HOW IRONIC
How ironic, the Holy Cross Cemetery of Cleveland, Ohio, being forced to remove the Holy Cross from its cemetery---maybe. If it is city-owned, the crosses must go.
I assumed---and you know what they say about assuming---that church cemeteries are church-owned. Not so, at least not so in all cases. St. John’s Cemetery, of Cleveland, is city-owned.
The city of Cleveland, concerned about "rising maintenance costs" are implementing cost-saving measures, such as the enforcement of a “14-year-old rule” that prohibits crosses and other “decorations” in city cemeteries. Letters have been mailed to relatives of people buried there telling them to "remove crosses and other decorations from graves or have them taken away." Although the city says its policy has been in place for 14 years, now that it's actually going to be enforced, the question of its legality with inevitably arise.
For me, the ultimate consideration of all decisions made, in all matters involving governmental policy, governmental law, and all matters of morality, whether great or small, should be: Is it right? If one must choose between two things that are good, the choice should be in favor of the thing that provides the greater good.
As far as I’ve ascertained, there is no subplot to this story. So far, I’ve found no evidence that the A.C.L.U. is behind the edict to remove crosses from Cleveland city-owned cemeteries. Naturally, in any issue that arises that concerns the removal of anything religious, the A.C.L.U. comes to mind, because the A.C.L.U. has played, and continues to play, a major role in efforts to remove all references to religion from American government.
The important question of this issue, that needs to be answered is: Is it more important to lower the budget of the city, by removing crosses from cemeteries or----Is it more important to maintain a tradition that dates back two thousand years, not only in American history, but in world history, of placing a cross on the grave of a deceased loved-one.
What is the significance of the cross on a gravesite?
It is a silent message of faith in Almighty God. It is an emblem that represents faith in all things good and lovely. It is a symbol of acknowledgment of the Holy Bible and its inspired teachings. It is a reminder of the greatest sacrifice one person can make for another.
Should we now take down the thousands of white crosses scattered across vast landscapes, of foreign lands, where American soldiers have been laid to rest? American soldiers, mostly young men, in their salad days, who gave their lives for God and country?
Shall we just take down all of the crosses from North Carolina to California and North Dakota to Texas, because we now face budget crunches brought on by power-seeking, money-hungry politicians, who use the Bible as a prop.
We need the cross more than we’ve ever needed it before in America, to remind us of love, sacrifice, mercy, and forgiveness---qualities that some parents find unnecessary to instill in their children.
For those of us who grew up before, or during the 1960s, we have seen the devastating results of the removal of prayer in school. In the fifties and sixties I lived in homes where doors were left unlocked overnight. In the sixties, I shopped for Christmas presents, for hours, on Main St., in Washington, North Carolina. When I could carry no more bags, I went to our family car, on Main St., slipped the bags through the open windows of the car and continued my shopping. I may have left the keys in the car, for all I know, because no one would steal your car in our community.
Things could be that way again if people simply adhered to the Ten Commandments. You think not. Read them and you’ll see. There would be no need for security locks on your bicycles, automobiles, homes, schools, and businesses. Morality and religion would once again dictate the behavior of society. The decent mores that make a happy society would be re-established.
I watched a television show, where families lived the way families lived in the 19th century. I watched as the face of a young boy lit up with a smile upon receiving---an orange! When the family returned, from the prairie, to their brand-new, never-before-lived- in home, I watched as the boy sat alone in his bedroom, staring blankly, at the hand-held electronic game he was playing, saying: “I’m bored. I’ve got too much stuff.”
It bears repeating. The same boy who, deprived of the excesses of life, on the prairie, who was thrilled at the sight of a simple orange, sat in his bedroom like a zombie, bored with his expensive, electronic toy, in his expensive home.
Toys and Corvettes ain’t gonna make you happy---in the long-run. The short run yes, but not the long-run. Only God-given spiritual joy is everlasting. You will experience as many or more trials and tribulations in life as before, but with God-given spiritual joy, you will face them and embrace them with uncharacteristic optimism. I cannot explain “peace that passeth all understanding;” I can only tell you, from experience, that it is real.
In the 1970s, my dad and I saw a man pushing himself down a street in Kinston, North Carolina. He had the biggest smile on his face that I’ve ever seen. He had no body, from the waist down! That’s not all. My dad said he’d seen the man’s girlfriend and she was pretty!
I know a man who lost his arms and shoulders as the result of touching electric wires on a utility pole. He teaches and preaches in church whenever given the opportunity. He turns the pages of the Bible with his tongue. He has a wonderful, faithful wife, who’s been by his side for many years.
You think Mayberry was just a figment of someone’s imagination? Sure there are exaggerations of the way life was then, in the South, in the Andy Griffith Show, but much of what you see was real before the revolutionary years of the sixties. People were much kinder to one another back then. They were much more courteous and mannerly in public.
I believe people, in general, are kinder than we know, today, we’re just conditioned to expect the worst from everyone, today, thanks to television, especially cable TV, and we’re afraid to talk to strangers, afraid we’ll be rebuffed.
Even when my faith dissolved or waned in temptations and explorations of life, I was still fortified by the faith my parents and grandparents maintained throughout the years and their moral teachings of knowing things like the difference between wrong and right.
Now, whenever I see a cross, I see my grandparents. I see my parents. I see fallen soldiers. And I see my other loved-ones, who cherish the cross and what it stands for.
For those who say America is not, and never was, a Christian nation, I say, read the works of our founding fathers. Read the stories of the early settlers. Read about the old west. Have you ever seen a movie in which words of the Koran were read over the gravesite of an old cowboy, on the prairie? No. Someone said a few words from the Holy Bible. Afterwards, the camera would pan back to the wooden cross with a lonely-looking cowboy hat hanging from it.
Someday when “White Christmas” and “God Bless America” will no longer be allowed to be sung in America. When Bibles must be smuggled into America as they are in China. When churches have been replaced by statues of Obama. And when crosses are outlawed across this once great land, I will curse the ones who made it so. I will raise my arms in defiance, looking heavenward, and, at the top of my lungs, say to them: Go to hell! Then I will look all around me and realize that----Hell is all around us!
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
ACT OF GOD
ACT OF GOD
There are only two possible explanations for what happened in 1876. It was either the most phenomenal coincidence that ever occurred, or it was, literally, an Act of God. The events of that day are supported by numerous sworn statements and legal documents.
Swan Quarter, North Carolina is a lowland community. When heavy rains come, the residents closer to sea level fair better than those further away.
In the 1870s, the Methodists of Swan Quarter had no church. The only land available to them, on which to build a church, was a piece of low-lying property on Oyster Creek Road. It was not by desire, but by necessity, that the Methodists acquired the land and construction began.
The church was to be a small, but sturdy, white clapboard-framed building propped up on brick pilings. In 1876, the building was completed. On Sunday, September 16, a dedication ceremony was held. Three days later, on Wednesday, a terrible storm ravaged Swan Quarter. All day long the wind howled as torrential rains poured down upon the quiet community. The townspeople could only wait out the storm helplessly as it continued its ruinous damage. By nightfall, devastated by the force of nature, the town began to flood as many roofs were ripped from homes by cyclonic turbulence. The storm raged through the darkness of night into the bleak light of day.
By Thursday afternoon, the wind subsided as the rain diminished, leaving behind, in its wake, an eerie calm. One by one, weary citizens threw open their shutters and doors and emerged from what was left of there homes.
Most of the people walked into the flooded streets or peered from there windows to witness a desolate waterscape, a community savagely rocked by nature. But those within, in sight of Oyster Creek Road, looked upon a more astonishing sight: the church --- the newly constructed Swan Quarter Methodist Church --- the whole building, intact, was floating down the street! The flood waters had gently lifted the entire structure from the brick pilings, on which it had rested, and had launched it slowly, silently, down Oyster Creek Road.
Within minutes, stunned, concerned townsfolk were wading in and sloshing about in waist-high water, in the street, fighting the rushing current, trying desperately to reach the journey-bound church so that they could moor it with lengths of rope.
The ropes were fastened to various structures, but to no avail: none were sturdy enough to withstand the weight of the church being swept away in the flood waters. The traveling chapel attracted other onlookers who immediately joined the struggle to secure the building. The church moved on.
By now, the church had floated to the center of town, still on Oyster Creek Road. And then, as if this phenomenon had not already been an amazing sight to behold, the church, as helpless townsfolk watched, spellbound, made an inexplicable right turn and continued down that road. It was as though the chapel were alive --- as though it had a mind of its own.
For two more blocks, the townspeople fought, with the ropes, to gain control of the church, unsuccessfully. And then, in the same decisive manner in which it had moved, all along, the church veered off the road, heading for the center of a vacant lot ... and there ... stopped.
While the flood water receded, the church remained --- and is there to this day --- almost a hundred and thirty years later.
But that's not the end of this incredible story. You see, that most desirable piece of land where the church settled, on that fateful day in 1876, was the first choice, of the Swan Quarter Methodists, for the site of their church. However, the rich, unsympathetic landowner, whose property it was, originally refused to sell his land to the Christian churchgoers.
On the morning after the flood --- after discovering the church in the middle of his lot --- that landowner went to the Methodist minister and, with trembling hands, presented him with the deed. --From Carolina, My Sweet Home, by Allen Ball
There are only two possible explanations for what happened in 1876. It was either the most phenomenal coincidence that ever occurred, or it was, literally, an Act of God. The events of that day are supported by numerous sworn statements and legal documents.
Swan Quarter, North Carolina is a lowland community. When heavy rains come, the residents closer to sea level fair better than those further away.
In the 1870s, the Methodists of Swan Quarter had no church. The only land available to them, on which to build a church, was a piece of low-lying property on Oyster Creek Road. It was not by desire, but by necessity, that the Methodists acquired the land and construction began.
The church was to be a small, but sturdy, white clapboard-framed building propped up on brick pilings. In 1876, the building was completed. On Sunday, September 16, a dedication ceremony was held. Three days later, on Wednesday, a terrible storm ravaged Swan Quarter. All day long the wind howled as torrential rains poured down upon the quiet community. The townspeople could only wait out the storm helplessly as it continued its ruinous damage. By nightfall, devastated by the force of nature, the town began to flood as many roofs were ripped from homes by cyclonic turbulence. The storm raged through the darkness of night into the bleak light of day.
By Thursday afternoon, the wind subsided as the rain diminished, leaving behind, in its wake, an eerie calm. One by one, weary citizens threw open their shutters and doors and emerged from what was left of there homes.
Most of the people walked into the flooded streets or peered from there windows to witness a desolate waterscape, a community savagely rocked by nature. But those within, in sight of Oyster Creek Road, looked upon a more astonishing sight: the church --- the newly constructed Swan Quarter Methodist Church --- the whole building, intact, was floating down the street! The flood waters had gently lifted the entire structure from the brick pilings, on which it had rested, and had launched it slowly, silently, down Oyster Creek Road.
Within minutes, stunned, concerned townsfolk were wading in and sloshing about in waist-high water, in the street, fighting the rushing current, trying desperately to reach the journey-bound church so that they could moor it with lengths of rope.
The ropes were fastened to various structures, but to no avail: none were sturdy enough to withstand the weight of the church being swept away in the flood waters. The traveling chapel attracted other onlookers who immediately joined the struggle to secure the building. The church moved on.
By now, the church had floated to the center of town, still on Oyster Creek Road. And then, as if this phenomenon had not already been an amazing sight to behold, the church, as helpless townsfolk watched, spellbound, made an inexplicable right turn and continued down that road. It was as though the chapel were alive --- as though it had a mind of its own.
For two more blocks, the townspeople fought, with the ropes, to gain control of the church, unsuccessfully. And then, in the same decisive manner in which it had moved, all along, the church veered off the road, heading for the center of a vacant lot ... and there ... stopped.
While the flood water receded, the church remained --- and is there to this day --- almost a hundred and thirty years later.
But that's not the end of this incredible story. You see, that most desirable piece of land where the church settled, on that fateful day in 1876, was the first choice, of the Swan Quarter Methodists, for the site of their church. However, the rich, unsympathetic landowner, whose property it was, originally refused to sell his land to the Christian churchgoers.
On the morning after the flood --- after discovering the church in the middle of his lot --- that landowner went to the Methodist minister and, with trembling hands, presented him with the deed. --From Carolina, My Sweet Home, by Allen Ball
FRANCES MAE POWELL BALL
FRANCES MAE POWELL BALL
Frances Mae Powell Ball is my mother. She was born, at 4 pm, on Saturday, May 14, 1927, in a “plain, wooden house…un-painted,” in Jacksonville, North Carolina.
In 1927, “Whiskery,” ridden by Linus McAtee, won the 53rd Kentucky Derby, in 2:06. "Ain't She Sweet?" by Ben Bernie, hit #1 on the pop singles chart. A baked ham cost 30 cents per eight-to 12-pound slabs, averaging each pound at about 3 cents. Milk in 1927 was 25 cents, for three tall cans, averaging 8 cents per can. Eggs cost 24 cents per dozen. A 24-ounce loaf of wrapped, split bread sold for 9 cents. Refrigerators in 1927 cost $195. Mowers were self-propelled.
In 1927, a dollar sounded more exciting and valuable than it does today. Today when you walk down the street and see a nickel or dime, it seems easier just to walk on by than take the effort to pick it up. In 1927 though, a nickel or dime was enough to buy a whole pound of baked ham or a tall can of milk. If you found a couple nickels or dimes, you could have purchased dinner for the whole family.
My brother, Arnold, and I used to pick up soft-drink bottles, wherever we could find them, in the ‘50s and ‘60s, and take them to grocers, for the deposit money, which we used to buy more Pepsis.
I was at the Dollar General, the other day, and saw Randy Wade, a member of my brother’s church: the La Grange Church of God. Someone said something about the value of pennies, these days. I told Wade that it’s an unbreakable habit, for me, of picking up pennies, so much so, that “I’ll pick up a penny, in the parking at Wal*Mart, in a rain storm.”
Times have changed, but my mother is the same: sweet, kind, compassionate, and generous-to-a-fault. She once loaned $465.00, to a hospice woman , who had given her a sad story. My mother then sat on the edge of her bed, for days, depressed and angst-ridden, wondering if she’d ever she’d ever get her money back. She had asked for no documentation, for proof of the loan. My mother lives on a fixed income.
I discerned that something was wrong, other than the fact, that my dad, mama’s husband, of 61 years, had recently passed away. She explained. I got the money back from the woman, who, interestingly, asked mom for a receipt, although she’d deemed it unnecessary, apparently, to give my mother a receipt for the money she’d borrowed from her. The woman, by the way, drove a big, late-model automobile. It is illegal, as a hospice worker, to borrow money, from a client.
I had always heard that my maternal grandmother, Addie Powell, never enjoyed holidays that most of us look forward to with great anticipation. But Mama Powell, as we grandchildren knew her, had good reason. She was no stranger to tragedy. Her two-year-old, “Little” Elbert, was accidentally killed, on Thanksgiving Day, by her six-year-old, Horace. Uncle Horace died on Easter Eve, in the ‘70s. She witnessed, along with other family members, the fatal shooting of her father, by a son-in-law, on Christmas Eve, 1916. Two brothers were killed in Philadelphia, mysteriously. Another brother was killed when a stack of lumber, at a lumber yard, rolled down over his body.
Vaden and Addie Powell had ten children; they outlived four of them.
*****
Mama’s family lived in Jacksonville, North Carolina. Irene was the third child born of Vaden and Addie Powell and the first girl. She died of croup, at age five.
On Thanksgiving Day, in 1931, My Uncle Horace Powell, six-years-old, was in the back yard with his mama. He was playing with a metal rod from a screen door, throwing it around. His mama, Addie Powell (my maternal grandmother), was washing clothes in a big, black pot filled with water that she heated by burning wood underneath, to bring the water to a boil.
On this fateful Thanksgiving Day, in 1931, two-year-old Elbert, (called “Little” Elbert) and my mama, Frances, four-years old, were emerging from the back door of the house to walk outside just as Uncle Horace had, once again, tossed the screen door rod. The rod pierced “Little” Elbert’s tender, fragile skull. If he hadn’t been in front of Mama it would have injured her instead.
Mom told me: “When Mama pulled that rod out of ‘Little’ Elbert’s head, his brains came out with it.” He was taken to the hospital in Wilmington because there was no hospital in Jacksonville. Little baby Elbert died that night.
In the early ’40s, Uncle Horace enlisted in the navy. According to my mother, he was in Philadelphia, at one time, during his two-year tour-of- duty. She said she didn’t “know if he was cruising around or just walking with friends” or alone when, suddenly, Uncle Horace saw a woman who fell or jumped off a bridge. He jumped in and rescued her from drowning. An article appeared in a Philadelphia newspaper about the rescue. Uncle Horace mailed the article back home to his mom and dad.
Many years later, in the early ‘70s, Uncle Horace called Mama one night, from a motel in South Carolina, where he worked as a maintenance man. (My family lived at 303 Tyree Rd., in Kinston, at the time. I was stationed with the 440th Army Band, Ft. Bragg, North Carolina). Mama said: “He sounded like he was drunk or on drugs. He was so out of it; he said: ‘I’ll talk to you tomorrow morning; I’ve got to go,’ then I heard the phone drop. And that’s the last I ever heard of him….”
After not showing up for work, someone from the motel called a woman “that he (Uncle Horace) liked” and “she went to the motel to check on him,” Mama recalled.” Unable to enter his room when she arrived at the motel, someone there told her: “We’ll have to call the law.
“He (Horace) must have left evidence,” Mama told me, “for someone to call Leon (their brother) if something happened to him; because somebody called him the next day, on Saturday, to say he (Horace) was dead. Leon called me and told me he was dead. It broke my heart. He said, you can tell Mama, but don’t tell Papa. I’m afraid he’ll have a heart attack.” When Papa Powell was told that his son was dead, Mama recalled that he said: “He’s not dead. He’s comin’ home.” And “he waited up for him,” she added. “He just couldn’t get it in his head that he was dead.”
When I asked Mama if she thought Uncle Horace’s death was intentional she said: “I don’t think he meant to, he just over-dosed…did too much. I don‘t think he ever got over ‘Little’ Elbert‘s death.”
Mama told me, from her sick bed, that when Uncle Horace was a grown man, he asked his mama to forgive him for “Little” Elbert’s death. Her answer was wrapped in silence.
*****
Mama’s Uncle Henry James worked in a lumber yard in Wilmington, North Carolina, in the 1970s. He went to the lumber yard on a Monday morning. While working, a stack of lumber fell on him, killing him.
*****
Mama’s uncles, Uncle Lacy and Uncle Cyrus James, operated tugboats in Philadelphia, in the early ’40s, and often worked as far down the coast as Florida. They moved to Philadelphia together. Uncle Cyrus lived with a woman named Frances and Uncle Lacy lived with a woman, whose name my mom could not recall. They both lived in common law marriages. They lived much of the time on their tugboats.
Uncle Cyrus died mysteriously. He was found “stuffed down a hole on his tugboat naked,” Mama said. The James family never learned who the killer or killers were.
Within a year, Uncle Lacy, too, died a mysterious death. He was found somewhere in Philadelphia with “the back of his head beat off,” according to my mom. His killer or killers were never discovered.
*****
Robert Lee Powell was the last of the children. My grandmother was 50-years-old at the time she gave birth to him. “Mama was not happy about it,” my mother recalled. “People were talking about it.” Robert Lee developed “colitis” and died in the “old Parrott Hospital, in Kinston, North Carolina, at the age of six months.
“I was staying with Aunt Clara and Uncle Henry, in Raleigh,” my mother said, “when Robert died...they were mama’s youngest brother and his wife. They always liked me and wanted me to stay with them.
“They [mama’s family] came and got me...He [Robert Lee] was in a little, white coffin. I picked him up. He was wearing a little white dress.” mama recalled, wistfully, at age 77, head bowed.
*****
My mother sat in the bleachers, many times, with my sisters, Carolyn and Carlene, as Arnold and I played baseball, in the Little Tar Heel League, in Washington. When Arnold and I were afraid to ask daddy for a dollar, to buy a cheeseburger, fries, and Pepsi, on out-of-town, high school band trips, mama asked for the money. When daddy was unable to make a payment on the drum set he was buying for Arnold, mama gave the seller the five-hundred-dollar diamond ring she’d won, recently, in a contest. It was the most expensive item she’d ever owned. A picture of her with her new ring was published in the Washington Daily News.
In 1965, my dad became a born-again Christian. My sisters, at the height of mini-skirt popularity, were allowed, by my dad, to wear ankle-length dresses only. Mama had to make the dresses for them. “I was sneaky,” my mother said, I would drive the girls to school in their long dresses. In school, they changed into appropriate, normal-length dresses, that we had hidden in the car.
My mother sacrificed, her entire life, for the husband she adored, and her children, she adores. I cannot properly convey the love she’s given us and the devotion to our happiness and well-being, that she’s exhibited these many years.
But that’s not all. My mother cared for her mother and father the last few years of their life. They were totally dependent on her for everything. My mother was up until 7 am, with Mama Powell, my grandmother, when she laid down in her mother’s room, saying: “Mama don’t get up without calling me first.” She got up, fell, hit her head on a dresser, dying two weeks later. Papa Powel died in his sleep, about a year later, from, literally, grief over the death of his wife, of 62-years. When mama went into his room, his body was still warm.
In a column by the late well-known writer, Lewis Grizzard, he spoke, wistfully, of his recently departed mother. The column ended with words that rattled my heart: “I wish I had called her more.”
I promised my mother, in the mid-1980s, that: “As long as I’m able, you’ll never go to a nursing home.”
My long journey on the treacherous road of life has brought me safely, thus far, to La Grange, North Carolina, the most recent home of my mother and my dad, who passed, peacefully, after his evening meal, at Britthaven of Snow Hill, on July 10, 2008.
I live in my mother’s home, where she requires 24-hour, around-the-clock, attention. There’s no place I’d rather be and there’s no one, with whom I’d rather be. I’m twice- divorced. A roving minstrel come home. I’ve chased a dream of becoming a successful songwriter, for forty-two years. I do so to this day. But not in New York, where I lived, briefly, in 1975, and not in Nashville, Tennessee, where I lived for five years.
My priority now is to see that my mother never, never, never is placed in a nursing home, where some precious souls, are unavoidably placed. Unlike my dad, who, with Parkinson’s disease, a bad heart, prostate cancer, and a newly broken hip, was placed in a nursing home, after thoughtful consideration. My brother and sisters felt that I would not be able to care for both my parents any longer. My dad had become bed-ridden.
I will, however, no matter what her condition, stay with my mother, until the light in her pretty blue eyes no longer sparkle and angels come to lead her home. She has a great fear of nursing homes, born of nursing home stories of horror and tragedy, of abuse and neglect.
Unlike Lewis Grizzard, I will never regret not calling my mother more, because I’m blessed; my mother is with me every day.
When I needed my mother, she was there. She needs me now, so I am here.
*****
If you go to the following URLs you can listen to “What Would I Do,” written for my mother, after another cancer scare; and you can listen to “Mother,” “God Gave You To Me,” and an instrumental song I wrote: “Purple Rose,” all appropriate to send to mothers on Mother’s Day, May 10, 2009.
The songs were written, arranged, recorded, and performed by me, at home, using an I4S Korg keyboard.
HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!
Allen Ball
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1UwWs3JeCs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=078WoBRE_nM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3sFzV8v3p0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25bG9uQ7rD0
Frances Mae Powell Ball is my mother. She was born, at 4 pm, on Saturday, May 14, 1927, in a “plain, wooden house…un-painted,” in Jacksonville, North Carolina.
In 1927, “Whiskery,” ridden by Linus McAtee, won the 53rd Kentucky Derby, in 2:06. "Ain't She Sweet?" by Ben Bernie, hit #1 on the pop singles chart. A baked ham cost 30 cents per eight-to 12-pound slabs, averaging each pound at about 3 cents. Milk in 1927 was 25 cents, for three tall cans, averaging 8 cents per can. Eggs cost 24 cents per dozen. A 24-ounce loaf of wrapped, split bread sold for 9 cents. Refrigerators in 1927 cost $195. Mowers were self-propelled.
In 1927, a dollar sounded more exciting and valuable than it does today. Today when you walk down the street and see a nickel or dime, it seems easier just to walk on by than take the effort to pick it up. In 1927 though, a nickel or dime was enough to buy a whole pound of baked ham or a tall can of milk. If you found a couple nickels or dimes, you could have purchased dinner for the whole family.
My brother, Arnold, and I used to pick up soft-drink bottles, wherever we could find them, in the ‘50s and ‘60s, and take them to grocers, for the deposit money, which we used to buy more Pepsis.
I was at the Dollar General, the other day, and saw Randy Wade, a member of my brother’s church: the La Grange Church of God. Someone said something about the value of pennies, these days. I told Wade that it’s an unbreakable habit, for me, of picking up pennies, so much so, that “I’ll pick up a penny, in the parking at Wal*Mart, in a rain storm.”
Times have changed, but my mother is the same: sweet, kind, compassionate, and generous-to-a-fault. She once loaned $465.00, to a hospice woman , who had given her a sad story. My mother then sat on the edge of her bed, for days, depressed and angst-ridden, wondering if she’d ever she’d ever get her money back. She had asked for no documentation, for proof of the loan. My mother lives on a fixed income.
I discerned that something was wrong, other than the fact, that my dad, mama’s husband, of 61 years, had recently passed away. She explained. I got the money back from the woman, who, interestingly, asked mom for a receipt, although she’d deemed it unnecessary, apparently, to give my mother a receipt for the money she’d borrowed from her. The woman, by the way, drove a big, late-model automobile. It is illegal, as a hospice worker, to borrow money, from a client.
I had always heard that my maternal grandmother, Addie Powell, never enjoyed holidays that most of us look forward to with great anticipation. But Mama Powell, as we grandchildren knew her, had good reason. She was no stranger to tragedy. Her two-year-old, “Little” Elbert, was accidentally killed, on Thanksgiving Day, by her six-year-old, Horace. Uncle Horace died on Easter Eve, in the ‘70s. She witnessed, along with other family members, the fatal shooting of her father, by a son-in-law, on Christmas Eve, 1916. Two brothers were killed in Philadelphia, mysteriously. Another brother was killed when a stack of lumber, at a lumber yard, rolled down over his body.
Vaden and Addie Powell had ten children; they outlived four of them.
*****
Mama’s family lived in Jacksonville, North Carolina. Irene was the third child born of Vaden and Addie Powell and the first girl. She died of croup, at age five.
On Thanksgiving Day, in 1931, My Uncle Horace Powell, six-years-old, was in the back yard with his mama. He was playing with a metal rod from a screen door, throwing it around. His mama, Addie Powell (my maternal grandmother), was washing clothes in a big, black pot filled with water that she heated by burning wood underneath, to bring the water to a boil.
On this fateful Thanksgiving Day, in 1931, two-year-old Elbert, (called “Little” Elbert) and my mama, Frances, four-years old, were emerging from the back door of the house to walk outside just as Uncle Horace had, once again, tossed the screen door rod. The rod pierced “Little” Elbert’s tender, fragile skull. If he hadn’t been in front of Mama it would have injured her instead.
Mom told me: “When Mama pulled that rod out of ‘Little’ Elbert’s head, his brains came out with it.” He was taken to the hospital in Wilmington because there was no hospital in Jacksonville. Little baby Elbert died that night.
In the early ’40s, Uncle Horace enlisted in the navy. According to my mother, he was in Philadelphia, at one time, during his two-year tour-of- duty. She said she didn’t “know if he was cruising around or just walking with friends” or alone when, suddenly, Uncle Horace saw a woman who fell or jumped off a bridge. He jumped in and rescued her from drowning. An article appeared in a Philadelphia newspaper about the rescue. Uncle Horace mailed the article back home to his mom and dad.
Many years later, in the early ‘70s, Uncle Horace called Mama one night, from a motel in South Carolina, where he worked as a maintenance man. (My family lived at 303 Tyree Rd., in Kinston, at the time. I was stationed with the 440th Army Band, Ft. Bragg, North Carolina). Mama said: “He sounded like he was drunk or on drugs. He was so out of it; he said: ‘I’ll talk to you tomorrow morning; I’ve got to go,’ then I heard the phone drop. And that’s the last I ever heard of him….”
After not showing up for work, someone from the motel called a woman “that he (Uncle Horace) liked” and “she went to the motel to check on him,” Mama recalled.” Unable to enter his room when she arrived at the motel, someone there told her: “We’ll have to call the law.
“He (Horace) must have left evidence,” Mama told me, “for someone to call Leon (their brother) if something happened to him; because somebody called him the next day, on Saturday, to say he (Horace) was dead. Leon called me and told me he was dead. It broke my heart. He said, you can tell Mama, but don’t tell Papa. I’m afraid he’ll have a heart attack.” When Papa Powell was told that his son was dead, Mama recalled that he said: “He’s not dead. He’s comin’ home.” And “he waited up for him,” she added. “He just couldn’t get it in his head that he was dead.”
When I asked Mama if she thought Uncle Horace’s death was intentional she said: “I don’t think he meant to, he just over-dosed…did too much. I don‘t think he ever got over ‘Little’ Elbert‘s death.”
Mama told me, from her sick bed, that when Uncle Horace was a grown man, he asked his mama to forgive him for “Little” Elbert’s death. Her answer was wrapped in silence.
*****
Mama’s Uncle Henry James worked in a lumber yard in Wilmington, North Carolina, in the 1970s. He went to the lumber yard on a Monday morning. While working, a stack of lumber fell on him, killing him.
*****
Mama’s uncles, Uncle Lacy and Uncle Cyrus James, operated tugboats in Philadelphia, in the early ’40s, and often worked as far down the coast as Florida. They moved to Philadelphia together. Uncle Cyrus lived with a woman named Frances and Uncle Lacy lived with a woman, whose name my mom could not recall. They both lived in common law marriages. They lived much of the time on their tugboats.
Uncle Cyrus died mysteriously. He was found “stuffed down a hole on his tugboat naked,” Mama said. The James family never learned who the killer or killers were.
Within a year, Uncle Lacy, too, died a mysterious death. He was found somewhere in Philadelphia with “the back of his head beat off,” according to my mom. His killer or killers were never discovered.
*****
Robert Lee Powell was the last of the children. My grandmother was 50-years-old at the time she gave birth to him. “Mama was not happy about it,” my mother recalled. “People were talking about it.” Robert Lee developed “colitis” and died in the “old Parrott Hospital, in Kinston, North Carolina, at the age of six months.
“I was staying with Aunt Clara and Uncle Henry, in Raleigh,” my mother said, “when Robert died...they were mama’s youngest brother and his wife. They always liked me and wanted me to stay with them.
“They [mama’s family] came and got me...He [Robert Lee] was in a little, white coffin. I picked him up. He was wearing a little white dress.” mama recalled, wistfully, at age 77, head bowed.
*****
My mother sat in the bleachers, many times, with my sisters, Carolyn and Carlene, as Arnold and I played baseball, in the Little Tar Heel League, in Washington. When Arnold and I were afraid to ask daddy for a dollar, to buy a cheeseburger, fries, and Pepsi, on out-of-town, high school band trips, mama asked for the money. When daddy was unable to make a payment on the drum set he was buying for Arnold, mama gave the seller the five-hundred-dollar diamond ring she’d won, recently, in a contest. It was the most expensive item she’d ever owned. A picture of her with her new ring was published in the Washington Daily News.
In 1965, my dad became a born-again Christian. My sisters, at the height of mini-skirt popularity, were allowed, by my dad, to wear ankle-length dresses only. Mama had to make the dresses for them. “I was sneaky,” my mother said, I would drive the girls to school in their long dresses. In school, they changed into appropriate, normal-length dresses, that we had hidden in the car.
My mother sacrificed, her entire life, for the husband she adored, and her children, she adores. I cannot properly convey the love she’s given us and the devotion to our happiness and well-being, that she’s exhibited these many years.
But that’s not all. My mother cared for her mother and father the last few years of their life. They were totally dependent on her for everything. My mother was up until 7 am, with Mama Powell, my grandmother, when she laid down in her mother’s room, saying: “Mama don’t get up without calling me first.” She got up, fell, hit her head on a dresser, dying two weeks later. Papa Powel died in his sleep, about a year later, from, literally, grief over the death of his wife, of 62-years. When mama went into his room, his body was still warm.
In a column by the late well-known writer, Lewis Grizzard, he spoke, wistfully, of his recently departed mother. The column ended with words that rattled my heart: “I wish I had called her more.”
I promised my mother, in the mid-1980s, that: “As long as I’m able, you’ll never go to a nursing home.”
My long journey on the treacherous road of life has brought me safely, thus far, to La Grange, North Carolina, the most recent home of my mother and my dad, who passed, peacefully, after his evening meal, at Britthaven of Snow Hill, on July 10, 2008.
I live in my mother’s home, where she requires 24-hour, around-the-clock, attention. There’s no place I’d rather be and there’s no one, with whom I’d rather be. I’m twice- divorced. A roving minstrel come home. I’ve chased a dream of becoming a successful songwriter, for forty-two years. I do so to this day. But not in New York, where I lived, briefly, in 1975, and not in Nashville, Tennessee, where I lived for five years.
My priority now is to see that my mother never, never, never is placed in a nursing home, where some precious souls, are unavoidably placed. Unlike my dad, who, with Parkinson’s disease, a bad heart, prostate cancer, and a newly broken hip, was placed in a nursing home, after thoughtful consideration. My brother and sisters felt that I would not be able to care for both my parents any longer. My dad had become bed-ridden.
I will, however, no matter what her condition, stay with my mother, until the light in her pretty blue eyes no longer sparkle and angels come to lead her home. She has a great fear of nursing homes, born of nursing home stories of horror and tragedy, of abuse and neglect.
Unlike Lewis Grizzard, I will never regret not calling my mother more, because I’m blessed; my mother is with me every day.
When I needed my mother, she was there. She needs me now, so I am here.
*****
If you go to the following URLs you can listen to “What Would I Do,” written for my mother, after another cancer scare; and you can listen to “Mother,” “God Gave You To Me,” and an instrumental song I wrote: “Purple Rose,” all appropriate to send to mothers on Mother’s Day, May 10, 2009.
The songs were written, arranged, recorded, and performed by me, at home, using an I4S Korg keyboard.
HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!
Allen Ball
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1UwWs3JeCs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=078WoBRE_nM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3sFzV8v3p0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25bG9uQ7rD0
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
HOW?
How is it that our universities, once the envy of the world, have become staging grounds for demonstrations in support of Hezbollah and Hamas and against Israel and America?
How have our classrooms become bizarre laboratories for radical feminists who insist that sex differences result from brutal male oppression, when neuroscience tells us they are "hardwired"? For Marxist ideology, when Marxism is dead and discredited everywhere other than on our campuses? For divisive propaganda about white racism when America has never been more color blind?
How, in short, did indoctrination replace education in our once-proud institutions of higher learning?
--DAVID HOROWITZ, One Party Classroom
How have our classrooms become bizarre laboratories for radical feminists who insist that sex differences result from brutal male oppression, when neuroscience tells us they are "hardwired"? For Marxist ideology, when Marxism is dead and discredited everywhere other than on our campuses? For divisive propaganda about white racism when America has never been more color blind?
How, in short, did indoctrination replace education in our once-proud institutions of higher learning?
--DAVID HOROWITZ, One Party Classroom
Thursday, February 26, 2009
YOU CAN QUOTE ME ON THAT
BY ALLEN BALL
"A merry heart doeth good like a medicine." (Proverbs 17:22)
*****
"God-hating nations have a short shelf life." - JAN MARKELL, of Olive Tree Ministries
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; for apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)
Go ye not to Pink Hill. (Allen Ball 16:5)
"And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, To keep the commandments of the LORD, and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good?" (Deuteronomy 10:12-13)
"And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God. . ." (Romans 1:28)
"You toucha my car; I breaka you face!" (Allen Ball 5:6)
"A merry heart doeth good like a medicine." (Proverbs 17:22)
"A merry heart maketh a cheerfull countenance." (Proverbs 15:13)
"A merry-go-round can maketh thee sicketh and loseth thy luncheth." (Allen Ball 4:16)
"A merry heart doeth good like a medicine." (Proverbs 17:22)
*****
"God-hating nations have a short shelf life." - JAN MARKELL, of Olive Tree Ministries
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; for apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)
Go ye not to Pink Hill. (Allen Ball 16:5)
"And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, To keep the commandments of the LORD, and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good?" (Deuteronomy 10:12-13)
"And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God. . ." (Romans 1:28)
"You toucha my car; I breaka you face!" (Allen Ball 5:6)
"A merry heart doeth good like a medicine." (Proverbs 17:22)
"A merry heart maketh a cheerfull countenance." (Proverbs 15:13)
"A merry-go-round can maketh thee sicketh and loseth thy luncheth." (Allen Ball 4:16)
Monday, February 23, 2009
Muslim Lawyer Brands Christmas “Evil”
----- Original Message -----
From: Act for America
To: Lynwood Ball
Sent: Friday, December 12, 2008 12:43 PM
Subject: Muslim lawyer brands Christmas 'evil'
Muslim Lawyer Brands Christmas “Evil”
For Some, Tolerance Is A One-Way Street
Dear Lynwood,
As you read the short article below, ask yourself what the “establishment media” would be saying today if the “Chairman of the Society of Christian Lawyers” had publicly proclaimed that Ramadan is “evil,” and a “pathway to hellfire.”
Remember, the Muslim lawyer who branded Christmas “evil” is not just any Muslim, but the Chairman of the Society of Muslim lawyers. Note also that he is the Principal Lecturer at the London School of Shariah and “a follower of the Islamist militant leader Omar Bakri Mohammed.” These are the kinds of people American financial institutions are affiliating with when they offer shariah-compliant financial products.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Muslim lawyer Anjem Choudary brands Christmas 'evil'
Muslim preacher Anjem Choudary has branded Christmas "evil" in a sermon posted on the internet.
By Murray Wardrop
The Daily Telegraph (London)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/3699565/Muslim-lawyer-Anjem-Choudary-brands-Christmas-evil.html
Choudary said Christmas was 'the pathway to hellfire'.
The lawyer, who recently praised the Mumbai terror attacks, urged all Muslims to reject traditional Christmas celebrations, claiming that they are forbidden by Allah.
The 41-year-old shocked Christians and even those of his own faith by branding yuletide festivities as "the pathway to hellfire".
Choudary, who is chairman of the Society of Muslim Lawyers, ruled out all celebrations, including having a Christmas tree, decorating the house or eating turkey.
In the sermon posted on an Islamic website, he said: "In the world today many Muslims, especially those residing in western countries, are exposed to the evil celebration Christmas.
"Many take part in the festival celebrations by having Christmas turkey dinners.
"Decorating the house, purchasing Christmas trees or having Christmas turkey meals are completely prohibited by Allah.
"Many still practise this corrupt celebration as a remembrance of the birth of Jesus.
"How can a Muslim possibly approve or participate in such a practice that bases itself on the notion Allah has an offspring?
"The very concept of Christmas contradicts and conflicts with the foundation of Islam.
"Every Muslim has a responsibility to protect his family from the misguidance of Christmas, because its observance will lead to hellfire. Protect your Paradise from being taken away – protect yourself and your family from Christmas."
Choudary is Principal Lecturer at the London School of Shari'ah and a follower of the Islamist militant leader Omar Bakri Mohammed.
Earlier this year, he led a meeting at the heart of the area where the liquid bombers lived, which warned of a British September 11.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ACT for America
P.O. Box 6884
Virginia Beach, VA 23456
www.actforamerica.org
ACT for America is an issues advocacy organization dedicated to effectively organizing and mobilizing the most powerful grassroots citizen action network in America, a grassroots network committed to informed and coordinated civic action that will lead to public policies that promote America’s national security and the defense of American democratic values against the assault of radical Islam.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HOW CAN I TELL OTHERS ABOUT YOUR ORGANIZATION?
Send a personalized version of this message to your friends.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HOW CAN I SUPPORT YOUR ORGANIZATION?
Click here to give an online donation.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG - http://www.avg.com
Version: 8.0.176 / Virus Database: 270.10.15/1921 - Release Date: 1/28/2009 6:37 AM
From: Act for America
To: Lynwood Ball
Sent: Friday, December 12, 2008 12:43 PM
Subject: Muslim lawyer brands Christmas 'evil'
Muslim Lawyer Brands Christmas “Evil”
For Some, Tolerance Is A One-Way Street
Dear Lynwood,
As you read the short article below, ask yourself what the “establishment media” would be saying today if the “Chairman of the Society of Christian Lawyers” had publicly proclaimed that Ramadan is “evil,” and a “pathway to hellfire.”
Remember, the Muslim lawyer who branded Christmas “evil” is not just any Muslim, but the Chairman of the Society of Muslim lawyers. Note also that he is the Principal Lecturer at the London School of Shariah and “a follower of the Islamist militant leader Omar Bakri Mohammed.” These are the kinds of people American financial institutions are affiliating with when they offer shariah-compliant financial products.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Muslim lawyer Anjem Choudary brands Christmas 'evil'
Muslim preacher Anjem Choudary has branded Christmas "evil" in a sermon posted on the internet.
By Murray Wardrop
The Daily Telegraph (London)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/3699565/Muslim-lawyer-Anjem-Choudary-brands-Christmas-evil.html
Choudary said Christmas was 'the pathway to hellfire'.
The lawyer, who recently praised the Mumbai terror attacks, urged all Muslims to reject traditional Christmas celebrations, claiming that they are forbidden by Allah.
The 41-year-old shocked Christians and even those of his own faith by branding yuletide festivities as "the pathway to hellfire".
Choudary, who is chairman of the Society of Muslim Lawyers, ruled out all celebrations, including having a Christmas tree, decorating the house or eating turkey.
In the sermon posted on an Islamic website, he said: "In the world today many Muslims, especially those residing in western countries, are exposed to the evil celebration Christmas.
"Many take part in the festival celebrations by having Christmas turkey dinners.
"Decorating the house, purchasing Christmas trees or having Christmas turkey meals are completely prohibited by Allah.
"Many still practise this corrupt celebration as a remembrance of the birth of Jesus.
"How can a Muslim possibly approve or participate in such a practice that bases itself on the notion Allah has an offspring?
"The very concept of Christmas contradicts and conflicts with the foundation of Islam.
"Every Muslim has a responsibility to protect his family from the misguidance of Christmas, because its observance will lead to hellfire. Protect your Paradise from being taken away – protect yourself and your family from Christmas."
Choudary is Principal Lecturer at the London School of Shari'ah and a follower of the Islamist militant leader Omar Bakri Mohammed.
Earlier this year, he led a meeting at the heart of the area where the liquid bombers lived, which warned of a British September 11.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ACT for America
P.O. Box 6884
Virginia Beach, VA 23456
www.actforamerica.org
ACT for America is an issues advocacy organization dedicated to effectively organizing and mobilizing the most powerful grassroots citizen action network in America, a grassroots network committed to informed and coordinated civic action that will lead to public policies that promote America’s national security and the defense of American democratic values against the assault of radical Islam.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HOW CAN I TELL OTHERS ABOUT YOUR ORGANIZATION?
Send a personalized version of this message to your friends.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HOW CAN I SUPPORT YOUR ORGANIZATION?
Click here to give an online donation.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG - http://www.avg.com
Version: 8.0.176 / Virus Database: 270.10.15/1921 - Release Date: 1/28/2009 6:37 AM
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Did Obama Diss Winston Churchill?
Did Obama Diss Winston Churchill?
by Marcia Segelstein
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Blog/Default.aspx?id=425198
After the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the British government loaned a famous bronze bust of Winston Churchill, once voted the greatest Briton in history, to President George W. Bush. It continued to occupy a place of prominence in the Oval Office through Bush’s second term. But when British officials offered to let President Obama continue to keep Churchill’s likeness, they were rebuffed.
The official statement from the British Embassy reads as follows: “The bust of Sir Winston Churchill by Sir Jacob Epstein was uniquely lent to a foreign head of state, President George W. Bush, from the Government Art Collection in the wake of 9/11 as a signal of the strong transatlantic relationship…The new President has decided not to continue this loan and the bust has now been returned.”
The Telegraph, a British newspaper, reports that the rejection of the bust has left some British officials nervous about the future relationship between the two countries.
by Marcia Segelstein
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Blog/Default.aspx?id=425198
After the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the British government loaned a famous bronze bust of Winston Churchill, once voted the greatest Briton in history, to President George W. Bush. It continued to occupy a place of prominence in the Oval Office through Bush’s second term. But when British officials offered to let President Obama continue to keep Churchill’s likeness, they were rebuffed.
The official statement from the British Embassy reads as follows: “The bust of Sir Winston Churchill by Sir Jacob Epstein was uniquely lent to a foreign head of state, President George W. Bush, from the Government Art Collection in the wake of 9/11 as a signal of the strong transatlantic relationship…The new President has decided not to continue this loan and the bust has now been returned.”
The Telegraph, a British newspaper, reports that the rejection of the bust has left some British officials nervous about the future relationship between the two countries.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
CONTACT MICHIGAN ATTORNEY GENERAL, MIKE COX
Readers:
You can contact Attorney General, Mike Cox at the following e-mail address. Feel free to copy and paste my remarks to Mr. Cox into your e-mail.
miag@michigan.gov
Allen Ball
You can contact Attorney General, Mike Cox at the following e-mail address. Feel free to copy and paste my remarks to Mr. Cox into your e-mail.
miag@michigan.gov
Allen Ball
YOUNG WOMAN BOOTED FROM TEAM FOR BEING STRAIGHT.
Office of the Attorney General
Mike Cox, Attorney General
Dear Mr. Cox:
I trust appropriate action will be taken against Sue Guevarah, Central Michigan Universitie's new women's basketball head coach, if found guilty of accusations leveled against her.
See story below.
Thank you sir.
Allen Ball
http://ifight4right4jesus.blogspot.com/
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Young woman booted from team for being straight
Pete Chagnon and Jody Brown - OneNewsNow - 2/13/2009 6:00:00 AM
Central Michigan University is being sued after one of their women's basketball players said she was kicked off the team due to her heterosexuality.
Brooke Heike was a high school basketball star who was aggressively sought after by several colleges that wanted the league MVP from Washington Township, Michigan, to continue her record-breaking rebounding and shot-blocking skills on their campus. After leading her team to its first conference title in 18 years as a high school senior, the 6-foot-2 forward decided to attend Central Michigan University, which offered her a full scholarship.
But Heike says she fell out of favor in 2007 with CMU's new women's basketball head coach, Sue Guevara, and was eventually kicked off the team. She claims the coach, who is allegedly lesbian, took issue with her heterosexuality. Cindy Rhodes Victor of the Victor Firm, PLLC is representing Heike.
"She was not only kicked off the team, but her scholarship was taken away because the coach kept telling her that she wasn't her 'type,'" Victor explains. "And when Brooke would ask what was that, [Guevara] would say 'I don't want you to wear makeup, you have a boyfriend, I don't want you to have a boyfriend...you're too girly girl' -- that type of thing."
Victor says Heike was an excellent basketball player. She adds that her teammates liked her, but still Heike's coach refused to help her out. Heike ended up hiring independent trainers to help her. According to Heike's attorney, cancellation of elementary education major's scholarship came as a surprise.
"She wasn't even told ever that her scholarship was in jeopardy or that her position was in jeopardy," says Victor. "Out of the blue she gets a letter from the financial aid office that says your scholarship's gone." A teammate then told the 20-year-old that "the coach announced yesterday that you were off the team because you're not happy."
CMU representatives refused a request for an interview, but instead emailed OneNewsNow a statement saying they are familiar with the allegations and that they will defend their position in court. According to the case file, the coach in question was fired from a coaching job at another school in 2003. Team members at that school accused Sue Guevara of similar actions.
Mike Cox, Attorney General
Dear Mr. Cox:
I trust appropriate action will be taken against Sue Guevarah, Central Michigan Universitie's new women's basketball head coach, if found guilty of accusations leveled against her.
See story below.
Thank you sir.
Allen Ball
http://ifight4right4jesus.blogspot.com/
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Young woman booted from team for being straight
Pete Chagnon and Jody Brown - OneNewsNow - 2/13/2009 6:00:00 AM
Central Michigan University is being sued after one of their women's basketball players said she was kicked off the team due to her heterosexuality.
Brooke Heike was a high school basketball star who was aggressively sought after by several colleges that wanted the league MVP from Washington Township, Michigan, to continue her record-breaking rebounding and shot-blocking skills on their campus. After leading her team to its first conference title in 18 years as a high school senior, the 6-foot-2 forward decided to attend Central Michigan University, which offered her a full scholarship.
But Heike says she fell out of favor in 2007 with CMU's new women's basketball head coach, Sue Guevara, and was eventually kicked off the team. She claims the coach, who is allegedly lesbian, took issue with her heterosexuality. Cindy Rhodes Victor of the Victor Firm, PLLC is representing Heike.
"She was not only kicked off the team, but her scholarship was taken away because the coach kept telling her that she wasn't her 'type,'" Victor explains. "And when Brooke would ask what was that, [Guevara] would say 'I don't want you to wear makeup, you have a boyfriend, I don't want you to have a boyfriend...you're too girly girl' -- that type of thing."
Victor says Heike was an excellent basketball player. She adds that her teammates liked her, but still Heike's coach refused to help her out. Heike ended up hiring independent trainers to help her. According to Heike's attorney, cancellation of elementary education major's scholarship came as a surprise.
"She wasn't even told ever that her scholarship was in jeopardy or that her position was in jeopardy," says Victor. "Out of the blue she gets a letter from the financial aid office that says your scholarship's gone." A teammate then told the 20-year-old that "the coach announced yesterday that you were off the team because you're not happy."
CMU representatives refused a request for an interview, but instead emailed OneNewsNow a statement saying they are familiar with the allegations and that they will defend their position in court. According to the case file, the coach in question was fired from a coaching job at another school in 2003. Team members at that school accused Sue Guevara of similar actions.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
CHURCH OF GOD LIFE INSURANCE
My dad, Rev. Allen James Ball, died July 10, 2008. For years he and my mom paid premiums on life insurance provided through the Church of God. Our family received $3,000 from the Church of God insurance company when dad died. My dad's death unearthed an interesting fact: Because my dad died first my 81-year-old mother will receive absolutely nothing from the Church of God insurance company when she dies. Absolutely nothing! And she helped to pay the insurance premiums!
When my dad pastored the Angier, N.C. Church of God, my parents lived in a camper, about 15-feet long. Camping a few days in a camper is much different from living 24-hours a day in one, for months on end. Where do you go if you and your spouse have a tiff--a disagreement? My mother developed her first ulcer living in the cramped quarters of that camper in Angier.
When my dad first began preaching revivals times were tough. He was a very successful radio and television celebrity at one time. He chose to leave radio to become a preacher. I remember a time when we had nothing to eat. I don't mean nothing to eat the way a woman says "I have nothing to wear." We literally had nothing-not one can of food in the cupboards or one bowl of leftovers in the refrigerator. I don't want to embarrass my family if they read this, but this is an issue that needs to be addressed.
You need not consult an actuary to know that men generally die before their spouses do. It's common knowledge. Some widows, after helping to pay for Church of God insurance, as my mother did, are left wanting funds for burial after the death of a spouse . Is it too much to ask that these faithful, hard-working angels of God receive the same benefits of men who serve the ministry? After all, it's the pastor's choice to join the ministry and these faithful ladies follow their husbands from town to town, from church to church, living a lifestyle not of their choosing, receiving none of the glory the pastor receives, sacrificng their own personal wants, needs, and dreams.
We had no water heater in the second home we lived in after dad quit radio. My mom would get up in the morning and warm water on top of a wood heater in the kitchen. She heated water on the heater for my two sisters, for baths, as well.
It's a sad and surprising anomaly that the Church of God, which preaches mercy, giving to others, love, and compassion fails to practice what it preaches, failing to adequately provide assistance in the burial of all of God's children--men and women! I have the right to criticize the Church of God, because I'm a member of a Church of God.
When I speak with young people who are troubled, trying to find a purpose in life, I always say: "No matter what you do in life, always do the right thing." It's a simple motto to which big institutions like the Church of God should adhere.
--ALLEN BALL, Tuesday, February 10, 2009
When my dad pastored the Angier, N.C. Church of God, my parents lived in a camper, about 15-feet long. Camping a few days in a camper is much different from living 24-hours a day in one, for months on end. Where do you go if you and your spouse have a tiff--a disagreement? My mother developed her first ulcer living in the cramped quarters of that camper in Angier.
When my dad first began preaching revivals times were tough. He was a very successful radio and television celebrity at one time. He chose to leave radio to become a preacher. I remember a time when we had nothing to eat. I don't mean nothing to eat the way a woman says "I have nothing to wear." We literally had nothing-not one can of food in the cupboards or one bowl of leftovers in the refrigerator. I don't want to embarrass my family if they read this, but this is an issue that needs to be addressed.
You need not consult an actuary to know that men generally die before their spouses do. It's common knowledge. Some widows, after helping to pay for Church of God insurance, as my mother did, are left wanting funds for burial after the death of a spouse . Is it too much to ask that these faithful, hard-working angels of God receive the same benefits of men who serve the ministry? After all, it's the pastor's choice to join the ministry and these faithful ladies follow their husbands from town to town, from church to church, living a lifestyle not of their choosing, receiving none of the glory the pastor receives, sacrificng their own personal wants, needs, and dreams.
We had no water heater in the second home we lived in after dad quit radio. My mom would get up in the morning and warm water on top of a wood heater in the kitchen. She heated water on the heater for my two sisters, for baths, as well.
It's a sad and surprising anomaly that the Church of God, which preaches mercy, giving to others, love, and compassion fails to practice what it preaches, failing to adequately provide assistance in the burial of all of God's children--men and women! I have the right to criticize the Church of God, because I'm a member of a Church of God.
When I speak with young people who are troubled, trying to find a purpose in life, I always say: "No matter what you do in life, always do the right thing." It's a simple motto to which big institutions like the Church of God should adhere.
--ALLEN BALL, Tuesday, February 10, 2009
ALBERT EINSTEIN -- Baltimore Evening Sun, April 13, 1979.
In a letter to the Episcopal Bishop Edward R. Wells in 1945, [Albert]Einstein wrote concerning the behavior of the Christian Church during the Holocaust.
“Being a lover of freedom… I looked to the universities to defend it, knowing that they had always boasted of their devotion to the cause of truth; but, no, the universities immediately were silenced. Then I looked to the great editors of the newspapers whose flaming editorials in days gone by had proclaimed their love of freedom; but they, like the universities, were silenced in a few short weeks. Only the church stood squarely across the path of Hitler’s campaign for suppressing the truth. I never had any special interest in the church before, but now I feel a great affection and admiration because the church alone has had the courage and persistence to stand for intellectual truth and moral freedom. I am forced to confess that what I once despised I now praise unreservedly”~Baltimore Evening Sun, April 13, 1979.
“Being a lover of freedom… I looked to the universities to defend it, knowing that they had always boasted of their devotion to the cause of truth; but, no, the universities immediately were silenced. Then I looked to the great editors of the newspapers whose flaming editorials in days gone by had proclaimed their love of freedom; but they, like the universities, were silenced in a few short weeks. Only the church stood squarely across the path of Hitler’s campaign for suppressing the truth. I never had any special interest in the church before, but now I feel a great affection and admiration because the church alone has had the courage and persistence to stand for intellectual truth and moral freedom. I am forced to confess that what I once despised I now praise unreservedly”~Baltimore Evening Sun, April 13, 1979.
ALBERT EINSTEIN -- Saturday Evening Post, October 26, 1929
Albert Einstein’s mental prowess made him an icon for the disciplines of Science. As a Jew, Einstein had distinct views on Jesus, the New Testament, and the Church. Below is a clip of an interview from the Saturday Evening Post, October 26, 1929: “
“To what extent are you influenced by Christianity?
As a child I received instruction both in the Bible and in the Talmud. I am a Jew, but I am enthralled by the luminous figure of the Nazarene.
Have you read Emil Ludwig’s book on Jesus?
Emil Ludwig’s Jesus is shallow. Jesus is too colossal for the pen of phrasemongers, however artful. No man can dispose of Christianity with a bon mot [a witty remark].
You accept the historical existence of Jesus?
Unquestionably! No one can read the Gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word. No myth is filled with such life.”
“To what extent are you influenced by Christianity?
As a child I received instruction both in the Bible and in the Talmud. I am a Jew, but I am enthralled by the luminous figure of the Nazarene.
Have you read Emil Ludwig’s book on Jesus?
Emil Ludwig’s Jesus is shallow. Jesus is too colossal for the pen of phrasemongers, however artful. No man can dispose of Christianity with a bon mot [a witty remark].
You accept the historical existence of Jesus?
Unquestionably! No one can read the Gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word. No myth is filled with such life.”
AFA (AMERICAN FAMILY ASSOCIATION) ACTION ALERT!
The following is as ACTION ALERT! from the American Family Association, dated Tuesday, February 10, 2008.
Please help us get this information into the hands of as many people as possible by forwarding it to your entire e-mail list of family and friends.
A call to action from former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and U.S. Senator Jim DeMint to stop ACLU supported bill
Democrats vote to discriminate against Christians and people of faith
Take Action!
Send an e-mail and call your representative and two senators today! Tell them to remove the language discriminating against people of faith. In addition, please take the time to call your representative and two senators. The phone number where you can reach both your representative and two senators is 202-224-3121.
February 9, 2009
Dear Friend,
President Obama's stimulus bill discriminates against Christians and people of faith. The stimulus bans universities and colleges from using funds to renovate buildings where students engage in "religious worship."
Please help us get this information into the hands of as many people as possible by forwarding it to your entire e-mail list of family and friends.
A call to action from former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and U.S. Senator Jim DeMint to stop ACLU supported bill
Democrats vote to discriminate against Christians and people of faith
Take Action!
Send an e-mail and call your representative and two senators today! Tell them to remove the language discriminating against people of faith. In addition, please take the time to call your representative and two senators. The phone number where you can reach both your representative and two senators is 202-224-3121.
February 9, 2009
Dear Friend,
President Obama's stimulus bill discriminates against Christians and people of faith. The stimulus bans universities and colleges from using funds to renovate buildings where students engage in "religious worship."
Sunday, February 8, 2009
I fell in love with "This Little Child" the first time I heard it, driving on Hwy. 70 W., between La Grange, North Carolina and Goldsboro, N.C. It was written by Scott Wesley Brown. You can order his recording of the song from a music shop somewhere. My brother, Arnold, a pastor, and members of our church took to the song immediately when I sang it. Arnold requested that I sing it at Christmastime. I recorded it in 2006. I told the engineer/studio owner that I had sung a part off key (it's a tough song to sing, and my voice was not at it's best) and the briliant guy told me that it sometimes makes a song sound better if you're a little "flat" on a note, in a song. He refused to let me re-record the part. I hope you enjoy my rendition of this great song anyway.
THE STIFLING OF CHRISTIANITY IN AMERICA
The stifling of Christianity in America is reaching a critical point for Christians all over the world. There is a new, solid, bold, concerted campaign by atheists to abolish Christianity, not only in America, but all over the world. We, as Christians, have a responsibility to God to do what we can to win the fight to keep Christianity and the freedom to worchip God alive in America and the world. I created this blog to do what I can to fulfill that responsibility.
I'm a Christian and; I'm a republican. God comes before my country, in my life, and my country comes before my Republican Party. I would vote for a democrat in a New York minute if I felt that he or she put the interest and well-being of America before his party, and his republican opponent put his party before our country.
Read the following:
Anti-faith language remains in stimulus package
Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow - 2/7/2009 4:15:00 AM
var addthis_pub = 'onenewsnow';
The U.S. Senate has taken action that could mean a legal battle royal over the stimulus bill.
The Senate rejected an amendment offered by Senator Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina) that would have stripped language from the stimulus bill that would force colleges and universities to throw religious clubs off campus if the schools receive federal funds. (Go to http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=411848 to read the entire article.)
*****
Do you become angered by news like that? I do! But we do nothing about it. Well, this blog is about taking action against anything or anyone who threatens Christianity in America. For example: I am going to contact Senator Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina) to offer my support and appreciation for offering an amendment to protect the right of colleges and universities to maintain religious clubs on campus if their schools accept federal funds through the highly debated and highly controversial stimulus bill proposed by Barack Obama and Senate democrats
I propose ten principles, or rules of action, for every Christian who wants to take action against, instead of just talking about, threats to Christianity. They are as follows:
RULES OF ACTION
(1) Stay informed in matters that may affect or threaten freedom of religion in America.
(2) Contact your friends and neighbors concerning matters that may threaten freedom of
religion in America.
(3) Support your senators and members of congress with appreciation for their work to
further freedom of religion in America, by writing to them or sending them e-mail.
(4) Know who the senators and members of congress are in your state and your district.
(5) Assure your senators and members of congress that they no longer have your support
when they initiate legislation or support legislation that threatens your freedom of religion
or threatens to remove any reference to God in any way.
(6) Make a list of all contact addresses and phone numbers of your governmental officials, to
to make contact with them easy, fast, and convenient.
(7) Contact your senators and members of congress about every concern you have about a
threat to freedom of religion in America.
(8) Maintain a list of names of everyone you hear about or read about on television who
threatens freedom of religion in America, in order to ascertain their affiliation with
individuals and/or groups (ACLU, for example) in order to ascertain the motive behind
their threats against Christians and against freedom of religion. Boycott the businesses of
anyone on the list (Wal*Mart, Target, Ford Motors, etc.) to express your disapproval of
actions they take that threaten freedom of religion in America (replacing "Merry
Christmas" with "Happy Holidays" in places of business, for example).
(9) Contact talk show hosts and others on radio and television who support Christanity.
(10) Support your local church with attendance, tithes, and donations.
I will try to make this blog site as informative, interesting, and entertaining as possible. I welcome comments.
God bless you.
Allen Ball
La Grange, North Carolina
I'm a Christian and; I'm a republican. God comes before my country, in my life, and my country comes before my Republican Party. I would vote for a democrat in a New York minute if I felt that he or she put the interest and well-being of America before his party, and his republican opponent put his party before our country.
Read the following:
Anti-faith language remains in stimulus package
Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow - 2/7/2009 4:15:00 AM
var addthis_pub = 'onenewsnow';
The U.S. Senate has taken action that could mean a legal battle royal over the stimulus bill.
The Senate rejected an amendment offered by Senator Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina) that would have stripped language from the stimulus bill that would force colleges and universities to throw religious clubs off campus if the schools receive federal funds. (Go to http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=411848 to read the entire article.)
*****
Do you become angered by news like that? I do! But we do nothing about it. Well, this blog is about taking action against anything or anyone who threatens Christianity in America. For example: I am going to contact Senator Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina) to offer my support and appreciation for offering an amendment to protect the right of colleges and universities to maintain religious clubs on campus if their schools accept federal funds through the highly debated and highly controversial stimulus bill proposed by Barack Obama and Senate democrats
I propose ten principles, or rules of action, for every Christian who wants to take action against, instead of just talking about, threats to Christianity. They are as follows:
RULES OF ACTION
(1) Stay informed in matters that may affect or threaten freedom of religion in America.
(2) Contact your friends and neighbors concerning matters that may threaten freedom of
religion in America.
(3) Support your senators and members of congress with appreciation for their work to
further freedom of religion in America, by writing to them or sending them e-mail.
(4) Know who the senators and members of congress are in your state and your district.
(5) Assure your senators and members of congress that they no longer have your support
when they initiate legislation or support legislation that threatens your freedom of religion
or threatens to remove any reference to God in any way.
(6) Make a list of all contact addresses and phone numbers of your governmental officials, to
to make contact with them easy, fast, and convenient.
(7) Contact your senators and members of congress about every concern you have about a
threat to freedom of religion in America.
(8) Maintain a list of names of everyone you hear about or read about on television who
threatens freedom of religion in America, in order to ascertain their affiliation with
individuals and/or groups (ACLU, for example) in order to ascertain the motive behind
their threats against Christians and against freedom of religion. Boycott the businesses of
anyone on the list (Wal*Mart, Target, Ford Motors, etc.) to express your disapproval of
actions they take that threaten freedom of religion in America (replacing "Merry
Christmas" with "Happy Holidays" in places of business, for example).
(9) Contact talk show hosts and others on radio and television who support Christanity.
(10) Support your local church with attendance, tithes, and donations.
I will try to make this blog site as informative, interesting, and entertaining as possible. I welcome comments.
God bless you.
Allen Ball
La Grange, North Carolina
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