When Two Cultures Collide

By Colin Tatem

I go to a Muslim barber shop, right nest door to an Islamic Cultural Center, where there is a mosque with learned scholars teaching The Holy Koran, and the History of Islam. I have often heard of Islam introducing chemistry, algebra and medicine to the world, and that more than 40 percent of the slaves that came to the New World were Muslim, as Jamal Raheem wrote to The Bahama Journal to enlighten me. I have therefore returned to Islam, its illustrious history, its place in the world today, and its future.

He is quite right, Islam did introduce algebra and chemistry to the world. In fact, most of the learning of ancient times were preserved by learned Islamic Scholars at its intellectual centers in Cordoba, Spain, and passed on to the West. Its architecture is magnificent, and lasting, as may be seen throughout Spain, parts of Italy, and North Africa, with domes, pillars and architectural splendours borrowed by Western culture. The Muslims ruled Spain from the 8th Century, for 600 years. The mighty Islamic Empire flourished, when Britain and Europe were nothing more than an agrarian culture.

He is wrong about medicine though. The Egyptians gave us medicine thousands of years ago, long before the Prophet Muhammad, or before Abraham, hence they were not Muslims at the time. It was even long before Akhenatan, who lived around 1350 BC and worshipped Aton, introducing mankind to the concept of the one God. He was the husband of the beautiful Nefertiti. The Egyptians are now Muslim, and have been for almost 1,400 years, but before then, they were Christian for pretty near 600 years. Egypt is the birthplace of Christian Monasticism, and Christianity is rooted in ancient Syria, Ethiopia and Constantinople, in present day Turkey.

There was only a trickle of Muslim slaves who were sent to the New World. The Muslims, who peopled the coastal areas of West Africa, went into the interior to capture the infidel, non-Muslims, people without souls, to trade into slavery. Those they did not send to the New World or to the Indian Ocean coast were slaughtered, and their blood used to mix mortar. Some of the buildings are standing to this day. Of course, Kings, Princes and Emirs punished some Muslims by sending them into slavery, but only a few.

Christianity had not yet reached sub-Saharan Africa. The people, by and large, who came to the New World practiced the native religions of the African interior. As evidence of this, we may look to Haiti where the West has had little influence, the religions of sub-Saharan Africa are still practiced, mingled with Catholicism which they learned in the West. Islam, exported into coastal sub-Saharan Africa by the Arabs, was first the faith of African kings, their large extended families and their court, not the common man, conversion to Islam for the general populace was not permitted until a man had distinguished himself.

The knowledge of History picked up in the barber shop, in Black Muslim mosques and in prison, is feel-good history, not the real thing. There are bits and pieces that are accurate, and it is serving its purpose, developing a certain pride in the inner-city African-American underclass. Black Muslims are in general drawn from the underprivileged inner-city masses, the militant prison population, and especially drug addicts and women who have had too many children out of wedlock. The Black Muslim organizations are working wonders in improving the lives of many who need their help.

Almost 600 years before The Prophet Muhammad had his vision of Islam; Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem of Judea. Christianity spread throughout Persia and Asia Minor, what we now know as the Middle East, and North Africa, crossing the Mediterranean to Europe. During the 7th Century, and for hundreds of years thereafter, Islam pushed Judaism and Christianity from the region at the tip of the sword, to the point where there were hardly any Jews or Christians left, until the Jews returned after the Second World War, to establish the State of Israel. The Muslims, by military conquest in the name of God, pushed into Spain, parts of Italy, and the Balkans, until they were defeated by Spain, just before Christopher Columbus’ voyages to the New World.

Now, the Muslims want to rekindle the glory days of the 8th Century, they want to bring all non-Muslims under their domination. It is not only Osama Bin Laden and al-Qaeda, regarded as the tip of the spear in the jihad against America and the West, who are attempting to overthrow non-Islamic governments in the Muslim World, and bring Christians to Islam at the tip of the proverbial sword, but now with suicide, truck and airplane bombs, there are millions of Muslims, who see this as their duty. They also want to annihilate the Jews, to push them into the sea, and retake all of Palestine. Islam is not culturally disposed to democracy, or to living in peace with other faiths.

There is not one single Islamic democracy in the Middle East and North Africa. The Islamic people believe as the European Kings of old did, in the Divine Right of Rule, either by a King or a Religious Dictator. History will show that five years after the West brings democracy to Iraq that it will be an Islamic Republic, ruled by Shiite Clerics. In Nigeria, the predominantly Muslim North is ruled by Sharia Law, the national government is afraid to enforce the law-of-the-land in this region of the country, for fear it might offend the Muslims.

Wherever there is Islamic rule, if there are minorities, they are treated as second class citizens. In some Muslim countries such as Saudi Arabia, they are not allowed to openly practice their faith. In Asia, where there are moderate Muslims, the militant fundamentalist Muslims are making inroads, and planting bombs, which have killed hundreds of non-Muslims. The fundamentalists have an ever-growing following, because to the Muslim, the study of The Holy Koran is a blessing, and they are reaching the poor children, of which there is an abundance. Islam has not been in full bloom since the 15th Century, and they feel that this is their time to venture forth on the world scene.

In France, the government is cow towing to its five million Muslims, and in Britain the Muslims have stated that their aim is to make that nation into an Islamic Republic. While the birthrate of native Europeans is on the decline, the Muslims in Europe are having large families. We may think they are merely an ambitious people, but what we must remember is that Islam took over a whole region before, and they forced their way East, as far away as what is now Uzbekistan and Pakistan, by using the same militant tactics, and it can happen again, if the Christian World does not beware. In America the Muslims now outnumber the Jews, they are more than six million. Soon they will flex their political and religious muscle, which is actually one and the same.

Under Sharia Law the mother of an illegitimate child is stoned to death by the community. In the broader Islamic World, the daughter who gives birth to an illegitimate child is a disgrace to the family name and may be punished, by either being burned to death, strangled, or drowned by her father or brothers. I quite agree that Muslims, in a Muslim World, are respectful, they have no other choice, and indeed, they are very family conscious. The Christian World could learn something from them, for we do have too much illegitimacy, particularly in Black New World society, and because of our promiscuity, we are riddled with AIDS, but I do not advocate the punishment meted out to the Muslim under Islamic Law. In order that we may correct these societal ills, we must return to Christian morality.

The Jew, the Christian and the Muslim are brothers, although most Muslims do not accept this. I am often told that Islam is the only true faith, and that it has been here since the beginning of time. To them, non-Muslims are infidels. We are sons of the same Father Abraham, but in modernity, as in early Islam, they do not welcome their brother into their midst, they seek to convert or to kill him, and take his land. The Muslim cannot live as part of the broader community, they want to be apart, and to dominate. Christians fought back in ancient times, loosing most of their battles and their lands, until the Spanish prevailed against the Muslims in 1492. Will Jews and Christians be conquered again? That question must be left to History.

God bless the Jew, the Christian and the Muslim, the people of the three monotheistic faiths, and guide us toward developing a world in which we can all live together in peace.

___________________________________________________________________   ¶ 8:25 AM

  The American Election 2004

By Colin Tatem

In the United States, the dog days of Summer have passed, marked by the Labour Day Holiday and The Caribbean Day Parade in New York City. Now, the campaign for Election 2004, for President of the United States is off and running, with televised debates of Democratic Party Presidential candidates, a flooding of the airwaves with political advertising, and the jockeying of candidates to secure the nomination of their Party. George W. Bush will seek another term on the Republican ticket, with Dick Chaney as his Vice President, but the Democratic Party will have a free for all for its nomination. Now there are nine Democrats in the race, and there may be ten by January, when the campaigning goes into full swing. The election for the President of the United States will be held in November 2004.

The Democrats feel that George W. Bush is vulnerable. There are Security problems in Iraq, and rebuilding that nation is proving to be too costly for the American Treasury to bear. The major fighting is over, but American soldiers are being killed every day. The Jordanian Embassy was car-bombed, the United Nations building in Iraq was destroyed by a truck-bomb, killing more than twenty people, including the Special Representative of the Secretary General, and a Senior Shiite Cleric was assassinated, with almost a hundred people killed in the two-car-bomb explosion at the mosque dedicated to Ali, the cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad. Secretary of State Colin Powell has gone to the United Nations Security Council to seek the assistance of the international community. America is prepared to share the responsibility for political stability in Iraq with other nations, and to allow them to share in the benefits of development contracts, in return for an international Security Force from the larger countries, and for footing some of the cost of rebuilding the country, but America will retain military control in Iraq.

With the United Nations Security Council legitimizing the redevelopment and setting up of a new government in Iraq, some of the billions of dollars needed to rebuild that war torn nation, will come from the World Bank and other international lending agencies. In effect, the United Nations will take charge in Iraq, except for military operations. Chances are that Paul Bremer, the American Civilian Administrator will either be replaced, or will be re-appointed to serve as the United Nations Representative, reporting to the Secretary General and the Security Council. The United States may not want to relinquish authority to the United Nations, but this is the only way other nations such as France, Germany and Russia will support rebuilding efforts in Iraq, and for the Americans to secure a large enough international Security Force to keep the peace. There are some 20 small nations now in Iraq, but all total they have only a 22 thousand man Security Force on the ground. Britain is sending in an additional force of 2, 000. The Democrats are laying the blame for the situation in Iraq, squarely at the feet of President George W. Bush. Representative Dick Gephard, who is seeking the Democratic Presidential nomination, has called his war effort a, “miserable failure.”

In a televised debate on PBS last Friday, carried on radio by NPR, geared toward the Hispanic community, which is the largest minority vote in the United States, the candidates went after President Bush with a vengeance. The program was later carried on Hispanic Television stations. The Hispanics now constitute 13 percent of the American population, and is the fastest growing minority. African-Americans are 12 percent of the population. The Congressional Black Caucus will soon sponsor a series of Democratic Party debates on Fox Television. Senator John Kerry criticized President Bush for his, “failure of leadership,” and Senator Bob Graham of Florida said that he would repeal the tax breaks which went to the rich, and give rebates to the middle class. Senator Joseph Lieberman said that the Bush economic policy was a powerful failure, and agreed that parts of his tax cuts had to be repealed. Senator Kerry does not support the FTAA the way it is now, nor does he support the Central American FTA as it is. Dick Gephard called President Bush a miserable failure, several times, and Governor Howard Dean attacked him on both his war time leadership and the economy, saying that over two million jobs have gone overseas during the Bush administration. Bush, he said, had to go.

Governor Dean is now the Democratic front runner, but his message is too liberal to win the broad-based American vote, which is more centrist. His appeal now is to the core supporters of the Democratic Party, which is left of center. He is, as it were, preaching to the Democratic choir. Over the next few months, he will either have to appear to be a less liberal candidate, or fade into the background. Senator John Edwards has strong Southern support, but has not yet touched the soul of the North. Former Senator and Ambassador Carol Mosely Braun has an appealing message, but she is not considered a serious candidate, nor is Congressman Dennis Kusinich, or The Rev. Al Sharpton, who could not get to the debate because of inclement weather in New York. Rev. Sharpton is probably the best communicator among those seeking the Democratic Presidential nomination, but to date he has had no experience in government, therefore the Democrats will not nominate him to seek the White House on their behalf. He is a people’s champion, who should hold government office, but his time has not come for national office. The people of New York, Rev. Sharpton’s home base, would be better served if he were to seek a Congressional Seat, which he could probably win without any trouble.

General Wesley Clark, who headed the NATO forces, has not announced that he will seek the Democratic nomination, although he has said that he has decided to become a Democrat. Because he was a career soldier, he had no Party affiliation. There is broad support for drafting the four-star General, who is also a Rhodes Scholar and now a CNN Military Consultant. General Clark may announce his candidacy some time during the coming months, or he could stand by and wait to see if he will be chosen as a Vice Presidential nominee. He too has not held elective office, but the United States has a history of electing Generals to high office. General Clark has not joined the Democratic Presidential candidates in their criticism of President George W. Bush, but his high profile appearances on CNN during the war in Iraq and in its aftermath, has made him a very public person, and shown the electorate his grasp of military matters and his knowledge of the world at large. He has had a platform on which to build his image, and he has done it well. He now has name recognition equal to all of the present Democratic candidates, who have been running for one thing or the other, for a very long time.

Whoever wins the Democratic nomination, will be faced with choosing a Vice President for the ticket. Senator Hillary Clinton has said that she will not seek the Democratic Presidential nomination in 2004, although there are many who are pushing her to do so, but she may well accept a Vice Presidential spot. This will be a good outing for her, in preparation for the 2008 Presidential election, when she will most certainly be the Democratic nominee, if the Democratic ticket does not win this time out. The election is just over a year away, and anything can happen in that time, but as it stands now, President George W. Bush still has the support of a slight majority of the American people, about 52 percent, according to all the polls. They support his war effort in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as his international war on terrorism, and his Homeland Security measures. Although there have been many jobs lost, the economy is gradually growing. Most of the jobs that have gone oversees are in manufacturing, because South America and Asia has a less expensive work force. Those who worked in manufacturing in the United States will have to be retrained for positions in a service economy, as America has priced itself out of the manufacturing business.

President Bush went on national television, in prime time, on Sunday night, to inform the American people of the progress being made in the on-going war in Iraq in winning the peace. He said that the future of the world is at stake, in that Iraq is now the central front of the war on terrorism, where the enemies of freedom are making a desperate stand, and that it must be defended. The President is asking Congress for $87 billion next year for rebuilding Iraq and Afghanistan. The burden of securing the peace and rebuilding Iraq must be shared by the international community, the President said, and towards this end he has directed his Secretary of Stare to negotiate a resolution acceptable to the United Nations Security Council, so that other nations may join the coalition. This may well be enough to keep him ahead of the Democratic field for the time being, but the campaigning will soon begin in earnest. Both sides have huge war chests that are brimming over, although President Bush has been a much better fund-raiser, which means that the Presidency will be a hard fought battle, after the Party Conventions, when both Parties have chosen their candidates. This time, neither Party wants the photo-finish of Election 2000, which had to be settled by the United States Supreme Court.

God bless and guide the American people in choosing their President for the period from 2004 to 2008. The Americans are choosing the person who will lead the world, for that responsibility rests with the United States of America, the greatest power the world has ever seen.

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  ¶ 4:43 PM

  The Islamic Revolution

By Colin Tatem

The United States has successfully liberated the people of Iraq from the Saddan Hussein regime, arrested his government leaders, killed his sons, and has the dictator on the run. Now they are fighting what we in the West call a guerrilla insurgency, against the remnants of Saddam Hussein’s forces and terrorists that have come in from Syria, Iran and Saudi Arabia. American and British soldiers are being killed, one by one, every day. To the Muslim fundamentalists, these men who fight the infidels are revolutionaries, freedom fighters, soldiers of Mohammed, locked in a holy jihad with the Christian invaders. Iraq has become a magnet for Islamic fundamentalist terrorists from all over the Moslem World who want to kill an infidel. America, Britain, and their allies are fighting international terrorism in Iraq, instead of on the streets in the cities of Western nations.

The new state of affairs in Iraq has changed the face of the Muslim World. Despite the continued fighting, there is a new Iraq, and a changing Middle East. Freedom has broken out all over, which can be seen in the protest marches against the American Administration, the many newspapers that are now being published, the new radio stations on-air, the thousands of television dishes one can see on the rooftops in television coverage of Iraq, once banned, and the jockeying for power by all ethnic and religious groups. They are giddy with their new freedoms, their reprieve from the Saddam Hussein repressive regime, and they do not know what to do with them. The Shiites, which constitute sixty percent of the people of Iraq, who under Saddam Hussein were a repressed people, are now fighting among themselves for the helm of leadership. The Shiites have no secular leaders, Saddam Hussein saw to that, so their religious leaders are seeking to fill the void. They are assassinating each other, and the Sunnis are knocking them off one at a time, as well as killing many bystanders in the process.

Security in Iraq has become a problem. The Muslim fundamentalists know that political opinion in the United States will not support the occupation of Iraq if they are loosing a soldier a day. It would seem that is their goal, for the Americans to get fed up with the loss of life, and go home, the way they did in Somalia. America cannot afford to go home this time, they will have to stay the course, to see Iraq through to the end, through rebuilding, and the setting in place of a democratic society, a process that will cost them tens of billions of dollars. The leadership in America understands this, but the general populous, by and large, do not yet quite accept their place of leadership in world affairs. The Muslim fundamentalists, who want only Islamic theocratic republics in the region, will continue the terrorist attacks to whittle away at the democratic institutions now being put in place by the American Administration. They will continue to attack the United Nations, NGO’s, everything they perceive as having a Western identity. With a new liberated Iraq, the whole face of the Middle East is changing; it is gradually coming under the influence of the West, a very slow but certain modernization and democratization of the societies, but with a distinct Islamic flavour.

To rotate American soldiers out of Iraq, a United Nations sanctioned force will have to be sent in, consisting of Indian, Pakistani and Turkish security officers, under American Command. Some other nations will also send personnel in, but these will be the bulk of the forces. They will be more policemen, than soldiers, for it is now time to win the peace, the war has already been won, and the soldiers that are now there are trained to hunt down the enemy and kill them, not to clear the streets, protect the borders, and keep the peace. These nations are waiting in the wings to be asked by the United Nations Security Council to provide the force, for they need a political cover in their nations. They cannot be seen to help in an American occupation of Iraq, but they will help to provide security, and rebuild Iraq at the request of the United Nations Security Council. The United States will need the support of France and other members nations of the Security Council, which will only be forthcoming if these countries get what they want out of the arrangement, contracts for rebuilding Iraq, but this time, America will not play hard ball, they will come to terms, and welcome the assistance of the other nations. They accept that they are not able to go it alone, they could win the war alone, but they need help to win the peace, they need a Muslim presence, in a Muslim World.

America has moved her air force out of Saudi Arabia, and turned the Prince Sultan Air Base over to the Kingdom. This was a contentious point with the Islamic fundamentalists, as well as with the Islamic community at large, for they did not want foreign forces in the land which hosts the Holy cities of Mecca and Medina, they did not want the infidel in their midst. This could not have been done had Saddam Husein remained in power, for it was felt that Iraqi forces could stream across the border into Saudi Arabia, or into any of the states friendly to the West, and rockets could be launched at Israel from Southern Iraq. The problem of the Palestinians, another hot spot in the region, must now be settled. Saddam Hussein was the unpredictable bully of the neighbourhood, feared by all, and for the region to change, his regime had to be replaced. What we are seeing now, is the last stand of the Islamists, Iraq has become their line in the sand, where they will fight a jihad to hold back the advance of modernity. Should they win, we shall see Iranian style theocracies set up throughout the Middle East, and they will take hold in the broader Muslim World. The only agent of change that could hold off this force, is the United States of America, using its influence, military power and its great wealth.

Arabia is a string of island like oasis in a sea of desert sand, stretching over all of North Africa and the Middle East. It is an historic land locked in the past, which contributed a considerable amount to world development, civilization, and education. The greatness that was this land faded into history about the same time that the New World was discovered. In 1492, Spain defeated the Moors, loosening up money to finance the Christopher Columbus New World discoveries, and Arabia retreated, after 600 years of conquest and greatness, into the shell of her desert sands. She did not awaken from her slumber until the beginning of the last Century, when oil was discovered beneath her miles of hot barren sand. With great wealth, has not come an educated people, nor corresponding power in world affairs. For the most part, Arabia has remained a backward region of the world. The fundamentalists want to go back in time, to shut the world out, and live the way they did in the 8th Century, in pure Islamic societies. They do not want modernity. The rest of Islam, the vast majority, are divided, some want to be a part of the modern world, while others, because of poverty, and a lack of education, are taking a wait and see approach, and following the strongest, and most charismatic of their leaders. They are following the course of all uninformed people. The real enemy in Arabia is ignorance.

Iraq seems to be the determining factor in the advance of the Muslim World. Will they go back to Islamic theocracies, powerful monarchs and strong arm dictators like Saddam Hussein, where modernity is shut out, or will they open up and become a part of modernity, gradually allowing changes to take place. The West was like this until the 17th Century, Kings felt they had a Divine Right to Rule, and some of them were as despotic as the rulers of the East, not realizing that power comes from the people, those who are the governed. Britain fought a Civil War over this, and change came only with Cromwell’s victory for Parliament and the common man. The educated West has gone past this now, but the Islamic World has held to the past, primarily because its people, although learned in the teachings of The Holy Koran, has not kept pace with the sciences and great learning of the wider world, which lends itself to the progress of nations.

One clue to what is to come, will be found in Libya, where Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi is inching his country back into the brotherhood of nations, after being a pariah state and an outcast for many years, ever since the Pan Am Flight 103 incident over Lockerbie, Scotland. He is also doing good work as a partner in the African Union. With broad general education of the masses will come a freer and more enlightened people, and a people who are not easily led by those with little to offer. Western-style television news coverage, which they now have, will expose the Arabian people to the world outside, a world few of them know. As it is now, the fundamentalists study only The Holy Koran, feeling that all answers are found therein. The Muslims are not alone in their fundamentalism, for there are even those uneducated fundamentalist Christians in the West who feel that all quest for knowledge ends with The Holy Bible. This is not so, there are other things to be learned in this world, and other fundamental principles to be understood, if we are to be a part of modern society. We must love, honour and have faith in our God, and use our God given intellect to learn that which we need to function as cogs in the wheel of modernity.

God bless the people of the Middle East, guide them, and bring them forth into the light of this modern world, where they may enjoy the fruits of Your abundance.

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  ¶ 10:37 PM

  International Church Leadership

By Colin Tatem

His Grace, Archbishop Drexel Gomez of the Anglican Church in the West Indies has come out against practicing homosexual Priests and Bishops in the Anglican Church, following the election and ratification of The Rev. Canon Gene Robinson, a practicing homosexual living with another man, as Bishop of the Diocese of New Hampshire in the Episcopal Church of the United States of America, a branch of Worldwide Anglicanism. So have 43 Bishops of the Episcopal Church, as well as Anglican Bishops in Africa, South America and Asia.

Some 62 Bishops of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, Bishops in Canada, as well as Bishops of The Church of England support homosexuals and lesbians in ordained leadership in the Worldwide Anglican Communion. This will bring about a clash in Anglicanism, between the liberal Developed World and the conservative Developing World. At the 1998 Lambeth Conference, the Bishops concluded, despite the strong Episcopal Church USA lobby, that homosexuality is incompatible with the teachings of Holy Scripture.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Spiritual Leader of Worldwide Anglicanism, which totals 77 million members, has called international Anglican Archbishops together in London this October to discuss the issue of ordained homosexual leadership in the Church, and to avoid a schism within the Worldwide Anglican Communion. Regardless of what happens at the London meetings, there will be more homosexual Bishops, and some lesbian Bishops in the Episcopal Church of the United States of America. Over the past 30 years there have been so many openly practicing homosexual and lesbian Priests ordained in the Episcopal Church that many of them are now working their way toward election as Bishops, as The Rev. Gene Robinson did. There is no holding them back; they are now among the foremost movers and shakers of the Episcopal Church.

There will be a split in the Episcopal Church. One Episcopal Priest in Baltimore told Fox News, that he can no longer be guided by the Bishops of the Episcopal Church, and in Texas there is a movement among Bishops, Priests and Lay Members, to break away from the Episcopal Church and form a new American Anglican Church. I sat down a few days ago with a group of Episcopalians, and they are so ashamed of the position taken by their denomination on homosexuality and lesbianism that they said they would never go back. Some of them will go to the conservative Anglican Church in America, and others will follow their children to the non-denominational Churches, which is attracting the younger worshiper. The 2.3 million member Episcopal Church will dwindle in size over the next few years, and shall have to close and sell more of its churches, as it has been doing over the past three decades, because of the loss of members.

It is a pity that the Episcopal Church has allowed society to lead the Church, rather than the Church leading society, particularly in matters of public morality, in the way God intended his people to live. Society will always have a certain amount of homosexuals and lesbians, who must be welcomed into the Church as worshipers, but they should never become ordained Ministers, Priests, and Bishops. To ordain homosexuals and lesbians is immoral, it is against the teachings of Holy Scripture, and it leads to the spread of these practices as well as illness and early death for Ministers and Priests.

There was no decision taken at the Episcopal Convention in Minnesota to introduce liturgy for the blessing of same gender unions. They are leaving the decision to Diocesan Bishops. This means that there are some 62 Bishops who supported the ratification of The Rev. Canon Gene Robinson as a Bishop, who will find a way to bless these unions. Actually, many of them do so now, or they wink and smile as their homosexual and lesbian Priests perform these ceremonies.

Bishops and Priests bless the homes of their homosexual and lesbian friends, and in doing so, they bless the union of the two same gender lovers who inhabit the home, some of them fresh from marriages and children they walked away from to enter into these immoral alignments. Some of these homes are those of other Priests, both homosexual and lesbian, and their lovers, complete with children they brought from marriages before they decided to “explore their sexuality,” as the homosexual and lesbian Priests refer to their state of sin and immorality. The new homosexual Bishop and his lover of 13 years had their home blessed – he said so himself, without shame, on prime time television.

The leadership that is now being provided by the Episcopal Church in the United States, as well as the Anglican Church in Canada and The Church of England, where anything goes, is not the kind of leadership that true Christians deserve. This Developed World Christianity is not the Christianity of The Holy Bible, not the true Christianity of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is a disgrace and an embarrassment to true Christianity. To return to responsible Church leadership, the Episcopal Church in The United States of America must now find a way to get the new homosexual Bishop to resign, and to clean house, defrocking every openly practicing homosexual and lesbian Priest in the Church.

Of course, they will not do this, because The Anglican Church in the Developed World feels that they have evolved into a more intellectual Christian establishment than the Anglicans of the Developing World. They see Developing World Christians as living in the past. The industrialized West is bringing the Church up to date with societal norms, and homosexuality and lesbianism are among them. It is especially so in America since the United States Supreme Court struck down the Texas Sodomy Law, and in Canada, since the Canadian Courts have allowed same gender marriage. I know two homosexuals who are now planning a Thanksgiving trip, from New Jersey to Canada to be joined in holy matrimony.

Many years ago, when I was a Lay Minister at St. Philip’s Episcopal Cathedral and an Associate of The Order of The Holy Cross, I was assigned by the Dean to serve at the funeral of a homosexual Episcopal Priest who had suffered with AIDS for some time. I counted the openly homosexual and lesbian Priests at the Mass, drawn from all over Northern New Jersey. There were so many, that I intellectually and spiritually disassociated the Episcopal Church from the Anglican Church that I know and love in The Bahamas and The Turks & Caicos Islands, where I was born and raised. Their partners were also in attendance, all up front and center. The funeral was a gathering of homosexual and lesbian Priests and their friends, to say goodbye to one of their own. It was touching, but embarrassing for the heterosexuals in attendance. Most American Christians are laughing at the Episcopal Church, and Anglicans in the rest of the world are on the verge of declaring it apostate.

All mainline Protestant denominations are wrestling with the question of homosexuality and lesbianism, as are the Roman Catholic Church. They have all agreed that homosexuals and lesbians should be welcomed into the Church with open arms, but to date they draw the line at ordination, although some of the denominations accept that some homosexuals, as well as lesbians, may have slipped through. The Roman Catholic Church in America is riddled with homosexual Priests, and some lesbian Sisters. Just recently the Roman Catholic Diocese of Boston agreed to make a settlement of $55 million in some 500 cases against Priests for molesting children and adults over several decades, and these charges have been made in many other Roman Catholic Dioceses. Another inmate has strangled a defrocked Roman Catholic Priest in prison for child molestation. The Pope has said that homosexuality is against the natural law.

Penthouse Magazine carried an article a few years ago about Episcopal Priests in New York who brought young men in from South America and held orgies in their churches, engaging in homosexual sex acts on the holy altar and over the communion rail. The Priests were named, and photographs were published, all information and pictures provided by one of their young South American boy-toys. I do not know what happened to those Priests. Maybe they went on to other churches, where they may even now be engaging in the very same homosexual practices.

I remember one photograph in the Penthouse article of an older Priest being joined in holy matrimony to his young homosexual lover, and another of a Priest, it may have been the same one who married his young male lover, this time naked in bed, fondling himself and showing off his donkey-like endowment, of which he seemed to be immensely proud. It was shocking, not the sort of thing that one would expect of Priests. As long as there are homosexual Priests in the Episcopal Church, especially in that there are so many of them, this sort of disgraceful behavior will be repeated, time and time again.

His Grace, Drexel Gomez, the Spiritual Leader of West Indian Anglicanism, would never accept that sort of Priest, and I pray that he, and others like him in the Worldwide Anglican Communion, shall prevail at Canterbury in October. Thank God for them, for they are the ones who must save Anglicanism from sliding into the gutter, as it has in the United States of America. God bless and guide them.

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  ¶ 6:23 AM

  The Liberian Civil War

By Colin Tatem

The United Nations has landed a Nigerian peacekeeping force in Liberia, with more on the way. Peacekeepers will also be sent in from Senegal and Ghana by The Economic Community of West Africa (ECOWAS), and an American aircraft carrier will stand just a few miles offshore to provide logistical support. America is providing some $20 million to ECOWAS to assist in bringing the 14-year Liberian civil war to an end, but so far less than a dozen of the thousands of marines and other military personnel aboard the aircraft carrier standing offshore have deployed in Liberia. This intervention opens the door to a military, then political settlement, and the rebuilding of that war-torn nation.

Liberia, the first African republic, established in 1847, with a population of 3.3 million people, is one of the poorest nations on earth, despite having resources of diamonds, iron ore, rubber, coffee and cocoa. The average annual income is $140.00. Settled in the early 1800s by former American slaves and free Blacks, Liberia joined the League of Nations in 1931, the forerunner to the United Nations. It was a founding member of the United Nations in 1945. Liberia followed the United States in declaring war on Germany in 1917 and in 1944. During the Cold War which came in the wake of the Second World War, Liberia sided with the allies, and was used as a base for broadcasting to communist nations in Europe, and to other West African nations which gravitated toward socialism.

Almost two decades of civil war have taken its toll on Liberia, in both the loss of life and the destruction of its infrastructure, causing many Liberians to flee the country for a safer life, throughout West Africa and the United States. According to the United Nations, more than a million people have been displaced, and well over 150,000 people have been killed during the 14-year civil war. First Charles Taylor led a rebel army against President Samuel Doe, killing the President and other members of his government. After that, some of those who fought with the new President Charles Taylor, started fighting to overthrow him. The civil war continues, with thousands of untrained boy soldiers on both sides. The ECOWAS troops, being welcomed by both the government forces and the rebels, as well as Liberian civilians, are charged with bringing an end to the fighting, after which humanitarian services will begin, and a political solution sought.

The American former slaves and free Blacks who established Liberia, governed the indigenous African people they found on the land, using them for a time as slave labour, until the practice was stopped because of protests from the international community. Although no census have been taken in Liberia in more than 30 years, it is believed that only about three percent of present-day Liberians are the descendants of the Americans who returned to West Africa. Many Americo-Liberians have long returned to the United States, either sponsored by American relatives or American churches with affiliate congregations in Liberia. I know several Americo-Liberians in America, all older ladies, with their American born children, grand and great grandchildren, and I am of the opinion that the United States of America is their home, not Liberia. Americo-Liberian women usually came to America months before their children were to be born.

When Master Sergeant Samuel Doe of the indigenous African peoples overthrew Present William Tolbert in 1980 in the food price riots and assumed the Presidency, it effectively brought Americo-Liberian rule to an end. President Charles Taylor, who in turn overthrew President Doe, has an American father, but is the son of a native African woman, therefore he is not regarded by the Americo-Liberians as a member of their group. The Americo-Liberians are proud that they have no indigenous African blood flowing through their veins. Now the native Africans want to be rid of President Charles Taylor. The rebel force thrown against him is reportedly drawn primarily from the Mandinka tribe, accompanied by some Kre and Gola tribesmen. Some Liberia watchers, including Pat Robertson of The 700 Club television program, is concerned that the Muslim Mankinkas will take over a Christian country.

Presedent Charles Taylor has been indicted by the United Nations-backed War Crimes Tribunal in Sierra Leone for war crimes in that country, and a warrant has been issued for his arrest. It is expected that should he leave Liberia, that he will be arrested in any member nation of the United Nations. Charles Taylor, who served in the President Samuel Doe administration, was arrested in the United States on fraud charges in Liberia, but he escaped, to return and lead a rebel force of 10,000 to overthrow the Doe government. Although President Charles Taylor has been promised asylum in Nigeria, he is afraid of being arrested by the Tribunal and put on trial. He has promised to step down from the Presidency on Monday 11th of August, but it would seen he wants to stay in Liberia, protected by the ECOWAS troops.

The American President, George W. Bush, has said that Charles Taylor must leave Liberia, but Mr. Taylor is said to be of the opinion that as he was elected by a landslide in 1997, he has a right to turn over the government to a person of his choosing, and remain in Liberia. In keeping with the Liberian Constitution, based on the Constitution of the United States of America, he has turned the government over to his Vice President. The rebel forces though, and their political wing, nor the leading Opposition Party, accept that, which will effectively allow Charles Taylor to govern from the sidelines. Charles Taylor seems to be boxed in, he cannot hold on to the government, and although said to now be a very wealthy man, cannot travel for fear of being arrested for war crimes. There is even a possibility that he could be arrested on his way into exile in Nigeria, or in time, when he looses the protection of President Olusegun Obasanjo, the present Nigerian Leader, who is the premier leader in sub-Saharan Africa.

What has happened in Liberia is that the indigenous Africans are taking the country back from the descendants of the former American slaves and free Blacks who settled there in the early 1800s. Although some of the Mandinka fighters are said to be from next door Guinea, they see themselves as one with the Mandinkas of Liberia. This is the main problem throughout Africa, where artificial boundaries have been drawn right in the middle of large tribes, placing some of them in one country and the others in another. The Mandinkas have come together, unofficially of course, reportedly supported by Guinea, a nation of Muslim Mandinkas, to take back the land they see as rightly theirs. When peace comes, the political solution will have to include the Mandinkas in the new government, with substantial Ministries. If this is not done, civil war will come again. Whatever happens, the land that is the country of Liberia, will in time return to the native peoples of that region. I am told that much of West Africa supports the rebels.

The Liberian flag of convenience is flown aboard many international ships at sea, raising millions of dollars annually. The question is, how much of this money filters down to the Liberian people, in education, health and other services? The ships are not required to go to Liberia for inspection, nor do they carry Liberian crew members. The registration of the international ocean going ships, both cargo and cruise ships, as well as super oil tankers, are reported to be handled by a company in the United States, with the Liberian share of the proceeds sent to the government of Liberia. Despite the Liberian civil war, the demand for Liberian registered ships is said to have remained quite steady. The Bahamas is now competing favourably in this flag of convenience shipping arena, but Liberia has been at it since the Second World War.

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  ¶ 11:30 AM

  West Indies Emancipation

By Colin Tatem

The first day of August, or the first Monday in August, is Emancipation Day in the Caribbean Commonwealth nations – the former British colonies in the West Indies. That August freedom day in 1833 was such a long time ago, that not many of us in these modern times give any real thought to it. Even when I was a boy in The Valley, in Nassau, Bahamas, more than a half century ago, Emancipation Day was for many of us just another day for picnics at the beach. In The Bahamas, and indeed in nations throughout the Caribbean, the populations are on average 85 percent Black, and mostly under 25 years old, a young people who think of today, and plan for the future, without giving much thought to the past, especially what is seen as the far distant past.

In historical terms, Emancipation Day was only yesterday, a very short time in the expanse of world history. Since then we have made enormous progress as nations, as a Caribbean people, and as individuals, and we are participating in regional, hemispheric and global affairs as equal partners in the progress of mankind. But even though we now walk in the hallowed halls of our one-time masters, accepted as equal partners, we must never forget our past. We should celebrate our freedoms but we must remember our past. We are a stronger people because of our shared experiences over the expanse of time. We stand today, on the shoulders of those African slaves of so long ago, and our ancestors between then and this very day of our many successes.

The West African people brought to the West Indies as slaves to replace the native Arawak and Taino peoples who either died of European diseases or were slaughtered, proved to be both rebellious, and sturdy hard working people. Some revolted every chance they got, throughout the West Indies, and others carried on building the cities and towns, and working the plantations of the West Indies, with strong backs and sweating brows. Little did they know that they were building colonies their descendants would in time inherit as independent countries.

Haiti, in revolt, created a new West Indian nation of African descendants almost fourty years before the British emancipated their slaves. The descendants of slaves, in British and other territories, as colonial peoples, carried on labouring under their European masters for, in most cases, more than 125 years before complete freedom came with independence in the 1960s and 1970s as the winds of change, fanned by the United Nations, blew across colonial lands. As Haiti defeated the French, Cuba also threw off the yoke of the Spanish, and built a new independent nation.

Slavery in America was abolished almost three decades after slaves in the British West Indies were emancipated. Unlike the Black people of the West Indies, American Blacks do not celebrate their emancipation. Of course, in America, emancipation of the Black man would never be a National Holiday, as a nation is hardly likely to celebrate the emancipation of a minority group, even now only 12 percent of the population. In the West Indies, millions of slaves were brought in from Africa, while only about 400,000 slaves were imported into the United States.

In the West Indies slaves worked and died and more were imported to replace them, while in America, the biggest and strongest slaves were bred on slave plantations to be stronger and better workers. A Rabbi told me once that the Germans based their Hitler era reproduction program for a physically superior German people, on methods used in the Southern United States in producing bigger, stronger slaves, by setting up breeding camps to replace the Jews they were exterminating. The Germans always felt they were intellectually superior to other Europeans and to people of the darker races. They felt it was now time to grow their people larger and stronger than all Europeans, to match their enormous intellect, as well as to build a new labour and military force.

Africans served as slaves in the West Indies, the United States and South America, almost as long as the Hebrews were enslaved in Egypt. We all know the history of Hebrew enslavement in Egypt for more than 400 years, and their subsequent exodus, lead by Moses, as it is told in the Hebrew Scriptures, The Books of Moses, or The Torah. The history of the enslavement and emancipation of African people in the New World is as important, from an historic standpoint, in the development of the Black man and the new nations of The Americas, as the history of the Hebrew people, although we see theirs more from a Judeo-Christian religious standpoint. The New World Black man must know his history to adequately build upon it.

In The Bahamas, my home, our development as an African people was slow, but steady. We lived in little villages, in relative poverty based on today’s standards, but a poverty that we did not recognize as poverty. We were a content people, even a happy and spirited people, working hard, going to church and enjoying a close knit family and community life. Some of us climbed out of village life by hard work as skilled and semi-skilled labourers, domestics in White homes, taxi drivers, and as hotel and Civil Service workers, for many years in only low level positions, and as operators of petty shops, giving our children new skills and better education, from one generation to the next.

As the decades passed, with our new found confidence in our abilities, we started moving ahead in greater numbers, until we discovered that there was real power in the ballot box, which brought advancement in the political arena. Then the Bahamian descendants of African slaves won the government at the polls, and a new period in our personal and national development dawned. A myriad of broad based opportunities, and ever expanding and enormously challenging worlds opened up for us to conquer, both at home and in the international arena.

Emancipation gave us freedom from slavery. As freed slaves we were workers who received little payment for our labour, and enjoyed only limited freedom, all we could have at the time, for all we had to offer was our manual labour. Indeed, we had the freedom to choose, but as labourers we had little choice, hardly a choice as to where to give our labour, as there was only limited opportunity. With skills and education came more opportunity, and as the years have gone by and we have become better prepared, we have found it possible to enjoy more opportunities and indeed, more freedoms.

In this new 21st Century world, we are global players, with all the freedoms afforded the peoples of the great nations of the world. These freedoms have come with skills, knowledge and education. Nations, nor people, develop merely on the strength of their manual labour. Hard work is not enough. Intellectual development is equally as important as hard work. Knowledge and learning had their genesis in ancient Egypt, the land of the pyramids, and made their way through Greece and Spain into the rest of Europe, Asia, and to the New World.

We are now, at last, truly a free people, for only a learned people are a free people. Only an educated people are the true beneficiaries of true freedom and democracy. Greece, a nation of kingship, evolved into the world’s first democratic society only because it became an enlightened society. The same is true of all nations. The Bahamas is a young, relatively well informed, small New World developing nation of predominately African slave descendants, with almost one hundred percent literacy. It is nations such as The Bahamas and The Caribbean that are the true inheritors of our African ancestor’s dream of real freedom.

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  ¶ 2:19 PM

  Road Map For Middle East Peace

By Colin Tatem

The Iraqi situation is on the front burner of international politics at the moment, and has been for quite some time, but the Israeli-Palestinian question is beginning to come to the fore again. Muslims see it as the real problem of the Middle and Near East, and some have used the plight of the Palestinians as a rallying call for international terrorism against America and the West, which they regard as benefactors of the State of Israel. President George W. Bush recently unveiled a road map for Middle East peace, with a view to establishing a provisional Palestinian State and a peace treaty between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, leading to a Palestinian State in two years.

The road map for peace, a product of the Quartet of Middle East mediators, the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia, first called for Yasser Arafat, President of the Palestinian Authority, to relinquish some of his powers and authority to a Prime Minister. The road map will be unveiled after the Prime Minister took office. The parliament of the Palestinian Authority voted to establish the office of Prime Minister, and Yasser Arafat nominated Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, the PLO Secretary General and co-founder of Fatah, the political wing of the PLO, his long-time deputy, to fill the post.

Responsibility for administering the day-to-day affairs of the Palestinian Authority has gone to the Prime Minister, with Yasser Arafat retaining command of the Security forces, and with the final say on peace talks with Israel, although he will not be personally involved in the talks. Israel and the United States will not meet with Yasser Arafat, whom they regard as an unrepentant terrorist, and they have even questioned his retention of the Security portfolio. Once Abu Mazen consolidates his power, Yasser Arafat may be relegated to serving only as a ceremonial president, his reward for having given a half-century of service to the Palestinian people. His right of approval of peace talks may well be only an act of courtesy to an old warrior.

Among the already known points of the road map to peace are: an end to Palestinian violence against Israel; Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian areas re-occupied since September 2000; reform of Palestinian institutions, with leadership changes; the introduction of peace monitors; a freeze on the building of Jewish settlements; a provisional state by the end of 2003; a peace treaty by 2005. President Bush has appealed to Israelis, Palestinians, and the people of the Arab nations, to act “in good faith,” in the establishment of a Palestinian State. The American President first announced his support for a Palestinian State last year June, which made him the first American leader to commit himself to a State for the Palestinian people, living side by side, in peace, with the State of Israel.

The announcement by President Bush of a road map for peace in the Middle East has been greeted by the international community as a major move forward for the region, despite the anti-war movement against the American position on Iraq. The Muslims see it coming during the Iraqi crisis, as an announcement to calm the effect in the Islamic World, of the fallout from the situation in Iraq, but they welcome it all the same. Although the road map for peace has the support of the European Union, the United Nations and Russia, it is the American President who has put his reputation on the line to follow it through during the last two years of his first term in office. President Bill Clinton brought Palestinian and Israeli leaders together at the White House in Washington, DC, for talks, but they failed, just before he left office. President Bush has held White House meetings with both the Israeli and Palestinian Prime Ministers.

With victory in Iraq, and an improvement in the United States economy, President Bush should have no difficulty winning a second term. The announcement of the road map toward peace also eases the political pressure somewhat on British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who does not have the support of the British public, nor about a quarter of his Labour Party parliamentarians for the war in Iraq. Conservative Opposition parliamentarians supported his position. The American people, on the other hand, across the political spectrum, backing President Bush in his position on Iraq. Because of the American stand on Iraq, joined by the governments of Britain, Spain and Australia, as well as supported, as announced by Secretary of State, General Colin Powell, by some 45 other governments, according to polls, American popularity has plummeted internationally.

The man who became the first Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority is not well known outside Palestine and international government circles, as he has stood in the shadow of the charismatic Yasser Arafat all of his political career. Mahmoud Abbas, or Abu Mazen, co-founded Fatah, the political wing of the PLO, with his friend Yasser Arafat, and accompanied him into exile in Jordan, Lebanon and Tunisia, before they were allowed to return to Palestine. They have worked together for a Palestinian State, over many decades. Regarded as the architect of the Oslo peace process, he also accompanied Yasser Arafat to the White House in 1993 to sign the Oslo Accords.

Abu Mazen was born in Safed in British Mandated Palestine in 1935. He studied Law in Egypt and did his Ph.D. in Russia. A successful fund-raiser for the PLO, Abu Mazen has also written several books. Dr. Mazen, said to be a quiet, highly intellectual man, is well respected in the West Bank and Gaza, as well as by the Israeli, Arab, European and American leaders. He was one of the main initiators of the dialogue with Israeli leaders in the 1970s, before negotiations were eventually started between Israel and the Palestinians. The Road Map, if followed, will bring peace to the Holy Land at last.

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  ¶ 8:37 AM

  The Game Of Life

By Colin Tatem

A short distance from my home is a beautiful park, where I sit for hours atop a hill, listening to the rushing waterfall, as I watch the occasional predatory hawk swoop down to pluck a pigeon from its perch on the roof of the Basilica, which looms high above a hedge of cherry blossoms, a placid lake with ducks swimming to and fro, and a wood of tall sturdy oak trees. People come and go, exchanging greetings and sharing my bench for short periods, but on a recent beautiful spring morning; an elderly gentleman remained with me for a very long time. We talked about what he termed, “The game of life.”

My newfound friend was a championship softball pitcher, from Little League until he retired from softball at 56 years old; now he is 79. His teams won championships at every age level, in City, State, Regional, National and International tournaments. When he was four years old, his father started teaching him to pitch. They practiced behind their house every evening for several hours after dinner. His mother always made him do his homework when he came in from playing with his friends before dinner. She watched from the kitchen window as he pitched to his father, then she brought them soft drinks and slices of her home baked cakes and pies, remaining to cheer them on as their sole spectator, except for the occasional evening when his sisters joined her.

At 16 he lost his father in an automobile accident. One of the best softball players and coaches of his time, his father had also been a member of championship teams. His mother, sisters and his best friend, whom he met at a softball game, then became his catcher, each working with him for short periods. He played softball on weekends and practiced every evening. After a few years he married his best friend, and they had two sons and a daughter whom he taught to play softball. They too became championship softball players, and now, all three of his children, retired from playing, are still coaches. The whole family lived in one large house until his sisters got married and bought the houses on either side of the old family home.

His children also bought neighbourhood houses, until the family had a six-backyard softball field, where his 11 grandchildren, their cousins and friends practice today. The only thing better than watching them practice he said, was seeing them play in a game, like the one scheduled to begin shortly on the softball field in the meadow. He said his daughter brought him to the park early so that he could visit the cherry blossoms before the game. Practice, he told me, was the way to become a champion. Softball, my new friend said, was like life, to win you had to work at it, you had to practice. “Only those who practice hard, win in the game of life,” he whispered, as if sharing a secret with me. Then he rested, staring intently at the hedge of flamingo pink cherry blossoms in the distance. A gift from Japan, they dress up the park with their splendour for only a few glorious weeks during spring each year.

Halfway down the hill, two ladies supervised a small group of children as they rolled to the bottom, then ran back up the hill to roll back down again. One of the ladies waved to us, and I returned her wave, as my friend concentrated on the cherry blossoms. Soon, two of the children shyly approached me, presenting me with a portion of their lunch. I thanked them, spoke with them for awhile, gave them each a blessing and a hug, then waved to their teacher again. They were members of a school group from the Basilica. My new friend and I dined quietly, on a delightful luncheon of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, oatmeal cookies, and cold squeeze apple juice.

My mind took me back to a small group of grade six students I have followed since the day I addressed their class at St. Philip’s Academy on The Value of Education. My daughter was one of the students. They have remained very close over the years, by telephone calls late into the night, lots of parties, movies, basketball games, sleepovers, trips to the theater, Congress and theme parks, summer camp, hanging-out at shopping malls, and all those things that young people enjoy doing. Now they are almost 20 years old and will go into their third year of college in September. They are in colleges all over America, from New York to Texas and many states in between. Among the colleges they attend are Columbia, St. Elizabeth, Rutgers, St. Johns, Harvard, William and Mary, Howard, Kean, Seton Hall, Penn State, Fisk, Spellman, Clark Atlanta and Texas A & M. This summer they are all doing Internships. They are practicing, getting ready to become full-fledged players in the game of life.

My new friend is right; to do well in the game of life takes an entire lifetime of practicing, beginning when we are very young. It does not matter what we do in life, to be good at it we must practice, as he practiced his softball. I’m certain he also had a successful career at the Telephone Company where he worked, as his children must have, and as his grandchildren will have, because his father taught him how to succeed, and he taught his children, and they in turn taught his grandchildren. That is what the adults in our nation must pass on to our children, not only their own children, to all the children of The Bahamas. We must practice at it, whether it is seeking education and training, being a fisherman, farmer, hotel worker, entrepreneur, doctor, lawyer, minister of the gospel, or even a writer. Success in life demands an enormous amount of practice, an entire lifetime of daily practice.

When it was time to leave, so that he could arrive at the softball field in the meadow before the first pitch, my friend, who never told me his name, as I did not tell him mine, arose from our bench, stretched his lean body that seemed a good twenty years younger than its 79 years, to its full height, and turned to face me. With a broad grin on his finely chiseled, slender face, which was just beginning to tan in the warm spring sunshine, he stared at me for a few moments, did a splendid little tap dance, with his arms waving, then gave me the thumbs up, and said cheerfully, “Keep up the good work,” then he about faced and left me alone on my bench.

As he walked toward the softball field in the meadow, he looked back and waved goodbye. It was not until then that it clicked, I realized that my new found friend who shared a park bench with me for almost two hours, was talking to, not really me, but rather, the man he saw as the famous stage, television and screen actor, James Earl Jones, who does the television commercials for Verizon, his old Telephone Company. He had, as Clint Eastwood of Dirty Harry fame would say, made my day! I laughed for what seemed ages, with tears of wonderment and joy flowing down my bearded face, in celebration of life, of both our lives, mine, in the full bloom of, shall we say, senior adulthood, and his, as it approached, what appeared to be, his second childhood. It was a delightful day, another gift from the Almighty, in our game of life.

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  ¶ 6:09 AM