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 What a Moment
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America @ the precipice
a prose poem from the article Un-American This government thinks it defines "religious freedom," This arrogant government thinks it defines principles that have been time worn by the ages and ensconced in iconic documents by the mind, hand, and blood of heroes; documents formed in musty meeting rooms, in brilliant minds; and won in blood at Saratoga and Brandywine and Princeton in the bitter cold, . . . won by ordinary men, poor men, men with rag-wrapped feet for boots.
In all, through the decades, since dawn that April day in Middlesex County Massachusetts on the village green there at Lexington and just a little while later at the Old North Bridge over the Concord River, where "once the embattled farmers stood," since that day until now 1,209,000 have died for that definition: "religious freedom" (and the others: speech, press, to be armed, to assemble . . . ). Some are dying now, just last week in Afghanistan, connected in service across 263 years. Redefinition? How dare they, these pitifully small people. They have power now, and they're scary. And they may win. But in the larger scale of history, in scope of intellect, compared to the authors of those founding documents and the peasant farmer-soldiers staining the snow red with their wrapped and frozen feet at Trenton, after crossing the frozen Delaware . . . these are very small men. You may not care now. Someday you will. "Freedom," you'll miss it when you don't have it, when you have let small men take it.aaa
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Concord Hymn Ralph Waldo Emerson By the rude bridge that arched the flood, Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled, Here once the embattled farmers stood, And fired the shot heard round the world. The foe long since in silence slept; Alike the conqueror silent sleeps; And Time the ruined bridge has swept Down the dark stream which seaward creeps. The poem was written for the dedication of the monument honoring the battle & its heroes. This copy is from Wikipedia which in turn credits: The Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (1904), edited by Edward Waldo Emerson 
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fishers of men
On this green bank, by this soft stream, We set to-day a votive stone; That memory may their deed redeem, When, like our sires, our sons are gone. Spirit, that made those heroes dare, To die, and leave their children free, Bid Time and Nature gently spare The shaft we raise to them and thee. We chose the line from this poem for The Weekly Post banner [seen also at the left] because this historical event marked the first large scale shedding of blood for the U.S.A. lest we forget . . . And we must not! 
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Welcome !
About The Weekly Post
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THE WEEKLY POST
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This Website Storefront & Magazine provides SERVICES : Art & Writing for use on websites or in traditional publications, as well as display art such as drawings & paintings. Illustrations & Writing, for publications and the web, can be individual pieces or full projects that involve supplying a complete publication. Our Magazine, The Weekly Post, which officially publishes new material on Tuesday (usually by noon, Eastern). Often something new will show up earlier and updates occur throughout the week. Drawings & Paintings include portraits and custom ordered paintings to meet specific design needs. Scroll down, there's always more on this site! |
PREVIEWS OF ARTWORK FROM THE PORTFOLIOS ON THIS WEBSITE
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 [untitled] When the Nazis came for the communists, I remained silent; I was not a communist. When they locked up the social democrats, I remained silent; I was not a social democrat. When they came for the trade unionists, I did not speak out; I was not a trade unionist. When they came for the Jews, I remained silent; I wasn't a Jew. When they came for me, there was no one left to speak out. [ This version from Wikiquote. ] 
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What a Moment it Was
Martin Niemöller
Below in verse form are the famous comments of : Friedrich Gustav Emil Martin Niemöller (14 January 1892 – 6 March 1984) was a Protestant pastor and social activist. 
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An American Epitaph When thy dear soul from earth has flown Your corpse 'neath the churchyard soil Besides some words upon a stone What stories will they tell? Of hearth and home and muddy fields And touchdowns in the rain And dribbling, forcing men to yield While driving the hardwood lane Or will they speak of a scholar's goals Some met, perhaps some not And labor pushed that took its toll And times you missed your shot But through it all, and after all You kept your loved ones free While you watched the darkness fall ". . . stood for Christ and Liberty." |
Standing for Something
When facing the Left in the Culture War (capitalized because it's on for real) there is too much cowardice. This is why traditional belief systems are being trampled in the dust. Their believers do not stand for them. Maybe, sadly, they don't really believe. Or maybe they do not want [no, are AFRAID] to stand for anything . . . might: offend a friend, a boss, relatives; be sanctioned at work; be shunned by neighbors. Who do you care about, . . . should care about (most & first) Christ or people, people or Christ's plan for those people? . . . And country, especially this country! Are we occasionally bad? All the others are so much worse. I don't know who hears the damn falling tree in the forest but I know that if you're right and everybody else on the whole planet is wrong, you're still right!
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Robert Jackson's American Art In the broader scope of study only three things matter: Christianity, the one true faith; whatever you are doing now; and history, what you and others have already done. The latter is the source of knowledge, tradition, memories, and anything else that is usable and important in the "now," the present. It encompasses all of the other disciplines, as well, and each science, art, and literary tradition has its own history. |
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A Christian Nation There's a lot of opinion on this website, but it is rooted in logic and we back it with facts. Often our evidence is historical, a valid presentation because the nation has left much of what was good in the dusty and muddy wagon ruts of the historical narrative. Yet it is not so far distant as to be unrecoverable. We true Americans, of all ethnicities and lands of origin, can hope and strive and pledge that "America" is regenerated in this great land or in whatever portion of it remains true to "America" when the political dust has settled. Christianity, in terms of focus on this website, is at least the equal of Conservatism, if not perhaps the greater partner. As Alexis de Tocqueville is considered the best and most important objective observer (and a very critical one) of America in its formative years, his observations carry much weight. He traveled extensively in our fair land in the early 1830s on a mission to observe our prisons. He was from and old French family, members of which had fought at Hastings in 1066. As for his own career, he served in various governmental positions in France during politically tumultuous years. The American trip was actually partly contrived to get away from France for awhile. The quote below from Wikipedia [sourced below] pretty much settles the issue concerning whether America is/was a Christian nation. Here he describes our nation's adolescent-young adult years with respect to that religious aspect. For me, it is as definitive as it can get. Regardless of any Christian influence on the official national founders, what speaks louder than the behavior of the vast majority of the populace decades later? If you don't know de Tocqueville, you might take a look. His study is as respected a look of America as has ever been produced. In terms of time frame, it was close enough to our early roots yet far enough from them. He observed both the character garnered from those founding European colonists and the resulting true American pioneers that developed from that character. The dependable online encyclopedia was also the source for verification of our biographical facts about de Tocqueville's French background. It has been a while since we studied him. "Moreover, almost all the sects of the United States are comprised within the great unity of Christianity, and Christian morality is everywhere the same. In the United States the sovereign authority is religious, and consequently hypocrisy must be common; but there is no country in the whole world in which the Christian religion retains a greater influence over the souls of men than in America, and there can be no greater proof of its utility, and of its conformity to human nature, than that its influence is most powerfully felt over the most enlightened and free nation of the earth. The Americans combine the notions of Christianity and of liberty so intimately in their minds, that it is impossible to make them conceive the one without the other; and with them this conviction does not spring from that barren traditionary faith which seems to vegetate in the soul rather than to live. There are certain populations in Europe whose unbelief is only equaled by their ignorance and their debasement, while in America one of the freest and most enlightened nations in the world fulfills all the outward duties of religion with fervor. Upon my arrival in the United States, the religious aspect of the country was the first thing that struck my attention; and the longer I stayed there, the more did I perceive the great political consequences resulting from this state of things, to which I was unaccustomed. In France I had almost always seen the spirit of religion and the spirit of freedom pursuing courses diametrically opposed to each other; but in America I found that they were intimately united, and that they reigned in common over the same country." Source: Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, (New York: A. S. Barnes & Co., 1851), pp. 331, 332, 335, 336-7, 337, respectively. This Christian moral fiber, that this trained, objective, foreign observer saw so clearly, is what we had. It is what we are missing today. Among the modern, well known public figures in America now, perhaps Professor Carol M. Swain is most outspoken about the issue of Christianity. Being a member of academia at a secular university she courageously risks much. Courage is what we need, Americans need, Christians need at this watershed moment in our history. Carol and a few others have even suggested that we Christians must have the will to face possible martyrdom in the coming years. Of interest to me are the comparative facts that: Alexis de Tocqueville walked the roads of a pre-civil war America, while slavery existed and women couldn't vote, and we've come so far now that one of our important champions of these old traditional values that are at risk is a soft spoken, black, female professor at a Southern university. 'Nuff said!
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