CPT Twit - A New Year Frozen in Time 2017-2018 - Niagra Falls

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A CPT Twit - for those who believe Tweets are too long.

Inspiration of the Year - Irish Lass Kaylee Rogers Steals Hearts with Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah - Merry Christmas

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The best feel-good story of the past year, in which the highs and lows have cancelled each other out, is the remarkable story of the ten-year old Irish Lass from Northern Ireland, Kaylee Rogers.  It seems the parent of a school friend quietly slipped into the viral world a recording from a Special Needs choir performance at the school last Christmas that stunned the world.

There are so many amazing aspects of this story.

 

First there is the incredible singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen from Canada who wrote an amazing Jewish song, 'Hallelujah.'   Cohen died barely a year ago, November 7, 2016, a month before the ten-year old performed her version of Hallelujah in concert for the first time.

Cohen released his song 'Hallelujah' in 1984 and slowly it became popular, until 1991 when the first of 300 other artists released a version of the Cohen sleeper, and it became a monster hit.  The song was voted one of the top 50 songs of the 1960’s and the 20^th Century and Cohen’s YouTube version has logged over 100 million views.

Then the lyrics of the magical Cohen composition were changed from a Jewish to Christian song, and the result was even greater magic.   The altered lyrics were originally devised by a Christian rock band called Cloverton in 2014, who had their video taken down on YouTube due to a copyright infringement claim by Sony. However, the lyrics are now being used to cover the song by the choir and Kaylee, and a good thing too.

Kaylee Rogers, a ten-year old Special Needs student from Northern Ireland, has autism and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.  She could barely talk or communicate at age six when she began attending the Killard House Special Needs school in Donaghadee, County Down, Northern Ireland.

She began singing as a way to build her confidence.  In barely a year over 7.2 million people have seen the video though no CD was made, it was just a school concert after all.

As reported at the time:

"When she took to the stage in her Killard House uniform an amazed silence engulfed the room. The next four-and-a-half minutes were pure magic as she sang beautifully to an entranced audience and brought grown men to tears."

We salute Kaylee Rogers for her courage in fighting autism and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and battling her way back from the silence in the tomb of autism.  What an amazing profile in courage and determination.

To then go and have the strength and courage to sing the lead part in a school Christmas concert last year, which thanks to the Internet and YouTube have been seen by over 7.2 million people, is simply astonishing.

Please listen to her magical performance.  The Kaylee lyrics appear after the song since few people know there is a new version of the song.  Please double click the screen for a full screen version.

Kaylee Rogers Video 

Double click for full screen

Hallelujah

Kaylee Rogers

Now, I've heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
But you don't really care for music, do you?
It goes like this, the fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
The baffled king composing hallelujah

Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah

Your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew ya
She tied you to a kitchen chair
She broke your throne, and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the hallelujah

Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah

You say I took the name in vain
I don't even know the name
But if I did, well really, what's it to you?
There's a blaze of light in every word
It doesn't matter which you heard
The holy or the broken hallelujah

Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah

I did my best, it wasn't much
I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch
I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you
And even though it all went wrong
I'll stand before the lord of song
With nothing on my tongue but hallelujah

Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah

Source: Musixmatch

Songwriters: LEONARD COHEN

Hallelujah lyrics © Sony/ATV Songs LLC, Music Like Dirt, Bad Monk Publishing, Tunecore Digital Music, Universal Music Mgb Songs, Sony Atv Music Publishing France, COPYRIGHT CONTROL (NON-HFA), UNIVERSAL - POLYGRAM INTERNATIONAL PUB INC, EMI CHRISTIAN MUSIC PUB OBO HILLSONG, SONY/ATV SONGS LLC OBO BAD MONK PUBLISHING, KOBALT MUSIC PUB AMERICA OBO MASTER MISTRESS MUSIC LLC

Christmas version of Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah'

The alternative lyrics were written by the Christian rock band Cloverton

Roisin O'Connor  22 December 2016

A 10-year-old girl from Northern Ireland has gone viral after a video of her singing a variation on Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah' for her school choir performance was posted on Facebook.

Kaylee Rodgers, from Donaghadee, County Down, has autism and ADHD, and began singing as a way to build her confidence.

The video of her singing the Killard House school choir's version of 'Hallelujah' has attracted more than 100,000 (now 7.2 million)) views from people around the world.

It was originally posted by parent Nichola Martin, who was proud of her son Blake who also took part in the choir. 

Kaylee told ITV that she was excited just to be singing, but that it was also "amazing" that the video had received so much attention.  "I just loved doing it," she said. 

Colin Millar, head teacher at Killard House, said: "For a child who came in P4 and would really talk, couldn't really read out in class, to stand and perform in front of an audience is amazing.

American Oscar winner Susan Sarandon Kaylee fan 

"It takes a lot of effort on Kaylee's part."

The alternative lyrics sung by Kaylee were written by contemporary Christian rock band Cloverton, who are based in Manhattan, Kansas. 

Their version - which was posted on YouTube in 2014 but muted due to reported copyright issues with Sony Columbia - sparked a debate at the time over whether it was disrespectful to change Cohen's lyrics to suit a Christian message, since Cohen was Jewish.

Cohen's opening lyrics: "Well I heard there was a secret chord/That David played and it pleased the Lord/But you don't really care for music, do you?" were changed by the band to: "I've heard about this baby boy/Who's come to earth to bring us joy/And I just want to sing this song to you," and so on for the duration of the song.

Frontman Lance Stafford told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency at the time that "no disrespect to Leonard Cohen was meant".  "When we rewrote the lyrics, I had no idea Leonard Cohen was Jewish," he said. "We didn't perceive it as a song celebrating Jewish culture or written for Jewish people."

Leonard Cohen died in his sleep aged 82 after a fall in the night on 7 November 2016, after a career spanning five decades. He released his 14th studio album You Want It Darker on 21 October of the same year.

Northern Ireland singing sensation Kaylee wows black tie Boston ball with rendition of Hallelujah

Kaylee Rogers sings at the Boston Winter Ball

By Brett Campbell

February 16 2017

A singing schoolgirl from Co Down has stunned an American audience at the Boston Winter Ball after she stole the show with a live performance of Hallelujah.

Kaylee Rogers (10) received a standing ovation when she reduced those attending the lavish ceremony to tears.

When Kaylee moved to Killard House in primary four, she struggled to talk and read out loud in class because she has autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), but it quickly became apparent that she had no problem singing.

The primary seven pupil captured hearts around the world in December when a video of her singing in the school's Christmas concert went viral.

The recording of her adaptation of Hallelujah has been viewed by millions of people online.

Principal of Killard House, Colin Millar, said Kaylee's cover of the Leonard Cohen song evoked a lot of emotion in the grand ballroom of the Fairmont Copley Plaza hotel.

He said: "When she took to the stage in her Killard House uniform an amazed silence engulfed the room. The next four-and-a-half minutes were pure magic as she sang beautifully to an entranced audience and brought grown men to tears."

Mr Millar described the audience's reaction as "the perfect tribute to the angelic voice of this 10-year-old Killard House pupil".

The Boston Winter Ball caters to socially-minded young professionals in the city and has established itself as one of the most anticipated events in its social calendar.

The beneficiary of this year's ninth annual black tie event was the Corey C Griffin Foundation, a charity which supports philanthropic causes, particularly those that serve young people.

Mr Steven Greeley, a friend of the Griffin family, was one of the many people around the world who watched Kaylee's video at Christmas. He believed she represented the guiding principles of the foundation so he quickly contacted the school to arrange for Kaylee to sing live at the ball.

The Corey C Griffin Foundation was launched in the summer of 2014 when 27-year-old Corey Griffin died in a tragic accident in Nantucket - a small isolated island off Cape Cod in Massachusetts - just a day after he had raised $100,000 (£80,300) for his Boston College friend Pete Frates' initiative to raise money for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Pete, who was diagnosed with the disease in March 2012, is credited as the person who started the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge and Corey has been referred to as the co-founder of the phenomenon which went viral on social media during the summer in which he died. Boston businessman, Arthur S DeMoulas, was recognised at the event and received an award celebrating his focus on philanthropic work.

Executive director of the Corey C Griffin Foundation, Melissa Bowman, said: "Mr DeMoulas greatly admires Kaylee's courage and perseverance to overcome adversity and sharing the evidence of that through her beautiful voice was one of the highlights of the evening.

"We understand that she hasn't performed publicly outside her school in Northern Ireland and we were delighted to welcome her to the United States to share her talent here."

Kaylee, who is normally very shy, has been growing in confidence through singing and has been praised by her school principal for embodying the ethos of the special needs school in Donaghadee.

Killard House Special School

  

Killard House Special School choir singing Hallelujah

Kaylee Rogers

After coming across this video on Christmas day, I just have to share it.  Kaylee is a special child.  She has autism and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, but when she sings…be prepared to be touched by an angel!   It brings tears to my eyes every time I listen to her rendition of the song, such was the power of little Kaylee’s voice and interpretation of the lyrics of Hallelujah.

I have a young niece who can’t speak at all, even at 5 years old, but is such sweet and mild-tempered girl and such a joy to all of us.  Seeing the milestones that Kaylee has achieved even with her disorders, I am heartened to know that En En may one day be able to overcome her own disorders, to learn to speak and do things on her own like Kaylee does, and perhaps unleash her special ability.

This Christmas-themed remake of Hallelujah consists of lyrics by American Christian rock band Cloverton.

Welcome to the website for Killard House School in Donaghadee.

Killard House School is a co-educational Controlled School providing for children and young people with additional special educational needs. These include Moderate Learning Difficulties, Speech and Language Difficulties and Autistic Spectrum Disorder.

Here at Killard House we provide education in a friendly, happy, supportive and caring environment with regard for the personal well being of our pupils.

We promote the personal and social development and a feeling of self-worth for all of our children and young people. The school is based upon good relations between children and young people, staff and those with parental responsibility.

Killard House School embraces an inspiring school motto of ‘Together We Can’ and the school prides itself with providing personalised multisensory learning experiences for the pupils in a safe and caring family environment. In fact everyone in the school refers to it as the ‘Killard House family’.

The school was founded over fifty years ago in Newtownards and in 2009, it relocated to the Donaghadee High School site. It provides education for over 200 pupils aged 3 to 18 years as well as providing Outreach Support for 30 pupils, aged between four and 11 years of age, as part of the South-Eastern Region (EA) support for Special Educational Needs in mainstream schools (Speech and Language and Moderate Learning Disability).

The school consists of a Nursery, Primary and Post-Primary Department along with 6 Social Communication Units (P1 - P7) providing a specialised programme for pupils on the Autistic Spectrum. The Primary Department also provides education for pupils with moderate and complex learning profiles in eight MLD classes P1- P7 aged pupils. The Nursery classes are two daily  sessions a morning session and afternoon session  with 4 pupils in each session.

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Happy Holidays from the Coltons Point Times to all our friends around the world!

America

OUR HOLIDAY GREETING FOR YOU

For all of the world we offer hope for world peace and wish you happy holidays for (Christian) Christmas, (African) Kwanzaa, (Hispanic) Las Posadad-Noche Buena-Navidad, (Jewish) Hanukkah-Rosh Hashanah, (Persian) Yalda, (Islamic) Eid al-Adha-Muharram, (Buddhist) Rohatsu, (Hindu) Sankranti, (Celtic) Winter Solstice and (Chinese) New Year.

Irish Schoolgirl Kaylee Rodgers Singing Hallelujah

(Double click on video for full view)

France

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

Feliz Navidad y Felices Fiestas

Mexico

Joyeux Noël et joyeuses fêtes

Syria

Buon Natale e Buone Feste

Russia

Frohe Weihnachten und frohe Feiertage

Vrolijke Kerstmis en Gelukkige Vakantie

Jerusalem

Καλα Χριστουγεννα και καλες διακοπες

Feliz Natal e Boas Festas

England UK

И Рождеством Христовым праздники

メリークリスマス休暇で幸せ

India

聖誕快樂，節日快樂

China

A Christmas Celebration

This is Rockefeller Center in NYC - the America we want you to remember.

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From the Coltons Point Times -- have a great, safe and loving holidays....

Please join us in praying for peace, praying for love, and praying for the safety of all God's creations.

Josh Groban & Andrea Bocelli - The Prayer
(Double click on video for full view)

Happy Xmas – John Lennon

(Double click on video for full view)

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Soon President Trump will host a Summit of the US, Mexico, and Canada - It is time for action!

The United States, Mexico and Canada

525 Years of Shared History

Over six years ago I wrote an article calling for a North American for Americans that outlined a program to build bridges between the United States, Canada and Mexico through a comprehensive treaty to share and protect each other in the areas of energy independence, human rights, economic collaboration, agriculture production, and safety and justice for our citizens.

With issues like Immigration Reform, drug trafficking, economic stability, terrorism. and the Keystone Pipeline pressing the agenda both the new Trump Administration and the two political parties, once again should stop talking about the problems and take action to capitalize on the wonderful opportunity we have to correct many wrongs and recognize the many good things a real North American partnership would bring.

Toward that end the following is the article I wrote first in mid-2008 calling for a North America for Americans program.  I then updated the article in 2010, 2012 and 2013 waiting for the US government to wake up and act.  We are closer today than ever and all citizens of these three great nations should demand their politicians embrace such a program that serves the greater good of the people.

Since our discovery 524 years ago the three North neighbors have grown up and evolved in ways that will forever keep us tied together culturally, economically, politically and from a national security standpoint.

We have thousands of miles of common borders and millions of people have moved back and forth between these three nations. In spite of our differences, there is much that binds us together. Yet these closest and most consistent of allies have never embraced a policy that can serve the benefit of all three neighbors.

Our problems are common from economic stability to natural resource management, from national security to energy independence. If we shared resources there are numerous ways the three could benefit from the relationship.

Even our national priorities are similar. We all seek energy independence, security for our citizens, quality health care, better education, improved human rights, freedom to achieve success without financial or cultural discrimination, and the ability to pursue an American Dream.

We complement each other in ways we seldom appreciate.  Canada has excess oil and we have excess natural gas. Mexico has oil but needs better health care, education and economic development. All three have abundant natural resources and the ability to share those resources and make all of us independent in a variety of ways.

Our problems are often ignored by politicians but obvious to compassionate citizens. Since I wrote the article nearly 200,000 innocent Mexican citizens have been brutally murdered in drug wars along the border with the USA. They were caught in the crossfire of criminal elements intent on controlling the huge illegal drug trade in the United States.

For some odd reason the number of Mexican deaths seems to have been ignored by the American media and politicians. So let us put it in perspective. Our total military deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan are about 7,000 over the past decade. Approximately 125,000 civilians were killed during the entire wars, so about 132,000 deaths took place in the two war torn countries.

In about half the years more than 200,000 Mexican civilians have been killed in a war for control of our southern border. Included are men, women and children, not soldiers.

We should be ashamed of such a travesty taking place under our very noses. Of course there is corruption in Mexico, just like on Wall Street and in Washington, DC. America is founded on the principle that crime does not pay and criminals should be hunted down and locked up. Why do we turn a deaf ear to the American crime that has settled just across the border to avoid the reach of our laws?

Immigration, or illegal immigration is another common problem between neighbors. If we helped Mexico develop an economic development program that provided fair wages and benefits to Mexican workers, there would be no need for them to cross the border illegally to seek a better life in America.

Much of the economic pressure on America came from foreign dependence on oil and the price manipulation of crude oil and gas in world commodity markets. While we have reduced oil dependence substantially, because of fuel efficiencies, and mass production of domestic oil, we still import too much.

If the last Congress and the Obama Administration had the guts we could be energy independent already as the combined oil and natural gas resources of the US, Canada and Mexico are more than sufficient to meet all our energy needs for now and the future.

Obama blocked off shore drilling, has not supported natural gas development, and rejected the Keystone pipeline from Canada, three ill-advised moves that have undermined the hopes for US energy independence. It is time to get real. Our economy and our high standard of living, the envy of most nations, depends on abundant energy at reasonable prices. We have neither.

Our first economic concern should be energy independence from foreign control and manipulation. There must be an American strategy that includes our neighbors to the north and south, Canada and Mexico.  Between the three (USA, Canada and Mexico) we have more than enough reserves of oil, natural gas and alternative energy capacity to meet our needs forever.

Between the three we have the technical skills, exploration capacity, financial resources, and the spirit of freedom needed to create our own energy cartel to meet our future needs, to control inflation which is now driven by oil prices, to offset problems in one area (hurricanes) with increased production in another area (Canadian shale reserves), and to finally gain independence from foreign manipulation.

There should be no more Dubai's financed with the blood money from American consumers. In the future the horrendous transfer of wealth from the Americas to Arab and other nations including hostile energy producing nations, must stop, keep the massive wealth in America.

If the United States, Mexico and Canada decided our shared interests were far more important than our differences, that our heritages are bound together through generations, that our borders touch and that if the citizens of all three countries had good homes, good health and good jobs, there would be no need for illegal immigration, then we could all live in peace and harmony.

Well the money we wasted buying inflated oil could have accomplished just that and isn't it about time we used that money to do some good for the Americas? Stop pointing fingers and work together. Mexico and Canada have incredible oil and natural gas reserves like the United States. We all have a need and desire to help each other grow. And we sure don't need the rest of the world to interfere.

Years ago when we passed NAFTA our biggest mistake was not that it went too far, it didn't go far enough. Oh we moved jobs to Mexico and US manufacturers saved money, but at what cost? We did not protect the workers down there like we protect them here. We did not make sure the people of Mexico got a better standard of living, decent homes, food, housing, and a better education for their children.

Maybe it is time we stepped back and did it right. Maybe we need a new trade agreement to replace NAFTA based on a shared interest in creating energy independence for all three nations. One that assures that excess profits are invested in the people, in their standard of living and quality of life. Maybe we should stop glamorizing the excesses like the lavish development of Dubai and start focusing on the real world which is the people living in our three countries in substandard conditions with inferior education and jobs in the wrong place.

Something is terribly wrong with the system. All the nuclear reactors in the world and all the alternative energy in the world will not overcome corruption in the marketplace, unfair business actions, malicious price manipulation of the futures market, and the evil intentions of oil speculators. Still the price of gasoline remains excessive and hostage to foreign oil producers.

Nuclear reactors are still dangerous. Three Mile Island and Chernobyl were not jokes nor movies, they were real. I was at TMI for the multi-billion dollar clean up of that "harmless" accident. If $5-7 billion is harmless what is the world coming to? As for Chernobyl, I met the kids that were victims of radiation poisoning, the kids that must remain in the hot zone for life because they can contaminate other people. Of course a full life for many of them was about 10-12 years.

Of the radiation that was released by Chernobyl, over 70% fell onto the population of Belarus resulting in 800,000 children in Belarus and 380,000 in the Ukraine being at a high risk of contracting cancer or leukemia.  It will be another 24,000 years before the land is safe and the children no longer suffer.

Since the disaster there has also been an increase of 800% in the incidence of cancers in children living near to the reactor plus there has been a dramatic increase in the rate of babies born with substantial physical disabilities. Babies born limbless, deformed and with severe brain damage.

Chernobyl Children’s Lifeline and other groups in Britain help deprived children living in heavily contaminated areas affected by the Chernobyl disaster, primarily Belarus and Ukraine, by bringing them to the UK for a month-long respite holiday where they benefit from, among other things, clean air, good nutrition, physical safety and an environment free of radioactive contamination. I met these beautiful kids in Scotland. The month long holiday in Scotland extended the lives of the Ukraine children up to a year.

There is an accident in the Ukraine, in Eastern Europe, and sheep die a thousand miles away in Scotland. Land from nuclear testing over the years is a dead zone for hundreds of years. Nuclear waste at our nuclear plants sit stored at the plants, vulnerable to terrorist attack, because congress cannot get a nuclear disposal facility built. When a nuclear plant wears out, and they do just like everything else, the plant must be decommissioned and that cost is now more than the cost of building the plant in the first place. Nuclear has a role but must be used with great caution.

On the other hand, there are known reserves of oil and gas in North America sufficient to meet the our needs for 300 more years. We are not running out of oil tomorrow. The price manipulation of oil has nothing to do with the supply and demand, the normal supply and demand. Off shore drilling, even the very limited Alaskan drilling, can only help us be more independent. But we need refinery capacity to make the various types of gas and oil we need if we get the crude locally.

Together the three nations should develop and implement a long term North American Energy Independence plan that makes all known and unknown reserves available to the producers including the Gulf, Atlantic and Pacific deep water reserves, the limited areas in Alaska that should be developed, and the many other known reserves in the countries.

As new territory is made available for drilling refining capacity must be expanded in the Americas to produce the products we need. There must be substantial incentives for alternative energy efforts but we must not be so foolish as to think alternative energy can meet much of our current and future energy needs.

Significant savings can be generated by energy conservation programs. For example, energy savings of 50% or more can be made in our older housing stock. Multiply that by a few hundred thousand homes and a real dent in energy demand can be realized.

A meaningful partnership is needed between the three bordering nations, the energy companies in those nations, the conservation and alternative fuel companies in those nations, and the building code enforcement authorities in those nations. Such a partnership will protect and create jobs, stop foreign trade deficits, stop the transfer of wealth to Arab nations, and stop the out of control oil and gas prices.

Beyond that an economic partnership can raise the living standard in Mexico, end illegal immigration to the USA, ensure long term economic development in Canada, and provide the citizens of all three countries with better education, food, housing and security. Such a partnership can also end the senseless killing of tens of thousands of innocent Mexicans caught in the crossfire of America's drug war.

Is it not worth the effort to make this happen? Surely this will prove to us and to the world that America is not only our brother's keeper but partner as well. It seems time our closest neighbors and long term partners who helped build America should share in the goodness and glory of America? Together we have a chance to change history.

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