History, Music and Redemption

Whether it's good ideas, interesting writing, witty humor, important information or videos which deliver some or all of those things, a great blog post is made from great content. On this site I do my best to deliver those things. Sometimes I even succeed.

I write about and post things that I see, hear or just think about. Things I think are important. Many of them concern ideas about freedom or people and events that somehow connect to freedom issues. Some might say this is a political site, but even though it's hard to escape from politics in these times of tumult, I hope it's more than that.

History is one of my loves. So is music. And like so many others, I'm fascinated by the battle between good and evil. So when all three of those things come together in one place, it's impossible to resist sharing them.

One of my favorite musical pieces is the hymn, Amazing Grace. And the history behind it's creation is an incredible story of good, evil and redemption. It's a story I only learned a few years back, long after I fell in love with the melody and power of the song.

The story of John Newton, who wrote the words, is as inspirational as they come. If you don't know the history, do yourself a favor and follow the link, you won't regret it. His fall from grace and final return to receive it again is classic. But as it now turns out, (and as is often the case) I only knew half the story.

The other half of the story concerns Negro Spirituals, the black keys on the piano, the "slave scales" and the writer of the music itself. Someone known only as "Unknown." I will never listen to the hymn the same way again. For me, it used to be special, now it is delicious.

After watching the video below, I can almost feel the pain and suffering of the groaning victims of slavery and the different kind of pain and ultimate redemption of one of those who perpetrated it upon them.

If you feel it too, then this will be better than the usual post on this blog. I hope it will be a great post because of the great content.

Many thanks to Bobbie Rendleman for posting the video link on Facebook.

Now That I’m a Racist

After over four decades of experience in the financial markets, having a good understanding of profit motivation has made it fairly easy to ignore being called a racist by the usual race and poverty extortionists like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. But now that the media and an ex-President have jumped into the dumpster with them and the third rate actress who was already in there for reasons of insanity, it may be time to close the lid and call Waste Management.

The good thing about this situation is that it gathers the tactics, the practitioners and the ideas they champion all in one place for easier disposal. The bad thing is, we never seem to be able to pile enough clay on top of them to keep them from crawling out of the landfill every so often when people forget how bad the stench actually is.

There is an old saying that “the first one to invoke Hitler’s name in any argument, automatically loses the debate”. I’ve never believed that to be true in all cases, but the idea that associating your opponent with a vile ideology can change the subject when losing an argument is certainly not new. Lawyers and spin meisters are well acquainted with the concept and employ it all the time. You’d think more people would catch on, but once you become addicted to hopiates, you can start hallucinating that people who disagree with your dreams aren’t merely stupid after all, they are actually evil racists as well.
And since those who rode Obama’s “return to Camelot” train in the greatest number were the youngest passengers and didn’t understand it was a disastrous return trip to a dangerous illusion, they don’t have the advantage of hindsight.

At least I’m in good company now that you can be put on the racist list without actually being white. As a kid, it was my understanding that only white people could be racists. Of course that wasn’t true, but the new racism definition includes anyone who disagrees with liberal dogma on “healthcare reform” and the “failure” of capitalism and freedom. Our recalcitrance stems from a racist hatred of President Obama according to Billy Carter’s slower brother.

To stand as a fellow racist with the likes of Thomas Sowell, Walter Williams, Ward Connerly and Larry Elder is an honor. Anyone who is familiar with these luminary Americans and still utters racial epithets about others doesn’t have a problem with political correctness, they have a problem with rational thought.

I’ve been fortunate enough to have been in the same room and actually spoken with three of them (I’m still waiting for the chance to shake hands with Dr. Sowell) but until this connection was established by our rabbit fearing ex-President, the personal association ended there. They have graced the page on this blog, not because they happen to be black, (and now are fellow racists) but because they share my love for freedom and happen to be smarter and better at communicating that virtue than I am.

A few years ago I had the privilege of a short chat with Larry Elder after hearing him speak at a dinner gathering. I asked him a question which had puzzled me since I became a “born again” freedom advocate many years ago. It seemed to me, I told him, that the most natural constituency for the ideas of liberty in this country ought to have been the people to whom it had been systematically denied. That is to ask, why aren’t black people as a group the most vocal proponents of freedom in our society? After all, some of the best spokesmen for liberty today, are immigrants from Eastern European countries and various other kleptocracies around the globe. Those who have been abused the most, often defend it the best. Witness Svetlana Kunin, etal.

Larry's answer then was as honest as he is, he didn’t know. And I still don’t know. So I guess it’s only logical that as individuals, the above named people are some of the best defenders we could hope for even if the group's political leanings still have me befuddled.

Now that we have a President of color for the first time, it should have been a slam dunk for freedom based solutions to our various problems. Instead, we elected a man who dines at the statism table and seeks to re-enslave people, this time without regard to skin color. I guess the idea is that, you don’t solve servitude as if it were a problem, but instead ensure that all people are equally enslaved in the name of fairness. The slave masters this time around will be big government czars instead of whip wielding cotton farmers.

It’s the same approach these folks have on poverty and the results will be the same. I’m afraid the people who will suffer most will be the people who support this replay of the horror story with the highest enthusiasm, that is to say, the younger people. That may seem like justice, but it’s like giving petty thieves life without parole. And in this case, the innocent will get the same sentence.

So, Jimmy Carter notwithstanding, the new “racists” mentioned above, the rude "shout out" specialists, and the sign carrying protestors at Washington marches of debatable size, are our best hope to avoid jumping into the historical dumpster with the USSR and all the other failed utopian nightmares that started out as the hopeful dreams of our fathers.