Verse of the Day: The "Swamp" Opposed Building During King Cyrus's Time, Too.

Even the original Cyrus had schemers that delayed the building of The Temple:

" Then the [adversaries to rebuilding] discouraged the people of Judah, and made them afraid to build, and they bribed officials to frustrate their plan throughout the reign of King Cyrus of Persia and until the reign of King Darius of Persia. ... they wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem."     Ezra 4: 4-6
 
If you feel led to fast and pray for The Wall that our president is working to build, Intercessors For America is recommending a 3-week fast, in keeping with that of Daniel, during King Cyrus's time:

  "Before the 2016 election, there were many prophetic words that the 45^th president of the United States would be a type of Cyrus, as described in Isaiah 45:1, 4: This is what the Lord says to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of to subdue nations before him and to strip kings of their armor, to open doors before him so that gates will not be shut: “ . . . I summon you by name and bestow on you a title of honor, though you do not acknowledge me.”
We find more about Cyrus in Daniel 10, as Daniel describes a revelation given to him in the third year of the reign of Cyrus, king of Persia (verse 1). Today, we are in the third year of President Trump’s presidency. Verse 2 tells us that Daniel fasted and mourned for three weeks. This is often called the Daniel Fast—during the First Friday Prayer Conference Call on January 4, 2018 I called IFA intercessors to a 21-day (three week) fast for our nation."

27 Promises President Trump Has Already Kept In First 14 Days

Over at the blog "Maggie's Farm", TheNewsJunkie has a humdinger of a list!  Here are a few of my favorites:

TRUMP PROGRESS REPORT  

1.   Trump erased all mentions on the White House web site of “climate change.”  He did that within ONE HOUR of taking the oath of office.

4.   Trump withdrew America from the TPP treaty

5.   Trump erased all Spanish language from the White House web site. It is now “English Only.”

6.   Trump issued an Executive order starting the construction of “THE WALL.”

7.   Trump issued an Executive order banning funding to foreign pro-abortion groups

11.        Trump announced a ban on visas from dangerous Muslim-majority countries with inadequate screening

12.        Trump announced the end of “Sanctuary cities” and the defunding of federal funds for any city that chooses to continue breaking the law

13.        Trump announced the hiring of 10,000 new border agents

14.        Trump signed an Executive order demanding the Secretary of Homeland Security publish a weekly list of violent crimes committed by illegal aliens

15.        Trump signed an Executive order freezing the hiring of non-essential federal employees

16.        Trump said out loud the words “radical Islamic terrorism.”

18.        Trump used Executive orders to give the go-ahead to the long-stalled Keystone and Dakota Access Pipelines

20.        Trump announced his intention to withdraw From Climate & Environmental Accords Along With UN Funding Cuts of 40%

22.        Trump announced he’ll begin a major investigation into voter fraud in the 2016 election

Click through to read the full list. It's GREAT! 

The Alt-Righteous and the Waiting Time: A Christian Advent in the Year of Elections

This year in particular, we are in a curious holding pattern while we wait for President Trump's Inauguration. The Globalist Left is telling us daily about their plans to undo the legal election, trying to undermine our confidence, reacting like the abusers they are.   It is ESSENTIAL that we stand firm and be unyielding in our FAITH that God's purpose is unfolding toward His ends, whatever we may think we see or hear. In other words, don't let doubt enter in.  President Trump WON.  And as this great meme from The Last Refuge reminds us, Donald Trump stood up when the Lord God called. Can we do less than to stand firm?

 The entire force of all the media, Dems, & GOP that hated Trump before the election, now hate him and us even more, and are pulling out all stops to try to cause doubt and fear and to undermine our confidence in everyone on our side. They attempt to isolate each of us.

Remember: everything they say is a LIE. In their minds the election is not over - just like Gore's election was never over. Remember that and laugh at them every time they pedal their duplicitous mantra of fear and loathing.

President Trump WON. YOU won. God told us "Fear Not! The Lord Himself will fight for you. All you have to do is stand!" God did not raise up a new Cyrus to free his people to rebuild our land, in order to abandon us now.   Now, our work begins to accomplish the tasks God gives us.

Those tasks involve physical work, political work, social work, and spiritual work. During the "waiting time" that is Advent, we've  spiritual work to do to continue restoring our faith and the Christian faith in America.

Many of us fasted before and up to the election. Fasting, usually understood as going without food for a period of time or of forgoing particular foods for a period of time, is an old discipline that has been neglected in the modern Christian world. Not everyone is called to it, and a wise Christian woman once told me that we need God's help to fast, so not to worry if I weren't able to.  Here's a good article with the basics of fasting to get started (not endorsing the website, just this article). And here is an outline of guidelines for an Orthodox Advent fast.  From the latter, the Antiochan Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America, comes also this advice:

• *Fasting in itself is not a means of pleasing God. Fasting is not a punishment for our sins. Nor is fasting a means of suffering and pain to be undertaken as some kind of atonement. Christ already redeemed us on His Cross. Salvation is a gift from God that is not bought by our hunger or thirst.

• *We fast to be delivered from carnal passions so that God’s gift of Salvation may bear fruit in us.

• *We fast and turn our eyes toward God in His Holy Church. Fasting and prayer go together.

• *Fasting is not irrelevant. Fasting is not obsolete, and it is not something for someone else. Fasting is from God, for us, right here and right now.

For me, at 21 days it was the longest fast I have ever undertaken, and I was able to do it without telling anyone but Paul.  I allowed myself to drink anything I wanted, including milk and broth, and I had one small meal every second or third day (that is what enabled me to avoid telling others about my fast. I scheduled meals within gatherings) .  While not as rigid as some may have done. it helped me remain focused on the value of my quiet relationship with God in effecting His work.  For the three days leading up to the election, I did not eat, finally enjoying a meal only after the polls had closed on the West Coast. I have not yet come to see whether or how I should fast for Advent - and for the preservation of President Donald Trump's election and full inauguration.

The themes of King Cyrus continue to crop up. Today, a passage on the particular kind of fasting that our Father God approves of, starts by reminding us we as individuals must look after our own, and ends with a strong statement about rebuilding the ruins and restoring the walls. It also adds a pointed reminded about keeping the Sabbath - the day of rest every week:

6 “The kind of fasting I want is this: Remove the chains of oppression and the yoke of injustice, and let the oppressed go free. 7 Share your food with the hungry and open your homes to the homeless poor. Give clothes to those who have nothing to wear, and do not refuse to help your own relatives.

8 “Then my favor will shine on you like the morning sun, and your wounds will be quickly healed. I will always be with you to save you; my presence will protect you on every side. 9 When you pray, I will answer you. When you call to me, I will respond.

“If you put an end to oppression, to every gesture of contempt, and to every evil word; 10 if you give food to the hungry and satisfy those who are in need, then the darkness around you will turn to the brightness of noon. 11 And I will always guide you and satisfy you with good things. I will keep you strong and well. You will be like a garden that has plenty of water, like a spring of water that never goes dry.

12 Your people will rebuild what has long been in ruins, building again on the old foundations. You will be known as the people who rebuilt the walls, who restored the ruined houses.”

The Reward for Keeping the Sabbath:

13 The Lord says, “If you treat the Sabbath as sacred and do not pursue your own interests on that day; if you value my holy day and honor it by not traveling, working, or talking idly on that day, 14 then you will find the joy that comes from serving me. I will make you honored all over the world, and you will enjoy the land I gave to your ancestor, Jacob. I, the Lord, have spoken.”

                                                                                         Isaiah 58: 6-14 (Good News Version)

This does NOT mean we are supposed to "be nice". Nice does not equal Good.  We remove oppression when we speak the truth, even when it is not politically correct. We free the oppressed when we stand up against persecuting people for speaking out against Progressive and Globalist distortion. The forced "migration" is unjust to all concerned, criminal governments pushing people out of their homes and sending them into indentured servitude. We help the homeless, needy, and poor in our own communities, not by allowing Open Borders to push people from other lands out of their original homes to fulfill evil Elitist agendas of increasing "migrants" and "remittances" and "majority minority voters". We remove oppression when we build and maintain good boundaries and strong borders. When we allow people to earn a living in their own land, trading with their own neighbors.

Our pastor suggested before the election: What if the prayer and supplication of our little cowboy church really could affect the outcome of the election and could make a difference for all eternity?  What if my private actions and worship really do make a singular difference?

Whether or not we fast for Advent, or perhaps give something up, it can only help our cause to refocus our minds on taking a good look at ourselves and listen for the words God is speaking to us as direction for the coming months.  A new course of study, a simple daily meditation, some new discipline to focus our minds and our will toward whatever unknown we will be called to very soon.

As expectant families do, we pray for the safety and easy birth of our new government led by President Trump. We pray for the washing of that government, scrubbing it clean of corruption and guile, restoring to all positions mighty men and women of honor who will conduct their affairs in Godly ways.

We also pray for guidance and focus for our own roles in rebuilding our ruined cities, in reconstructing our walls, in looking after our own families and the *individuals* we see right in front of us, in our own towns in our own states, instead of continuing to follow the globalists orders to ignore our American family's pleas and look over their familiar heads toward more exotic or interesting strangers over the far horizon.  There are many who are called to serve those in foreign lands, and we pray for bold new proclamation of the Living Gospel to be the central purpose of their work, not some watered down globalist project that forbids the mention of Jesus' Name in the doing.

The work of Christians in this time is to be done, as it was of old, with Jesus Christ paramount. For as CS Lewis noted, " Jesus Christ did not say, ‘Go into all the world and tell the world that it is quite right.’ The Gospel is something completely different. In fact, it is directly opposed to the world."

Instead, the only true Commandment and single imperative that Jesus Christ gave us after his resurrection is to preach the Gospel to every creature :

"All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."  Matthew 28:19

Naming The Enemy, Naming The Crimes

I've written before about the Left's corruption of our language. As Hillary Clinton takes her lies about the Alt-Right public in her never-ending deception road trip,  The Orthosphere takes this analysis a step further:

"Everyone knows the story of Babel. It’s right up there with the Flood. It doesn’t need explanation.

"Babel connotes a profane and impudent and mighty *tower,* a huge evil edifice, the central project of the civil authorities, engaging the efforts of the whole people, willy nilly, first enslaving and then confusing them. It connotes the catastrophe of unbridled hubris.

And, of course, the Babylonians too, like the Canaanites, practiced human sacrifice (almost everyone did, back then).

The discourse of our adversaries is famously incoherent. It is babble. And it is introducing a babble of diverse languages into our cities, as Babel seeks to reconstitute herself."

Who does the author say we are?

Daniel, who was possibly an intercedent to King Cyrus.



*Art: Daniel in the Lion's Den, painted by Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859-1937), American painter

Veteran Ray Starmann Writes An Open Letter to Mr. Khizr Khan

Clear, rational truths from the article "An Open Letter to Mr. Khizr Khan" at usdefensewatch.com, written by a Veteran who first offered his sincere condolences to this Gold Star family who falsely criticized Mr Donald Trump in a speech at the 2016 Democratic National Convention: 

"As a former US Army officer, and a veteran of the Gulf War, I can certainly understand the pain and anguish that you and your wife endure every day. 

"Your son died saving the lives of his fellow soldiers. As John wrote, Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.


"Captain Khan is a hero. I am sure the soldiers he served with regard him as one. I know you and your wife do. Rest assured that millions of veterans regard your son as a hero as well."

Starmann clarifies Mr Trump's reasonable ideas, and  the Constitutional requirement to limit immigration in ways that defend the Nation:

"Mr. Trump’s plan to temporarily halt immigration from Muslim countries that are known to either support terrorism or harbor terrorist groups is not only pragmatic, but indeed it is constitutional. It is the constitutional duty of the President of the United States to protect this nation."

Starmann continues with the hard truth:

"Whether you, your wife, the Muslim world and millions of Democrats are offended by Mr. Trump’s realistic view of the world is irrelevant. ..... 

"Whether you, your wife and son would have been prohibited from emigrating from Pakistan to America under Mr. Trump’s wartime plan is irrelevant. The security of this great land supersedes your desires and the desires of others who wish to come here now. The United States of America has no obligation to open its doors in order to placate foreigners and liberals in our government. 

"To adopt any other course but Mr. Trump’s would be a cause for further endangering the lives of Americans every day. That, sir, is unacceptable. 

"You attacked Mr. Trump in front of a worldwide audience, yet you can’t understand the fact that he defends himself against attacks from you, Hillary Clinton and the left. What else is one to do sir? 

"We must live in a world of reality, not a world of denial, delusion and fantasy the Democrats inhabit every waking day of their lives."

Click here to go read the whole good, fair, wise article.

The Science Isn't Settled on the Zika Marketing Campaign Yet

There's another new report out that firmly points to a chemical mosquito control program as the specific cause of Brazil's microcephaly increase.

This year's terrifying biological epidemic is Zika - the one our government refuses to quarantine for, despite CDC projections that travelers bringing it here will spread it to mosquitoes, causing it to get into the US ecosystem where the virus will become a constant infection risk for Americans - the one our President and much of Congress want to spend a billion dollars on while blithely inviting "undocumented" "migrants" from countries where it is endemic.

During the Ebola outbreak, the US Government opposed testing or quarantine for travelers (or their pets) from nations with Ebola outbreaks, while agressively quarantining all troops who returned from helping with the outbreaks.

In the Zika epidemic, the US government is allowing human carriers unfettered entrance - and these human carriers have infected others while in the United States - but monkeys and apes are subject to 31 days of quarantine.

The first suggestion that Zika causes microcephaly originated innocently enough, from educated guesses by a few Brazilian doctors. But they had no scientific evidence to confirm it. And despite media reports and claims otherwise, they still don't.

The data is not conforming to the narrative.

In fact, the biggest question on everyone's mind is: why aren't other countries with active Zika outbreaks experiencing a rise in microcephaly?

Sharyl Attkisson reports, in her excellent June 23rd overview, on many of the inconsistencies between the "official" narrative, and the facts about Microcephaly and Zika Virus: "35 Facts (and Controversies) About Zika", notes two indicators that other factors are in play: Brazil's decision to inject all pregnant women with the Tdap vaccine in late 2014; and Brazil's use of Pyriproxyfen in drinking water supplies in the areas with the highest prevalence of microcephaly.

It's the Pyriproxyfen that looks most likely.

Attkisson references the February 2016 report by Argentinian Pediatrician Dr. Medardo Avila Vazquez, who points directly at contaminated water supplies:

"Since the second half of 2014, the Brazilian Ministry of Health(5) stopped using temephos (an organophosphate agrotoxic to which Aedes larvae became resistant) as larvicide, [and then began using] ....the poison Pyroproxyfen, commercially known as Sumilarv and manufactured by Sumimoto Chemical, a Japanese company associated to or subsidiary of Monsanto in Latin America (1,5).

"Pyroproxyfen is applied directly by the Brazilian Ministry of Health on drinking-water reservoirs used by the people of Pernambuco, where the proliferation of the Aedes mosquito is very high (a situation similar to the Pacific Islands).(6) This poison, recommended by the WHO, is a growth inhibitor of mosquito larvae, which alters the
development process larva-pupa-adult, thus generating malformations in developing mosquitoes and causing their death or incapacity. .... Malformations detected in thousands of children from pregnant women living in areas where the Brazilian state added pyriproxyfen to drinking water is not a coincidence, ..."

Since then, other reports emerge to challenge the Zika Marketing Campaign's claims, and to demand a scientific look at the increasingly mounting evidence for some other cause of Brazil's Microcephaly epidemic.

Here's the newest one.  A June 22, 2016 report * from the New England Complex Systems Insitute states outright that in Columbia, which has a very high rate of Zika:

"The total number of pregnancies with Zika infections is much larger, with 11,944 cases with Zika symptoms being observed in clinical settings. No cases of microcephaly occurred in all of these 12,000 pregnancies."

They go on to conclude that:

"Combining the symptomless and symptomatic individuals we would expect 5 X 6.5 = 33 times as many cases as the cohort, i.e. 22 and 37 cases in the two exposure models. This would seem to rule out Zika as a cause of microcephaly.

"We can, however, consider the alternative that Zika is not the cause of microcephaly." ... "An alternative cause of microcephaly in Brazil could be the pesticide pyriproxyfen, which is cross-reactive with retinoic acid, which causes microcephaly, and is being used in drinking water. "

The NECSI published a study in April 2016 which establishes a strong link between microcephaly and Pyriproxyfen:

"Here we consider the alternative that the insecticide pyriproxyfen, used in Brazilian drinking water for mosquito control, may actually be the cause. Pyriproxifen is an analog of juvenile hormone, which corresponds in mammals to regulatory molecules including retinoic acid, a vitamin A metabolite, with which it has cross-reactivity and whose application during development causes microcephaly.

Methoprene, another juvenile hormone analog approved as an insecticide has metabolites that bind to the retinoid X receptor, and causes developmental disorders in mammals. Isotretinoin is another example of a retinoid causing microcephaly in human babies via activation of the retinoid X receptor.

Moreover, tests of pyriproxyfen by the manufacturer, Sumitomo, widely quoted as giving no evidence for developmental toxicity, actually found some evidence for such an effect, including low brain mass and arhinencephaly—incomplete formation of the anterior cerebral hemispheres—in rat pups.

Finally, the pyriproxyfen use in Brazil is unprecedented—it has never before been applied to a water supply on such a scale. Claims that it is not being used in Recife, the epicenter of microcephaly cases, do not distinguish the metropolitan area of Recife, where it is widely used, and the municipality, where it is not. Given this combination of information we strongly recommend that the use of pyriproxyfen in Brazil be suspended pending further investigation. "

This corresponds with the earlier concerns expressed by Dr. Medardo Avila Vazquez.

The second possibility being put forward for the high and sudden increase in Microcephaly in Brazil alone is a faulty vaccine:  Around the same time that Brazil changed larvacides, they also mandated giving the Tdap vaccine to all pregnant women:
" A dose of Tdap for pregnant women (administered during each pregnancy between 27 through 36 weeks gestation and as early as 20 weeks gestation in hard-to-reach areas) was implemented in 2014."

"Tdap" stands for Tetanus, Diptheria, and Pertussis. The Tdap vaccine has been given to pregnant women in the USA for several years and is considered safe for both mother and child.  Neonatal Tetanus will directly cause microcephaly in infants who survive, and it kills most, so Brazil is trying to solve a serious and very real health problem with these vaccines.

But because it is a new program, used in rural areas of Brazil that correspond directly with the locations of the microcephaly increase, this needs to be examined.  There is a case report of an infant who developed microcephaly after her first DPT booster.  Is it possible that the vaccines - or some of them - were faulty in some way, or given inappropriately?  Are the vaccines that are safe for American women still safe for women whose disease exposure history is completely different?

Finally, could some of the "Zika Linked" microcephaly incidents be cases of mistaken identity?

The more significant health crisis, Dengue Fever, is rampant in Brazil. USA Today reports

"Dengue is spread by the same mosquito species as Zika, and the two viruses are so similar that blood tests sometimes can't tell the two apart.

"When people are infected with dengue, or any virus, the immune system releases key proteins called antibodies to neutralize the invaders. Authors of a study published Thursday in Nature found that two of the antibodies the body makes to fight dengue also prevent Zika infections."

So why is the Official Narrative all about Zika,  and the drive to certainty, in denial of the science?

We know that the global elites and the US government will lie to us, and will eagerly grab any crisis to push through their objectives, no matter how unsafe. Did Zika look like the perfect opportunity to achieve another UN Millennium Development Goal?

You may have noticed a subtle change in the language TPTB are using now: they no longer talk about babies born with microcephaly. Instead, the phrasing is "Zika babies could appear normal" and counts every baby, even those born healthy, as "Zika-affected births" or "poor birth outcomes". The numbers even include babies voluntarily killed by abortion, as well as miscarriages which could be related to other causes. Despite the foreign status of all the US-located births of babies whose mothers had Zika, the headlines claim "Zika: 7 US Babies Born With Birth Defects". None of these women from other countries contracted Zika in the US.

The US & Brazil have been actively cooperating in development of a Dengue vaccine, with Brazil beginning clinical trials in 2013 and approving marketing of a larger test in December 2015.

Is Zika being built up with other causes of microcephaly ignored, in an effort to increase funding (and tangentally to force abortion and birth control on devout Catholic nations)?

As Newsweek so calmly put it:

"Speaking of prophylactics—perhaps the real panacea would be a vaccine, distributed to every citizen of every troubled country. "  

Golly. I wonder who they can get to pay for all of that?


*This week's update to the NECSI report noted Columbia has added 5 cases of Zika-associated microcephaly to the previous 6, bringing their total to 11 cases (in over 60,000 Zika-infected pregnant women) from Jan 1 through June 18th. While researchers noted this as a slight increase, it is still far below the more than 200 that would be expected if Zika were truly the cause of microcephaly:

"Using an estimated rate of microcephaly induced by Zika of 1 in 100 pregnancies exposed in the first trimester, or alternatively 0.5 in 100 of all pregnancies exposed in the first and second trimester [5], there should be 200 microcephaly cases arising from Zika exposure in Colombia of pregnancies infected until March 28. Zika infections
rose rapidly starting in October 2015 and peaked at the beginning of February. If Zika is the cause of microcephaly, we expect the number of reported cases to increase to more than 10 per week over upcoming weeks.

"These Zika induced cases should be in addition to the background rate of 2 in 10,000 births [6], which is consistent with the 6 or 7 cases reported from Colombia till this week.

"The 5 additional cases reported this week are therefore the first indication that Zika is causing microcephaly in Colombia, while earlier reported cases are consistent with random co-occurrence of microcephaly and Zika infections. Confirmation will depend on reports in upcoming weeks."

The Orlando Terrorist Attack, Self Defense, And A Sobering Reality Check

For your own sakes, people, either walk armed or else refuse to go places that do not allow ordinary people to defend themselves. Gay or straight, black or white, Christian or Jew, children or adults, we have all suffered from the murders of people trapped in those despicable "Gun Free Zones".

The tragedies have become numbing. It was only by the grace of God that Anti-American Anti-Trump rioters in San Jose did not kill some innocent citizen under the very eyes of the police, who watched unmoving as many were traumatized. Last week, nine American soldiers drowned in one of the flash floods that every year kill more people than any other weather event. This weekend, scores of people were gunned down in yet another act of war against our civilization. May our Father God bring comfort to the those whose loved ones were killed, and healing to those who were injured.

After San Jose, we looked for ways to protect oneself against mobs. In the tragic deaths of strong people against rushing water, we saw the need for more urgent flood safety education. And now, looking once again at a group of defenseless people shot down without mercy, we see that self-reliance and self-defense and self-preservation are the only means by which we can assure our own safety and that of our neighbors.

Because nothing any government official or agency or law or employee does is going to save our lives from people bent on killing us. We MUST take charge of our own safety and demand the mealy-mouthed elite stop hiding behind their PAID ARMED GUARDS, stop using us as their shields, and stop gambling with our lives when they won't take an unprotected step with their own.

No one can vote away my right to defend myself - or yours. The ancient, indigenous American culture of gun use and carry - not just for adults or "non-convicted" - that was a part of life in these United States from 1492 until the 1980s, has been eroded by people who HIRE THEIR GUNS while trying to eliminate ours.

Paul and I made a decision several months ago that we will not go into buildings that do not allow the public to bring their guns. Places we can't avoid, such as the doctor's office and Courthouse, we will respectfully make known our opinion. Otherwise, we have choices (such as shopping at Kroger and not at HEB), and we make them.

While we always have to be aware and willing to protect and defend ourselves and our neighbors, there is an additional element when the danger comes from foreign elements - whether or not the "actor" is a US citizen or not. The word for terrorists who happen to hold US citizenship is: Traitors. Traitors are citizens who commit acts on behalf of foreign elements.

Terrorists are people who commit acts on behalf of foreign interests: they are, by definition, "enemies foreign and domestic", and it is the job of our governments to protect us from them. In fact, that is the PRIMARY (and some say ONLY) job of government: to protect citizens and our lands from damage or injury or incursion by foreign interests.

When it comes to terrorists and traitors, Stefan Molyneux has a reality check, and a history lesson for people who really care about saving lives of Americans who believe in liberty. It's long, but you don't want to miss the last part either, because we have hard choices to make. He says it all far better than I can:

San Jose PD Tips On How To Survive Mob Attacks

They will not protect us. The police in blue city after blue city have shown they will refuse to prevent mobs from assaulting innocent citizens who have a normal reason to be where they are. This past week, it was San Jose California law enforcement. San Jose Mayor Liccardo hosted an event for Hillary Clinton the week before, so I guess he thought that meant she had "dibs" on ol' sanctuary San Jose. And the Chief of Police just came right out and said police feared if they defended the people getting beat up, it might make the mob "turn on the officers"... so they didn't.

I am working on a post for tips about how to stay safe when attacked by violent mobs, because I can't seem to find a good article about it. But in the mean time, the San Jose Police Department and Sheriff's Office did give us clear examples of what they do to avoid being assaulted or injured when attacked by a mob aka "protesters".

Despite a mob so predicated on violence that dozens of peaceful ordinary citizens were assaulted, beaten, brutalized and made to fear for their lives for doing the most ordinary thing there is in America, law enforcement was able to get through with only one minor injury and a claim of "four arrests"!

AND, thanks to their sharp thinking, no members of law enforcement were egged, brutalized, spat on, chased down, punched from behind, had their clothing ripped off their backs, had to run for their lives, were kept from entering safety by armed badged men holding the doors shut, or had their cars rocked and pounded. That only happened to decent citizens.  And no, they did not 'deserve' it.

Obviously, the police in San Jose know something the rest of us need to know.

I'm no expert. I know nothing about personal protection or defensive manouvers. But since the SJPD are and do, I carefully reviewed a number of different videos to find some practices the San Jose Police Department used that look to me to maybe be effective in protecting and serving the innocent citizenry too:

Model the San Jose police: Back to the wall - Notice all those San Jose Police lined up against the buildings? The ordinary citizens under attack were often trapped between law enforcement and the mob, effectively protecting the police from the angry brawlers. I think this is the same man who was earlier surrounded by a bullying mob and finally reached "safety".

Model the San Jose police: Stay together .

Model the San Jose police: stay inside and bar the doors until "somebody else" disburses the mob. This brave woman refused to bow to the brutality, and went from door to door to find away in. Police watched from inside and refused to open the door for her until men in suits showed up and signaled for them to do so.

Model the San Jose police: victimized groups can maintain a tight defensive circle that protects all in it from being isolated and targeted.

Model the San Jose Police: There is safety in numbers. Be sure there are more of you than of the mob.

Model the San Jose Police: Keep moving, together, away from the crowd and away from the most chaotic areas. Oh look! At the end of the day, the Sheriff's Deputies finally take down a protester - but he was far away from anyone.. hmmm... OH now they are taking down a protester holding a Free Speech sign who also does not seem to have done anything and was not near anyone...  I wonder if these were among the 4 arrested?

Model the San Jose Police: Wear a uniform, helmets and carry shields. Maybe we all need a hard hat! All the videos seem to show that men in suits and ties are ignored by all protestors.

Model the media: carry a big camera. People in America, citizens or visitors, understand to treat media as neutral parties. Even the bad guys want it on film.

Model the San Jose police: be a group of BIG, fit, strong men, with a military bearing to influence mobs to prefer conversation to physical confrontation. You will still need to stay together, and instead of the police-issue nightstick, normal people can carry a big camera. Here are some guys doing a good job of all of that.

And at the end of it all, of course, there's always "Crime Stoppers":

"San Jose police are asking anyone with information about physical assaults at the Trump rally to contact their Assaults Unit at 408-537-4161 or "311". Persons wishing to remain anonymous may call the Crime Stoppers Tip Line at 408-947-STOP (7867). Persons providing information leading to the arrest and conviction of the suspect may be eligible for a reward from the Silicon Valley Crime Stoppers."

One Adam 12, we miss you.

THIS is what Hispanic America looks like!!!!! #LatinosForTrump

Thank you, Mark F, Angelo Gomez, and everyone in this video for showing the world the kind of good people, dear friends, beloved family, and patriotic neighbors we in Texas see every day!

"The most patriotic Americans are immigrants who came here, not for what they could get here, but for who they could BE here."

(Be sure and watch all the way through. The compilation of voices starts about 1:40 in)

@Immigrant4trump #LatinosForTrump

The 2016 Texas Republican Party Platform Reads Like a Declaration of Independence

Texas Republicans held our State Convention this past weekend, and our delegates have written a platform for the ages.  If you have been worried, fearing you were alone in seeing the dangers we face from bad agendas our leaders have secretly put forward the past 25 years, this will encourage you, You can read it all at this link (PDF).

 Because it is based on unchanging and established principles, in large part this platform is almost word for word the same as the 2014 platform (PDF), saving only the defense against the most recent falsehoods being used to attack settled civilization.

But already, it looks like most of the standard media outlets continue their unserious approach to reporting: picking out a few of the hard-left's most violent depredations to tag in the headlines and ignoring the other items of primary importance to real American citizens.

Yes, we oppose child sacrifice and defend biological realism against wholesale distortion by government action, but the issues of abortion and open toileting are ultimately weapons of the hard-left. We do not spend our time "thinking about" those heartless weapons of misrule.

Instead, the ISSUES and principles of importance to us exist without regard to what the hard-left does. The genuinely important things are timeless and immortal, while the entropic manufactures of the hard-left fail without exception.

If the hard-left were healed tomorrow, finally outgrowing their boring obsessions and wasteful destructiveness, the same things would still be important to us (and would finally become important to them as well): Life, Liberty, and those bastions that make up "the pursuit of happiness" faith, family, work, self-reliance.

I've seen appalling results come out of various conventions before, but here is clear proof that the adults in Texas are not under delusion, that moral (and even written!) clarity is still possible.

This platform affirms the sovereignty of God over us and our nation, the primacy of our Judeo-Christian heritage and culture, urges elimination of a dozen Federal agencies, elimination of Congressional pensions and deposit of those funds into the Social Security Trust Fund, calls for elected officials and their staff to have no exemption from laws the rest of us must follow, elimination of gerrymandering, support for covenant marriage and eliminating "no fault divorce", sovereignty of parents to raise and educate their children, stronger penalties for sexual abuse of children by adults (up to and including the death penalty),  a hard line against illegal immigration (including visa overstays) restoration of the filibuster, elimination of "zero tolerance" policies in schools, and much, much, more.

The Platform also calls for allowing the local sale of raw milk, allowing cultivation of industrial hemp, legalizing prescription medical marijana, elimination of civil forfeiture, evicting the UN and opposing adoption of any of its programs, internet freedom, elimination of the draft, and protection of military personnel against liability for reasonable actions taken in the field.

I loved this:

 "Federal Reserve System- We believe Congress should repeal the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 thereby abolishing the Federal Reserve Banking System. In the interim, we call for a complete audit of the Federal Reserve System and its Board of Governors followed by an immediate report to the American people."

"Repeal Dodd-Frank- We support the immediate repeal of Dodd-Frank legislation and replace with the Glass-Steagall Act." [I wrote about this way back in 2010, Glad to see it finally being seriously discussed.] 

"Sound Money- We support the return to the precious metal standard for the United States dollar. "

Some of my favorite planks are those relating to taxation and spending. Here are some of those:

"Bailouts and Subsidies- We encourage government to divest its ownership of all business that should be run in the private sector and allow the free market to prevail. We oppose all bailouts of domestic and foreign government entities, states and all businesses, public and private. We oppose local government handouts to businesses and other private entities in the name of economic development. 

"Tax Burden - "....Furthermore, we believe that the borrower truly is a slave to the lender, and so long as we continue to increase our tax and debt burdens we will never be a truly free people. Towards these ends, we support the reformation of the current systems of taxation at all levels of government: federal, state, and local.
" Examples of these reforms include the following:
1. Eliminating the Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
2. The “Fair Tax” system
3. A Flat Tax
4. The 1-2-3 No Federal Tax
5. Abolishing property taxes, but in the interim, property taxes should be paid on the
price of the property when it was initially purchased.
6. Electing appraisal boards
7. Exempting inventories from property taxes
8. Abolishing estate taxes or the “Death Tax” as it’s more commonly known
9. Abolishing capital gains taxes
10. Abolishing franchise and business income taxes
11. Abolishing the gift tax.
12. Discontinuing revenue generating licensing fee "

I have never been more proud of our delegates to the State Convention. All ~8000 of them stood up for scientific clarity, rational thinking, personal liberty, reality-based legal principles, classical education, proven morals and established ethics.

All of these planks are items that Mr Donald Trump supports or can support in his candidacy. Where we will be looking intently is at our representatives, both national and state, expecting them to actually introduce legislation to do these things and aggressively support their enactment (or elimination as the case may be).

Rogation Days: "Justice in the Preservation of the Boundaries"

"Rogation Days" were a church tradition in Europe that involved the whole community walking the boundaries of their village lands, led by their Priest and asking the blessing of God on it all.

Maybe if we had kept walking the boundaries and teaching children the landmarks, we would not be in such danger from the new iconoclasts today, who seem determined to tear down every landmark of civilization. From the article "Rogation and Ascension"  on Full Homely Divinity:

"The reminder of boundaries had another important impact on communal life. In a poem by the 20th century American Robert Frost, the poet's neighbor asserts that "good fences make good neighbors." Boundaries are often very important in relationships. As members of parishes beat the bounds, they would often encounter obstructions and violations of boundaries. The annual beating of the bounds provided an opportunity to resolve boundary issues. It also led to the tradition of seeking reconciliation in personal relationships during Rogationtide. The sharing of a specially brewed ale, called Ganging Beer, and a mysterious pastry, called Rammalation Biscuits, at the end of the walk was a good way of sealing the reconciliation.

"George Herbert gave the following good reasons to beat the bounds: 1) a blessing of God for the fruits of the field; 2) Justice in the preservation of the bounds; 3) Charity, in living, walking and neighbourly accompanying one another, with reconciling of differences at that time, if they be any; 4) Mercy, in relieving the poor by a liberal distribution of largess which at that time is or ought be made."  [in The Country Parson, Chapter 35]

QOTD: Weaponless 62 Year Old French Train Hero on Overcoming Fear

 "Once you start moving, you aren't afraid anymore."

                                 Chris Norman,  62 year old Britisher who, even though unarmed, helped subdue an armed Islamic terrorist aboard a French train.

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A Factoid About Donald Trump and Infrastructure Building Projects

From an article about Donald Trump in the Oct 4, 1989 Issue of People Magazine:

"When the city of New York floundered for six years and spent $12 million trying to get the Wollman Skating Rink rebuilt in Central Park, Trump stepped in and did it in four months for $2.1 million,"

Sounds pretty effective to me!

Lest They Died In Vain: Pamela Geller's Courageous Choice Defends Liberty For American Muslims, Christians and Jews

After Charlie Hebdo, Pamela Geller stood up as an example to show the world, and the extremists, that IF Americans of any background treat the tenets of any faith with respect, it is because we choose to - not because we are afraid of murderers and bullies who try to force others to comply with their demands.

While many safely tweeted "Je suis Charlie" and pretended to stand in solidarity with an edgy and trendy French magazine whose staff were murdered for publishing cartoons, few actually did anything to truly show how important the right to a free press is. Pamela Geller honored their sacrifice by coordinating a free speech event in Garland Texas.

Without Ms Geller's legal, non-violent free speech exercise, others would be more intimidated and less willing to stand firm against other extremist demands, while the brutal would be encouraged to expand - and the sacrifices of Charlie Hebdo's staff, Theo van Gogh, Daniel Pearl, Steven Sotloff,  Fabrizio Quattrocchi,  and the dozens of journalists murdered all over the world every year, would all be for naught.

We all know this.

We all know that without Ms Geller's courage, gentler groups will suffer indignities and circumscription at an increasing and discriminatory rate, while belligerent ones will be allowed to ride roughshod over us.

We know this. Even those who fear to admit it to themselves, know this.

The discussion about whether it is polite or ethical in America to disparage Christianity or Judism or Islam does need to happen, because that is how Americans do things, but not now. It needs to happen at a time when every example of radical free speech (from Mapplethorpe and Serrano to Charlie Hebdo and Geller) receives equal treatment in that discussion.

And only after coercion, intimidation, and threats of violence or "law-fare" have been eliminated as factors of influence.

A fundamental truth on which America was founded, and which we still believe, is that without religious freedom for everyone, which must of necessity include complete freedom of speech and freedom of the press, the very root of all liberty for all people is endangered.

If legal or social coercion and threat of violence are what keep people silent, then there is no free speech, and it builds a wall.

Those who wish to avoid such walls between people must be aware of the reality of danger faced by Christians and other liberty-practicing peoples in this 21st Century.

At a time when lawful protections for freedom of religion in America itself are being eroded at a rate unimaginable 20 years ago; when Christians are the most persecuted religious group in the world (mistreated for their faith in 151 countries since 2006, at least 41 of which are Muslim nations, and in Muslim-dominated regions of others); when "80% of all acts of religious discrimination in the world today are directed at Christians"; when antisemitism against Jews is rising at an alarming rate on US college campuses; when Jews are persecuted in 95 countries despite being only 1% of the world's population; when the brutality of religious persecution in the Middle East, Africa, Indonesia and Asia is erasing or enslaving whole populations of Christians and other minority religions and this violence is undertaken by extremists claiming - even if wrongly - the flag of Islam for their unholy mayhem...

...at such a time, it is no wonder that usually-accepting Americans, even if they are not Christian, have a very reality-based fear of similar instability being launched here.

At the same time, Muslims also faced persecution in 135 countries between 2006 and 2012. Persecution they should also be protected from - as they have been protected in majority-Christian America since our founding. In America, we make no distinction: we believe all people should have equal liberty to think, speak, pray, study, publish, associate, live, work, and abide by the same laws.

Muslim people of good will can find commonalities with Christians & Jews, if they wish to do so, and as so many have done for generations before these troubles started. In the United States at this time, Christians, Muslims and Jews share the serious and real threat of complete loss of freedom to actively practice our faith. We also share interest in moral and ethical matters such as public decency and modesty, marriage and divorce, home and family, children's education that respects parents' beliefs and decisions, honest business practices, ethical local government, stewardship and freedom from debt.

If Muslim people of good will wish to engage others of different faiths, they must remove fear and threat of violence from the picture. That includes letting go of the name-calling: mislabeling Pamela Geller a "bigot" or falsely claiming she is "racist" or pretending her honest factual statements are "hate speech" is just another form of violence against freedom of speech and the rule of law in a nation of free people.

As Governor Bobby Jindal said on Monday, a firm and truly unequivocal statement (not one that uses the word unequivocal but goes on to slander Ms. Geller) "is not too much to ask.":

"The truth of the matter is that even though President Obama will not admit it – Islam has a problem, and it is called radical Islam. And the proponents of radical Islam hate our First Amendment, they hate freedom of speech and they want to destroy it and us.

"We can never deal with this problem without admitting it exists. It’s time for our President to stand up and speak the truth to the American people and to the world.

"It is also time for Muslim leaders everywhere to step up and declare that perpetrators of such violence are the enemy, they are wrong, and they will NOT be rewarded in the afterlife. These Muslim leaders also need to directly state that they are tolerant of every person in the world who does not share their religious views, and they condemn anyone who commits violence in the name of Islam. This is not too much to ask." 

We know that most Muslim people do not practice radical Islam and do not support it. It is unfortunate but necessary that such Muslim people of good will must now also be brave and stand up against radical Islam alongside Pamela Geller and other people of good will and differing faiths and beliefs: united despite our differences in a passion to preserve equal liberty for all.

Pamela Geller's courageous work shows that Americans - of any faith or none - Christian, Jew, Muslim - are polite and civilized by choice, that our Constitutional freedoms are a valuable heritage we can share that protects us all from being forced to comply with anything - and that we will ALL always choose to extend that same freedom expressly to others of differing faiths and opinions.

To the credit of Ms Geller, the other organizers, the participants and attendees, the Muslim community of Garland and surrounding areas, and the City of Garland, the event was almost completely uneventful: a model of what the ordinary exercise of free speech at an art show should be. The two attackers had to drive a long way to attempt to repeat the Charlie Hebdo massacre, and they failed.

In their failure,  Pamela Geller succeeded, and there is now a new standard in the world. America, and Texas, overwrote the Charlie Hebdo atrocity with a defiant "LIBERTY FOR ALL", writ as large as ever.






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UPDATED Best Article About Texas Ebola Outbreak as of 10/1/14: 5 Dallas Students Possibly Exposed to Ebola - kcentv.com - KCEN HD

As we had surmised, this gentleman is not an American, but is a Liberian national, who was in the US for 8 full days before the hospital decided to quarantine him:

"Mai Wureh says her brother, Thomas Eric Duncan, went to a Dallas emergency room on Friday and they sent him home with antibiotics. She says he said hospital officials asked for his Social Security number and he said that he didn't have one because he was visiting from Liberia."

As of end-of-day on Oct 1st, no one official has bothered to contact the manager or other tenants of the apartment complex where he has been staying, according to KCEN:

"The patient who was diagnosed with the Ebola virus was staying at a northeast Dallas apartment complex, according to a Dallas police spokesman.

Lt. Joel Lavender confirmed the patient was transported from the Ivy Apartments to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas on September 28.

Residents and the manager at the complex said no one from the CDC or health department have contacted them."

The Dallas Liberian community are very concerned, and say they do not trust the CDC, who have since only quarantined a single person out of all the people - including children who attended 5 different Dallas schools - that Mr Duncan has had contact with since his arrival in the States on Sept 20th:

"Stanley Gaye, president of the Liberian Community Association of Dallas-Fort Worth, said the 10,000-strong Liberian population in North Texas is skeptical of the CDC's assurances because Ebola has ravaged their country.
"We've been telling people to try to stay away from social gatherings," Gaye said at a community meeting Tuesday evening. Large get-togethers are a prominent part of Liberian culture."

By the way, KCENTV and WFAA are good local sources for information about this. The national news outlets are still heavily censoring information and details. Read the rest of the article here:

Miles: 5 Dallas Students Possibly Exposed to Ebola - kcentv.com - KCEN HD - Waco, Temple, and Killeen


UPDATED:  It gets worse, in the sense of our Federal government failing to do due diligence to protect Americans:  Mr Duncan was deliberately trying to escape Liberia. His  landlord's brother died of Ebola a week before Duncan quit his job as a taxi driver in Liberia and came to the US to "visit relatives" on Sept 20. He became ill on Sept 24th. He went to the ER on Sept 26th. He was then at his family's apartment for two more days before being taken by ambulance back to the hospital on Sept 28th. From an NBC News article:

"Four days before he flew to Dallas to visit family members, cargo driver Thomas Eric Duncan helped his landlords take their 19-year-old daughter, Marthalene Williams, to a clinic that was so crowded with Ebola patients that it turned her away, The New York Times reported. The family, which had tried and failed to get an ambulance, took the convulsing woman back home, where she died hours later. "He was holding her by the legs," a neighbor told the newspaper.

"Williams' brother, who was also in the taxi, started getting symptoms a week ago and quickly died, the family told the Times. Three other women from the same area also got sick at the same time. By then, Duncan was already gone from Liberia.

"After quitting his job on Sept. 4, Duncan left Monrovia on a Sept. 19 flight and arrived in the U.S. the next day. He started showing symptoms Sept. 24 and went to a Dallas hospital for treatment Sept. 26. He was sent home, only to be brought back by ambulance on Sept. 28 and diagnosed with the deadly virus."

So far, none of the people exposed to Ebola by Mr Duncan have been quarantined. The 5 schoolchildren were sent home from school but are not under quarantine.  The hospital has "dedicated a whole ward" to Mr Duncan's quarantine, but has not bothered to quarantine any of the people he exposed:

 "Dr. Zachary Thompson, director of the county health department, told NBC News late Wednesday that he wouldn't be "shocked" if a second case of Ebola were to emerge among those being monitored. But "there has not been any indication that any of the contacts that we have been tracking show any signs or symptoms," he said.

"Officials said five students at two elementary schools, a middle school and a high school had had contact with the patient over the weekend. They are being "monitored" at home but are not quarantined."

I guess they are waiting for those people to become ill and expose even more people.  I wonder if they have bothered notifying people at the apartment complex yet?

News from the Front: APIII% Team on the American Border, Assisting Law Enforcement

Post by Matthew Leber.




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This is Matthew Leber, Public Relations Officer for the American Patriots III% in the video, interviewing the US Border Patrol officer.  Mr Leber is a retired Special Forces veteran, a friend of our son Ethan, and on the up-and-up. The APIII% team is working directly with official border agencies and law enforcement to assist them in any way they need. They are a law abiding, responsible organization with an effective purpose. These guys are still protecting us, on their own time now, and they need our support.

There is a good profile of the American Patriot the 3% organization on the SHTF Journal. Founder Scot Seddon had this to say about their current mission protecting America's southern border:

SHTF Journal: "What do you see as your mission at the border and do you think you can complete it with the resources you have?"

Scot: "Our mission at the border is outreaching to border agencies and work together with them. Being we cannot detain people at the border so we use comms to call in grid coordinates to assist the border Patrol. Funding has been made possible through the APIII Paypal account. The mission cannot be completed without the financial help of our APIII Patriots. Without that, the mission goes belly up as we do not have any fed funding. We do need more resources."

Scot:  "APIII is not a Militia. We are in the security business with combat veterans that work hand in hand with border patrol. We have close affiliations with Arizona Border Recon as well in the effort to secure the border. Everything is done legally, and with the consent of local LEO agencies. "

Be sure to go over and read the whole interview.

May God bless and keep them and all those they work with. 

The Smartest Question of the Day

Abortionist Nancy Pelosi compared lawbreaking illegal aliens to the Children of Israel fleeing Egypt, and now California Governor Brown  urges "the religious call to welcome the stranger".   On Facebook, APIII%er Andrew Wark  asks the smartest question of the day:

 "So where are all the democrats screaming their make believe "law" of 'separation of church and state'?  The silence is deafening."

Happy Thanksgiving! The Immigrants Holiday Since 1540 AD

Happy Thanksgiving! It is 6:00 am and a beautiful morning. It will be just the three of us today: Paul, me and our granddaughter. I made the pies and cornbread last night, and Paul has the turkey marinating in brine. We added a ham to the menu, as Granddaughter doesn't care for turkey.

We have much to be grateful for.  We are Christians: assured of redemption, and secure in knowing we again will see our loved ones who have gone on before us.

We live in America, free to live, believe, work, think and speak; free to make for ourselves the best life we can on our own, not shackled into some hereditary "class" or trade, not under the thumb of hereditary governance.

We have great wealth, no matter our circumstances. Even the poorest among us have access to warm shelter, sufficient food, hope for a future better than our past.

I have never figured out how to "bump" posts without messing up the timeline, so here are links to Pecan Corner's most "classic" Thanksgiving Day posts. If you like them, please feel free to share. :-)

The Immigrants Holiday: Thanksgiving and The Original Melting Pot 

First Turkey Days! Thanksgiving Feasts in America 1540 - 1640 (or "The Real History of Thanksgiving")

God bless you, and God bless America!

(PS The Photo is of Wild Persimmon Trees on an Oklahoma byway. I took the picture when I went home for a visit last weekend. Mama and I had a lot of fun picking them - this was something she used to take us to do when we were growing up! They ripen in the fall, and are not edible until ripe - usually after the first heavy frost. But don't think just freezing them will work if they are not ripe yet. It won't! So you just have to stake out your tree and try to get there before the possums do! :-)  )

When They Call Fox America's News HQ....

They aren't kidding:

The big flat-screen television in this busy Mexican restaurant in Central Texas is prominently visible from every table, has closed captioning turned on in English, and is always turned on to Fox News (well, except when there's a Cowboys game on!). It's the same in hundreds of other places all across this great state. Come have a bowl of menudo  - or a burger with "Freedom Fries" - some Saturday, or any other day, and you'll find the place full of pro-life, Christian, conservatives of all kinds of backgrounds, many of whom think our governor is going to be the kind of president we need to haul our country back from the abyss that ancient Rome fell into.

And that Mexican flag on the wall, on the other side of the American flag? Doesn't mean what liberals have co-opted it to mean. It means people are proud of who they are and love their country: the United States of America. Where-ever our parents or grandparents came from, all Americans are alike in this respect: the US flag comes FIRST. Is it only Texans who understand this? It has never been a question here.

First Turkey Days! Thanksgiving Feasts in America 1540 - 1640 (or "The Real History of Thanksgiving")

A couple of years ago, I called Thanksgiving "The Immigrants Holiday" because nearly every shipload of Europeans who came to our shores continued their long-standing tradition of taking a time to rejoice and praise God for a safe journey.  They all did, whether Catholic or Church of England explorers trying to colonize the New World for their King, or Separatist Protestant refugees seeking freedom to worship Christ according to their own consciences. These weren't "harvest festivals", nor were they unusual or "uniquely American". They were simply the custom of Christian peoples everywhere.

 The picture-book Thanksgiving was a part of this culture, just like going to church on Sundays and saying grace before meals. In October 1621, the Mayflower Pilgrims and Pawtuxet Indians celebrated such an event, much like all these others. It captured popular imagination 250 years later in the 1850s when Sarah Hale, editor of Godey’s Ladys Book &  primary lobbyist for a national Thanksgiving Day, used it as a symbol of those early times.*  Oddly enough, there’s less documentation for this event than most of the other Thanksgivings on this list! Sarah Hale simply picked it out as a great “narrative” to sell her idea, just as marketers do today.

But by the time the Pilgrims arrived, nearly a century of regular Thanksgivings in North, South & Central America had gone before. Shiploads of passengers led by explorers from Spain, France, England, The Netherlands, Italy, and Portugal, planned their thanksgiving feasts as a matter of course and held them as soon as possible after they finally reached safety again.


Here's a list of a few of them. Texas gets to claim two of the very earliest!

May 23, 1541, near Canyon, Texas. A Thanksgiving feast was celebrated by explorer Francisco Vásquez de Coronado and the "Tejas" Native Americans. The reason? Of all his finds, the discovery of good sources of wild foods, grapes and pecans, was cause for a day of rejoicing.

June 30, 1564 “Fort Caroline”, near Jacksonville, Florida: one of the earliest groups of French Huguenots to seek religious liberty in America, led by Jean Ribault, held a day of Thanksgiving. This settlement was destroyed soon thereafter by Spanish soldiers (led by Pedro Menendez de Aviles)  in the ongoing battle between Spain and France for supremacy in the New World as well as the old.

September 8, 1565  St Augustine, Florida: the 400 settlers from Spain travelling with Pedro Menendez de Aviles celebrated a feast of Thanksgiving when their ship landed safely. The Timucua Indians joined them, bringing local foods to the table.

August or September 1578 Frobisher Bay area of Baffin Island, Nunavut Territory, Canada: Martin Frobisher's expedition celebrated the first Thanksgiving recorded in Canada. Today, Canada celebrates  Thanksgiving much like the USA does, except it is held in October.

April 30, 1598 San Elizario, Texas (near El Paso): the 500 members of the de Onate expedition held a feast of Thanksgiving, with the native Manso Indian tribe as guests, to celebrate their safe arrival 10 days earlier at the Rio Grande after months of trekking up from Mexico. This was the first group to travel the newly blazed El Camino Real.

1604 Port Royal, Acadia, Canada: French settlers with explorer Samuel de Champlain held their first Thanksgiving feast in 1604 and thereafter. This is the group that founded 'The Order of Good Cheer', sharing their food with their Native American neighbors.

August 9, 1607 Fort St. George, Kennebec River, Maine: the newly arrived colonists of this short-lived New England settlement held its first Thanksgiving soon after making landfall, led by English Captain George Popham and joined by the Abnaki Indians.

1610 Jamestown, Virginia: Settlers of the famous English colony held a Thanksgiving to celebrate the arrival of ships bringing them new supplies of food after a harsh winter during which many starved to death.

December 4, 1619 The Berkeley Hundred, near Jamestown, Virigina: this group of settlers had planned before leaving England to hold a feast of Thanksgiving immediately on arrival, and annually thereafter. Many were killed in the massacre of 1622 and the site abandoned.

October, 1621, Plymouth, Massachusetts: this was the feast that came to symbolize the history of our Christian heritage, held by the Mayflower Pilgrims and Native Americans in the vicinity. It was probably not their first such celebration held by the Mayflower group, but is the only one for which any documentation survives.

1623, Plymouth, Massachusetts: The governor of the Plymouth colony called for a special day of Thanksgiving for the end of a drought that plagued the colony.

July 8, 1630, Massachusetts: Puritan settlers observed the first Thanksgiving of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in New England. This colony began having Thanksgiving days every year from 1660 onward.

September 18, 1639 Connecticut: the governor proclaimed a day of Thanksgiving, and by 1649, the colony celebrated a Thanksgiving day each year.

And thereafter it snowballed. By the time our 13 colonies had joined themselves together as a loose fraternity of independent & sovereign nation-states, each proclaimed a Thanksgiving at various times, as needed or as events warranted. This continued for another hundred years, until President Lincoln made it a permanent feature on the calendar for the whole nation.

The true history of Thanksgiving is a testament to our Christian heritage, upholding freedom to worship God in accordance with our own consciences.

A part of that freedom includes the freedom to "not worship", giving a bit of space to unbelievers, but the bulk of this freedom is the privilege to be religious: the freedom to worship God without being arrested, liberty not to be punished by the government if we believe some things are sinful.

The freedom to shout "Jesus" from the rooftops in every neighborhood, to "Preach the Gospel to all nations", using an uncensored bible in our own language, that we can read & interpret for ourselves.

How relevant is this today?

This very week,  former President George W. Bush was honored to be entrusted with a handwritten Bible, made and secretly used in a Chinese labor camp by Chinese Christians who were imprisoned for attending "an illegal religious gathering".

China claims to be the largest publisher of Bibles in the world - for export. Yet the repressive communist government does not allow any freedom of religion - people are required to worship only where, when and how the Chinese government tells them they can. They can only have the version of the Bible that the government allows.

Afghanistan was visited by the apostles during Biblical times - Christianity is as old in Afghanistan as anywhere in the world. Yet the Bible is illegal there, and to be a Christian is to risk prison, or worse.

And in the United States of America itself,  intolerant unbelievers have begun denying Christians freedom to practice our faith. Christians have been arrested and tried for the crime of preaching the Gospel to Moslems in Michigan. For "preaching too loudly" in North Carolina. For reading the Bible to people on the sidewalk in California.

This Thanksgiving, let us give thanks to our Father God for sending His Son Jesus Christ to save the world, for giving us the earthly blessings that are the fruit of Christianity: liberty, justice, equality, a good and moral society; and let us ask Him for laborers for the harvest, that America may continue to know our Father's favor. Godly leadership is needed more now than ever.



*Aug 22, 2017: edited to correct broken link & add new ones about Sarah Hale. Thank you to reader Ellen for alerting me and sharing a great link about yet another highly successful and influential working woman in the early 1800s.