incarnation became the light of the world and the life of our souls, are among the finest of the New Testament. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">He is the evangelist of the divinity of Christ and His fraternal love. With James, his brother, and Simon Peter, he was one of the witnesses of the Transfiguration. At the Last Supper, he leans on the Master's breast. At the foot of the cross, Jesus entrusts His Mother to his care. John's pure life kept him very close to Jesus and Mary in years to come. John was exiled to the island of Patmos under Emperor Domitian.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Following is a more detailed account of his life and death from The Catholic Encyclopedia New Advent.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">John was the son of Zebedee and Salome,
and the brother of James the Greater. In the Gospels the
two brothers are often called after their father "the sons of
Zebedee" and received from Christ the
honourable title of <i>Boanerges</i>, i.e. "sons of thunder" (Mark
3:17). Originally they were fishermen and fished with their father
in the Lake of Genesareth. According to the usual
and entirely probable explanation they became, however, for a time disciples
of John the Baptist, and were called by Christ
from the circle of John's followers, together with Peter and
Andrew, to become His disciples (John
1:35-42). The first disciples returned with their new Master from
the Jordan to Galilee and
apparently both John and the others remained for some time with Jesus (cf.
John ii, 12, 22; iv, 2, 8, 27 sqq.). Yet after the second return from Judea,
John and his companions went back again to their trade of fishing until he and
they were called by Christ to definitive discipleship (Matthew
4:18-22; Mark
1:16-20). In the lists of the Apostles John has the second place (Acts
1:13), the third (Mark
3:17), and the fourth (Matthew
10:3; Luke 6:14), yet always after James with the
exception of a few passages (Luke
8:51; 9:28 in the Greek text; Acts
1:13).</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">From James being thus placed first, the conclusion is drawn
that John was the younger of the two brothers. In any case John had a prominent
position in the Apostolic body. Peter, James, and he were the only witnesses of
the raising of Jairus's daughter (Mark
5:37), of the Transfiguration (Matthew
17:1), and of the Agony
in Gethsemani (Matthew
26:37). Only he and Peter were sent into the city to make the
preparation for the Last Supper (Luke
22:8). At the Supper itself his place was next to Christ on Whose
breast he leaned (John 13:23, 25). According to the general
interpretation John was also that "other disciple" who with Peter
followed Christ after the arrest into the palace of the high-priest (John
18:15). John alone remained near his beloved Master at the foot of
the Cross on Calvary with the Mother of Jesus and the pious women,
and took the desolate Mother into his care as the last legacy of Christ (John
19:25-27). After the Resurrection John
with Peter was the first of the disciples to hasten to the grave and he was the
first to believe that Christ had truly risen (John
20:2-10). When later Christ appeared at the Lake
of Genesareth John was also the first of the seven disciples
present who recognized his Master standing on the shore (John
21:7). The Fourth Evangelist has
shown us most clearly how close the relationship was in which he always stood
to his Lord and Master by the title with which he is accustomed to indicate
himself without giving his name: "the disciple whom Jesus loved".
After Christ's Ascension and the Descent of
the Holy Spirit, John took, together with Peter, a prominent part in the
founding and guidance of the Church.
We see him in the company of Peter at the healing of the lame man in the Temple
(Acts 3:1 sqq.). With Peter he is also thrown
into prison (Acts
4:3). Again, we find him with the prince of the Apostles visiting
the newly converted in Samaria (Acts
8:14).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We have no positive information concerning the duration of
this activity in Palestine. Apparently John in common with the other Apostles
remained some twelve years in this first field of labour, until the persecution of Herod
Agrippa I led to the scattering of the Apostles through the
various provinces of the Roman Empire (cf. Acts
12:1-17). Notwithstanding the opinion to the contrary of many
writers, it does not appear improbable that John then went for the first time
to Asia Minor and exercised his Apostolic
office in various provinces there. In any case a Christian community
was already in existence at Ephesus before Paul's first labours there (cf.
"the brethren", Acts
18:27, in addition to Priscilla and Aquila), and it is easy to
connect a sojourn of John in these provinces with the fact that the Holy Ghost
did not permit the Apostle Paul on his second missionary
journey to proclaim the Gospel in Asia,
Mysia, and Bithynia (Acts 16:6 sq.). There is just as little
against such an acceptation in the later account in Acts of St.
Paul's third missionary journey. But in any case such a sojourn
by John in Asia in this first period was neither
long nor uninterrupted. He returned with the other disciples to Jerusalem for
the Apostolic Council (about A.D. 51). St.
Paul in opposing his enemies in Galatia names John explicitly
along with Peter and James the Less as a "pillar of the Church", and
refers to the recognition which his Apostolic preaching of a Gospel free from
the law received from these three, the most
prominent men of the old Mother-Church at Jerusalem (Galatians
2:9). When Paul came again to Jerusalem after the second and after
the third journey (Acts 18:22; 21:17
sq.) he seems no longer to have met John there. Some wish to draw
the conclusion from this that John left Palestine between the years 52 and 55.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Of the other New-Testament writings, it is only from the
three Epistles of John and the Apocalypse that anything further is learned
concerning the person of the Apostle. We may be
permitted here to take as proven the unity of the author of these three
writings handed down under the name of John and his identity with the Evangelist.
Both the Epistles and the Apocalypse, however, presuppose that their author
John belonged to the multitude of personal eyewitnesses of the life and work of
Christ (cf. especially 1
John 1:1-5; 4:14),
that he had lived for a long time in Asia
Minor, was thoroughly acquainted with the conditions existing in the
various Christian communities there, and that he
had a position of authority recognized by all Christian communities
as leader of this part of the Church.
Moreover, the Apocalypse tells us that its author was on the island of Patmos
"for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus",
when he was honoured with the heavenly Revelation
contained in the Apocalypse (Revelation
1:9).</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The Alleged presbyter John<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The author of the Second and Third Epistles of John
designates himself in the superscription of each by the name (<i>ho presbyteros</i>),
"the ancient", "the old". Papias, Bishop of Hierapolis,
also uses the same name to designate the "Presbyter John" as in
addition to Aristion, his particular authority, directly after he has named the presbyters Andrew, Peter, Philip,
Thomas, James, John, and Matthew (in Eusebius, <i><span style="text-decoration-line: none;">Church History</span></i> III.39.4). Eusebius was
the first to draw, on account of these words of Papias, the distinction between
a Presbyter John and the Apostle John, and this distinction was also spread in
Western Europe by St.
Jerome on the authority of Eusebius.
The opinion of Eusebius has been frequently revived by
modern writers, chiefly to support the denial of the Apostolic origin of
the Fourth Gospel. The distinction, however,
has no historical basis. First, the testimony of Eusebius in
this matter is not worthy of belief.
He contradicts himself, as in his "Chronicle" he expressly calls the
Apostle John the teacher of Papias ("ad annum Abrah 2114"), as does
Jerome also in Ep. lxxv, "Ad Theodoram", iii, and in <i><span style="text-decoration-line: none;">Illustrious Men</span></i> 18. Eusebius was
also influenced by his erroneous doctrinal opinions
as he denied the Apostolic origin of the Apocalypse and ascribed this writing
to an author differing from St. John but of the same name. St.
Irenæus also positively designates the Apostle and Evangelist John
as the teacher of Papias, and neither he nor any other writer before Eusebius had
any idea of a second John in Asia (<i><span style="text-decoration-line: none;">Against Heresies</span></i> V.33.4). In what Papias himself says
the connection plainly shows that in this passage by the word presbyters only
Apostles can be understood. If John is mentioned twice the explanation lies in
the peculiar relationship in which Papias stood to this, his most eminent
teacher. By inquiring of others he had learned some things indirectly from
John, just as he had from the other Apostles referred to. In addition he had
received information concerning the teachings and acts of Jesus directly,
without the intervention of others, from the still living "Presbyter
John", as he also had from Aristion. Thus the teaching of Papias casts
absolutely no doubt upon what the New-Testament
writings presuppose and expressly mention concerning the residence of the Evangelist John
in Asia.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The later accounts of John<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Christian writers of the second and
third centuries testify to us as a tradition universally recognized and doubted by
no one that the Apostle and Evangelist John
lived in Asia Minor in the last decades of the
first century and from Ephesus had guided the Churches of that province. In his
"Dialogue with Tryphon" (Chapter 81) St.
Justin Martyr refers to "John, one of the Apostles of
Christ" as a witness who had lived "with
us", that is, at Ephesus. St. Irenæus speaks in very many places of the
Apostle John and his residence in Asia and
expressly declares that he wrote his Gospel at Ephesus (<i><span style="text-decoration-line: none;">Against Heresies</span></i> III.1.1), and that he had lived there
until the reign of Trajan (loc. cit., II, xxii, 5).
With Eusebius (<i><span style="text-decoration-line: none;">Church History</span></i> III.13.1) and others we are obliged to
place the Apostle's banishment to Patmos in the reign of the Emperor
Domitian (81-96). Previous to this, according to Tertullian's testimony (De praescript., xxxvi), John had been thrown into a cauldron of boiling oil
before the Porta Latina at Rome without
suffering injury. After Domitian's death
the Apostle returned to Ephesus during the reign of <a href="http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15015a.htm">Trajan</a>,
and at Ephesus he died about A.D. 100 at a great age. Tradition reports many
beautiful traits of the last years of his life: that he refused to remain under
the same roof with Cerinthus (Irenaeus "Ad.
haer.", III, iii, 4); his touching anxiety about a youth who had become a
robber (Clemens Alex., "Quis dives salvetur", xiii); his constantly
repeated words of exhortation at the end of his life, "Little
children, love one another" (Jerome,
"Comm. in ep. ad. Gal.", vi, 10). On the other hand the stories told
in the apocryphal Acts of John, which appeared
as early as the second century, are unhistorical invention.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">---------------------------------------------------</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The </span><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Twelve Days of Christmas</b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> begin on December 25, the celebration of the birth of our Savior Jesus. Of course there are probably not many of you who even know there is a "Twelve Days of Christmas" celebration, let alone that it dates from the Fifth Century, which happens to be sixteen centuries ago.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Perhaps this seems more familiar for the modern person.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> <a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nWJ1HiCCmgg/WkNh52W7CsI/AAAAAAAAfds/7IkdPP7gL_IYNv3cIjMWXxJ-PGMI8IpkACEwYBhgL/s1600/People%2B5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="733" data-original-width="1100" height="213" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nWJ1HiCCmgg/WkNh52W7CsI/AAAAAAAAfds/7IkdPP7gL_IYNv3cIjMWXxJ-PGMI8IpkACEwYBhgL/s320/People%2B5.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CE4g9RF2ij8/WkNh4q5bFCI/AAAAAAAAfds/vTtALLfYEygDErc7c1QaDMQlh5xlJVzEwCEwYBhgL/s1600/People%2B3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="551" data-original-width="736" height="239" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CE4g9RF2ij8/WkNh4q5bFCI/AAAAAAAAfds/vTtALLfYEygDErc7c1QaDMQlh5xlJVzEwCEwYBhgL/s320/People%2B3.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">[Oops, FAKE NEWS]</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> <a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--kXBfiCtqQM/WkNh5Arz72I/AAAAAAAAfds/uUSQQNqpmVgoib5bt3HloccQ6H6PErUTACEwYBhgL/s1600/People%2B4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--kXBfiCtqQM/WkNh5Arz72I/AAAAAAAAfds/uUSQQNqpmVgoib5bt3HloccQ6H6PErUTACEwYBhgL/s320/People%2B4.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-BTP5jQvPZ2A/WkNh7Gk8gEI/AAAAAAAAfds/SJ7CyZzUKTs0OKEKQHe3Qyzy_F9Eoc6cACEwYBhgL/s1600/People%2B8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="683" data-original-width="982" height="222" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-BTP5jQvPZ2A/WkNh7Gk8gEI/AAAAAAAAfds/SJ7CyZzUKTs0OKEKQHe3Qyzy_F9Eoc6cACEwYBhgL/s320/People%2B8.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in;">S</span>ometime in November, as things now stand, the "Christmas season" begins. The streets are hung with lights, the stores are decorated with red and green, and you can't turn on the radio without hearing songs about the spirit of the season and the glories of Santa Claus. The excitement builds to a climax on the morning of December 25, and then it stops, abruptly. Christmas is over, the New Year begins, and people go back to their normal lives.</span><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://coltonspointtimes.blogspot.com</div>Jim Putnamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12209035120639959756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36650605.post-2811568004877138642019-12-26T07:19:00.000-05:002019-12-26T07:19:54.685-05:00The Melchizedek Chronicles - The Twelve Days of Christmas - December 26 - Feast of St. Stephen<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LdAQhabs1Ks/WkLGmsfDaOI/AAAAAAAAfaE/rNoMKMDCbAclRD5HTH5q1ORgTN60o-hwACEwYBhgL/s1600/St.%2BStephen%2B2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="964" data-original-width="629" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LdAQhabs1Ks/WkLGmsfDaOI/AAAAAAAAfaE/rNoMKMDCbAclRD5HTH5q1ORgTN60o-hwACEwYBhgL/s400/St.%2BStephen%2B2.jpg" width="260" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It is day two in the Twelve Days of Christmas, December 26, and record crowds are making it one the largest shopping sprees of the year as people return all the stuff they do not want, exchange stuff to get the right size, and simply put, drive the economy into high gear.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Money Lenders are smiling as cash registers rings or credit cards get sucked dry in this feeding frenzy. What a shame to see the state to which we have descended.</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rKiZBoKYkJA/WkLHjq0Rk4I/AAAAAAAAfag/dxPRqsazWy4bY1mTrBUOiPTAoK97usmqwCEwYBhgL/s1600/Money%2BChangers%2B1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="371" data-original-width="591" height="250" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rKiZBoKYkJA/WkLHjq0Rk4I/AAAAAAAAfag/dxPRqsazWy4bY1mTrBUOiPTAoK97usmqwCEwYBhgL/s400/Money%2BChangers%2B1.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Things were not always like this after the Resurrection of Jesus. In fact, just two years after Jesus died one of the Seven Deacons selected by St. Peter to assist the Apostles, became the first martyr of the followers of Jesus.</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-IjD5OWL4OhE/WkLGm1qHxnI/AAAAAAAAfaI/MBOo8NHVyds-a6QIq4eigPLrEBHkvlQDACEwYBhgL/s1600/St.%2BStephen%2B4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="471" data-original-width="618" height="303" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-IjD5OWL4OhE/WkLGm1qHxnI/AAAAAAAAfaI/MBOo8NHVyds-a6QIq4eigPLrEBHkvlQDACEwYBhgL/s400/St.%2BStephen%2B4.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Stephen's Holy Ghost inspired role as one of the most successful Intercessors since Jesus set the example for ages to come, including to this day. Miracles were performed by Stephen in the name of the Lord and Jesus at a pace never seen since. Later in this story you can read much more about the astonishing life and ministry of Stephen, but for the moment, just contemplate on what you did not know about this first of all Christian martyrs.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background: white;">St Augustine said; “If </span><b><span style="background: white;">St. Stephen</span></b><span style="background: white;"> had not prayed, the Church would never have had </span><b><span style="background: white;">St. Paul</span></b><span style="background: white;">.”</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Stephen prayed, he used his Intercessor role to influence God to grant many needs and wishes. Though not an Apostle, his influence on Saul, later to become Paul, and many, many other converts, was exactly what Jesus asked of his disciples.</span></span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: white;">When Good King Wenceslas provided food to a poor man gathering winter fuel on St. Stephen's Day, he began the tradition of doing acts of charity on December 26. St. Stephen's Day is also Boxing Day.</span>Add caption</span></td></tr>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Boxer Day - Canada and former British Commonwealth members</span></b></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="border: 1pt none; padding: 0in;"><br /></span><span style="border: 1pt none; padding: 0in;">Martha Perkins</span><span style="font-family: "open sans";"> of the </span><span style="border: 1pt none; padding: 0in;">Vancouver Courier</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Today, while many countries Commonwealth traditions offer Boxing Day as a holiday, it was an especially important day off for staff in Pepys’ day. They all had to work on Christmas Day to ensure the day was “happy and bright” for the gentry and upper classes. Who else would empty the chamber pots, keep the fireplaces stoked and prepare and serve the glorious Christmas feast?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;">On December 26, while the gentry slept off the over-indulgences of the day before, tradesmen and house staff finally got to celebrate their own Christmas. One tradition was to open boxes their employers had filled with gifts, money, hand-me-downs and even some leftover food from Christmas dinner.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans";"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When Good King Wencelas provided food to a poor man gathering winter fuel on St. Stephen's Day, he began the tradition of doing acts of charity on December 26. St. Stephen's Day is also Boxing Day. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans";"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Boxing Day is also known as St. Stephen's Day. And it was Good King Wencelas who, back in the 10th century, made that day famous as a day of gift-giving.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><span style="border: 1pt none; padding: 0in;">Good King Wenceslas looked out</span></i><i><span style="border: 1pt none; padding: 0in;"><br /></span></i><i><span style="border: 1pt none; padding: 0in;">On the Feast of Stephen...</span></i><span style="font-family: "open sans";"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><span style="border: 1pt none; padding: 0in;">When a poor man came in sight</span></i><i><span style="border: 1pt none; padding: 0in;"><br /></span></i><i><span style="border: 1pt none; padding: 0in;">Gath'ring winter fuel...</span></i><span style="font-family: "open sans";"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><span style="border: 1pt none; padding: 0in;">"Bring me flesh and bring me wine</span></i><i><span style="border: 1pt none; padding: 0in;"><br /></span></i><i><span style="border: 1pt none; padding: 0in;">Bring me pine-logs hither</span></i><i><span style="border: 1pt none; padding: 0in;"><br /></span></i><i><span style="border: 1pt none; padding: 0in;">Thou and I shall see him dine</span></i><i><span style="border: 1pt none; padding: 0in;"><br /></span></i><i><span style="border: 1pt none; padding: 0in;">When we bear them thither."</span></i><span style="font-family: "open sans";"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><span style="border: 1pt none; padding: 0in;">Therefore, Christian men, be sure</span></i><i><span style="border: 1pt none; padding: 0in;"><br /></span></i><i><span style="border: 1pt none; padding: 0in;">Wealth or rank possessing</span></i><i><span style="border: 1pt none; padding: 0in;"><br /></span></i><i><span style="border: 1pt none; padding: 0in;">Ye, who now will bless the poor</span></i><i><span style="border: 1pt none; padding: 0in;"><br /></span></i><i><span style="border: 1pt none; padding: 0in;">Shall yourselves find blessing.</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans";"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Call it St. Stephen's Day or Boxing Day, but it is supposed to be a time when we do acts of charity for those less fortunate than us.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If you venture out on Boxing Day today, both of those traditions seem to be lost. It used to be that Boxing Day truly was the second day of Christmas. Stores were closed and everyone simply enjoyed another day of rest or playing with their presents. Boxing Day sales were postponed to December 27. </span></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Sara Evans Twelve Days of Christmas<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="letter-spacing: 0.75pt;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Meaning Behind the 12 Days of Christmas<br /><i>A Spiritual Archives Story from All-Creatures.org</i><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="letter-spacing: 0.75pt;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Meaning Behind the 12 Days of Christmas<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Submitted 3 Dec 1999 by: John Z Gardiner <a href="mailto:EurekaJohn@aol.com">EurekaJohn@aol.com</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Hi All, this was sent to me today, it ties into the discussion of the meaning behind various hymns and carols. -John Z Gardiner<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The 12 Days of Christmas -- The Rest of the Story<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When most people hear of "The 12 Days of Christmas", they think of the song. This song had its origins as a teaching tool to instruct young people in the meaning and content of the Christian faith.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Each of the items in the song represents something of religious significance. The hidden meaning of each gift was designed to help young Christians learn their faith. The song goes, "On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me..."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The "true love" represents God and the "me" who receives these presents is the Christian. Here you go:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The "partridge in a pear tree" was Jesus Christ who died on a tree as a gift from God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The "two turtle doves" were the Old and New Testaments - another gift from God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The "three French hens" were faith, hope and love - the three gifts of the Spirit that abide (I Corinthians 13).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The "four calling birds" were the four Gospels which sing the song of salvation through Jesus Christ.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The "five golden rings" were the first five books of the Bible also called the "Books of Moses". <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The "six geese a-laying" were the six days of creation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The "seven swans a swimming" were the "seven gifts of the Holy Spirit". (I Corinthians 12:8-11; Romans 12, Ephesians 4; I Peter 4:10-11).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The "eight maids a milking" were the eight beatitudes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The "nine ladies dancing" were nine fruits of the Holy Spirit. (Galatians 5:22 & 23)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The "ten lords a-leaping" were the Ten Commandments.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The "eleven pipers piping" were the eleven faithful disciples.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The "twelve drummers drumming" were the twelve points of the Apostles' Creed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So, the next time you hear "The 12 Days of Christmas", consider how this otherwise non-religious sounding song had its origins in the Christian faith.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;">St. Stephen - Arch-Deacon,</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">Intercessor, </span></b><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">and first martyr.</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>St. Stephen, the First Martyr</i><br /><i>by Dom Prosper Gueranger, 1870 </i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;">S</span></i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;">t. Peter Damian thus begins his Sermon for this Feast: "We are holding in our arms the Son of the "Virgin, and are honouring, with our caresses, this our Infant God. The holy Virgin has led us to the dear Crib. The most beautiful of the Daughters of men has brought us to the most beautiful among the Sons of men, and the Blessed among women to Him that is Blessed above all. She tell us that now the veils of prophecy are drawn aside, and the counsel of God is accomplished. Is there anything capable of distracting us from this sweet Birth? On what else shall we fix our eyes? Lo! whilst Jesus is permitting us thus to caress Him; whilst He is overwhelming us with the greatness of these mysteries, and our hearts are riveted in admiration--there comes before us Stephen, full of grace and fortitude, doing great wonders and signs among the people? Is it right, that we turn from our King, to look on Stephen, His soldier? No--unless the King himself bid us do so. This our King, who is Son of the King, rises to assist at the glorious combat of His servant. Let us go with him, and contemplate this standard-bearer of the Martyrs."<br /><br /><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;">The Church gives us, in today's Office, this opening of a<br />Sermon of St. Fulgentius for the Feast of St. Stephen: </span></i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><br /><br /><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"<i>Y</i>esterday, we celebrated the temporal "Birth of our eternal King: today, we celebrate the triumphant passion of His Soldier. Yesterday, our King, having put on the garb of our flesh, came from the sanctuary of His Mother's virginal womb, and mercifully visited the earth: today, His Soldier, quitting his earthly tabernacle, entered triumphantly into heaven. Jesus, whilst still continuing to be the eternal God, assumed to Himself the lowly raiment of flesh, and entered the battlefield of this world: Stephen, laying aside the perishable garment of the body, ascended to the palace of heaven, there to reign for ever. Jesus descended veiled in our flesh: Stephen ascended wreathed with a martyr's laurels. Stephen ascended to heaven amidst the shower of stones, because Jesus had descended on earth midst the singing of Angels. Yesterday, the holy Angels exultingly sang, Glory be to God in the highest; today, they joyously received Stephen into their company. Yesterday, was Jesus wrapped, for our sakes, in swaddling-clothes: today, was Stephen clothed with the robe of immortal glory. Yesterday, a narrow crib contained the Infant Jesus: today, the immensity of the heavenly court received the triumphant Stephen."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /><i>T</i>hus does the sacred Liturgy blend the joy of our Lord's Nativity with the gladness she feels at the triumph of the first of her Martyrs. Nor will Stephen be the only one admitted to share the honours of this glorious Octave. After him, we shall have John, the Beloved Disciple; the Innocents of Bethlehem ; Thomas, the Martyr of the Liberties of the Church; and Sylvester, the Pontiff of Peace. But, the place of honour amidst all who stand round the Crib of the new-born King, belongs to Stephen, the Proto-Martyr, who, as the Church sings of him, was " the first to pay back to the Saviour, the Death " suffered by the Saviour." It was just, that this honour should be shown to Martyrdom; for, Martyrdom is the Creature's testimony, and return to his Creator for all the favours bestowed on him: it is Man's testifying, even by shedding his blood, to the truths which God has revealed to the world.<br /><br /><i>I</i>n order to understand this, let us consider what is the plan of God, in the salvation he has given to man. The Son of God is sent to instruct mankind; He sows the seed of His divine word; and His works give testimony to His divinity. But, after His sacrifice on the cross, He again ascends to the right hand of His Father; so that His own testimony of Himself has need of a second testimony, in order to its being received by them that have neither seen nor heard Jesus Himself. Now, it is the Martyrs who are to provide this second testimony; and this they will do, not only by confessing Jesus with their lips, but by shedding their blood for Him. The Church, then, is to be founded by the Word and the Blood of Jesus, the Son of God; but she will be upheld, she will continue throughout all ages, she will triumph over all obstacles, by the blood of her Martyrs, the members of Christ: this their blood will mingle with that of their Divine Head, and their sacrifice be united to His.<br /><br /><i>T</i>he Martyrs shall bear the closest resemblance to their Lord and King. They shall be, as he said, like lambs among wolves (St. Luke, x. 3). The world shall be strong, and they shall be weak and defenceless: so much the grander will be the victory of the Martyrs, and the greater the glory of God who gives them to conquer. The Apostle tells us, that Christ crucified is the power and the wisdom of God (I. Cor. i. 24);--the Martyrs, immolated, and yet conquerors of the world, will prove, and with a testimony which even the world itself will understand, that the Christ whom they confessed, and who gave them constancy and victory, is in very deed the power and the wisdom of God. We repeat, then--it is just, that the Martyrs should share in all the triumphs of the Man-God, and that the liturgical Cycle should glorify them as does the Church herself, who puts their sacred Relics in her altar-stones; for, thus, the Sacrifice of their glorified Lord and Head is never celebrated, without they themselves being offered together with him, in the unity of His mystical Body.<br /><br /><i>N</i>ow, the glorious Martyr-band of Christ is headed by St. Stephen. His name signifies the Crowned; a conqueror like him could not be better named. He marshals, in the name of Christ, the white-robed army, as the Church calls the Martyrs; for, he was the first, even before the Apostles themselves, to receive the summons, and right nobly did he answer it. Stephen courageously bore witness, in the presence of the Jewish Synagogue, to the divinity of Jesus of Nazareth; by thus proclaiming the Truth, he offended the ears of the unbelievers; the enemies of God, became the enemies of Stephen, and, rushing upon him, they stone him to death. Amidst the pelting of the blood-drawing missives, he, like a true soldier, flinches not, but stands, (as St. Gregory of Nyssa so beautifully describes it) as though snowflakes were falling on him, or roses were covering him with the shower of their kisses. Through the cloud of stones, he sees the glory of God; Jesus, for whom he was laying down his life, showed Himself to his Martyr, and the Martyr again rendered testimony to the divinity of our Emmanuel, but with all the energy of a last act of love. Then, to make his sacrifice complete, he imitates his divine Master, and prays for his executioners: falling on his knees, he begs that this sin be not laid to their charge. Thus, all is consummated--the glorious type of Martyrdom is created, and shown to the world, that it may be imitated, by every generation, to the end of time, until the number of the Martyrs of Christ shall be filled up. Stephen sleeps in the Lord, and is buried in peace--in pace--until his sacred Tomb shall be discovered, and his glory be celebrated a second time in the whole Church, by that anticipated Resurrection of the miraculous Invention of his Relics.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /><i>S</i>tephen, then, deserves to stand near the Crib of his King, as leader of those brave champions, the Martyrs, "who died for the Divinity of that Babe, whom we adore. Let us join the Church in praying to our Saint, that he help us to come to our Sovereign Lord, now lying on his humble throne in Bethlehem. Let us ask him to initiate us into the mystery of that divine Infancy, which we are all bound to know and imitate. It was from the simplicity he had learnt from that Mystery, that he heeded not the number of the enemies he had to fight against, nor trembled at their angry passion, nor winced under their blows, nor hid from them the Truth and their crimes, nor forgot to pardon them and pray for them. What a faithful imitator of the Babe of Bethlehem! Our Jesus did not send his Angels to chastise those unhappy Bethlehemites, who refused a shelter to the Virgin-Mother, who in a few hours was to give birth to Him, the Son of David. He stays not the fury of Herod, who plots his Death--but meekly flees into Egypt, like some helpless bondsman, escaping the threats of a tyrant lordling. But, it is under such apparent weakness as this, that He will show His Divinity to men, and He the Infant-God prove Himself the Strong God. Herod will pass away, so will his tyranny; Jesus will live, greater in His Crib, where be makes a King tremble, than is, under his borrowed majesty, this prince-tributary of Rome; nay, than Caesar-Augustus himself, whose world-wide empire has no other destiny than this--to serve as handmaid to the Church, which is to be founded by this Babe, whose name stands humbly written in the official registry of Bethlehem.<br /><br /><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><span style="color: #390210; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">W</span></i><span style="color: #390210; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">ith these praises, which the venerable ages of old offered to thee, O Prince and First of Martyrs! we presume to unite ours. Fervently do we congratulate thee, that thou hast had assigned thee, by the Church, the place of honour at the Crib of our Jesus. How glorious the confession thou didst make of His Divinity, whilst thy executioners were stoning thee! How rich and bright the scarlet thou art clad in, for thy victory! How honourable the wounds thou didst receive for Christ! How immense, and yet how choice, that army of Martyrs, which follows thee as its leader, and to which fresh recruits will for ever be added, to the end of time!<br /><br /><i>H</i>oly Martyr! help us, by thy prayers, to enter into the spirit of the mystery of the Word made Flesh, now that we are celebrating the Birth of our Saviour. Thou art the faithful guardsman of His Crib; who could better lead us to the Divine Babe, that lies there? Thou didst bear testimony to His Divinity and Humanity; thou didst preach this Man God before the blaspheming Synagogue. In vain did the Jews stop their ears; they could not stifle thy voice, which charged them with deicide, in that they had put to death Him, who is at once the Son of Mary and the Son of God. Show this Redeemer to us also, not, indeed, standing in glory at the right hand of his Father, but the sweet and humble Babe, as He now manifests Himself to the world, into which He has just been born, wrapped in swaddling-clothes, and laid in a manger. We, too, wish to bear witness to Him, and to tell how His Birth is one of love and mercy; we wish to show, by our lives, that He has been born in our hearts. Obtain for us that devotedness to the Divine Infant, which gave thee such courage on the day of trial: we shall have devotedness, if, like thee, we are simple-hearted and fearless in our love of Jesus; for love is stronger than death. May we never forget, that every Christian ought to be ready for martyrdom, simply because he is a Christian. May the life of Christ, which has again begun within us, so grow within us, by our fidelity and our conduct, that we may come, as the Apostle expresses it, to the fullness of Christ (Eph. iv. 13).</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #390210; font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><br /><br /><i>B</i>ut, be mindful, O glorious Martyr! be mindful of the Holy Church in those countries, where it is the will of God that she resist even unto blood. May the number of thy fellow-martyrs be thus filled up, and let not one of the combatants grow faint-hearted. May every age and sex be staunch; that so, the testimony may be perfect, and the Church, even in her old age, win immortal laurels and crowns, as in the freshness of her infancy, when she had such a champion as thyself. But, pray, too, that the blood of these Martyrs may be fruitful, as it was in times past; pray that it be not wasted, but become the seed of abundant harvests. May infidelity lose ground, and heresy cease to canker those noble hearts, who, once in the Truth, would be the glory and consolation of the Church. Our own dear Land has had her Martyrs, who, in the hope that God would avenge their blood by restoring her to the Faith, gladly suffered and died--oh! Prince of Martyrs! pray, that this their hope may be speedily fulfilled.</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://coltonspointtimes.blogspot.com</div>Jim Putnamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12209035120639959756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36650605.post-72329593769122722362019-12-25T15:09:00.001-05:002019-12-25T15:09:44.019-05:00Pope Francis-Christmas Message and “Urbi et Orbi” Blessing 2019-12-25 DECEMBER 25, 2019 - At noon from the central loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">[Click to watch video of Pope's Christmas message. Audio delay at beginning]</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">DECEMBER
25, 2019 12:20</span><a href="https://zenit.org/articles/author/staffreporter/" style="background-color: white;" title="View all posts by ZENIT Staff">ZENIT STAFF</a><a href="https://zenit.org/articles/category/papal-texts/" style="background-color: white;">PAPAL TEXTS</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At noon
today from the central loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica, Pope Francis addressed
the following Christmas Message to the faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“The
people who walked in darkness have seen a great light” (Is 9:1)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Dear
Brothers and Sisters, Merry Christmas!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">From
the womb of Mother Church, the incarnate Son of God is born anew this night.
His name is Jesus, which means: “God saves”. The Father, eternal and infinite
Love, has sent him into the world not to condemn the world but to save it
(cf. <i>Jn</i> 3:17). The Father has given him to us with great
mercy. He has given him to everyone. He has given him forever. The Son is born,
like a small light flickering in the cold and darkness of the night.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That
Child, born of the Virgin Mary, is the Word of God made flesh. The Word who
guided Abraham’s heart and steps towards the promised land, and who continues
to draw to himself all those who trust in God’s promises. The Word who led the
Hebrews on the journey from slavery to freedom and who continues to call the
enslaved in every age, including our own, to come forth from their prisons. He
is the Word brighter than the sun, made incarnate in a tiny son of man: Jesus
the light of the world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is
why the prophet cries out: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great
light” (<i>Is</i> 9:1). There is darkness in human hearts, yet the light
of Christ is greater still. There is darkness in personal, family and social
relationships, but the light of Christ is greater. There is darkness in
economic, geopolitical and ecological conflicts, yet greater still is the light
of Christ.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">May
Christ bring his light to the many children suffering from war and conflicts in
the Middle East and in various countries of the world. May he bring comfort to
the beloved Syrian people who still see no end to the hostilities that have
rent their country over the last decade. May he stir the consciences of men and
women of good will. May he inspire governments and the international community
to find solutions to allow the peoples of that region to live together in peace
and security, and put an end to their sufferings. May he sustain the Lebanese
people and enable them to overcome the current crisis and rediscover their
vocation to be a message of freedom and harmonious coexistence for all.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background: white;">May the Lord Jesus bring light to the Holy Land, where he was born as
the Saviour of mankind, and where so many people – struggling but not
discouraged – still await a time of peace, security and prosperity. May he
bring consolation to Iraq amid its present social tensions, and to Yemen,
suffering from a grave humanitarian crisis.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">May the tiny Babe of Bethlehem bring hope to the whole
American continent, where a number of nations are experiencing a time of social
and political upheaval. May he encourage the beloved Venezuelan people, long
tried by their political and social tensions, and ensure that they receive the
aid they need. May he bless the efforts of those who spare no effort to promote
justice and reconciliation and to overcome the various crises and the many
forms of poverty that offend the dignity of each person.</span><span style="color: #666666;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">May the
Redeemer of the world bring light to beloved Ukraine, which yearns for concrete
solutions for an enduring peace. </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">May the
newborn Lord bring light to the people of Africa, where persistent social and
political situations often force individuals to migrate, depriving them of a
home and family. May he bring peace to those living in the eastern part of the
Democratic Republic of the Congo, torn by continuing conflicts. May he bring
consolation to all who suffer because of violence, natural disasters or
outbreaks of disease. And may he bring comfort to those who are persecuted for
their religious faith, especially missionaries and members of the faithful who
have been kidnapped, and to the victims of attacks by extremist groups,
particularly in Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Nigeria.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">May the
Son of God, come down to earth from heaven, protect and sustain all those who,
due to these and other injustices, are forced to emigrate in the hope of a
secure life. It is injustice that makes them cross deserts and seas that become
cemeteries. It is injustice that forces them to ensure unspeakable forms of
abuse, enslavement of every kind and torture in inhumane detention camps. It is
injustice that turns them away from places where they might have hope for a
dignified life, but instead find themselves before walls of indifference.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">May
Emmanuel bring light to all the suffering members of our human family. May he
soften our often stony and self-centred hearts, and make them channels of his
love. May he bring his smile, through our poor faces, to all the children of
the world: to those who are abandoned and those who suffer violence. Through
our frail hands, may he clothe those who have nothing to wear, give bread to
the hungry and heal the sick. Through our friendship, such as it is, may he
draw close to the elderly and the lonely, to migrants and the marginalized. On
this joyful Christmas Day, may he bring his tenderness to all and brighten the darkness
of this world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">[Original text: Italian]<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">DECEMBER
25, 2019 12:20<a href="https://zenit.org/articles/category/papal-texts/">PAPAL TEXTS</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://coltonspointtimes.blogspot.com</div>Jim Putnamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12209035120639959756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36650605.post-87033235968925447282019-12-25T10:56:00.001-05:002019-12-25T10:56:45.321-05:00The Melchizedek Chronicles - Christmas Gift from God - to You!<br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">God’s
Inspiration for Our Creation!<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b><i>“Be who You were<o:p></o:p></i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b><i>intended to be<o:p></o:p></i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b><i>and You will again<o:p></o:p></i></b></span></div>
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<b style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 16pt;"><i>be One with Me!”</i></b></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">as
told by Melchizedek</span></i></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://coltonspointtimes.blogspot.com</div>Jim Putnamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12209035120639959756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36650605.post-66325653953589814852019-12-25T05:59:00.000-05:002019-12-25T05:59:13.384-05:00The Melchizedek Chronicles – A Sacrifice for Christmas and New Years that asks too much of mere Mortals?<br />
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "algerian"; font-size: 16pt;">How about</span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "algerian"; font-size: 16pt;">we ask ALL our politicians</span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "algerian"; font-size: 16pt;">and the new year!!!</span><span style="font-family: "algerian"; font-size: 16pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://coltonspointtimes.blogspot.com</div>Jim Putnamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12209035120639959756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36650605.post-85398986496956610802019-12-25T05:58:00.000-05:002019-12-25T05:58:42.174-05:00The Melchizedek Chronicles --- Do You, as Sons and Daughters of God the Creator, violate the Divine Law of God? --- No, No, No, No not me!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tOYtQT57NvY/XI3s49oVzAI/AAAAAAAAkQ4/SYpeSral7bMXq_t4fGa1MPQ9e8HuwgBkQCEwYBhgL/s1600/Not%2Bme%2B15.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="549" data-original-width="774" height="282" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tOYtQT57NvY/XI3s49oVzAI/AAAAAAAAkQ4/SYpeSral7bMXq_t4fGa1MPQ9e8HuwgBkQCEwYBhgL/s400/Not%2Bme%2B15.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Today, Christmas Day, God gave us his Son whose life would be sacrificed for our salvation. Hopefully we do not lose sight of such a significant commitment to our survival and salvation. Yet, there seems to be an unsettling hypocrisy when you consider that we, like Jesus, are also the sons and daughter of God. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">If God is our Creator, provider, progenitor and protector, and we are God’s creations, then why do we foolishly keep doing things to abrogate, denigrate, deprecate, expostulate, abominate, emasculate, and violate the Divine Law of God?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I mean our Declaration of Independence, founding document, says we are “under God.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then it is reinforced by stamping “In God We Trust” on our currency.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As if that is not clear, we stated, “One nation, under God, Indivisible, with liberty and justice for all” in our Pledge of Allegiance.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Could there be any doubt as to the intent of our Founding Fathers?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We were guaranteed “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” as long as it is consistent with our human laws, and as long as they are consistent with God’s Divine Law.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">No group of people, creations of the Creator, whether identified by religious, cultural, race, gender, or wealth, can claim to speak for God, but the Creator is inclusive of all of them.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bBWKd4lZ-ew/XI3s4GwLCWI/AAAAAAAAkQ8/9prWmU2w--QWfXf1lI8dn6XiZmoCoL0aACEwYBhgL/s1600/Not%2Bme%2B10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="681" data-original-width="1168" height="186" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bBWKd4lZ-ew/XI3s4GwLCWI/AAAAAAAAkQ8/9prWmU2w--QWfXf1lI8dn6XiZmoCoL0aACEwYBhgL/s320/Not%2Bme%2B10.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">One reckons if we were really living by God’s law, we would intuitively know it, no matter how much people tried to manipulate it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course, there will always be those who try to manipulate it for their own selfish reasons.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Ironically, God’s Law also says we are not the judge and jury for the violators of God’s Law.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is God’s role.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We should accommodate people, tolerate people, communicate with people, honor their right to think like they do, and if any of that gets too difficult for you to tolerate, stay away from those people.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">So, if you are one of the many of political fanatics of the radical right or more radical left, and you are scouring the internet and social media every day to find anyone who dares to oppose you and your opinions, or those opinions you were told to say because you lost the art of forming your own words and opinions, then you are a stalker in search of your next victim.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">There is nothing greater in the life of a political stalker than to crush someone who disagrees.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So consumed are they with their armchair philosophy and beloved knack for intellectual constipation that nothing on earth matters more.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What a shame.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">People blinded by rage and hate are morally suicidal, egotistically consumed, spiritually bankrupt and pretty miserable to hang around.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thank goodness most radical political assaults occur in cyberspace so only your pride, ego and mind are beaten up leaving your body largely intact.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">However, the very fact you are a victim means you were one of the radical lost souls looking for someone to tongue-lash in the first place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You probably never expected to encounter the bionic tongue of blasphemy on line using vicious words and illogical arguments to crush you.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Here’s a news flash – you both are on the wrong side of Divine Law, there will be no winners at this game. Your addiction to the virtual world where you can escape from all reality and </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">even recreate yourself with false names and information is enough to cause you serious problems</span></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">, long after you depart this life.</span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mraLQS3jhHw/XI3s8wCpugI/AAAAAAAAkRE/2lVMJLdjU_4oOSEagjYnpSRKemRahKkZgCEwYBhgL/s1600/Not%2Bme%2B6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mraLQS3jhHw/XI3s8wCpugI/AAAAAAAAkRE/2lVMJLdjU_4oOSEagjYnpSRKemRahKkZgCEwYBhgL/s400/Not%2Bme%2B6.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">When you use your virtual platform to attack others, that is double-jeopardy.</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">You are addicted to the virtual world, and addicted to hate.</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Now the only way you could possibly be willing to give up God for social media and risk your happiness for all of eternity by</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">attacking people (or simply hating them), is to embrace the dark side<o:p></o:p></span></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px;">.</span></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xbzusNKWJso/XI3s37JCONI/AAAAAAAAkRE/wXUknwY-pE8tA1tQl78aodyxHeJALCvfQCEwYBhgL/s1600/Not%2Bme%2B1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="381" data-original-width="565" height="215" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xbzusNKWJso/XI3s37JCONI/AAAAAAAAkRE/wXUknwY-pE8tA1tQl78aodyxHeJALCvfQCEwYBhgL/s320/Not%2Bme%2B1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Risking eternity for the self-serving task of humiliating someone who does not agree with you seems like a rather reckless undertaking.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-H9j0ERE3kDw/XI3xXXrFw5I/AAAAAAAAkRU/Z2dz490IKcYT69XU7LBeDFpDwB9AhQtFgCLcBGAs/s1600/Fear%2B1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="365" data-original-width="500" height="233" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-H9j0ERE3kDw/XI3xXXrFw5I/AAAAAAAAkRU/Z2dz490IKcYT69XU7LBeDFpDwB9AhQtFgCLcBGAs/s320/Fear%2B1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Mind you, when you pursue such a path, not only do you drag yourself into the abyss but you are also touching everyone around you with the kiss of spiritual death by dumping your negativity on them.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-47xv8YxJigU/XI3s8q1Y5JI/AAAAAAAAkRI/8lwCMkdeq8M5tsBVI_6p0ccxghZMc25rgCEwYBhgL/s1600/Not%2Bme%2B5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1066" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-47xv8YxJigU/XI3s8q1Y5JI/AAAAAAAAkRI/8lwCMkdeq8M5tsBVI_6p0ccxghZMc25rgCEwYBhgL/s320/Not%2Bme%2B5.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">No matter how you cut it, you are far removed from the very enlightenment you claim to pursue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A hypocrite is too kind a label, because they spend most of their time just hurting themselves. You, on the other hand, as a self-declared pious preacher of good, use your forum to do the work of the dark side.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KUbbNPLrHyc/XI3s9LM3xfI/AAAAAAAAkRI/TV6kuvGwEUk08GNHaJYbI47ggws7ZA6KACEwYBhgL/s1600/Not%2Bme%2B7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1111" data-original-width="719" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KUbbNPLrHyc/XI3s9LM3xfI/AAAAAAAAkRI/TV6kuvGwEUk08GNHaJYbI47ggws7ZA6KACEwYBhgL/s320/Not%2Bme%2B7.jpg" width="207" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">No one should be opposed to people having different opinions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, no differing opinions should be accentuated with an underlying message of hate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Disagreeing is not a license to destroy, and destroying is quite a deviation from Divine Law.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zvvs3sZRq1w/XI3s9iz-jvI/AAAAAAAAkRM/cyfPZmvOPtIxhyVDXXmNpTzEnMK_G46-ACEwYBhgL/s1600/Not%2Bme%2B9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="670" data-original-width="1024" height="209" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zvvs3sZRq1w/XI3s9iz-jvI/AAAAAAAAkRM/cyfPZmvOPtIxhyVDXXmNpTzEnMK_G46-ACEwYBhgL/s320/Not%2Bme%2B9.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">There is plenty of room in Dante’s nine circles of Hell to accommodate all those seeking asylum in the asylum of Hell if that is your intent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, the sooner you get there the better for the rest of us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But are you really in control of yourself and speaking for yourself when you spout hate and attack differing views?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gP8pNGwN5gw/XI3s6rtyi3I/AAAAAAAAkRE/02i44mFz0lIH0n7Setsabb-m3E5PEtGGgCEwYBhgL/s1600/Not%2Bme%2B20.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="240" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gP8pNGwN5gw/XI3s6rtyi3I/AAAAAAAAkRE/02i44mFz0lIH0n7Setsabb-m3E5PEtGGgCEwYBhgL/s320/Not%2Bme%2B20.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Or are you simply another weak victim of the dark side hiding your fears behind the bravado of your mouth as you sink deeper and deeper into the void from which there can be no salvation and no return, but total obliteration as if you never even existed in the first place.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HiRt7PU5p9Y/XI3xdrfNOBI/AAAAAAAAkRY/R6p1Di607PcRGJykwFIRZ-7tOnz0i6x7gCLcBGAs/s1600/M42.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="176" data-original-width="180" height="312" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HiRt7PU5p9Y/XI3xdrfNOBI/AAAAAAAAkRY/R6p1Di607PcRGJykwFIRZ-7tOnz0i6x7gCLcBGAs/s320/M42.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">It is never to late to ask Jesus or God for help, but you cannot continue to drift down without passing the point of no return and condemning yourself to nothingness.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1Ntw05CaFsw/XI3s77w1YII/AAAAAAAAkRI/aT_MmTQiduAR6NHefCdcdapUd7yicEXLACEwYBhgL/s1600/Not%2Bme%2B4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="198" data-original-width="198" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1Ntw05CaFsw/XI3s77w1YII/AAAAAAAAkRI/aT_MmTQiduAR6NHefCdcdapUd7yicEXLACEwYBhgL/s1600/Not%2Bme%2B4.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In summary, when you feel the need to shoot off your mouth, pen or post, be careful what message you transmit and the intent you attach to it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Your words and actions will seal your fate for all time.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://coltonspointtimes.blogspot.com</div>Jim Putnamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12209035120639959756noreply@blogger.com0