Saving History
Tuesday, March 3, 2009 at 10:09PM | Lynn I constantly keep my ears open for possible new topics and stories for books. I generally gravitate toward writing non-fiction or turning the truth into fiction, known as historical fiction. However, I recently received a comeuppance of sorts when a colleague (with a degree in history) related how we (general population) should pay less attention to reminiscencing and more attention to all things relevant to our present-day lives. After two weeks, I have not gotten the comment off of my mind.
All of sudden, today, on the coldest morning of the year (19 degrees), a student walked into class and said, "I didn't know a certain teacher of mine would be featured in this magazine."
He opened a copy of the March 2008 "Our State" magazine to the book review section and there was a review of my book, Voices of the North Carolina Mountains. My first reaction was to thank Jason profusely for bringing the magazine and, most of all, for noticing the book reviews. Then, when I read the review, I thanked my lucky stars that Katie Parry, my publicist, at the History Press had the forethought to send a review copy to the magazine, for even though the review was a year old, I had not seen it.
Reading the fabulous, incredible view by Katie Baer made me feel better about honoring the memories of those who came before me, for their stories are relevant to our history and provide entertaining reminiscenses. For after I read the review, I realized I had shown within the seven essays (based on oral histories) how each person had grown-up contributing to the welfare of their family. This IS relevant to the lives of today's society. It shows a sharpe contrast in the responsibilities placed on children forty and fifty years ago compared to how children today are often not expected to help their families in any way. The feeling of entitlement exudes from many of my students. I fear for their lack of interest in growing things including food and flowers, cooking from scratch, being inspired by nature, and enjoying listening and reading.
Learning from those who lived in the 30s, 40s, and 50s is a way of gaining insight into how to live with less, how to become a community steward and how to avoid becoming a conspicuous consumer.
My students were interested in having me read the review. Then, we launched into a discussion of how Glenn Bolick's mother never wasted anything (Chapter Two). She saved the tiniest pieces of fabrics in a scrap bag until they became part of a new quilt. There's hardy a person today that would not want to own a handmade quilt. There is also a resurgence of quilters who can relate to the needs of people who had the talent to fashion bed-covers. Now, that is certainly relevant to current trends.
My class gave back to me today, as I realized that no matter what others say about history (even if they have a history degree), it is the recording and discussion of memories and the traditions passing from one generation to another that keep us on track within our own families. Most of all, such knowledge helps us relate to neighbors and friends. We can learn. We can apply and we can honor those who came before.
Who knows? In this tough financial time, we may need to take out the hand-me-down cookbooks and start canning food we grow in our backyard gardens. Glenn Bolick, Amy Michels, Robert Dotson, and Clyde Lewis would be so proud. They have never forsaken their way-of-life to prove any type of relevance to "the computer age." They could give a darn about all of that.
They are too busy growing corn and cane that is higher than an elephant's eye. This is the time of year Amy orders new biddies for her fowl collection. She knows the difference between a duck egg, a hen's egg, and a guinea egg. That's important, because she makes the best cornbread in Appalachia. And that's the most relevant thing I can thing of. History rocks!
Excerpt from: Voices of the North Carolina Mountains: Appalachian Oral Histories (with permission from "Our State" Magazine March 2008
Most of the interviewees are in their 80s or 90s, so they're looking back at a rural past characterized by unrelenting hard work. a community life built around church and revival, and often the joy of making music.
Salsi has made a valuable contribution to our state's library by capturing the memories and instights of these remarkable men and women of Appalachia.
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The Myth of a Judeo-Christian Tradition
This is an age in which news has been superseded by propaganda, and education by brain-washing and indoctrination. From the advertising used to sell poor quality goods, to the classes in schools designed to make children into conditioned robots of the State, the art of persuasion has displaced the simple virtue of truth.
Since the end of the Second World War we have been bombarded from all sides with references to the Western world's "Judeo-Christian religion," and "our Judeo-Christian heritage." We are told by both church leaders and scholars that our society is based on a supposed "Judeo-Christian tradition".
The notion of "Judeo-Christian religion" is an unquestioned -- almost sacrosanct -- part of both secular and church thinking. American Christian leader Prof. Franklin H. Littel, a vocal supporter of the Zionist state, frankly declared that "to be Christian is to be Jewish," and that consequently it was the duty of a Christian to put support for the "land of Israel" above all else. Pat Boon, the North American singer and evangelist, said there are two kinds of Judaism, one Orthodox and the other Christian.
Yet such a decidedly Christian Zionist outlook is to say the least, wildly simplistic and profoundly ahistorical. As the astute Jewish writer, Joshua J. Adler, points out, "The differences between Christianity and Judaism are much more than merely believing in whether the messiah already appeared or is still expected, as some like to say."
The comments of Jewish author Mr. S. Levin may well explain the Christian's need for the Judeo-Christian myth. Writing in the Israeli journal Biblical Polemics, Levin concludes: "'After all, we worship the same God', the Christian always says to the Jew and the Jew never to the Christian. The Jew knows that he does not worship the Christ-God but the Christian orphan needs to worship the God of Israel and so, his standard gambit rolls easily and thoughtlessly from his lips. It is a strictly unilateral affirmation, limited to making a claim on the God of Israel but never invoked with reference to other gods. A Christian never confronts a Moslem or a Hindu with 'After all, we worship the same God'."
Back in 1992 both Newsweek magazine and the Israeli Jerusalem Post newspaper simultaneously printed extensive articles scrutinising the roots of the sacrosanct Judeo-Christian honeymoon!
The statement heading the Newsweek article read: "Politicians appeal to a Judeo-Christian tradition, but religious scholars say it no longer exists." The Jerusalem Post article's pull quote announced: "Antisemitism is a direct result of the Church's teachings, which Christians perhaps need to re-examine."
"For scholars of American religion," Newsweek states, "the idea of a single Judeo-Christian tradition is a made-in-America myth that many of them no longer regard as valid." It quotes eminent Talmudic scholar Jacob Neusner: "Theologically and historically, there is no such thing as the Judeo-Christian tradition. It's a secular myth favoured by people who are not really believers themselves."
Newsweek cites authorities who indicate that "the idea of a common Judeo-Christian tradition first surfaced at the end of the 19th century but did not gain popular support until the 1940s, as part of an American reaction to Nazism . . ," and concludes that, "Since then, both Jewish and Christian scholars have come to recognize that -- geopolitics apart -- Judaism and Christianity are different, even rival religions."
The Jerusalem Post accused the Christian Church of being responsible for the Holocaust. The French Jewish scholar Jules Isaac was quoted as saying: "Without centuries of Christian catechism, preaching, and vituperation, the Hitlerian teachings, propaganda and vituperation would not have been possible."
"The problem," concludes the Jerusalem Post, "is not, as some assert, that certain Christian leaders deviated from Christian teachings and behaved in an un-Christian manner; it is the teachings themselves that are bent."
Joshua Jehouda, a prominent French Jewish leader, observed in the late 1950s: "The current expression 'Judaeo-Christian' is an error which has altered the course of universal history by the confusion it has sown in men's minds, if by it one is meant to understand the Jewish origin of Christianity . . . If the term 'Judaeo-Christian' does point to a common origin, there is no doubt that it is a most dangerous idea. It is based on a 'contradictio in abjecto' which has set the path of history on the wrong track. It links in one breath two ideas which are completely irreconcileable, it seeks to demonstrate that there is no difference between day and night or hot and cold or black and white, and thus introduces a fatal element of confusion to a basis on which some, nevertheless, are endeavouring to construct a civilisation." (l'Antisemitisme Miroir du Monde pp. 135-6).
This must end. We must, for the sake of America?s future and America?s survival, pass legislation that brands Zionism permanently as a criminal, a terrorist and a treasonous ideology, and one which desires world domination and control over all other peoples. The fact that the American-Israeli Public Affairs Committee essentially writes our MidEast policy only guarantees that America will be drawn into endless war, endless bloodshed and endless death and decimation of other nations for the sake of world criminal Zionism and for the benefit of NO ONE ELSE. The Jewish supremacists have been allowed to lord it over the rest of humanity for long enough! I?ve had enough and the world has certainly had its fill of the warmongering agenda of radical Zionist Jews! These Jews now control most of our federal government and their grip has to be dislodged and smashed!
The question is, who is causing all the trouble? Why is our economy collapsing? Why are we fighting so many wars? Who are the REAL terrorists? Who's behind the abortion slaughter? Who's behind the nationalizing of American business? Who owns the federal reserve Bank (it is a privet bank)? Why do we pay interest on our own money?
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