The Melchizedek Chronicles – Humanity – We must Help each other to Survive! We must Seek out and find The Raggedy People

I think every politician, member of the news media, and all teachers responsible for forming the minds of our youth need to step back from the deadly precipice of fear mongering, polarization and blind acceptance of someone else’s truth, and seek out their own truth.

As a society, at least on the Internet and news media, we are to quick to condemn, to quick to judge, too eager to blame and to fearful to forgive.  Look around you and the result is quite terrifying. Chaos is the only constant.  The ability to communicate has been lost.  We have broken off contact with our moral and spiritual foundation.

Tragically, we have lost our connection to God.  Yet even in the shadows of darkness engulfing much of the world, God has not given up on us.

Look at the price we pay for living.  Health care costs are bankrupting our people and destroying a lifetime of savings intended for the children in a matter of months.  Student debt is causing our youth to be broke from the minute they get out of school.

Owning a home is too expensive.  Consumer goods are too cheap.  The nutritional value of food is being decimated by excessive biogenetic manipulation while most water is to polluted to drink.

Our institutions like schools, health care, even religions are more like prisons trying to entrap, or more appropriately to enslave you, isolating you from the evil lurking in the shadows rather than preparing you to survive in the world.

Almost everywhere the seeds of doubt, the level of greed, the lust for power, and accumulation of unfathomable wealth undermines the values and principles of good, honesty, fairness, justice and salvation for all Souls.

Our obsession with serving ourselves and our own selfish needs dominates our actions and causes us to lose sight of the most powerful message of our existence.  We are all children of God.  We are part of a shared humanity created by God.  We share responsibility for each other and for the Earth which God gave us to live upon.

Make no mistake, among the billions of inhabitants of Earth, there are many who are free of the darkness shrouding our world.  They are the seekers, believers, dreamers and enlightened souls free of the chaos and fear sweeping or world.

They live in a state of grace which makes them invisible to the evil forces on Earth.  I once described these souls as the Raggedy People in a Dedication for my book The Joshua Chronicles.  It went like this.

Dedication

"RAGGEDY PEOPLE"

Somewhere out there are the Raggedy People, those souls whose purpose in life is to live in the enlightenment of the Father. They seek only the riches of the perfect love of God and are welcomed into His Kingdom by Him. Full of wonder and joy, and empowered with the knowledge they are the image and likeness of God, the Raggedy People are the silent multitudes upon which a new and wonderful civilization will rise.

The Raggedy People are everywhere and nowhere, for they function as silent and often forgotten members of society. There is no gender differentiation, no classes, no hierarchy, no ethnic purification, even no preferred form of worship or religion to which they subscribe, for they may be found anywhere. All believe the Kingdom is for all souls, if you only dare to seek.

The Raggedy People are truly the children of God. One day all humankind will discover their secret, and the world will transform. One day the rich, the powerful, the politician, and the greedy will understand success in this life is not control and accumulation, but kindness and love.

There are those who read the words of God, teach it, preach it, and study it, but few who live it. Dwelling in the goodness of God on earth are the Raggedy People. We should seek them out to help us find the way. As always, they stand ready to assist.

The Joshua Chronicles tells the story of one of them. The tale of an obscure soul upon whose broad shoulders rested the salvation of humankind. How one person befriended a young lad long ago, agreed to a sacred covenant, and set out on a 2000-year odyssey to fulfill his destiny and his obligation to the Creator.

Along the way, he faced the relentless fury of "the second most powerful force in all of creation, the evil Prince of Darkness." With the unlikely assistance of an attractive young psychologist, an aging monk, two ancient members of the secret Order of the Templar and a relic of a doorkeeper, Joshua must overcome the master of the underworld in order to fulfill his sacred covenant.

The Joshua Chronicles, the most important papers in the history of humankind, must be preserved and revealed in order for all of us to find our way home. This is Joshua's story of finding his way back among the Raggedy People, and his reluctant acceptance of the sacrifices he made so that others could find their way as well.

This story is of one person's sojourn to rediscover the perfect love of God for all His creations, and to reveal that love in a way all could understand. Read this and you will know you can never be alone or forgotten, everyone counts to the Creator.

Perhaps you may be one of the Raggedy People too...

Jim Putnam

The Raggedy People are out there and they are the key to our salvation.  Through them we can discover our purpose, seek out the truth, and rediscover our faith in God and Jesus.  They can show us the path to Grace, redemption, resurrection and salvation, for the Raggedy People dwell on the path Jesus walks, illuminated by the power of the love of God and Jesus for each and every one of us.

Pray for help, pray for guidance, pray for inspiration to help others.

We must Help each other to Survive!  

Ken Burns, the documentary producer who captures the heart and soul of America, creates another masterpiece of Truth about us, the people of the US, and how we come together when all else fails.

A tribute to the storyteller who captures the heart and soul of America.

It is not hard to become a Ken Burns fan.  His honesty, humility and relentless search for the truth should be an inspiration for all.  In this, Country Music, his latest masterpiece for PBS he once again demonstrates why he tells the history of our great nation which he loves so dearly in a way that shows the true power and potential of the people of America.  Here is a description of the new series from his own website, kenburns.com which speaks for itself.    

---------------------------------------------

Country Music

Country Music will chronicle the history of a uniquely American art form, rising from the experiences of remarkable people in distinctive regions of our nation.  From southern Appalachia’s songs of struggle, heartbreak and faith to the rollicking western swing of Texas, from California honky tonks to Nashville's Grand Ole Opry, we will follow the evolution of country music over the course of the twentieth century, as it eventually emerged to become America’s music.

It will be directed and produced by Ken Burns; written and produced by Dayton Duncan; and produced by Julie Dunfey—Emmy-award winning creators of PBS’s most-acclaimed and most-watched documentaries for more than a quarter century, including The Civil War, Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery, The National Parks: America’s Best Idea, The Dust Bowl, and many more.

Country Music will be a sweeping, multi-episode series, exploring the questions, “What is country music?” “Where did it come from?” while focusing on the biographies of the fascinating characters who created it—from the Carter family, Jimmie Rodgers and Bob Wills, to Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn, Charley Pride, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, Merle Haggard, Emmylou Harris, Garth Brooks and many more—as well as the times in which they lived.  And like the music itself, Country Music will tell unforgettable stories—stories of the hardships and joys shared by everyday people.

We will trace its origins in minstrel music, ballads, hymns, and the blues, and its early years when it was called hillbilly music played across the airwaves on radio station barn dances. We will see how Hollywood B movies instituted the fad of singing cowboys like Gene Autry and Roy Rogers, and watch how the rise of juke joints after World War II changed the musical style by bringing electric guitars and pedal steel guitars to the forefront.  We will follow the rise of bluegrass music with Bill Monroe and we will note how one of country music’s offspring—rockabilly—mutated into rock and roll in Memphis.  And we’ll see how Nashville slowly became not just the mecca of country music, but “Music City USA.” All the while, we will note the constant tug of war between the desire to make country music as mainstream as possible and the periodic reflexes to bring it back to its roots.

------------------------------------------------

The following is a story I wrote in the Coltons Point Times about the History of Country Music which will give you a brief overview of what you might expect from the Ken Burns production.

The Roots of Country Music in America - Appalachia to Nashville

 

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.

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?

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.

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

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.

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.

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.



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.

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.



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.

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.



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 Frizzell and Hank Williams.



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.

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.

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. 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.

Out west Honky Tonk and Western Swing were merged by Bob Wills and Lefty Frizzell to form the Bakersfield Sound. It would encompass the diversity of different styles from Buck Owens, Merle Haggard, Tommy Collins and Wynn Stewart.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Harvard versus Yale - The Ivy League versus the World - The Presidency of the United States to the Winner - Where did Penn come from?

Will the Yale and Harvard Streak End?

In 2016 the American voters had to decide whether to continue the Harvard-Yale presidential monopoly, or just continue the Ivy League monopoly of the presidency.  After 28 straight years of Yale and Harvard controlling the most powerful position in world politics, another Ivy League school broke the streak.

When Trump won, his Ivy League School, Penn University Wharton School of Business, snatched the crown jewel, the US presidency, from their fellow Ivy League universities.  Now we face 32 straight years of elitist, Ivy League rule with a chance, if he gets reelected, of 36 straight years by graduates of just three schools. 

Now average Americans are going to have a hard time accepting this because average Americans consider the Ivy League to be something found on Wall Street, Madison Avenue, in the history books, movies, or maybe in prose or fiction books.  The Great Gatsby comes to mind.

When it comes to power, the Ivy League is IT but normally in terms of the dominant Ivy influence over Wall Street, the international banking community, the State Department, and various other engines of commerce.

Of course, the Ivy League is firmly placed in the middle of many great conspiracy theories involving the mysterious Illuminati, the Council on Foreign Relations, Freemasons, the Bilderberg Group, the Bohemia Club, the Skull and Bones Society and the Trilateral Commission.

Where did the following Latin phrases come from?

In Deo Speramus - (In God We Hope)

In lumine Tuo videbimus lumen - (In Thy light shall we see the light)

Quisquam qui ars  - (Any person -Any study)

Vox clamantis in deserto - (The voice of one crying in the wilderness)

Veritas -(Truth)

Dei sub numine viget - (Under God's power she flourishes)

Leges sine moribus vanae - (Laws without morals are useless)

Lux et veritas - (Light and truth)

Those are the mottos of the eight venerated Ivy League schools.

Brown

Columbia
Cornell
Dartmouth
Harvard
Princeton
Pennsylvania
Yale

It seems we understand the power and influence of the Ivy League in terms of commerce but we really do not when it comes to national politics.  In fact, the attitude of the general public, in terms of the Ivy League in politics, is rather bleak.

According to recent Rasmussen polls, only five percent (5%) of American Adults think it is better for America to have presidents only from Ivy League schools.  A recent Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 85% believe it is better for the country to have presidents who come from a variety of schools.

Try this!

There have been 44 men who served as US President including President Obama and Trump.  It is often said that President Barack Obama is the 44th President of the United States of America. However, President Obama is only the 43rd different person to serve as President of the United States. This is due to the fact, that President Grover Cleveland served non-consecutive terms and so is often counted as both the 22nd and the 24th President.

• Sixteen out of forty-four presidents have attended one or more Ivy League schools.

• Twenty-five out of one hundred U.S. Senators have attended one or more Ivy League schools.

• Fifty-seven out of one hundred and nine Supreme Court justices have attended one or more Ivy League schools.

All considered, more than a third of all U.S. presidents, Supreme Court justices, and currently serving U.S. senators have attended an Ivy League school for undergraduate or graduate study.

It gets better.

When Obama completed his 2nd term we had 28 straight years of presidents from Yale and Harvard alone, consisting of Bush 1, Clinton, Bush 2 and Obama.  In fact, in the 227 years we have elected presidents, remember George Washington first took office in 1789, the Ivy League has held the presidency 85 of those years, or 37% of our history.

No matter who won in 2016, Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump, it was assured the 15th president from the Ivy League would serve and that may be a bit much for a nation in which the Ivy League represents just 8 out of 4,140 institutions of higher education.

For those of you into decimals the Ivy League makes up under two tenths of one percent (.001932) of our institutions yet controlled the presidency 37% of the time.

Public 4-year institutions           629
Private 4-year institutions       1,845
Total 4 year                             2,474

Public 2-year institutions        1,070
Private 2-year institutions         596
Total 2 year                            1,666

Total 4 and 2 year                  4,140

Money talks and legacy institutions prosper but you may be surprised when it comes to the costliest universities in America, long thought to be dominated by the Ivy League.

A recently compiled list of the 20 Most Expensive Colleges in the country shows prices, which include Tuition, Fees, Room and Board, range from $63,750 to just under $67,225 per year.

   #1  Harvey Mudd College $67,255
   #2  Columbia University $66,383
   #3  New York University $65,860 
   #4  Sarah Lawrence College $65,630
   #5  University of Chicago $64,965
   #6  Bard College at Simon's Rock  $64,519
   #7  University of Southern California $64,482
   #8  Claremont McKenna College  $64,325
   #9  Oberlin College $64,266
 #10  Scripps College $64,260   
 #11  Bard College $64,254
 #12  Haverford College $64,216    
 #13  Duke University  $64,188      
 #15  Northwestern University $63,983
 #16  Trinity College $63,970  
 #17  Pitzer College $63,880
 #18  Southern Methodist University  $63,840  
 #19  Amherst College  $63,772
#20  John Hopkins University $63,750

Source: Business Insider and U.S. Department of Education

To my amazement only two Ivy League schools, Columbia and Dartmouth, made the list.

Compare that to a list of the best colleges and universities in the world for 2020.

The Times Higher Education World University Ranking 2020

  1.  University of Oxford

       United Kingdom

  2.  Cambridge University

       United Kingdom

  3.  Stanford University

       United States

  4.  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

       United States

  5.  California Institute of Technology

       United States

  6.  Harvard University

       United States

  7.  Princeton University

       United States

  8.  Yale University

       United States

  9.  Imperial College London

       United Kingdom

10.  University of Chicago

        United States

11.  ETH Zurich

        Switzerland

12.  John Hopkins University

        United States

12.  University of Pennsylvania

        United States

14.  UCL

        United Kingdom

15.  University of California Berkeley

        United states

16.  Columbia University

        United States

17.  University of California Los Angeles

       United States

18.  Duke University

       United States

19.  Cornell University

       United States

20.  University of Michigan Ann Arbor

        United States

21.  University of Toronto

       Canada

22.  Tsinghua University

       China

23.  National University of Singapore

        Singapore

24.  Carnegie Mellon University

        United States

25.  Northwestern University

        United States

(Ivy League Schools in Green)

Source: The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2020

Sorry rest of the world, but seventeen of the top twenty-five are from the United States, including seven of the top ten.  Harvard is the top ranked Ivy League school but six of the eight Ivy League schools are in the top twenty in the world.  

What does this all mean?  Here in the colonies it seems the more other schools catch up with the Ivy League in terms of the number of schools and the cost of education, the stronger those dastardly Ivy League schools get control of our presidency and political processes.

Harvard was the first university in America founded in 1636.  By 1800, six of the first 16 universities in America were Ivy League, 37%.  Now the Ivy League represents less than one percent of institutions of higher education.  In spite of that we are completing 32 straight years of presidents from just three Ivy League schools, Harvard, Yale and Penn, and now Donald Trump assures an extension of that Ivy stranglehold on the presidency up to 36 straight years.

                                     

Isn't it about time we give someone else a chance like The California Institute of Technology, Stanford, MIT, Slippery Rock, or even The Pennsylvania State University New Kensington Campus of the Commonwealth College, (the longest college name in the USA)?

My goal was to attend Yale for undergraduate and Harvard Law for graduate school and I went through the multi-year application process, but fate had other plans for me and I wound up at the University of Arizona in Tucson.  Though I retain my Ivy League loyalty, even I think enough is enough, give someone else a chance.  What do you think?