RECAFEEINATED MONDAYS: That’s Two

It’s Monday. It’s the last day of the second month of 2022.

I had to work on Saturday, so I’m off today. I spent some time catching up on Oscar winning movies. It’s part of my Bucket List to see all of the Best Picture winners.

HBO finally showed Tom Jones, the 1964 winner.

I think the turbulent 60s can be summed up by the fact that in 1964, Tom Jones beat Cleopatra, How the West Was Won, and Lilies of the Field for Best Picture. What were they smoking?

I also re-watched Chariots of Fire. A long time favorite.

It doesn’t matter how many times I see it. I always tear up when I see Eric Liddell win his medal.

Available at
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We are two weeks away from two full years of “fifteen days to slow the spread.”

You don’t hear as much about COVID in the news these days. But, over the weekend, the CDC relaxed the mask guidelines.

If you read a little deeper you’ll find that the numbers are also being revised.

I’m not going to go off on a tangent here. But we destroyed our economy, damaged our children, and endured two years of miserable masks for a disease with a better than 98% survival rate.

Worse than that, those who disagreed with the party line were silenced, shunned, and in some cases threatened with financial ruin.

Don’t believe me? Ask a Canadian trucker.

But, COVID is no longer the top headline because we’re all focused on what is going on in Ukraine.

And disinformation is flying all over the Interwebz.

Here’s what we know for certain.

  • Russia is invading Ukraine.
  • Ukraine doesn’t want that.
  • The west is weak.
  • Russia knows that.
  • We can all now recognize where Ukraine is and put their flag in our profiles.
  • The national flower of Ukraine is the sunflower.
  • Vladimir Putin is a tyrant.
  • Volodymyr Zelenskyy is a badass.

I’m not sure we can be certain of anything beyond that.

Don’t believe me? Go spend a few minutes on Twitter.

But leave time for a shower.

I’m by far no foreign policy expert. So, I’m not going to try to be an armchair quarterback…or general.

Heck, I was never even very good at Risk.

I’m just trying carefully consider everything I read.

Oh, and in case you missed it, the State of the Union is tomorrow night.

Laissez les bons temps rouler.

All I’m saying is this.

Be careful what you read.

Be careful what you listen to.

Be careful what you share.

And pray.

Without ceasing.

American actress, singer, and author, Bernadette Peters was born on this day in 1948.


 

THINGS YOU SHOULD READ

War Propaganda About Ukraine Becoming More Militaristic, Authoritarian, and Reckless
Glenn Greenwald
No matter how convinced one is of the righteousness of one’s views on any topic, there should still be a wariness about how easily that righteousness can be exploited to ensure that no dissent is considered or even heard, an awareness of how often such overwhelming societal consensus is manipulated to lead one to believe untrue claims and embrace horribly misguided responses. Read More.

62 percent of voters say Putin wouldn’t have invaded Ukraine if Trump were president: poll
The Hill
A new Harvard Center for American Political Studies (CAPS)-Harris Poll survey released Friday found that 62 percent of those polled believed Putin would not be moving against Ukraine if Trump had been president. Read More.

Cruz Lights Up CPAC, Predicts ‘Red Wave Is Coming’ in Midterms
The Conservative Brief
“We find ourselves at an existential moment for our nation. The threats in our country have never been greater…What is this battle all about? What are we fighting about in this nation? And I’m going to suggest the fundamental conflict that is playing out across this great nation is a battle between power and liberty; the two are in fundamental conflict.” Read More.

‘Our Allies Feel the Weakness Coming From the White House’: Richard Grenell at CPAC
El American
Regarding Russia’s advance against Ukraine in recent weeks, Grenell referred to Biden’s decisions as a “waste of diplomatic capital” that “hyped a bloody war.” Read More.

If Russia’s invasion of Ukraine feels familiar, look to Broadway in the ’60s
NPR
The musical, based on “Tevye and his Daughters” by Solomon Naumovich Rabinovich — better known by his pen name, Sholom Aleichem — takes place in the fictional town of Anatevka, a more singable name for a town Aleichem modeled on the town of Boyarka near his birthplace in central Ukraine. And when the musical welcomes new arrivals, they tend to have traveled from the nearest big city, Kyiv.  Read More.

ALSO BORN ON THIS DAY

1894 – Ben Hecht, American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1964)
1908 – Billie Bird, American actress (d. 2002)
1931 – Gavin MacLeod, American actor, Christian activist, and author (d. 2021)
1939 – Tommy Tune, American actor, dancer, singer, theatre director, producer, and choreographer
1955 – Gilbert Gottfried, American comedian, actor, and singer

WHAT I’M READING


 

BENEDICTION

The Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you;
the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.

Numbers 6:24-26

SHORT STORY FRIDAY: They’ll be There

It’s Short Story Friday. Seems a little out of place with all that’s going on in Ukraine and around the world.

Still, I’ve done all I can. I mean I’ve added a flag to my Facebook and Twitter profiles, and I voted for the other guy.

Too soon?

Nay, my friend, it may be too late.

Snark all you want, but we wouldn’t be where we are with inflation, and gas prices, and Afghanistan, and

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Ukraine if a bunch of people hadn’t been afraid of little Twitter.

The flags in the profile don’t really mean anything, other than the need to raise awareness. Just make sure you’re paying attention.

That’s pretty much all I can do. Except pray.

Regardless of where we fit on the political spectrum, we can all pray.

And we should. Without ceasing.

Here’s today’s story.

THEY’LL BE THERE

It seemed early in the morning. Too early in fact.

The boy stared at the plate of eggs his aunt placed before him.

He hated eggs.

“You need to eat,” she said.

It was his first day of school.

For reasons that he did not understand at the time, the boy had spent the night with his aunt and grandfather. The aunt lived in the family place to care for her aging, and increasingly confused father.

The boy spent a lot of his time there when his mother was working. This time was different. He would come to understand that his mother was in the hospital for minor surgery. She would be home soon, and the boy could go back to his house.

“Eat,” said the aunt. “You need to be strong for the first day of school.”

“They’ll be there,” said the grandfather who rarely spoke.

“Yes, I know,” said the aunt. “They probably should have been there sooner.”

The grandfather did not respond but went back to his coffee.

“Get your things together,” said the aunt. “Your ride will be here soon.”

“Why couldn’t I stay at home and ride the bus with my brother?” the boy asked.

The aunt explained that the brother was now in fifth grade and was able to stay at home with their father. He was old enough to wait for the bus after the father went to work.

The boy thought that he was as well but knew it would not help to argue.
Another aunt arrived to take him to school.

“Are you ready?” she asked.

He picked up his satchel with the require papers, pencils, and lunchbox.

The grandfather rubbed the boy’s fuzzy head that sported a newly buzzed haircut.

He got into the car with the aunt and a family friend, waiting with her daughter.

They drove together to the elementary school.

The boy had been to the building many times. For Halloween parties. For Christmas pageants when schools still had Christmas pageants. For his brother’s baseball games.

In the car the conversation turned to the day ahead.

“They’ll be there today.”

Once again, the boy did not know who “they” were.

He was soon to learn.

The year was 1964 and in this small home county in Southwest Virginia, this was the first year that the schools were integrated.

At the age of six, the boy didn’t understand that.

He didn’t understand why it was an issue.

But this was the rural south and this action had been resisted for some time now. One might say it was resisted in a massive way.

They walked into the school building. The family friend went with her daughter to the third-grade hall.

The aunt walked the boy to his first-grade classroom where he met his teacher.

They were assigned six to a table.

The boy knew none of these people.

Across the room was Robert.

The boy did not know Robert, but he knew Robert was different.

He began to understand that Robert was one of the “theys” of whom the adults were speaking.
Robert was African American.

Robert, along with the remainder of the small African American population in this rural southern county, would no longer have to attend the “colored school.”

The boy did understand why there was an issue.

Yes, Robert looked different.

But to the boy, everyone looked different. Why shouldn’t Robert?

Over the years the adults would try to teach him why it was an issue.

The boy would never fully understand.

The teacher was speaking.

She showed them the blackboard.

She showed them where the bathrooms were and told them “Don’t be shy, just raise your hand.”

The boy was afraid that he was shy, but he would remember.

The teacher read them a book.

She read them a book every day.

Some days they got to color.

The boy liked to color.

Some days they got to play outside.

One day, the teacher said to the class, “I am going to read a different book to you today.”

The boy liked it when the teacher read.

“Today I am going to read Little Black Sambo. I can read that to you today because Robert isn’t here.”

The boy did not understand why that mattered.

Many years later he would, and he would feel embarrassment for the teacher, and for Robert.

But on this day, he did not understand.

He liked the story.

It made him wish his aunt would make him pancakes for breakfast.

American bluegrass singer and banjo player, Ralph Stanley, member of International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame was born on this day in 1927 (d. 2016)


 

THINGS YOU SHOULD READ

The Ominous Threat Surrounding Missionaries in Ukraine
The Gospel Coalition
Russia and Vladimir Putin are desperate to keep this country in their sphere of influence. They don’t want Ukraine to enter NATO or the European Union. And the only diplomacy they understand is threats and disruption.  Read More.

The Voice of a Prophet: Solzhenitsyn on the Ukraine Crisis
Joseph Pearce in The Imaginative Conservative
As far back as 1968, during his writing of what would later be published as The Gulag Archipelago, he wrote of his fears of future conflict between Russia and the Ukraine: “It pains me to write this as Ukraine and Russia are merged in my blood, in my heart, and in my thoughts. But extensive experience of friendly contacts with Ukrainians in the camps has shown me how much of a painful grudge they hold. Our generation will not escape from paying for the mistakes of our fathers.” Read More.

Taiwan scrambles fighter planes as nine Chinese aircraft enter its air defense zone on the day Russia invades Ukraine
The Daily Caller
Taiwan’s air force has scrambled its fighter planes on Thursday to warn away nine Chinese aircraft that entered its air defense zone on the day Russian invaded Ukraine. Read More.

EXCLUSIVE: Former Va. Gov. Gilmore: ‘The Russians have to be stopped before it’s too late’
WSET
“The Russians have now invaded Ukraine,” Gilmore says. “Real war is coming, and we don’t want that in Washington, or Maryland, or Virginia, or Maine or New Mexico. We don’t want that and that means the Russians have to be stopped before it’s too late.” Read More.

The Government’s Coronavirus Response Was a Complete Failure. Who Will Be Held Accountable?
Reason
As for the FDA’s failures, there are too many to list. But I’m not hearing anyone in power talk about, for example, holding its officials accountable for the continuing failure to approve COVID-19 testing.  Read More.

ALSO BORN ON THIS DAY

1888 – John Foster Dulles, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 52nd US Secretary of State (d. 1959)
1901 – Zeppo Marx, American comedian (the youngest of the Marx Brothers) and theatrical agent (d. 1979)
1913 – Jim Backus, American actor and screenwriter; the voice of Mr. Magoo (d. 1989)
1918 – Bobby Riggs, American tennis player; winner of three major titles, 1939–1941 (d. 1995)
1928 – Larry Gelbart, American author and screenwriter; creator/producer of M*A*S*H TV series (d. 2009)
1943 – George Harrison, English singer-songwriter, guitarist; lead guitarist of The Beatles (d. 2001)
1971 – Sean Astin, American actor, director and producer

WHAT I’M READING


 

BENEDICTION

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Ephesians 3:20–21

 

Ronald Wilson Reagan
February 2, 1911 – June 5, 2004